“My indignation overcame my prudence.  Irritated as I was, I desired the chaplain instantly to quit my house, swearing at the same time that neither governor, Synnelet, nor the whole colony together, should lay hands upon my wife, or mistress, if they chose so to call her.

“I immediately told Manon of the distressing message I had just received.  We conjectured that Synnelet had warped his uncle’s mind after my departure, and that it was all the effect of a premeditated design.  They were, questionless, the stronger party.  We found ourselves in New Orleans, as in the midst of the ocean, separated from the rest of the world by an immense interval of space.  In a country perfectly unknown, a desert, or inhabited, if not by brutes, at least by savages quite as ferocious, to what corner could we fly?  I was respected in the town, but I could not hope to excite the people in my favour to such a degree as to derive assistance from them proportioned to the impending danger:  money was requisite for that purpose, and I was poor.  Besides, the success of a popular commotion was uncertain; and if we failed in the attempt, our doom would be inevitably sealed.

“I revolved these thoughts in my mind; I mentioned them in part to Manon; I found new ones, without waiting for her replies; I determined upon one course, and then abandoned that to adopt another; I talked to myself, and answered my own thoughts aloud; at length I sank into a kind of hysterical stupor that I can compare to nothing, because nothing ever equalled it.  Manon observed my emotion, and from its violence, judged how imminent was our danger; and, apprehensive more on my account than on her own, the dear girl could not even venture to give expression to her fears.

“After a multitude of reflections, I resolved to call upon the governor, and appeal to his feelings of honour, to the recollection of my unvarying respect for him, and the marks he had given of his own affection for us both.  Manon endeavoured to dissuade me from this attempt:  she said, with tears in her eyes, `You are rushing into the jaws of death; they will murder you—­I shall never again see you—­I am determined to die before you.’  I had great difficulty in persuading her that it was absolutely necessary that I should go, and that she should remain at home.  I promised that she should see me again in a few moments.  She did not foresee, nor did I, that it was against herself the whole anger of Heaven, and the rabid fury of our enemies, was about to be concentrated.

“I went to the fort:  the governor was there with his chaplain.  I supplicated him in a tone of humble submission that I could have ill brooked under other circumstances.  I invoked his clemency by every argument calculated to soften any heart less ferocious and cruel than a tiger’s.

“The barbarian made to all my prayers but two short answers, which he repeated over and over again. `Manon,’ he said, `was at his disposal:  and he had given a promise to his nephew.’  I was resolved to command my feelings to the last:  I merely replied, that I had imagined he was too sincerely my friend to desire my death, to which I would infinitely rather consent than to the loss of my mistress.