er naked arms and bosom, the two cocoa trees which were planted at
her birth and that of her brother, and which interwove about her head their
green branches and young fruit. She thought of Paul's friendship, sweeter
than the odours, purer than the waters of the fountains, stronger than the
intertwining palm trees, and she sighed. Reflecting upon the hour of the
night, and the profound solitude, her imagination again grew disordered.
Suddenly she flew affrighted from those dangerous shades, and those waters
which she fancied hotter than the torrid sunbeam, and ran to her mother, in
order to find a refuge from herself. Often, wishing to unfold her
sufferings, she pressed her mother's hand within her own; often she was
ready to pronounce the name of Paul; but her oppressed heart left not her
lips the power of utterance; and, leaning her head on her mother's bosom,
she could only bathe it with her tears.

"Madame de la Tour, though she easily discerned the source of her
daughter's uneasiness, did not think proper to speak to her on that
subject. 'My dear child,' said she, address yourself to God, who disposes,
at his will, of health and of life. He tries you now, in order to
recompense you hereafter. Remember that we are only placed upon earth for
the exercise of virtue.'

"The excessive heat drew vapours from the ocean, which hung over the island
like a vast awning, and slithered round the summits of the mountains, while
long flakes of fire occasionally issued from their misty peaks. Soon after
the most terrible thunder reechoed through the woods, the plains and the
valleys; the rains fell from the skies like cataracts; foaming torrents
rolled down the sides of the mountain; the bottom of the valley became a
sea; the plat of ground on which the cottages were built, a little island:
and the entrance of this valley a sluice, along which rushed precipitately
the moaning waters, earth, trees, and rocks.

"Meantime the trembling family addressed their prayers to God in the
cottage of Madame de la Tour, the roof of which cracked horribly from the
struggling winds. So vivid and frequent were the lightnings, that, although
the doors and window-shutters were well fastened, every object without was
distinctly seen through the jointed beams. Paul, followed by Domingo, went
with intrepidity from one cottage to another, notwithstanding the fury of
the tempest; here supporting a partition with a buttress, there driving in
a stake, and