ITALY: Act of God

. . . From the wrath of Vesuvius

O Lord, deliver us.

From the burning centre of the earth a pillar of fire roared upward, burst through the crater's mouth, hurled itself against the satiny blackness of the sky. Huge volcanic missiles hissed through the air, making red wounds upon the face of the night. Scorching cinders curved outward in shimmering clouds and lava rushed over the volcano's jagged edges and started downward in an implacable, destroying stream. Vesuvius, terrible father of volcanoes, had unloosed his recurring...

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