Tonight, at about 11 p.m., smoke suddenly appeared from under the floor near the fireplace in my study. There was a general agitation, the alarm was sounded, and when we raised the floorboards we found a flame in the wall near the flue. We doused the fire as best we could, but some smoke persisted all the same, albeit less than before. We spent a lot of time trying to locate the cause, but in the end I decided to call the fire brigade. Five lads arrived in copper helmets. They smashed apart the floorboards, fireplace and wall and found that a thick wooden joist adjoining the main flue under the floor was on fire. The firemen thought that the joist had probably been burning for several weeks or even months, but because there was no airflow the flame had remained low, smouldering away and charring the girder. Perhaps that was so, but that was no help to me. The fire was put out, the girder amputated, and at around 4 a.m. the firemen left, leaving the room in a terrible mess. Now we shall have to see to it that the flue, the wall and the beam are properly repaired.

What a nuisance! And what an absurd structure: a wooden joist lying right on the flue. Previously the flue had been clogged up, there had been little draught and the beam had caused no harm. Last autumn we had the flue cleaned, the draught increased, the flame began penetrating the places it was not supposed to through cracks in the flue, and finally the beam caught fire. How idiotic! Experts say that this system was widely employed about a hundred years ago, in the first half of the nineteenth century. So our embassy must be at least a hundred years old.