The King's Talisman — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

152 THE KINGS TALISMAN. voice that stilled all other sounds, save the swaying to and fro of the multitude, ‘‘ listen to me. The Petran censors, Moran and Velorus, have been this very morning seized by order of your king, and even now they lay chained in the dungeons of the royal palace. Tho good old counselor, Al- Bassa, has hid himself away from Modad’s tyranny, and she whom you saw but now taken from yonder temple was that old man’s only child. She had taken refuge there from a shame, worse than death, to which your monarch had con- sioned her; and this youth, whom you see by my side, is doomed because he would have rescued her—and I—I, am doomed because I dare to be a friend of the people. Now who shall triumph—the people in their might, or the king in his tyranny?” A moment after the old man had ceased, all was as silent as the wind-swept grave, but on the next a gentle murmur, like the whisperings of the coming tempest, trem- bled upon the air, and anon it burst into one loud, pro- longed shout of— ‘To the rescue! ‘T’o the rescue! The names of Moran and Velorus were sounded from a hundred lips, while a thousand hearts beat with the sentiments they dared not utter. The soldiers knew the meaning of that sound, and they knew the stout hearts that had been raised to rebellion against the execution of the order that was entrusted to them. They felt the pres- sure of the sea of humanity that rolled in at their backs, and they heard the heavy, eager breathing of those who were coming on to the rescue. They were but men, and they turned, trembling, away from the work which they dared not do. The crowd still pressed on toward the spot where stood the old man and his youthful companion, and one, an old man, who had in years gone by fought for his country, raised his cap, and was on the point of addressing Abdah Nazor, Eomicbooks (Eo)