Three of them were small but very square mulattoes; one was a South
American Indian, with the square high-boned visage and long, lank,
black glossy hair of his caste. These four had no clothing besides
their trousers, and stood with their arms folded, in all the calmness
of desperate men caught in the very fact of some horrible atrocity,
which they knew shut out every hope of mercy. The two others were
white Frenchmen, tall, bushy-whiskered, sallow desperadoes, but still,
wonderful to relate, with, if I may so speak, the manners of gentlemen.
One of them squinted, and had a hare-lip, which gave him a horrible
expression. They were dressed in white trousers and shirts, yellow
silk sashes round their waists, and a sort of blue uniform jackets,
blue Gascon caps, with the peaks, from each of which depended a large
bullion tassel, hanging down on one side of their heads. The whole
party had apparently made up their minds that resistance was vain, for
their pistols and cutlasses, some of them bloody, had all been laid on
the table, with the butts and handles towards us, contrasting horribly
with the glittering equipage of steel, and crystal, and silver things,
on the snow-white damask tablecloth. They were immediately seized and
ironed, to which they submitted in silence. We next released the
passengers, and were overpowered with thanks, one dancing, one crying,
one laughing, and another praying. But, merciful Heaven! what an
object met our eyes! Drawing aside the curtain that concealed a sofa
fitted into a recess, there lay, more dead than alive, a tall and most
beautiful girl, her head resting on her arm, her clothes disordered and
torn, blood on her bosom, and foam on her mouth, with her long dark
hair loose and dishevelled, and covering the upper part of her deadly
pale face, through which her wild sparkling black eyes, protruding from
their sockets, glanced and glared with the fire of a maniac's, while
her blue lips kept gibbering an incoherent prayer one moment, and the
next imploring mercy, as if she had still been in the hands of those