34 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



rest, and most certain it is he was so little discom- 

 posed as to fall into a deep sleep ; for being corpu- 

 lent, and breathing hard, the attendants in the anti- 

 chamber actually heard him snore. The court which 

 led to his apartment being now almost filled with 

 stones and ashes, it would have been impossible for 

 him, if he had continued there any longer, to have 

 made his way out ; it was thought proper, therefore, 

 to awaken him. He got up, and joined Pompom- 

 anus and the rest of the company, who had not been 

 sufficiently at ease to think of going to bed. They 

 consulted together whether it would be most pru- 

 dent to trust to the houses, which now shook and 

 rocked from side to side with frequent and violent 

 concussions, or flee to the open fields, where the cal- 

 cined stones and cinders, though light indeed, yet 

 fell in large showers, and threatened them with in- 

 stant destruction. In this uncertainty they resolved 

 for the fields, as the less dangerous situation, a re- 

 solution which, while the rest of the company were 

 driven into it by their fears, my uncle embraced up- 

 on cool and deliberate consideration. 



They all then went out, having pillows tied on their 

 heads with napkins ; and this was their sole defence 

 against the storm of burning fragments that fell 

 around them. It was now day-light every where 

 else ; but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in 

 the blackest night, which, however, was in some de- 

 gree dissipated by torches and other lights of vari- 

 ous kinds. They thought it expedient to go down 



