Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 163 the clouds are quite dark ; and immediately above our heads, there is a strange lustre.’ “ Mille bombes! De Rosann,” ejaculated Belle- Rose, after a pause of some minutes ; “do you not find the atmosphere very oppressive ?7’ “I thought so, and was about to notice the circum- stance : there is, moreover, a suffocating smell.”’ ‘“‘ And that smell is of fire, as sure as we are living men !”’ cried Belle-Rose, hastily quitting the window, and putting on his clothes with all possible despatch. “The dog barks incessantly,’’ observed De Rosann: “the light increases above the house, and the air becomes heavier: I am certain there is a fire some- where.”’ : ‘¢ Wait one instant for me,and we will descend the stairs together: uf there be any danger, we can alarm the inmates of the house; if not, we may return quietly to our beds.”’ . But the intentions of Belle-Rose were anticipated : for at the moment he had uttered the last syllable of these. words, the voice of Louis Dorval was heard in the enclosure below, crying,out “ Fire ! fire !”’—then the noise of his footsteps, as he ascended the stairs, and rushed up and down the corridor, knocking at the doors, and repeating his terrible call, showed that he was on the alert. Not, when in the prisons of the Inquisition, the awful command to prepare for the celebration of the auto-da-fé was passed round to those who were con- demned to suffer—nor, when in the gallant vessel, that laboured’ to the storm, the heart-rending shout of “A rock! a rock !’’ echoed along the sea-washed decks—not even there did those appalling news create more terror, than was experienced by the female in- mates of the farm-house, as the fearful warning which Dorval gave at every door met their ears. | Belle-Rose and De Rosann descended to the yard to ascertain which part of the house was on fire, and whether it were not possible to arrest the progress of the ravaging element. But the whole of the roof COmiclboooks (C@