I, on the contrary, recollecting the lesson I had learned from the sensible foreigner, neither suffered my spirits to sink with superstitious fears of ill-luck, nor did I trust presumptuously to my good fortune.

I took every possible means to secure myself.

I never went to bed without having seen that all the lights and fires in the house were extinguished, and that I had a supply of water in the cistern.

I had likewise learned from my Frenchman that wet mortar was the most effectual thing for stopping the progress of flames.

I, therefore, had a quantity of mortar made up in one of my outhouses, which I could use at a moment's warning.
These precautions were all useful to me.