ord, a weapon very
inconvenient to travel with through a forest; he jammed his hat well
down on his head, took a staff in his hand with which to frighten the
serpents, and with firm tread and nose in the air, though with a heart
beating rather rapidly, he quitted the hospitable house of the priest of
Macouba, and directed his steps toward the north, for some time
following the extremely thick vegetation of the forest. He shortly
afterward made a circuit of this dense vegetation, which formed an angle
toward the east, and stretched indefinitely in that direction.

From the moment that the chevalier entered the forest, he did not
hesitate in the slightest degree. He recalled the wise counsels of
Father Griffen; he thought of the dangers which he was going to
encounter; but he also invoked the thought of Blue Beard's treasures; he
was dazzled by the heaps of gold, pearls, rubies and diamonds which he
believed he saw sparkling and quivering before his eyes. He pictured to
himself the owner of Devil's Cliff, a being of perfect beauty. Led on by
this vision, he entered resolutely the forest, and pushed aside the
heavy screen of creepers which were suspended from the limbs of the
trees which they draped.

The chevalier did not forget to beat the bushes with his staff, crying
out in a loud voice, "Out, ye serpents, out!"

With the exception of the voice of the Gascon, there was not a sound.

The sun rose; the air, freshened by the plenteous dew of the night, and
by the sea breeze, was impregnated with the aromatic odors of the
forest, and its tropical flowers. The rest was still plunged in the
shadow when the chevalier entered it.

For some time the profound silence reigning in this imposing solitude
was only broken by the blows of the chevalier's staff on the bushes, and
by his repeated cries, "Out, ye serpents, out!"

Little by little these sounds grew fainter and then ceased all at once.

The gloomy and profound silence which reigned was suddenly broken in
upon by a kind of savage howl which had in it nothing human. This sound,
and the first rays of the sun trembling on the horizon, like a sheaf of
light, appeared to rouse the inhabitants of the great forest. They
responded one after another until the uproar became infernal. The
chattering of monkeys; the cry of wildcats; the hissing of serpents; the
grunts of wild boars; the bellowing of cattle, broke from every
direction with a frightful chorus; the echoes of the fo