Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 173: were used to lock our chains. You may laugh, gen- tlemen,”’ said Champignon, noticing that Belle-Rose and De Rosann exchanged certain glances, the signi- ficance of which he totally misunderstood; “but I can assure you it is a fact. How the key came there, God only knows: it was, however, a key, and a very use- ful one; for it unlocked my side of the chain in a mo- ment, and thus allowed me to rise from the ground. My companion could not fancy how I had liberated myself: and I persuaded him, that the weakness of © the lock alone must have accidentally separated me from him. Had he been an object worthy of commi- seration, I should have immediately entrusted him with the secret. As it was, I kept my own counsel, and gradually edged off to as great a distance from the brutal convict as possible, till I at length found myself close to the door communicating with the hall, at the extremity of which is situate the principal entrance to the prison. Atthat moment the pressure of the crowd was very great in the spot where I was standing; and several Gendarmes and soldiers were forcing their way through the multitude to arrest the most riotous, and to compel the others to cease from encouraging the disorder. No one paid any attention to me, be- cause I remained tranquil; but I gazed intently on all | that was passing in the vicinity of the door. Presently I noticed a terrible scuffle between a convict and a Gendarme. You may probably recollect that on ae- count of the dreadful chill of the morning, the Gen- darmes arrived’in their cloaks. The one who was now wrestling with the galley-slave, was encumbered by his. A sudden motion, however, soon deprived him of it,and the mantle rolled almost under my feet. In an instant his cocked hat followed the cloak—the scuffle continued—no one took any notice of the fallen objects—and presently another movement of the crowd left a clear space opposite the door. I hastily put on the cloak and the hat, knocked as loudly as I could at the gate, and when it was opened, rushed into the hall, crying, ‘The guard! the guard!’ Neither the turnkeys nor the sentries suspected my intentions 15* Gomichbooks (F@)