Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 76

# The Queen's Musketeer; Thisbe, the Princess Palmist

This serialized adventure by George Albany, set in 1520s Paris, follows a young Norman gentleman who arrives in the city seeking fortune. After selling his horse to a butcher and arranging for its care, he intervenes in a marketplace riot when a gypsy palmist called Thisbe is attacked by an angry mob accusing her of witchcraft and bewitching the King. The Norman, armed with a Toledo blade and aided by a stout, good-natured Frenchman named Jacques Fromage, fights off the crowd. Once safe, Thisbe performs a palm-reading on the Norman, revealing prophecies of future trouble from dark-complexioned enemies and a gray-eyed man, assistance from a loyal friend, service to a suffering noblewoman, and eventual wealth and love. The passage establishes the narrative's framework of adventure, romance, and mysterious destiny.