“She will not come, father; she will not come.  She laughs to scorn all that I say.  She stands upon the parapet of the roof, tossing her arms, and crying aloud as she sees building after building catch fire, and the great billows of flame rolling along.  Oh, it is terrible to see and to hear her!  Methinks she has gone distraught.  Prithee, go fetch her down by force, dear father, for I trow that naught else will suffice.”

Father and son looked at each other in consternation.  They had not seriously contemplated the possibility of finding the old woman obstinate to the last.  But yet, now that Dorcas spoke, it seemed to them quite in keeping with what they had heard of her, that she should decline to leave even in the face of dire peril.

“Run to the boat, child!” cried the father.  “Let us know that thou art safe on board, and leave thy mistress to us.  If she come not peaceably, we must needs carry her down.

“Come, Reuben, we must not tarry within these walls more than five minutes longer.  The fire is approaching on all sides.  I fear me, both the Allhallowes will be victims next.”

Springing up the staircase, now thick with smoke, father and son emerged at last upon a little leaden platform, and saw at a short distance from them the old woman whom they sought, tossing her arms wildly up and down, and bursting into awful laughter when anything more terrible than usual made itself apparent.

They could not get quite up to her without actually crawling along an unguarded ridge of masonry, as she must have done to attain her present position; but they approached as near as was possible, and called to her urgently: 

“Madam, we have saved your goods as far as it was possible; now we come to save you.  Lose not a moment in escaping from the house.  In a few more minutes escape will be impossible.”

She turned and faced them then, dropping her mocking and excited manner, and speaking quite calmly and quietly.

“Good fellow, who told you that I should leave my house?  I have no intention whatever of doing any such thing.  What should I do in a strange place with strange surroundings?  Here I have lived, and here I will die.  You are an honest man, and you have an honest wench for your daughter.  Keep all you have saved, and give her a marriage portion when she is fool enough to marry.  As for me, I shall want it no more.”

“But, madam, it is idle speaking thus!” cried Reuben, with the impetuosity of youth.  “You must leave your house on the instant—­”

“So they told me in the time of the plague,” returned Lady Scrope, with a little, disdainful smile; “but I told them I should never die in my bed.”

“Madam, we cannot leave you here to perish in the flames,” cried the youth, with some heat and excitement of manner.  “I would that you would come quietly with us, but if not I must needs—­” and here he began to suit the action to the words, and to make as though he would creep along the ledge and gain the old woman’s vantage ground, as, indeed, was his intention.