The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 284: what you’re looking at

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

278 THE GIRL’ FROM HONG-KONG. justice to the Paris of that May afternoon—imagination must picture the horrors of the tragedy. One of the most unfortunate things in connection with this lamentable tragedy is the fact that the roof has been heavily tarred, and once the flames sweep along the rafters. there is a continuous shower of blazing drops: of tar, which ignite the garments of those still struggling at the fatal exits. = . At the. time of Napoleon’s second wedding, on the occasion when he espoused Maria Louise of Austria, this. same horror fell upon wretched Paris—suddenly and ‘thysteriously stricken, the, city at one hour a scene of wild rejoicing, the next wrapped in gloom~and fear. No wonder the preacher seeks to impress upon our ininds that in the midst of life we are in death. Although those who have stalls under their charge or are otherwise connected with the enterprise have a better ‘chance of escape than the casual visitors, being acquainted with the-four French window exits in the rear, some of them lose their heads in the mad excitement. of the minute, or else find themselves caught up in the whirl of half-crazed crowds. Once in the toils, it is folly to struggle, since the tide bears all before. it into a crushing heap before the blocked doors. One at least, the martyred Duchess D’Alencon, reso- jutely refuses to flee before the advance of the red terror, declaring it her duty to allow the visitors the first chance at eseape. Death reaps the richest harvest for. many decades, and all Paris lies in mourning for the lives given- needlessly to that grim Moloch. When Terry first sees the flash of fire and hears the chorus of terrified women’s screams, he realizes. that a most stupendous calamity is about to occur, into which a strange Providence has for some unseen motive drawn them. Had he been theve alone and unattended, the first thought of the gallant Englishman would have been, not himself, but the safety of those assembled ladies, the flower of Parisian homes and palaces—it is the zSpiration of Baroh Reille, General Fevrier and other boiviehSoxacon