“Nizza Macascree has met with the same fate as Amabel,” replied Leonard.  “She was unfortunate enough to attract the king’s attention, when he visited Ashdown Lodge in company of the Earl of Rochester, and was conveyed to Oxford, where the court is now held, and must speedily have fallen a victim to her royal lover if she had not disappeared, having been carried off, it was supposed, by Sir Paul Parravicin.  But the villain was frustrated in his infamous design.  The king’s suspicion falling upon him, he was instantly arrested; and though he denied all knowledge of Nizza’s retreat, and was afterwards liberated, his movements were so strictly watched, that he had no opportunity of visiting her.”

“You do not mention Blaize,” said Mr. Bloundel.  “No ill, I trust, has befallen him?”

“I grieve to say he has been attacked by the distemper he so much dreaded,” replied Leonard.  “He accompanied me to London, but quitted me when I fell sick, and took refuge with a farmer named Wingfield, residing near Kensal Green.  I accidentally met Wingfield this morning, and he informed me that Blaize was taken ill the day before yesterday, and removed to the pest-house in Finsbury Fields.  I will go thither presently, and see what has become of him.  Is Doctor Hodges still among the living?”

“I trust so,” replied Mr. Bloundel, “though I have not seen him for the last ten days.”

He then disappeared for a few minutes, and on his return lowered a small basket containing a flask of canary, a loaf which he himself had baked, and a piece of cold boiled beef.  The apprentice thankfully received the provisions, and retiring to the hutch, began to discuss them, fortifying himself with a copious draught of canary.  Having concluded his repast, he issued forth, and acquainting Mr. Bloundel, who had at length ventured to commence reading the contents of the packet by the aid of powerful glasses, that he was about to proceed to Dr. Hodges’s residence, to inquire after him, set off in that direction.

Arrived in Great Knightrider-street, he was greatly shocked at finding the door of the doctor’s habitation fastened, nor could he make any one hear, though he knocked loudly and repeatedly against it.  The shutters of the lower windows were closed, and the place looked completely deserted.  All the adjoining houses were shut up, and not a living being could be discerned in the street from whom information could be obtained relative to the physician.  Here, as elsewhere, the pavement was overgrown with grass, and the very houses had a strange and melancholy look, as if sharing in the general desolation.  On looking down a narrow street leading to the river, Leonard perceived a flock of poultry scratching among the staves in search of food, and instinctively calling them, they flew towards him, as if delighted at the unwonted sound of a human voice.  These, and a half-starved cat, were the only things living that he could perceive.  At the further end of the street