what I have told you to the marquis?"
"By no means: it will only tear open a wound which has but partially
healed. If you will send me all the particulars when you return I shall
feel much obliged, not that the effects are of any consequence. The
marquise and her child are undoubtedly lost; and it could be no
consolation to my brother to ascertain that a trunk of their effects had
been saved."
Here the conversation dropped, and was never again renewed.
Newton was heartily welcomed again at Lieu Desire, where he remained
three weeks, when a note from the governor informed him that a cartel
was about to sail.
It was with mutual pain that Newton and his kind friends took their
farewell of each other. In this instance M. de Fontanges did not
accompany him to Basse Terre, but bade him adieu at his own door.
Newton, soon after he was on the road, perceived that M. de Fontanges
had acted from a motive of delicacy, that he might not receive the
thanks of Newton for two valises, well furnished, which overtook Newton
about a quarter of a mile from the plantation, slung on each side of a
horse, under the guidance of a little negro, perched on the middle.
Newton made his acknowledgments to the governor for his kind
consideration, then embarked on board of the _Marie Therese_ schooner,
and in three days he once more found himself on shore in an English
colony; with which piece of information I conclude this chapter.
Chapter XXII
"Mercy on us! a bairn, a very pretty bairn,
A boy, a child." SHAKESPEARE.
When Newton was landed from the cartel at Jamaica, he found the
advantage of not being clad in the garb of a sailor, as all those who
were in such costume were immediately handed over to the admiral of the
station, to celebrate their restoration to liberty on board of a
man-of-war; but the clothes supplied to him by the generosity of M. de
Fontanges had anything but a maritime appearance, and Newton was landed
with his portmanteaus by one of the man-of-war's boats, whose crew had
little idea of his being a person so peculiarly suited to their views,
possessing as he did the necessary qualifications of youth, activity,
and a thorough knowledge of his profession. Newton was so anxious to
return home, that after a few days' expensive sojourn at an hotel,
frequented chiefly by the officers of the man-of-war in port, he
resolved to apply to the captain of a frigate ordered home with
despatches, to permit him
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