Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/110

 your being ruined? but what will you say to setting my lord's house on fire, and burning all the family in their beds!" No more time was there for speaking; the staircase was all in a blaze. The flames came with such speed, that little could be saved even out of my lord's room, except papers, and such like. We were all obliged to fly with what we had on, and all were safe except poor Mrs Dickens."

"And did she perish!" cried I, in great agony. "O yes, poor soul," returned the house-keeper, "she did indeed perish! Never was there any thing so horrid, or so shocking! God in his mercy preserve us all from such a dreadful end!"

Here poor Mrs Nelson perceiving how much I was agitated, and recollecting that she had been warned against telling me the woeful tale, stopped short to comfort me, and entreated that I would deny having heard any thing of the matter from her.

"O no," said I, "Mrs Nelson; let us never allow ourselves to depart from truth;