No words of mine can paint the awful grandeur of the sight I saw.

It was as light as day upon the water, and there were times when the river itself seemed ablaze.

For, as the flames wrought havoc amongst the warehouses and stores along the wharfs, burning masses of oil and tar would pour out upon the bosom of the water, blazing terribly, and the boatmen had to keep a sharp watch sometimes lest they and their craft should be engulfed in the fiery stream.

To the ignorant, who knew not what caused the water to wear this aspect of burning, it appeared as though even the river had ignited.

This increased their terrors tenfold, and they say that some poor distraught creatures actually flung themselves into the fire or the water, convinced that the end of the world had come, and careless as to whether they perished soon or late." "But my father--my father!" cried Janet earnestly.
"Ah, true, thy father.