daughters). Will he take the hoe, and go into the field--? You are
smiling, my dear young lady."

Euphrosyne was indeed smiling. She could not but hope that, as Madame
Oge was so ill-informed about the affairs of Monsieur Pascal, and of the
Raymonds, who were of her own colour, she might be mistaken about the
whole of her news.

"You are smiling," repeated Madame Oge. "Though you stoop your head
over your work, I see that you have some droll thought."

"It would be strange, certainly," replied Euphrosyne, "to see the
philosophical Monsieur Pascal hoeing canes, or working at the mill. Yet
I believe we may be certain that he will be a slave as soon as
Toussaint, or any negro in Saint Domingo."

"Young people like to be positive," said Madame Oge to the abbess. "But
it does not much matter, as they have life before them; time enough to
see what is true, and what is not. Is it your doctrine, my dear young
lady, that God has given over His wrath towards this island; and that it
is to be happy henceforth, with the negroes for masters?"

"With the negroes for equals, I think it may be happy. But I never
thought of God being wrathful towards us. I thought our miseries had
arisen out of men's wrath with each other."

"If ever," said Madame Oge, in a low tone, but yet so that every word
was heard--"if ever there was a place set apart by cursing--if ever
there was a hell upon this earth, it is this island. Men can tell us
where paradise was--it was not here, whatever Columbus might say. The
real paradise where the angels of God kept watch, and let no evil thing
enter, was on the other side of the globe: and I say that this place was
meant for a hell, as that was for a heaven, upon earth. It looked like
heaven to those who first came: but that was the devil's snare. It was
to make lust sweeter, and cruelty safer, that he adorned the place as he
did. In a little while, it appeared like what it was. The innocent
natives were corrupted; the defenceless were killed; the strong were
made slaves. The plains were laid waste, and the valleys and woods were
rifled. The very bees ceased to store their honey: and among the wild
game there was found no young. Then came the sea-robbers, and haunted
the shores: and many a dying wretch screamed at night among the
caverns--many a murdered corpse lies buried in our sands. Then the
negroes were brought in from over the sea; and from among their chains,
from under the lash,