added, turning to Cerise, "don't be frightened, child—these overseers are sad alarmists. I daresay it is only what the negroes call a 'bobbery,' after all!"
Then Bartoletti explained that he had seen his wife waving a red shawl from the edge of the jungle; that this was a preconcerted signal by which they had agreed to warn each other of imminent danger; that it was never to be used except on great emergencies; and that he was quite sure it was intended to convey to him that she was in the power of the slaves, and that the rising they had so often talked about had taken place at last.
The Marquise thought for a moment. She seemed to have no fear now that she realised her danger. Only once, when her eye rested on her daughter, she shuddered visibly. Otherwise, her bearing was less that of a tender woman in peril of her life, than of some wise commander, foiled and beset by the enemy, yet not altogether without hope of securing his retreat.
So might have looked one of her warlike ancestors when the besiegers set fire to his castle by the Garonne, and he resolved to betake himself, with his stout veterans, to the square stone keep where the well was dug—a maiden fortress, that had never yet succumbed to famine nor been forced by escalade.
"Is there any one in the house whom we can trust?" said the Marquise; and even while she spoke a comely black girl came crawling to her feet, and seized her hand to cover it with tears and kisses.
"Iss, missis!" exclaimed Fleurette, for Fleurette it was, who had indeed been listening at the door for the last five minutes. "You trust me! Life for life! Blood for blood! No fear Jumbo, so lilly ma'amselle go out safe. Trust Fleurette, missis. Trust Fleurette, ma'amselle. Fleurette die at um house-door, so! better than ugly black floggee-man come in." The Marquise listened calmly.
"Attend to me, Fleurette," said she, with an authoritative gesture. "Go at once through the kitchen into the dark path that leads to the old summer-house. See if the road to Port Welcome is clear. There is no bush on that side within five hundred paces, and if they mean to stop us, they must post a guard between the house and the gum-
