Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

98 ALFRED DE ROSANN. for a moment stop the thread of our narrative to lay before the reader an episode which, although it may at first appear entirely unconnected with the tale, is nevertheless too important to be omitted. CHAPTER IX. FRANCOIS. In one of the strong rooms of the prison at Brest, encumbered with massive chains, and awaiting the arrival of Gendarmes to lead him forth to the place of execution, lay an old man, who had numbered at least sixty summers, and who had languished at the galleys more than half that period. His hair was white as snow; but his fiery eye and keen glance had not suf- fered through the ravages of time. There was some- thing repulsive in his looks and in his manners—a ferocity, a coarseness that restrained the slightest ad- vance at familiarity. The story of his condemnation to the galleys, as he had often told it to his comrades, was as follows:— | “‘ It was in the year V. of the Republic, on the 2d of Thermidor—I recollect it as if it were yesterday —a: stranger entered my humble shop in the Rue Grenelle St. Honoré, in Paris, and inquired if I had apartments to let. He had been attracted by the pla- card outside the door stating that a portion of my house was thus to be disposed of. JI-answered in the affirmative—-he examined the two rooms that were free, and appeared satisfied with them. He inquired the amount of rent; I demanded a somewhat high price, expecting to be beaten down; but he acqui- esced in the almost exorbitant charge, and was spéed- ily installed in his new lodgings. He did not stir out till late at night; and then he remained some time 2 ecommiclhoooks.eonn