A Servant of Satan: Romantic Career of Prado the Assassin — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

<e STR ~ hey ‘ a te A SERVANT OF SATAN. PROLOGUE. It was at Madrid, in the month of April, 1880, that I first made the acquaintance of the extraordinary man, who, under the pseudonym of °‘ Prado” met his fate beneath the Paris guillotine. I had just driven back into town from witnessing the execution by the ‘ garrote” of the regicide Francisco Otero, and was in the act of stepping from my brougham, when suddenly the crowd assembled on the Puerto del Sol parted as if by magic to give place to a runaway carriage. I had barely time to note the frantic efforts of the coachman to stop the onward course of the frightened horses, when there was a terrible crash, and the victoria was shattered to splinters against one of the heavy posts on the square. The coachman, still clutching hold of the reins, was torn from the box, and dragged some hundred yards farther along the ground, be- fore the horses were stopped and he could be induced to release his hold of the ribbons. ‘To the surprise of all the spectators, he escaped with a few bruises. His master, howéver—the only other occupant of the carriage—was less fortunate. Hurled by the shock with considerable violence to the pavement, almost at my very feet, he remained un- conscious for some minutes. When at length he recovered his senses, and attempted to rise with my assistance, it was found that he had broken his ankle, and was unable to stand upright. Placing him in my trap, I drove him to the address which he gave me—a house in the Calle del comicbooks.com |