thing is a mystery to me, and I cannot conceive how the man who has the most undeniable alibi pleadable, can be accused of participation in anything that has been going on here.”
Then I said how disappointed I was at the excitement prevailing among them. How it had come to pass that news of the row on shore had been brought off to us, and that I had in a manner pledged the honour and faith of Englishmen to these Jews. It was almost certain that their lives would have been sacrificed, had they ventured to the ordinary landing-place; and I felt bound in common humanity (to say nothing of the obligation of our temporary fellowship,) to do what I could to help them.
“You know, my good fellows, that, in this place and all hereabouts, they are not too particular about getting hold of the right man to hang. If Daniel had fallen into their hands now, he would soon have been done for, and it would have been no use crying over him when we had all found out our mistake, as find it out I am positive we shall.”
“Now, then,” I went on, after a rather spasmodic harangue, “will you give this fellow fair play? Hang him, by all means, if he deserves it; only, as you cannot undo such work as that, make sure of your game before you begin. All I ask is that you will keep him safe to answer for himself. Captain Quillet, I appeal to you to protect him from all dangers, and refuse him to all challengers, till facts have been examined.”
This, and a good deal more to the same tune, if it was not eloquence, at least was sufficiently like it to produce much of the effect due to the real article. The men began to be ashamed of their violence, and gradually were brought to the point for which I was contending. Both Jews were to be received on board, and kept in hard and fast security, that they might be forthcoming on the demand of responsible prosecutors. Poor fellows! this was for them no little boon. It has been the fate and remains the danger of their race, to suffer from popular paroxysms. To be reserved for deliberate judgment is for them, in a vast majority of cases, to be saved.
“And now,” said I, “will someone be good enough to tell me what all the row is about?”
A chorus of voices burst forth in reply, but I could make nothing out of them. Quillet moved his hand for silence.
“I will tell you in two words,” said he. “Look around, and see who it is that is missing.”
I have already said that the mother and daughter were absent. This had seemed natural enough, but now that attention was particularly challenged to the fact, in a moment it became connected with the idea of calamity.
I turned sick, and was hot and cold at once. Nonsense. I would shake off the thought. But Quillet’s look would not allow me so to do. His eye fixed mine, and by that wonderful process of mental telegraphy by which, without spoken word, ideas are flashed from one mind into another, made me feel that he had divined my apprehension, and that it was well founded.
“Yes,” he said, “all stand here but two, and they the best and dearest. Little Bessie has fallen into the hands of fiends, and her mother has to be kept by main force from rushing to destruction on her traces.”
I cannot pretend, at this distance of time, to recollect minutely the passages of that dismal history, nor should I like to dwell on them lingeringly. I can, however, remember that, stunned as I was by the intelligence that our little darling was missing under alarming circumstances, I did not give in to the popular delusion, nor release the stringency of my protectorate over Daniel and his friend. I knew that so far as they were concerned, there could be no complicity. Perhaps it was my certain conviction on this point which made me sceptical as to the evil intentions of any of the accused.
The story at full (though I was long getting at it) amounted to this. Little Bessie had, according to arrangements, been sent for her promised visit to Madame R. It seems that some cabin repairs were required on board the vessel, and Mrs. Quillet had been induced to remain at Madame R.’s longer than had been intended, in order that she might be out of the confusion. This same cause had led her to return alone in the first instance, that she might re-establish order in their little domain before her little one’s coming. Thus the dear child had been left by herself, left with her perfect consent, and at the most earnest entreaty of their kind entertainer. She was not a shy child, and seldom made a difficulty of taking to new friends. With Madame R. she seemed perfectly happy.
The first mixing up of the Jewish element in the story was this. Daniel had some subordinate connection with Madame R. I believe he was what we should call a bailiff, or manager of a certain property belonging to her. This brought him, and sundry of those belonging to him, a good deal into her neighbourhood, and even into her house. Strong as was the religious prejudice against the Jews, and apt though it undoubtedly was to be fanned, on occasion, into flame, it did not seem to involve social antipathy, in the normal state of things. Daniel, as I have said, was much about the house and place, and he was in the habit of bringing with him two or three children at a time. These children had naturally enough wanted to see the little stranger, and had for the time being been her especial favourites. Children do not take long to contract friendships, and experience proves that with them even the want of a common language is no insuperable stumbling-block. They had together ransacked their stores of toys, and had been allowed, under inspection, to play on the beach. Where there are no tides, this permission is not attended with the same danger as with us.
Time had passed on much to the satisfaction of everybody concerned with the doings of the household, till the evening that was to be the last of the visit. There had been the usual fun and play during the day, and no cloud threatened calamity, when all of a sudden it was discovered that the little visitor was missing. Of course, no alarm was felt at the first, nor till after she had been searched and shouted for inside and outside of the house. But then they did get frightened, and seem to have given free