It has been said the weather for weeks was unusually brilliant, days of

cloudless sunshine, nights of cloudless moonlight, and the air was warm

and sultry enough for the month of August in the tropics. But now,

while they looked, a vivid flash of lightning, from what quarter of

the heavens no man knew, shot athwart the sky, followed by another and

another, quick, sharp, and blinding. Then one great drop of rain fell

like molten lead on the pavement, then a second and a third quicker,

faster, and thicker, until down it crashed in a perfect deluge. It did

not wait to rain; it fell in floods--in great, slanting sheets of water,

an if the very floodgates of heaven had opened for a second deluge. No

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one ever remembered to have seen such torrents fall, and the populace

fled before it in wildest dismay. In five minutes, every fire, from one

extremity of London to the other, was quenched in the very blackness

of darkness, and on that night the deepest gloom and terror reigned

throughout the city. It was clear the hand of an avenging Deity was in

this, and He who had rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah had not lost

His might. In fifteen minutes the terrific flood was over; the dismal

clouds cleared away, a pale, fair, silver moon shone serenely out, and

looked down on the black, charred heaps of ashes strewn through the

streets of London. One by one, the stars that all night had been

obscured, glanced and sparkled over the sky, and lit up with their soft,

pale light the doomed and stricken town. Everybody had quitted the dome

in terror and consternation; and now Sir Norman, who had been lost in

awe, suddenly bethought him of his ride to the ruin, and hastened to

follow their example. Walking rapidly, not to say recklessly, along, he

abruptly knocked against some one sauntering leisurely before him,

and nearly pitched headlong on the pavement. Recovering his centre

of gravity by a violent effort, he turned to see the cause of the

collision, and found himself accosted by a musical and foreign-accented

voice.

"Pardon," paid the sweet, and rather feminine tones; "it was quite an

accident, I assure you, monsieur. I had no idea I was in anybody's way."

Sir Norman looked at the voice, or rather in the direction whence it

came, and found it proceeded from a lad in gay livery, whose clear,

colorless face, dark eyes, end exquisite features were by no means

unknown. The boy seemed to recognize him at the same moment, and

slightly touched his gay cap.

"Ah! it is Sir Norman Kingsley! Just the very person, but one, in the

world that I wanted most to see."

"Indeed! And, pray, whom have I the honor of addressing?" inquired Sir

Norman, deeply edified by the cool familiarity of the accoster.




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