Mr.Wood scarcely knew where he was.

The old aspect of the place was gone.

In lieu of the substantial habitations which he had gazed on overnight, he beheld a row of falling scaffoldings, for such they seemed.
It was a dismal and depressing sight to see a great city thus suddenly overthrown; and the carpenter was deeply moved by the spectacle.

As usual, however, on the occasion of any great calamity, a crowd was scouring the streets, whose sole object was plunder.

While involved in this crowd, near Temple Bar,--where the thoroughfare was most dangerous from the masses of ruin that impeded it,--an individual, whose swarthy features recalled to the carpenter one of his tormentors of the previous night, collared him, and, with bitter imprecations accused him of stealing his child.