ed by some
zealous Protestants over the house, when rebuilt:--"Here, by the
permission of Heaven, Hell broke loose upon this Protestant city, from
the malicious hearts of barbarous priests, by the hand of their agent,
Hubert, who confessed and on the ruins of this place declared the fact
for which he was hanged--viz., that here begun that dreadful fire which
is described on and perpetuated by the neighbouring pillar, erected anno
1681, in the mayoralty of Sir Patience Ward, Kt."

This celebrated inscription (says Cunningham), set up pursuant to an
order of the Court of Common Council, June 17th, 1681, was removed in
the reign of James II., replaced in the reign of William III., and
finally taken down, "on account of the stoppage of passengers to read
it." Entick, who made additions to Maitland in 1756, speaks of it as
"lately taken away."

The Fire was for a long time attributed to Hubert, a crazed French
Papist of five or six and twenty years of age, the son of a watchmaker
at Rouen, in Normandy. He was seized in Essex, confessed he had begun
the fire, and persisting in his confession to his death, was hanged,
upon no other evidence than that of his own confession. He stated in his
examination that he had been "suborned at Paris to this action," and
that there were three more combined to do the same thing. They asked him
if he knew the place where he had first put fire. He answered that he
"knew it very well, and would show it to anybody." He was then ordered
to be blindfolded and carried to several places of the City, that he
might point out the house. They first led him to a place at some
distance from it, opened his eyes, and asked him if that was it, to
which he answered, "No, it was lower, nearer to the Thames." "The house
and all which were near it," says Clarendon, "were so covered and buried
in ruins, that the owners themselves, without some infallible mark,
could very hardly have said where their own houses had stood; but this
man led them directly to the place, described how it stood, the shape of
the little yard, the fashion of the doors and windows, and where he
first put the fire, and all this with such exactness, that they who had
dwelt long near it could not so perfectly have described all
particulars." Tillotson told Burnet that Howell, the then recorder of
London, accompanied Hubert on this occasion, "was with him, and had much
discourse with him; and that he concluded it was impossible it could be
a