'The savages! the infidels!' she
said. 'Will they kill me? or will they try to make me renounce my faith?
They shall kill me rather than make me yield.'

'Ah! yes, my dear _demoiselle_, that is right. That is the only way. It
is my resolution likewise,' returned Hebert. 'God give us grace to
persist.'

'My mamma said so,' repeated the child. 'Is she drowned, Maitre Hebert?'

'She is happier than we are, my dear young lady.'

'And my little brother too! Ah! then I shall remember that they are only
sending me to them in Paradise.'

By this time the natives were near the wreck, and Estelle, shuddering,
clung closer to Hebert; but he had made up his mind what to do. 'I must
commit you to these men, Mademoiselle,' he said; 'the water is rising--we
shall perish if we remain here.'

'Ah! but it would not hurt so much to be drowned,' said Estelle, who had
made up her mind to Blandina's chair.

'I must endeavour to save you for your father, Mademoiselle, and your
poor grandmother! There! be a good child! Do not struggle.'

He had attracted the attention of some of the swimmers, and he now flung
her to them. One caught her by an arm, another by a leg, and she was
safely taken to the shore, where at once a shoe and a stocking were taken
from her, in token of her becoming a captive; but otherwise her garments
were not meddled with; in which she was happier than her uncle, whom she
found crouched up on a rock, stripped almost to the skin, so that he
shrank from her, when she sprang to his side amid the Babel of wild men
and women, who were shouting in exultation and wonder over his big
flapped hat, his _soutane_ and bands, pointing at his white limbs and
yellow hair--or, what amazed them even more, Estelle's light, flaxen
locks, which hung soaked around her. She felt a hand pulling them to see
whether anything so strange actually grew on her head, and she turned
round to confront them with a little gesture of defiant dignity that
evidently awed them, for they kept their hands off her, and did not
interfere as she stood sentry over her poor shivering uncle.

Lanty was by this time trying to drag Victorine over the rocks and
through the water. The poor Parisienne was very helpless, falling,
hurting herself, and screaming continually; and trebly, when a couple of
natives seized upon her, and dragged her ashore, where they immediately
snatched away her mantle and cap, pulled off her gold chain and cross,
and tore o