The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and sa

The year the year of our Lord eight hundred and forty-five AD. A chill wind swept across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen had arrived, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking glory. Their longships, like wolves, sliced through the waters, their flags fluttering in the wind. A city once proud now trembled b