which rattled after each other in quick succession, I heard the horns of the watchmen give the fire-signal, which was instantly answered from every steeple in the town, and the drums of the garrison. “Where is the fire?” cried I, springing to the window and throwing open the sash,—some people hurried past without noticing me, others called up they did not know. At last a large engine came thundering down the street, surrounded by several men with torches in their hands, and I perceived my little thick friend Zwicker perched upon the top of it with a directing-pipe in his left hand, and a torch in his right. He was attired in a night-gown of large flowered print, with a round white hat on his head, and as the machine rolled on he kept incessantly bawling out to the crowd to follow him, as I understood, to Herzfelde, my own pretty little village.
I was dressed in a few minutes, and rushing down stairs flung myself upon one of my landlord’s horses and gallopped off at full speed after the engine. Unfortunately Zwicker was right. I beheld Herzfelde, the prettiest village in the whole country, one mass of flames! But what a spectacle! The first dawn of morning rimmed the horizon in the background,—the heavy thunder-clouds stood in conglomerated masses on the opposite horizon,—the lightning still flashed out in the distance,—a few straggling stars here and there shed a faint twinkle through the fleeting clouds,—before us the flames rolled and roared incessantly, drowning the noise of the engines themselves,—all this, with the shrieks of the villagers as they beheld their property perishing in the devouring element, formed a scene of an awful and impressive kind, especially when contrasted with the serenity and happiness which I had so lately witnessed there.
In a few hours the dreadful element was overcome, but not before it had consumed twenty-three cottages, and the beautiful little inn which I had so much admired. It was now time, I thought, to quit my incognito; I resolved to assemble the poor people who had lost all their property by
