ortunity of retrieving your
fortune, and may make yourself richer than your son. Take my advice, and
do not let it pass."

"Away, tempter!" cried Grant--"I have lighted a fire within my breast
which never will be quenched."

"Poh, poh!" rejoined Judith; "do not turn faint-hearted now."

"The fire rages fiercely," cried Solomon Eagle, gazing at the vast sheet
of flame overtopping the buildings near them, "but we must keep it
alive. Take the remainder of the fire-balls, Hubert, and cast them into
some of the old houses in Crooked-lane."

Hubert prepared to obey. "I will go with you, and point out the best
spots," said Chowles. "Our next place of rendezvous must be the vaults
beneath Saint Faith's."

"Agreed!" exclaimed the others. And they again separated, Hubert and
Chowles to kindle fresh fires, and Grant to watch the conflagration at a
distance. As to Solomon Eagle, he rushed towards the scene of
destruction, and forcing himself into the midst of the crowd, mounted a
post, crying in a loud voice:

"I told you a second judgment would come upon you on account of your
iniquities, and you now find that I avouched the truth. The Lord himself
hath come to preach to you, as he did in the fiery mount of Sinai, and a
terrible exhortation it shall be, and one ye shall not easily forget.
This fire shall not be quenched till the whole city is laid prostrate.
Ye doubted my words when I told you of the plague; ye laughed at me and
scoffed me; but ye became believers in the end, and now conviction is
forced upon you a second time. You will vainly attempt to save your
dwellings. It is the Lord's will they should be destroyed, and man's
efforts to avert the judgment will be ineffectual!"

While the majority listened to him with fear and trembling, and regarded
him as a prophet, a few took the opposite view of the question, and
coupling his appearance with the sudden outbreak of the fire, were
disposed to regard him as an incendiary. They therefore cried out--"He
has set fire to our houses. Down with him! down with him!"

Other voices joined in the outcry, and an attempt was made to carry the
menace into effect; but a strong party rallied round the enthusiast, who
derided the attempts of his opponents. Planting himself on the steps of
Saint Margaret's Church, he continued to pour forth exhortations to the
crowd, until he was driven into the interior of the pile by the
fast-approaching flames. The whole body of the church was fi