In the midst of these cogitations, he entered
the street in which his mother's house was situated, when he was
thunderstruck at beholding it a heap of ruins.
There had evidently been a great fire, which had destroyed several
large houses, and the humble dwelling of poor Dame Heyliger had been
involved in the conflagration. The walls were not so completely
destroyed but that Dolph could distinguish some traces of the scene of
his childhood. The fire-place, about which he had often played, still
remained, ornamented with Dutch tiles, illustrating passages in Bible
history, on which he had many a time gazed with admiration. Among the
rubbish lay the wreck of the good dame's elbow-chair, from which she
had given him so many a wholesome precept; and hard by it was the
family Bible, with brass clasps; now, alas! reduced almost to a
cinder.
For a moment Dolph was overcome by this dismal sight, for he was
seized with the fear that his mother had perished in the flames. He
was relieved, however, from this horrible apprehension, by one of the
neighbours who happened to come by, and who informed him that his
mother was yet alive.
The good woman had, indeed, lost every thing by this unlooked-for
calamity; for the populace had been so intent upon saving the fine
furniture of her rich neighbours, that the little tenement, and the
little all of poor Dame Heyliger, had been suffered to consume without
interruption; nay, had it not been for the gallant assistance of her
old crony, Peter de Groodt, the worthy dame and her cat might have
shared the fate of their habitation.
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