Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 125. Grand Secret Source, whence emanated the means which procured his deliverance from the galleys, dis- played a striking proof of wisdom, in enlisting under its banners those individuals who had been tutored to perseverance and endurance by the caprices of a variety of fortunes. The contemptuous idea he had hitherto entertained of Belle-Rose, essentially dimin- ished as he made these reflections; and he fancied that, had his present companion possessed advantages and experienced the slightest encouragement in early life, he would most likely have been a valuable mem- ber of society, if not an ornament to the country. As it was, Pierre Belle-Rose must never hope to rise above the adventurer, aspire to no loftier name, nor seek another profession. His habits, his manners, and his capacities, were all wedded to, and connected with, mean things: an escape from the galleys was his mightiest performance; the unlawful conveyance of a couple of roast fowls from a stranger’s spit to his own pocket, was one of his finest feats, and the trick at which he would laugh the most. ‘Thus, instead of displaying his talent for intrigue on the wide theatre of public and political life—instead of practising his abilities of chicanery and invention at the bar—in- stead of making for himself an untarnished reputation, we find him the sport of circumstances, the “ tennis- ball of fortune,’’? a wanderer without a home! Had Belle-Rose guessed the train of De Rosann’s thoughts, and the nature of his reflections, he would most likely have desired him to cease his moralizing. But as the principles of the human mind do not em- brace the capacity of divining the ruminations of another, he remained silent, and pursued .his way through the unbeaten part of the wood, followed by De Rosann, who stepped courageously forward in the track of his guide. In about half an hour a miserable hut, almost entirely concealed amongst bushes and brambles, caught the eyes of our hero. Thither Belle-Rose directed his march, with a smile of satis- faction on his countenance. FL? ~~ S (C@ 5 CORNICLO®