Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

56 ALFRED DE ROSANN. gether without respect for persons, the former now pressing close to the latter, whose very contiguity a few minutes before, they would have deemed infec- tious. But the dilapidated barn, which formed their present refuge, was too much circumscribed as to space, to allow so many individuals to be greatly at their ease. The vulgar adage of ‘“‘any port in a storm’? was never better practised than on this occa- sion. The Gendarmes of France. form without a doubt the first body of police in the world. Their well- caparisoned horses are invariably in much better con- dition than those belonging to the regular cavalry. Their uniform is also simple and elegant at the same time; and their appearance far more military than many of the horse regiments. In Paris they wear the bear-skin cap that usually dignifies the grenadier; in the departments this unwieldy head-dress 1s sup- plied by a neat cocked hat, worn “ athwart-ships.’’ They are moreover peculiarly clean in their persons —their sabres as well polished as a Parisian looking- glass—their arguillettes as white as snow. There is not a speck of dirt upon their yellow belts, nor a mark of grease on their well-brushed blue coats. Their gray trowsers, with broad red stripes descend- ing from the waist to the boot, appear as if they had only just left the tailor’s shop; and the fierce moustachio and the thick whisker give an additional warlike air to their fine persons. They are as re- markable for their civility to individuals who are for- tunate enough not to be in their custody, and who may chance to ‘solicit information of them as to the turnings and deviations of a road, &c., as they are austere and repulsive to their prisoners. They are never known to receive a bribe—they may some- times render an unfortunate being a service—but this occasional generosity is the result of a sudden and evanescent philanthropy, and is not to be elicited by hire. Their wants are circumscribed to a little—a few sous in their pockets to purchase tobacco, a petit Ccommicloooks, conn