THE EARTH. 89 



ening wherever I should fly. I comrDended myself to God, as mv 

 last great refuge. At that hour, O how vain was every sublu- 

 nary happiness ! wealth, honour, empire, wisdom, all mere use 

 1 ess sounds, and as empty as the bubbles in the deep. Just stand- 

 ing on the threshold of eternity, nothing but God was my plea- 

 sure ; and the nearer I approached, I only loved him the more. 

 — After some time, however, finding that I remained unhurt 

 amidst the general concussion, I resolved to ventiu-e for safety, 

 find running as fast as I could, reached the shore, but almost 

 terrified out of my reason. I did not search long here till I founrf 

 the boat in which I had landed, and my companions also, whose 

 terrors were even greater than mine. Our meeting was not of 

 that kind v/here every one is desirous of telling his own happy 

 escape ; it was all silence, and a gloomy dread of impending 

 terrors. 



" Leaving this seat of desolation, we prosecuted our voyage 

 along the coast, and the next day came to Rochetta, where we 

 landed, although the earth still continued in violent agitations. 

 But we were scarcely arrived at our inn, when we were once 

 more obliged to return to the boat, and in about half an hour 

 we saw the greatest part of the town, and the inn at which we 

 had set up, dashed to the ground, and burying all its inhabitants 

 beneath its ruins. 



" In this manner, proceeding onward in our little vessel, find- 

 ing no safety at land, and yet, from the smallness of our boat 

 having but a very dangerous continuance at sea, we at length 

 landed at Lopizium, a castle midway between Tropae and Eu- 

 phoemia, the city to which, as I said before, we were bound. 

 Here, wherever I turned my eyes, nothing but scenes of rain 

 and horror appeared ; towns and castles levelled to the ground • 

 Strombolo, though at sixty miles distance, belching forth flames in 

 an unusual manner, and with a noise which I could distinctly hear 

 But my attention was quickly turned from more remote to con- 

 tiguous danger. The rumbling sound of an approaching earth- 

 quake, which we by this time were grown acquainted with, 

 alarmed us for the consequences ; it every moment seemed to 

 grow louder, and to approach more near. The place on which 

 we stood now began to shake most dreadfully, so that bein^ 

 unable to stand, my companions and I caught hold of whatevei 

 shrub grew next us, and supported ourselves in that manner. 



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