Servants of Sin: A Romance

Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=8YtBAQAAMAAJ (Library of the University of Illinois)
IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY ACROSS THE SALT SEAS THE CLASH OF ARMS DENOUNCED THE SCOURGE OF GOD THE HISPANIOLA PLATE FORTUNE'S MY FOE A GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER THE DESERT SHIP
A BITTER HERITAGE HIS OWN ENEMY THE SILENT SHORE THE SEAFARERS
HOW DOTH THE CITY SIT SOLITARY THAT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE! NOW IS SHE BECOME AS A WIDOW! SHE THAT WAS GREAT AMONG THE NATIONS AND PRINCESS AMONG THE PROVINCES.
Dramatised and produced for copyright purposes in London, May 1st , 1900. Licensed for production by the Lord Chamberlain, and entered at Stationers' Hall as a Drama in IV. Acts .
Lifting aside the heavy tapestry that hung down in front of the window of the tourelle which formed an angle of the room--a window from which the Bastille might be seen frowning over the Quartier St. Antoine, a third of a mile away--the man shrugged his shoulders, uttered a peevish exclamation, and muttered, next:
Snow! Snow! Snow! Always snow! Curse the snow! Then he turned back into the room, letting the curtain fall behind him, and seated himself once more in a heavy fauteuil opposite the great fireplace, up the chimney of which the logs roared in a cheerful blaze.
Hard winters, now, he muttered once more, still thinking of the weather outside; always hard winters in Paris now. 'Twas so when I rode back here after the campaign in Spain was over. When I rode back, he repeated, a year ago. He paused, reflecting; then continued:
Ay, a year ago. Why! so it was. A year ago to-day. A year this very day. The last day of December. Ay, the bells were ringing from Notre Dame, St. Roch--the Tour St. Jacques. To welcome in the New Year. Almost, it seemed, judging by the events of the next few weeks, to welcome me to my inheritance. To my inheritance! Yet, how far off that inheritance seemed once! As far off as the love of those curs, my relatives, was then.