CHAPTER XXXV
BESIEGED
In the meantime poor Célandine found herself hurried
down the mountain by Hippolyte and his band, in a state
of anxiety and alarm that would have paralysed the energies
of most women, but that roused all the savage qualities
dormant in the character of the Quadroon. Not a word of
her captors, not a look escaped her; and she soon discovered,
greatly to her dismay, that she was regarded less
as an auxiliary than a hostage. She was placed in the
centre of the band, unbound indeed, and apparently at
liberty; but no sooner did she betray, by the slightest
independence of movement, that she considered herself a
free agent, than four stalwart blacks closed in on her with
brutal glee, attempting no concealment of a determination
to retain her in their power till they had completed their
merciless design.
"Once gone," said Hippolyte, politely affecting great reverence for the Obi-woman's supernatural powers, "never catchee no more!—Jumbo fly away with yaller woman, same as black. Dis nigger no 'fraid of Jumbo, so long as Missee Célandine at um back. Soon dark now. March on, you black villains, and keep your ranks, same as buckra musketeer!"
With such exhortations to discipline, and an occasional compliment to his own military talents, Hippolyte beguiled their journey down the mountain. It seemed to Célandine that far too short a space of time had elapsed ere they reached the skirts of the forest, and even in the deepening twilight could perceive clearly enough the long low building of Cash-a-crou, now called Montmirail West.
