LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PLINY.

The ashes were now falling fast upon the vessels, and more and more thickly the nearer they approached the shore; showers of pumice too, intermingled with stones, calcined and broken by the action of the flame; the sea suddenly retreated from the shore, where the rocks of the mountain rendered landing quite impossible. He was hesitating for a moment whether or not to turn back, the pilot strongly advising him to do so:—“Fortune favours the boldoriginal: "Fortes fortuna juvat.",” said he, “conduct me to Pomponianus.” Pomponianus was then at Stabiæ, a place that lay on the other side of the bay, for in those parts the shores are winding, and as they gradually trend away, the sea forms a number of little creeks. At this spot the danger at present was imminent, but still it could be seen, and as it appeared in approaching nearer and nearer, Pomponianus had ordered his baggage on board the ships, determined to take flight, if the wind, which happened to be blowing the other way, should chance to lull. The wind, being in this quarter, was extremely favourable to his passage, and my uncle, on arriving at Stabiæ, embraced his anxious friend, and did his best to restore his courage; and the better to re-assure him by evidence of his own sense of their safety, he requested the servants to conduct him to the bath. After bathing, he took his place at table, and dined, and that too in high spirits, or at all events, what equally shows his strength of mind, with every outward appearance of being so. In the meantime, vast sheets of flame and large bodies of fire were to be seen arising from Mount Vesuvius; the glare and brilliancy of which were beheld in bolder relief as the shades of night came on apace. My uncle, however, in order to calm their fears, persisted in saying that this was only the light given by some villages which had been abandoned by the rustics in their alarm to the flames: after which he retired to rest and soon fell fast asleep; for his respiration, which with him was heavy and loud, in consequence of his corpulence, was distinctly heard by the servants who were keeping watch at the door of the apartment. The courtyard which led to his apartment had now become filled with cinders and pumice stones, to such a degree, that if he had remained any longer in the room, it would have been quite impossible for him to leave it.