I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh, or expression of fear, escaped me, had not my support been grounded in that miserable, tho mighty, consolation, that all mankind were involved in the same calamity and that I was perishing with the world itself. At last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud or smoke; the real day returned, and even the sun shone out, tho with a lurid light, like when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered deep with ashes as if with snow. My mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed, and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts of leaving the place, till we could receive some news of my uncle. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 137: Addrest to the Emperor Trajan while proconsul in Pontus and Bithynia. The Melmoth translation revised by Bosanquet. This letter and the passage in Tacitus printed elsewhere in this volume, are the only genuine contemporary references to the early Christians to be found in ancient writings. Pliny's letter was preserved by the Christians themselves as evidence of the purity of their faith and practises. Early writers of the Church frequently appeal to it against calumniators. It was written within forty years of the death of St. Paul.] [Footnote 138: Trajan's reply to this letter was as follows: "You have adopted the right course, my dearest Secundus, in investigating the charges against the Christians who were brought before you. It is not possible to lay down any general rule for all such cases. Do not go out of your way to look for them. If indeed they should be brought before you, and the crime is proved, they must be punished; with the restriction, however, that where the party denies he is a Christian, and shall make it evident that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him (notwithstanding any former suspicion) be pardoned upon his repentance. Anonymous information ought not to be received in any sort of prosecution. It is introducing a very dangerous precedent and is quite foreign to the spirit of our age."] [Footnote 139: The translation of William Melmoth, revised by F. C. T. Bosanquet. Pliny wrote two letters to Tacitus on this subject, each at the request of the historian. Both are given here.] [Footnote 140: Pliny the elder was his uncle.] [Footnote 141: In the Bay of Naples.] [Footnote 142: About six miles distant from Naples. This eruption of Vesuvius, in which Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried, happened A.D. 79, in the first year of the emperor Titus.] [Footnote 143: Now called Castellammare, in the Bay of Naples, about fifteen miles southeast of the city of Naples.] [Footnote 144: The paragraphs from this point to the end are from Pliny's second letter to Tacitus.] [Footnote 145: The island near Naples, now called Capri.] SUETONIUS