A Servant of Satan: Romantic Career of Prado the Assassin — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

14 A SERVANT OF SATAN. country in Europe announced the death of the statesman and soldier whose name figured on the cover of the parcel of documents. | Without further delay I broke the seals of the inner wrapper. The whole night through and far on into the next day, I sat poring over the sheets of closely written manuscript—the confessions of the man who had been guillotined under the assumed name of ‘‘ Prado.” ‘They revealed an astounding career of crime and adventure in almost every corner of the globe, and thoroughly impressed me with the conviction that, however innocent he may have been of the murder of Marie Aguectant, yet he fully de- served the penalty which was finally meted out to him. Of scruples or of any notions of morality he had none, and so cold-blooded and repulsive is the cynicism which this ser- vant of Satan at times displays in the notes concerning his life which he placed at my disposal, I have been forced to use considerable discretion in editing them. While care- _ ful to reproduce all the facts contained in the manuscript, I have toned down a certain Zola-like realism of expression impossible to render in print, and have shaped the dis- jointed memoranda and jottings into a consecutive nar- rative. One word more before finally introducing the real Prado tothe world. However great my desire to accede to the last wish of my former friend, I cannot bring myself to dis- close to the general public the real name of the unfortunate family to which he belonged. There are too many innocent members thereof who would be irretrievably injured by its disclosure. 7 But the pseudonym which I have employed is so trans- parent, and the history of the great house in question so well known, that all who have any acquaintance of the Inner ring of European society will have no difficulty in recognizing its identity. Louis BERARD. ~ (ee) Eomicbooks