Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. Si the validity of the bills, or from any circumstance been aware that they were forgeries, he had an excel- lent excuse at hand;—“It was my partner who drew them up—my partner placed them in my portfolio to be discounted—my partner received the procuration —it is his hand-writing—I am innocent of any foul proceedings in the affair.”” Such would have beenhis apology; but the matter passed off without a com- ment on the part of the money-brokers; and La Motte’s scheme succeeded to the utmost of his wishes. Had his affairs always continued in a flourishing con- dition, perhaps he would have remained an honest member of society. Many are driven by circum- stances only to commit crime; while others are born with a natural predilection to evil. It is not well for a virtuous man to be too proud of his abstinence from moral delinquency, unless he can reply in the affirma- tive to the question “Whether he has ever been thrown in the way of temptation, so as to have an op- portunity of resisting it?”’ A few days after the departure of La Motte, De Rosann received the following letter, bearing the English post-mark, and dated from Dover:— “ My dear De Rosann, “ Now that I am safe and beyond the reach of danger, I feel it my duty to caution you as to the real state of our affairs. The house must stop payment in less than a fortnight; nothing ean avert the blow. I am sorry for you—but I did all I could to prevent it. And now, for God’s sake! take my advice, and leave the country. I need scarcely tell you that the bills drawn on Delisle, Guerin, and Company, are forger- ies; and that no procuration of their’s ever author- ized such a proceeding. Leave, then, before the fraud be detected—and hasten into the Dutch pro- vinces as speedily as you ean. My advice is_ per- fectly disinterested, as you must see; I only make you aware of your real situation, as your ignorance of CoOmicoooks ! (GO)