Fire
Authors: C.C. Humphreys
Also by C. C. Humphreys
The French Executioner
Blood Ties
Vlad: The Last Confession
Absolute Honour
The Hunt of the Unicorn
Jack Absolute: A Novel
A Place Called Armageddon
The Blooding of Jack Absolute
Shakespeare's Rebel
Plague
As Chris Humphreys
The Fetch
Vendetta
Possession
Copyright © 2016 C.C. Humphreys
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisherâor in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyâis an infringement of the copyright law.
Doubleday Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House Canada Limited
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Humphreys, C. C. (Chris C.), author
Fire / C.C. Humphreys.
ISBN 978-0-385-67989-3 (paperback).âISBN 978-0-385-67990-9 (epub)
I. Title.
PS8565.U5576F57 2016Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â C813â².6Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â C2015-906507-0
                                                                       C2015-906508-9
eBook ISBNâ9780385679909
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover images: Figures from Hans Holbein's Danse Macabre, photograph © Duncan Walker / Getty Images; The Great Fire of London scene © Museum of Fine Arts (Szepmuveszeti) Budapest, Hungary / Bridgeman Images
Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited
www.âpenguinrandomhouse.âca
v4.1
a
To Simon Trewin
THE THIEF-TAKERS AND FAMILY
Captain William Coke
Dickon
Pitman
Bettina Pitman
Josiah Pitman
Grace, Faith, Benjamin and Eleazar Pitman
Allsop
Friar
Deakins
THE COURT
King Charles II
James, Duke of York
Sir Joseph Williamson, spymaster
THEATRE FOLK
Sarah Chalker
Thomas Betterton
Mary Betterton
Aitcheson, theatre attendant
Hutchins, theatre attendant
THE FIFTH MONARCHISTS
Captain Blood
Thomas Blood, his son
Simeon Critchollow, puppeteer
Daniel
Samuel Tremlett, master builder
Isaiah Hebden
Colonel Rathbone
Colonel Danvers
Chambers
More
Hopkinson
AT SEA
Rear-Admiral Sir George Ayscue
Lieutenant Hardiman
Boatswain
Admiral Robert Holmes
Wilbert Bohun
Squires, gun captain
THE POULTRY COMPTER
Jenny Johnson
Mary Johnson
Jenkins
Baronet de Lacey
Eye-Patch and Son
Wallace, master turnkey
Joan
Midwife
THE FIRE
Salmon, constable
Thomas Farriner, baker
Sir Thomas Bludworth, Lord Mayor of London
Citizens of the City
Samuel Pepys, diarist
James Morrow, headborough
Tom Walker
OTHERS
Woodstrode, barrister
Thom Peterson, landlord
âJeremiah' Peckworth
Aaron Bastable
Mad Moll
French wine merchant
Young Samuel Tremlett
Isaac ben Judah
Rebekah bat Judah
1665. The Great Plague ravages London. One hundred thousand die, horribly.
1666. The plague passes. Citizens resume their lives.
S
ix years after his restoration to his executed father's throne, following twelve years of Puritan glumness, King Charles is called âthe Merry Monarch' with reason. He carouses, he plays pell-mell, he attends the theatre, he beds his many mistresses. For him, and the very few very rich, 1666 promises to be another year of pleasure.
For most Londoners, though, the year will offer no more than another battle to survive. And for a radical few, it means something else entirely. For 666 is the number of the Beast â when Satan, as foretold in the Books of Revelation and Daniel, will return to battle the armies of Christ at a place called Armageddon; when Jesus will triumph, raising up the Elect â the chosen, living and dead â to dwell forever in the New Jerusalem. However these âSaints' do not simply sit and pray. By their deeds will they end the Fourth Monarchy of Man, and hasten the Fifth Monarchy of Christ.
September. The year of the Beast is three-quarters done and the Devil has not had his due. It has not rained in five months. Warehouses are stuffed with combustibles: coal, hemp, tobacco,
brandy, parchment, silks, gunpowder. Each wooden house lights a fire daily, while bathhouses, bakeries and breweries stoke furnaces for their labours.
London is a tinderbox: politically, sexually, religiously â literally. And it is about to burn.
AND WHOSOEVER WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE
BOOK OF LIFE WAS CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE
.The Revelation of St John the Divine
20:15