In Santiago, the capital of the kingdom of Chile, at the moment of the great earthquake of 1647 in which many thousands lost their lives, a young Spaniard called Jeronimo Rugera was standing beside one of the pillars in the prison to which he had been committed on a criminal charge, and he was about to hang himself. Heinrich Von Kleist
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The incident is described in the book The Spanish American War, by W. A. Swanberg, with a footnote to this effect: "In the spring of 1815, in the days of the Chilean war for independence, a young Spaniard in Santiago named Jeronimo Rugera was about to hang himself from a window in the prison of which he had been a prisoner for some misdemeanor. Seeing that he was in a state of great excitement and that his lips were moving in prayer in an unknown tongue, a citizen happened to pass by and asked what he was saying.

He told his name and asked if he could be taken down from his position. The citizen took him down from his position and they went to the house of a Franciscan monk who knew Spanish, and Rugera explained his story. The Franciscan took him into his house and gave him food and drink, spoke with him kindly and sent him on his way with many promises."

Source: Kleist: Selected Writings

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