“Order was somewhat restored among us—as much, perhaps, as it could be under such circumstances; each of the elders among us having taken the direction of certain things, with a number of boys and others under his control, when a new cause of alarm arose. It was recollected by my mother that one of the servant girls, with a poor woman who came the day before to do some sewing, slept in the bed which I have mentioned [it was a bed in one of the roof rooms, which was occasionally used by sewing and washing women], and it was found that the girl only had escaped. I was at the front of the house giving directions respecting the procuring of water when I learnt this alarming news. I immediately ran upstairs, passed my father, who was then on his way to rescue the woman, and who generously tried to prevent my going by taking the risk upon himself; rushed through the room in which was the fire into the next, and, taking the woman from the bed, on which she lay in a fainting fit, carried her in my arms to the top of the stairs. I could do no more: although the whole was but the work of a minute, such was the effect of the alarm and of the dense smoke which I had breathed, that I loosed her, and she was caught by those who stood upon the stairs. I myself staggered down one or two steps, and should have fallen had I not been caught by one of those who stood about. A few minutes were sufficient for me to recover my strength. How the woman revived I do not know, but I saw her soon after, apparently well, watching the furniture at the front of the house.