Hundreds of families without home, food, or clothing.
In the midst of this sickening sight was one whose very presence lifted a weight from the hearts of the sad and homeless.

Sir Howard never once deserted his post--working, encouraging, and aiding.

By his advice the fire was stayed--two-thirds of the town still remaining.

The stifling air and glowing heavens made the hearts of many grow sick and faint.
Perhaps it would be wiser to end the tale of misery here, but as the chapter would seem incomplete, it may be necessary to make slight allusion to a wilder and more terrible fire.
The consummation of terror, madness, and dismay, depicted in its most awful form, would fail to do justice to this sickening calamity--the Miramichi fire.
The forests, for hundreds of miles in every direction, were one solid mass of living fire, roaring louder than thunder; in its fury shaking the bowels of the earth and leaping up to the heavens which seemed, also, to be enveloped in flames.

Nothing more awful will be witnessed until the judgment day.