Failing to find those they sought for in the mountain, the soldiers entered the village and approached the house where they lay unperceived by human eye, and it seemed as if at last Rafaravavy’s doom was sealed. Other eyes, however,—very black and sharp ones—observed the enemy, and the owners of these eyes—a flock of crows—rose in alarm at their approach.
“Oh!” exclaimed the handmaiden, Sarah, “the crows are at the rice I spread out to dry!” and out she ran to rescue it. One glimpse of the soldiers was enough. Sarah was equal to the occasion. Without even a backward glance she gave warning to those in the house, but cleverly continued her raid upon the crows, laughingly asking the men when she passed them, “if they had come there to search for run-away Christians!”
“This way,” whispered the host to his two guests when the warning reached him. Leading them to an inner room he made them creep under a bed and covered them with a mat. As for the chair-bearers and their burden, such adjuncts to Malagasy travel were too numerous and common in the land to attract much attention. Fortunately the soldiers were hungry, and, being eager for food, did not search the house with care, but during their stay of an hour poor Rafaravavy heard all they said respecting her and the orders that had been issued for her arrest and death. At the same time Ravonino became aware that his presence in the neighbourhood was known, though his complicity in the abduction of his companion in distress, he fancied, had not been suspected.
That night the fugitives resumed their journey and travelled till dawn, when they again found safe refuge in the house of a sympathising friend. Thus they proceeded for several days and nights with the utmost caution, for, wherever they went it was found that soldiers had been sent out in pursuit.
One night they approached a village where they knew they would be kindly received, but had scarcely reached it when they learned that a party of soldiers were searching the neighbourhood for some other woman who had recently disappeared. They were compelled, therefore, to return to the place they had left the day before. From this point they changed their intended route, partly to throw the pursuers off the scent, if possible, and partly to seek temporary refuge at the house of an old woman who was an aunt of Sarah.
“She’s a real good Christian,” said Sarah, when advising the visit, “and she fears no one but God. If they ever kill my old aunt she will die singing, or praying for her murderers.”
Sure enough, when they reached the hut of the old woman, they heard her singing hymns at the full pitch of her voice, quite regardless of the fact that she was breaking the law and that persecutors were swarming in the land.
“Shelter you!” exclaimed this old woman, when her niece had mentioned the cause of their visit, “yes, I will shelter you as long as my dear Lord gives me the power to do so.”
The need for friendly aid was great, for, even while the old woman spoke, a little girl came bounding into the hut saying that a party of soldiers were approaching.
“Run! meet them, child. Then turn and run away as if you were afraid of them. Make them chase you if you can. Run!”