surprised at anything that might take place, though the men
were sufficiently orderly in the discharge of their duty to render any
interference with them unwarrantable, and any precautions against their
defection impossible. The great hope lay in the influence of the two
leaders who remained, as the great fear was of that of the one who was
gone.

The Spanish force was small, constituting only about one-fourth of the
whole; and of these, the best mounted had not returned from the pursuit
of Toussaint;--not because they could follow him far in the enemy's
country, but because it required some skill and caution to get back in
broad day, after having roused expectation all along the road.

While the leaders were anxiously calculating probabilities, and
reckoning forces, Jacques was satisfying himself that the preponderance
of numbers was greatly on the side of his absent friend. His hatred of
the whites, which had never intermitted, was wrought up to strong
passion this day by the treatment the proclamation and his friend had
received. He exulted in the thought of being able to humble the
Spaniards by withdrawing the force which enabled them to hold their
posts, and by making him whom they called a traitor more powerful in the
cause of the blacks than they could henceforth be in that of royalist
France. Fired with these thoughts, he was hastily passing the tent of
Toussaint, which he had supposed deserted, when he heard from within,
speaking in anger and fear, a voice which he well knew, and which had
power over him. He had strong reasons for remembering the first time he
had seen Therese--on the night of the escape across the frontier. She
was strongly associated with his feelings towards the class to which her
owner belonged; and he knew that she, beautiful, lonely, and wretched,
shared those feelings. If he had not known this from words dropped by
her during the events of this morning, he would have learned it now; for
she was declaring her thoughts to her master, loudly enough for any one
who passed by to overhear.

Jacques entered the tent, and there stood Therese, declaring that she
would leave her master, and never see him more, but prevented from
escaping by Papalier having intercepted her passage to the entrance.
Her eyes glowed with delight on the appearance of Jacques, to whom she
immediately addressed herself.

"I will not go with him--I will not go with him to Paris, to see his
young ladies. He sha