I ran backwards
and forwards about the plantation, not knowing where to look for you. At
last I took some of your old clothes, and showing them to Fidele, the poor
animal, as if he understood me, immediately began to scent your path; and
conducted me, continually wagging his tail, to the Black River. It was
there a planter told me that you had brought back a negro woman, his slave,
and that he had granted you her pardon. But what pardon! he showed her to
me with her feet chained to a block of wood, and an iron collar with three
hooks fastened round her neck.
"'From thence Fidele, still on the scent, led me up the precipice of the
Black River, where he again stopped and barked with all his might. This was
on the brink of a spring, near a fallen palm tree, and close to a fire
which was still smoking. At last he led me to this very spot. We are at the
foot of the mountains of the Three Peaks, and still four leagues from home.
Come, eat, and gather strength.' He then presented them with cakes, fruits,
and a very large gourd filled with a liquor composed of wine, water, lemon
juice sugar, and nutmeg, which their mothers had prepared. Virginia sighed
at the recollection of the poor slave, and at the uneasiness which they had
given their mothers. She repeated several times, 'Oh, how difficult it is
to do good.'
"While she and Paul were taking refreshment, Domingo kindled a fire, and
having sought among the rocks for a particular kind of crooked wood, which
burns when quite green, throwing out a great blaze, he made a torch, which
he lighted, it being already night.
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