Prince Rakoto sent us word to-day that the queen intended giving a great banquet to Mr. Lambert, to which all the other Europeans would of course be invited. What is the meaning of this? For more than a week we have been treated like state prisoners, and now all at once we are to have this distinction! Are our prospects brightening, or is it a trap? I fear the latter.
We were no ways rejoiced at this news, for even if the invitation does not conceal some treacherous design, we have a drearily irksome ordeal to go through. The more the queen wishes to honor the guest whom she invites to a banquet, the more tremendous is the banquet placed before him, and the greater is the number of hours he is compelled to pass at table; for the duration of time is considered an element in the distinction. When Mr. Lambert came to Tananariva for the first time, the queen gave a banquet in honor of him. It consisted of several hundreds of dishes, materials for which had been collected from every part of the island. The rarest dainties (of course for Madagascar palates) were served up, including land-and water-beetles, the latter being considered particularly delicious; locusts, silk-worms, and other insects. The banquet lasted more than twenty-four hours, during the greater part of which period the assembled guests were employed in consuming the various dainties. Of course Mr. Lambert could not remain so long at table, and, with the queen’s permission, rose from time to time; but he was obliged to remain present till all was over.
Even while we were on the best terms with the queen we had looked forward to such an invitation with great apprehension; how much more dismayed ought we not to feel under present circumstances, when this banquet may prove our death-meal! But, if the queen chooses to show us this honor, we must accept it, for if it has been settled that we are to die, we have no chance of escaping our fate.
July 13. This woman is said never to have been seen in such continued ill-humor, in such fits of rage, as she has exhibited for the last eight or ten days. That augurs ill for us, but is far more unfortunate for the poor Christians, whom she causes to be pursued with a more furious zeal than she has shown since her accession. Almost every day kabars are held in the bazars of the city and in those of the neighboring villages, in which the people are exhorted to denounce the Christians; and they are told the queen is certain that, all the misfortunes which have befallen the country are solely attributable to this sect, and that she shall not rest until the last Christian has been exterminated.
What an inestimable mercy was it for those poor persecuted people that the register of their names fell into the hands of Prince Rakoto, who destroyed it! had this not been the case, there would have been executions without number. It is now hoped that, in spite of the queen’s rage, and of all her commands and exhortations, not more than perhaps forty or fifty victims will be sacrificed. Many of the great men of the kingdom and many of the royal officials are Christians in secret, and try to assist the escape of their brethren in every possible way. We have been assured that, of the two hundred Christians who were captured some days ago, and also among the villagers who were brought yesterday to the city in a body, by far the greater number have escaped.
July 16. We have just received intelligence of a very great kabar held yesterday in the queen’s palace. It lasted six hours, and the discussion is reported to have been very stormy. This kabar concerned us Europeans, and the question of our fate was debated. According to the usual way of the world, nearly all our friends began to fall away from us from the moment when they saw that our cause was lost; and, in order to divert suspicion from themselves, the majority insisted more vehemently on our condemnation than even our enemies. That we deserved to be punished with death was soon unanimously resolved, but the method by which we were to be dispatched to the next world gave rise to much discussion and debate. Some voted for a public execution in the market-place, others for a nocturnal attack on our house, and others, again, for an invitation to the before-mentioned banquet, at which we were to be poisoned, or murdered at a given signal.
The queen was undecided between these various proposals, but would certainly have accepted one of them had not Prince Rakoto been our protecting spirit. He spoke with the greatest energy against the sentence of death, warned the queen not to let her anger lead her astray, and expressed his conviction that the European powers would certainly not allow the execution of six such important (?) persons as we were to pass unpunished. The prince is said never to have spoken with such warmth and energy to the queen as on this occasion.
We received all this intelligence partly, as I have stated, through confidential slaves of the prince, partly from the few friends who, contrary to expectation, have remained true to us.
July 17. Our captivity had already lasted thirteen long days—for thirteen long days we had lived in the most trying suspense as to our impending fate, expecting every moment to hear some fatal news, and alarmed day and night at every slight noise. It was a terrible time.
This morning I was sitting at my writing-table; I had just put down my pen, and was thinking that, after the last kabar, the queen must at least have come to some decision, when suddenly I heard an unusual stir in the court-yard. I was hastily quitting my room, the windows of which were in the opposite direction, to see what was the matter, when Mr. Laborde came to meet me with the announcement that a great kabar was being held in the court-yard, and that we Europeans were summoned to be present thereat.