ece of bread upon the ground, which he, as was
the custom in his country took up. Afterwards he laid it upon a shelf in
a neighbouring house, which being close by, my Lords Hollis and Ashley,
followed by a dense crowd, conducted him thither, and found the bread
laid upon a board as he had stated. It was noted the next house but one
was on fire, and on inquiry it was ascertained that the worthy citizen,
seeing a foreigner place something inside a shop without tarrying, and
immediately after perceiving a dwelling in flames, which in his haste he
took to be the same, he had charged the man with commission of this
foul deed. But even though many were convinced of his innocence, my Lord
Hollis concluded the stranger's life would be in safer keeping if he
were committed to prison, which was accordingly done.

Meanwhile the fire continued; and on Monday night and Tuesday raged with
increasing violence. The very heart of the city was now eaten into by
this insatiable monster: Soper Lane, Bread Street, Friday Street, Old
Change, and Cheapside being in one blaze. It was indeed a spectacle to
fill all beholding it with consternation; but that which followed
was yet more terrible, for already St. Paul's Cathedral was doomed to
destruction.

Threatened on one side by the flames devastating Cheapside, and on the
other from those creeping steadily up from Blackfriars to this great
centre, it was now impossible to save the venerable church, which Evelyn
terms "one of the most ancient pieces of early Christian piety in the
world." Seen by this fierce light, and overhung by a crimson sky, every
curve of its dark outline, every stone of its pillars and abutments,
every column of its incomparable portico, stood clearly defined, so that
never had it looked so stately and magnificent, so vast and majestic, as
now when beheld for the last time.

Too speedily the fire advanced, watched by sorrowful eyes; but even
before it had reached the scaffolding now surrounding the building,
the vaulted roof, ignited by showers of sparks, burst into flames. Then
followed a scene unspeakably grand, yet melancholy beyond all telling.
In a few moments a pale yellow light had crept along the parapets,
sending faint clouds of smoke upwards, as if more forcibly marking the
course of destruction. Then came the crackling, hissing sounds of timber
yielding to the fire, and soon a great sheet of lead which covered the
roof, and was said to measure six acres, melt