France -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- France -- Fiction
She put her hand to her oppressed heart and touched the hilt of a dagger
which she had concealed there in the morning, with a sort of instinctive
prevision of danger. The possession of that weapon restored all her
confidence; it was a short, pointed stiletto, which her father used to
carry; an old Spanish weapon which had belonged to a Medina-Sidonia,
whose name was cut on the blade, with the date 1300. Doubtless it had
rusted in noble blood, had washed out more than one affront, punished
more than one insolent knave. With it in her possession, Indiana felt
that she became a Spaniard once more, and she went aboard the ship with
a resolute heart, saying to herself that a woman incurred no risk so
long as she had a sure means of taking her own life before submitting to
dishonor. She avenged herself for the harsh treatment of her guides only
by rewarding them handsomely for their fatigue; then she went to her
cabin and anxiously awaited the hour of departure.
At last the day broke, and the sea was covered with small boats bringing
the passengers aboard. Indiana looked with terror through the port-hole
at the faces of those who came aboard the _Eugène_; she dreaded lest
she should see her husband, coming to claim her. At last the echoes of
the last gun died away on the island which had been her prison. The ship
began to cut her way through the waves, and the sun, rising from the
ocean, cast its cheerful, rosy light on the white peaks of the Salazes
as they sank lower and lower on the horizon.
[Illustration 05: _MADAME DELMARE'S FLIGHT_
_She waited a long while; she looked at her watch
and found that the appointed time had passed. The
sea was so high, and navigation about the shores of
the island is so difficult in the best of weather, that
she was beginning, to despair of the courage of the
men who were to take her aboard, when she spied on
the gleaming waves the black shadow of a_ pirogue,
_trying to make the land._]
When they were a few leagues from port, a sort of comedy was played on
board to avoid a confession of trickery. Captain Random pretended to
discover Madame Delmare on his vessel; he feigned surprise, questioned
the sailors, went through the form of losing his temper and of quieting
down again, and ended by drawing up a report of the finding of a
_stowaway_ on board; that is the technical term used on such occasions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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