She reached the shore in safety, and Esther recovered her muscle and agreed to run to the overlooker’s house and send him, on his fleetest horse, with her mistress’s note to the Governor of Nevis.  When the others reached the house, a mile from the Narrows, the man had gone; and Rachael could do no more.  The overlookers wife mulled wine, and the maids were soon asleep.  Alexander refused to go to bed, and Rachael, who was not in a disciplinary mood, led him out into the open to watch for the boats of the Governor and his militia.  There was no moon; they could cross and land near Hamilton’s house and overpower, without discharging a gun, the negroes packed in Charles Town.  If the Governor were prompt, the blacks, even had they dispersed to fire the estates, would not have time for havoc; and she knew the tendency of the negro to procrastinate.  They did not expect the Governor until late on the following day; they could drink all night and light their torches at dawn when Nevis was heavy in her last sleep.  Nevertheless, Rachael watched the Island anxiously.

Fortunately, Alexander possessed an inquiring mind, and she was obliged to answer so many questions that the strain was relieved.  They walked amidst a wild and dismal scene.  The hills were sterile and black.  The salt ponds, sunken far below the level of the sea, from lack of rain, glittered white, but they were set with aloes and manchineel, and there were low and muddy flats to be avoided.  It was a new aspect of nature to the child who had lived his four years amid the gay luxuriance of tropic verdure, and he was mightily interested.  Nevertheless, it was a long hour before the overlooker returned with word that the Governor was on his way to Nevis with the militia of both Islands—­for St. Kitts was quiet, its negroes having taken the drouth philosophically—­and that her husband was with them.  He had arrived at Basseterre as the boats were leaving; as a member of the Governor’s staff, he had no choice.  He had sent her word, however, not to return to Nevis that night; and Rachael and Alexander went down to the extreme point of the Island and sat there through a cold night of bitter anxiety.  With the dawn Hamilton came for them.

The negroes, surprised and overwhelmed, had surrendered without resistance, and before they had left the town.  They confessed that their intention had been to murder every white on the Island, seize the ammunition which was stored on the estates, and fire upon the militia as it passed, on the following day.  The ringleaders and obeah doctors were either publicly executed or punished with such cruelty that the other malcontents were too cowed to plan another rebellion; and the abundant rains of the following autumn restored their faith in the white man.

III