to carry off goods, either for the purpose of assistance or of plunder.  The king was at the west end of the street, near the church of Saint Mary Woolnoth, and the fearful havoc and destruction going forward drew tears from his eyes.  A scene of greater confusion cannot be imagined.  Leonard was in the midst of it, and, careless of his own safety, toiled amid the tumbling fragments of the houses to rescue some article of value for its unfortunate owner.  While he was thus employed, he observed a man leap out of a window of a partly demolished house, disclosing in the action that he had a casket concealed under his cloak.

A second glance showed him that this individual was Pillichody, and satisfied that he had been plundering the house, he instantly seized him.  The bully struggled violently, but at last, dropping the casket, made his escape, vowing to be revenged.  Leonard laughed at his threats, and the next moment had the satisfaction of restoring the casket to its rightful owner, an old merchant, who issued from the house, and who, after thanking him, told him it contained jewels of immense value.

Not half an hour after this, the flames poured upon Lombard-street from the four avenues before mentioned, and the whole neighbourhood was on fire.  With inconceivable rapidity, they then ran up Birchin-lane, and reaching Cornhill, spread to the right and left in that great thoroughfare.  The conflagration had now reached the highest point of the city, and presented the grandest and most terrific aspect it had yet assumed from the river.  Thus viewed, it appeared, as Pepys describes it, “as an entire arch of fire from the Three Cranes to the other side of the bridge, and in a bow up the hill, for an arch of above a mile long:  it made me weep to see it.”  Vincent also likens its appearance at this juncture to that of a bow.  “A dreadful bow it was,” writes this eloquent nonconformist preacher, “such as mine eyes have never before seen; a bow which had God’s arrow in it with a flaming point; a shining bow, not like that in the cloud which brings water with it, and withal signifieth God’s covenant not to destroy the world any more with water, but a bow having fire in it, and signifying God’s anger, and his intention to destroy London with fire.”

As the day drew to a close, and it became darker, the spectacle increased in terror and sublimity.  The tall black towers of the churches assumed ghastly forms, and to some eyes appeared like infernal spirits plunging in a lake of flame, while even to the most reckless the conflagration seemed to present a picture of the terrors of the Last Day.  Never before had such a night as that which ensued fallen upon London.  None of its inhabitants thought of retiring to rest, or if they sought repose after the excessive fatigue they had undergone, it was only in such manner as would best enable them to rise and renew their exertions to check the flames, which were continued throughout the night, but wholly without success.