were lulled to repose by the beatingof the rains, which fell in torrents upon the roofs of their cottages,and sometimes by the hollow winds, which brought to their ear thedistant roar of the waves breaking upon the shore. They blessed God fortheir own safety, the feeling of which was brought home more forcibly totheir minds by the sound of remote danger.
Madame de la Tour occasionally read aloud some affecting history of theOld or New Testament. Her auditors reasoned but little upon these sacredvolumes, for their theology centred in a feeling of devotion towardsthe Supreme Being, like that of nature: and their morality was an activeprinciple, like that of the Gospel. These families had no particulardays devoted to pleasure, and others to sadness. Every day was to thema holyday, and all that surrounded them one holy temple, in which theyever adored the Infinite Intelligence, the Almighty God, the Friend ofhuman kind. A feeling of confidence in his supreme power filled theirminds with consolation for the past, with fortitude under presenttrials, and with hope in the future. Compelled by misfortune to returnalmost to a state of nature, these excellent women had thus developed intheir own and their children's bosoms the feelings most natural to thehuman mind, and its best support under affliction.
But, as clouds sometimes arise, and cast a gloom over the best regulatedtempers, so whenever any member of this little society appeared to belabouring under dejection, the rest assembled around, and endeavouredto banish her painful thoughts by amusing the mind rather than by gravearguments against them. Each performed this kind office in their ownappropriate manner: Margaret, by her gaiety; Madame de la Tour, by thegentle consolations of religion; Virginia, by her tender caresses; Paul,by his frank and engaging cordiality. Even Mary and Domingo hastenedto offer their succour, and to weep with those that wept. Thus do weakplants interweave themselves with each other, in order to withstand thefury of the tempest.
During the fine season, they went every Sunday to the church of theShaddock Grove, the steeple of which you see yonder upon the plain. Manywealthy members of the congregation, who came to church in palanquins,sought the acquaintance of these united families, and invited themto parties of pleasure. But they always repelled these overtures withrespectful politeness, as they were persuaded that the rich and powerfulseek the society of persons in an inferior station only for the sake ofsurrounding themselves with flatterers, and that every flatterer mustapplaud alike all the actions of his patron, whether good or bad. On theother hand, they avoided, with equal care, too intimate an acquaintancewith the lower class, who are ordinarily jealous, calumniating, andgross. They thus acquired, with some, the character of being timid, andwith others, of pride: but their reserve was accompanied with so muchobliging politeness, above all towards the unfortunate and the unhappy,that they insensibly acquired the respect of the rich and the confidenceof the poor.
After service, some kind office was often required at their hands bytheir poor neighbours. Sometimes a person troubled in mind sought theiradvice; sometimes a child begged them to its sick mother, in one of theadjoining hamlets. They always took with them a few remedies for theordinary diseases of the country, which they administered in thatsoothing manner which stamps a value upon the smallest favours. Aboveall, they met with singular success in administrating to the disordersof the mind, so intolerable in solitude, and under the infirmities of aweakened frame. Madame de la Tour spoke with such sublime confidence ofthe Divinity, that the sick, while listening to her, almost believed himpresent. Virginia often returned home with her eyes full of tears, andher heart overflowing with delight, at having had an opportunity ofdoing good; for to her generally was confided the task of preparing andadministering the medicines,--a task which she fulfilled with angelicsweetness. After these visits of charity, they sometimes extended theirwalk by the Sloping Mountain, till they reached my dwelling, where Iused to prepare dinner for them on the banks of the little rivulet whichglides near my cottage. I procured for these occasions a few bottles ofold wine, in order to heighten the relish of our Oriental repast bythe more genial productions of Europe. At other times we met on thesea-shore, at the mouth of some little river, or rather mere brook. Webrought from home the provisions furnished us by our gardens, to whichwe added those supplied us by the sea in abundant variety. We caughton these shores the mullet, the roach, and the sea-urchin, lobsters,shrimps, crabs, oysters, and all other kinds of shell-fish. In thisway, we often enjoyed the most tranquil pleasures in situations the mostterrific. Sometimes, seated upon a rock, under the shade of the velvetsunflower-tree, we saw the enormous waves of the Indian Ocean breakbeneath our feet with a tremendous noise. Paul, who could swim like afish, would advance on the reefs to meet the coming billows; then, attheir near approach, would run back to the beach, closely pursued by thefoaming breakers, which threw themselves, with a roaring noise, far onthe sands. But Virginia, at this sight, uttered piercing cries, and saidthat such sports frightened her too much.
Other amusements were not wanting on these festive occasions. Ourrepasts were generally followed by the songs and dances of the two youngpeople. Virginia sang the happiness of pastoral life, and the miseryof those who were impelled by avarice to cross the raging ocean, ratherthan cultivate the earth, and enjoy its bounties in peace. Sometimes sheperformed a pantomime with Paul, after the manner of the negroes. Thefirst language of man is pantomime: it is known to all nations, and isso natural and expressive, that the children of the European inhabitantscatch it with facility from the negroes. Virginia, recalling, from amongthe histories which her mother had read to her, those which had affectedher most, represented the principal events in them with beautifulsimplicity. Sometimes at the sound of Domingo's tantam she appeared uponthe green sward, bearing a pitcher upon her head, and advanced with atimid step towards the source of a neighbouring fountain, to draw water.Domingo and Mary, personating the shepherds of Midian forbade her toapproach, and repulsed her sternly. Upon this Paul flew to her succour,beat away the shepherds, filled Virginia's pitcher, and placing it uponher heard, bound her brows at the same time with a wreath of the redflowers of the Madagascar periwinkle, which served to heighten thedelicacy of her complexion. Then joining in their sports, I took uponmyself the part of Raguel, and bestowed upon Paul, my daughter Zephorain marriage.
Another time Virginia would represent the unhappy Ruth, returning poorand widowed with her mother-in-law, who, after so prolonged an absence,found herself as unknown as in a foreign land. Domingo and Marypersonated the reapers. The supposed daughter of Naomi followed theirsteps, gleaning here and there a few ears of corn. When interrogated byPaul,--a part which he performed with the gravity of a patriarch,--sheanswered his questions with a faltering voice. He then, touchedwith compassion, granted an asylum to innocence, and hospitality tomisfortune. He filled her lap with plenty; and, leading her towards usas before the elders of the city, declared his purpose to take herin marriage. At this scene, Madame de la Tour, recalling the desolatesituation in which she had been left by her relations, her widowhood,and the kind reception she had met with from Margaret, succeeded nowby the soothing hope of a happy union between their children, could notforbear weeping; and these mixed recollections of good and evil causedus all to unite with her in shedding tears of sorrow and of joy.
These dramas were performed with such an air of reality that youmight have fancied yourself transported to the plains of Syria or ofPalestine. We were not unfurnished with decorations, lights, or anorchestra, suitable to the representation. The scene was generallyplaced in an open space of the forest, the diverging paths from whichformed around us numerous arcades of foliage, under which we weresheltered from the heat all the middle of the day; but when the sundescended towards the horizon, its rays, broken by the trunks of thetrees, darted amongst the shadows of the forest in long lines of light,producing the most magnificent effect. Sometimes its broad disk appearedat the end of an avenue, lighting it up with insufferable brightness.The foliage of the trees, illuminated from beneath by its saffron beams,glowed with the lustre of the topaz and the emer
ald. Their brown andmossy trunks appeared transformed into columns of antique bronze; andthe birds, which had retired in silence to their leafy shades to passthe night, surprised to see the radiance of a second morning, hailed thestar of day all together with innumerable carols.
Night often overtook us during these rural entertainments; but thepurity of the air and the warmth of the climate, admitted of oursleeping in the woods, without incurring any danger by exposure to theweather, and no less secure from the molestations of robbers. On ourreturn the following day to our respective habitations, we found them inexactly the same state in which they had been left. In this island, thenunsophisticated by the pursuits of commerce, such were the honesty andprimitive manners of the population, that the doors of many houses werewithout a key, and even a lock itself was an object of curiosity to nota few of the native inhabitants.
There were, however, some days in the year celebrated by Paul
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