Next day papa was returning home and saw a dense cloud of smoke hanging over the town; and on approaching the spot, found the poor palace and all its contents a thing of the past; one minaret only being left of the building. The whole had been consumed by fire in _ten minutes_; so rapid was the progress of the flames from the time of their first bursting out, that in that short space of time the dome had fallen in; and wonderful to say, though there were more than 2000 people, chiefly women and children, in the building when the alarm was given, the whole of them escaped uninjured. We waited on in New York till Friday the 8th, vainly hoping to hear tidings of William; although by a letter received from him a day or two before, he said he should probably be at Baltimore on Saturday. With this uncertainty hanging over his plans, we determined on going there; and on Friday night got as far as Philadelphia by the Camden and Amboy Railway, through a country far from pretty, compared with what we have been accustomed to. Philadelphia is situated between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, at about six miles above the junction of the two rivers. In order to reach the town we had to cross the Delaware, which we did in a steamer of huge proportions. It was getting dark when we landed at Philadelphia; and we were much struck with the large and broad streets and well-lighted shops. It is said of New York, that the winding lanes and streets in the old part of the town, originated in the projectors of the city having decided to build their first houses along paths which had been established by the cattle when turned into the woods. The projectors of Philadelphia have certainly avoided this error, if error it was; for there the streets throughout the city are as regular as the squares of a chess board, which a map of the city much resembles. The streets extend from one river to the other. We got up next morning betimes; and as it is our intention to see the town more thoroughly hereafter, we took advantage of a lovely day (but what day is not here beautiful) to see a cemetery situated upon a bend of the Schuylkill. It is very extensive; for they have so much elbow room in this country that they can afford to have things on a large scale; and everything here partook of this feature. The plots of ground allotted to each family were capacious squares, ornamented with flowers, surrounded by white marble balustrades, and large enough to contain separate tombstones, often inside walks, and sometimes even iron arm-chairs and sofas. The monuments were all of white marble, of which material there seems here to be a great abundance, and none of them were offensive in their style, but on the contrary were in general in that good taste, which the Americans in some way or other, how we cannot make out, contrive to possess.