Note 24 — 196 THE FIRE OF FRENDRAUGHT

What manner of helping Frendraught could have given Spalding does not “condescend upon.” The way down stairs was barred by fire, the windows were barred with iron. [“But the stairs or monty being in fire, and the windows grated with strong bars of iron, there was no moyen to escape:” Blakhal’s Narration, Spalding Club, p. 125.] Ladders and crowbars occur to us, but a tower with walls ten feet thick was not expected to burn, the servants had not been drilled in managing fires, people smoked from their beds at two in the morning are not apt to have their wits about them, and the combustion was rapid.