3-052-323 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'"The taller had a Spanish cloak, while his companion wore a thick woollen wrapper, a pea-jacket, and a pair of high fisherman's boots", 1872. Illustration to a short story: 'The Barrow of Bordeaux; Or, A Life's Mystery. Prologue. (Extract from a letter written by the person known as Charles Denmont to his friend X-------.)...There was just then light enough for me to see those two men distinctly, and from that day to this I have never forgotten them. The man who addressed me was dressed in a rough, seafaring costume - as, indeed, they both were...The villanous expression of this man's countenance I have never seen equalled, and a black patch which he wore over his left eye made him still more hideous...Unlike his taller companion, who wore a beard and moustache, this man was closely shaved...The uncovered eye shone out beneath a lowering and bushy eyebrow, as though, being alone, it were doing work enough for both, and allowing nothing to escape it on any account. Having for many years been accustomed to travel in the wildest parts of Europe, I had, more from habit than from any feeling of nervousness, always carried a small pistol in my breast pocket. Instinctively I felt for it. It was gone!'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.