re. Neither was the black brought along. I could
gather from the conversation of my captors, that they were to be taken
in one of the skiffs that had stayed behind--that they were to be landed
at a different point from that to which we were steering. I could
gather, too, that the poor Bambarra was doomed to a terrible
punishment--the same he already dreaded--the losing of an arm!

I was pained at such a thought, but still more by the rude jests I had
now to listen to. My betrothed and myself were reviled with a
disgusting coarseness, which I cannot repeat.

I made no attempt to defend either her or myself. I did not even reply.
I sat with my eyes bent gloomily upon the water; and it was a sort of
relict to me when the pirogue again passed in among the trunks of the
cypress-trees, and their dark shadow half concealed my face from the
view of my captors. I was brought back to the landing by the old
tree-trunk.

On nearing this I saw that a crowd of men awaited us on the shore; and
among them I recognised the ferocious Ruffin, with his arm slung in his
red kerchief, bandaged and bloody. He was standing up with the rest.

"Thank Heaven! I have not killed him!" was my mental ejaculation. "So
much the less have I to answer for."

The canoes and skiffs--with the exception of that which carried Aurore
and the black--had all arrived at this point, and my captors were
landing. In all there were some thirty or forty men, with a proportion
of half-grown boys. Most of them were armed with either pistols or
rifles. Under the grey gloom of the trees, they presented a picturesque
tableau; but at that moment my feelings were not attuned to enjoy it.

I was landed among the rest; and with two armed men, one before and
another immediately at my back, I was marched off through the woods.
The crowd accompanied us, some in the advance, some behind, while others
walked alongside. These were the boys and the more brutal of the men
who occasionally taunted me with rude speech.

I might have lost patience and grown angry, had that served me; but I
knew it would only give pleasure to my tormentors, without bettering my
condition. I therefore observed silence, and kept my eyes averted or
turned upon the ground.

We passed on rapidly--as fast as the crowd could make way through the
bushes--and I was glad of this. I presumed I was about to be conducted
before a magistrate, or "justice of the peace," as there called. Well,
th