The Great Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

carry. There were animals everywhere – chickens in crates, pigs, tethered goats, cows, cats miaowing in baskets and dogs running free.
    â€œBut not Budge,” murmured Sam.

    André shook his head.
    â€œHe’ll never find us here.”
    Smoke and ash covered the camp site. Smouldering fragments settled on their hair and clothes and had to be quickly brushed off.
    â€œWill we stay here tonight?” Marie asked.
    â€œWe will, my love,” said her mother. “Till God puts out the fire, since it seems the people can’t.”
    * * *
    In the morning Master and Mistress Giraud improved their makeshift tent while the girls walked to the nearby farm to see if they could buy milk. Sam and André went around the hedgerows collecting blackberries. They worked together, Sam with a bag over his good arm, André doing most of the picking. As they walked back, eating berries, they stopped to stare at thesky above the city walls – one mass of flame from end to end.
    â€œLook at that!”
    It was exciting, and when they turned away and saw the fields full of people, and heard the bursts of song and laughter and weeping, Sam knew what an adventure this was and how they’d always remember it, all their lives.
    And then he realised something else: that he and André were friends now – or, at least, no longer enemies.

9
Out of the Ashes
    All day on Tuesday the people in the fields watched London burn. The sun was blotted out and a constant rain of debris fell on the campsite.
    â€œIt feels like the end of the world,” said Thérèse.
    But when they awoke next morning Master Giraud whispered, “The wind has dropped,” and everyone was filled with hope because it was the wind that had beenspreading the flames. A dense black cloud of smoke rose high in the air and hung over the city.
    â€œWill we go home now?” asked Anne.
    â€œNo, no,
ma petite
! There are still fires to be put out,” explained her mother.
    They stayed another two nights in the field, but on Friday people began to return to the city, the Girauds among them.
    Soon after they passed through Aldersgate, Sam was startled to feel heat coming up through the soles of his shoes.
    â€œMy shoes are burning!” he exclaimed.
    They came to Goldsmiths’ Hall, which was now a burned-out shell, the roof gone,only the walls still standing. And as they walked down Foster Lane, shuffling through hot ash, they saw the ruins of many homes. The street was full of rubble, and smoke was pouring skywards.
    â€œWhich house is ours?” cried Mistress Giraud.
    It was difficult even to see where Foster Lane ended and Cheapside began, but at last they found the remains of their home and set down their burdens in the ash. Not a scrap of the furniture they had left behind remained whole. Mistress Giraud wept over the loss of almost everything they had owned.
    â€œWe will rebuild our home,” her husband promised. “Our business, too. And I’ll have two young assistants up and coming, I think?” He glanced at Sam and André, who both nodded in agreement.
    Master Pryce, who had been gazing at the ashes of his home, next door, said, “We’ll work together, the whole street. We’ll help each other.”
    André turned to Sam. “Let’s explore!”
    â€œBe careful!” his mother shouted as the boys ran off.
    * * *
    Cheapside had been burned to the ground.
    â€œLook! You can see the river now!”
    London, with its tall buildings and its countless church steeples, was gone. Watling Street, Bow Lane, Friday Street where Sam used to live with Master Kemp – all the way down to the river there was nothing but a smoking wasteland.
    â€œLook at St Paul’s!”
    The great church was a ruin. Its roof had come crashing down, breaking open the tombs in the crypt, scattering bones and skulls. Stray dogs nosed around them.
    Sam hopped about, excited.
    â€œThese