elf prayed for the shield of the Virgin's grace
against the night-fiends that were abroad. Here, there was a solitary
light in the plain; there, beside the river; and yonder, behind the
village; and at each of these stations were fresh horses, the best in
the region, and smiling faces to tender their use. The panting animals
that were left behind were caressed for the sake of the burden they had
carried, and of the few kind words dropped by their rider during his
momentary pause.

Thus was the plain beyond Mirbalais passed soon after midnight. In the
dark the horsemen swam the Artibonite, and leaped the sources of the
Petite Riviere. The eastern sky was beginning to brighten as they
mounted the highest steeps above Atalaye; and from the loftiest point,
the features of the wide landscape became distinct in the cool grey
dawn. Toussaint looked no longer at the fading stars. He looked
eastwards, where the green savannahs spread beyond the reach of human
eye. He looked northwards, where towns and villages lay in the skirts
of the mountains, and upon the verge of the rivers, and in the green
recesses where the springs burst from the hill-sides. He looked
westwards, where the broad and full Artibonite gushed into the sea, and
where the yellow bays were thronged with shipping, and every green
promontory was occupied by its plantation or fishing hamlet. He paused,
for one instant, while he surveyed what he well knew to be virtually his
dominions. He said to himself that with him it rested to keep out
strife from this paradise--to detect whatever devilish cunning might
lurk in its by-corners, and rebuke whatever malice and revenge might
linger within its bounds. With the thought he again sprang forward,
again plunged down the steeps, scudded over the wilds, and splashed
through the streams; not losing another moment till his horse stood
trembling and foaming under the hot sun, now touching the Haut-du-Cap,
where the riders had at length pulled up. Here they had overtaken the
first trompette, who, having had no leader at whose heels he must
follow, had been unable, with all his zeal, quite to equal the speed of
his companion. He had used his best efforts, and showed signs of
fatigue; but yet they had come upon his traces on the grass road from
the Gros Morne, and had overtaken him as he was toiling up the
Haut-du-Cap.

Both waited for orders, their eyes fixed on their master's face, as they
saw him stand listening,