Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 161 the face of the earth, and in an enlightened age, a spe- cies of freemasonry appeared to exist, which could control the actions of the functionaries of the govern- ment itseli—which could emancipate criminals and the condemned at will—which, with influence as great as if, was invisible, could protect its notaries in the far- off provinces, and which slumbered in tranquillity and safety like the train in the terrible mine, which will shortly explode and involve in ruin those beneath whose very feet it has long been working unsuspect- ed and secure. But the more De Rosann pondered upon this subject, the more was he lost in conjecture and doubt; a strange presentiment, however, told him that his own destinies were to be worked out by those of others; and all his bewildered mind could resolve upon was to follow the stream of that fate which _ would either carry him onward to success and fortune, or to a condition of wo and despair. “CHAPTER XIV. VARIOUS ENCOUNTERS. WueEn the condition of an individual is apparently the most forlorn and pitiable—when the dark horizon of his own sphere is illuminated with not one single gleam of hope—when the dark clouds of despair hover around him-—and when his mind is reduced to the lowest ebb of despondency and sorrow, how sud- denly may a bright meteor dart across that gloomy horizon—how rapidly may the rays of the rising sun dispel those dark clouds around him—and how quickly may hope and gladness elate that mind, which only a few moments before entertained almost the ideas of the darkly-brooding suicide. ‘These are periods n the lives of all individuals: there breathes not a 14* Connicloookxs (C@ S|