ure we felt little of the ground we
trod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but went directly
to the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were surprising to
us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another
nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at the
sacking of a city, or at the taking of a town by storm; I have heard of
Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and
child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdebourg, and
cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but I never had an idea of
the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the
horror which was upon our minds at hearing it.

However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was no
entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we met with
was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the
house was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by the
light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as we
thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In short, these
were such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury
something beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our men
could be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of it, we thought
that every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but this
was not all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just
as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and beheld to our astonishment three
women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they had
indeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in
the same terror and consternation, with three of our English butchers
(for I can call them no better) in the rear, who, when they could not
overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their
shot fell down in our sight: when the rest saw us, believing us to be
their enemies; and that we would murder them as well as those that
pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women,
and two of them fell down as if already dead with the fright.

My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, when
I saw this; and I believe had the three English sailors that pursued
them come on, I had made our men kill them all. However, we took some
ways