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Show 84 T!IF. LILY AND TilE 1'01EM. the justice and tho policy of the tyrant, and thus irritatrd anew his sclf~cstccm. lie thougl1t himself exceedingly merciful, accordingly, in banishing the o!Tcudcr, whom it w:~s just as easy nnd quite as ngrccnblc to him, to hang. Laclw.nc was accordingly rrontcnced to perpetual exile to a desert island along the sea. To this poirrt he was conducted in melancholy state, by the trusted creatures of the despot. Jt is not known to us at the present day, though the matter j3 still, probably, within tho province of the antiquarian, to which of the numerous sea islaJids of tl1e neighborhood the unhappy man was banished. It was one divided from the colony, and from the xnain, by an arm of the sea of such breadth, and so open to tho most violent action of the waves, that any return of the exile by swimming, or without assistance from his comrades, \vas not apprehended or hoped for. His little desolate domain is described as about three leagues from Fort Charles, as almost entirely barreo, a mere realm of sand, treeless and herbless, without foliage sufficient to shelter from sun and storm, or to provide against famine by its fruits. Should this island ever be identified with that of Lachane's place of exile, it should rccei\·e his name to the exclusion of every other. Here, then, hopeless and companionlcss, was the unhappy victim destined to remain, until death should bring him that escape which the mercy of his fellows had deuicd. Yet he was not to be abandoned wholly; n certain pittance of pro,·isions was nllow.:!d him that he might not absolutely die of famine. Tllis allowance was calculated nicely against his merest necessities. It was to be brought him on the return of every eigl1th dtly, and this period was tha.t, accordingly, on which, alone, could he bo permitted to gaze upon the face of a follow being and a countryman. LACHA.NI=:1 TilE DEI.IVEn£n. 85 Certainly, n. more cruel punishment, adopted in a mere wanton exercise of despotic power, could not have been devised for any victim by the ingenuity of any superior. Death, even the death by which Guernache had perished, !lad been a doom more merciful; for if, as was the case, the I'Oloni.sts at Fort Charles themselves had already begun to find their condition of solitude almost beyond endurance-if tlJCy, living as they did together, cheered by the exercise of old sports and homely converse, tl1e ties and assura.nccs of support and fricndsllip, the con.~ciousness of strcngth-dulics which were ncccs.qary and not irksome, and the interchange of thoughts which enJi,•cn t!Jc desponding temper ;-if, with all these resources in their favor, they lHld sunk into gloomy discontent, eager for change, and anxious for the returning vessels of Ribault, that they might abandon for their old, the new homo which they found so desolate; wllllt must have been the sufferings and agonies of him whom they had thus banished, even from such solace as they themselves possessed-unchcereJ. even by tho familiar faces and the well-known voices of his fellows, and deprived of all the resources wl1creby ingenuity might devise some methods of relief, and totally unblessed by any of those exercises which might furnish n. subl:ltitute fur habitual employments. No sentence, more than this, could ha,·e shown to our Frenchmen so completely the utter absence of sympathy bet1vcen themselves and their commander; could have shown ho1v slight was the value which ho put upon their lives, and with what utter contempt he rcga.rded their feelings and affections. Albert little dreamed how actively he was at work, while thus feeding his morbid passions, in arousing tho avenging ~;pirit by which they were to be scourged and punished. These rash and cntcl proceedings of their chief p1·ocluccd a |
