into an alcove, where I heard them crying bitterly. Entering, we found the two girls embracing an old crippled woman who was trying to get up from her bed.
“Mother, it is nothing,” Manuela said soothingly, covering her with whatever came first to her hand; “we are only going into the street because it seems as if the house is going to fall down.”
The old woman did not speak. She could not speak. The two girls had taken her in their arms; but we took her in ours, charging them to bring our guns and whatever clothing they could save. We passed out into a court which opened into another street where the fire had not yet reached.