“I searched him, your worship,” cried Chowles, who was among the bystanders, “the moment he was seized, and found nothing upon him.  It is a false and malicious charge.”

“It looks like it, I must say,” replied the mayor.  “On what grounds do you accuse him?” he added, angrily, to Leonard.

“On these,” replied Leonard.  “He came to me three hours ago, and confessed that he had a desperate design against the safety of the city, and made certain proposals to me, to which I would not listen.  This is not the season for a full explanation of the matter.  But I pray your worship, as you value the welfare of the city, to have him secured.”

“There can be no harm in that,” replied the lord mayor.  “His appearance is decidedly against him.  Let him be taken care of till the morrow, when I will examine further into the matter.  Your name and place of abode, young man?”

“I am called Leonard Holt, and my business is that of a grocer, in Wood-street,” was the reply.

“Enough,” rejoined the mayor.  “Take away the prisoner.  I will hear nothing further now.  Lord!  Lord! how the fire rages, to be sure.  We shall have the whole city burnt down, if we do not take care.”

“That we shall, indeed,” replied Sir Robert Viner, one of the sheriffs, “unless the most prompt and decisive measures are immediately adopted.”

“What would you recommend?” cried the lord mayor, despairingly.  Sir Robert looked perplexed by the question.

“If I might offer an opinion,” interposed Leonard, “I would advise your worship to pull down all the houses in the way of the fire, as the only means of checking it.”

“Pull down the houses!” cried the lord mayor.  “Who ever heard of such an idea?  Why, that would be worse than the fire.  No, no; that will never do.”

“The young man is in the right,” observed Sir Joseph Sheldon, the other sheriff.

“Well, well—­we shall see,” replied the mayor.  “But we are losing time here.  Forward! forward!”

And while Grant was borne off to Newgate by a guard of javelin-men, the lord mayor and his company proceeded to Fish-street-hill, where the whole conflagration burst upon them.  The moment the lord mayor appeared, he was beset on all sides by hundreds of families soliciting his protection.  Others came to give him the alarming intelligence that a very scanty supply of water only could be obtained, and that already two engines had been destroyed, while the firemen who worked them had narrowly escaped with life.  Others again pressed him for instructions how to act—­some suggesting one plan—­some another,—­and being of a weak and irresolute character, and utterly unequal to a fearful emergency like the present, he was completely bewildered.  Bidding the houseless families take refuge in the churches, he ordered certain officers to attend them, and affecting to doubt the statement of those who affirmed there was no water, advised them to go to the river, where they would find plenty.  In vain they assured him the tide was out, the Thames water-tower empty, the pipes and conduits dry.  He would not believe anything of the sort, but upbraiding his informants with neglect, bade them try again.  As to instructions, he could give none.