The Mesmerist's Victim

containing 104 pages, 11×14 inches in size, consisting of large 9×12 plate pages giving plans, elevations, perspective views, descriptions, owner’s names, actual cost of construction (=no guess work=), and instructions =How to Build= 70 Cottages, Villas, Double Houses, Brick Block Houses, suitable for city suburbs, town and country, houses for the farm, and workingmen’s homes for all sections of the country, and costing from $300 to $6,500, together with specifications, form of contract, and a large amount of information on the erection of buildings and employment of architects, prepared by Palliser, Palliser & Co., the well-known architects.

This book will save you hundreds of dollars.

There is not a Builder, nor anyone intending to build or otherwise interested, that can afford to be without it. It is a practical work, and the best, cheapest and most popular book ever issued on Building. Nearly four hundred drawings.

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J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING CO., Lock Box 2767. 57 Rose Street, New York.

THE MESMERIST’S VICTIM;

OR,

ANDREA DE TAVERNEY.

A HISTORICAL ROMANCE

BY ALEX. DUMAS.

Author of “Monte Cristo,” “The Three Musketeers Series,” “Chicot the Jester Series,” etc.

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATEST PARIS EDITION.

BY

HENRY LLEWELLYN WILLIAMS.

NEW YORK:

J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,

57 ROSE STREET.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1892, by A. E. Smith & Co, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

THE MESMERIST’S VICTIM;

OR,

ANDREA DE TAVERNEY.

CHAPTER I.

THE DESPERATE RESCUE.

On the thirteenth of May, 1770, Paris celebrated the wedding of the Dauphin or Prince Royal Louis Aguste, grandson of Louis XV. still reigning, with Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria.

The entire population flocked towards Louis XV. Place, where fireworks were to be let off. A pyrotechnical display was the finish to all grand public ceremonies, and the Parisians were fond of them although they might make fun.

The ground was happily chosen, as it would hold six thousand spectators. Around the equestrian statue of the King, stands were built circularly to give a view of the fireworks, to be set off at ten or twelve feet elevation.

The townsfolk began to assemble long before seven o’clock when the City Guard arrived to keep order. This duty rather belonged to the French Guards, but the Municipal government had refused the extra pay their Commander, Colonel, the Marshal Duke Biron, demanded, and these warriors in a huff were scattered in the mob, vexed and quarrelsome. They sneered loudly at the tumult, which they boasted they would have quelled with the pike-stock or the musket-butt if they had the ruling of the gathering.

The shrieks of the women, squeezed in the press, the wailing of the children, the swearing of the troopers, the grumbling of the fat citizens, the protests of the cake and candy merchants whose goods were stolen, all prepared a petty uproar preceding the deafening one which six hundred thousand souls were sure to create when collected. At eight at evening, they produced a vast picture, like one after Teniers, but with French faces.

About half past eight nearly all eyes were fastened on the scaffold where the famous Ruggieri and his assistants were putting the final touches to the matches and fuses of the old pieces. Many large compositions were on the frames. The grand bouquet, or shower of stars, girandoles and squibs, with which such shows always conclude, was to go off from a rampart, near the Seine River, on a raised bank.