or was the confidence reposed by the
Neapolitans in their patron Saint misplaced, for except from the stifling
smells and the dense rain of ashes, the terror-stricken capital suffered
not a whit, whilst the general alarm inspired its inhabitants with a
revival of religious fervour which was by no means insalutary. As usual,
the old cynical proverb was once more justified:--_Napoli fa gli peccati, e
la __Torre gli paga_, for of course poor Torre del Greco was grievously
affected by the lava streams. In this case, however, even Torre del Greco
and Resina did not fare so badly as did the towns on the northern slopes
of Monte Somma, a district which is of course perfectly immune from lava
inundations owing to the protecting rocky ridge of the Atrio del Cavallo.
But it seems that the great veil of clouds and fire, extending some
thousands of feet from the crest of the mountain to the heavens above, was
swayed by a chance current of air, so that its component red-hot dust,
ashes and stones were emptied in one fatal shower upon the northern flank
of the Mountain. Whole villages were ruined, hundreds of acres of vines
and crops were scorched and burned; the smiling peaceful hillside was in a
few minutes converted into a parched wilderness. Ottajano, a large town of
some 12,000 inhabitants, was the place most seriously injured by this
wholly unexpected rain of destruction, for a tempestuous fall of red-hot
stones, some of immense size, and a shower of ashes killed hundreds of the
terrified and suffocating citizens, and blocked up the streets with
smoking debris to a depth of four feet.

Of the recent eruptions of Vesuvius, which have been pretty frequent
during the latter half of last century, that of April 1872, so carefully
recorded by Professor Palmieri, who in spite of imminent danger never
abandoned his post in the Observatory, is the most notable. It is
remembered also owing to the catastrophe whereby some twenty persons out
of a large crowd of strangers, who had imprudently ascended to the Atrio
del Cavallo to get a closer view of the phenomenon, were suddenly caught
by the lava stream and enfolded in its burning clutches. For if ignorance
and superstition seem to make the poor fisherman or peasant unduly alarmed
on such occasions, curiosity and self-confidence are sometimes apt to lead
the educated or scientific into unnecessary peril. Naples itself was once
more alarmed in 1872, so that the relics of St Januarius at the f