Scarcely had they begun to
ascend, when they heard voices crying out, 'Is it you, my children?' They
answered together with the negroes, 'Yes, it is us;' and soon after
perceived their mothers and Mary coming towards them with lighted sticks in
their hands. 'Unhappy children!' cried Madame de la Tour, 'from whence do
you come? What agonies you have made us suffer!' 'We come, said Virginia,
'from the Black River, where we went to ask pardon for a poor Maroon slave,
to whom I gave our breakfast this morning, because she was dying of hunger;
and these Maroon negroes have brought us home.'--Madame de la Tour embraced
her daughter without being able to speak; and Virginia, who felt her face
wet with her mother's tears, exclaimed, 'You repay me for all the hardships
I have suffered.' Margaret, in a transport of delight, pressed Paul in her
arms, crying, 'And you also, my dear child! you have done a good action.'
When they reached the hut with their children, they gave plenty of food to
the negroes, who returned to their woods, after praying the blessing of
heaven might descend on those good white people.
"Every day was to those families a day of tranquillity and of happiness.
Neither ambition nor envy disturbed their repose. In this island, where, as
in all the European colonies, every malignant anecdote is circulated with
avidity, their virtues, and even their names, were unknown.
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