Theodore Winthrop

“ Fire everywhere! A mob of arrogant, roaring, frenzied flames possessed the cellar and the ground-floor. Each window, so long a peaceful entrance for sunbeams, now glowed with light within, or thrust out great cruel blades of fire, striking at darkness. Fire sheathed the base of the turret. Agile flames were climbing up its sides, and little playful flashes seized the creepers that overhung Lucy’s window, and, clinging to these, peered in through the panes, looking for such diet as they craved. ”

“ And now on Lucy’s turret Fire had hoisted its banner, as in a castle the flag goes up when the master comes to hold holiday.
The sailors gained the foot of the lawn. This pageant burst upon them. They sprang forward with a hurrah. Suddenly the foremost, paused and huddled together. What is it?
A dark figure, bearing some heavy burden, appeared at the only window of the front where the flames were not overflowing in full streams and fountaining upward.
The figure came fighting forward. Fire shouted, and clutched at it. Smoke poured around, to bewilder it. ”

“ They found him lying without, under the great window, — a man, and in his arms a burned and blackened thing. It might be, they thought, a woman.
They carried them away where the air was cool, and the crisp frost was unmelted on the grass. The man breathed, and moaned. No one knew his face, masked with black smoke.
With the neighbors, Mrs. Dewitt now came running up, and joined the group.
“See!” said she, with a shudder. “This was my mistress. She always wore this diamond on her neck in the evening. She is dead. No? she breathes!”
Yes; there was the gem, showing red reflections of the flames. ”