consternation, having had no previous experience of a similar
calamity. They conveyed with haste their moveables and furniture into
the adjoining fields. When any of them had effected this as far as it
could be attempted with safety, they were unable to conceive any further
remedy, but stood wringing their hands, and contemplating the ravages of
the fire in an agony of powerless despair. The water that could be
procured, in any mode practised in that place, was but as a drop
contending with an element in arms. The wind in the mean time was
rising, and the flames spread with more and more rapidity.

Mr. Falkland contemplated this scene for a few moments, as if ruminating
with himself as to what could be done. He then directed some of the
country people about him to pull down a house, next to one that was
wholly on fire, but which itself was yet untouched. They seemed
astonished at a direction which implied a voluntary destruction of
property, and considered the task as too much in the heart of the danger
to be undertaken. Observing that they were motionless, he dismounted
from his horse, and called upon them in an authoritative voice to follow
him. He ascended the house in an instant, and presently appeared upon
the top of it, as if in the midst of the flames. Having, with the
assistance of two or three of the persons that followed him most
closely, and who by this time had supplied themselves with whatever
tools came next to hand, loosened the support of a stack of chimneys, he
pushed them headlong into the midst of the fire. He passed and repassed
along the roof; and, having set people to work in all parts, descended
in order to see what could be done in any other quarter. At this moment
an elderly woman burst from the midst of a house in flames: the utmost
consternation was painted in her looks; and, as soon as she could
recollect herself enough to have a proper idea of her situation, the
subject of her anxiety seemed, in an instant, to be totally changed.
"Where is my child?" cried she, and cast an anxious and piercing look
among the surrounding crowd. "Oh, she is lost! she is in the midst of
flames! Save her! save her! my child!" She filled the air with
heart-rending shrieks. She turned towards the house. The people that
were near endeavoured to prevent her, but she shook them off in a
moment. She entered the passage; viewed the hideous ruin; and was then
going to plunge into the blazing staircase. Mr. Falkland saw,