The Quadroon Part 60

"You shall answer to _us_," replied one who had not before spoken; "_we_ are the laws here."

There was an ambiguity in this speech that I liked not; but there was no further parley. The skiffs and canoes had suddenly closed in around the tree. A dozen muzzles of pistols and rifles were pointed at me, and a dozen voices commanded the negro and myself to get into one of the boats.

From the fierce, determined glances of these rough men, I saw it was death or obedience.

I turned to bid adieu to Aurore, who had rushed out of the tree-cave, and stood near me weeping.

As I faced round, several men sprang upon the b.u.t.tress; and, seizing me from behind, held me in their united grasp. Then drawing my arms across my back, tied them fast with a rope.

I could just speak one parting word with Aurore, who, no longer in tears, stood regarding my captors with a look of scornful indignation.

As they led me unresistingly into the boat, her high spirit gave way to words, and she cried out in a voice of scorn--

"Cowards! cowards! Not one of you dare meet him in a fair field--no, not one of you!"

The lofty spirit of my betrothed echoed mine, and gave me proof of her love. I was pleased with it, and could have applauded; but my mortified captors gave me no time to reply; for the next moment the pirogue in which I had been placed shot out through the branches, and floated on the open water of the lake.

CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX.

A TERRIBLE FATE.

I saw no more of Aurore. Neither was the black brought along. I could gather from the conversation of my captors, that they were to be taken in one of the skiffs that had stayed behind--that they were to be landed at a different point from that to which we were steering. I could gather, too, that the poor Bambarra was doomed to a terrible punishment--the same he already dreaded--the losing of an arm!

I was pained at such a thought, but still more by the rude jests I had now to listen to. My betrothed and myself were reviled with a disgusting coa.r.s.eness, which I cannot repeat.

I made no attempt to defend either her or myself. I did not even reply.

I sat with my eyes bent gloomily upon the water; and it was a sort of relict to me when the pirogue again pa.s.sed in among the trunks of the cypress-trees, and their dark shadow half concealed my face from the view of my captors. I was brought back to the landing by the old tree-trunk.

On nearing this I saw that a crowd of men awaited us on the sh.o.r.e; and among them I recognised the ferocious Ruffin, with his arm slung in his red kerchief, bandaged and b.l.o.o.d.y. He was standing up with the rest.

"Thank Heaven! I have not killed him!" was my mental e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. "So much the less have I to answer for."

The canoes and skiffs--with the exception of that which carried Aurore and the black--had all arrived at this point, and my captors were landing. In all there were some thirty or forty men, with a proportion of half-grown boys. Most of them were armed with either pistols or rifles. Under the grey gloom of the trees, they presented a picturesque tableau; but at that moment my feelings were not attuned to enjoy it.

I was landed among the rest; and with two armed men, one before and another immediately at my back, I was marched off through the woods.

The crowd accompanied us, some in the advance, some behind, while others walked alongside. These were the boys and the more brutal of the men who occasionally taunted me with rude speech.

I might have lost patience and grown angry, had that served me; but I knew it would only give pleasure to my tormentors, without bettering my condition. I therefore observed silence, and kept my eyes averted or turned upon the ground.

We pa.s.sed on rapidly--as fast as the crowd could make way through the bushes--and I was glad of this. I presumed I was about to be conducted before a magistrate, or "justice of the peace," as there called. Well, thought I. Under legal authority, and in the keeping of the officers, I should be protected from the gibes and insults that were being showered upon me. Everything short of personal violence was offered; and there were some that seemed sufficiently disposed even for this.

I saw the forest opening in front. I supposed we had gone by some shorter way to the clearings. It was not so, for the next moment we emerged into the glade. Again the glade!

Here my captors came to a halt; and now in the open light I had an opportunity to know who they were. At a glance I saw that I was in the hands of a desperate crowd.

Gayarre himself was in their midst, and beside him his own overseer, and the negro-trader, and the brutal Larkin. With these were some half-dozen Creole-Frenchmen of the poorer cla.s.s of _proprietaires_, weavers of cottonade, or small planters. The rest of the mob was composed of the very sc.u.m of the settlement--the drunken boatmen whom I had used to see gossiping in front of the "groceries," and other dissipated rowdies of the place. Not one respectable planter appeared upon the ground--not one respectable man!

For what had they stopped in the glade? I was impatient to be taken before the justice, and chafed at the delay.

"Why am I detained here?" I asked in a tone of anger.

"Ho, mister!" replied one; "don't be in such a h.e.l.l of a hurry! You'll find out soon enough, I reckon."

"I protest against this," I continued. "I insist upon being taken before the justice."

"An' so ye will, d.a.m.n you! You ain't got far to go. _The justice is hyar_."

"Who? where?" I inquired, under the impression that a magistrate was upon the ground. I had heard of wood-choppers acting as justices of the peace--in fact, had met with one or two of them--and among the rude forms that surrounded me there might be one of these. "Where is the justice?" I demanded. "Oh, he's about--never you fear!" replied one.

"Whar's the justice?" shouted another. "Ay, whar's the justice?--whar are ye, judge?" cried a third, as if appealing to some one in the crowd.

"Come on hyar, judge!" he added. "Come along!--hyar's a fellar wants to see you!"

I really thought the man was in earnest. I really believed there was such an individual in the mob. The only impression made upon me was astonishment at this rudeness towards the magisterial representative of the law.

My misconception was short-lived, for at this moment Ruffin--the bandaged and b.l.o.o.d.y Ruffin--came close up to me; and, after scowling upon me with his fierce, bloodshot eyes, bent forward until his lips almost touched my face, and then hissed out--

"Perhaps, Mister n.i.g.g.e.r-stealer, you've niver heerd ov _Justice Lynch_?"

A thrill of horror run through my veins. The fearful conviction flashed before my mind that _they_ were _going to Lynch me_!

CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN.

THE SENTENCE OF JUDGE LYNCH.

An undefined suspicion of something of this sort had already crossed my thoughts. I remembered the reply made from the boats, "You shall answer to _us_. _We_ are the law." I had heard some mysterious innuendoes as we pa.s.sed through the woods--I had noticed too, that on our arrival in the glade, we found those who had gone in the advance halted there, as if waiting for the others to come up; and I could not comprehend why we had stopped there at all.

I now saw that the men of the party were drawing to one side, and forming a sort of irregular ring, with that peculiar air of solemnity that bespeaks some serious business. It was only the boys, and some negroes--for these, too, had taken part in our capture--who remained near me. Ruffin had simply approached to gratify his revengeful feelings by tantalising me.

All these appearances had aroused wild suspicions within me, but up to that moment they had a.s.sumed no definite form. I had even endeavoured to keep back such a suspicion, under the vague belief, that by the very imagination of it, I might in some way aid in bringing it about!

It was no longer suspicion. It was now conviction. They were going to Lynch me!

The significant interrogatory, on account of the manner in which it was put, was hailed by the boys with a shout of laughter. Ruffin continued--

"No; I guess you han't heerd ov that ar justice, since yur a stranger in these parts, an' a Britisher. You han't got sich a one among yur bigwigs, I reckin. He's the fellar that ain't a-goin' to keep you long in Chancery. No, by G.o.d! he'll do yur business in double-quick time.

h.e.l.l and scissors! yu'll see if he don't."

Throughout all this speech the brutal fellow taunted me with gestures as well as words--drawing from his auditory repeated bursts of laughter.

So provoked was I that, had I not been fast bound, I should have sprung upon him; but, bound as I was, and vulgar brute as was this adversary, I could not hold my tongue.

"Were I free, you ruffian, you would not dare taunt me thus. At all events _you_ have come off but second best. I've crippled _you_ for life; though it don't matter much, seeing what a clumsy use you make of a rifle."

This speech produced a terrible effect upon the brute--the more so that the boys now laughed at _him_. These boys were not all bad. They were incensed against me as an Abolitionist--or "n.i.g.g.e.r-stealer," as they phrased it--and, under the countenance and guidance of their elders, their worst pa.s.sions were now at play; but for all that, they were not essentially wicked. They were rough backwoods' boys, and the spirit of my retort pleased them. After that they held back from jeering me.

Not so with Ruffin, who now broke forth into a string of vindictive oaths and menaces, and appeared as if about to grapple me with his one remaining hand. At this moment he was called off by the men, who needed him in the "caucus;" and, after shaking his fist in my face, and uttering a parting imprecation, he left me.