34 
MEMOIR OF PLINY. 
rest, and most certain it is lie was so little discom- 
posed as to fail into a deep sleep; for being corpu- 
lent, and breathing hard, the attendants in the anti- 
chamber actually heard him snore. 'I'he 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 Pomponi- 
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, wdiich, however, was in some de- 
gi'ee dissipated by torches and otlier lights of vari- 
ous kinds. They thought it expedient to go down 
