mit, because their houses
would have been the first." Now, however, this remedy was tried, and
with greater despatch, because the fire threatened the Tower and the
powder magazine it contained. And if the flames once reached this,
London Bridge would assuredly be destroyed, the vessels in the river
torn and sunk, and incalculable damage to life and property effected.

Accordingly Tower Street, which had already become ignited, was, under
supervision of the king, blown up in part, and the fire happily brought
to an end by this means in that part of the town. Moreover, on Wednesday
morning the east wind, which had continued high from Sunday night, now
subsided, so that the flames lost much of their vehemence, and by means
of explosions were more easily mastered at Leadenhall and in Holborn,
and likewise at the Temple, to which places they had spread during
Wednesday and Thursday.

During these latter days, the king and the Duke of York betrayed great
vigilance, and laboured with vast activity; the latter especially,
riding from post to post, by his example inciting those whose courage
had deserted them, and by his determination overcoming destruction. On
Thursday the dread conflagration, after raging for five consecutive days
and nights, was at length conquered.

On Friday morning the sun rose like a ball of crimson fire above a scene
of blackness, ruin, and desolation. Whole streets were levelled to the
ground, piles of charred stones marked where stately churches had stood,
smoke rose in clouds from smouldering embers. With sorrowful hearts
many citizens traversed the scene of desolation that day; amongst others
Pepys and Evelyn. The latter recounts that "the ground and air, smoke
and fiery vapour, continu'd so intense, that my haire was almost sing'd,
and my feete unsuffurably surbated. The people who now walk'd about ye
ruines appear'd like men in some dismal desert, or rather in some greate
citty laid waste by a cruel enemy; to which was added that stench that
came from some poore creatures' bodies, beds, and other combustible
goods."

It would have been impossible to trace the original course of the
streets, but that some gable, pinnacle, or portion of walls, of
churches, halls, or mansions, indicated where they had stood. The
narrower thoroughfares were completely blocked by rubbish; massive
iron chains, then used to prevent traffic at night in the streets, were
melted, as were likewise iron gates of prisons, a