The vintner's house with a half-a-dozen others near at hand, was one
great, glowing blaze. All night, no one had essayed to quench the
flames, or stop their progress; but now a body of soldiers were actively
engaged in pulling down two old wooden houses, which were every moment
in danger of taking fire, and which could scarcely fail, if they were
left to burn, to extend the conflagration immensely. The tumbling
down of nodding walls and heavy blocks of wood, the hooting and
the execrations of the crowd, the distant firing of other military
detachments, the distracted looks and cries of those whose habitations
were in danger, the hurrying to and fro of frightened people with
their goods; the reflections in every quarter of the sky, of deep, red,
soaring flames, as though the last day had come and the whole universe
were burning; the dust, and smoke, and drift of fiery particles,
scorching and kindling all it fell upon; the hot unwholesome vapour,
the blight on everything; the stars, and moon, and very sky,
obliterated;--made up such a sum of dreariness and ruin, that it seemed
as if the face of Heaven were blotted out, and night, in its rest and
quiet, and softened light, never could look upon the earth again.
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