All day the men worked
unceasingly, but in vain. Driven by the fierce wind, the flames swept
down the opposite slope, leapt over the space strewn with rubbish and
beams, and began to climb Fleet Street and Holborn Hill and the dense
mass of houses between them.
The fight was renewed higher up. Beer and bread and cheese were
obtained from the taverns, and served out to the workmen, and these
kept at their task all night. Towards morning the wind had fallen
somewhat. The open spaces of the Temple favoured the defenders; the
houses to east of it were blown up, and, late in the afternoon, the
progress of the flames at this spot was checked. As soon as it was
felt that there was no longer any fear of its further advance here,
the exhausted men, who had, for twenty-four hours, laboured, half
suffocated by the blinding smoke and by the dust made by their own
work, threw themselves down on the grass of the Temple Gardens and
slept. At midnight they were roused by their officers, and proceeded
to assist their comrades, who had been battling with the flames on
the other side of Fleet Street. They found that these too had been
successful; the flames had swept up to Fetter Lane, but the houses on
the west side had been demolished, and although, at one or two
points, the fallen beams caught fire, they were speedily
extinguished. Halfway up Fetter Lane the houses stood on both sides
uninjured, for a large open space round St. Andrew's, Holborn, had
aided the defenders in their efforts to check the flames.
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