The Fugitives by Robert Michael Ballantyne (e book reader pdf .TXT) 📕

with joy, for condemned ones who had long been given up as lost, because enslaved or imprisoned for life, were suddenly restored to family and friends, while others could entertain the hope that those who had been long banished would speedily return to them. Many a house in the city resounded that day with hymns of praise and thanksgiving that the tyrant Queen was dead, and that the gentle Prince was crowned.

But the change did not bring equal joy to all. Some there were whose smitten hearts could not recover from the crushing blows they had sustained when the news of loved ones having perished in exile had been brought to them--though even these felt an impulse of pleasure from Christian sympathy with the joy of their more fortunate friends.

Among these last was poor Reni-Mamba. She, being very meek and submissive, had tried hard to join in the prayer and praise; but her voice was choked when she attempted to speak, and it quavered sadly when she tried to sing.

"Oh! if it had only pleased God to spare thee, Mamba--thou crumb of my life!--my dear, my only son!" She broke out thus one day when the sympathetic Ra-Ruth sought to comfort her. "I was beginning to get over the loss of his father--it was so many years ago that they took him from me! and as my boy grew up, the likeness to my Andrianivo was so strong that I used to try to think it was himself; but--now--both--"

"Are with the Lord, which is far better," said Ra-Ruth, tenderly laying her hand on Reni's arm.

"You are young to give such comfort," returned Reni, with a sad smile.

"It is not I who give it, but the Lord," returned Ra-Ruth. "And you forget, mother, that I am old in experience. When I stood on the edge of the Rock of Hurling, that awful day, and saw the dear ones tossed over one by one, I think that many years passed over my head!"

"True--true," returned the other, "I am a selfish old woman--forgetting others when I think so much of myself. Come--let us go to the meeting. You know that the congregation assembles to-day for the first time after many, many, years--so many!"

"Yes, mother, I know it. Indeed I came here partly to ask you to go with me. And they say that Totosy, the great preacher, is to speak to us."

Many others besides these two wended their way to the meeting-house that day. Among them was a group in which the reader is perhaps interested. It consisted of Mark Breezy, John Hockins, Ebony Ginger, Samuel Ravoninohitriniony, Laihova, and Voalavo.

"Well now, this is the queerest go-to-meetin' that I've had to do with since I was a babby," remarked Hockins, as he looked from side to side upon the varied crowd of men and women, black, brown, and yellow, rich and poor, noble and slave, who were joyfully and noisily thronging to the house of God!

"Das true,--an' look dar!" said Ebony, pointing to a young woman who was standing as if thunder-struck before a worn-out, feeble, white-haired man in tattered garments, with a heavy iron collar on his neck.

Recovering from her surprise, the young woman uttered the word "Father" with a wild shriek, and rushed into the old man's arms.

"Easy to see that he is a banished one returned unexpectedly," observed Mark, as the young woman, after the first wild embrace, seized the old man's arm and hurried him towards the meeting-house, while tears of joy streamed from her eyes.

And this was not the only case they witnessed, for constantly, during the days that followed the accession of Radama the Second, exiles were hastening home,--men and women in rags, worn and wasted with want and suffering--reappearing in the city to the astonishment and joy of friends who had supposed them long since dead. Yes, the long-desired jubilee had come at last, and not only was there great rejoicing over those lost and found ones, but also over many who, through the power of sympathy, were brought at that time to the Saviour and repentance.

Referring to that period, one of those returned exiles writes thus:--


"On Thursday, 29th August 1861, we that were in concealment appeared.
Then all the people were astonished when they saw us, that we were
alive and not yet buried or eaten by the dogs. And there were a great
many people desiring to see us, for they considered us as dead, and
this is what astonished them. On the 9th of September, those that
were in fetters came to Antananarivo, but they could not walk on
account of the weight of the heavy fetters and their weak and feeble
bodies."


It was a strange gathering, and there were many surprises in the church that day, and some strange music too, besides that of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, for, during the service, several exiles who had just arrived, hearing what was going on, had hastened to the scene of reunion without waiting to have their fetters filed off, and entered the house in clanking chains.

The preacher's duty was one of unusual difficulty, for, besides these peculiar interruptions and the exclamations of surprised friends, the sympathy of his own heart nearly choked his utterance more than once. But Totosy was equal to the occasion. His heart was on fire, his lips were eloquent, and the occasion was one of a thousand, never to be forgotten. Despite difficulties, he held his audience spell-bound while he discoursed of the "wonderful words of God" and the shower of blessing which had begun to fall.

Suddenly, during a momentary pause in the discourse, the clanking of a very heavy chain was heard, and a man was seen to make his way through the crowd. Like Saul, head and shoulders above his fellows, gaunt, worn, and ragged, he had been standing near the door, not listening, apparently, to the preacher, but intent on scanning the faces of the congregation. Discovering at length what he looked for, he forced his way to the side of Reni-mamba, sank at her feet, and with a profound sigh--almost a groan--laid his head upon her lap!

Mamba, grown to a giant, seemed to have come back to her. But it was not her son. It was Andrianivo, her long-lost husband! For one moment poor Reni seemed terrified and bewildered, then she suddenly grasped the man's prematurely grey head in both hands and covered the face with passionate kisses, uttering every now and then a shriek by way of relieving her feelings.

Great though the preacher's power was in overcoming the difficulties of his position, Reni-Mamba's meek spirit, when thus roused, was too much for him. He was obliged to stop. At the same moment the gaunt giant arose, gathered up Reni in his great arms as if she had been a mere baby, and, without a word, stalked out of the meeting to the music of his clanking chains. A Malagasy cheer burst from the sympathetic people.

"Praise the Lord! Let us sing!" shouted the wise Totosy, and in a few seconds the congregation was letting off its surplus steam in tremendous and jubilant song, to the ineffable joy of Ebony, who must have burst out in some other way had not this safety-valve been provided.

But there were more surprises in store for that singular meeting. After the sermon the preacher announced that two marriages were about to be solemnised by him in the simplest manner possible. "My friends," he said, "one of the bridegrooms is only half a Malagasy, the other half of him is English. He objects to ceremony, and his friend, the other man to be married, objects to everything that _he_ objects to, and agrees to everything that _he_ agrees to, which is a very satisfactory state of mind in a friend; so they are to be married together."

Immediately after this speech Ravonino led forward Rafaravavy, and Laihova advanced with Ra-Ruth, and these two couples were then and there united in matrimony. Radama the Second, and Prince Ramonja, who had been recalled and reinstated with the Secretary, and Soa, and other courtiers, graced the wedding with their presence.

From this time, Radama the Second--or Rakota, as we still prefer to call him--began systematically to undo the mischief which his wicked mother had done. He began to build a college; he re-opened the schools throughout the country which had been closed in the previous reign, and acted on principles of civil and religions liberty and universal free trade, while the London Missionary Society--which had sent out the first Protestant Missionaries in 1818-20--were invited to resume their beneficent labours in the island--an invitation which, of course, they gladly accepted, and at once despatched the veteran Mr Ellis, and other missionaries, to the re-opened field. _See Note 1_.

But all this, and much more historical matter of great interest, we must leave untouched, in order that we may wind up the record of our heroes' fortunes, or misfortunes; as the reader pleases to consider them.

The events which we have described occurred in such rapid succession that our trio--Mark, Hockins, and Ebony--had scarce found breathing-time to consider what they should do, now that they were free to do as they pleased.

"Go home, ob course," said Ebony, when the question was mooted. "Ain't my black darlin' awaitin' ob me dar?"

"I incline to the same course," said Mark, "for my--well, I won't say who, is awaiting me there also."

"Unless she's falled in lub wid some one else, tinkin' you was dead, massa, you know," suggested Ebony.

"Ditto, says I," answered Hockins, when appealed to, "for, to the best o' my belief, my old ooman is awaitin' for me, too, over there--he pointed to England with the stem of his pipe--to say nothin' o' three thumpin' boys an' a gal--also an old gran'-mother an' a maiden aunt, etceterer--all awaitin' with great patience, I have no manner o' doubt."

"But how's we to git dar? Das de question; as Hamblit said to his moder's ghost."

The question was answered sooner than they expected, for while they were yet speaking, a summons came from the King commanding the immediate attendance of the Court Physician. The object was to offer Mark his appointment permanently, but Mark respectfully, yet firmly, declined the honour.

"I feared that," said the King, "for I doubt not that you has friends in your native home which draws you. Well, you wishes to go. I say, `Go with my good-will.' There is Breetish ship loading at Tamatave now. If you and you's friends mus' go, there be your chance, and I will send you to Tamatave in palanquins. We all very sorry you go, for you was useful to us, and you was be kind--to my mother!"

Of course Mark gladly availed himself of the opportunity, thankfully accepted the king's offer, and went off to inform his comrades and make preparation.

It was a sad occasion when they met in the house of their old guide Ravonino, to spend the last evening with him and Rafaravavy, and Laihova, and Ra-Ruth, Reni-Mamba and her husband, Voalavo, Soa, Totosy, the Secretary, and other friends, but it was also a time of pleasant communing about days that seemed so long past, although so recent. They also communed of days to