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

come, and especially of that great day of reunion in the Better Land. And intensely earnest was the final prayer of the native pastor Totosy, as he commended his friends to the loving care of God.

Next day they set sail for the seaport town of Tamatave.

And here we might appropriately terminate our narrative, for the bright days that had begun to dawn on Madagascar have never since been darkened by persecution--though they have not been altogether cloudless or free from the curse of war; for, with its enormous capacities and important position, the island has long been a morsel, coveted by some of what men style the "Great Powers."

But we may not close our tale without at least touching on one dark spot, the contemplation of which cannot fail to grieve the heart of every sincere Christian. Rakota, the gentle, humane, courageous Prince, who had always favoured, and suffered hardship for, the cause of Christ, who had shielded and saved many of the Christians at the risk of his own life, and seemed to be--indeed was--a very pillar in the infant church, Rakota fell into gross sin and ultimately perished by the assassin's hand.

We have no right to judge him. Only this we know, that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from _all_ sin;" and if his life and death throw light upon any passage of Scripture, they seem to bring out in strong relief the words, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

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It was a bright breezy morning when our three heroes stood on the deck of a homeward-bound vessel and gazed wistfully over the taffrail at the fast-receding shore. When the island sank like a little cloud into the horizon and disappeared, Mark and Ebony turned their eager eyes in the direction of old England, as if they half expected that celebrated isle of the west to appear! Possibly the one was thinking of a fair one with golden hair and blue eyes and a rosebud mouth. It is not improbable that the other was engaged in mental contemplation of a dark one with "a flat nose, and a coal-scuttle mout', an' such eyes!" As for Hockins, he stood with his sea-legs wide apart, his hands in his breeches pockets, and his eyes frowning severely at the deck. Evidently his thoughts, whether of past, present, or future, were too deep for utterance, for, like his comrades, he maintained unbroken silence.

Leaving them thus in pensive meditation, we regretfully bid them--and our readers--farewell!

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Note 1. Those who wish for fuller information will find it in such works as _Madagascar and its People_, by James Sibree, Junior; _Madagascar, its Missions and its Martyrs; The History of Madagascar_, etcetera, by Reverend William Ellis; _Madagascar of To-day_, (a threepenny volume), by G.A. Shaw, FZS, etcetera.

THE END.
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Publication Date: 07-06-2010

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