Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 365 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 365: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful, numbered 345 and titled "SENTENCED." The text describes the catastrophic aftermath of a hurricane on the island of Barbados, focusing on Tom's desperate rescue efforts during the storm—he carries an insensible woman through chaos while hearing Amy Dalton's cries for help. The passage then catalogs deaths and destruction: five people shelter in a grave dug for someone named Unaka (including Amy Dalton, Tom, the Princess, the Marquis de la Jonquière, and Unaka himself), while Bishop Coleridge, Bambouk, and Mazouk are killed. It concludes with casualty figures—between four and five thousand dead on Barbados and property damage approximating two and a half million pounds sterling—with a footnote indicating the hurricane occurred October 10, 1780.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SENTENCED 345 Tom rushed away in gloom. He had seen the blacks throw down their burden and run for their lives. Above the howling of the storm —the scream of a horse! The door of the chair had been burst from its hinges; its inmate stunned. He lifted the tiny, insensible little woman in his arms; he stumbled and fell to his knees; once, twice, — Through the thick darkness came a piercing cry. “Tom! Tom!” It was Amy Dalton. He followed the sound through the night of an earthquake. When he was close upon their place of refuge, the howling of the blast almost overpowered his shout — ve Help / >P) In De la Jonquiére’s uplifted arms he laid the fainting woman. And then he fell down in that hole in the ground, with the rest. In the grave dug for Unaka five people hid from death ——Amy Dalton and the Princess, the Marquis de la Jon- quiére, Unaka, and Tom. In this manner they escaped destruction. Bishop Coleridge was killed instantly. Few of that platoon of grenadiers who marched the Cherokee to the side of the grave dug for him escaped alive. Captain Tulloch, falling flat upon the earth, had clutched the saddle-girth of Amy Dalton’s dead hunter, and so escaped alive, though mauled as if by a tiger. Bambouk lay dead in the gate. Mazouk was never heard of more. On the island of Barbados the dead numbered “be- tween four and five thousand!”’ The destruction of prop- erty approximated “two and a half million pounds ster- ling.” } ‘Throughout the calamitous days and nights succeeding the hurricane there were three who were preéminent in 1 'The actual date of the hurricane referred to was October 10, 1780. GOmiGsoo <S im (CO)