The Fugitives: The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar Part 40

"If I may be allowed to speak," said the Secretary.

"You are allowed," returned the Premier.

"Then I would advise that the Queen should arrange a grand journey--a procession--all over the country, with thousands of her soldiers. This will let her have plenty of fresh air and exercise, change of scene, and excitement, and will give her something to do till her blood cools. At the same time it will show the people her great power and perhaps induce them to be cautious how they resist her will."

"The idea is good," said Mark, with animation, "so good that I would advise its being carried out immediately--even before another week pa.s.ses."

Rainiharo shook his head. "Impossible. There is to be a great bull-fight this week, and you know Ranavalona will allow nothing to interfere with that. Besides, it takes time to get up such an expedition as you suggest. However, I like the notion well. Go. I will think over it and see you again."

The bull-fighting to which the Premier referred was a favourite amus.e.m.e.nt with this blood-thirsty woman, and the spectacle usually took place in the royal court-yard. Rainiharo was right when he said the Queen would not forego it, but she was so pleased with the plan of a royal progress through the country that she gave orders to make ready for it at once in an extensive scale.

"You will of course accompany me," she said to Mark, when he was summoned to a subsequent audience, "I may be ill, or my bearers may fall and I may be injured."

"Certainly," he replied, "nothing would afford the Court Physician greater pleasure than to attend upon her Majesty on such an expedition.

But I would ask a favour," continued Mark. "May my black servant accompany me? He is very useful in a.s.sisting me with my medicines, and--"

"Yes, yes," interrupted the Queen, "let him go with you by all means.

He shall have bearers if you choose. And take yon other man also--with his music. I love his little pipe!"

In some excitement Mark went off to tell his comrades the news--which Hockins received with a grunt of satisfaction, and the negro with a burst of joy. Indeed the anxieties and worries they had recently experienced in the city, coupled with the tyranny and bloodshed which they witnessed, had so depressed the three friends that the mere idea of getting once again into the fresh free open plains and forests afforded them pleasure somewhat akin to that of the school-boy when he obtains an unexpected holiday.

Great was the excitement all over the country when the Queen's intention was made known. The idea was not indeed a novelty. Malagasy sovereigns had been in the habit of making such progresses from time to time in former years. The wise King Radama the First frequently went on hunting expeditions with more or less of display. But knowing as they did, only too well, the cruel character of Ranavalona the First, the people feared that the desire to terrify and suppress had more to do with the event than pleasure or health.

At last, everything being complete, the Queen left the capital, and directed her course to the south-westward. Her enormous retinue consisted of the members of the Government, the princ.i.p.al military and civil officers and their wives, six thousand soldiers, and a host of slaves, bearers, and other attendants; the whole numbering about 40,000 souls.

Great preparations had been made for the journey in the way of providing large stores of rice, herds of cattle, and other provisions, but those who knew the difficulties of the proposed route, and the thinly populated character of the country, looked with considerable apprehension on the prospects of the journey. Some there were, no doubt, who regarded these prospects with a lively hope that the Queen might never more return to her capital!

Of course such a mult.i.tude travelled very slowly, as may well be believed when it is said that they had about 1500 palanquins in the host, for there was not a wheeled vehicle in Madagascar at that time.

The soldiers were formed in five divisions; one carrying the tents, one the cooking apparatus and spears, and one the guns and sleeping-mats.

The other two had always to be in readiness for any service required about the Queen. The camp was divided into four parts; the Queen being in the middle, in a blue tent, surrounded, wherever she halted for the night, by high palisades, and near to this was pitched a tent containing the idols of the royal family. The tent of the Prime Minister, with the Malagasy flag, was pitched to the north of that of the Queen. East, west, and south, were occupied by other high officers of State, and among the latter was the tent of our friends, Mark, Hockins, and Ebony.

"Now," said the first of these, as he sat in the door of the tent one evening after supper, watching the rich glow of sunshine that flooded a wide stretch of beautiful country in front of him, "this would be perfect felicity if only we had freedom to move about at our own pleasure and hunt up the treasures in botany, entomology, etcetera, that are scattered around us."

"True, Ma.s.sa," returned Ebony, "it would be perfik f'licity if we could forgit de poor Christ'ns in chains an' pris'ns."

"Right, Ebony, right. I am selfishly thinking only of myself at the present moment. But let us hope we may manage to do these poor Christians good before we leave the land."

"I don't think, myself, that we'll get much fun out o' this trip,"

remarked Hockins. "You see the Queen's too fond o' your physickin' and of my tootootlin' to part with us even for a day at a time. If we was like Ebony, now, we might go where we liked an' no one ud care."

"Ob course not," replied the negro, promptly, "peepil's nebber anxious about whar wise men goes to; it's on'y child'in an' stoopid folk dey's got to tink about. But why not ax de Queen, ma.s.sa, for leabe ob absence to go a-huntin'?"

"Because she'd be sure to refuse," said Mark. "No, I see no way out of this difficulty. We are too useful to be spared!"

But Mark was wrong. That very night he was sent for by the Prime Minister, and as he pa.s.sed the Secretary's tent he called him out to act as interpreter. On reaching the tent on the north side they found Rainiharo doubled up on his mat and groaning in agony.

"What's wrong?" demanded the doctor.

"Everything!" replied the patient.

"Describe your feelings," said the doctor.

"I've--I've got a red-hot stone," groaned Rainiharo, "somewhere in my inwards! Th.o.r.n.y shrubs are revolving in my stomach! Young crocodiles are masticating my--oh!"

At this point his power of description failed; but that matters little, for, never having met with the disease before, we can neither describe it nor give it a name. The young doctor did not know it, but he knew exactly what to do, and did it. We cannot report what he did, but we can state the result, which was great relief in a few minutes and a perfect cure before morning! Most men are grateful under such circ.u.mstances--even the cruel Rainiharo was so.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, affectionately, next day.

A sudden inspiration seized the doctor, "Beg the Queen," he said, "to let me and my two friends wander round the host all day, and every day, for a short time, and I will return to report myself each night."

"For what purpose?" asked the Premier, in some surprise.

"To pluck plants and catch b.u.t.terflies."

"Is the young doctor anxious to renew his childhood?"

"Something of the sort, no doubt. But there is medicine in the plants, and--and--interest, if nothing else, in the b.u.t.terflies."

"Medicine in the plants" was a sufficient explanation to the Premier.

What he said to the Queen we know not, but he quickly returned with the required permission, and Mark went to his couch that night in a state of what Ebony styled "perfik f'licity."

Behold our trio, then, once more alone in the great forests of Madagascar--at least almost alone, for the Secretary was with them, for the double purpose of gaining instruction and seeing that the strangers did not lose themselves. As they were able to move about twice as fast as the host, they could wander around, here, there, and everywhere, or rest at pleasure without fear of being left behind.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

IN WHICH A HAPPY CHANGE FOR THE BETTER IS DISASTROUSLY INTERRUPTED.

One very sultry forenoon Mark and his party--while out botanising, entomologising, philosophising, etcetera, not far from but out of sight of the great procession--came to the brow of a hill and sat down to rest.

Their appearance had become somewhat curious and brigand-like by that time, for their original garments having been worn-out were partially replaced by means of the scissors and needle of John Hockins--at least in the trousers department. That worthy seaman having, during his travels, torn his original trousers to shreds from the knee downwards, had procured some stout canvas in the capital and made for himself another pair. He was, like most sailors, expert at tailoring, and the result was so good that Mark and Ebony became envious. The seaman was obliging. He set to work and made a pair of nether garments for both.

Mark wore his pair stuffed into the legs of a pair of Wellington boots procured from a trader. Ebony preferred to cut his off short, just below the knee, thus exposing to view those black boots supplied to negroes by Nature, which have the advantage of never wearing out.

Hockins himself stuck to his navy shirt, but the others found striped cotton shirts sufficient. A native straw hat on Mark's head and a silk scarf round his waist, with a cavalry pistol in it, enhanced the brigand-like aspect of his costume.

This pistol was their only fire-arm, the gun having been broken beyond repair, but each carried a spear in one hand, a gauze b.u.t.terfly-net in the other, and a basket, in lieu of a specimen-box, on his shoulder.

Even the Secretary, entering into the spirit of the thing; carried a net and pursued the b.u.t.terflies with the ardour of a boy.

"Oh! ma.s.sa," exclaimed Ebony, wiping the perspiration from his forehead with a bunch of gra.s.s, "I _do_ lub science!"

"Indeed, why so?" asked Mark, sitting down on a bank opposite his friend.

"Why, don't you see, ma.s.sa, it's not comfortabil for a man what's got any feelin's to go troo de land huntin' an' killin' cattle an' oder brutes for _noting_. You can't eat more nor one hox--p'r'aps not dat.

So w'en you've kill 'im an' eaten so much as you can, dar's no more fun, for what fun is dere in slaughterin' hoxes for _noting_? Den, if you goes arter bees an' b.u.t.terflies on'y for fun, w'y you git shamed ob yourself. On'y a chile do dat. But science, dat put 'im all right!

Away you goes arter de bees and b.u.t.terflies an' tings like mad--ober de hills an' far away--troo de woods, across de ribbers--sometimes into 'em!--crashin' an' smashin' like de bull in de china-shop, wid de proud feelin' bustin' your buzzum dat you're advancin' de n.o.ble cause ob science--dat's what you call 'im, `n.o.ble?'--yes. Well, den you come home done up, so pleasant like, an' sot down an' fix de critters up wid pins an' gum an' sitch-like, and arter dat you show 'em to your larned friends an' call 'em awrful hard names, (sometimes dey seem like _bad_ names!) an'--oh! I _do_ lub science! It's wot I once heard a captin ob a ribber steamer in de States call a safety-balve wot lets off a deal o'

'uman energy. He was a-sottin on his own safety-balve at de time, so he ought to have know'd suffin about it."

"I say, Ebony," asked Hockins, "where did you pick up so much larnin'

about science--eh?"