But on the whole the people were not so frightened after the first
outbreak as one might have expected.
Yet they had every reason to be, because near the mountain stand the
ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was overwhelmed, not
by lava, but by just such a fall of ashes from a great eruption of
Vesuvius about thirty years after the death of Christ.
The ashes had fallen lightly at first, but so thickly that in a very
short space of time the whole city was buried under tons of it, and
the people were crushed or suffocated in their homes.
You will find the whole story of it in the novel called _The Last
Days of Pompeii_, but if you ever go to Pompeii the ruins which
have been dug out tell their own story better than any book can do.
You walk through silent streets of beautifully decorated houses, of
shops, theatres, and baths; the pavement is scored with the wheelmarks
of the chariots, and in some of the houses the skeletons of the
inhabitants are still to be seen.
* * * * *