An essay for the recording of illustrious providences

the Ingenious will not blame me, if I here insert what is there Related, which is as followeth;

In the beginning of the Month of July, 1678. after some gentle rainy days which had not swelled the Waters of the Garonne more than usual; one night this River swelled all at once so mightily, that all the Bridges and Mills above Toulouse were carried away by it. In the Plains which were below this Town, the Inhabitants who had built in places, which by long Experience they had found safe enough from any former Inundation, were by this surprised, some were drowned together with their Cattle; others had not saved themselves but by climbing of Trees, and getting to the tops of Houses; and some others which were looking after their Cattle in the Field, warned by the noise which this horrible and furious Torrent of Water (rolling towards them with a swiftness like that of the Sea (in Britain he means) made at a distance, could not scape without being overtaken, though they fled ⟨p. 334⟩with much precipitation: this nevertheless did not last many hours with this violence. At the same time Exactly, the two Rivers only of Adour and Gave, which fall from the Pyrenean Hills, as well as the Geronne, and some other small Rivers of Gascoyn, which have their Source in the plain, as the Gimone, the Save and the Rat, overflowed after the same manner, and caused the same Devastations. But this Accident happened not at all to the Aude, the Ariege, or the Arise, which come from the Mountains of Toix, only that they had more of the same then those of the Conseraut, the Coming, the Bigorre. Those who have heard talk of those Inundations at a distance, were not at all astonished at it, believing it to proceed from the violent Rains of some Tempests which had suddenly filled these Rivers, or that they had caused a sudden Thaw of the Snow of the Pyrenees, which had swelled the Rivers that were near. Monsieur Martel of Montabaun, Advocate of the Parliament, an Inquisitive and Learned Man hath searched after this cause of this Deluge (by the order of Monsieur Foucault Intendant de Justice en la generalite de montaban, one not less seeing and understanding in ingenious Sciences, than expert ⟨p. 335⟩