'_.'"

"Bravissimo!--" but just then a counter-attraction drew the white
company back into the house. An old French priest with sandalled feet
and a dirty face had arrived. There was a moment of handshaking with the
good father, then a moment of palpitation and holding of the breath, and
then--you would have known it by the turning away of two or three
feminine heads in tears--the lily hand became the don's, to have and to
hold, by authority of the Church and the Spanish king. And all was
merry, save that outside there was coming up as villanous a night as
ever cast black looks in through snug windows.

It was just as the newly-wed Spaniard, with Agricola and all the guests,
were concluding the byplay of marrying the darker couple, that the
hurricane struck the dwelling. The holy and jovial father had made faint
pretence of kissing this second bride; the ladies, colonels, dons,
etc.,--though the joke struck them as a trifle coarse--were beginning to
laugh and clap hands again and the gowned jester to bow to right and
left, when Bras-Coupe, tardily realizing the consummation of his hopes,
stepped forward to embrace his wife.

"Bras-Coupe!"

The voice was that of Palmyre's mistress. She had not been able to
comprehend her maid's behavior, but now Palmyre had darted upon her an
appealing look.

The warrior stopped as if a javelin had flashed over his head and stuck
in the wall.

"Bras-Coupe must wait till I give him his wife."

He sank, with hidden face, slowly to the floor.

"Bras-Coupe hears the voice of zombis; the voice is sweet, but the words
are very strong; from the same sugar-cane comes _sirop_ and _tafia_;
Bras-Coupe says to zombis, 'Bras-Coupe will wait; but if the _dotchians_
deceive Bras-Coupe--" he rose to his feet with his eyes closed and his
great black fist lifted over his head--"Bras-Coupe will call
Voudou-Magnan!"

The crowd retreated and the storm fell like a burst of infernal
applause. A whiff like fifty witches flouted up the canvas curtain of
the gallery and a fierce black cloud, drawing the moon under its cloak,
belched forth a stream of fire that seemed to flood the ground; a peal
of thunder followed as if the sky had fallen in, the house quivered, the
great oaks groaned, and every lesser thing bowed down before the awful
blast. Every lip held its breath for a minute--or an hour, no one
knew--there was a sudden lull of the wind, and the floods came down.
Have you heard it thunder and rai