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Show 386 THE Lll.Y AND TH£ TOTEl!. them living for the pollution of tho soil. This is my purposo, brother, though I go forth into the wilderness n.lonc !" " Thou shalt not go nlon<', Alphonse. W c \Vill lhc nnd die together." The brother~~ embraced. 'l'hc bond was knit between them, whatever might be the event; and when, at morning, the main body of the Frenchmen surrendered themselves to the Spanish adelantado, the ]~rlnchs were not among them. They, with twenty others, all llugucnots, who detested cqu:~.lly the power and feared the savage f<1naticiam of l\Iclcndcz, had di~apprarcd silently in the night, leaving as a message for the Spanish chief, that they preferred infinitely to be devoured by the savages, than to receive his mercy. I\l clendcz looked anxiously to the dark forests in which they had shrouded themselves from his pursuit. He would gladly have penetrated their depths of shadow and their secret glooms, in search of victims, whom he certainly never would have spared if eaugbt; but the object was too small for the peril which it involved ; and having destroyed tho fort and shipping which they had been building, content with having broken up the power of the l.<~rench in the country, be returned with his captives to St. Augustine. He kept his faith with them. 1\Iany of them joined themselves to his troops, and accompanied his expeditions, and others who were Huguenots found new favor with him by undergoing conversion to hi.s faith. With this chapter fairly ends tho history of the lluguenot colonies of Coligny in }!'lorida; but other histories followed which will require other chaptera. XXIV. ALPHONSE D'ERLACH. THE dawn of the morning after the separation of D'Erlach with his few companions from the great body of the French, found the former emerging from a dense thicket which they bad traversed through the night. They were still but a few miles from their late encampment. A bright and generous sun, almost tho first that had shone for several weeks in unclouded heavens, seemed to smile upon their desperate enterprise. 'l'he cries of wild fowl awaking in the fore sts, with occasionally the merry chaunt of some native warbler, arousing to the day, spake also in the language of encouragement. On the borders of a. little lake, they found some wild ducks feeding, which they approached without alarming them, and tho fire of a. couple of arquebuses gnva them sufficient food for the day. A small supply of maize, prepared after the Indian fashion, was borne by each of the party, but this wag carefully preserved for usc in a moment of necessity. Assuming tho possibility of their being pursued, tho yo1tthful leader urged their progress until noon, when they halted for repose, in a dense thicket, which promised to give them shelter. Here, having himself undertaken the watch, Alphonse D1Erlaeh |
