continually diminishing. Most of them were country people, come up for the

sake of change; the Londoners had sought the country. The busy eastern part

of the town was silent, or at most you saw only where, half from cupidity,

half from curiosity, the warehouses had been more ransacked than pillaged:

bales of rich India goods, shawls of price, jewels, and spices, unpacked,

strewed the floors. In some places the possessor had to the last kept watch

on his store, and died before the barred gates. The massy portals of the

churches swung creaking on their hinges; and some few lay dead on the

pavement. The wretched female, loveless victim of vulgar brutality, had

wandered to the toilet of high-born beauty, and, arraying herself in the

garb of splendour, had died before the mirror which reflected to herself

alone her altered appearance. Women whose delicate feet had seldom touched

the earth in their luxury, had fled in fright and horror from their homes,

till, losing themselves in the squalid streets of the metropolis, they had

died on the threshold of poverty. The heart sickened at the variety of

misery presented; and, when I saw a specimen of this gloomy change, my soul

ached with the fear of what might befall my beloved Idris and my babes.

Were they, surviving Adrian and myself, to find themselves protectorless in

the world? As yet the mind alone had suffered--could I for ever put off

the time, when the delicate frame and shrinking nerves of my child of

prosperity, the nursling of rank and wealth, who was my companion, should

be invaded by famine, hardship, and disease? Better die at once--better

plunge a poinard in her bosom, still untouched by drear adversity, and then

again sheathe it in my own! But, no; in times of misery we must fight

against our destinies, and strive not to be overcome by them. I would not

yield, but to the last gasp resolutely defended my dear ones against sorrow

419

The Last Man