"Because," replied Laronde bitterly, "if there was a G.o.d He could not stand by and see me suffering such prolonged and awful misery."
"If, instead of misery, you had been placed during the last twelve years in supreme felicity, would you have believed in a G.o.d?" asked Sommers.
Laronde was silent. He saw that the reason which he had given for disbelief was untenable, and he was too straightforward to quibble about it.
"I don"t know," he said at last angrily. "No doubt there are hundreds of men in happy and favourable circ.u.mstances who say, as I do, that they don"t believe in a G.o.d. I don"t know. All I do know is that I am supremely miserable!"
"Now you are reasonable," returned the merchant, "for you talk of what you do know, and you admit that in regard to G.o.d you `don"t know," but you began by stating that `there is no G.o.d." Ah, my friend, I sympathise with you in your terrible sorrow, even as you have sympathised with me in mine, but don"t let us give way to despair and cast the only Refuge that remains to us behind our backs. I will not ask you to join me in praying to One, in whom you say you do not believe, but I will pray _for_ you."
Hugh Sommers got upon his knees and then and there--in the dark and dank prison-house--prayed most earnestly for guidance and spiritual light in the name of Jesus. At first the Frenchman listened with what we may style kindly contempt, and then with surprise, for the Englishman drew to the conclusion of his very brief prayer without any mention of his own name. Just at the close, however, Sommers said, "O G.o.d! show to my friend here that he is wrong, and that Thou art Love."
It was with eager and trembling heart next day that Hugh Sommers watched, during the noontide meal, for the coming of his mysterious black friend, and it was with no less anxiety and trembling of heart that Hester approached her father at the same hour.
"Now mind how you doos," said the doubtful Sally, as she glanced keenly at Hester"s face. "Mind, I"ll hab no marcy on you if you gibs way!"
Hester made no reply, for she was drawing near to her father, and saw that he was gazing at her with fixed intensity. She raised her heart to G.o.d and received strength to pa.s.s without a word or look, dropping the biscuits as on the previous day. The man, however, proved less capable of self-restraint than the girl, for he could not resist whispering, "Hester!"
The poor girl turned towards him as if by an irresistible impulse, but her black guardian angel was equal to the emergency. Seizing Hester by the shoulder, she pushed her violently forward, storming at her loudly as on the former occasion.
"What, you black t"ing! Hab you neber seen slabes before? You no better"n de white folk, wastin" ob your purcious time. My! won"t you get a whackin" fro" missis w"en you gits home!"
Recovering herself, Hester at once submitted.
At first the poor father was about to start up and run to embrace his child, as well as to rescue her from her rude companion, but, being what is termed a "sharp man of business," he received into his mind, as it were, a flash of light, and sat still. If this flash had been a.n.a.lysed it would probably have produced the following thoughts--"biscuits!
kindness! companion a friend! ignorance impossible! violence unaccountable! a ruse, perhaps! sit still!"
Thought, they say, is swifter than light. At all events, it was swift enough on the present occasion to prevent the shadow of a suspicion arising in the minds either of slaves or guards, who seemed to be rather amused at what they fancied was the bad temper of Sally.
Next day the biscuit-dropping was repeated without the scene that had followed, and so wisely was this affair managed by all the parties concerned, that it was carried on for several weeks without a hitch.
Under the influence of hope and improved fare, Hugh Sommers became so much brighter in spirits and better in health, and so much more tractable, that his guards at length removed his heavy fetters and allowed him to toil with free limbs, like the majority of the slaves.
Hester also became almost cheerful under the wonderful influence of hope. But Hester and her father were each overwhelmed, more or less, by a wet blanket at that time, and, strange to say, their wet blankets happened to be their best friends.
In the case of Hester, it was Sally. The more hopeful and cheery Hester became, the more did her black friend shake her woolly head and look dismal.
"Why, Sally, dear, what"s the matter with you?" asked the former one day, as they sat together in the bower on the roof, after returning from their visit to the slave-gang.
A shake of the girl"s head and an unutterable expression in her magnificent black eyes made Hester quite uneasy.
"Do tell me, Sally. Is there anything the matter with you?"
"De matter wid me? Oh no! Not"ing"s neber de matter wid me--"cept when I eats too much--but it"s you an" your fadder I"s t"inkin" ob."
"But we are both getting on very well, Sally, are we not? I am quite safe here, and darling father is growing stronger and fatter every day, thank G.o.d! and then our hope is very strong. Why should you be anxious?"
Sally prefaced her reply with one of the professional gasps wherewith she was wont to bring down the iron pestle.
"Well, now, you white folks am de greatest ijits eber was born. Do you t"ink you"ll deliber your fadder from de Moors by feedin" him on biscuits an" _hope_? What"s de end ob all dis to come to? das what I want to know. Ob course you can"t go on for eber. You sure to be cotched at last, and de whole affair"ll bust up. You"ll be tooked away, an" your fadder"ll be t"rowed on de hooks or whacked to deaf. Oh! I"s most mis"rable!"
The poor creature seemed inclined to howl at this point, but she constrained herself and didn"t.
In the gloom of the cheerless Bagnio, Hugh Sommers found his wet blanket in Edouard Laronde.
"But it is unwise to look only at the bright side of things," said the Frenchman, after sympathising with his friend"s joy in having discovered his daughter so unexpectedly and in such a curious manner. "No doubt, from her disguise, she must, as you say, be in hiding, and in comparative safety with friends, else she could not be moving so freely about this accursed city, but what is to be the end of it all?"
Laronde unconsciously echoed Sally"s question to Hester, but Hugh Sommers had not as much to say in reply as his daughter, for he was too well acquainted with the possibilities of life to suppose that biscuits and hope would do much towards the "end," although valuable auxiliaries in the meantime.
"I see not the end, Laronde," he said, after a pause; "but the end is in the hands of G.o.d, and I will trust Him."
"So is the middle, and so is the beginning, as well as the end,"
returned Laronde cynically; "why, then, are you so perplexed and anxious about these if the end is, as you seem to think, so sure? Why don"t you trust G.o.d all through?"
"I do trust G.o.d all through, my friend, but there is this difference-- that with the end I have nothing to do save to wait patiently and trustfully, whereas with the beginning and middle it is my duty to act and energise hopefully."
"But why your anxiety if the whole matter is under safe guidance?"
persisted the Frenchman.
"Because, while I am absolutely certain that G.o.d will do His part wisely and well, I am by no means sure that I shall do my part either well or wisely. You forget, Laronde, that we are free agents as well as sinful and foolish, more or less, so that there is legitimate room for anxiety, which only becomes evil when we give way to it, or when it goes the length of questioning the love, wisdom, and power of the Creator!"
"All mystery, all mystery, Sommers; you are only theorising about what you do not, cannot, know anything. You have no ground for what you hold."
"As you confess never to have studied, or even seriously contemplated, the ground on which I hold it, there is--don"t you think?--a slight touch of presumption on your part in criticising so severely what you do not, cannot, understand? I profess to have _good_ reasons for what I hold; you profess merely to disbelieve it. Is there not a vast difference here?"
"Perhaps there is, but I"m too sleepy to see it. Would you oblige me by putting your foot on that centipede? He has made three ineffectual attempts to pa.s.s the night under my wing. Make sure work of him.
Thanks. Now I will try to sleep. Oh! the weary, heart-sickness of hope deferred! Good-night, Sommers."
"Good-night."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
A BRAVE DASH FOR LIFE AND FREEDOM.
"Geo"ge, come wid me," said Peter the Great one afternoon, with face so solemn that the heart of the young midshipman beat faster as he followed his friend.
They were in Ben-Ahmed"s garden at the time--for the middy had been returned to his owner after a night in the common prison, and a threat of much severer treatment if he should ever again venture to lay his infidel hands on one of the faithful.
Having led the middy to the familiar summer house, where most of their earnest or important confabulations were held, Peter sat down and groaned.
"What"s wrong now?" asked the middy, with anxious looks.
"Oh! Geo"ge, eberyt"ing"s wrong," he replied, flinging himself down on a rustic seat with a reckless air and rolling his eyes horribly.
"Eberyt"ing"s wrong. De world"s all wrong togidder--upside down and inside out."
The middy might have laughed at Peter"s expression if he had not been terribly alarmed.
"Come, Peter, tell me. Is Hester safe?"
"I don" know, Geo"ge."