noon
Refreshed by the immersion , he now glanced at the document committed to him by Grant . It was a piece of parchment , and showed by its shrivelled and scorched appearance the agony which its late possessor must have endured , Leonard did not open it , but thrust it with a shudder into his doublet . Meditating on the strange and terrible events that had just occurred , Leonard 's thoughts involuntarily wandered to the Lady Isabella , whose image appeared to him like a bright star shining on troubled waters , and for the first time venturing to indulge in a hope that she might indeed be his , he determined immediately to proceed in search of her . It was now high noon , but the mid-day sun was scarcely visible , or not visible at all ; as it struggled through the masses of yellow vapour it looked red as blood . Bands of workmen were demolishing houses on the western side of Fleet Ditch , and casting the rubbish into the muddy sluice before them , by which means it was confidently but vainly hoped that the progress of the fire would be checked . Shaping their course along the opposite side of the ditch , and crossing to Fleet Bridge , Leonard and his companion passed through Salisbury-court to Whitefriars , and taking a boat , directed the waterman to land them at Puddle Dock . The river was still covered with craft of every description laden with goods , and Baynard 's Castle , an embattled stone structure of great strength and solidity , built at the beginning of the fifteenth century on the site of another castle as old as the Conquest , being now wrapped in flames from foundation to turret , offered a magnificent spectacle .