The Hour and the Man Part 28

The old man knew what was in her mind--that she was thinking of the woods. He sank down on his knees by the bedside, and prayed that the earth might gape and swallow them up--that the sea might rush in, and overflow the hollow where the city had been, before he and his should fall into the hands of the cursed blacks.

"Grandpapa," said Euphrosyne, gravely, "if you pray such a prayer as that, do not pray aloud. I cannot hear such a prayer as that."

Struggling with her tears, she continued: "I know you are very much frightened--and I do not wonder that you are: but I do wish you would remember that we have very kind friends who will protect us, if we will only make haste and go to them. And as for their being of a different colour--I do wonder that you can ask G.o.d to cause the earth to swallow us up, when you know (at least, you have taught me so) we must meet people of all races before the throne of G.o.d. He has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, you know."

Monsieur Revel shook his head impatiently, as if to show that she did not understand his feelings. She went on, however:--

"If we so hate and distrust them at this moment, here, how can we pray for death, so as to meet them at the next moment there? Oh, grandpapa!

let us know them a little better first. Let us go to them now."

"Don't waste time so, child; you hinder my dressing."

He allowed himself to be dressed, and made no further opposition till he found himself at the balcony of the next room.

"Here is your new coach," said Euphrosyne, "and plenty of servants:"

showing him how one of the soldiers and old Raphael stood below to receive the chair, and the abbess herself was in waiting in a distant walk, beside the wicket they were to pa.s.s through.

Of course, the old gentleman said he could never get down that way; and he said something about dying on his own threshold--this time, however, in a very low voice. But, in the midst of his opposition, Euphrosyne seated herself in the chair, and was let down. When she could no longer hear his complaints, but was standing beckoning to him from the gra.s.s-plat below, he gave up all resistance, was let down with perfect ease, and carried in the chair, followed by all the white members of his household, through the gardens, and up the alley where Afra was awaiting them. There was a grey sister peeping from behind every blind as they crossed the garden, and trembling with the revived fears of that terrible night of ninety-one, when they had fled to the ships. It was some comfort to them to see old Raphael busy with rake and knife, repairing the damage done to the bed under the balcony--all trampled as it was. Each nun said to herself that Raphael seemed to have no fears but that the garden would go on as usual, whatever disturbance was abroad.

"Have you seen him?" asked Euphrosyne eagerly of her friend, the moment they met.

"Oh yes. You shall see him too, from my window, if they will but talk on till we get there. He and the Commissary, and some of the Commissary's officers, are in the rose-garden under my window. Make haste, or they may be gone."

"We must see grandpapa settled first."

"Oh yes; but I am so afraid they may be gone! They have been pacing the alley between the rose-trees this hour nearly--talking and arguing all the time. I am sure they were arguing; for they stopped every now and then, and the Commissary made such gestures! He looked so impatient and so vexed!"

"And did _he_ look vexed, too?"

"Not in the least angry, but severe. So quiet, so majestic he looked, as he listened to all they said! and when he answered them--Oh, I would not, for all the island, have his eyes so set upon me!"

"Oh dear, let us make haste, or they will be gone!" cried Euphrosyne.

While Euphrosyne was endeavouring to make her grandfather feel himself at home and comfortable in the apartment appointed for him by the Governor, Afra ran to her window, to see if the potentates of the island were still at their conference. The rose-garden was empty; and she came back sorrowfully to say so. As she entered the apartment of her guests, she heard Monsieur Revel sending a message of compliments to the Commissary, with a request of an audience of a few minutes. The servants gave as much intimation as they dared of the Commissary being so particularly engaged, that they had rather be excused carrying this message. The girls looked at one another, nodded agreement, and Euphrosyne spoke.

"Suppose, grandpapa, you ask to see the Commander-in-chief. He never refuses anything that is asked of him: and he can do everything he wishes. I dare say he will come at once, if you desire it, and if we do not detain him too long. If he had been in this room once with us, how safe we should feel!"

"Oh, if we could see him once in this room!" cried Afra.

"Do you suppose I will beg a favour of that ambitious black?" cried Monsieur Revel. "Do you think I will crave an audience of a fellow who, for aught I know, may have driven his master's carriage to my door in the old days?--no, if I cannot see Hedouville, I will take my chance.

Go, fellow! and carry my message," he cried to Pierre.

Pierre returned with the answer which might have been antic.i.p.ated. The Commissary was so engaged, there was so much bustle and confusion throughout his establishment, that no one of his people would deliver the message.

"That would not have been the answer if--" whispered Euphrosyne to her friend.

"Shall I venture?--yes, I will--shall I? At least, I will keep upon the watch," said Afra, as she withdrew.

She presently sent in, with the tray of fruit, a basket of flowers, which Euphrosyne occupied herself in dressing, exactly as she did at home, humming the while the airs her grandfather heard her sing every day. Her devices answered very well. He presently occupied himself in pointing out, exactly as he always did, that there was too much green in this bouquet, and not enough in that.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

SPOILING SPORT.

Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the Commissary on seeing Toussaint this morning. Hedouville was amusing himself, before the sun was high, alternately with three or four of his officers, in duetting with a parrot, which had shown its gaudy plumage among the dark foliage of a tamarind-tree in the garden. At every pause in the bird's chatter, one of the gentlemen chattered in reply; and thus kept up the discord, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of the party. Hedouville was just declaring that he had obtained the best answer--the loudest and most hideous--when he heard the swing of a gate, and, turning round, saw Toussaint entering from the barrack-yard.

"The ape!" exclaimed one of the officers, in a whisper.

"Who--who is it?" eagerly asked a naval captain, lately arrived.

"Who should it be but the black chief? No other of his race is fond enough of us to be for ever thrusting himself upon us. He is confoundedly fond of the whites."

"We only ask him," said Delon, another officer, "to like us no better than we like him, and leave us to manage our business our own way."

"Say the word, Commissary," whispered the first, "and he shall not go hence so easily as he came."

"I should beg pardon, Commissary," said Toussaint, as he approached, "for presenting myself thus--for entering by a back-way--if it were not necessary. The crisis requires that we should agree upon our plan of operations, before we are seen in the streets. It is most important that we should appear to act in concert. It is the last chance for the public safety."

"Crisis!--public safety!--seen in the streets!" exclaimed Hedouville.

"I a.s.sure you, General, I have no thoughts of going abroad till evening.

It will be a scorching day. Is the crisis you speak of that of the heats?"

"No trifling, Commissary! Gentlemen," said he, turning to the officers, who happened to be laughing, "no levity! The occasion is too serious for mirth or for loss of time. Shall we speak alone, Commissary?"

"By no means," said Hedouville. "These gentlemen would not for the world miss hearing your news. Has a fresh insurrection been contrived already? or has any Frenchman forgotten himself, and kissed Psyche, or cuffed Agamemnon?"

"A new insurrection has been contrived; and by you. The cultivators are marching over the plain; and in four hours the town will be sacked, if you, Monsieur Hedouville, who have given the provocation, do not withdraw it. You must sign this proclamation. It is the opposite of your own now waiting for jubilation. But you must sign and issue it-- and that within this hour. I hear what you say, gentlemen. You say that I have raised the cultivators. I have not. There is not a negro in the plain who does not at this moment believe that I am in the south.

I come to put them down; but I will not go out with the sword in one hand, if I do not carry justice in the other."

"What do you mean about justice, General? What injustice has been done?"

"Here is the draft of your proclamation--"

"How came you by that paper--by the particulars of my intention?" asked Hedouville. "My proclamation is yet locked up in my own desk."

"Its contents are nevertheless known throughout the colony. When a Commissary, lightly and incidentally (and therefore the more offensively) settles, without understanding them, the most important points of difference between two unreconciled races, the very winds stoop in their flight, to s.n.a.t.c.h up the tidings, and drop them as they fly. See here! See how you p.r.o.nounce on the terms of field-service-- and here, on the part.i.tion of unclaimed estates--and here, on the claims of the emigrants! The blacks must be indeed as stupid as you hold them to be, if they did not spread the alarm that you are about to enslave them again."

"I protest I never dreamed of such a thing."

"I believe you. And that you did not so dream, shows that you are blind to the effects of your own measures--that the cultivators of the plain understand your proceedings better than you do yourself. Here is the proclamation which must be issued."

And he offered a paper, which Hedouville took, but tore in pieces, trampling them under foot, and saying, that he had never before been so insulted in his function.

"That is a childish act," observed Toussaint, as he looked down upon the fragments of the doc.u.ment. "And a useless one," he continued; "for my secretary is getting it printed off by this time."

"Are you going to dare to put my name to a proclamation I have not seen?"