Lady Desborough sat up in bed propped up with pillows, dressed in
such flowing garments as Dinah had been able to array her in, her
eyes shining in anxious expectation, her panting breath showing the
oppression caused by the murkiness of the atmosphere. But in spite
of the peril of the situation, to which she had now awakened with
full comprehension; in spite of the fatigue of being partially
dressed, with a view to sudden flight; in spite of the horror of
knowing herself to be alone with Dinah in this flame-encircled
house, her spirit rose to the occasion, triumphing over the
weakness of the flesh. Dinah had feared that the knowledge of the
peril would extinguish the faint flame of life; but it seemed
rather to cause it to burn more strongly. The fragile creature
looked full of courage, and the fears she experienced at this
moment were less for herself than for others.
"My dear lord! my dear lord!" she kept repeating. "Dinah, if he
were living nothing would keep him from me. Where is he gone? Dost
thou think he will return in time?"
"I think so, my dear lady," answered Dinah in her full, quiet
voice; "I pray he may come soon!"
"Yes, pray for him, pray for him!" cried the lady clasping her
hands, "I have not prayed for him enough. Pray that his precious
life may be preserved!"
Dinah clasped her hands and bent her head. Her whole faculties
seemed merged in one great stress of urgent prayer. The lady looked
at her and touched her hand gently.
"You are a good woman, Dinah Morse. I am glad to have you with me;
but if my good lord come not soon, you must save yourself and fly.
I will not have you lose your life for me. You have not strength to
bear me hence, and I cannot walk. You must fly and save yourself.
For me, if my dear lord be dead, life has nothing for me to desire
it."
"Madam," answered Dinah, in her calm, resolute way, "your good
lord, my master, entrusted you to my care, and that charge I cannot
and will not quit whatever may betide. God is with us in the midst
of the fire as truly as He was in the raging of the plague. He
brought me safe through the one peril, and I can trust Him for this
second one. Our lives we may not recklessly cast away, neither may
we fly from our post of duty lightly, and without due warrant."
Lady Desborough's thin white fingers closed over Dinah's steady
hand with a grateful pressure.
"Thou art a good woman, Dinah," she said. "Thy presence beside me
gives me strength and hope. Truly I should dread to be left alone,
and yet I would not have thee stay if the peril becomes great."
"We will trust that help may reach us shortly," answered Dinah, who
realized the magnitude of the peril far more clearly than did the
sick lady, who had no idea of the awful extent of the fire.
That it was a bad one she was well aware, and in perilous proximity
to their dwelling; but Dinah had not told her, nor had she for a
moment guessed, that half the city of London was already destroyed.
"Go and look from the windows," she said a few minutes later, when
the two had sat in silent prayer and meditation for that brief
interval. "Go see what is happening in the street below. I marvel
that I hear so little stir of voices. But the walls are thick, and
we are high up. Go and see what is passing below, and bring me word
again."
Dinah was not loth to obey this behest, being terribly anxious to
know what was happening around them. Neither by word nor by sign
would she add to the anxieties of Lady Desborough, knowing how much
might depend upon her calmness if the chance of rescue offered
itself; but she herself began to entertain grave fears for the
safety of this house, wedged in, as it appeared to her to be,
between masses of blazing buildings.
Running up to the top attics of the house, which commanded views
almost every way, the sight which greeted her eyes was indeed
appalling. The whole mass of St. Paul's grand edifice was alight,
and the flames were rushing up the walls like fiery serpents whilst
the dull roar of the conflagration was like the booming of the
breakers on an iron-bound coast. Grand and terrible was the sight
presented by that vast sea of flame, which extended eastward as far
as the eyes could see. It was more brilliantly light now, in the
middle of the night, than in the brightest summer noontide,
although the blood-red glare was terrible in its intensity, and
brought to Dinah's spirit, with a shudder of horror, a vision of
the bottomless pit with its eternal fires.
But without pausing to linger to watch the awful grandeur of the
burning cathedral, she hastily passed from attic to attic to see
how matters were going in other quarters, and she soon discovered,
to her dismay and anxiety, that the flames had crept around the
little wedge-like block of buildings in which this mansion stood,
and that they were literally ringed round by fire. By some caprice,
or perhaps owing to its solidity of structure, this small
three-cornered block, containing about three good houses, had not
yet ignited; but the hungry flames were creeping on apace, and, as
it seemed to Dinah, from all sides. As she took in this fact, it
seemed to her that help could never reach them now, and that all
they could do was to strive to meet death with as calm and bold a
spirit as they could, commending their souls to God, and trusting
that He would raise up their bodies at the last day, even though
they might be consumed to ashes in the midst of this burning fire.
What was that noise? Surely a shout from below. Dinah started, and
fled hastily down the staircase. In another moment she heard more
plainly.
"Sweet heart, sweet heart, where art thou--oh where art thou?"
It was Lord Desborough's voice; she recognized it with a thrill of
gladness. But there was another voice mingling with it which she
also knew, and she heard her own name called with equal urgency.
"Dinah! Mistress Dinah! Ah, pray God we have not come too late!
Dinah, we are here to save you both! Show yourself, if you be still
there. Pray Heaven they have not rushed forth in their fears and
perished in the flames!"
In another instant Dinah had rushed to a window, which seemed to be
on the same side of the house as the voices--namely, at the back;
and, in the narrow court below, she saw Lord Desborough, the Master
Builder, her brother, and Reuben, all clustered together, with
ladders and ropes, and all calling aloud to those within to show
themselves.
"We are here! we are safe! but the fire is well nigh upon us,"
answered Dinah, who had just been convinced by the rolling of the
smoke up the staircase that the lower part of the house was in
flames.
"Thank God! thank God! they are still there!" cried Lord Desborough
at sight of her; whilst the Master Builder, who was getting a
ladder into position in order to run it up to the window where she
stood, spoke rapidly and commandingly:
"There is no time to lose. The house is ringed by fire. It will be
all we can do to make good our escape. The front of the place is in
flames already; we cannot approach that way, and the street is full
of waves of fire. Can you make shift to bring out the sick lady to
this window? or--"
Dinah vanished the moment she understood what was to be done; but
quick as were her movements, Lord Desborough was in the room almost
as soon as she was. He must have darted up the ladder almost ere it
was in position, and the next moment he had his wife in his arms,
straining her passionately to his breast, as she cried in joyful
accents:
"O my love, my dear, dear love! methought thou hadst perished in
yon fearful fire!"
"It is more fearful than thou dost know, sweet heart, but with
Heaven's help we will bear thee safe through it. Shut thine eyes,
dear heart, and trust to me. We have won our way thus far in the
teeth of many a peril. Pray Heaven we make good our escape in like
fashion. We have taken every measure of precaution."
In her great delight at having her husband back safe and sound, and
in her state of exceeding weakness, Lady Desborough understood
little of the terrible nature of what was happening. She felt her
husband's arms round her; she knew he had come to save her from
danger; and her trust was so perfect and implicit that it left no
room in her heart for anxious fears. She closed her eyes like a
tired child, and laid her head upon his shoulder.
He was a strong man, and she had wasted in the fever to a mere
shadow, and was always small and slight. He carried her as easily
as though she had been an infant; and making straight for the open
window, he climbed out upon the ladder and went slowly and steadily
down it, whilst those below held it for him.
Dinah watched the descent with eager eyes, unheeding all else. She
never thought to look behind her. She had no idea that a mass of
flames had suddenly come rushing up the stairway behind her. She
was conscious of an overpowering heat and a rush of blinding smoke
that caused her to stagger back gasping for breath; but it was only
as she actually felt the hot breath of the flames upon her cheek,
and saw that the whole house had suddenly become involved in the
universal destruction, that she knew what had befallen her, and
that death was striving hard to clutch her and make her its prey.
With a short, sharp cry, she staggered towards the open window, but
the heat and the smoke made her dizzy. She fell against the frame,
and uttered a faint cry for help; and then it seemed to her that
the body of flame behind leaped upon her like a live thing. She was
conscious for a moment of making a fierce and desperate struggle,
and then she knew no more, for black darkness swallowed her up, and
her last moment of consciousness was spent in a prayer that the
Lord would be with her in death and receive her spirit into His
hands.
When next Dinah opened her eyes it was to find a cool wind blowing
on her face, and to feel an unwonted motion of the bed (as she
supposed it for a moment) on which she was lying. Everything was
bright as day about her, but everything seemed to be dyed the hue
of blood. The next moment sense and memory returned. She realized
that she was lying in the bottom of a boat, which men were rowing
with steady strokes. She saw Lord Desborough sitting in the stern,
only a few feet away, still clasping his wife in his arms. She knew
that her head was lying in somebody's lap, and the next moment she
heard a familiar voice saying:
"Ah! she is better now. She has opened her eyes!"
"Rachel!" exclaimed Dinah sitting suddenly up, in spite of a
sensation of giddiness which made everything swim before her eyes
for a few moments; and Rachel Harmer looked down into her face and
smiled.
"Dear Dinah, thank Heaven thou art safe! I hear that thou wert in
fearful peril in this burning city; but our good neighbour brought
thee forth from the blazing house just as the boards on which thou
wert standing gave way beneath thy feet. Oh, how thankful must we
be that our home and our dear ones have all been preserved to us,
when half the city is lying in ruins!"
Dinah raised herself up still more at these words, and turned her
eyes in the direction of the raging flames on the north side of the
river; and only then was she able to realize something of the
terrible magnitude of that great conflagration.
The boat was hugging the Southwark shore, for indeed it was scarce
safe to approach the other, save from motives of dire necessity,
and so thickly did sparks and fragments of blazing matter fall
hissing into the river for quite half its width, that boats were
chary of adventuring themselves much beyond the Southwark bank,
save those conveying persons or goods from some of the many wharfs;
and these made straight across with their cargoes as soon as they
could quit the shore.
"It is terrible! terrible!" gasped Dinah. "It is like the mouth of
a volcano! And to think that but a short hour since I was in the
midst of it. O sister, tell me how thou comest to be here. Tell me
how I was snatched from the flames, for, verily, I thought I was
their prey."
Rachel put a trembling arm about her sister's shoulders as she made
reply.
"Truly there were those standing by who thought the same. But for
the brave expedition of our neighbour there, methinks thou wouldst
have perished; but let me tell the tale from the beginning.
"It was some time after dark--I scarce know how the hours have sped
through these two strange nights and days, when the day seems
almost dimmer than the night. But suddenly there was Janet with
us--Janet and my Lord Desborough, come with news that the fire had
threatened even St. Paul's, and that he desired help to save his
sick wife and thee, Dinah, ere the flames should have reached his
abode. Janet told us much of the poor lady's state, and we made all
fitting preparation to receive her. But none were at home save the
boys, and they had to go forth and find their father and brother,
to return with Lord Desborough to help him in his work of rescue.
He would fain have got others and not have tarried so long. But all
men seem distraught by fear, and would not listen to his promises
of reward, nor face the perils either of the journey by water or of
an approach to the flaming city."
"Indeed it hath a fearful aspect!" said Dinah thoughtfully, as she
turned her eyes upon the blazing mass that had been teeming with
life but a few short hours ago. "Hast heard, sister, whether many
poor creatures have perished in the flames? Oh, my heart has been
sad for them, thinking of all the homeless and all the dead!"
"They say that wondrous few have fallen victims to the fire," said
Rachel, "and those that have perished are, for the most part, poor,
distraught creatures, whom terror caused to fling away their lives,
or like my Lady Scrope, who would not leave her home and preferred
to perish with it. It is sad enough to think of the thousands who
have lost home and goods in the fire. But had it come before the
plague had ravaged the city so fearfully, it must have been tenfold
worse. Methinks if the lanes and courts of the city had been
crowded as they were then, the loss of life must needs have been
far greater."
"But to proceed with thy tale," said Dinah after a pause. "How was
it that thou didst adventure thyself with the rescuing party in the
boat?"
"Methought that, as there were helpless women to be saved, a woman
might find work to do suited more to her than to the men folks.
Moreover, I may not deny that I felt a great and mighty desire to
see this wonderful fire more nigh. Custom has used us to so much
since it commenced that the terror of it has somewhat faded. They
were saying that St. Paul's was blazing or like to blaze. I desired
to see that awful sight; and see it I did right well, as we pushed
the boat into mid-water after landing Lord Desborough and his
assistants at Baynard's Castle. They were some half hour gone, and
we sat and watched the fire, in some fear truly for them, for the
flames seemed devouring everything, but with confidence that they
would act with all prudence, and in the full belief that the fire
had not yet attacked my lord's house."
"Ah, but it had!" said Dinah with a little shiver. "I would not
have believed that flames could sweep on at such a fearful pace.
One minute we seemed safe, the next it was seething round us!"
"That is what they all say of this fire. It travels with such an
awful rapidity, and will suddenly pounce like a live thing upon
some building hitherto unharmed, and in an incredibly short time
will have licked it up, if one may so speak, leaving nothing but a
mass of smouldering ashes behind."
"I know how it leaps," spoke Dinah, with a little shiver. "I cannot
think even now how I came to be saved."
"It was our good neighbour, the Master Builder, who saved thee at
risk of his life," answered Rachel with a little sob in her voice.
"It was a terrible thing to see, Reuben tells me. He and his father
were holding the ladder, and Lord Desborough was bringing down his
wife, when all in a moment the house seemed engulfed in one of
those great flame waves of which all men are speaking, and they saw
you totter and fall, as if it had engulfed thee in its deadly
embrace. Lord Desborough was not yet down the ladder, and knew
nothing of thy peril, being engrossed in tender care for his wife.
Nobody could pass him, nor would the ladder bear a greater weight;
but the next moment they saw that our good neighbour had somehow
got another ladder against the wall and was rushing up it at a pace
that seemed impossible. Reuben ran to steady this ladder, for it
was like to fall with the quaking and shaking. And then, just
before they heard the fall of the burning floors, he saw the Master
Builder coming down bearing his burden safely; and once having both
of you safe, there was not a moment to lose in making for the boat.
Already the alley was full of blinding flame and choking smoke, and
it was all the men could do to carry the pair of you safe to
Baynard's Castle, where we took you all on board, but only two
minutes before the fire began to blaze there also. See, by looking
back thou canst see how fiercely it is burning!
"God alone knows how and where it will be stayed. They say it is
spreading northward as furiously as it flies westward. If the city
walls stay not its course, all London will surely perish."
Dinah was silent a while, looking seriously before her. Then she
lifted her face nearer to her sister's and said:
"Prithee, tell me, has our good friend and neighbour suffered hurt
in thus adventuring his life for me?"
"He has not spoken of it, if so be that he has," was the answer;
"but the haste and peril and confusion were too great for many
words. We shall soon be at home now, and all who need it will
receive tendance. I fear me, dear sister, that thou canst not
altogether have escaped the cruel embrace of the fire. Thy garments
were singed and charred: but this cloak covers thee well and
protects thee from the night air."
Dinah moved herself, and felt no hurt. She looked anxiously towards
Lord Desborough, as though to ask how it went with his lady.
Fortunately the night was warm and calm, save for the light breeze
that was enough to fan the fierce flames onward and onward. By day
the wind blew hard from the east; but it dropped at night, and this
was no small boon to the many homeless creatures who had no roofs
to shelter their heads.
Once landed at the Southwark wharf, the party was soon within the
sheltering doors of the twin houses. Gertrude came forth to meet
them, anxious solicitude written on every line of her face.
The first care was for the poor lady, for whom they had made ready
a pleasant and airy room. She was carried thither, and Dinah
followed to see what was her condition; and although she was
exceedingly weak, she was not unconscious, and so long as she had
her husband beside her holding her hand, she seemed to care nothing
for the strangeness of her surroundings, or for the perils through
which she had passed.
"Verily, I think she will live," said Dinah, when Janet had fed her
with some of the strong broth which had been made in readiness.
"She looks not greatly worse than when she started up in bed in her
own house with the consciousness that there was fire near. I had
not thought so tender a frame could go through so much of peril and
hardship; but methinks her lord's return was the charm that worked
so marvellously for her; for, truly, she had begun to fear him
dead."
Satisfied as to her patient, Dinah allowed herself to be taken care
of by Gertrude, who insisted on removing her burned garments, and
assuring herself that no other hurt had been done. It was wonderful
what an escape Dinah's had been, for there was scarcely any mark of
fire upon her, only a little redness here and there, but nothing
approaching to a severe burn. She declared that she could not go to
bed in the midst of so much excitement; and after telling Gertrude
of the wonderful nature of her own escape, she added, with a
slightly heightened colour:
"I would fain assure myself of the welfare of thy brave father, for
it may be that he may have sustained some hurt; and if that be so,
we must minister to his needs right speedily. Much depends in burns
upon the promptness with which they are dressed."
Gertrude's filial anxiety was at once aroused, as well as her warm
admiration for her father's courage and devotion. Together they
sought him out and found him in one of the lower rooms, a plate of
food before him, which, however, he had hardly touched.
The moment he saw his daughter, who entered a little in advance, he
rose hastily and exclaimed:
"Tell me how she does. Has she received any hurt?"
"Lady Desborough?" asked Gertrude; "they all say she--"
"Nay, nay, child, not Lady Desborough! What is Lady Desborough to
me? I mean Dinah, that noble, devoted woman, who would not leave
her mistress even in the face of deadly peril. Tell me of her! Tell
me--"
And here the Master Builder came to a dead stop, and paused for a
moment in bashful shamefacedness most unwonted with him, for there
was Dinah entering behind his daughter, and surely she must have
heard every word.
"Dinah is not hurt, father," said Gertrude, covering the awkward
pause with ready tact; "her escape has been truly wonderful. She
wishes to know whether you also have escaped; for she tells me that
you must have faced a sea of flame in order to get to her."
"Your arm is hurt--is burned!" said Dinah coming forward quickly,
her eye detecting that much in a moment. "Gertrude, bring me the
oil and the linen. I will bind it up before I do aught else. When
the air is kept away the smart is wonderfully allayed."
The burn was rather a severe one, but the Master Builder seemed to
feel no pain under the dexterous manipulation of Dinah's gentle,
capable hands. When he would have thanked her she gave him a quick
look, and made a low-toned answer.
"Nay, nay, I can hear no thanks from thee. Do I not owe thee my
life? But for thee I should not be here now. It is I who must thank
thee--only I have no words in which to do it."
"Then let us do without words between us for the future, Dinah,"
said the Master Builder, possessing himself of one of her hands,
which was not withdrawn. "If thou hadst perished in the fire, life
had had nothing left for me. Does not that show that we belong to
each other? I have not much to give, but all I have is thine; and I
think thou mightest go the world over and not find a more loving
heart!"