The heat soon became suffocating. We were parched with thirst,
and there was not a drop of water in the house, and none to be
procured nearer than the lake. I turned once more to the door,
hoping that a passage might have been burnt through to the water.
I saw nothing but a dense cloud of fire and smoke--could hear
nothing but the crackling and roaring of flames, which were
gaining so fast upon us that I felt their scorching breath in my
face.
"Ah," thought I,--and it was a most bitter thought,--"what will
my beloved husband say when he returns and finds that his poor
wife and his dear girls have perished in this miserable manner?
But God can save us yet."
The thought had scarcely found a voice in my heart before the
wind rose to a hurricane, scattering the flames on all sides into
a tempest of burning billows. I buried my head in my apron, for I
thought that all was lost, when a most terrific crash of thunder
burst over our heads, and, like the breaking of a waterspout,
down came the rushing torrent of rain which had been pent up for
so many weeks.
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