“The instinct of active pleasure seemed entirely eradicated from their hearts; for after the day’s work was done, and they had killed the animal which promised them food for a few days, they usually stretched themselves on their bed of reeds, and sullenly smoked away their waking hours.
“This life was so congenial to one who had suffered much, that I should have settled myself with the others, amidst the solitude of the wilderness, and would have there prosecuted the studies with which my existence was so strongly wrapped, if I had not a vow to fulfil.
“How seductive soever I thought those boucans to be, I was obliged to abandon the idea of enjoying the calm quiet, which they promised, and to form a scheme to carry into effect the resolution which I had taken.
“I was not long in San Domingo, before I met some of my fellow students of the French University, who, as belonging to the old aristocracy, were banished from France. I found them disgusted with the arduous life which they were obliged to lead, and fretting over the destiny which had, with so little justice, deprived them of so much at home, to allow them so little in their new country. I availed myself of their impatience, and proposed to them a life which was by far less monotonous than that which they then followed, and which, beside, was attended with greater gain—to say nothing of the opportunity which it would afford of avenging themselves on men, and not on harmless brutes. They received my proposal with acclamation.
“On the spur of the moment we procured a vessel. I was elected captain, and we went in search of adventures on the high seas. I led my followers on wrecklessly in action, and at other times, I kept them under an iron discipline. The success of my enterprizes gave greater weight to my position, to which I had been elevated, only from a great respect with which it seemed they regarded my character. I was consequently enabled to develope my original plan more and more. The time at last arrived—I sailed to Trinidad.
“By going ashore in disguise, and by a variety of other means, I learnt that my father was about to take passage in a ship for England. I watched the sailing of the vessel, and captured her some days after her departure. Then I effected that which I had designed, and attempted to make him undergo the same miseries, to which he had subjected me. Chance, however, seems to have rescued him; and, as you see, through his instrumentality I am now a prisoner.”
“And I hope, Emmanuel,” said the young officer, “you will now consider your vow as performed, and will cease to follow up this course of unnatural enmity to him who gave you life.”
“Cease!” exclaimed Appadocca, “cease! men of my cast never ‘cease!’ What I do, I do from reason: and as long as I am under the domination of that power, you need not fear that I shall ever ‘cease.’ I have long buried impulse, and I endeavour to act up to the dictates of the mind. Do not imagine that I could have sacrificed my life—by the ordinary standard of existence but only half spent—and devoted it to the attainment of an end, and then stop, and fold my arms because a slight accident has happened to cross me in my schemes. No—no. Be it again recorded that I now renew the vow which I made twelvemonths ago. I again devote my life to the vindication of that natural law which has been violated in....”
“Stop! Emmanuel,” cried the young officer, with warmth, as he stood quickly up, and grasped the uplifted arm of Appadocca, “do not—for G—d’s sake—for my sake—for your own sake, make another diabolical vow. Emmanuel, you must know you cannot but afflict your friends by choosing to remain in this unfortunate mesh in which you have entangled the intellect and the heart that God has granted to you. I curse the day that the name of this father of yours was ever made known to you; it has led you to the perversion of your natural faculties, to the branding of yourself with the stigma of parricide—against which all nature revolts—and to your flying in the very face of Heaven.”