A Gentleman from Gascony: A Romance of the Huguenots — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

SHADOWS BEFORE. 17 The Rising Sun! More than one curious passer-by had of late fastened his eyes upon the sign and asked himself if there were aught of augury in the painted board. Annibal Goujon’s breast swelled like a pouter pig- eon’s beneath his gorgeous uniform of red and yellow. Although sergeant in the King’s Musketeers, the worthy man found means to fill his purse in divers other ways. He was proprietor of the Rising Sun, and, unless rumor spoke false, did not disdain to do quite a flourishing lit- tle trade as a pawnbroker and usurer. To be sure, Rose, his wife, was of great assistance to him in these latter enterprises. Indeed, during An- nibal’s enforced absences while on duty, she was the. virtual mistress of the inn, and more than one golden crown flowed into its coffers more for the sake of a glance from the bright eyes and a smile from the cherry lips of the pretty proprietress than for the good cheer to be obtained within the tavern itself. It was an animated scene the ill-matched twain gazed upon this lovely summer’s morning. The village of Saint Germain was in full festival at- tire. The inns and even the private houses were filled from cellar to attic, and the streets and public squares crowded with a boisterous throng of merry- makers. At every corner one ran across booths containing goods of every description and eatables and drinkables that defied description, together with bands of peripatetic comedians, acrobats, giants, dwarfs, trained animals, and Heaven knows what else besides! In the main it was a jocund, good-natured crowd, but here and there a lowering face, an impatient gesture, 2 GEomicboo SS (CO