A poor girl near me, who paced a few yards up and down,
holding her sides as if with agony, turned and hid her eyes at this
spectacle, crying out, 'Oh, the poor people! oh the mothers and babies!'
She was one of the lowest of an unfortunate class of females. She thought,
as I did, that there must be a dreadful loss of lives; but it was the most
miraculous circumstance of that miraculous time, that the fire killed
nobody, except some women and infirm persons with fright.
"I took boat, and got to Whitehall, where I found the King in a more
serious and stirring humour than ever I saw him. Mr. Pepys, begging God to
forgive him for having an appetite at such a crisis, and interrupting his
laughter at the supper they gave him, with tears of pity and terror, had
brought word to his Majesty that the whole city would be destroyed, if
some of the houses were not blown up. The King accordingly not only
dispatched myself and many others to assist, but went in person with his
brother, and did a world of good. I never saw him look so grim, or say so
many kind things. Wherever he went, he gave the people a new life, for
they seemed dead with fright. Those who had not fled, (which they did by
thousands into the fields where they slept all night,) seemed only to have
been prevented from doing so, by not knowing what steps to take. The Lord
Mayor, a very different one from his predecessor, who showed a great deal
of courage during the plague, went about like a mad cook with his
handkerchief, perspiring, and lamenting himself; and nobody would have
taken the citizens for the same men who settled my court friends at the
battle of Naseby.
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