e falsity of their alarm, and with infinite
difficulty persuaded them to return to the fields: whence he despatched
troops of soldiers, whose presence helped to calm their fears.

And the king having, moreover, tender compassion for their wants,
speedily sought to supply them. He therefore summoned a council that
it might devise means of relief; and as a result, it published a
proclamation ordering that bread and all other provisions, such as could
be furnished, should be daily and constantly brought, not only to the
markets formerly in use, but also to Clerkenwell, Islington, Finsbury
Fields, Mile End Green, and Ratcliffe, for greater convenience of
the citizens. For those who were unable to buy provisions, the king
commanded the victualler of his navy to send bread into Moorfields, and
distribute it amongst them. And as divers distressed people had saved
some of their goods, of which they knew not where to dispose, he ordered
that churches, chapels, schools, and such like places in and around
Westminster, should be free and open to receive and protect them.
He likewise directed that all cities and towns should, without
contradiction or opposition, receive the citizens and permit them
free exercise of their manual labours: he promising, when the present
exigency had passed away, to take care the said persons should be no
burden to such towns as received them.

The people were therefore speedily relieved. Many of them found refuge
with their friends and relatives in the country, and others sought homes
in the districts of Westminster and Southwark: so that in four days from
the termination of the fire, there was scarce a person remaining in the
fields, where such numbers had taken refuge.

The first hardships consequent to the calamity having passed away,
people were anxious to trace the cause of their sufferings, which they
were unwilling to consider accidental. A rumour therefore sprang up,
that the great fire resulted from a wicked plot, hatched by Jesuits,
for the destruction of an heretical city. At this the king was sorely
troubled; for though there was no evidence which led him to place faith
in the report, yet a great body of the citizens and many members of
his council held it true. Therefore, in order to appease such doubts as
arose in his mind, and likewise to satisfy the people, he appointed his
privy council to sit morning and evening to inquire into the matter, and
examine evidences set forth against tho