Watch: When an earthquake hit while a notary was writing a dying woman's will

It was an early Sunday afternoon, and notary Marc’Antonio Brancati was noting down Grazia Cassar’s last wishes. Suddenly, the dying Mqabba woman and the eight men around her turned pale and stared at each other as the house they were in shook violently. The notary paused the writing of his deed to record – for posterity – one of the island’s most terrifying earthquakes. Video: Matthew Mirabelli “It was sometime between 1pm and 2pm of Sunday, January 11, 1693. Grazia Cassar was on her deathbed, surrounded by seven male witnesses. The notary assures us that while she was infirm in her body, she was still clear in her mind and was able to depose of her last wishes in a proper manner,” says Vanessa Buhagiar, palaeographer at the Notarial Archives. “Lo and behold, as he started to note down her first wishes, the famous earthquake that shattered Sicily and parts of Malta, hits: Behold! A crack just like thunder was heard in the distance and is advancing towards us from afar,” Brancati writes. Eventually the entire house started shaking violently. “It rocked to and fro, just like a boat struggling at sea, tormented by the wind and cruel storms. Pale in the face, they stared at each other.