. It
was authentic. Scipio's statement of what he had heard, minutely
detailed, bore the internal evidence of authenticity. I could not doubt
the report. I felt the conviction that it was true.

The plantation Besancon had no more attractions. I had no longer any
business at Bringiers. New Orleans was now the scene of action for me!

With a kind word to Scipio, I wheeled my horse and galloped away from
the gate. The fiery animal caught my excitement, and sprang wildly
along the road. It required all his buoyant spirit to keep pace with
the quick dancing of my nerves.

In a few minutes I had consigned him to his groom; and, climbing to my
chamber, commenced preparing for my departure.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

THE WHARF-BOAT.

I now only waited a boat to convey me to New Orleans. I knew that I
should not have long to wait. The annual epidemic was on the decline,
and the season of business and pleasure in the "Crescent City" was about
commencing. Already the up-river steamers were afloat on all the
tributary streams of the mighty Mississippi, laden with the produce of
its almost limitless valley, and converging towards the great Southern
entrepot of American commerce. I might expect a "down-boat" every day,
or rather indeed every hour.

I resolved to take the first boat that came along.

The hotel in which I dwelt, as well as the whole village, stood at a
considerable distance from the boat landing. It had been built so from
precaution. The banks of the Mississippi at this place, and for a
thousand miles above and below, are elevated but a few feet above the
surface level of its water; and, in consequence of the continuous
detrition, it is no uncommon occurrence for large slips to give way, and
be swept off in the red whirling current. It might be supposed that in
time this never-ceasing action of the water would widen the stream to
unnatural dimensions. But, no. For every encroachment on one bank
there is a corresponding formation against the opposite,--a deposit
caused by the eddy which the new curve has produced, so that the river
thus preserves its original breadth. This remarkable action may be
noted from the _embouchure_ of the Ohio to the mouth of the Mississippi
itself, though at certain points the extent of the encroachment and the
formation that neutralises it is much greater than at others. In some
places the "wearing away" of the bank operates so rapidly that in a few
days the whole