“Here!” call’d a voice; and from a group that stood under the glare of the window came my dear mistress running.
“All safe, Jack! But what—” She drew back from our strange equipage.
“All in good time. First tell me—how came the fire?”
“Why, foul work, as it seems. All I know is I was sleeping, and awoke to hear the black seaman hammering on my door. Jumping up, I found the room full of smoke, and escap’d. The rooms beneath, they say, were stuff’d with straw, and the yard outside heap’d also with straw, and blazing. Ben Halliday found two oil jars lying there—”
“Are the horses out?”
“Oh, Jack—I do not know! Shame on me to forget them!”
I ran toward the stable. Already the roof was ablaze, and the straw yard, beyond, a very furnace. Rushing in, I found the two horses cowering in their stalls, bath’d in sweat, and squealing. But ’twas all fright. So I fetch’d Molly’s saddle, and spoke to her, and set it across her back: and the sweet thing was quiet in a moment, turning her head to rub my sleeve gently with her muzzle: and followed me out like a lamb. The bay gave more trouble; but I sooth’d him in the same manner, and patting his neck, led him, too, into safety.
By this, all hope to save the house was over: for the well in the court yielded but twenty buckets before it ran dry, and after that no water was to be had. Of the wing where the fire burst out only the walls stood, and a few oaken rafters, that one by one came tumbling and crashing. The flames had spread along the roof, and were now licking the ceiling of the hall and spouting around the clock tower. In the roar and hubbub, Billy’s men work’d like demons, dragging out chairs, chests, and furniture of all kinds, which they strew’d in the yard, returning with shouts for more. One was tearing down the portraits in the hall: another was pulling out the great dresser from the kitchen: a third had found a pile of tapestry and came staggering forth under the load of it.
I had fasten’d the horses by the gate, and was ready to join in the work, when a shout was rais’d—
“Billy!—Where’s Billy Pottery? Has any seen the skipper?”