and black, and blazed with insane lustre, and his looks were so wild and terrific, that it required no great stretch of imagination to convert him into the genius of the pestilence.  Entirely stripped of apparel except that his loins were girt with a sheep-skin, in imitation of Saint John in the Wilderness, he bore upon his head a brazier of flaming coals, the lurid light of which falling upon his sable locks and tawny skin, gave him an unearthly appearance.

Impelled by curiosity, Leonard paused for a moment to listen, and heard him thunder forth the following denunciation:—­“And now, therefore, as the prophet Jeremiah saith, ’I have this day declared it to you, but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor anything for the which he hath sent me unto you.  Now, therefore, know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.’  Again, in the words of the prophet Amos, the Lord saith unto YOU by my mouth, ’I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, yet have you not returned unto me.  Therefore, will I do this unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God?’ Do you hear this, O sinners?  God will proceed against you in the day of His wrath, though He hath borne with you in the day of His patience?  O how many hundred years hath He spared this city, notwithstanding its great provocations and wickedness!  But now He will no longer show it pity, but will pour out His wrath upon it I Plagues shall come upon it, and desolation; and it shall be utterly burnt with fire,—­for strong is the Lord who judgeth it!”

His address concluded, the enthusiast started off at a swift pace, shrieking, in a voice that caused many persons to throw open their windows to listen to him, “Awake! sinners, awake’—­the plague is at your doors!—­the grave yawns for you!—­awake, and repent!” And followed by the crowd, many of whom kept up with him, he ran on vociferating in this manner till he was out of hearing.

Hurrying forward in the opposite direction, Leonard glanced at the ancient and picturesque houses on either side of the way,—­now bathed in the moonlight, and apparently hushed in repose and security,—­and he could not repress a shudder as he reflected that an evil angel was, indeed, abroad, who might suddenly arouse their slumbering inmates to despair and death.  His thoughts took another turn as he entered the precincts of Saint Paul’s, and surveyed the venerable and majestic fabric before him.  His eyes rested upon its innumerable crocketed pinnacles, its buttresses, its battlements, and upon the magnificent rose-window terminating the choir.  The apprentice had no especial love for antiquity, but being of an imaginative turn, the sight of this reverend structure conjured up old recollections, and brought to mind the noble Collegiate Church of his native town.

“Shall I ever see Manchester again?” he sighed:  “shall I take Amabel with me there?  Alas!  I doubt it.  If I survive the plague, she, I fear, will never be mine.”