This I did; and that nothing might be wanting to a
memorial which I regarded with justice as the most important of
the many State papers which it had fallen to my lot; to prepare,
I spent seven days in incessant labour upon it. It was not,
therefore, until the third week in August: that I was free to
travel to Monceaux.
I found my quarters assigned to me in a pavilion called the
Garden House; and, arriving at supper time, sat down with my
household with more haste and less ceremony than was my wont.
The same state of things prevailed, I suppose, in the kitchen;
for we had not been seated half an hour when a great hubbub arose
in the house, and the servants rushing in cried out that a fire
had broken out below, and that the house was in danger of
burning.
In such emergencies I take it to be the duty of a man of standing
to bear himself with as much dignity as is consistent with
vigour; and neither to allow himself to be carried away by the
outcry and disorder of the crowd, nor to omit any direction that
may avail.
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