A cloud came over the brow of Tom Rainsfield as he heard this. "As I dreaded!" he muttered to himself. "I would almost have given my life, Jemmy, to have prevented this; but it is done, and it cannot be remedied. The only satisfaction I feel is that you were wise, Jemmy, and would not let yourself or your friends taste the poison, thus saving yourself and them. I will stop with you now a little while, and see what I can do for you; but wait;" and turning to his friends he said to them: "I will remain here with Jemmy Davies for some hours, but I need not detain you. Leave me here, and return home; and if you will merely mention to Billing what you have seen, that will be sufficient for him to communicate to his master."
"William was going over to your place this morning," replied John, "and he may as well depart at once; but for ourselves, I will remain with you, and I have no doubt it is the intention of Mr. Wigton to do the same."
The latter gentleman having expressed his determination to wait at the camp William was dispatched to join Mr. Billing, to whom he was to communicate the tidings of death, and then proceed to Strawberry Hill to take home his sister.
The three whites, accompanied by their black friend, now walked through the camp; and for the first time saw the extent of the devastation. It was now stilled. Bodies lay scattered in every direction, while no strife or contention now agitated their minds. It appeared as if the destroying angel had spread his arm over the devoted tribe, and hushed their voices for ever; for death had done his work with an effectual hand; and though only a portion had suffered, the rest, from a fear to face the grim tyrant in the majesty of his presence, lay concealed within the precincts of their own habitations.
When we stand by the couch that supports the frame of some dear friend or relative, while the spirit wafts itself from its earthly shrine to that ethereal haven of its rest where it "beacon's from the abode where the eternal are;" and when the slightest utterance of grief is suppressed in the solemn silence that we maintain to catch the last breath of the departing loved one: and when that soul is fled, and we gaze on the placid features, and fear ourselves to breathe lest we should disturb the sleep of the quiescent and unconscious clay, and recall its spirit to a renewal of its earthly trials: when we visit the scene of some mighty conflict (sombred and silenced by the shades of night), where the powers militant have exhausted their strength, and left their best blood and blossom of their countries to bleach upon the battle plain: when we walk through the desolate streets of an infected city, where pestilence has cut off the first-born in every family, and where no sound is heard save the faint cries of the dying, or the distant rumbling of mortals' last mundane vehicle: wherever, in fact, and whenever we gaze upon scenes where the grave reigns paramount, then we feel the true force of the expression "the stillness of death prevailed." And as Tom Rainsfield and his party threaded the corpses of young and old, men, women, and children, they felt the awfulness of the scene, and were too much absorbed with their own thoughts, to break a silence that was a mutual comfort and respite.
"Here is some of the damper, sir," said Jemmy Davies, as he pointed to the lifeless form of a gin, with a large piece in her hand, clutched as in the agony of death. "You see, sir, she has been eating that, and it has killed her; for the black fellows themselves eat all the meat."
What the feelings of Tom were, when he stooped to release the pernicious food from the grasp of the woman, we cannot describe; but sorrow was depicted in his countenance, and his strong manly features were disturbed by the force of his mental sufferings. He silently broke off a small piece from the lump; and, kindling a flame from the embers of one of the fast dying fires, burnt it to endeavour to detect the presence of arsenic by its exhalation of a garlic odour. Not satisfying himself by this test, he put the remains into his pocket while he said to the black, "I will take this with me, Jemmy, and see if it contains any poison; but I trust to God you are mistaken, and that these poor deluded wretches have at least in this eaten wholesome food. "Oh, harrowing thought!" he exclaimed, "to think that my brother should have been the witting instrument of this people's destruction."
"By this," said Mr. Wigton, "it would certainly appear strange; but we must not deprecate your brother's conduct on mere suspicion. You know the Scriptures tell us that we are to 'judge not lest we also be judged;' and also that vengeance rests with the Almighty. If your brother has committed this great wickedness and sinned against his God, let his Maker be his judge, and his own conscience his scourge; for 'cursed are they who worketh iniquity,' and 'the judgment of the Lord overtaketh the evil-doers,' even in this life; while in the next, 'the wages of sin is death.' He may escape the punishment of a human judicature, but he can never wholly satisfy the still small voice of conscience, nor at all escape the high tribunal of his Maker. When the last trump of the archangel shall summon him before the 'great white throne,' to give an account of the deeds done in the body, then shall the true nature of this action be known, whether it was the result of a mere inadvertency, or the premeditated plan of murder. In the meantime, with all sincerity, I pray God that it may be the former; and that the soul of your brother may not be inscribed with the guilt of so diabolical a crime as the destruction of so many of his fellow-creatures. It is but right that all justice should be given him; and therefore, in the first place, I think you are correct in determining whether or not the flour contains poison, as surmised by Jemmy Davies. If it does, submit the fact to your brother for explanation, and afford him an opportunity (if it be possible) of exculpating himself."
"I agree with you perfectly, Mr. Wigton," replied Tom; "let the Almighty and my brother's conscience be his judges, if he has committed this crime. But I feel for these poor blacks, the more that I have endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation, and only last night pledged myself to befriend them."
"I know and all my friends know, Mister Tom," exclaimed Jemmy Davies, "that you would not do us any harm, and we all like you; yet most of our tribe hate your brother for this, though Dugingi did steal the meat, and they did not want him to. I am not angry with your brother, but my friends are; and I am afraid they never will like him. You will not be troubled any more with us, for my friends will never steal from your brother; but they will always be frightened to take anything from him as friends."