528 A SCENE OF HORROR.

the safety of the men. In a word, the captain told me he would
go and help his men, let what would come. I argued with him,
as I did before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of
the voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c., and told
him I would go and the two men, and only see if we could at a dis-
tance learn what was like to be the event, and come back and
tell him.

It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the
rest before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left
but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his men
lost for want of help; he had rather lose the ship, the voyage, and
his life and all; and away went he.

In a word, I was no more able to stay behind now than I was
to persuade them not to go; so, in short, the captain ordered two
men to row back to the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more, leaving
the long-boat at an anchor, and that, when they came back, six
men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us, so
that he left only sixteen men in the ship; for the whole ship’s
company consisted of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the
last quarrel, which brought this mischief on.

Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the
ground we trode on; and being guided by the fire, we kept no path,
but went directly to the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns
was surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now
of quite another nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess
T never was at the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by
storm. I had heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ivre-
land, and killing man, woman, and child; and I had read of Count
Tilly sacking of the city of Magdeburg, and cutting the throats of
twenty-two thousand of both sexes. But I never had an idea of the
thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror
which was upon our minds at hearing it.

However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though
there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object
we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes
of it, for the house was consumed; and just before it, plain now
to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three women