just cleared from
the kennel, and giving tongue to their joy at the prospect of sport.

Fearful apprehensions were stirred within me at the moment. A terrible
conjecture rushed across my brain. _They were after us with hounds_!

CHAPTER SEVENTY.

HOUNDS ON OUR TRAIL.

O God! after us with hounds!

Either after us, or about to be, was the hypothetic form of my
conjecture.

I could proceed no farther upon our path till I had become satisfied.

Leaving Aurore among the palmettoes. I ran directly forward to the
fence, which was also the boundary of the woods. On reaching this, I
grasped the branch of a tree, and swung myself up to such an elevation
as would enable me to see over the tops of the cane. This gave me a
full view of the house shining under the sun that had now risen in all
his splendour.

At a glance I saw that I had guessed aright. Distant as the house was,
I could plainly see men around it, many of them on horseback. Their
heads were moving above the canes; and now and then the deep bay of
hounds told that several dogs were loose about the enclosure. The scene
was just as if a party of hunters had assembled before going out upon a
deer "drive;" and but for the place, the time, and the circumstances
that had already transpired, I might have taken it for such. Far
different, however, was the impression it made upon me. I knew well why
was that gathering around the house of Gayarre. I knew well the game
they were about to pursue. I lingered but a moment upon my perch--long
enough to perceive that the _hunters_ were all mounted and ready to
start.

With quick-beating pulse I retraced my steps; and soon rejoined my
companion, who stood awaiting me with trembling apprehension.

I did not need to tell her the result of my reconnoissance: she read it
in my looks. She, too, had heard the baying of the dogs. She was a
native, and knew the customs of the land: she knew that hounds were used
to hunt deer and foxes and wild-cats of the woods; but she knew also
that on many plantations there were some kept for a far different
purpose--sleuth-dogs, _trained to the hunting of men_!

Had she been of slow comprehension, I might have attempted to conceal
from her what I had learnt; but she was far from that, and with quick
instinct she divined all.

Our first feeling was that of utter hopelessness. There seemed no
chance of our escaping. Go where we would, hounds, trained to the scent
of a hu