he rest of his company, who were feeling too anxious
to think of going to bed. They consulted together whether it would be
most prudent to trust to the houses, which now rocked from side to
side with frequent and violent concussions as tho shaken from their
very foundations; or fly to the open fields, where the calcined stones
and cinders, tho light indeed yet fell in large showers, and
threatened destruction. In this choice of dangers they resolved for
the fields: a resolution which, while the rest of the company were
hurried into by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and
deliberate consideration. They went out then, having pillows tied upon
their heads with napkins; and this was their whole defense against the
storm of stones that fell round them.

It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed
than in the thickest night; which however was in some degree
alleviated by torches and other lights of various kinds. They thought
proper to go farther down upon the shore to see if they might safely
put out to sea, but found the waves still running extremely high, and
boisterous. There my uncle, laying himself down upon a sail-cloth,
which was spread for him, called twice for some cold water, which he
drank, when immediately the flames, preceded by a strong whiff of
sulfur, dispersed the rest of the party, and obliged him to rise. He
raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants, and
instantly fell down dead; suffocated, as I conjecture, by some gross
and noxious vapor, having always had a weak throat, which was often
inflamed. As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third
day after this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and
without any marks of violence upon it, in the dress in which he fell,
and looking more like a man asleep than dead....

My uncle having left us,[144] I spent such time as was left on my
studies (it was on their account indeed that I had stopt behind), till
it was time for my bath. After which I went to supper, and then fell
into a short and uneasy sleep. There had been noticed for many days
before a trembling of the earth, which did not alarm us much, as this
is quite an ordinary occurrence in Campania; but it was so
particularly violent that night that it not only shook but actually
overturned, as it would seem, everything about us. My mother rushed
into my chamber, where she found me rising, in order to awaken her. We
sat down in t