eave her with some of our
people near Fort Dauphin."

"Fort Egalite, you mean. That is its present name, you know. So you
asked her! Why did you not speak to me about it? It is my affair, not
hers."

"I thought it her affair. She will not remain behind, however. She
begged me to say nothing to you about her leaving you."

"Indeed! I will soon settle that." And the planter immediately
overtook the horse on which sat Therese, with her infant on her arm.
Therese smiled as she saw him coming; but the first few words he said to
her covered her face with tears. Blinded by these tears, she guided her
horse among the tough aloes which grew along the border of the
bridle-path, and the animal stumbled, nearly jerking the infant from her
arms. Her master let her get over the difficulty as she might, while he
rode on in the midst of the green track.

Placide disdained to ride. He strode along, singing in a low voice,
with a package on his shoulders, and his path marked by the fireflies,
which new round his head, or settled on his woollen cap. Isaac had made
Aimee happy by getting on her mule. Genifrede heard from the direction
in which they were, sometimes smothered laughter, but, for the most
part, a never-ending, low murmur of voices, as if they were telling one
another interminable stories. Genifrede never could make out what Isaac
and Aimee could be for ever talking about. She wondered that they could
talk now, when every monkey-voice from the wood, every click of a frog
from the ponds, every buzz of insects from the citron-hedge, struck fear
into her. She did not ask Placide to walk beside her horse; but she
kept near that on which her mother rode, behind Denis, who held a
cart-whip, which he was forbidden to crack--an accomplishment which he
had learned from the driver of the plantation.

It soon became clear that Jean had made active use of the hours since he
parted from Toussaint. He must have sent messengers in many directions;
for, from beneath the shadow of every cacao grove, from under the
branches of many a clump of bamboos, from the recess of a ravine here--
from the mouth of a green road there, beside the brawling brook, or from
their couch among the canes, appeared negroes, singly or in groups,
ready to join the travelling party. Among all these, there were no
women and children. They had been safely bestowed somewhere; and these
men now regarded themselves as soldiers, going to the camp of t