India 2001 books

It was not till nearly five that they satisfied themselves that
neither de Lescure nor his wife, nor any of his family were in the
house; and then, at the command of their General, they commenced the
work of destruction.
The troopers got hay and straw from the farm-yard (not without some
opposition from the loose bull,) and piled them in every room in the
chateau; they then took the furniture, beds, curtains, wearing apparel,
and every article of value they could find, and placed them in heaps,
in such a way as to render them an immediate prey to the flames. They
did the same to the barns and granaries, in which there were large
stores of corn, and also to the stables, in which stood the horses and
cattle; the bull, which Francois had loosened, was the only animal about
the place that did not perish. Having systematically prepared the
chateau and out-houses for a huge bonfire, they put a light to the straw
in various places, and re-mounting their horses, stood around it till
they saw that no efforts which the peasants might use could extinguish
the flames.


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