Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/219

Rh how the negroes were behaving, and whether they worked as usual.’

Better than usual,’ was the reply; ‘they know that la Signora confides in them, and they wish to prove that they deserve her confidence. Your Grace will be always safe.’ ”

After these proofs of the fidelity and worth of the negro character, the noble lady cannot do other than suffer from the cruelty and the injustice which she sees practised by so many of the slave-owners towards their slaves.

“Often,” said she, on one occasion, “have I, in the bitterness which this has occasioned, wished that they all could be free!”

I often observe in her a shudder, as of anguish, and hear a sigh when the whip is heard to crack, which is the signal for the slaves to go to work. For here even she has not the power of having this abominable signal changed. Another more musical signal is heard daily, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when a long, melodious, far-resounding blast is blown on a shell, the summons from labour of such negro-women as have infants at the breast, to go and suckle them, and rest before doing so.

So universally known is the kind disposition of Madame C. towards her negro slaves, that she is often besought by strange negroes who have displeased their masters to become their intercessors, and have them spared from punishment. It is not an unusual thing in Cuba for the offending slave to choose from among the white people a Padrino or a Madrina to intercede for them with their exasperated owner, who seldom or never refuses pardon which is thus asked. Madame C. has often been requested to become Madrina, and never in vain. Who, indeed, could refuse that noble, charming woman anything which she might ask for? Wherever her white,