road placed this phenomenon directly before them. As they proceeded, it
became more distinct, and it was at length sufficiently visible that it
was occasioned by a fire. Mr. Falkland put spurs to his horse; and, as
they approached, the object presented every instant a more alarming
appearance. The flames ascended with fierceness; they embraced a large
portion of the horizon; and, as they carried up with them numerous
little fragments of the materials that fed them, impregnated with fire,
and of an extremely bright and luminous colour, they presented some
feeble image of the tremendous eruption of a volcano.

The flames proceeded from a village directly in their road. There were
eight or ten houses already on fire, and the whole seemed to be
threatened with immediate destruction. The inhabitants were in the
utmost consternation, having had no previous experience of a similar
calamity. They conveyed with haste their moveables and furniture into
the adjoining fields. When any of them had effected this as far as it
could be attempted with safety, they were unable to conceive any further
remedy, but stood wringing their hands, and contemplating the ravages of
the fire in an agony of powerless despair. The water that could be
procured, in any mode practised in that place, was but as a drop
contending with an element in arms. The wind in the mean time was
rising, and the flames spread with more and more rapidity.

Mr. Falkland contemplated this scene for a few moments, as if ruminating
with himself as to what could be done. He then directed some of the
country people about him to pull down a house, next to one that was
wholly on fire, but which itself was yet untouched. They seemed
astonished at a direction which implied a voluntary destruction of
property, and considered the task as too much in the heart of the danger
to be undertaken. Observing that they were motionless, he dismounted