the island of
Capreae.[145]

My mother now besought, urged, even commanded me to make my escape at
any rate, which, as I was young, I might easily do; as for herself,
she said, her age and corpulency rendered all attempts of that sort
impossible; however she would willingly meet death if she could have
the satisfaction of seeing that she was not the occasion of mine. But
I absolutely refused to leave her, and, taking her by the hand,
compelled her to go with me. She complied with great reluctance, and
not without many reproaches to herself for retarding my flight. The
ashes now began to fall upon us, tho in no great quantity. I looked
back; a dense dark mist seemed to be following us, spreading itself
over the country like a cloud. "Let us turn out of the high-road," I
said, "while we can still see, for fear that, should we fall in the
road, we should be prest to death in the dark, by the crowds that are
following us." We had scarcely sat down when night came upon us, not
such as we have when the sky is cloudy, or when there is no moon, but
that of a room when it is shut up, and all the lights put out. You
might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the
shouts of men; some calling for their children, others for their
parents, others for their husbands, and seeking to recognize each
other by the voices that replied; one lamenting his own fate, another
that of his family; some wishing to die, from the very fear of dying;
some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced
that there were now no gods at all, and that the final endless night
of which we have heard had come upon the world. Among these there
were some who augmented the real terrors by others imaginary or
wilfully invented. I remember some who declared that one part of
Misenum had fallen, that another was on fire; it was false, but they
found people to believe them. It now grew rather lighter, which we
imagined to be rather the forerunner of an approaching burst of flames
(as in truth it was) than the return of day: however, the fire fell at
a distance from us: then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and
a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every
now and then to stand up to shake off, otherwise we should have been
crusht and buried in the heap.

I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh, or
expression of fear, escaped me, had not my support been grounded in
that miserab