dy and revenge him, they to
possess themselves of the treasure they so much coveted. Of course we
were overpowered, for we were one to fifty; and that night there fell a
hundred of the nobles of England. The women were respected by the mob,
and except one lady who was shot accidentally, and another who saw her
son fall, and stood over him till he ceased to breathe, then fell
wounded and dying herself, all escaped. Your mother was not there. When
our party was quite vanquished, I found myself in the midst of the mob,
bleeding to death as I thought; but they flung me on one side, and I
recovered. They pulled the house to the ground, after they had satiated
themselves with drinking. And that was the first great calamity which
overthrew the government of the country."

"And how did that come about, father?" said Charles, eagerly holding him
by the hand, and sharing his excitement.

Paulett led him on, telling him, at one ruined monument after another,
what steps had been taken at each, in the destruction of the order of
things. They came to the dry channel of the Thames, a deep and wide
trench, whose bottom showed objects that had lain there when the waters
flowed above, and which would once have been as precious as now they
were unregarded. Here as a bridge from side to side; and a little way
above, stood part of the walls of a noble building, partly black with
smoke, partly white with the polish and beauty of stones newly built
together.

"These are the Houses of Parliament," said Paulett, "the work of many
years, which were to replace those burned in 1834. See how beautiful
they were, what excellent design, what exquisite finish; how strong and
stable, to last for a thousand ages, and to crown the river which then
flowed in this dusty channel. When matters were come almost to the
worst, and there were convulsions all over the country in consequence of
the famine, the queen, for the first time, came to these houses to open
the last parliament that ever assembled. There were no beasts of
burthen left alive in the country; it had been found impossible to
appropriate water enough to those which had been reserved in the royal
stables; and the queen, surrounded by a certain number of the court,
walked along yonder street to the House. The sight of so young a woman,
and so great a sovereign, thus leveled by physical necessity with the
meanest, excited some of the old enthusiasm with which she used to be
greeted: the populace