D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVIII. PORT H:OS (FARIES’ BADLY. The Chevalier du Vallon, enlivened by the rest, the sup-and-bite, and above all by its being partaken in good company, started on his military observation with the nimbleness of a newly-oiled wheel. He had thought it the easiest thing for even a stranger to return to a starting point. But the Lisbon of the sev- enteenth century was many decades behind cities of its size in the more enterprising North. Apart from the main thoroughfare, whether called Royal, Grand or High, it resembled them in being a maze, and of short and sinuous streets, blind alleys, ways over which houses had been built, and open spaces which were depositaries for refuse, masterless dogs, haggard cats, and vagrants, who indifferently slept between pillars of palaces and sacred edifices. The streets went deviously between walls of monas- teries, which were also palaces, as at Belem or Mafra, with convents, mysterious habitations and storehouses. The absence of shops of which the signs would be some clew, made the side streets blanks to the wanderer. The unavoidable result was that, in a few minutes, the Frenchman was lost. He knew not which way to turn, having turned so often. He knew not how to extricate himself from the labyrinth. Usually, in a fog, one can listen and by the greater hubbub in a crowded way, make for that spot where some help might be afforded. But with business at a standstill, all was silence, except the muffled din of the thousands of foot passengers who might as well be traveling in the air. He therefore came to a stop, chafing, shifting his steps, like one trying the ordeal of fiery plowshares. Then, seeing people stream past the end of the kind of tunnel in which he was bewildered, he proceeded thither. It was a small square, encumbered with empty stalls for a flower market on some other day. A number of persons GoOmichbooks (C(O)