The Dark Secret of Josephine

The voice was Fergusson's, and as soon as he was certain who they were he uttered an exclamation of thankfulness at seeing them again. Most of the party were asleep, but Kilick was also on watch a little farther off where the path opened out on to the beach, and he now joined them.

Roger quickly said his piece about having got lost himself while searching tor Clarissa, then asked how the prospects looked for getting away, and they gave him their report. The pirates had spent the early part of the night carousing in the house, but evidently they suspected that the escaped prisoners might attempt to get away by sea, as a sentry, who had been relieved every hour, had been posted on the boats.

That was bad news, yet Roger felt that the attempt must be made all the same. When he asked the time they told him that they judged it to be past two in the morning; which meant that there was less than three hours of darkness left. Rousing Dan he held a quick con­sultation with him, and they decided that to delay much longer might lessen their chances of success. Georgina, Roger learned, was still unconscious but for the moment showed no alarming symptoms; Fergusson woke the others and warned them to get ready, while Roger and Dan debated how best to tackle the sentry.

Owing: to the bright moonlight they thought it unlikely that either of them could creep up behind him and take him completely by sur­prise; so they concerted measures by which they hoped to overcome him between them. Dan was to do the creeping up to him, as near as he thought he could get undetected. Roger was to approach as though coming from the house, and engage the man's attention. Then Dan was to rush him from behind.

Roger watched Dan squirm away across the sand. Then, having given him ten minutes' start, he set off himself. Keeping in the deep shadow of the trees that fringed the beach, he headed for the house; but when he was half-way along the hutments that formed the slaves' quarters he altered course, and calmly walked down the beach towards the sentry.

The man halted, turned towards him, and apparently unsuspicious of a trap, waited until he was within twenty feet, then asked a shade uncertainly: "Qui etes vous?"

"Je suis Henri" replied Roger, that being the commonest French name he could think of.

"Henri?" repeated the man in a puzzled tone, and lowered the musket he was carrying from his shoulder to the ready. "Henri qui?"

By that time Roger was only ten feet from him, and did not reply. There came a sudden scuffling in the sand behind the sentry. He half turned, but thought better of it, and aimed his musket at Roger. As Dan ran in Roger dropped flat. The sentry went down without a sound under a swipe from Dan's sabre, but not before he had fired his musket

They had failed to prevent the alarm being given, so now everything hung on speed. As the report echoed round the bay Roger sprang to his feet unhurt and ran to the nearest boat. Dan was already on her other side. Seizing its gunwale they strove to drag it over the few yards of sand that separated it from the water; but it was a heavy whaler and its weight proved too much for them.

Within a minute their friends came racing up to their assistance. Three great heaves and the boat was afloat. Some of them scrambled in while others lifted the make-shift stretcher aboard on which Georgina lay. Seizing the oars they began to row frantically towards the Circe,

Lights were already appearing in the house. Shouts soon came from it. There were four other boats on the beach and any or all of them might be used for pursuit. Success or failure now depended on how quickly they could get aboard the Circe, haul up her anchor and set a few sails.

Ten minutes* hard rowing brought them below her counter. No lights had appeared in her so they had good hopes that she was deserted. Dan was already standing up in the bow of the whaler holding her painter, ready to make her fast before they clambered aboard.

Suddenly there came a crash of musketry from out of her broken stern windows. Kilick gave a shout and Roger a loud groan. The one had been hit in the shoulder and the other in the thigh.

In the stillness that followed the crash there came the rich laugh of a woman, then Lucette's voice cried from the dark windows above: "You fools! Had you not the sense to credit me with expecting you to have a try for the Circe? Pull back to the shore and surrender, or come aboard to be slaughtered. The choice is yours."

Fearful that as soon as the muskets could be reloaded another burst of fire would rake the boat, the men in her who held the oars were backing water hard. Roger was at her tiller and, although half fainting with pain, retained the presence of mind to turn her bow. With all their strength the rowers then pulled away from the ship. When the second fusillade came they were far enough off for the ill-aimed bullets to fall short and splash harmlessly into the water.

As soon as they were out of danger the rowers ceased their frantic exertions and lay, panting, on their oars. There followed a hurried council to decide what their next move should be. An anxious scanning of the beach showed that only a handful of pirates had come down on to it. The rest, presumably, were still sunk in a drunken slumber, and those who had turned out appeared to be engaged in a heated argument. It looked as if, owing to their small numbers, some of them were averse to manning a boat for immediate pursuit. Never­theless, should the escapers attempt to land it was certain that they would be attacked, and at any time the pirates might receive reinforce­ments from the house. To take the Circe by assault was out of the question; and lights now appearing in the pirates' barque showed that Lucette had had the forethought to man her also with a skeleton crew.

It seemed their only course was to struggle ashore among the mangroves that fringed the water along the outer arms of the bay, and again take to the forest, until Wilson said:

"Anyhow, we've gotten the boat. Why shouldn't we make for Samt-Domingue in her? It's not much more than ten miles across the strait."

As no one had any better suggestion to offer, the American's pro­posal was agreed to, and they began to pull steadily towards the entrance to the lagoon. Meanwhile Fergusson did what he could for the wounded. Kilick's injury was not serious, as the ball had only scored a shallow furrow through the flesh above his shoulder. But that which had hit Roger had embedded itself in his thigh; so he had to submit to the agonizing operation of having it extracted. Fergusson did not think that the thigh-bone had been fractured but, as Roger could bear his weight on it only with great pain, that it had probably been severely bruised. In any case it looked as if the wound would render him hors de combat for some time to come, and they gloomily made him as comfortable as they could beside Georgina on the bottom boards in the sternsheets of the boat.

After half an hour's rowing they rounded the western point of the bay. As they passed out of it there were still no signs that their enemies meant to follow them; but on reaching the open sea they were con­fronted with an unexpected cause for dismay. A strong current was running dead against them and, pull as hard as they would, they could make only heartbreakingly slow progress towards Saint-Domingue.

When dawn came a little over an hour later it revealed them to one another as a haggard and miserable parry. They had found that there was no water in the boat and no provisions. Most of them were suffering from injuries of one kind or another, and two of them lay in the stern seriously wounded. Soon the sun would be blazing down on them without respite, burning and blistering them with its terrible heat. And, now that day had come, should the pirates choose to set sail either in the Circe or their barque in pursuit of them, nothing could save them from recapture.

chapter XIII

OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE

Jake Harris and Will Kilick had both made previous voyages to the West Indies, but the American, Benjamin Wilson, was the only member of the boat's company who had lived in them for any considerable time; so he was the first to realize the new ordeals of sun-scorch and thirst which they must now face owing to having adopted his own suggestion of making for Saint-Domingue.

While darkness lasted they could have landed unseen on the west point of the bay, hidden the boat among the mangroves and concealed themselves in the jungle, slept all day and then had a full night before them in which to make the crossing. But they were a good mile from land. To turn back now meant exposing themselves to a still greater risk of recapture, and even if they could get safely ashore they would have to abandon the boat from fear that they were under observation by a look-out on the point who would swiftly bring the pirates to the spot where they had landed.

Silently the American cursed himself for his misjudgment: although in fact he was little to blame, as he had known nothing of the adverse current which made every yard they gained a struggle, and in the urgency of the moment anyone might have overestimated the pulling powers of his eleven companions.

As it was Dan, Jake, the Doctor and himself were the only members of the party capable of putting in an effective spell at an oar, and even they were already nearly played out owing to their previous night's exertions. Roger, now in great pain, lay helpless on the stern boards. The wound in Kilick's shoulder, although only flesh deep, made rowing an agony for him. Pirouet and Tom had both proved broken reeds; the one because he had a weak heart, and the other because the blood he had lost after receiving a cut across the head had resulted in his becoming weak and feverish.

That left only the women. Georgina was still unconscious, and Amanda had a wrenched arm. But soon after dawn Clarissa and Jenny volunteered to relieve in turn for a spell two of the four men who were rowing^-Neither of the girls had ever before handled a heavy oar; so at first their erratic efforts proved far from helpful, but after a while they got into the rhythm of pulling and gamely stuck it for an hour.

By then the boat had gained another hard-won mile to seaward, and there were still no signs of pursuit; so most of them felt an increasing optimism about their chances of escape. But the seafaring members of the party, while keeping their thoughts to themselves, were much less inclined to think they were nearly out of the wood. They rightly assumed that they had been allowed to get so far un-pursued only because the early morning calm would have made it futile for the pirates to hoist the sails on either of the ships, and that as soon as a breeze sprang up they might expect to see then* enemies coming after them. With this in mind, when Fergusson suggested that they should take it easy for a while, Dan would not hear of it, and insisted that they must not relax their efforts as long as they had an ounce of strength left in them.

The next hour was a grim one. The arms of the rowers ached to breaking-point and the sun was mounting with an ever-increasing glare. As some consolation the strength of the current gradually lessened until they had passed right out of it; so they were able to maintain the boat's pace with less exertion, and the mangrove-tangled shore of Tortuga dropped below their horizon. But Dan, knowing that the boat could soil easily be picked up by a look-out from a snip's mast, continued to urge them to stick it for a while longer.

Soon after eight o'clock both Fergusson and Wilson were so worn out that every few minutes one or other of them caught a crab, and it became obvious that they had become more of a hindrance than a help; so Jenny and Clarissa again relieved them. By nine the hands of the two girls were badly blistered from the unaccustomed work and they were hard put to it to suppress tears, while Dan and Jake had also reached the limit of their strength. There was then nothing for it but to ship oars and let the boat drift, praying that a now favourable current they had struck would continue to carry it farther from Tortuga.

The rest of the day was one long nightmare that seemed never ending. The pursuit which would certainly have meant their recapture never matured, because it proved one of those days which occasionally occur in the tropics when a calm continues almost unbroken from dawn till dusk; yet at times they would have almost welcomed the sight of their enemies' topmasts as the price of a refreshing breeze.

Hour after hour the glassy sea for miles around reflected the cloudless blue sky, and a brazen sun blazed down upon them unmercifully. In vain they cowered in the bottom of the boat seeking to take advantage of every vestige of shadow thrown by thwarts and the oars laid along them. Their clothes were their only protection from the scorching rays, and adjust them as they would it was next to impossible to keep heads, necks, ears, faces, hands, wrists and ankles covered at one time; yet the exposure of any area of skin for more than a few moments had to be paid for later by most painful burning. Had the Circe's late passengers not become to some degree immunized to tropical sun­shine during the last weeks of her voyage, they must all have been .driven insane; even as it was they suffered acutely.

They were in no urgent need of food but by midday thirst began to worry them. At first it took the form only of parched throats, but as the seemingly ^terminable hours of the afternoon wore on their tongues began to swell and they no longer had enough saliva in their mouths to moisten their cracking lips. Tom added greatly to their distress, for he became delirious, and their hearts were wrung by his cries for water, which they could not satisfy.

Meanwhile, the current had carried the boat out into mid channel and some miles to westward of the course they had set early that morning. From time to time two of the men got out oars and again impelled the boat towards the shore that meant safely and succour, but short spells were all that they could manage. To southward, for as far as they could see on either hand, stretched the shores of Saint-Domingue. From them the western end of the island rose in fold after fold of forest-covered slopes to a great range of peaks eastward in its distant centre, which had caused its aborigines to call it Haiti, meaning 'Mountainous'. Its lack of all signs of human habitation gave it a mysterious, slightly sinister, look, yet with aching eyes they gazed towards it as to a Promised Land.

At about three o'clock Georgina at last came round but, mercifully, almost at once fell again into a torpor. By then the pain of Roger's wound had dulled to an ache which was supportable as long as he remained quite still; and since he had been lying almost motionless all day with his coat rigged like a tent over his face he was not plagued by thirst to the same degree as the others.

Some of them, crouching between the thwarts with their heads similarly buried, managed to doze fitfully for short periods but their physical distress was too acute for them to free then: minds from it for more than a few minutes at a time. They were, too, constantly a prey to the terrifying thought that as they lacked the strength to propel the boat it might be earned by adverse currents out into the open ocean, where they must die in circumstances too horrible to contemplate.

At last the fiery sun began to lose a little of its terrible potency and when it had sunk to within some twenty degrees of the western horizon Dan roused those of his companions who were capable of rowing, urging them to man the oars in a new effort.

In voices made hoarse by thirst they argued against undertaking any fresh exertion before the sun had set, but he pointed out that the injured were in urgent need of proper attention. Within the past hour they had picked out a tiny white patch high up on a headland which jutted out from the coast some distance to the west. There could now be little doubt that it was a large house, and if they could beach the boat below it they could hope to find ready aid there; but if they waited until darkness to make the attempt they might miss the point by miles. As a final incentive he added that if with sundown the sky became overcast, veiling the stars, they might lose their direction altogether, and so fail to get ashore at all.

They needed no telling that if dawn found them still several miles from the coast another day like that which was all too slowly ending would be the finish of them; so they agreed to the sound sense of Dan's reasoning and set to rowing with renewed determination.

When the sun at last went down they were still a long way from the promontory, yet near enough to see that the house upon it was a big building in the French Colonial style and so, presumably, the residence of a wealthy planter. With straining muscles, aching backs and rasping throats the rowers doggedly continued their pulling, but half an hour later they had to give up from sheer exhaustion. Lights had now appeared in the house; so with a single oar thrust out from the stern of the boat Dan was just able to keep her nosing at tortoise pace towards the beacon it now formed, although a slow current from the east threatened to carry them beam on past the cape while they were still a mile or more from it.

Dan could do no more, and it was Clarissa who stepped into the breach. Impelled, by the desperate need for getting Roger ashore she insisted that even the weakest of them must now play their part by double banking the men who had so far done the rowing. Then she appealed to Kilick and Monsieur Pirouet, urging that even if the one lost a lot of blood from the wound in his shoulder and the other collapsed, they should risk that for the common good in a final bid to save the whole party.

Both men willingly agreed, and while they double banked Jake and Fergusson, Jenny and Clarissa shared oars with Wilson and Dan. It proved a grim struggle, but the leeway the boat was making was promptly checked and soon it was moving slowly forward through the darkness. About nine o'clock, to their unutterable relief, it grounded on a beach no more than half a mile, west of the cape for which they had been making.

For a time they simply sat slumped over their oars, gasping, aching, and incapable even of savouring the fruits of their hard-won victory by landing on Saint-Domingue. But as soon as they had had a chance to recover a little Amanda took charge of the situation. Her wrenched arm had made, it impossible for her to help at an oar, but during the final phase she had captained the boat by taking the tiller. Now, as the others were still so done up that they hardly knew what they were doing, she called on each by name and directed them how best to lend a hand in getting the wounded ashore.

Within a quarter of an hour the operation was safely completed; then they all sank down utterly wearied-out on the sandy shore some dozen yards above the tide level. But there could be no real rest for them yet. From the jolting Roger had received he was again in great pain, Kilick had not spared himself once he had taken an oar so his shoulder was now causing him to utter half sobbing curses, Georgina had again become semi-conscious and was moaning pitifully, while Tom, whom they feared had developed brain fever, was rolling from side to side in the throes of delirium.

Although the lights of the house were no longer visible, they knew that it could not be any great distance away along the crest of the tree-covered slope that ran steeply up from the foreshore; but such was the state of weakness to which they had been reduced that they could not possibly have carried the injured up there. So, after a brief respite, it was decided that Fergusson and Dan should act as an advance party with the object of getting help.

Fortunately the trees, which they had seen only as a distant screen of green by daylight, turned out to be palms growing in a sandy soil; so their fears that they might have to fight their way through dense undergrowth proved unfounded. But some forty minutes after they had set out the main party were much concerned to hear the faint barking of several dogs, followed by the sound of shots.

Twenty minutes later Dan and the Doctor reappeared a little way along the beach, staggered towards them and flung themselves down in the last stages of fatigue. When they could get enough breath back they gasped out that about fifty yards from the house they had been set upon by three fierce mastiffs, then someone had come out and fired both barrels of a shotgun blind in their direction. The pellets, evidently aimed high to avoid harming the dogs, had rattled harmlessly through the foliage overhead, but the warning had been too dangerous to ignore, and they had been much too fully occupied in saving them­selves from being savaged to attempt a parley; so there had been nothing for it but to beat an ignominious retreat.

Bitterly disappointing as was the abortive outcome of their mission, they could not be blamed for having failed to stand their ground until they could satisfy the man who had fired the gun that he had nothing to fear from them; for in their sadly weakened state it had required great fortitude to climb the hill at all. But the fact remained that the party had now no alternative other than to spend the night where it was.

At least they were lucky in the type of beach on which they had landed, as they were able to scoop out troughs in the soft sand and so lie down without discomfort; but in other ways they were very far from being at ease. With the going down of the sun they had ceased to suffer from raging thirsts, but they were still subject to intermittent cravings, during which they would have given a great deal for a cup of water, and m one or more places nearly all of them were now being tortured by that ceaseless agonizing scorching of the skin which results from severe sunburn.

Yet there was nothing the uninjured could do to alleviate the sufferings of the injured or themselves; so they settled down as well as they were able to wrestle with their miseries while the hours of darkness lasted.

At first light Dan and the Doctor, this time accompanied by Wilson and Jake, and all armed with thick staves to drive off the dogs, again started for the house. Again the others heard the distant baying of hounds but no shots followed, and somewhat over an hour after the reconnaissance party had set out it returned with a richly dressed white man and a score of cotton-clad negroes and negresses.

The leader of the newcomers was introduced by Fergusson as the Seigneur de Boucicault. He was a big fair-haired florid man aged about fifty, and the owner of the house. Bowing to the ladies he apologized profusely for the misunderstanding which had prevented him from coming to their aid the previous night, and explained that on the dogs giving the alarm he had thought an attack was about to be made upon the house by a band of marauders.

His slaves had brought down fruit, wine, a medicine chest, and hammocks in which to carry up the injured; so within a short time the worst distress of the castaways had been alleviated. Yet it was a sorry crew that made its way up to the house about an hour later. In addition to Roger and Tom all four women had to be carried, and the others had to be helped at the steeper places. Dirty, bedraggled, their hair matted, their faces peeling and puffy from insect bites, their hands blistered, their eyes feverish and sunken, they at last came to shelter and safety in the cool lofty rooms of the gracious colonial mansion.

De Boucicault made them all drink a strong infusion of Cinchona bark to ward off Yellow Jack, and Fergusson, although in a worse state than some of the other men, insisted on seeing all the injured put to bed; then he too allowed himself to be helped to undress and, like the rest, fell into a sleep of utter exhaustion.

Roger slept the clock nearly twice round then lay dozing for a long while; so it was not until the following afternoon that he was urged by returning appetite to ring the handbell that had been placed beside his bed. The summons was answered by a negro houseman who in due course brought him a tray on which was a cup of bouillon, boiled chicken and fruit.

He was just finishing the meal when Fergusson came in, and Roger asked him anxiously for news of the others. The young doctor replied that Georgina was suffering from shock and concussion, but in a better state than might have been expected and, owing to her youth and vitality, in no serious danger. Tom was now giving him more concern as he had undoubtedly developed brain fever and it yet remained to be seen if he would survive the crisis. Amanda too was in poor shape. Her strained arm was nothing to worry about; but although she had bravely refrained from complaining during their ordeal of the previous day she must have been in great pain, as her stomach was black and blue from a vicious kick one of the pirates had given her, and it was possible that she had sustained internal injuries. Kilick's shoulder was badly inflamed from his having manned an oar during their last bid to reach the beach, but should yield to treatment. The rest of them had met for a midday meal and were the worse for their adventure only by cuts, bruises and inflammation. Then he said that, having heard that Roger was awake, he had come up to re-examine his wound.

Roger submitted to some painful prodding, after which Fergusson declared himself satisfied that his first diagnosis had been correct. The bone of the thigh had not been smashed; and, as within a very short time of the wound being received it had been thoroughly cleansed with salt water, it showed no signs of festering. Providing Roger remained in bed the healthy flesh should soon heal and he might hope to be about on crutches in a week or so.

Having anointed his mosquito bites with a soothing ointment and promised to convey his loving messages to Amanda, the doctor left him, but returned in the evening bringing a sedative to ensure him a good night.

With his breakfast tray next morning the negro servant brought an enquiry from M. de Boucteault, who wished to know if Roger felt well enough to receive a visit from him; and he sent back a reply that he would be happy to do so:

An hour or so later the burly French nobleman arrived. Having congratulated Roger on his wound being less serious than had been feared he sat down beside his bed, and said:

"I have heard something from the doctor of the terrible trials to which you and your partly have been subjected during the past week, but he was kept busy with his patients most of yesterday; none of the ladies have so far left their rooms, and the others lack the educa­tion to speak of their adventures with much coherence; so I pray you, Monsieur le Gouverneur, if you feel well enough, to give me an account of these most distressing happenings."

Roger raised a smile as he repeated: "The past week! It seems more like a year since the pirate barque attacked our ship off the coast of Porto Rico. But now that I have slept my fill I should thoroughly enjoy talking for a whiles so, Monsieur, I will willingly oblige you." He then proceeded to give a graphic description of the perils he and his party had survived.

When he had done de Boucicault said: "That you should be alive to tell this tale thanks must be rendered to le Bon Dieu, but it is due in part at least to the courage displayed by yourself and your com­panions, and I am honoured to make your acquaintance. I need hardly say that you are all welcome to remain here for as long as you wish; but without intending any discourtesy I should be glad if the ladies could be transferred to Mole St. Nicholas as soon as they are sufficiently recovered to travel."

"I am sorry that you should find it inconvenient to let them stay here until my wound is healed and we can all leave together," Roger replied in some surprise.

"No, no! You must understand me," de Boucicault rejoined nastily. "Surely you know that war, revolution and civil war are all now tearing this island apart; so that no white persons, particularly defence­less women, are really safe anywhere in it except in the towns held by British troops. It is the certain knowledge of the ghastly fate which would overtake your ladies did they fall into the hands of the revolted negroes that causes me to urge their removal as speedily as may be possible."

chapter xiv

THE TERROR-RIDDEN ISLAND

Roger's face fell, then he admitted a shade apologetically to his host: "I fear I am but sadly ill-informed about West Indian affairs, my appointment came as a surprise and I had little time to study them before I left England. I knew, of course, that as a result of the Revolution in France there had been revolts among the slaves in all the islands, and that here they were said to have been particularly serious; but I imagined that they would have been put down ere this seeing that, as in Martinique, the planters had called in the English to aid them against the Terrorists."

"Far from it," de Boucicault sadly shook his head. "There are British garrisons in the capital, Port-au-Prince, at Mole St. Nicholas, which is only about thirty miles away, and in most of the coastal towns; but they can do little more than aid our army of colonists and loyal mulattoes to hold its own. The greater part of the interior of the country is still at the mercy of the negroes and infested by marauding bands of slaves turned brigand."

Having condoned with his host on this unhappy state of things, Roger said: "Pray enlighten me if you can, Monsieur, as to why matters should have gone so much worse here than in the other islands."

"Perhaps because it was the largest, richest and most progressive of all the French possessions in the Indies, and therefore more closely en rapport with popular feeling in the mother country. Possibly, too, because we had here a higher proportion of slaves than in any other colony. In '89 there were half a million negroes and sixty thousand mulattoes to only forty thousand whites. Although, as a matter of factj it was not the blacks but the mulattoes who initiated our long chain of troubles."

"How so, Monsieur?"

"Looking back I am inclined to think that we colonists were largely to blame for having stubbornly refused to advise our government in France to rectify the anomalous situation of these half-castes. Had we confined ourselves to taking their women as concubines, as you English do, that would have been regarded as a normal privilege of the ruling caste, but many of us married them: yet we still refused to receive their families or grant them any political rights. A high proportion of them were free men who between them owned about ten per cent of the land and some 50,000 slaves. Naturally they bitterly resented such contemptuous treatment. A group of the more in­telligent among them began, as early as '88, an agitation in Paris for equal rights; and coupled with it there started a movement for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery.

"While the monarchy remained absolute these agitations for reform made no headway, but soon after King Louis summoned the States General and it had formed itself into a National Assembly, it issued its famous Declaration of the Rights of Man. Mulattoes and negroes alike instantly seized on that as their Charter, and unrest here became widespread. In March 1790, alarmed by the urgent representations of our Governor, the Assembly passed a resolution to the effect that the Declaration applied only to France and not to her colonies. On that, a mulatto delegate named Vincent Oge, who arrived back here in the following autumn, called on his fellows to secure their rights by force of arms. It was thus there started the appalling bloodshed which has since drenched this country."

"You interest me greatly. Do please continue."

Acceding to the request, de Boucicault went on: "Oge was soon defeated and took refuge in the Spanish part of the island. But he afterwards surrendered and was executed by being broken on the wheel. By then the revolution in Paris was gaining momentum, and the news of Oge's martyrdom, as it was termed, provoked a great outcry. In consequence, in May '91, the law was amended giving coloured people born of free parents in the French colonies equal civil rights, including that of sitting in our Assemblies.

"For the white minority to submit to a decree which might later lead to their being governed by negroes was unthinkable. We decided to ignore it; but the news of it soon got about and set the whole island in a ferment, which culminated on the unforgettable night of August the 23rd.

"A Jamaican negro named Boukman assembled a large number of slaves in the forest. He was a giant in size and a Houngan, as the priests of Voodoo are termed. After sacrificing a pig and drinking its blood the mob he had collected set out to slay and burn. The move­ment spread like a prairie fire through the north and west, and for a week or more there ensued the most appalling butchery of the white planters and their families. Not content with killing the men and raping the women, the blood-maddened negroes put their victims to the most excruciating tortures—such as binding them between two planks and sawing them in half. In their senseless fury they also attacked inanimate objects, setting fire to houses, barns, crops and forest, until the blaze was such that the inhabitants of distant Bermuda -were puzzled and alarmed by the red glow in the sky.

"In the second week troops arrived from the south, the surviving whites formed themselves into armed bands, and with our superior brains and weapons we began to stamp out the revolt. On hearing of the massacres the Governor of Jamaica also sent a contingent of British troops to help us restore order.

"As France and England were then at peace he did so on humani­tarian grounds and without any ulterior motive; but his generous gesture showed us that whereas our own government in Paris had callously thrown us to the black horde, his government considered it their duty to protect the lives and properties of white colonists. It was this which led that autumn to our repudiating the rule of France and sending delegates to London to offer our country to Britain.

"Unfortunately, at that time, your Mr. Pitt was maintaining a policy of strict neutrality with regard to matters connected with the Revolution in France; so on those grounds he rejected our offer. In the meantime, fearing to lose France's richest colony, the National Assembly had rescinded its decree of the previous May; but its action came too late to put a stop to the bloody vendetta that the decree had started. Its only effect was to divide the colonists on the question of severing their relations with the mother country or remaining loyal to her.

"That question was finally decided for them in the spring of '92. By then the extremists in Paris were gaining the upper hand and they forced a new decree through the Assembly. It gave absolute equality of rights with whites to both half-castes and blacks, and Commissioners were sent out with full powers to see the decree en­forced. Our Governor refused to place the white population politically at the mercy of the blacks, so the Commissioners called on the revolted slaves to support them. In addition a high proportion of the French troops had become imbued with revolutionary ideas, so sided with the fire-brands from Paris. Thus a civil war within the civil war began, in which whites, mulattoes and blacks were fighting on both sides.

"That we survived the desperate year of '93 is nothing short of a miracle, but somehow we managed to keep the republicans and blacks from overwhelming us. At tunes though there were happenings of such horror that they beggar description. At midsummer the negroes succeeded in breaking into the fine city of Cap Francais, slaughtered the entire white population of four thousand, then burnt it to the ground.

"Repeatedly we had appealed again to Britain to take the colony over, and as by then she had entered on war with France an agreement was reached that she should do so. But she had heavy commitments in other theatres and for many months could not spare forces to send to our assistance. That autumn, in despair, we begged further aid of the Governor of Jamaica and he nobly answered our appeal. In September the British reinforced our great stronghold at Mole St. Nicholas and they have since sent large numbers of troops who are now acting as garrisons in our principal towns. But the war continues and, alas, I see no end to it.

Having concluded his account de Boucicault fell silent, and after a moment Roger said: "As it is now over a year since British forces landed here in some strength it surprises me that they have been able to do no more than protect a few ports. After all, in Jamaica they have a base that is no more than two days' sail distant; so they should have no difficulty in securing ample arms and stores for the waging of an offensive, whereas the negroes must be ill-armed and their supplies from revolutionary France have long since been cut off. If well directed, a few battalions of our troops ought to have made mincemeat of such a rabble."

The big Frenchman shook his blond head. "My friend, if you think that, you are sadly ignorant of conditions here. It is true that we have been greatly disappointed in the lack of initiative shown by your countrymen, but they are by no means altogether to blame for that. Yellow fever has killed ten British soldiers for every one that has fallen a victim to the blacks. Hundreds of them have died of it, and when I was last at Mole St. Nicholas, a fortnight ago, I learned that the garrison had been reduced to a mere three hundred and seventy-eight, of whom one hundred and sixty-six were sick.

"Again you are quite wrong in your assumption that the negroes are lacking in a source of supplies with which to continue the war. Although Spain is the ally of Britain in her war against France, here she is secretly stabbing your country in the back. As you must know, this whole island was for the first two hundred years after its discovery a Spanish possession. The western, and by far the most valuable, third of it was ceded to France only under the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, and then became known as Saint-Domingue to distinguish it from the part retained by Spain known as Santo Domingo. The Spaniards have never given up hope of regaining the lost third with its richer plantations, and in this terrible civil war of ours they see their opportunity.

"One of the boldest, and by far the most intelligent, of the negro generals is a man named Toussaint l'Ouverture; and he has had the good sense to make a pact with the Spaniards. They treat their slaves comparatively well, but all the same a great part of them would revolt if urged to it. He has promised to refrain from stirring up trouble among them provided their masters furnish him with the necessities of war. That suits the Spaniards, and each time the negroes suffer a defeat they retire across the frontier where our men dare not follow them; for to do so would mean having to fight Spanish troops as well as the negroes. Then when Toussaint has rested and re-equipped his forces he suddenly appears again, overruns a great area of the country and launches an attack on one of our towns.

Roger nodded. "It is a grim picture that you paint, Monsieur; and I am truly sorry for you and the other loyalists here who have suffered so grievously. Pray tell me now, what is the present situation?"

"Toussaint is on this side of the border, somewhere to the east of us, and it is thought that he contemplates an assault against the port of St. Louis du Nord, but no one can say for certain. The mountains and the forests provide him with excellent cover for his troops, no whites dare any longer to live in the interior, and no blacks would betray his movements; so one of his columns might appear with only the briefest warning almost anywhere. That is why I am anxious to get the ladies away to Mole St. Nicholas as soon as they are fit to travel."

"But what of yourself? If you fear that one of Toussaint's columns might suddenly appear in this neighbourhood, it surprises me that you should remain here risking death or capture."

"It is a risk I have long run; and as the blacks have very few mounted men, even were the house surrounded, the odds are that by taking to horse I should manage to break through and escape."

Roger made a half rueful, half comic, grimace. "Until my wound is fully healed I fear that I should be in no case to do likewise."

"I trust, Monsieur le Gouverneur does not suggest that I would leave him to be murdered by these wretches," retorted de Boucicault with a sudden stiffening of his manner.

"I was but joking," Roger hastened to assure him. "It was a stupid remark, as I have no doubt whatever that you would do your utmost to save me."

"And I have little doubt that I should succeed. But to undertake the getting away of four helpless females at the same time might well prove beyond my capabilities. It was for that very reason that long ago I sent my own wife and daughters away to live at Mole St. Nicholas."

"It must be very lonely for you living here without them. As you are in no situation to protect your property I wonder that you continue to do so."

"Ah, but I can protect my property! To some extent at least. And as it constitutes almost my entire fortune, the inducement to stay on in the hope of better times far outweighs the attractions of safety with my family at the price of permanent beggary."

"The estate would remain yours."

"That is true; but the slaves who worked it have gradually drifted away, and ever since the Boukman revolt my plantations have become more and more derelict. In the tropics it needs only a few years of neglect for fields of coffee, cotton, cacao and sugar-cane to be swallowed up by the jungle. Mine would now be of little value. But I still have the house, with its stables and a great range of outbuildings equipped for handling the produce of the estate. They are the nucleus of the property and my sole hope of preserving them lies in staying on here."

"Since your house servants appear to have remained loyal to you, could you not have left them in charge. In the event of a determined ~ attack, whoever was occupying the place would be compelled to abandon, it anyhow, and they would run far less risk of being mal­treated by other negroes than would you."

De Boucicault shook his head. "If you are to govern the island of Martinique successfully, my friend, you will do well to learn some­thing, about the negro mentality; for there, too, their status has now become a problem, and will require skilful handling. In spite of what I have told you of the excesses they have committed here you must not suppose that they are all evil and sadistic by nature. It is simply that their minds are much more childlike than ours. Few of them have as. yet developed any reasoning powers, so they react swiftly to every primitive impulse of the moment, and are easily led by stronger personalities, for either good or ill. Normally, they respond to kindness as readily as those, of us who have been blessed with white skins; and during the terrible week of the initial revolt I and my family owed our lives to the fact that we had always treated our slaves as human beings. They protected us and refused to allow the revolted slaves from neighbouring plantations to set fire to the house.

"Yet the crux of the matter is that they took that stand only because we were present, and could exert a stronger influence on them than could comparative strangers whom they had no reason to regard as in any way superior to themselves. Had we been absent they would almost certainly have joined the insurgents and gleefully participated in the atrocities committed by others of their race.

"'Tis, of course, because I was little more than a cipher to the majority of my estate slaves that most of them were suborned by tales of easy plunder and ran away believing that the country was about to become a black man's paradise. The house slaves, on the other hand, considered themselves to be well off where they were, and I was in a position to counter any idea that by becoming outlaws they would enter into a Utopia. Nevertheless, did I depart, their minds would become fluid and subject to the first plausible rogue who sought to induce them to abandon their trust.

"Probably they would at first refrain from plundering my belong­ings; but were they confident that I did not intend to return until the disturbances were over they would not prevent their relatives from doing so, and soon they would persuade themselves that they were behaving stupidly in letting others get away with all the loot. Within a few weeks the house would be as bare as if it were a mule's carcass that had been picked clean by vultures, yet would be crammed to capacity with negroes of both sexes and all ages.

"That is what has happened to all the big houses in the interior. They have been stripped even to the door-knobs, and become reeking tenements which are best described by the term human ant-heaps. Banisters, cupboards and everything burnable in them is used to light fires because the inmates are too lazy to go out and collect more wood than they have to in the forests. The roofs may leak, the plaster crack, the paint peel from the walls and the floors become charred from the several cooking fires that are lit by different families daily in every room. It is no one's responsibility to maintain or repair the structures, and if their owners ever regain these places they will find that the gracious homes they left have become smoke-begrimed barren shells. That is what would happen here if I went to live in Mole St. Nicholas."

"I see your point." Roger smiled. "All the same I marvel that during all these years of strife you have not been driven out."

"I should have been on several occasions had I not taken precautions against being caught off my guard."

"Such as?" prompted Roger.

"In half a dozen places along a semi-circle, from coast to coast, running roughly five miles distant, I have negroes living who would give me warning of the approach of any hostile body. In this case it is no question of counting on their loyalty but on their greed. I pay each of them a monthly wage for doing nothing, which of course would cease if I were driven out, and any of them who brings me a timely warning knows that he will receive enough money to keep him in idleness for five years."

"That sounds an excellent system, but no warning could prevent an ill-intentioned rabble advancing on the house."

"On receiving one I let loose the dogs."

Roger raised his eyebrows. "Your three dogs might drive off a few unarmed men, as was the case with Doctor Fergusson and my man Dan Izzard two nights ago, but they could do little against a mob bent on plunder."

With a hearty laugh de Boucicault replied: "You are right in that, but I was referring to my pack. It consists of well over a hundred wild dogs: fierce mastiffs each capable of savaging a man to death. Many of the revolted slaves have shown great courage in battle, but experience has proved that these bands of marauders have no stomach for a conflict with my four-legged troops."

"If they are wild I should have thought they would have bolted when released, instead of remaining to attack your enemies."

"They are wild by breed but tamed to the extent that I have trained them for their work. I keep them in a big courtyard beyond the stables and no one other than myself ever enters it. As you no doubt know, the negro has a distinctive smell quite unlike that of a white man. I keep the dogs somewhat underfed and from time to time I wrap a chunk of the pig meat on which I feed them in an old garment that a negro has saturated with his sweat. In that way they have come to associate food with the negro smell. One of my slaves once ignored my order and entered the yard behind me. Before I could lift a hand to help him the poor devil was torn to pieces."

"You have certainly evolved a most ingenious means of defence," Roger commented. "But how did you manage to collect so many wild dogs in the firstplace?"

"That was not difficult. The forests of the island are infested with them. During the first century after its discovery the Spaniards en­deavoured to force the Indians they found here into slavery, but they proved a difficult people. Neither good treatment nor the infliction of the most cruel punishments would induce those they captured to work; while those who continued free waged a bitter unrelenting war against the white settlers.

"Tis said that when Columbus first arrived here there were at the very least a million of them; but even after they had been defeated many times in battle and countless thousands of them slain they would not give in. From forest lairs and caves in the mountains they sallied forth to harass the invaders, neither giving nor expecting quarter. In consequence the Spaniards decided to import negroes to do their menial tasks and totally exterminate the aborigines. "To assist in doing so they sent to Spain for large numbers of hunting dogs, and with them systematically searched the forests, putting every Indian the dogs routed out—man, woman or child— to the sword.

"When this terrible business was over they found that they had many more dogs than they could conveniently feed, so they drove the majority of them away from their settlements. Left to fend for them­selves the dogs soon became wild, and so fierce that even a small pack of them will not hesitate to attack a wild boar. Later many attempts were made to put them down, but they breed with great rapidity so there are still very large numbers of them. The actual securing of them was a somewhat dangerous business, but by digging pits in their runs it was easy for me to trap as many as I required."

"It was certainly an excellent idea," said Roger with a smile. "I only hope that you will have no cause to let them loose while I and my friends are here—or for that matter ever again before order- is restored and you can drive them back to the forest. About the departure of the ladies, though—I doubt if Lady St. Ermins will be fit to leave her bed much before myself; her maid is far too devoted to her to leave without her, and I think we should find great difficulty in per­suading my wife to leave without me. Moreover, I am much opposed to giving them cause for alarm unless you consider the danger really pressing."

De Boucicault hesitated for a moment. "I would not say that. Toussaint's army being reported as at no great distance along the coast is the only thing that causes me some uneasiness. I am confident that my dogs would drive off any band of casual marauders, but should this house chance to lie in the path of Toussaint's advance, we could not possibly put up any serious resistance. Tis that I fear, although admittedly without any special grounds for doing so. How­ever, from what you tell me there seems small hope of getting the ladies away until you are at least sufficiently recovered to stand a thirty-mile journey over rough roads in my coach; so there is little point in our discussing the matter further for the moment."

During the week that followed the sadly battered party gradually recovered from the worst effects of its ordeals. Having once turned the corner Georgina made excellent progress. Amanda was still subject to a shooting pain inside her whenever she coughed, but Fergusson was now satisfied that it would wear off, and that she had not sustained any serious injury. The wounds of both Kilick and Roger were healing well, while of the burns, stings, and blisters that had afflicted the others, few traces remained.

Tom alone continued to give them anxiety. He had weathered the crisis but it had left him so weak that Fergusson feared that he might yet be carried off by a relapse^ and declared that in any case it would be out of the question to move him for another week at the very least. Owing to Georgina's already having become convalescent and Roger's good prospects of soon being able to get about again, de Boucicault reopened with him the question of their leaving, suggest­ing that with the exception of Tom, whom he undertook to have well cared for, they should all set out for Mole St. Nicholas in a few days' time. Roger put the matter to Amanda, who in turn spoke to Georgina, but she would not consider even temporarily abandoning her servant until he was definitely pronounced out of danger; so there the matter rested.

From Roger's first long talk. with, de Boucicault onward, except during the rest hours that Fergusson insisted that he should observe, he had an almost constant stream of visitors. Clarissa slipped into his room shortly after de Boucicault had left him and laughingly pooh-poohed his no more than half serious reprimand that she was outraging convention by remaining there without a chaperon. Dan's bronzed, black-bearded face peeped in at the door that evening and he was gladly bidden to enter. Roger's host came to have a talk with him every morning, Jenny brought him news of Georgina every evening, and from the third day Amanda was well enough to sit with him for long periods. Monsieur Pirouet had invaded the kitchen to cook special dishes for the invalids, and when Roger sent for him to thank him he learned that the French chef was greatly enjoying himself taking lessons in Creole cooking from de Boucicault's hugely fat and jolly old negress cook. The other three men in turn asked permission to come and pay their respects, and he learned that they had all voluntarily taken up some form of work about the place, finding it a pleasant change from their normal activities. So the days in the big comfortable house passed quickly and happily.

On the eighth day after their arrival, as Fergusson had predicted, Roger was able to try out a pair of crutches that had been knocked up for him, and on the ninth Georgina made her first appearance downstairs. The following day being a Sunday—the second in December —the whole party with the one exception of Tom, gathered in the chapel of the house to give thanks for their merciful deliverance. Tom's appetite having been revived by the tempting delicacies Monsieur Pirouet thought up for him, he was now getting back a little of his strength, but no further news of Toussaint's movements had been received, and it was clear that their coming had made such a pleasant break in de Boucicault's lonely life that he would now be most loath to see them go. Moreover, they could hardly have found better quarters in which to convalesce, as at the back of the house there was a terrace with a splendid view over the rocks to the blue bay, and up there on the point they reaped the full benefit of the light sea breezes. So still no definite date had been fixed for their departure.

It was during the night of December the 13th-14th that de Boucicault's first fears were suddenly and alarmingly confirmed. Shortly before two o'clock a panting negro roused the house by beating frantically on its heavy front door. Eloi, the old grey-haired butler, aided by his two footmen, Zabeth and Theodule, were reviving the man with neat rum when de Boucicault came hurrying downstairs.

The negro proved to be one of de Boucicault's outposts, and directly he saw his paymaster he gasped out the news that a column of General Toussaint's men with a number of wagons were advancing along the coast road. He would have known nothing of it had he not been roused owing to the still night, to which he was accustomed, being broken by the dull rumble of many wheels.

When questioned further he said that he did not think there were more than thirty marchers, but they must be a part of Toussaint's army because the transport of brigand bands rarely consisted of more than a few donkeys, whereas these men were escorting something between twelve and twenty wagons. Having made it plain that, although he had run all the way to get as far ahead of them as possible, they could not now be much more than three miles off, he begged urgently that he might be given his reward so that he could make himself scarce well before their arrival.

De Boucicault paid him off and at once sent Dan up to fetch Roger; then, while Dan was assisting Roger to dress, he assembled all the male inmates of the house in the big salon. There, he put the situation to them.

He meant to remain in the house himself, but there was still time for any or all of them' to leave it and hide' in the woods. Anyone who elected to do that could be practically certain of evading Toussaint's men, but they would have to take the risk of being attacked by his dogs, because they were the only means he had of protecting his property; so he could not afford to refrain from turning them loose. On the other hand, the coast road ran over half a mile inland from the house, and it was quite possible that this transport column would pass by without even knowing of its existence. Lastly, in the worst event, it seemed unlikely that, including drivers, the column was much more than fifty strong, while they totalled sixteen who would be well armed behind stout defences; so if all of them remained, with the assistance of the dogs, they should stand a very good chance of beating off an attack.

Led by old Eloi, the eight negro house slaves said that, as in previous emergencies, they were willing to stay with their master. The others all looked towards Roger for guidance, and he found himself in a very difficult position.

Had he had only to think of himself he would at once have declared his intention of staying, as he felt under an obligation to help de Boucicault defend his property should the need arise; but he had also to think of the women, and their best interests must be placed before all other considerations. Although a night in the woods would be far from good for the still convalescent Georgina, and if they took Tom with them might cause him a serious setback, that was not a very high price to pay for an almost certain prospect of escaping Toussaint's men. But there remained the very unpleasant thought that the hungry pack, once loose, might attack white humans as well as blacks; so the crux of the matter was—could they get far enough from the house to be out of danger from the dogs in the limited time before de Boucicault would consider it imperative to release them? It was a very nasty decision to have to take and, after moistening his lips, he asked his host:

"At what time do you intend to let out your wild dogs, Monsieur?"

De Boucicault glanced at the Louis Seize clock on the mantel­piece and replied: "It is twenty-five minutes past two. By now this column must have advanced to between one and two miles of us. I have good hopes that they are not making for the house, but should they be they may arrive here any time after a quarter to three. I dare not leave the freeing of the pack later than twenty to; so if it is your intention to leave us, Monsieur le Gouverneur, you must hurry."

"Nay," Roger shook his head. To get the women out and with himself only able to hobble, a quarter of an hour was too slender a margin. With a glance round the men of his own party he added: "The ladies and myself will remain here, and I recommend you to do so also."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n," muttered Dan, and the others nodded in agree­ment

Quickly now they set about preparing to defend the house. Fergusson went upstairs to warn the women what was afoot while de Boucicault unlocked a big cupboard under the main staircase and began to hand out weapons. There were more than enough muskets and pistols for all, with a plentiful supply of powder shot and side arms. Every window on the ground floor had stout shutters and they already had loopholes bored through them. Old Eloi and his companions took up the positions they had been allotted in similar emergencies, while de Boucicault posted the others to the best advantage, and impressed upon them that they were not to fire until he gave the word.

As it was still bad for Roger to stand for any length of time without support, he had a small table, on which he could sit, placed for him­self opposite one of the shuttered slit windows on either side of the front door. He had hardly done so when Tom, pale and shaky but resolute, came downstairs and insisted that he was strong enough to lend a hand. He was followed by the women, who declared their intention of acting as loaders for the men. The next ten minutes passed in giving them a demonstration of how to handle the weapons swiftly and safely. Then de Boucicault went out to release the pack.

Five minutes later Roger was endeavouring to reassure the girls, when their host came running back and burst in upon them, his ruddy face a picture of consternation.

"We are betrayed!" he cried, striking his fist in furious anger against the jamb of the open doorway in which he stood panting. Many of the dogs are dead; the rest are vomiting and useless. Earlier tonight someone must have thrown poisoned meat in to them over the court­yard wall."

"That settles it, then," said Roger grimly. "An attack is definitely intended. But how could this column while still several miles distant nave known aught of your pack?"

"Everyone in the district knows of it," came the prompt reply, "and Toussaint has spies everywhere. As I have told you he far sur­passes in intelligence the other negro generals. While planning his advance he would have learned about my dogs, and he must have sent some men ahead to ensure their destruction."

It was too late to take to the woods, as they now had reason to suppose that the house was under observation, and the column might arrive on the scene within the next ten minutes; so to leave the house would have been to risk running right up against trouble in the open.

All they could do was to make a final check up on their defences and pray that after a first assault so small a force might decide that the house was too tough a nut to crack. After barring the big door and loading every available fire-arm, they put out most of the candles and masked others, so that the rooms should appear to be in darkness; then stood at their posts anxiously awaiting the appearance of the enemy.

The moon was up and brightly lit the wide sweep of the drive in front of the house, so they had a good field of fire on that side and there was an even better one at its back across a balustraded terrace to the garden; but they thought it unlikely that the attack would come from that direction as the depth of the garden was a bare hundred feet, ending in another balustrade, beyond which the ground dropped almost sheer to the sea. There remained the sides of the house, both of which were flanked by outbuildings; but Dan and Jake were up on the roof with two negroes named Chrysostome and Clovis, and from their greater height could shoot down on anyone who clambered up to the lower roofs on either side of them.

Three o'clock came without sound or sign disturbing the moonlit vistas that the inmates of the house were watching with ever-growing tension. But at five past they caught the rustle and snap of broken bushes, and a moment later a body of men emerged from between the tall palms that fringed the long drive.

They halted about a hundred yards from the house, but one of them continued to walk forward. De Boucicault, who had stationed himself near Roger behind the shuttered window on the other side of the front door, quickly passed the word that everyone should pick his man but refrain from firing until he did. The negro who was approaching was clad in a gaudy uniform with a tricolour sash draped across it, so was obviously an officer. Halting when he reached the foot of the steps, he cried m a high-pitched voice:

"Open up! There are chinks of fight showing from some of your windows, so I can see you must be expecting us. I have wagons with me full of wounded, and require this house to shelter them. Open up now, or it will be the worse for you!"

De Boucicault's only reply was to fire his musket Shot at point-blank range through the chest the officer fell dead at the foot of the steps. A second later a volley crashed out from the defenders of the house. Several of the negroes in the main body sank to the ground killed or wounded. Screams and curses suddenly made the night hideous. Those unhit replied with a ragged volley, then dashed for cover in the nearby bushes. The glass of broken windows crashed and tinkled, and bullets thudded into the shutters. There followed a brief silence while both sides reloaded and sought fresh targets.

During it Roger said to de Boucjcault: "Was not your act a rash one? As he wanted the house for a hospital he would certainly not have destroyed it; and we might have made a pact with him to surrender it peaceably if he allowed us to leave it with the honours of war."

The Frenchman grunted. "You do not understand these people. Pact or no pact our lives would not be worth a moment's purchase if we fell into their clutches. Besides, such a chance to kill their leader might not have occurred again. Now that he is dead they will all be at sixes and sevens and act without proper direction; so our chances of driving them off are increased tenfold."

That he was right became evident during the next half-hour. A small group of the braver negroes attempted to rush one of the windows, and were driven off with severe losses. But apart from that no concerted action was taken; the others kept up only a desultory fire at the faint blurs of light that indicated the loopholes in the shutters.

The garrison, intently watching the black shadows that contrasted so strongly with the silver moonlight, fired at every movement they saw, or thought they saw, among the oleanders, bougainvillaeas, and hibiscus. Occasionally a sharp cry told them that they had scored a hit, but another hour dragged by without the besiegers losing heart and abandoning the conflict, as it was still hoped they would.

Just after half-past four one of the snipers sent a well-aimed shot through one of the loopholes. It laid open Theodule's cheek and smashed some of his back teeth. Amanda left Roger's side to do what she could for the wounded negro footman, and by the time she returned to her post the moon had gone down behind the palms.

Starlight still lit the drive, although more faintly, and the attackers took advantage of the dimness to creep up closer to the house. Ten minutes later a dozen of them made a dash for the front door. Roger dropped one but de Boucicault's musket misfired, and once the group had reached the porch it was too close to the house for fire to be brought upon it from any of the windows. With heavy staves, an axe and musket butts the negroes beat frantically on the door, striving to break it in. They might have succeeded had it not been for Dan and his little party up on the roof. At the sounds of the commotion they ran to the front parapet and, leaning over, began to fire down on the attackers. Two of them were hit and the remainder panicked, flung away most of the things they were wielding and bolted for the bushes.

Again there was a long spell of relative quiet, until Eloi came from the back of the house to tell his master that he felt sure he smelt smoke, and thought that some of the outbuildings had been set on fire.

With an anxious glance at Roger, de Boucicault muttered: "Al­though I made no mention of it, that they might try to smoke us out is the one thing I feared." Then he hurried off to investigate.

It transpired that the maize store was ablaze, but between it and the house was sandwiched the laundry, and de Boucicault felt that if they could well douse the roof and walls of the latter with water there would be a good chance of preventing the fire from spreading to the main building. Swiftly, he set about organizing two fire-fighting squads.

The task of the party on the roof was an easy one, for they had only to carry buckets of water from the big cisterns up there and throw their contents down on to the lower level of the laundry; but to reach the walls of its interior the party below had to get out of the end window looking on to the terrace and either pass buckets, or run with them, the half-dozen yards to its entrance. Short as the distance was, it meant temporary exposure to the bullets of any of the attackers who might have posted themselves in positions from which they could enfilade the terrace; so de Boucicault transferred four of the defenders to first-floor windows at the back of the house to form a covering party, then led the ground floor fire-fighting squad in person.

There ensued a short, sharp battle. Twice de Boucicault, Kilick and two negro grooms succeeded in getting buckets into the laundry. Shots spattered round them, and others in reply from the first floor windows whistied over their heads. Then, at the third sortie, one of the grooms went down, shot through the leg. Dropping their buckets, the others picked him up and got him back into the house, but while helping to do so de Boucicault was hit in the side.

A few minutes later, sweat pouring down his face, he staggered into the main hall and gasped to Roger: "Come with me, please. I want a word with you in private."

Obediently Roger followed him into a small room in which he had been used to deal with the business of the estate. Slumping into a chair, he said jerkily: "We'll have to give up. They hit two of us. If we don't they'll pick us off piecemeal. I fear I'm done for."

"Don't say that!" exclaimed Roger, turning towards the door. "I'll get Doctor Fergusson."

De Boucicault stayed him with an impatient gesture. "No good! One of those black devils got me through the innards. Listen, Monsieur. I have little time left. Tell my wife—if you ever get to Mole St. Nicholas —how I died. But that's the rub. They've got the better of us. Your chances of getting there now are not worth ten sous."

His face suddenly worked convulsively, then he was seized with a violent fit of coughing. After spewing up some blood into his handker­chief, he made a great effort, leaned forward, took from a drawer in his desk a small bottle filled with a pinkish liquid, and went on:

"Unless the wind changes the fire will spread to the house. You will be tempted to surrender. Put the thought from you. I am thinking of the women. These fiends will not only violate them; they will mutilate them most horribly afterwards. I know; I have seen what they have done to others."

Again a fit of coughing choked him. Then he handed the bottle to Roger and gasped: "There is wine in the dining-room. Put this in it Use any pretext to make them drink. In your place I would take some myself. It is a quick poison. By it you can save them from . . . from . . . Should things become hopeless, do not hesitate, I beg. This . . . this is a duty you owe to those you love."

chapter xv

THE CHOICE OF EVILS

De Boucicault had barely finished laying this terrible charge upon Roger when he was gripped by another convulsion. A hideous rattling noise issued from his throat and a few moments later he slumped forward dead.

No one could accuse Roger of lack of courage, but for once he had gone white to the lips, and could feel himself trembling. Reason told him that de Boucicault was right, but his every instinct made him cringe from the thought and he doubted if he could possibly bring himself to do this awful thing. With shaking hands he propped the dead man up in the chair, drew an antimacassar over his distorted face, and limped slowly from the room.

It was now nearly half-past five and dawn not far off. As usual at that hour the wind had dropped, but a light breeze from the sea still fanned the flames of the burning maize store; and there was good reason to assume that the negroes had deliberately chosen that building to start a fire in because it was on the seaward side of the house. With the abandoning of the attempt to get buckets of water along to the laundry the shooting had ceased; so in the early morning stillness Roger could now actually hear the crackling of the flames as they ate into the old rafters.

As soon as the others learned of de Boucicault's death, by an un­spoken but unanimous consent they looked to Roger as their new leader, and the responsibility weighed with crushing heaviness upon him. Had he been strong and well he could as a last resort have led a desperate sortie, hoping that some of them might break through with the women, then turn and make a stand while they ran on to hide themselves in the woods; but, crippled as he was, that was out of the question. He put the idea to Fergusson, suggesting that he or Dan should act as leader, but immediately Amanda and Georgina heard of it they refused to leave without him.

All he could do then was to send more men up to the roof to aid the fire-fighting parry there, in the hope that if enough water was poured down on to the laundry that might yet check the advance of the fire. But the flames from the maize store were now leaping high and casting a new lurid light upon the scene. By it the attackers were able to see and snipe at the fire-fighters. Kilick was again wounded, this time in the hand, and shortly afterwards Ovid, de Boucicault's mulatto valet, was shot through the head; so these casualties, and the caution the others now had to exercise, nullified the extra help that had been sent up to them.

Soon after Kilick came down to have his hand bound up, flames burst through the laundry roof as if it had been a lid clamped down upon a seething volcano. In a matter of moments the main building caught fire and smoke began to drift through the house.

Sick with distress, Roger made his way to the dining-room. Taking a large jug he poured two bottles of wine into it, then the poison. Setting the jug on the table he placed nearby it a glass apiece for each of the survivors. But when he got back to the hall he could not yet bring himself to tell any of the others what he had done.

Unnoticed by him while he had been preparing the deadly brew, dawn had come. As he peered out through one of the loopholes at the side of the front door his heart sank afresh. Some way down the drive a body of at least a hundred negro soldiers stood casually leaning on their muskets and evidently awaiting orders. Reinforcements had arrived, so the last hope had gone of persuading the others to try a breakout instead of taking the terrible alternative.

As he watched, a tall negro in a plumed cocked hat signed to one of the soldiers to go forward. The man held something white. Next moment as he walked towards the house he raised it above his head, and Roger saw that it was a flag of truce. With trembling ringers he set about unbarring the door.

"In Heaven's name, what are you about?" exclaimed Amanda.

"They are offering us a parley," he replied, "and I am going out to meet them."

"Have you become crazed?" she cried. "They will tear you limb from limb. Monsieur de Boucicault knew these wretches well. He told me that he would sooner take the risk of sporting with a hungry shark than place his trust in them."

"No matter," replied Roger curtly. "It is a risk which I must run."

As he resumed the unbarring of the door Amanda stepped forward to fling her arms about him. Dan, sweating and smoke-begrimed, had just come down the wide staircase to report Roger, with his bright blue eyes hard as agates, called to him.

"Quick, Dan! Hold your mistress. It is imperative that she should not be permitted to thwart me at this moment."

After a second's hesitation Dan ran forward, gripped Amanda by the shoulders and drew her bade The other women were acting as loaders in other rooms. Old Eloi was getting a fresh supply of powder from under the stairs and Fergusson was guarding a door at the extreme back of the hall, which gave on to the terrace. Taking up his crutches Roger swung himself swiftly along to the doctor and in a low voice told him about the poisoned wine. As he returned, swirls of smoke were curling like the tentacles of a giant octopus across the lofty hall. Pausing before Amanda he said in a now gentle voice:

"My love. You may be right; but what I am about to do offers the only chance for all of us. Should your fears for me prove justified I beg you to promise me one thing. It is that you should do your utmost to persuade the others to drink the wine that I have left prepared in the dining-room, and to drink of it yourself."

The sudden distension of her eyes showed her realization that it was no ordinary glass of wine to which he referred. Slowly she nodded, then murmured: "You are right my sweet. It is the easier way. May God protect you and bring you back to me."

Old Eloi had seen that it was Roger's intention to go out; so now he completed the unfastening of the door, drew a deep breath, and opened it

With his home-made crutches tapping sharply on the stone steps Roger swung himself down them. The soldier with the flag of truce had by now approached to within twenty yards of the house. Halting, he called out in a rich voice: "General Toussaint l'Ouverture would speak with you."

"Lead on," replied Roger, and as the man turned he followed him down the drive.

On seeing him approach, the negro officer with the plumed hat left his men and came to meet him. When they were within two yards of one another both came to a standstill. Roger eyed the General with anxious speculation, striving to learn something of his character from his face. It was long and thin with a sensitive mouth, high forehead, and deep-set intelligent eyes. He was tall, bony and his gaudy uniform with its enormous gold epaulettes hung loosely upon him. After a moment he asked in the lisping Creole French that all the negroes used; "Are you the owner of this house?"

"No," replied Roger. "I have been here only as a guest for the past two weeks after having escaped from pirates, by whom I had the misfortune to be captured."

"What is your name, and when you were captured upon what were you engaged?"

"I am an Englishman named Brook, and I was on my way to take up the Governorship of Martinique."

The negro's eyes narrowed slightly. "Then you are a person of importance?"

Roger had swiftly seized upon the opening given him, and added quickly: "Apart from those permanently resident in the house, all the inmates are British; and among them is the Countess of St. Ermins, a lady who has far greater influence and wealth than myself."

The General nodded. "I had heard that there were women here. That is one reason why I offered you a parley. I am averse to making war on women, whatever their nationality."

"Do you mean that you are willing to grant them a safe conduct to Mole St Nicholas?" asked Roger with a sudden surge of hope.

'To that I cannot agree. But I am anxious to have the house so that I may lodge my wounded in it and that will be out of the question if it is allowed to burn down. If you will at once vacate it I will give you reasonable terms."

"What are they?" Roger enquired, striving to keep his anxiety out of his voice.

"With one exception, I am willing to grant you your lives. The exception is the man who shot my officer when you were first called on to surrender. For his callous act it is just that he should die."

"It was Monsieur de Boucicault, and he is already dead. What are your intentions with regard to the rest of us?"

"I mean to hold you as hostages. In view of your quality it may be possible for me to arrange to exchange you for some of my people whom the British have taken prisoner; but I can make no promise about that"

"Does your promise of protection apply to the coloured servants in the house as well as to my own party?"

"Theirs is a mistaken loyalty, but I admire honest devotion to any cause. They may go free. I will give orders that they are not to be molested, and shall hope that in due course they will realize where lie the true interests of their race."

"Should you fail to arrange an exchange, what is to happen to us?"

The deep-set eyes of the tall negro smouldered with a sudden glow that betrayed his fanaticism. "You will remain in captivity until I have driven every white man out of this island, then I will send you anywhere you wish."

Roger took mental note that the French terrorists had caught a tartar in making such a powerful personality as this negro General their ally, and that by secretly supporting him the Spaniards in the eastern end of the island were paving the way for the cutting of their own throats. But at the moment he was far more concerned with the fate of himself and his friends. To become the prisoners of a horde of blood-thirsty negroes, perhaps for an indefinite period, was a prospect that would have filled anyone with dismay. Yet it meant life —if General Toussaint's word could be relied upon.

De Boucicault, Roger felt sure, would have maintained that the offer was a trap, simply designed to get them out of the house before it was burnt down, and that remained a terrible possibility. But during their con­versation he had formed the impression that the General was an honest man, so decided that if he could get him to commit himself as deeply as possible, he would take that risk. Holding out his hand, he said: - "Will you give me your solemn pledge to carry out the terms you offer, and give me your hand upon it?"

A sudden smile lit the lean dark face of the negro, as he replied: "Monsieur, it is a rare thing for a white man to offer his hand to a black. I am very glad now that news of the trouble here caused me to leave the main body of my troops during the night with a small rein­forcement, I take your hand gladly and you may rely upon my word." Then his long bony fingers closed upon Roger's in a powerful grip.

Greatly relieved by this firm assurance, Roger returned to the house, while General Toussaint set about organizing his men to fight the fire. As Roger and his party had arrived entirely destitute of belongings, de Boucicault had made their lack good as far as he could from the wardrobe of his wife and daughters and himself; so now those of them who were in a condition to do so ran upstairs and hastily packed small portmanteaux with a variety of things which might make their captivity slightly more endurable. Roger, meanwhile, threw away the poisoned wine; then, choking from the smoke, he and his party went out to the General, who sent its white members under guard down to the small lodge at the entrance of the long palm-lined drive.

There, the wife of the old lodge-keeper knocked up a scratch meal for them; after which they sat about grouped round the porch of the lodge wearied out by the night's fears and activities, yet with minds too harassed by the uncertainties of their future to escape for more than short periods into fitful sleep.

At about ten o'clock the General rode up accompanied by a solitary A.D.C. Reining in, he called to Roger. "The fire has been got under control, and I must now rejoin the main body of my troops. I have made Lieutenant Charlemange responsible for your safety. Obey his orders and no harm will come to you."

Somewhat over an hour later a heavy travelling coach lumbered

down the drive which, together with the horses that drew it, had evidently been taken from de Boucicault's stable. Out of it clambered a young negro officer who had only one arm, and half a dozen soldiers. The officer gave the group outside the lodge an unfriendly stare, and announced sharply:

"I am Lieutenant Charlemange. The women and wounded will ride in the coach. The rest of you will walk."

The girls_t Tom and Roger entered the roomy vehicle, the other men fell in behind it with the squad of soldiers bringing up the rear, Lieutenant Charlemange clambered up onto the box and they set off.

It was a nightmare journey which lasted two days and two nights. Charlemange and his men made it clear that they neither understood nor approved the order they had received to keep the prisoners alive. In consequence, nothing whatever was done to make their slow pro­gress over appalling by-roads under the torrid sun more easily sup­portable. On the contrary, morning and evening their food was flung to them, they were frequently denied water for many hours at a stretch, and the women were at times placed in such embarrassing situations that but for a certain stoicism that their previous unhappy experiences had developed in them, they must almost have died of shame.

At last this grim progress came to an end. Of the name of the locality they had reached they had no idea. They knew only that they must have travelled some fifty miles in a south-easterly direction and had come to a big rambling mansion that stood in a forest clearing among the foothills of a range of mountains.

This once noble property was in just the state de Boucicault had described as the fate of large houses taken over by the negroes. Evidence of neglect was everywhere and the building swarmed with negroes, negresses and piccaninnies, all living together in an indescrib­able state of squalor. Several hundred of them inhabited the house and every corner of its outbuildings. On seeing the coach draw up they poured forth in a swarm, and surging round the white prisoners screamed abuse and insults at them. No one seemed to have any authority over this dangerous rabble, so Roger feared that they were all about to be massacred upon the spot But Charlemange stood up on the box of the coach and shouted to them that General Toussaint had ordered him to shoot anyone who attempted to lay a hand on theprisoners, upon which the crowd sullenly gave back.

The question of quarters for the newcomers was settled arbitrarily by Charlemange's ordering his men to eject half a dozen protesting families from three attics at the top of the house. The women were given one, the men another, while the Lieutenant took the largest of the three for himself and their guard.

The low-ceilinged rooms were filthy and bug infested. As the ejected negroes had taken their scant belongings with them they were also now bare of furniture, and appeals to Charlemange to procure even mattresses proved unavailing. With a callous shrug he said that there were none to be had. Asked what he meant to do about himself and his men, he replied that he would commandeer their requirements but had no intention of depriving honest coloured folks to provide comforts for the type of people who for generations had treated them like animals. His orders went no further than to protect his prisoners from harm; so for a change they could live like animals themselves.

That .was indeed the miserable state to which they were very near reduced. They had at least been allowed to retain the small portmanteaux they had brought, so were able to use these for pillows, and the contents of them provided minor ameliorations of then hard lot But the food they were given was hardly better than pig swill, and they had to eat it out of one big crock with their fingers; the sanitary arrangements were degrading and the smell of the place disgusting; no water was allowed them to wash with and for many hours each day, the atmosphere of the attics was stifling from the strong sun beating down on the roof.

Soon they were all scratching themselves from scores of insect bites, and had not Fergusson had the forethought to bring with him a bottle of de Boucicault's essence of Cinchona bark, a little of which he gave each of them in water every morning, some of them would, almost certainly, have gone down with Yellow Fever. In spite of the appalling conditions in which they lived their health remained good; and as they were not called upon to exert themselves in any way both Tom and Roger regained some of their former strength.

As a means of combating melancholia they divided the day into sections with a variety of activities which would occupy their minds. First thing every morning they held a competition while delousing themselves, the winner being given the choice of what games should be played up till midday. During the heat of the afternoon they endeavoured to sleep, then later took turns in telling stories or de­scribing events in their own lives. Dan's yarns of his years as a smuggler proved particularly popular, and Wilson kept them interested for many hours telling them about the War of Independence and life in the new United States. Then in the evening they held a sing-song.

Yet by the end of the week the lack of new items to introduce into this routine and, by then, the certainty that their jailers had no intention of ever taking any step to lessen the utter wretchedness of their existence, began to make these sessions more like work than play.

For most of the day the negro community below lazed about, but with the coming of night they roused up and threw all their latent energy into Voodoo ceremonies. The chanting, drumming and dancing at these took the place for them of all other recreations, with die exception of watching cock fights. By midnight they had hypnotized themselves into such a frenzy of abandonment that the house shook from the stamping of their feet on the floors of the lower rooms, and frequently it was not until the early hours of the morning that the sound of their orgies gradually ceased.

Night after night, as Roger lay turning restlessly on the hard boards listening to the maddening rhythm of the drums, he tried to plan some means of escape. But the problem proved beyond him.

By now he no longer needed his crutches; so had he been alone, or his parry consisted only of men, an escape might have been effected by night through one of the skylights and over the roof. Although, even had it been successful, it was very doubtful if the many miles of hostile country that separated them from British troops could have been traversed without recapture. But such an attempt hampered by four women was out of the question. A breakout was equally unthink­able, as, although they might possibly have overpowered their slack and somnolent guards, they could not have done so without the alarm being raised, and their chances of fighting their way through the horde of negroes' who lived in the house were about as good as trying to swim the Atlantic. In fact, ill-disposed to them as Charlemange was, he and his men were their only shield. They had already proved their loyalty to their General by standing their ground in the face of several hostile demonstrations against the prisoners; so to have deliberately rendered them hors de combat while the murderous mob below had still to be encountered would have been sheer madness.

The thought of indefinite captivity in their present surroundings appalled them all, and in vain they endeavoured to reconcile themselves to the fact that even months away there was no deadline beyond which they could be certain of release. Clarissa, perhaps because she was the youngest, was the most seriously affected by this demoralizing uncertainty. In every crisis of action she had so far kept her head and shown as much courage as the older women; but now, with ultra pessimism, she declared that they would be there for years, that if ever she did get free again it would only be with a haggard face and scrawny body, and that the cruel Fates clearly intended to rob her of her youth in this way. Each night she sobbed herself to sleep and, in fact, her looks did begin to deteriorate with alarming rapidity. Her high-bridged nose became a bony beak, her cheeks lost their bloom and her golden hair its lustre. Yet there was nothing they could say to cheer her or do to check the draining away of her vitality.

Christmas Day came and passed like any other, as to attempt any form of rejoicing would have been too bitter a mockery. But on the afternoon of Boxing Day they were aroused from their torpor by an order which brought them scrambling to their feet breathless with excitement. From the passage-way Charlemange had shouted:

"Get your things together. We are leaving here."

Instantly their hearts bounded with the hope that General Toussaint had succeeded in arranging an exchange for them; but the one-armed Lieutenant would neither confirm nor deny that. After spitting on the floor he just shrugged and muttered surlily:

"I have received an order to take you to another place. That is all you need to know. Hurry now!"

They needed no urging. Their quarters and treatment at the place to which they were to be taken could hardly be worse than the con­ditions under which they had lived for the past ten days. Within a few minutes they had packed their meagre belongings and were again being protected by their guards, as they made their way downstairs, from the menaces of scores of yelling blacks of both sexes.

The coach stood before the house. They noticed at once that its window curtains had disappeared and that the fine leather harness had been replaced with pieces of old rope. Then they saw that its well-sprung seats and back cushions had all been ripped out, leaving its interior a bare wooden box. Nevertheless, those of them who had come- there in it were glad enough to take places on its floor in the hope that it would carry them to better times.

Actually, owing to the removal of the seats, the continued infliction of needless hard usage by their guards, and their journey being some­what longer than the previous one, they suffered even more severely. Yet hope, now strengthened by the knowledge that they were being taken towards the coast, enabled them to bear it with a greater degree of fortitude.

On the fourth evening the coach was halted at a cross-roads and its occupants told to get out With the others they were marched some distance along a track and then, just as the sun set, into a wood. After another half-hour's walk they came to a ruin, which they judged to be the remains of a monastery erected in the days of the Spanish occupation.

Some negro soldiers emerged from among the piles of great stones, and their officer held a brief consultation with Charlemange, at the conclusion of which the one-armed Lieutenant marched his men away without so much as a glance at his late prisoners. They knew that they probably owed their lives to his conscientious obedience to the orders he had been given, yet none of them could feel sorry to see him go.

The other officer gruffly told them to follow him, but refused to answer any questions; so surrounded by a new and larger escort they proceeded deeper into the forest until they reached a wide clearing. On its eastern edge they waited for over an hour, so pent up with excitement that they could hardly contain themselves. At length a single shot rang out somewhere to the west of them. The officer gave an order and two of his men fired their muskets into the air; so it was evident that the first shot had been a pre-arranged signal.

A few minutes later, in the faint starlight, several groups of men could be seen emerging from the trees on the far side of the clearing. Led by their officer a number of the negro soldiers went forward to meet them. There was an exchange of passwords, then Roger heard a voice speaking in such bad French that it could only have belonged to an Englishman. Several of his companions had realized that too, and with unutterable relief they kissed, embraced and with tears of joy running down their cheeks, wrung each other's hands.

After that everything seemed to happen very swiftly. Laughing and chattering the negro troops disappeared with the prisoners that the British had handed over to them, while Roger and his party found themselves surrounded by grinning red-coats and shaking hands with a plump young man who introduced himself as Captain Mansfield of the 41st

As in a dream they walked another mile to a road where carriages were waiting. During a long drive they hardly spoke, but soon after dawn they entered Mole St Nicholas.

It had well been termed the Gibraltar of the Indies, as it possessed a fine natural harbour and the great fortress out on the promontory dominated the strait between Saint-Domingue and Cuba. But Captain Mansfield did not take them up to it He explained that it was already overcrowded with refugees; so accommodation had been taken for them at the Hotel de France, which was situated in the central square of the little town that lay in the shelter of the Mole.

At the hotel they were welcomed by its proprietor, Monsieur Ducas. The plump Captain said that he would wait upon them later in the day, and they managed to murmur their thanks to him. Then they were led to their rooms and, pulling off their filthy clothes, flopped into bed.

When they awoke they could hardly credit that they were free again, but were soon reassured that they were not dreaming by the tangible comfort of their beds and solid appointments of the well-furnished rooms. The dinner hour had long since passed but Mansfield had foreseen that they would sleep through most of the day, so had called only to leave the Garrison Commander's compliments with a purse of twenty-five guineas for their immediate necessities, and orders that trays were to be sent up to them as soon as they roused from their slumbers. Having eaten and, although still almost speech­less from relief, paid brief visits to one another in their rooms, they slept once more.

Next morning the hotel servants were kept busy for an hour carry­ing up many copper cans of hot water, so that the new arrivals could thoroughly cleanse themselves in hip baths. Two barbers were sent for and a mercer who brought with him a selection of ready-made garments. By midday the gentry of the party, if not fashionably dressed, were at least presentable, and the others had substituted clean tropical attire for their flea-infested clothes.

At two o'clock Mansfield arrived to carry Roger, Wilson, Fergusson and the three ladies up to the fortress to dine with its commandant, Colonel Seaton. He proved to be a dour, elderly Scot, who had made his way in the Army by conscientious, if not enlightened, endeavour. It was at once clear to them that he was no courtier, but shrewd enough to realize that the goodwill of such influential people as the Governor-designate of Martinique and the Countess of St. Ermins might one day stand him in good stead. Having commiserated with them on their misfortunes he expressed his willingness to help them in any way he could.

They thanked him in no measured terms for having rescued them by agreeing to an exchange of prisoners, and for his other courtesies; after which Roger reimbursed him for his loan with a draft on Hoare's Bank, and said that they would all like to go to Jamaica as soon as a passage could be arranged. He told them that as his communications with Kingston were frequent he thought there should be nothing to prevent their leaving in the next few days. They then went in to dinner.

It proved an indifferent and far from cheerful meal. Although the Colonel spoke guardedly, it was clear that he felt a bitter resentment against the powers at home who showed a most lamentable lack of understanding about the problems and needs of troops campaigning in the West Indies, and that he was greatly depressed by the heavy toll that death from Yellow Fever was taking of his men.

Recalling Droopy Ned's advice, Roger suggested that he should send the greater part of them to sea for a short voyage; but he seemed pessimistic about such a step having results of permanent value, and said that in any case his numbers were so reduced that he could not possibly do so without risking the security of the Fortress.

They finished dinner about seven, upon which the ladies retired to the drawing-room while the men sat over their port An hour later they joined the ladies and soon afterwards Georgina initiated the polite movements for making their adieux. At this the Colonel expressed unfeigned surprise, reminding them that it was New Year's Eve, and saying that his officers were greatly looking forward to welcoming them in the mess to celebrate seeing the old year out

In their complete absorption with their freedom they had com­pletely forgotten the date, and although they would rather have once more savoured the joy of getting between clean sheets at the hotel, politeness demanded that they should now stay on where they were. As none of them had any acquaintances in common with the Colonel, and he did not know enough about Saint-Domingue to be interesting on that subject, the conversation was kept up only by gallant efforts on the part of the visitors. But at last it struck ten o'clock and he led them through several chilly stone passages to the Officers' Mess.

As British women were as rare at Mole St. Nicholas as flies in December at home, the thirty-odd officers assembled there greeted Georgina, Amanda and Clarissa with a tremendous ovation. But they had been through too much too recently to meet it with a genuine response. They did their best to show their appreciation of the many gallant toasts drunk to them, and did their utmost to disguise the accumulated weariness from which they were still suffering, but they, and Roger, Fergusson and Wilson too, were heartily glad when the New Year of 1795 had been ushered in with the singing of 'Auld Lang Syne', and they were at last free to take their departure.

Next day, after sleeping late and the luxury or another bath, Roger felt much more like his old self and having found out where Madame de Boucicault was living, he performed the sad duty of waiting upon her with the news of her husband's death. Then, on returning to the hotel, as he had nothing to do, he decided that it would be interesting to learn the views of a rich bourgeois on possible developments in Saint-Domingue. Accordingly, he sought out Monsieur Ducas and suggested that the landlord should join him in a bottle of wine.

Murmuring his appreciation of the honour 'Son Excellence le Gouverneu’ proposed to do him, the hotelier led Roger to his private sanctum and sent for a bottle of his best Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Soon, as Roger's French was so perfect, he kept forgetting that he was talking to an Englishman and in response to skilful leading questions began to give free rein to his beliefs.

He was a loyal Frenchman. In Saint-Domingue, just as in France, the nobility had been stupid, greedy and overbearing; so to begin with he had been all in favour of the Revolution which promised to pull them down a peg or two. But somehow everything had gone wrong. In Paris the demagogues had abandoned God and murdered their king. Then they had seized upon the discord in the colonies to further their criminal designs against all owners of property. To save themselves from wholesale massacres the colonists had been forced to call in the English. What else could they do? Yet France would in time become sane again, and Samt-Domingue was almost as much a part of her as Provence. So in due course it must be restored to the mother country. There would be difficulties, of course. But it was to be hoped that the British would see the obvious necessity for this.

The great tragedy was, he added, that there a moderate Revolution could quite well have been effected without bloodshed. That it had been otherwise was due to the mulattoes. It was they who had first taken up arms, and had they not done so the negroes would never have followed their example.

"I thought," remarked Roger, "that the mulattoes had played only for their own hand, because they realized that while liberal sentiment in pre-revolutionary France might gain for them equal rights with the whites, there could be no question of such rights being granted to the negroes."

"That is true, Monseigneur. And, of course, many of the wealthier mulattoes were slave owners themselves. But once a country becomes divided against itself in civil war, who can say where the conflagration will stop? It was seeing the white planters murdered and their houses plundered that inflamed the minds of the negroes. But for that, the windy orations of the Terrorists sent out from Paris would in most cases have fallen on deaf ears. The slaves did not then understand what freedom meant, or want it They were in the main quite contented with their lot"

"You surprise me. Are you really convinced of that?"

"Indeed I am. When in France you must have seen how the peasants toil in the fields from dawn to dusk, and turn their women too into beasts of burden. It is the same in Italy and most other European countries; yet these people are free. The negroes were no worse off while working here in the cane-brakes."

It was a new point of view to Roger. He remembered an occasion when he had breakfasted with Mr. Pitt The Prime Minister's great friend William Wilberforce had been present, and had talked at considerable length on the horrors of the slave trade. Now, he repeated some of the statements Wilberforce had made to Monsieur Ducas.

The Frenchman shrugged. "I do not deny that the conditions under which fresh cargoes of slaves are brought over from Africa -are often appalling, and that many of them die from sickness or ill-treatment on the voyage. For that, Monseigneur I fear that your countrymen are mostly to blame, since 'blackbirding', as it is called, has long been one of the most profitable fields of British enterprise. I spoke only of the condition of the slaves either born here or once they have been purchased by our colonists.

"I spoke, too, only of those who are put to the hardest manual labour. A nigh proportion of them were employed in shops, cafes, bars; as boatmen, coachmen, grooms, gardeners and house slaves. In most cases those so employed were much better off than people in similar occupations in Europe."

"On what do you base that contention, Monsieur?"

"Because they had security. And that applied also to those who laboured in the fields. In Europe a workman is paid only as long as he is useful to his master. Should he fall sick he is dismissed and must live on charity. Should he be in no position to obtain it he starves. The situation of the slaves was very different. A good one cost up to 4,000 livres—in your money £160. They were therefore valuable properties. When they became ill their owners naturally took good care of them in order that they might soon become fit to work again. Moreover, food is very cheap here; so when they grew old and could work no more mere was no question of turning them adrift, as happens in Europe. They were put on to light tasks suited to old people, then allowed to just sit about taking care of the piccaninnies, without being a burden to their relatives, until they died.

Again Roger recalled previous conversations he had had bearing on the subject For many generations the peasantry in England had been much better off than those on the Continent, but in recent years great numbers of them had been forced to leave the land. The en­closures of the commons had in many cases deprived them of the free grazing, free fuel and other amenities they had long enjoyed. Then the spinning jenny and other inventions had sadly depleted the amounts they could earn by their cottage industries; so by the thousands they had migrated to the towns.

As long as they had remained cottagers, in bad times, or cases of personal misfortune, they had been able to turn to their landlords or the village parson for assistance; but once they became workers under the smoke clouds belched out from the chimneys of the new factories, no one any longer felt responsible for them as individuals.

In association with Sir Richard Arkwright, the Duke of Bridge-water, Josiah Wedgwood and other such industrial pioneers, Georgina's father, Colonel Thursby, had made his great fortune from the new canals and mechanical inventions. It was he who had told Roger that, too late in life, he now realized the misery that investors like himself were bringing to the people of the Midlands and the North. He had then described the desperate struggle for employment during periods when trade fell off; the starvation wages paid which necessitated women and children as well as men toiling m the mines for such long hours that only in summer did they see the light of day; the drunkenness in the filthy gin-shops on Saturday nights, which had become the only outlet for once decent men who, when youths, had taken their recreation in the gay gatherings at the hiring fairs, and such annual jollifications as beating the bounds, jumping St John's bonfires, welcoming Jack-in-the-Green, and dancing round the village Maypole.

As Roger thought of these things he felt that Ducas had made a good case, and after a moment he said: "You paint a very different picture, Monsieur, from what I had imagined slavery to be. But now that things here have come to such a pass, it seems to me that there is little hope of pacifying the country unless it is agreed once and for all that the slaves should be given their freedom."

"But that is impossible!" exclaimed the Frenchman. "Monseigneur cannot have realized that our slaves form a large part of our fortunes. To suggest that we should surrender our right to their labour is much the same as proposing that we should give away our houses or land. Besides, unless the planters got back the capital invested in their slaves few of them could finance the payment of wages to them for many months, until paid for the produce they had raised. No; all we French loyalists are agreed that the slaves must continue to be slaves, otherwise this island will fall into final destitution and ruin."

Roger thought that Ducas and his kind were displaying typical traits in the French mentality. They wanted the British to fight the negroes for them but keep the colony for France; and after the negroes had been defeated set the clock back four years by reinforcing slavery on those who had already freed themselves. He was tempted to remark that to cling to such ideas amounted to a refusal to face facts, but decided that to do so would not impinge on the Frenchman's narrow vision, so instead he said thoughtfully:

"All people of sensibility are now agreed that the slave trade is abhorrent; so perhaps a solution could be reached by first abolishing that, then entering into an understanding with the negroes here to the effect that all children born to them in future, instead of auto­matically also becoming slaves, should be free. Such a measure would protect the interests of present slave owners, yet lead in time to the complete abolition of slavery; so it is possible that if and when the negroes are defeated they might accept such terms."

"No, no!" Ducas stubbornly shook his head. "That would never do. In a generation or two there would be no slaves left. Without them we colonists would become terribly impoverished. The picca­ninnies are our slave labour of tomorrow. To give them freedom at their birth would be to rob our own children of their just inheritance."

There the conversation ended, as a messenger was announced from Colonel Seaton, who sent to say that a sloop of war would be sailing for Kingston next morning; so Roger finished his wine, excused himself and went upstairs to tell the others.

At eleven o'clock next day the Colonel escorted them on board. The accommodation in the little ship was very limited, but every­thing possible had been done for the comfort of the ladies, and after their recent experiences they were happily conscious of the safety on which they could count in sailing under the White Ensign. As soon as they had taken leave of the Colonel the ship cast off, made two short tacks, then with a good breeze behind her set course for Jamaica.

Early two mornings later they sighted. Morant Point and a few hours afterwards came opposite Port Royal. They gazed at the now semi-derelict port with fascinated interest as it had once been the most infamous town of the whole Spanish Main. In the days when Sir Henry Morgan had been Governor of Jamaica, and carried out his exploits against the Spaniards, freebooters of every nation had made it their favourite haunt after successful piracies. Thousands of pigs of silver and ingots of gold had changed hands there, jewelled crucifixes, necklaces of pearls and girdles flashing with inset diamonds, emeralds and rubies, had been bartered for a night's lechery, and millions of pieces-of-eight. doubloons and moidores been squandered in its scores of gaming-hells and brothels. But, like another judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, in 1692, when at the peak of its riotous prosperity, it had been almost totally destroyed by a terrible earthquake.

Tacking again, the sloop nosed her way past the palisades up to Kingston harbour, and as soon as she docked the Lieutenant who commanded her sent a runner off to the Governor, Major-General Williamson, to inform him about the passengers on board. Three-quarters of an hour later a young A.D.C. arrived with the General's compliments and a request that they would accompany him to Government House.

There, the Governor and his wife received them most kindly, insisting that they must stay at the Residence until they had settled their plans. Wilson alone courteously declined, as he had old friends in Kingston with whom he wished to stay. Monsieur Pirouet, Dan, Tom and the two sailors who had survived from the Circe were placed in charge of the steward with instructions that they were to have their every need supplied; then the others were taken by their host and hostess up to comfortable rooms gay with flowered muslins, lead­ing on to a wide veranda. It was thus, after the hazards and discomforts of an eight-week ocean voyage, followed by six weeks of acute fears, sickness and distress, that they were once more able to savour to the full the pleasures of gracious living.

For some days they gave themselves up to it entirely while recu­perating; lazing away the days in the richly furnished salons of the Residence or under the shade of palm trees on the lawns of its lovely garden. On two nights the Williamsons had already arranged dinner parties; on the others Roger and his host sat long over their port, as they had taken a great liking to one another.

General Williamson was a man of imagination and vigour, and it was he who, unasked, had sent the first help to the colonists in Saint-Domingue. He had also, the preceding summer, inspired the brilliant dash by British troops on Port-au-Prince, the splendid capital which, with its fine squares and beautiful buildings rivalled any provincial city in France, and so had saved it from a similar fate to that which at the hands of the rum-maddened negroes had overtaken Cap Francais. From these long conversations with him, Roger eagerly absorbed much invaluable counsel as to how best to conduct affairs when he too took up his duties as the Governor of a West Indian island.

By January the 8th, Roger's twenty-seventh birthday, the girls were well on the way to getting back their looks and, except for Georgina, who still grieved for Charles, had recovered their spirits. Meanwhile. General Williamson had arranged credit facilities for Roger, which enabled them all to order new wardrobes, and by the end or the week, when the clothes began to arrive, they felt the time had come to settle plans for the future.

It was Fergusson who first actually raised the matter by saying that he could no longer afford to remain idle, and must set about trying to find a ship requiring a doctor, that would take him back to England. The capability, good sense and courage that he had dis­played throughout had greatly impressed Roger; so he told the young doctor that, if he wished, he would find for him a much more remunera­tive post in Martinique, and Fergusson gladly accepted.

Georgina then said that Jake and Kilick deserved better for the loyalty they had shown than to be allowed to return to their hard life at sea, and that she would willingly find them some congenial employment with cottages to live in on her estate at Stillwaters, her lovely home in Surrey. But both men proved overjoyed at the prospect of future security from hardship and want in her service.

Later that day she told her friends that as she and Charles had talked so much of the happy time they hoped to have with his relations on the golden shores of St Ann's Bay, now that she had been robbed of him she could no longer support the thought of going there, so she intended to return to England as soon as possible.

Amanda and Roger pressed her to spend the rest of the winter with them in Martinique, but she said that blue seas, palm trees and tropical sunshine were a constant reminder of her loss; so it was better that she should bury herself for a while among the friendly woods and green fields of England. When she consulted General Williamson about sailings he would not hear of her making the voyage in a trader, but said that a ship-of-the-line would be leaving within the next ten days, and that he would arrange with her captain to carry home her ladyship and her servants.

Roger had not forgotten Clarissa's outburst on the night she had lost herself in the forest on Tortuga; so next morning he took an opportunity to have a word with her alone. He told her that, having thought matters over, he had decided that it would be better for all concerned if she did not accompany Amanda and himself to Martinique, and that Georgina's decision to return to England now offered an excellent opportunity for having her pleasantly chaperoned; so he wished her to make some suitable excuse to Amanda for going home.

For a few minutes Clarissa panicked, pleading wildly to be allowed to stay with them, and urging that it would be cruel in the extreme for him to send her back to a regime of prayers and near poverty with her Aunt Jane. Then, as she saw his jaw set stubbornly, she calmed down and said in a deceptively meek voice:

"Knowing the circumstances from which she rescued me, I think Amanda will be much surprised. What excuse do you suggest that I should make for leaving her?"

"You could say that all that you have suffered in the Indies has given you a nausea of them; and that, like Georgina, you'll know no tranquillity of mind until you can get away from the sight of negroes and sun-scorched beaches."

Suddenly she laughed. "I could, Roger \ but I won't. If you are determined to get rid of me, you must think of some way yourself to make Amanda send me home."

For a moment he was silent then his eyes began to twinkle. He knew that she had got him, and by just the sort of subtle trick that he admired. "You wicked baggage," he admonished her with a grin. "You know as well as I do that I would never disclose to Amanda my real reason for wishing you to leave us; and there is no other I can give her. So be it then. Let's hope that I can find you a promising young soldier in Martinique, to give your mind a new occupation.''

In consequence Clarissa, after all, accompanied Roger, Amanda, Dan and Fergusson when they too left Jamaica in a warship. General Williamson had insisted that the least he could do for a fellow Governor was to send him on his way in a frigate, and as there was nothing to delay their departure, they sailed five days earlier than Georgina. After fond farewells, and most heartfelt thanks to the Williamsons for all their kindness, they were waved away from Kingston's quay on January the 18 th, and after a fair passage docked at Fort Royal, Martinique, early on the morning of the 24th.

While the passengers were dressing the Captain sent ashore to inform the acting Governor of the new Governor's arrival, so that an official welcome could be prepared for him. Soon the harbour front became crowded with coloured folk who had heard the news and were eager to witness the proceedings. Next a regiment of British red-coats and a squadron of Hanoverian cavalry appeared to form a guard of honour. By then the Captain of the frigate had dressed ship, and had all his tars and marines on parade. Two A.D.C.'s came aboard, saluted Roger, and were duly presented to the smiling ladies. A minute gun began to fire a salute from the fortress. The band struck up "The British Grenadiers'. The senior A.D.C. murmured to Roger that the time had come for 'His Excellency' to land.

Dressed in his best new suit, and fully conscious both that this was a great moment in his life and that he cut a fine figure, Roger walked with a firm step down the gangway. A warm smile lit his handsome face as he glanced from side to side at the people to whom by his Sovereign's will his word would henceforth be law.

Suddenly the smile was wiped from his lips. A stalwart, square-shouldered, red-faced man dressed in a colonel's uniform was advanc­ing to meet him. Obviously this must be the acting Governor. It was also the man who as a boy had bullied Roger fiendishly at their public school; a pig-headed brute whom he hated and despised, named George Gunston. There was no one in the world whom he would not rather have had to collaborate with in his new duties.

CHAPTER XVI

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR

With every eye upon them there was no escape from shaking hands. As they did so Gunston gave a slightly derisive smile and murmured: "At your service, Mr. Brook. You will find a pretty kettle of fish here; but as your talents are evidently considered superior to my own I wish you joy in handling it"

Gunston had once wooed Amanda so, although Roger had won her, she still regarded the freckled, red-headed soldier as an old friend, and when the ladies came down the gangway she exclaimed:

"Why George! How lovely to find you here."

"The pleasure is all mine, M'am, he replied with a grin, "This is the most God-forsaken station I've ever been on so the society of some English ladies will prove a rare blessing."

As he spoke his eyes switched to Clarissa, taking in her young loveliness with evident appreciation, and Amanda presented him to her.

Roger next inspected the guard of honour, then the party moved off to a row of open carriages that had been drawn up behind the troops. According to protocol Roger and Gunston got into the first, while Amanda and Clarissa were escorted to the second by the two A.D.C.'s. The band struck up again and they drove off.

At an order the troops raised their shakoes and gave three cheers. Some of the coloured folk joined in the cheering, but most of the whites and mulattoes in the crowd remained silent

"Sullen lot, these lousy Frogs," remarked Gunston. "But I stand no nonsense, and have been keeping them well under my thumb."

"Would it not have been a better policy to endeavour to win them over by conciliation?" replied Roger quietly.

The young Colonel gave a sneering laugh. "There speaks 'Book­worm Brook', the little toady that I used to lick at Sherborne. You can't have changed much to advocate a policy of toadying to the French. But I suppose it was toadying to Mr. Pitt that got you your governorship."

"Listen, Gunston," Roger said with an edge on his voice. "I could call you out for that But we have already fought one duel with pistols, and rather than expose you to the possibility of being cashiered for fighting another, I gave you satisfaction a second time before an audience of both sexes with buttons on the foils. In that I proved by far the better swordsman, and I could kill you tomorrow morning if the choice of weapons lay with me."

"I'm in better practice now," Gunston retorted, "and Fm game to take you on with the buttons off any time you like."

"I have never doubted your courage, but you have not heard me out I have no intention of either giving or accepting a challenge in your case. I have been sent here for a purpose which I mean to do my best to fulfil. You, too, are in the King's service. Having been thrown together in this way is most unfortunate, seeing that we have a natural antipathy for one another. But as your superior I shall expect from you a prompt obedience to my orders, and a reasonable politeness. Should you fail in either, I warn you here and now I shall have you placed under arrest for insubordination." Gunston shrugged. "You need have no fears about my doing my duty; and you are right in that for the sake of the Service it would be a bad thing for us to be at cross purposes. But there is still much antagonism to the British here; so this is a soldier's job, and you will be well advised to be guided by me in all measures for keeping the population under."

"I shall certainly consult you, but form my own judgment in due course," replied Roger quietly. And that closed the conversation. Meanwhile the carriage had carried them through streets which had some fine examples of Louis XIV and Louis XV architecture and up a steep winding road to the Governor's Residence. It was a large chateau and still contained many handsome pieces of furniture, carpets, tapestries, and pictures which had been collected there by a long line of noble governors during the ancien regime. Its tropical garden was gay with flowers and from its situation high up on the Hill there was a lovely view over the five-mile wide bay to a famous beauty spot called Trois Ilets on the opposite shore.

As they got out at its entrance and the A.D.C.'s handed the ladies down from their carriage, Gunston looked towards them and re­marked: "That's a fine little filly that Amanda's brought with her. I must put her through her paces."

"You will treat Miss Marsham with every respect!" snapped Roger. "Or find yourself accountable to me."

"Indeed!" A mocking smile appeared on Gunston's ruddy counten­ance. "Does your Excellency's authority then extend to prohibiting your staff from polite attentions to young ladies?"

With an angry frown Roger turned away. Gunston had him there, and as he was a fine dashing figure of a man many women found him attractive. After a time Clarissa might well yield to his experienced wooing, and while Roger had persuaded himself that he would be glad for her to have an affaire with someone like one of the young A.D.C.'s, the thought of her in Gunston's arms made him seethe with impotent rage.

Having acknowledged the greetings of a staff of some thirty coloured servants who had been assembled to welcome their new master and mistress, Roger said to Gunston: "Please take me to the room in which you transact your business."

"Damn!" the Colonel muttered in a low voice. "After getting us all up at an ungodly hour by your early arrival this morning, surely you do not mean to start work now the hottest part of the day is approaching? You won't last long here if you play those sort of games."

"I am anxious to have the latest news out of Europe," Roger replied coldly; so with just the suggestion of a merry wink at Clarissa, Gunston led him away to a pleasant room at the back of the house overlooking the bay. There, Gunston rang a handbell, which brought a negro footman hurrying in with the ingredients for a 'planter's punch', and while mixing the drink the Colonel began to comply with Roger's request.

"Tis said that my Lady Southwell gave birth to a child covered with hair, and that it matched in colour the beard of the Netherlands Envoy, who has long pursued her. So the wits have made a rhyme on it that runs:

The Dutchman, bearded like a goat, Has at last had his Southwell. But it cost him a fur coat"

Had anyone else told Roger this silly story he would have laughed. Instead he said impatiently: "I am not interested in scandal. I want the latest particulars you have of our war against the French.” Yet even as he said it he felt that he was being horribly pompous, and acting like a man twenty years older than Gunston rather than one two years his junior; although as far as their mentalities were concerned the former was the case.

"Ah well!" The Colonel shrugged his broad shoulders. "You shall have it, then, though there's little enough to tell. Some three months ago the French sent an expedition to recapture Corsica, but it was driven off. In all other theatres they are still getting the best of it. General Jourdan has had several successes on the Rhine and Pichegru has invaded the Low Countries."

"I learned that from General Williamson whilst in Jamaica, Is there no later news?"

"Not of the war; but from the news-sheet carried by a packet that arrived here three days ago I gather that in Paris more members of the old Terrorist gang are meeting with their just deserts at the hands of the Reactionaries. You may have heard of a brute named Carrier, who drowned hundreds of poor wretches at Nantes. An honest fellow named Fouché brought tears to the eyes of his fellow deputies when describing this monster's vile crimes, and so secured his death."

Suddenly Roger laughed. "Honest fellow! My God, Gunston; if you only knew! Fouché was responsible for the murder of near as many people in Lyons as Carrier was in Nantes. Yet such an act is typical of him. His capacity for hypocrisy is bottomless; although! would have scarce thought, considering all those other rogues know of him, that he could have succeeded in staging such a volte-face. Still, it only goes to show that power remains in the hands of the extremists, and they are still at their old game of cutting one another's throats.'¹

"You know this man, Fouché, then?"

Roger forbore to say that the mutual hatred between Fouché and himself was even deeper than that he bore Gunston, and nodded. "Yes; as Mr. Pitt's agent in France I have had to have dealings with most of these cannibals at one time or another."

"I fear I should have found your late occupation, to say the least, repugnant"

Ignoring the covert sneer, Roger asked: "What else?"

"There was one item of local interest in the despatch which arrived with the packet. It seems that although the Spaniards are our allies, their people in Santo Domingo are assisting the negro army against us by furnishing it with supplies and weapons; so my Lord Grenville has instructed our Ambassador in Madrid to demand that Don Garcia, the Governor of the Colony, should be recalled."

"I am glad to hear it; for I have recently been in that island, and had intended to inform Whitehall of the perfidy of the Spaniards."

Gunston began to mix them another drink, and while doing so said: "In the confidential news circular that accompanied the despatch there was much about the situation in Poland; but I don't suppose you would be interested in that"

"On the contrary. The ill success of the allied armies on the Scheldt and Rhine has been almost entirely due to the Prussians and Austrians both holding a large part of their forces in reserve, lest Catherine of Russia seize the whole of Poland whilst their backs are turned. So I am very interested indeed. Pray tell me of it."

"Strap me! I had no idea of that." The Colonel raised his ginger eyebrows. "Well, apparently, last spring the Russians, who were exercising a sort of protective custody m a large part of Poland, feared a rising aimed at driving them out; so they decided to disarm the Polish troops. Their attempts to do so put the fat in the fire. There was a lot of fighting in Cracow, Warsaw and other Polish cities, which ended in the Russians getting pushed out Then a Polish patriot named Kosciusko got an army together with the idea of liberating the whole of Poland; but he had the Prussians, who were occupying another sector of the country, on his hands as well as the Russians. They inflicted a severe defeat upon him and proceeded to invest Warsaw. But Polish partisans played the very devil with their lines of supply; so in September they were forced to raise the siege."

Roger already knew all this, but he waited patiently for his in­formant to go on. Gunston poured the fresh drinks and continued.

"The Poles weren't given the chance to remain cock-a-hoop for very long. An Austrian army had started to invade their country from the south, the Prussians were still to the west of them, and a new Russian army under a General Suvoroff was advancing upon them from the north. Early in October Kosciusko went out to try to prevent two Russian forces joining up and his army was utterly routed. He was taken prisoner, and in the first week of November, after a frightful slaughter, Suvoroff captured Warsaw. That put an end to the last hope the wretched Poles had of regaining their independence."

Then we may assume that Russia, Prussia and Austria are now squabbling over the bones of Poland's carcass. This explains why the French have been able to invade the Low Countries. Last spring my lord Malmesbury negotiated a pact with King Frederick William of Prussia to send 62,000 troops there in return for further subsidies from us and the Dutch. He will have taken the money and by now have gone back on his word."

Gunston gave Roger a puzzled glance. "You are right there. I recall now that in the confidential summary there was a passage to the effect that towards the end of October, on some trumped-up excuse, the Prussians had denounced a treaty with the Maritime Powers by which more troops were to be sent against the French. But how did you know of it?"

"I did not know it; but it is my business to judge what repercussions events in one place are likely to have in others. And now, if you will produce the most recent despatches from London, I will look through them for myself."

Having unlocked a cabinet Gunston handed Roger its key and a bundle of papers; then he said: "I gave orders this morning for the removal of my personal belongings to a house nearer the town. If you have done with me for the present I will go and see that my instructions have been carried out.

"By all means." Roger made him a semi-formal bow, then added: "But I should be glad if you would make arrangements for me to inspect both the fortress and its outlying batteries tomorrow morning. May I count upon you calling for me at eight o'clock?"

"By all means." Gunston grinned at him again. "As a civilian you can know little of such matters; but, providing you keep your mouth shut, the inspection you suggest may favourably impress the men." With this parting shot, and his sabre-tache banging on his thigh, the stalwart Colonel swaggered from the room.

He little knew the surprise that was in store for him. Less than a year previously Carnot, the greatest Minister of War that France had ever known, had sent Roger to inspect the fortifications of Brest and then Boulogne, and had complimented him on his reports. During his inspection next morning he kept up a running commentary of pertinent questions and picked upon every weakness of the defences with an eagle's eye that a senior General might have envied. Gunston was left amazed and breathless.

The inspection satisfied Roger that from a purely military point of view Gunston knew his business. The discipline was good, the troops were being kept up to the mark with frequent drills, exercises and practice in taking stations at an alarm; and, as far as the capital was concerned, the disposition of its garrison was sound. But he was appalled when he learned the number of men who had died since Admiral Sir John Jervis had captured the island and left Gunston there as its Garrison Commander, with two regiments of Foot and some auxiliary troops. He was, too, greatly concerned by the sick lists that he had demanded to see, and the fate of the several hundred men who now lay in hospital; the more so as on his ordering that they should all be dosed daily with an infusion of Cinchona bark, he learned that the plant was not grown in the island, and that the drug itself could be obtained only in small quantities.

Another matter that worried him was the hostile attitude of the island's inhabitants. As the garrison was small and much weakened by sickness, he felt that, as a temporary measure, Gunston's policy of repression might possibly be justified; but to maintain it permanently could lead nowhere. Henry Dundas, with his sound common sense, had said that if the captured islands were to prove real assets, rather than a drain on British resources, their peoples must be weaned from their old allegiance, and brought to realize that under the British flag they would enjoy more individual liberty, together with a greater security and prosperity, than they had done under the flag of France. Roger was fully in sympathy with the Minister's policy, and determined to carry it out.

As a first step in the one matter he instructed Fergusson to in­vestigate and make a full report to him on the state of things in the hospitals; on the other, from lack of more promising counsel, he consulted Gunston, enquiring how best he might get a message to the people.

The Colonel said that his own method had been to have what he wanted to say translated into French, printed off and posted up in the principal towns of the island. Then if such fresh regulations as he had issued were ignored, he had a few people who had infringed them arrested and flung into prison, thus ensuring his orders a much wider publicity.

When Roger told him that this practice was anything but suitable for the object he had in mind, Gunston said: "Well, you can always try your luck with the Assembly. It is a collection of notables who m the old days used to make recommendations to the Governor. When Sir John Jervis took over it was decided that it should not be abolished, but remain quiescent, so that it could be summoned as required for any special purpose. On the few occasions that I've had its members called together I've found them noisy and truculent. But it's just possible that they might give you a hearing."

On this, Roger asked that they should be assembled in three days' time; then he gave considerable thought to composing an address, the keystone of which was the verbal message the King had given him when he kissed hands, expressing his intention to have a good care for the interests of his new subjects in Martinique.

When the day came Roger had no reason to complain of Gunston's arrangements. A troop of Hanoverian cavalry had been detailed to escort his coach and British red-coats lined the approaches to the Assembly Hall. Gunston, the senior Naval officer m the port, the Mayor and numerous other French officials were gathered on its steps to receive him. Having acknowledged their greetings, he drew himself up to his full six feet, and, followed by them, marched into the building. He was directed to a curtained archway which led on to a dais at one end of the hall. Two footmen drew aside the curtains. Flushing with mortification and rage he halted between them. Every bench m the hall was empty.

For a moment he was utterly at a loss, then he turned about and marched straight back to his coach. As he got in, he beckoned Gunston to accompany him. He felt that he had been made a complete fool of, and that his bete noire was responsible. Now, white to the lips with fury, he snapped:

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Don't ask me," the Colonel replied quite calmly. "I had the notices sent out as you directed. But I did warn you that they are an unruly lot of bastards. I suppose they got together beforehand and decided to ignore the summons to attend you."

"You must have known that the hall was empty."

"How could I? It's not my business to act as usher to a crowd of Frogs and see them into their seats. I never went inside the building until I entered it behind you."

There seemed no reply to that; yet Roger remained convinced that Gunston must have known, or at least suspected, that he was about to be made the laughing stock of Fort Royal. He was, moreover, intensely annoyed by the thought that such an affront to himself, as the representative of his Sovereign, could not be allowed to pass without his taking some appropriate action.

Gunston suggested that the obvious course was to arrest some of the leading deputies and send them to cool their heels in prison until they learned better manners; but Roger was most loath to antagonize them still further. After some thought that evening, he penned a circular letter to be sent to each of them, which read as follows:

His Excellency the Governor appreciates that in every occupation, a new hand is expected to pay his footing, and should not resent-jokes played upon him. But the repetition of a joke deprives it of its humour.

His Excellency had intended to convey to the Assembly a message of goodwill from His Majesty the King, and also to announce the relaxation of certain restrictions. He therefore counts upon a full attendance of deputies when they are next summoned, for the better­ment of relations between the Government and people of Martinique.

This, Roger felt, would not only save his face but evoke considerable surprise and discussion; and, in order that his good intentions might have ample time to become generally known, he decided not to summon the Assembly again until another week or ten days had elapsed.

Meanwhile he thought it would be a good plan to spend a few nights in St. Pierre, the oldest settlement in the island, which had since become a fine city and the centre of its commerce. It was only some fifteen miles away along the coast, but there was another Gover­nor's Residence there; so he sent orders for rooms in it to be prepared for him, and despatched Dan and his new negro body-servant by coach in advance.

Gunston's two A.D.C.'s had automatically been transferred to him on his arrival. To one of them, a tall fair-haired youth named Colin Cowdray, he at once took a liking, but the other was a boorish Captain whose sole conversation consisted of grumbles that he was missing the fox hunting in England; so after a few days Roger had returned him to Gunston, saying that he would, in due course, replace him with another officer more to his taste. Accompanied therefore only by Colin Cowdray and a groom Roger set out on horseback late one afternoon for St. Pierre.

A Colonel Penruddock, who commanded the garrison there, re­ceived him with due honours and entertained him to an excellent dinner. Penruddock, a man in his late thirties, came of an old Cornish family which had fought for Charles I during the Great Rebellion, and Roger found him both efficient and congenial. The following day they made a round of the fortifications, and the next an excursion through ever steepening jungle-fringed paths to the summit of Monte Pelee, the great volcano five miles inland from St. Pierre, which one hundred and seven years later was fated totally to destroy the city.

On the third afternoon, pleased by all that he had seen, but much worried at having learned that the 57th Regiment of Foot, stationed in St. Pierre, was as severely stricken by Yellow Fever as the troops in Fort Royal, he took the road back. They had not gone far when Colin Cowdray's mare cast a shoe; so Roger told him to return and have her shod, while he rode on with the groom.

Presently he came abreast of a small but charming property; and, reining in, asked an elderly negro engaged on clearing out a ditch at the side of the road who lived there. To his surprise the old fellow replied that the house belonged to a Madame de Kay.

Dismounting, Roger gave the bridle of his horse to his groom and walked up the short drive. On a veranda before the house a coloured maid was laying a small table; so he told her who he was and asked her to request her mistress to allow him to pay his respects to her.

The maid went in but returned with the reply that her mistress begged to be excused, as she was averse to receiving the Governor in her house.

Roger frowned at this new evidence of the dislike with which the British were regarded, but sent the girl back with another message to say he would much like to talk to her mistress about her son William's early marriage to a Mademoiselle Tascher de la Pagerie.

A few minutes later a grey haired lady wearing a lawn mob cap, a tight bodice, voluminous black skirts, and carrying an ebony cane, came out of the house.

When Roger had made a leg to her curtsy, she said: "I am much sur­prised. Monsieur, that you should know aught of my son's marriage—if indeed it can be termed so, for it has long been regarded as invalid."

"That, Madame," Roger smiled, "I gathered from a handsome mulatto woman named Lucette, and it was she who recently told me of it."

"Then that limb of Satan is still alive?"

"Yes. And I was so intrigued by the youthful romance she related, in which she said she had played a part, that on learning that you lived here I felt I must find out how much, if any of it, was true. On second thoughts, though, I fear you must regard my curiosity as an impertinence, and the means I used to overcome your reluctance to receive me an aggravation of it"

Making a slight inclination of the head, she said: "You were announced to me as the Governor; so I thought you to be the brutish young Colonel who lords it in Fort Royal and rides rough-shod over all our susceptibilities."

He gave a rueful smile. "Alas, Madame, from what I have gathered there are good grounds for the antipathy you display towards him. I am the new Governor, and landed but ten days ago. As I have lived long in France and am accustomed to French ways, I hope before long to give people here cause to form a better opinion of myself."

Her face softened then, and she gestured with her long cane towards the table. "In that case, as I was about to partake of a dish of tea, perhaps you would care to join me?"

"Indeed I would; and for me it will be a treat, as tea is so hard to come by in these coffee islands."

As they enjoyed the brew he described how the Circe had been captured and how Lucette's duplicity, after she had made Bloggs second-in-command of the ship, had nearly cost him and his party their lives.

In turn she told him that she had lost her husband during a hurricane that had swept the island in '91; but that William was still alive and well, although he now lived for long periods in England. He had continued to be in love with Josephine, and she with him; but after she had sacrificed her feelings for her duty to her parents, and married according to their wish, he had been persuaded to secure the family fortunes by marrying Lord Lovell's niece. Josephine's aunt had fulfilled her promise to the de Taschers by finding a rich parti for her; and in '79 she had been wed to the Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais.

"Surely that would have been the General who was sent to the guillotine by the Terrorists in '94?" Roger put in.

Madame de Kay nodded. "Yes; and poor Josephine also came within an ace of losing her head. I still frequently see her parents, and when they learned that she had been thrown into prison they were greatly worried for her. Mercifully, like many other innocent people* she was saved by the fall of Robespierre, and through the good offices of a Monsieur Tallien restored to her distracted children."

With a boyish grin, Roger took the last scone from a plate that Madame de Kay had been offering him, and said:

"I pray you forgive my greed; but it is years since I have tasted scones the equal of those my dear mother used to make."

"She must, then," his hostess smiled, "like myself, have been born north of the Tweed."

"Yes; she was a MacElfic."

Madame de Kay nearly dropped the plate. "Mercy be! But I was born a MacElfic too. And did you not say your name was Brook? It was an English Naval officer of that name that pretty Marie ran away with. You must be their son."

"I am indeed. My mother, alas, died three years ago; but my father is still alive and is now Admiral Sir Christopher Brook. It seems, then, that you knew my mother?"

"Knew her, dear boy!" There were tears in Madame de Kay's eyes, and she laid her hand gently on Roger's. "Why, we were cousins, and in girlhood the closest friends."

For a moment Roger was thunderstruck; then he said: "I recall hearing my mother speak of a cousin named Margaret whom she would fain have seen again. But after her elopement with my father he severely wounded her brother in a duel; so from a double cause the two families remained permanently at daggers drawn."

Madame de Kay nodded. "There was also the original cause for ill-will, in that we had a passionate devotion to the Stuarts, while your father was hot in favour of the Hanoverian line. But it is over-time that old quarrels on that score should be forgotten."

While two hours passed like twenty minutes, Roger talked with his new-found kinswoman, telling her of his life, and of his hopes of bringing tranquillity to Martinique. She gladly promised to aid him in that, with the many friends she had made among the leading families of the island during her long residence on it Then as dusk fell he kissed her, promised soon to bring Amanda to see her, and walked down the drive to reclaim his mount from his patient groom. As he rode back to the capital he felt that sheer luck had given him the key to the most difficult of his problems.

But he had yet to resolve that of Colonel George Gunston.

The crisis between them arose two days later. On Roger's return from St Pierre, Fergusson had handed in his report It was a grim document. It stated that the hospitals were insanitary; that the food given to the sick was unsuitable and often unfit for human consumption; that the military surgeons were few and mostly drunken incompetents; that French civilian doctors refused to give their aid because they had been subjected to unbearable insults; that the nursing orderlies were callous, slothful and corrupt, and that medical supplies were almost non-existent.

Roger sent for Gunston, made him read the report, then said: "I have decided that drastic measures must be taken. I intend to appoint Fergusson as Surgeon-in-chief. I shall give him absolute powers to take all measures he sees fit to cleanse these pest-houses and ensure proper nursing for the sick. More, I will have arrested and tried by court-martial any of the army surgeons who ignore his instructions or fail to keep the orderlies under them up to the mark and so lose a patient through neglect."

Gunston gave a low whistle. "The devil you will! Then you will be bringing a hornet's nest about your ears. Were you an Army man you would realize that the medicos are a law unto themselves."

"A fig for that!" Rogers gave a grim little laugh. "You have yet to learn that does the occasion warrant it I can be far more ruthless than yourself. It is true that I have never held an officer's commission; but I was sent as Representant en Mission to General Dumouriez during his first Flanders campaign. His army was then largely a rabble of murderous sons-culottes, and as it was necessary for me to win the General's confidence, several mornings each week I had a dozen or two of them shot behind the nearest barn, so that from fear of me the others might more readily obey the orders given them."

A strange look came into Gunston's eyes, and he muttered: "I had no idea you were that sort of man, Brook. I'll say no more then. These croakers need a lesson and it seems you are the fellow to give it to them."

Roger nodded, and went on: "That is but part of my plan. 'Tis my belief that fresh air and, particularly, sea breezes are what the garrison needs to restore it to health. In consequence it is my intention to commandeer all the merchant shipping lying both in the harbour here and in that of St Pierre. Such sick as can be moved are to be put aboard, together with two-thirds of the men still considered fit for duty; and the whole are to be taken for a fortnight's cruise."

"God Almighty!" exclaimed Gunston. "You cannot mean this!" "I certainly do."

"You can't! You must be crazy! Your scheme for setting the doctors by the ears is a mere bagatelle to this. It is utterly preposterous!" "Why so?"

"Surely you have the sense to realize that death and sickness have already reduced our strength below the safety limit Did you send two-thirds of our remaining effectives to sea it would be as good as handing the island back to the French on a platter. They would rise and seize it overnight"

"In that I think you wrong," Roger replied quietly. "I have good hopes that if due precautions are taken they will not rise at all. In the worse case they might, perhaps, capture the fortress; but . . ."

"Capture the fortress!" Gunston's eyes seemed about to pop out of his head. "How can you sit there and contemplate such a disaster. It is nothing short of treachery. Yes, treachery!"

"I was about to add that I intend to keep two of the outlying batteries fully manned. In the event of trouble their guns could be trained on the town, and, much as I would regret to do so, I should not hesitate to give the order for its bombardment as a means of bringing to reason any part of the population which had taken up arms against us."

"No! No!" Violently Gunston shook his head. "No, no, no! The risk involved of losing the island altogether is too great Send the sick to sea if you will. Although, in their weak state, I'd have thought the tossing they must receive would have been more like to kill them than cure them. But not the men still fit for duty. That would be madness."

"I do not agree. They may be counted fit on your duty roster, but that many are not so in fact was plain to me when I made my inspection. Few had the ruddy faces that one associates with vigorous health, and quite a number were lean-cheeked and too bright-eyed: a sure indication that the fever was already working in them. Two-thirds of them, that Fergusson shall pick out for me, must be sent for a sea voyage, Gunston; so make up your mind to that"

The Colonel had already come to his feet. Now he thumped Roger's desk with his fist, and cried: "I'll be damned if I will! I am the Garrison Commander, and I'll not see our hold on the island jeopardized for some cranky notion about bettering the health of my men."

"I am its Governor," retorted Roger"And, if God so wills, I would rather see it lost to the British Crown through the action that I propose to take, than stand by while His Majesty's troops are so reduced by death from fever that there are no longer enough of them to man its batteries."

"You fool!" stormed Gunston. "Have you never heard of such a thing as reinforcements. I have already written home urging their despatch. It is true that Whitehall always leaves such requests in abeyance until the last moment. But our people there are not quite such numbskulls as to risk losing Martinique for the lack of another few companies. If you are determined upon this mad scheme of yours, you must wait to enter upon it until reinforcements have reached us."

Roger too now stood up. His long lashes almost veiled the anger that was in his blue eyes, but his jaw stuck out, as he said harshly: "I'll not wait a day to start upon it You have heard the orders that I intend to give. Should you attempt to thwart them you shall face a court-martial."

"I'll not be bullied into criminal complaisance!" bellowed Gunston. "Your infatuation with the lousy French has induced you to plan a means of selling us out to them. This is treason! Nothing less! Tis my duty to resist the measures you contemplate to the limit of my powers. Tomorrow I'll despatch an officer to General Williamson. I'll warn him of what's afoot, and urge him to use his powers as Commander-in-Chief to suspend you."

Roger's eyes opened wide with a disconcerting suddenness. He had now got Gunston where he wanted him, and his voice held a new sinister silkiness, as he said: "Oh no, you won't. Instead you will leave tomorrow yourself, carrying a despatch from me to General Williamson setting forth the reasons for our difference of opinion. You see, I am fair enough to recognize that yours is an honest one, and by making you my messenger I give you a better opportunity than myself to convince him that you are right."

Gunston's plump cheeks turned almost purple. "You swine!" he cried. "You're gambling on the General being too chicken-hearted to interfere with a political appointment, and mean to rob me of my command by refusing to have me back."

Roger nodded. "That is so. For once you are proving quite intelligent."

"Damn it, I won't go!" Gunston roared. "I refuse to walk into this dirty trap that you have laid for me."

"Should you do so," Roger shrugged, "I shall be compelled to regard such flagrant disobedience in time of war as open mutiny. For that I can have you shot" His eyes seemed to become entirely soulless as he added: "A while back I deliberately took occasion to inform you that I have often watched firing squads carry out my orders; and, believe me, the sight of your dead body would not give me a single qualm."

Gunston had no doubt that Roger meant what he said. He almost felt the icy hand of death closing round his heart. Slowly his mouth fell open in sheer horror; then, turning, his sabre-tache no longer banging on a gallantly swung thigh, he walked from the room.

Sitting down, Roger calmly began to write the despatch that his defeated enemy was to carry to General Williamson.

With Gunston's departure Roger's affairs soon took a turn for the better. He appointed a sound-minded middle-aged Colonel of Artillery, named Thurgood, as the new Garrison Commander. Then, he wrote to Colonel Penruddock informing him of his plans to send the greater part of the troops in Fort Royal for a fortnight's cruise. He added that should the experiment prove successful he meant to do the same with those at St. Pierre; but that for the time being they were to be held in a state of readiness; so that should the French in the capital attempt a rising they could swiftly be marched upon it

Two days later he took Amanda and Clarissa out to meet Madame de Kay. She welcomed Amanda with delight and, after exclaiming at Clarissa's beauty, declared that she would find a rich husband for her from among the nobility of Martinique.

As they again sat over the tea-cups, she told Roger of a plan she had formed for bettering his relations with the colonists. She meant to give a garden party where he could meet all her influential friends, and the invitations to it had already gone out But they said nothing of his being the Governor, stating only that her young kinsman had recently arrived in the island and she wished to present him to them. It was decided that Amanda and Clarissa should not attend the party, as should they do so they would either have to prevaricate when asked about themselves or give away Roger's official position, and the intention was for him to avoid doing that for as long as possible.

The party was held a week later and as none of the guests had previously seen Roger, apart from a few who had caught a distant sight of him while driving through the town, it was over an hour before a rumour began to run round that he was the new Governor. Up till then he had met all enquiries by a casual statement that he was in the Government service; but upon being openly challenged on his identity by an elderly Marquis, he laughed and admitted it.

Meanwhile, by his frank smile, perfect French and polished manners, he had charmed half a hundred people. When they learned that he was the Governor a few of the most bitter Anglophobes showed some resentment at the trick that had been played upon them, and left soon afterwards. But the majority were people of sense, who realized that they owed the preservation of their lives and properties from the terrorists Victor Hugues had sent there to the intervention of the British. It was Gunston's insults and his needlessly repressive measures that had antagonized them, and now that they had met Roger they were quite prepared to give him a fair chance to redress matters.

Among them were a number of deputies who congratulated him upon the skilful way in which he had passed off as a joke their non­appearance when summoned to the Assembly. From them he learned that he had been right in his surmise that Gunston knew what would happen. On the last occasion when they had met he had brought drummer boys into the chamber with him, and each time the deputies had begun a protest on any point he had had their voices drowned by ordering a roll of drums; so they had publicly announced their intention of ignoring any further summonses to attend. But now they said they would talk to their fellow deputies, and that Roger could be sure of a good attendance whenever he chose to summon them again.

He did so a week later with most satisfactory results. Having delivered the King's message, and announced the repeal of numerous edicts which gave offence, he spoke to them of conditions in Guadalupe, which had been retaken from the British, before they had had time to fully establish themselves there, and how Victor Hugues had since butchered every priest and person of property in that island. ThejQ he told them of his own experiences m Saint-Domingue, and how that colony had been brought to utter ruin by the dissensions of its inhabitants. Finally he pointed out that in Martinique they had been spared from the fate which had overtaken the colonists in other French territories only because the British had arrived there before the Terror in France had reached its height. But, he added, the danger was not yet past. If the French inhabitants continued to bear ill-will to the British Authorities, evil men would take advantage of their differences and, perhaps, stir up a new and greater slave rebellion, which, owing to his. garrison having been so weakened by sickness, it might prove beyond his powers to put down. Therefore, the two nationalities must stand shoulder to shoulder, and the colonists must give loyal obedience' to such new decrees as he might issue in the name of His Majesty King George JH who had sent them this message of goodwill.

He had hardly ceased speaking before he knew that he had succeeded beyond his most sanguine hopes. The difficulty they had had in putting down the first slave revolts was still fresh in their minds, and they lived in constant fear of fresh outbreaks. His frank confession about the weakness of his garrison, and his plea for unity among the white population, had gone straight to their hearts. For ten minutes on end they gave him a tremendous ovation.

The following day, with full confidence that he need fear no trouble, as Fergusson's arrangements were already completed, Roger ordered to sea the ships on which, the sick and seedy had been embarked. Then, with Amanda's help, he entered on arrangements for a great reception, at which Madame de Kay—or Cousin Margaret as she now asked them to call her—was to present the ladies of the island. It was held on March the 4th, and proved another triumph. From then .onward Roger knew that he had both the official and social leaders of French opinion in the island solidly behind him.

Had Georgina's father, the shrewd Colonel Thursby, been there to witness these events, he would have had good cause to smile. For it was he who had said on the night that Roger had received his appointment that, in making it, Mr. Pitt had shown not only generosity but sound good sense, as there were few men better fitted to rule a colony recently taken from the French than Roger Brook.

By early March further news had come in from Europe. That extraordinarily astute diplomat, Catherine of Russia, had outwitted the Prussians by entering into a pact with the Emperor of Austria for the partitioning of Poland. It was true that Prussian troops were in occupation of a considerable part of Poland, but in the face of such an alliance the Prussians would now have no alternative but to accept the Empress's decisions on how the remnant of that unfor­tunate country was to be permanently split up among the three powers concerned.

The transfer of a great part of the Prussian army to the east was now having disastrous effects upon the Allies in the West. The French Army of the Rhine, under General Jourdan, was carrying all before it on a front stretching from Geves to Coblenz, and another under Pichegru had penetrated to Amsterdam, where the French had been welcomed as liberators by the Dutch republicans. Still worse, from the British point of view, General Moreau had with great daring performed an amazing feat of war. In January, followed by a few squadrons of cavalry and a battery of horse artillery, he had galloped across the ice at the estuary of the Helder to the island of Texel, where the Dutch fleet was frozen in at its moorings, and captured the whole of it intact, so that its ships had now been added to those of the French.

Bad as this news was, three days after giving his big reception Roger received news of a much more distressing nature from nearer at hand. A sloop arrived in the port with an express from the Attorney General of Grenada. It stated that without warning on the night of March the 2nd an insurrection had broken out there, the town of Grenville had been surrounded, and the whole of its British in­habitants—men, women and children—massacred. The Governor had chanced to be in another part of the island with a party of friends, and on hearing the news they had taken a sloop round to the small port of Gouyave, only to be immediately captured on landing by another band of insurgents. The revolt had been led by a coloured planter named Julien F6don, and it was now known that he had received his directions for the plot to seize Grenada from the in­defatigable Victor Hugues. After sacking Grenville, Fédon had established his headquarters on an almost inaccessible hill-top outside the town and from there was now doing his utmost to set the whole island ablaze. Any help that could be sent was most urgently needed.

Grenada being the southernmost of the Windward Islands, its nearest neighbours were, to the south, Trinidad, but that was held by the Spaniards, and to the north, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Martinique, in that order, with Barbados slightly nearer than the latter but farmer out into the Atlantic. Hugues had already started trouble in St. Lucia and engineered a rising of Black Caribs in St. Vincent; so, apart from anything the Governor of Barbados might be able to do, Roger felt that the responsibility for the prevention of further slaughter lay mainly with him.

He was in no position to send a considerable force but was determined to do his best, and rode over to consult with Colonel Penruddock. The major part of the Fort Royal garrison was due back from its cruise in two days' time; so it was decided that as soon as it had landed three hundred and fifty men of the St. Pierre garrison should be despatched to Grenada under a promising young major named Marsden.

When the commandeered ships returned to port it transpired that nineteen of the sick had died while at sea, but the remainder were convalescent, and that the health of the seedy men had greatly improved. As those who had succumbed would almost certainly have done so anyway, Roger was highly pleased, and thought with gratitude of his old friend Droopy Ned who had suggested to him this method of combating the scourge. He could hope now that the three hundred and fifty men of the 57th who were soon to leave for Grenada would not only turn the tide in favour of its small garrison, but return equally improved in health.

Having seen the expedition off he now allowed himself a greater degree of relaxation. Since the reception, invitations had been pouring in from all the leading families in the island. To accept as many of them as possible was obviously good policy, so Amanda, Clarissa and himself were feted and dined and shown the beauties of the island in the pleasantest possible circumstances.

The news received from Europe in April continued to be bad.

In February the Prussians had actually opened peace negotiations with the French at Basle: the Dutch Army which had been fighting to maintain the Prince of Orange had received such a mauling that it had been forced to surrender; and Tuscany had seceded from the Grand Alliance, which now seemed to be falling to pieces.

From France there were indications that the Moderates were at last getting the upper hand. The sale of the property of the relations of emigrés had been stopped, and the priests and nobles sentenced to deportation had been released. More indicative still, the Govern­ment had offered liberal terms, including liberty of worship, to the Royalist Army in la Vendee, and its Chief, the brave Charette, had signed a peace at La Jaunaie by which he acknowledged the Republic. But that meant that still more French troops were freed to fight against the remaining Allies.

The news from Grenada was also bad. F6don still remained secure in his natural fortress and the British troops were dying like flies in the fever swamps below it, Marsden had himself gone down with Yellow Jack, and, in a fit of despair, committed suicide.

Roger was distressed, and much angered by this wastage of his men, but there was nothing he could do about it; so, very sensibly, he continued with his pleasant round of entertaining and being entertained.

Clarissa had, justifiably, become one of the most popular 'toasts’ in the island, and was having the best of both worlds. As comparatively few of the young British officers could speak French she was their unrivalled darling, and as she went frequently into French society with Amanda, there was a score of young Frenchmen always seeking her company. Roger watched her with interest, wondering for which of her many beaux she would soon show a definite preference; but, although she was obviously having the time of her young life, the weeks went by without any sign that she had entered upon a serious romance.

At the beginning of May, as the hot season was approaching, they moved to a smaller but very pleasant Residence high up among the hills in the interior of the island; but they continued their social life, except for modifying it to the extent that from the 1st of June no engagements were ever entered into between eleven in the morning and five in the afternoon, as for the greater part of those hours the heat was too intense for them to do anything but doze nearly naked on their beds under mosquito curtains.

In June a slave revolt broke out in the extreme south of the island, but by prompt and firm handling it was stamped out within a week; and Roger, who had gone down there to superintend operations, afterwards held a special court of justice at which he showed no mercy to the ringleaders. He also occasionally signed a death warrant for a hanging, as he gave short shrift to any of Hugues's agitators whom his own spies caught at their nefarious work. In consequence, Martinique remamed tranquil.

It was in June, too, that news arrived of the Prussians having finally agreed peace terms with the French, and that there had been an insurrection in Paris. On April the 1st—or 12th Germinal, Year III, according to the Revolutionary calendar—the sans-culottes had risen in protest against the relaxation of the persecution of the bourgeois; but they had been put down with a firm hand by the victorious and popular General Pichegru, on his being given command of the troops in the capital.

Within a few weeks of Roger's arrival in Martinique, he had appointed a retired merchant named Beckwith to act in the rather nebulous capacity of his Commercial Adviser and Comptroller of his Household. Mr. Beckwith's mother had been French and he had long been resident in the island, but he had never wavered in his personal allegiance to Britain, was still in the vigour of robust middle-age, and rich enough not to be corruptible; so he was an admirable choice to act as the guardian of Roger's financial interests. Without being extortionate, he saw to it that as each administrative post fell vacant a successor for it was appointed who was both politically sound and could afford to contribute a suitable sum to the Governor's 'expenses'. He also kept a sharp eye upon the payments of dues, and for licences, that were the Governor's official perquisites.

In consequence, by midsummer Roger had been for some months in receipt of a steady and quite considerable income. Having to worry neither about money nor the carrying out of such decrees as he issued; and with the troops in far better health from shifts of some ten per cent of them being sent to sea each week in a few coasting vessels acquired for that purpose, he was now able to enjoy to the full the gracious social life of the island, which still retained a distinct flavour of the ancien regime.

Amanda too was in excellent spirits and enjoyed abundant health. Vague and forgetful as she was by nature, now that her household was run for her by Cousin Margaret, who had accepted an invitation to move up to the summer Residence with them, she made a charming and most decorative hostess. Now, too, that she and Roger had been together again for some months without strain, he fell in love with her anew, and during this halcyon summer they enjoyed what amounted to a second honeymoon.

During August, news of further troubles in France reached them. In many parts, particularly in the cities of the south, a White Terror had set in, and bands of revengeful citizens were hunting out and murdering many of the Red Terrorists at whose hands they had suffered such miseries. Paris was said to be near starvation, and general discontent with the Government had gained wide support for another rising, in which the Jacobins and remaining extremists of the Mountain had endeavoured to use the mobs in an attempt to reimpose the old Terrorist dictatorship. On May the 20th—or 1st Prairial—-the storm had broken; once more the Chamber had been invaded by a howling mob and blood had been spilled in it But the Thermidorians still controlled the army. Twenty thousand troops had been rushed into Paris overnight this time with General Menou in command. By the 23rd the insurrection had been suppressed, and a number of its instigators sentenced to transportation to the fever-ridden island of Cayenne—a punishment which had recently been meted out to the majority of those found guilty at treason trials, instead of death; but which had become popularly known as the 'dry guillotine'.

It was early on the morning of August the 18th that Roger rode down to St. Pierre, to confer on various matters with Colonel Penruddock, and spend the night there. That evening the Colonel suggested that it might amuse him to visit a new house of entertainment that had recently been opened on the outskirts of the city. It was, he said, a brothel and a gaming-hell of the more exclusive kind; but there was no obligation to patronize either its pretty mulatto wenches or probably crookedly-run tables. It had other attractions, in that an excellent dinner was served in its garden, and afterwards one could sit and listen to strangely fascinating negro music.

At first Roger demurred, on the score that although regarded by the Catholic clergy of the island as an heretic, several of them had held him up to their congregations as a man who by his happily married life gave a fine example; and as he set some store by their opinion of him he did not want it noised abroad that he had been seen in such a place.

To that Penruddock replied that His Excellency was far from being alone in his desire to protect his reputation; and it was for that reason that many of the French nobility made a practice of hiding their identity under masks on such occasions; so why should they not do the same. To that Roger willingly agreed, and as dusk was falling, accompanied by young Cowdray and three other officers also masked, they set off in a coach driven by a coachman in plain livery for 'Belinda's Parlour', as the place was called.

They had not been there long before Roger decided that the Colonel's recommendation had been fully justified. The establishment was clean and well run; they were not pestered by the girls, and the twenty odd tables in the garden were set far enough from each other to ensure the parties at each of them a pleasant privacy. The Creole dishes served proved excellent and the wines were of the first quality; so few ways of passing an evening could have been more enjoyable than to dine there in the cool, after a day of torrid heat, under a tropical sky bright with a myriad of stars.

It was not until they had finished their meal that they saw Madame Belinda, the proprietress. She came to their table then to enquire if they had everything they wanted and had been pleased by the efforts of her cook.

She had come up quite silently, and as Roger was saying something to Cowdray he did not glance at her as she first spoke. But a familiar note in her voice caused him sharply to turn his head, and he got one of the shocks of his life. Madame Belinda was none other than Lucette.

As he sat there staring at her through the slits of his mask, he marvelled at her audacity in coming to Martinique and opening a public establishment there. She must have learnt that he had survived and taken up the Governorship of the island; and there were other people such as his Cousin Margaret and the de Taschers who, even after a lapse of years, might recognize her.

He could only suppose that, after he had wrought havoc among de Senlac's lieutenants and left his crew without a suitable leader, she had decided to sever her connections with the rabble that remained and make off with her share of the spoils; and that then the island in which she had spent her youth had exercised such a pull upon her that she had made up her mind to face the risk entailed in running this expensive whore-shop there.

Yet, on further thought, he realized that the risk she had taken, under a changed name, was not really very great. That he, the Governor, would ever visit her establishment must have seemed to her most unlikely. That Cousin Margaret or Madame de Tascher would do so could be entirely ruled out And even if some men she had known as a young girl came there and recognized her, she would be in no danger from them because they would not know that for thirteen years or more she had lived by participating in innumerable abominable crimes.

True to his principle of always looking before he leapt, Roger kepi control of himself and made no move which might draw her attention particularly to him. There was no risk of her running away and he did not wish to spoil the evening, which had begun so pleasantly, for the others.

For the best part of another two hours they sat on there drinking good French cognac and listening to the strange, haunting melodies of the negro singers. Then, when Penruddock suggested that perhaps. the time had come to make a move, Roger said:

"Yes, Colonel; and all my thanks are due to you for a delightful evening. However, I trust that you will forgive me for marring a social occasion by attending to one small piece of business before we leave. Strictly speaking, we should have here for it a corporal and two men; but I have little doubt that we can manage it between us, and find a room for one extra passenger in our coach. Would you be good enough to send for Madame Belinda."

A few minutes later Lucette, handsome as ever, and all smiles, arrived at their table and said: "You sent for me, Messieurs; but I have guessed already what you want I have six lovely girls reserved for you and they await your pleasure upstairs."

By way of answer Roger turned to his A.D.C. and, gesturing towards her, said: "Captain Cowdray, oblige me by arresting this woman. Tomorrow morning I intend to charge her with piracy and murder."

But the following morning Roger was no longer in St Pierre; and he never charged Lucette. Less than twenty hours later he was at sea, on his way back to England.

chapter XVII

IN THE TOILS ONCE MORE

Roger had undressed and was just about to get into bed when Colonel Penruddock, wearing a tasselled night-cap and chamber-robe, came into his room with a despatch. It had arrived in a sloop-of-war that had docked at Fort Royal that evening and been brought on by galloper. Having broken the seals Roger saw that it contained only a few lines; but they were in Mr. Pitt's own hand and read:

My need of you is immediate, I have no wish to deprive you of your governorship; but desire that you should appoint someone to act for you in your absence, and return to England at the earliest possible moment.

There was no alternative to regarding the message as a command; so Roger at once set about making preparations for his voyage. Sitting down at a writing-table he scribbled an order empowering the Captain of the sloop to have his vessel reprovisioned as a matter of urgency; then he asked Penruddock to send the galloper to Fort Royal with it and to have horses saddled, including one for himself.

By four o'clock in the morning they reached the summer Residence. Poor Amanda was roused by Rogers kiss only to learn of this bolt from the blue which meant for them another separation of uncertain duration; then she got up to see that Dan included everything that Roger might need in his baggage. He had already decided to make Penruddock acting-governor, so took the Colonel to his study and spent two hours advising him on the civil administration of the island. When they had breakfasted Roger had a talk with Mr. Beckwith about his financial affairs; then they all drove in to Fort Royal, arriving there in time to snatch a siesta during the hottest hours of the day.

On rousing from it Roger learned that a Lieutenant Tasker, R.N., who commanded the sloop, was waiting to report to him. The lieu­tenant proved to be a squat young man with a pugnacious face, but a merry twinkle in his eye. He said that acting on the Prime Minister's instructions he had spared no effort to make a swift passage, and that by cutting out a call at Madeira he had achieved a near record, having made the crossing in twenty-six days. He added that in another three hours his ship should be ready to put to sea again.

Roger invited him to dinner; then, after the meal, accompanied by Amanda, Clarissa, Cousin Margaret and several members of his staff, they drove down to the harbour. Dan already had the luggage aboard, the last sad farewells were said, and as the brief twilight fell the sloop started on her homeward voyage.

Over dinner Roger had learned from Lieutenant Tasker the latest news about the state of things in Europe. The war generally was still going badly for the Allies, but there had been a new development upon which high hopes were now pinned. On June the 17th a considerable expedition had set sail from Portsmouth with the object of invading Lower Brittany. On the 22nd a French fleet under Villaret-Joyeuse had been defeated, and on the 27th the invading force had been safely landed on the promontory of Quiberon.

To use British sea-power as a means of striking right at the heart of the Republic in mis way was a policy which Roger had been advocating since the spring of '93. It was men that the first Royalist risings had taken place in the Vendee, and he had argued with good sense that if the fanatically religious peasant bands could be supported by disciplined British troops, it might well be possible to launch a drive on Paris which would bring about the downfall of the Terrorist government.

That such a campaign might still pay a good dividend seemed to Roger probable; although he felt that postponing it for so long had robbed it of much of its original promise, as many thousands of the Vendeeans had since given their lives to no purpose and, recently, on being offered freedom of worship, the survivors had made peace with the Republicans.

The expedition's prospects of success were suddenly reduced from fair to highly dubious m Roger's mind that night, when in a later talk with Tasker he learnt that it was not composed of British troops. It consisted only of several regiments of French volunteers, raised in England from the Royalist refugees, supported by a force of regulars which had been detached for this purpose from the Prince de Condi's army of emigres on the Rhine.

Knowing the habits and mentality of the French nobility, Roger could well imagine how such an army would be conducted. Pedigree would have been given preference over ability in selecting the com­manders of its units; and, as every Frenchman of gentle birth would insist on his right to a commission, officers would far outnumber other ranks. This topsy-turviness would be further aggravated by endless time-wasting due to the strict observance of forms and ceremonies inherited from the ancien regime. At every Council-of-war held by its leaders some out of stupidity, and others from jealousy, would oppose the proposals of the professional soldiers; with the result that before their support for any plan had been won by a series of dubious intrigues, the best opportunities would be lost There was little doubt that when it came to actual engagements these Royalists would fight with great gallantry; but that alone could give them little prospect of defeating any of the young Republican generals who had recently been gaining so many successes owing to their new and vigorous methods of waging war.

That, at least was how Roger saw it; and the news that the expedition was entirely French greatly increased his concern for his own immediate future; as on learning of the landing at Quiberon he had at once jumped to the conclusion that it was on account of it that Mr. Pitt had sent for him. The assumption was a very reasonable one, for his wide knowledge of everything to do with the Revolution would make him invaluable if attached as a sort of Représentant en Mission to the General commanding the invading army; not of course, with the almost unlimited powers he had wielded when with Dumouriez, but to interrogate important prisoners, assess the abilities of enemy generals and advise on a score of different problems. Much as he resented being recalled from Martinique he would have found such a post at a British Headquarters congenial, but the thought of the frustrations to which he would be subject in endeavouring to persuade a crowd of arrogant selfish, pig-headed French nobles to do the sensible thing, and do it swiftly, filled him with dismay.

The sloop, for her homeward run, took a course which carried her many hundreds of miles away from the track of her outward passage.

Starting at ninety degrees to it she headed due north, and after ten days' sailing reached the cooler latitudes off Bermuda. There, she picked up the South-West Trades which would take her north of the Azores and direct to England.

Among the personal possessions that Roger had been compelled to leave behind in the Circe were his artist's materials; but he had since bought others in Fort Royal, and in the past few months had occasion­ally found time to do a little painting. Now, as Amanda had made sure that his paints and brushes were packed, he was able during these long days of leisure to indulge freely in his hobby as an alternative to reading.

Apart from two days of squalls as they were approaching the entrance to the Channel, the weather proved favourable; and although Lieutenant Tasker was unable to repeat his fine performance on the outward point, his fast little vessel accomplished the passage in thirty-one days. Late in the evening of September the 19th she docked at Southampton, and Roger and Dan at once went ashore. By ten o'clock they were leaving the town in a post-chaise hired to drive them through the night to London.

At a little before six in the morning the post-chaise set Roger down outside No. 10 Downing Street. Having sent Dan on with the luggage to the Marquis of Amesbury's great mansion in Arlington Street, where, as a son of the house. Droopy Ned lived when in London and a room was always at Roger s disposal, he rang the bell.

It was answered by a night porter who informed him that the Prime Minister was in residence there, but was not normally called until seven. Roger then said he would wait, and shortly afterwards the ground floor became a bustle of servants preparing the rooms for the day. The steward came on the scene and, recognizing Roger, ordered a footman to bring him a tray. The hot chocolate, crisp new rolls, cold York ham, and fruit upon it were most welcome after his night on the road, and he had not long finished eating when he was summoned to the presence.

The Prime Minister was in his dressing-room, lying back in a tilted chair being shaved by his valet; so he did not see Roger enter, but, as the footman announced him, called out:

"Come in, Mr. Brook. You are most welcome; and the more so as I had counted your arrival unlikely for another fortnight at the least"

"Thank you, Sir. That I am here so soon you owe to Lieutenant Tasker's having spared no effort to carry out your instructions. He had his sloop ready to leave Martinique within twenty-four hours of her arrival, and made two near-record trips." As Roger spoke he walked over to the window so that he could face his master.

"I'll note the name and see that he is commended for his diligence," Mr. Pitt murmured. Then, when the valet had wiped the remains of the soap from his face, he sat up. As his glance fell on Roger he exclaimed:

"Devil take me! Had I met you in the street I doubt if I would have known you." Roger smiled. "Shaving in a choppy sea can be a plaguey tricky business; so as there were no ladies aboard I decided to let me beard grow. After five weeks it needs the skilled hand of a barber to remove it; but seeing the urgency of your summons I felt it my duty to wait upon you immediately I reached London, rather than to hang about waiting for the shops to open."

"And you did rightly. I'll tell you what I have in mind while we breakfast."

"Your steward has already stilled my cravings in that direction, Sir; but I shall be happy to attend you while you eat yours."

A few minutes later Mr. Pitt moved over to a small table where breakfast had been laid for him. As he sat down and the valet left the room, Roger said:

"I take it that you sent for me because you wish me to act as political adviser to the General commanding the Royalist Army that landed on the western coast of France?"

The Prime Minister gave a bitter laugh. "The Royalist Army! Did you not know, man, that it no longer exists. The expedition was a complete and utter failure."

"That is indeed bad news. I knew nothing of it apart from what Tasker told me of our having in June defeated the French Fleet and a few days later landed the expedition successfully. I'll confess, though, that I had some doubts about its making a swift penetration of the country, as the stroke must have lost much through having been delayed until after the Vendeeans had entered into an accommodation with the enemy."

"'Twas not that which caused its failure. The terms of the pact entitled the Vendeeans to retain their arms, and a large part of them had even remained embodied as militia. The Republicans infringed the terms of the treaty by arresting certain Vendeean officers; so they had ample pretext for denouncing it. The Chouan leaders Stofflet and Cadoudal both did so, and thousands of peasants flocked to their banners, only a few weeks later to be killed or captured."

Roger sadly shook his head. "Alas for those poor gallant country people! They had already suffered so much in the Royalist cause, and appealed so long for help in vain. To have their hopes raised at last then meet such an end must have been doubly bitter. Was it then divided councils, and petty jealousies among the French nobility who went upon the expedition, that led to this sad fiasco?"

"You have said it, Mr. Brook." The Prime Minister dealt with the piece of beefsteak on his fork, then went on: "His Majesty has always distrusted the French aristocracy, so opposed the project and showed his acumen by predicting the manner in which it was brought to ruin; whereas I was fool enough to allow myself to be persuaded to it by Mr. Windham and the Comte de Puisaye. The former has long made himself the champion of those who hope for a restoration in France, and since his appointment as Secretary of State for War had never ceased to press the Cabinet to sponsor a landing in Brittany. Then de Puisaye arrived here last winter and encouraged us to believe that he could raise the whole of Brittany again, would we but give him arms, money and a token force to form a rallying point."

Between mouthfuls of his steak, Mr. Pitt continued gloomily to relate a tale of incompetence and disaster.

"We set about raising eight French regiments. Gentlemen by the hundred offered themselves for commissions, but there was a sad dearth of volunteers willing to join as privates. De Puisaye then urged us to offer French prisoners-of-war their freedom if they would serve in the ranks of the Monarchist Army. We did so and recruited satis­factory numbers, though I fear that many of these turncoats had experienced no true change of heart, and seized upon the offer only as a means of getting back to France.

"Soon after the expedition had sailed my lord Bridport dealt a sharp blow at the enemy fleet by capturing three sail-of-the-line and bottling the remainder of the squadron up in L Orient. Commodore Sir John Warren then had a free hand to disembark the Royalist troops from their transports. Throughout he stood by them, showing great initiative in using the guns of his ships to support their operations as far as that was possible, and later he took off some eighteen hundred of the survivors; but it was entirely beyond his powers to prevent the debacle which engulfed the majority.

"As you can imagine, my enemies seized upon the disaster as good ammunition for a new attempt to blacken the Government, and particularly myself, with the people. They said we could not have failed to realize that an expedition entirely composed of volunteers must end in failure, and that our not having sent with it a force of British regulars was proof of our criminal intention—namely, that we had planned to rid ourselves in this manner of the imigris who had plagued us for so long.