urprise and pleasure, "What, is it you, young
man? I am glad of it. Depend, upon it, I shall not forget the important
service you have rendered me."

"If he remembers it, it will be the first time he has ever so exercised
his memory," observed Chiffinch, in a loud whisper to Leonard. "I advise
you, as a friend, not to let his gratitude cool."

Undeterred by this late narrow escape, Charles ordered fresh houses to
be demolished, and stimulated the workmen to exertion by his personal
superintendence of their operations. He commanded Leonard to keep
constantly near him, laughingly observing, "I shall feel safe while you
are by. You have a better eye for a falling house than any of my
attendants."

Worn out at length with fatigue, Charles proceeded, with the Duke of
York and his immediate attendants, to Painters' Hall, in little
Trinity-lane, in quest of refreshment, where a repast was hastily
prepared for him, and he sat down to it with an appetite such as the
most magnificent banquet could not, under other circumstances, have
provoked. His hunger satisfied, he despatched messengers to command the
immediate attendance of the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and aldermen; and
when they arrived, he thus addressed them:--"My lord mayor and
gentlemen, it has been recommended to me by this young man," pointing to
Leonard, "that the sole way of checking the further progress of this
disastrous conflagration, which threatens the total destruction of our
city, will be by blowing up the houses with gunpowder, so as to form a
wide gap between the flames and the habitations yet remaining unseized.
This plan will necessarily involve great destruction of property, and
may, notwithstanding all the care that can be adopted, be attended with
some loss of life; but I conceive it will be effectual. Before ordering
it, however, to be put into execution, I desire to learn your opinion of
it. How say you, my lord mayor and gentlemen? Does the plan meet with
your approbation?"

"I pray your majesty to allow me to confer for a moment with my
brethren," replied the lord mayor, cautiously, "before I return an
answer. It is too serious a matter to decide upon at once."

"Be it so," replied the king.

And the civic authorities withdrew with the king. Leonard heard, though
he did not dare to remark upon it, that the Duke of York leaned forward
as the lord mayor passed him, and whispered in his ear, "Take heed what
you do. He only desires to shift the