ump of the archangel would sound,
and the Saviour appear in the clouds to call the earth to judgment.

No little consternation was created in London in 1736 by the prophecy of
the famous Whiston, that the world would be destroyed in that year, on the
13th of October. Crowds of people went out on the appointed day to
Islington, Hampstead, and the fields intervening, to see the destruction
of London, which was to be the "beginning of the end." A satirical account
of this folly is given in Swift's _Miscellanies_, vol. iii., entitled _A
true and faithful Narrative of what passed in London on a Rumour of the
Day of Judgment_. An authentic narrative of this delusion would be
interesting; but this solemn witticism of Pope and Gay is not to be
depended upon.

In the year 1761 the citizens of London were alarmed by two shocks of an
earthquake, and the prophecy of a third, which was to destroy them
altogether. The first shock was felt on the 8th of February, and threw
down several chimneys in the neighbourhood of Limehouse and Poplar; the
second happened on the 8th of March, and was chiefly felt in the north of
London, and towards Hampstead and Highgate. It soon became the subject of
general remark, that there was exactly an interval of a month between the
shocks; and a crack-brained fellow, named Bell, a soldier in the Life
Guards, was so impressed with the idea that there would be a third in
another month, that he lost his senses altogether, and ran about the
streets predicting the destruction of London on the 5th of April. Most
people thought that the _first_ would have been a more appropriate day;
but there were not wanting thousands who confidently believed the
prediction, and took measures to transport themselves and families from
the scene of the impending calamity. As the awful day approached, the
excitement became intense, and great numbers of credulous people resorted
to all the villages within a circuit of twenty miles, awaiting the doom of
London. Islington, Highgate, Hampstead, Harrow, and Blackheath, were
crowded with panic-stricken fugitives, who paid exorbitant prices for
accommodation to the housekeepers of these secure retreats. Such as could
not afford to pay for lodgings at any of those places, remained in London
until two or three days before the time, and then encamped in the
surrounding fields, awaiting the tremendous shock which was to lay their
high city all level with the dust. As happened during a simil