For the basement, there was no reason to feel alarm. It was of stone, and
of a thickness and a material to put at defiance any artifices that their
enemy might find time to practise. Even the two upper stories were
comparatively safe; for they were composed of blocks so solid as to
require time to heat them, and they were consequently as little liable to
combustion as wood well could be. But the roof, like all of that, and
indeed, like most of the present day in America, was composed of short
inflammable shingles of pine. The superior height of the tower was some
little protection, but as the flames rose roaring above the buildings of
the court, and waved in wide circuits around the heated area, the whole of
the fragile covering of the block was often wrapped in folds of fire. The
result may be anticipated. Content was first recalled from the bitterness
of his parental regret, by a cry, which passed among the family, that the
roof of their little citadel was in flames. One of the ordinary wells of
the habitation was in the basement of the edifice, and it was fortunate
that no precaution necessary to render it serviceable in an emergency like
that which was now arrived, had been neglected.
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