The moonlight on this man's face revealed his identity to Augustus.
"Gilbert Margrave!" he exclaimed.
"Ay, Gilbert Margrave, the affianced husband of the woman you would have destroyed. You refused to-day to accede to the appeal made by one gentleman to another. You gave me the answer of a ruffian; to-night it is I who use the ruffian's argument, force!"
"The law shall make you pay dearly for this," cried Augustus, hoarse with rage.
"Be it so. I am an Englishman, and am willing to suffer the worst penalty the laws of Louisiana can inflict upon me, rather than sacrifice the honor of my affianced wife."
The man who had seized Cora disappeared beneath the shade of the trees. Gilbert tried to follow him, but Augustus Horton sprang toward him, with an open bowie knife in his hand.
"I am armed," cried Gilbert, "and wrong has made me desperate, follow me at your peril."
He bounded through the brushwood, and reached the bank of the river, by the side of which was moored a boat, with three men, who held their oars, ready to strike the water at the first signal.
The man carrying Cora had already taken his place at the stern of the boat; Gilbert sprang in after them, the oars dipped into the water, and before Augustus Horton reached the brink of the river, the boat had shot out toward the center of the stream.
Upon his own estate, and within a few hundred yards of a regiment of slaves, the planter had been defied and defeated in his hour of triumph.