palace at night, where he was discovered by the king's servants.
Imoinda was immediately sold as a slave. Oroonoko made his way down to
the seashore, and was there allured, under false pretenses of
hospitality, on board an English ship. He was carried to the West
Indies, and sold to a planter of Surinam, the colony in which Mrs. Behn
was living, and where by a remarkable chance Imoinda had already been
sold. The beauty of Imoinda had brought about her a large number of
suitors, all of whom met with a cold repulse. The tenderness of the
meeting between Oroonoko and Imoinda prevailed upon their master to
allow them to live together. But Oroonoko longed for liberty. He
plotted a revolt among his fellow-slaves, and on its suppression was
brutally flogged. Enraged by this, he escaped into the woods with
Imoinda, who was then pregnant. Fearing that she might fall into the
hands of the whites, and unwilling to be the father of a slave, he
killed her, and remained by her dead body several days, half insensible
with grief and without food. Again taken by the colonists, he was tied
to a post, hacked to pieces and burned. The story, simple in itself,
becomes striking in the hands of Mrs. Behn. The hut of the old negro
king is given the brilliancy of an Eastern court, and his harem is
copied after that of a Turkish potentate. When Oroonoko is induced to
board the English slaver, it is in no common style, but "the Captain in
his Boat richly adorned with Carpets and velvet Cushions went to the
Shore to receive the Prince, with another Long Boat where was placed
all his Music and Trumpets." Mrs. Behn's methods of adorning her tale
are best shown by her description of Oroonoko himself, which is a good
example of the tone in which the story is written.

I have often seen and conversed with this Great Man, and been a
Witness to many of his mighty Actions: and do assure my Reader, the
most illustrious Courts could not have produced a braver Man, both
for Greatness of Courage and Mind, a Judgment more solid, a Wit
more quick, and a Conversation more sweet and diverting. He knew
almost as much as if he had read much; he had heard of and admired
the Romans; he had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the
deplorable Death of our great Monarch; and would discourse of it
with all the Sense and abhorrence of the Injustice imaginable. He
had an extremely good and graceful Mien, and all the civility