This river of lava in the Atrio del Cavallo was
sixty or seventy feet deep, and in some places nearly two miles broad.
Besides the explosions, which were frequent, there was a continued
subterranean and violent rumbling noise, which lasted five hours in
the night,--supposed to arise from contact of the lava with rain-water
lodged in cavities within. The whole neighborhood was shaken violently;
Portici and Naples were in the extremity of alarm; the churches were
filled; the streets were thronged with processions of saints, and
various ceremonies were performed to quell the fury of the mountain.
"In the night of the 20th, the occasion being critical, the prisoners in
the public jail attempted to escape, and the mob set fire to the gates
of the residence of the Cardinal Archbishop because he refused to bring
out the relics of St. Januarius. The 21st was a quieter day, but the
whole violence of the eruption returned on the 22d, at 10 A. M., with
the same thundering noise, but more violent and alarming. Ashes fell in
abundance in the streets of Naples, covering the housetops and balconies
an inch deep. Ships at sea, twenty leagues from Naples, were covered
with them.
"In the midst of these horrors, the mob, growing tumultuous and
impatient, obliged the Cardinal to bring out the head of St. Januarius,
at the extremity of Naples, toward Vesuvius; and it is well attested
here that the eruption ceased the moment the saint came in sight of
the mountain.
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