drive off.

The servant now appeared outside with several parcels, which he placed
upon the coach; then a man came out--the negro-trader--who mounted the
box. Another man shot across the banquette, but in such a hurried gait
that I could not recognise him. I guessed, however, who _he_ was. Two
others now came from the house--a mulatto woman and a young girl. In
spite of the cloak in which she was enveloped I recognised Aurore. The
mulatto woman conducted the girl to the carriage, and then stepped in
after. At this moment a man on horseback appeared in the street, and
riding up, halted by the carriage. After speaking to some one inside,
he again put his horse in motion and rode off. This horseman was Larkin
the overseer.

The clash of the closing door was immediately followed by the crack of
the coachman's whip; and the mules, trotting off down the street, turned
to the right, and headed up the Levee.

My driver, who had already been instructed, gave the whip to his hack,
and followed, keeping a short distance in the rear.

It was not till we had traversed the long street of Tehoupitoulas,
through the Faubourg Marigny, and were some distance upon the road to
the suburban village of Lafayette, that I thought of where I was going.
My sole idea had been to keep in sight the carriage of Gayarre.

I now bethought me for what purpose I was driving after him. Did I
intend to follow him to his house, some thirty miles distant, in a
hackney-coach?

Even had I been so determined, it was questionable whether the driver of
the vehicle could have been tempted to humour my caprice, or whether his
wretched hack could have accomplished such a feat.

For what purpose, then, was I galloping after? To overtake these men
upon the road, and deliver Aurore from their keeping? No, there were
three of them--well armed, no doubt--and I alone.

But it was not until I had gone several miles that I began to reflect on
the absurdity of my conduct. I then ordered my coachman to pull up.

I remained seated; and from the window of the hack gazed after the
carriage, until it was hidden by a turn in the road.

"After all," I muttered to myself, "I have done right in following. I
am now sure of their destination. Back to the Hotel Saint Luis!"

The last phrase was a command to my coachman, who turning his horse
drove back.

As I had promised to pay for speed, it was not long before the wheels of
my hackney rattled over the pav