Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/245

 creet … you forget that your husband is absent!" His voice had the imploring accent of a boy about to be chastised.

She raised her hand. "Listen, mon ami!"

"It is not well to listen," said Dessalines with a shudder.

She turned to him suddenly. "I wish to go down; to witness this thing. I cannot sleep."

"But, madam, it is not a thing for you to see!" "Nevertheless, I wish to see it. I am going! Must I go alone? We can sit back in the shadows and watch; it is an exciting spectacle; to the peasants it is maddening, infuriating, but to us it will remain a spectacle. Will you accompany me?"

"I cannot permit madam to go alone—but it is a madness. What would your husband say?"

"He would be amused. He often attends; he considers it most diverting, a frolic. Once he permitted me to accompany him."

"But I implore madam"

"Nevertheless I am going down. I will slip on a traveling cloak. Ah, look! Is it not fascinating, mon ami!"

The yellow moon had peered over the shoulder of the mountain and bathed the tentlike mist in a sheen of amber; it hung a golden veil, the apron of the mountain; while up from beneath came the steady beat of the drum.

La Fouchère slipped into her room to reappear in a gray traveling cloak; beneath it peeped her bare ankles and feet encased in slippers of pink brocade. She handed to Dessalines a dressing gown.

"Come," she said impatiently. He followed her 235