t--"however," she resumed, in
a milder tone, and with an anxious glance at Father Gabriel's face,
"Father Gabriel only said `if'--_if_ all that he described had been so."

"True, my child," replied the abbess: "Father Gabriel only said `if it
had been so.'"

"And if it had," exclaimed Euphrosyne, who did not wish to hear the
father speak again at the moment--"if it had been so, it would have been
wicked in the negroes to do that act in revenge; but it could never,
never excuse us from forgiving them--from pitying them because they had
been made cruel and revengeful. I am sure I wish they had all lived--
that they might live many, many years, till they could forget those
cruel old times, and, being old men themselves, might feel what it is to
touch an old man's life. This is the kind of punishment I wish them;
and I am sure it would be enough."

"It is indeed said," observed the abbess, "`Vengeance is mine; I will
repay, saith the Lord.'"

"And oh! poor Genifrede!" pursued Euphrosyne. "She no more wished ill
to my parent than I do to hers; and her lover--it was not he that did
it: and yet--Oh, Father Gabriel, are you sure that that firing--that
last volley--"

"It was certainly the death stroke of Moyse. I perceive how it is, my
child. I perceive that your friendships among this new race have
blinded your eyes, so that you cannot see that these executions are,
indeed, God's avenging of the murder by which you are made a second time
an orphan."

"Do you think L'Ouverture right, then? I should be glad to believe that
he was not cruel--dreadfully cruel."

"There is no doubt of L'Ouverture's being wise and right--of his having
finally assured the most unwilling of the inhabitants of their security,
and his stern justice. There is no doubt that L'Ouverture is right."

"I could not have believed," said the abbess, "that my daughter would
have required a justification of anything done by L'Ouverture."

"Nor I," said Euphrosyne, sighing.

"Under him," said Father Gabriel, "there is less crime in the colony
than, I verily believe, in any other part of the empire. Under him have
homes become sacred, children are instructed, and brethren are taught to
dwell together in unity."

"As," said the abbess, "when he stopped in his journey to greet an old
negro of ninety-nine, and reconcile to him two who had offended out of
his many children. L'Ouverture is never in so much haste but that he
can pause to honour old