ds upon the seashore. I cannot meet them, but I
cannot let others suffer for his imprudence and folly. The old
house on the bridge will have to go. I must needs sell it so soon
as a purchaser can be found. It may be I shall have to hand it over
to one of Frederick's creditors bodily. I had thought to end my
days there in peace, with my children's children round me. But the
Almighty is dealing very bitterly with me. Wife and son are taken
away, and now the old home must follow!"

Gertrude, who knew his great love for the house in which he had
been born, well understood what a fearful wrench this would be, and
her heart overflowed with compassion.

"O father! must it be so? Is there no way else? Methought you had
stores of costly goods laid by in your warehouses. Surely the sale
of those things would save you from this last step!"

The Master Builder smiled a little bitterly.

"Truly is it said that wealth takes to itself wings in days of
adversity. I myself thought as you do, child--at least in part; and
today I visited my warehouses, to look over my goods and see what
there were to fetch when men will dare to buy things which have
lain within the walls of this doomed city all these months. I had
the keys of the place. I myself locked them up when the plague
forced me to close my warehouse and dismiss my men. I saw all made
sure, as I thought, with my own eyes. But what think you I found
there today?"

"O father! what?" asked Gertrude, and yet she divined the answer
all too well; for she had heard stories of robbery and daring
wickedness even during this season of judgment and punishment which
prepared her for the worst.

"That the whole place had been plundered; that there was nothing
left of any price whatever. Thieves have broken in during this time
of panic, and have despoiled me of the value of thousands of
pounds. Whilst my mind has been full of other matters, my worldly
wealth has been swept away. I stand here before you a ruined man.
And like enough the very miscreants who have used this time of
public calamity for plunder and lawlessness may be lying by this
time in the common grave. But that will not give my property back
to me."

"Alas, father, these are indeed evil days! But has no watch been
kept upon the streets that such acts can be done by the evil
disposed? Is all property in the city at the mercy of the violent
and wicked?"

"Only too much has vanished that same way, as I have heard from
ma