People had said six months previously that the worst was over; but the genius of finance looked on with a sardonic grin, and after breathing awhile quietly he set to work again, shaking the city with all his might, and letting flights of rumours out of his black bag that frightened people almost out of their wits. Then the telegraph wires carried the rumours far away into the country once more, and newspaper editors began to write furiously about the currency; deputations waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to talk about the Bank Charter Act; and the court of the Bank of England sat in secret, and raised the rate of discount. The more that big demon of finance shook the City, the higher went up the Bank barometer, and the higher it rose the lower fell the hopes of traders, and discounters, and shaky companies. The period of panic through which the monetary world is passing whilst we are writing this history, has nearly all the characteristics of the one which occurred in the days of Thomas Dibble and Richard Tallant, and the other persons who make up this poor drama of life. Every ten years these storms occur, they say; and yet the wise people who say so, never seem prepared for the rainy day. Mr. Richard Tallant had hitherto succeeded in profiting by the storm. He was one of those financial wreckers who plundered the broken ships, and made money out of claims for salvage after the crews were murdered. But he had believed, like some others, that the worst was past during that breathing time, and in an evil hour for him he had, on good information, bought largely of shares in the Bungalay Bank, and had taken a seat at the board of directors. The thing collapsed immediately on the revival of the financial storm, and Mr. Tallant’s losses were so considerable, that the four thousand pounds which he had screwed out of Twyzell and Kits were absolutely necessary to meet and float fresh bills of exchange which had been useful bladders to him in the monetary sea for some time past. Several “good things” had come to the ground without warning, including a discount house in which Mr. Tallant was interested.