and an omelette; and we did not fail to do justice to his excellent lacrima Christi, of which he has always a large provision.  We then betook ourselves to rest, leaving orders to be awakened at two o’clock in order to proceed further up the mountain.  There was a pretty decent eruption of the mountain, which vomited fire, stones and ashes at an interval of twenty-five minutes, so that we enjoyed this spectacle during our ascent.  A violent noise, like thunder, accompanies each eruption, which increases the awefulness and grandeur of the sight.  At two o’clock our guide and muleteers being very punctual, we bade adieu to the hermit, promising him to come to breakfast with him the next morning; we then mounted our mules and after an hour’s march arrived at the spot where the ashes and cinders, combined with the steepness of the mountain, prevent the possibility of going any further except on foot.  We dismounted therefore at this place, and sent back our mules to the hermitage to wait for us there.  We now began to climb among the ashes, and tho’ the ascent to the position of the ancient crater is not more than probably eighty yards in height, we were at least one hour before we reached it, from its excessive steepness and from gliding back two feet out of three at every step we made.  We at length reached the old crater and sat ourselves down to repose till day-break.  Tho’ it was exceeding cold, the exhalation from the veins of fire and hot ashes kept us as warm as we could wish:  for here every step is literally

          per ignes
  Suppositos cineri doloso.[97]

We remained on this spot till broad daylight and witnessed several eruptions at an interval of twenty or twenty-five minutes.  I remarked that the mountain toward the summit forms two cones, one of which vomited fire and smoke, and the other calcined stones and ashes, accompanied by a rumbling noise like thunder.  The stones came clattering down the flanks of the mountain and some of them rolled very near us; had we been within the radius formed by the erupted stones we probably should have been killed.

At daylight Mr R——­ D——­ proposed to ascend the two cones in spite of the remonstrances of our guide Salvatore, who told us that no person had yet been there and that we must expect to be crushed to death by the stones, should an eruption take place, and that it was almost as much madness to attempt it, as it would be to walk before a battery of cannon in the act of being fired.  Tho’ I did not admit all the force of this comparison, yet I began to think there was a little too much risk in the attempt; my French friend however was deaf to all remonstrance and said to me, “As-tu peur?” I replied:  “No! that I was at all times very indifferent as to life or death, but that I did not like pain, and was not at all desirous to have an arm or leg broken, the former accident having happened to a German a few days before; nevertheless, I added,