So saying, and taking care not to let Bell out, he passed through the door, and closed it after him.  Having walked to some distance across the fields, musing on what had just occurred, and scarcely conscious whither he was going, he threw himself down on the grass, and fell asleep.  He awoke after some time much refreshed, and finding he was considerably nearer Bishopsgate than any other entrance into the city, determined to make for it.  A few minutes brought him to a row of houses without the walls, none of which appeared to have escaped infection, and passing them, he entered the city gate.  As he proceeded along the once-crowded but now utterly-deserted thoroughfare that opened upon him, he could scarcely believe he was in a spot which had once been the busiest of the busy haunts of men—­so silent, so desolate did it appear!  On reaching Cornhill, he found it equally deserted.  The Exchange was closed, and as Leonard looked at its barred gates, a saddening train of reflection passed through his mind.  His head declined upon his breast, and he continued lost in a mournful reverie until he was roused by a hand laid upon his shoulder, and starting—­for such a salutation at this season was alarming—­he looked round, and beheld Solomon Eagle.

“You are looking upon that structure,” said the enthusiast, “and are thinking how much it is changed.  Men who possess boundless riches imagine their power above that of their Maker, and suppose they may neglect and defy him.  But they are mistaken.  Where are now the wealthy merchants who used to haunt those courts and chambers?—­why do they not come here as of old?—­why do they not buy and sell, and send their messengers and ships to the farthest parts of the world?  Because the Lord hath smitten them and driven them forth—­’From the least of them even to the greatest of them,’ as the prophet Jeremiah saith, ’every one has been given to covetousness.’  The balances of deceit have been in their hands.  They have cozened their neighbours, and greedily gained from them, and will find it true what the prophet Ezekiel hath written, that ’the Lord will pour out his indignation upon them, and consume them with the fire of his wrath.’  Yea, I tell you, unless they turn from their evil ways—­unless they cast aside the golden idol they now worship, and set up the Holy One of Israel in its stead, a fire will be sent to consume them, and that pile which they have erected as a temple to their god shall be burnt to the ground.”

Leonard’s heart was too full to make any answer, and the enthusiast, after a brief pause, again addressed him.  “Have you seen Doctor Hodges pass this way?  I am in search of him.”

“On what account?” asked Leonard anxiously.  “His advice, I trust, is not needed on behalf of any one in whom I am interested.”

“No matter,” replied Solomon Eagle, in a sombre tone; “have you seen him?”

“I have not,” rejoined the apprentice; “but he is probably at Saint Paul’s.”