Page:Famous Negro robber, and terror of Jamaica, or, The history and adventures of Jack Mansong.pdf/19

 of his beloved Zaldwna recurred to his mind. "Perhaps," said he, "at this moment she too may have cause to implore for mercy!" and after some deliberation, he resolved that Rosa should not die: but self-preservation demanded he should confine her in the bowels of that rock her rashness had penetrated.

Night was getting on apace. Jack was wearied with the fatigues of the day; and after eating of the plaintain, of which the hungry Rosa partook, he sunk into a sound sleep. Now Rosa conceived the idea of making her escape; she reconnoitred the cave, and could find no means of extricating herself from her prison, but by the way she entered. She was therefore hasting up the ladder by which Jack descended, when a dreadful groan assailed her car; she stopt—another groan succeeded. Astonished, she turned back, and hastening to the place from whence it proceeded, she opened the door of an inner cell, and beheld her Orford pale and bloody! She uttered a loud scream, and fainted. This aroused Jack, who on discovering the cause, was about to put her to death; but his passion abating, he thrust the helpless Orford farther into the cell, and locked the door: then taking the ladder, he ascended, and hung the key upon a projecting part of the rock, nearly thirty feet from the ground. Rosa was now perfectly recovered; Jack seated her on a log which served him as a chair; and tying her hands together with a long cord, one end of which he fastened to one part of the rock, and holding the other in his hand, he retired to his mat, placing the ladder beneath him, and sunk again into a sound sleep.

Rosa was now lost to all hope: she despaired of effecting her escape, or the release of her suffering lover. Distracted at the thought, she knew not