MEJIOIR OF PLINY. 
35 
further upon tlie shore, in order to observe if they 
might safely put out to sea ; but they found the 
waves still running extremely high and boisterous. 
Then my uncle having drank a draught or two of 
cold water, laid himself down upon a sail-cloth 
which was spread for him ; but immediately the 
flames, preceded by a strong smell of sulphur, dis- 
persed the rest of the company, and obliged him to 
rise. Scarcely had he raised himself up, with the 
assistance of two of his servants, when he instantly 
fell down dead ; suffocated, as 1 conjecture, by some 
gross and noxious vapour, having always had weak 
lungs, and being frequently subject to a difficulty in 
breathing. As soon as it was light again, which 
was not till the third day after this melancholy acci- 
dent, his body was found entire and without any 
marks of violence, exactly in the posture that he fell, 
and looking more like a man asleep than dead.” 
“ During all this time (continues the same writer 
in another epistle, adverting now to his own situa- 
tion), my mother and I were at Miscnnm. We went 
out into a small court belonging to the house, w hich 
separated the sea from the buildings. As I w'as at 
that time but eighteen years of age, I know not 
whether I should call my behaviour in this danger- 
ous conjuncture courage or rashness ; but I took ui) 
Livy and amused myself in turning over that author, 
and even making extracts from him, as if all about 
me had been in full security. While we w'ere in this 
situation, a friend of my uncle’s, who was just come 
