t to be destroyed.

The signs were such as have usually been considered preparatory to the
second coming of the Messiah--a shock of earthquake which threw down a
tottering chimney (somewhere in Soho), and the expected appearance of a
comet. But this was not to be the second Advent; it was to be a disaster
confined to London.

God was about to punish London for its sins. The dishonour lay at its
door of being the wickedest city in the world. Side by side with the
development of mechanical science lifting men to the power and position
of angels, there was a moral degeneration degrading them to the level of
beasts. With an apparent aspiration after social and humanitarian reform,
there was a corruption of the public conscience and a hardening of the
public heart. London was the living picture of this startling contrast.
Impiety, iniquity, impurity, and injustice were at their height here, and
either England must forfeit her position among the nations, or the
Almighty would interpose. The Almighty was about to interpose, and the
consummation of London's wickedness was near.

By what means the destruction of London would come to pass was a matter
on which there were many theories, and the fear and consternation of the
people took various shapes. One of them was that of a mighty earthquake,
in which the dome of St. Paul's was to totter and the towers of
Westminster Abbey to rock and fall amid clouds of dust. Another was that
of an avenging fire, in which the great city was to light up the whole
face of Europe and burn to ashes as a witness of God's wrath at the sins
of men. A third was that of a flood, in which the Thames was to rise and
submerge the city, and tens of thousands of houses and hundreds of
thousands of persons were to be washed away and destroyed.

Concerning the time of the event, the popular imagination had attained to
a more definite idea. It was to occur on the great day of the Epsom
races. Derby Day was the national day. More than any day associated with
political independence, or with victory in battle, or yet with religious
sanctity, the day devoted to sport and gambling and intemperance and
immorality was England's day. Therefore the Almighty had selected that
day for the awful revelation by which he would make his power known to
man.

Thus the heart of London was once more stormed, and shame and panic ran
through it like an epidemic. The consequences were the usual ones. In
vain the newspapers publ