In this dubitative frame of mind, then, Mr Dupuy, as soon as ever Macfarlane would allow him to mount his horse again, rode slowly down from Orange Grove to pay a long-meditated call at Government House upon His Excellency the governor. In black frock-coat and shiny silk hat, as is the rigorous etiquette upon such occasions, even under a blazing tropical noontide, he went his way with a full heart, ready to pour forth the vials of his wrath into the sympathetic ears of the Queen’s representative against this wretched intriguer Hawthorn, by whose Machiavellian machinations (Mr Dupuy was justly proud in his own mind of that sonorous alliteration) the happy and contented peasantry of the island of Trinidad had been spurred and flogged and slowly roused into unwilling rebellion against their generous and paternal employers. Judge of his amazement, therefore, when, after listening patiently to his long and fierce tirade, Sir Adalbert rose from his chair calmly, and said in a clear and distinct voice these incredible words: ‘Mr Dupuy, you unfortunately quite mistake the whole nature of the situation. This abortive insurrection is not due to Mr Hawthorn or to any other one person whatever. It has long been brewing; we have for months feared and anticipated it; and it is the outcome of a widespread and general discontent among the negroes themselves, sedulously fostered, we are afraid’—here Mr Dupuy’s face began to brighten with joyous anticipation—‘by the unwise and excessive severity of many planters, both in their public capacity as magistrates, and in their private capacity as employers of labour.’ (Here Mr Dupuy’s face first fell blankly, and then pursed itself up suddenly in a perfectly comical expression of profound dismay and intense astonishment.) ‘It is to Mr Hawthorn alone,’ the governor went on, glancing severely at the astounded planter, ‘that many unwise proprietors of estates in the island of Trinidad owe their escape from the not wholly unprovoked anger of the insurgent negroes; and so highly do the home authorities value Mr Hawthorn’s courage and judgment in this emergency, that they have just summoned him back to England, to aid them with his advice and experience in settling a new _modus vivendi_ to be shortly introduced between negroes and employers.’