DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1082#0087
POMPEIANA. 51
spent with the toil of forcing their way
through deep and almost impassable
roads, sunk down to rise no more; while
those who escaped, spread the alarm, with
all the circumstances of aggravation and
horror which their imaginations, under the
influence of fear, suggested. At length
a gleam of light appeared, not of day,
but fire; which, passing, was succeeded
by an intense darkness, with so heavy a
shower of ashes, that it became neces-
sary to keep the feet in motion, to avoid
being fixed and buried by the accumu-
lation. On the fourth day the darkness
by degrees began to clear away, the real
day appeared* the sun shining forth sickly
as in an eclipse; but all nature, to the
weakened eyes, seemed changed; for towns
and fields had disappeared under one ex-
panse of white ashes, or were doubtfully
marked, like the more prominent objects
after an alpine fall of snow.
If such be the description of this most
e 2
spent with the toil of forcing their way
through deep and almost impassable
roads, sunk down to rise no more; while
those who escaped, spread the alarm, with
all the circumstances of aggravation and
horror which their imaginations, under the
influence of fear, suggested. At length
a gleam of light appeared, not of day,
but fire; which, passing, was succeeded
by an intense darkness, with so heavy a
shower of ashes, that it became neces-
sary to keep the feet in motion, to avoid
being fixed and buried by the accumu-
lation. On the fourth day the darkness
by degrees began to clear away, the real
day appeared* the sun shining forth sickly
as in an eclipse; but all nature, to the
weakened eyes, seemed changed; for towns
and fields had disappeared under one ex-
panse of white ashes, or were doubtfully
marked, like the more prominent objects
after an alpine fall of snow.
If such be the description of this most
e 2