But in
this, they were disappointed, for a party of horse having arrived before
them, they retreated faster than they went, and came straight back to
town.
There being now a great many parties in the streets, each went to
work according to its humour, and a dozen houses were quickly blazing,
including those of Sir John Fielding and two other justices, and four
in Holborn--one of the greatest thoroughfares in London--which were all
burning at the same time, and burned until they went out of themselves,
for the people cut the engine hose, and would not suffer the firemen to
play upon the flames. At one house near Moorfields, they found in one of
the rooms some canary birds in cages, and these they cast into the fire
alive. The poor little creatures screamed, it was said, like infants,
when they were flung upon the blaze; and one man was so touched that he
tried in vain to save them, which roused the indignation of the crowd,
and nearly cost him his life.
At this same house, one of the fellows who went through the rooms,
breaking the furniture and helping to destroy the building, found a
child's doll--a poor toy--which he exhibited at the window to the mob
below, as the image of some unholy saint which the late occupants had
worshipped.
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