1831.] The Tutor-Fiend and his Three Pupils. 255 



blood at my return. But I cannot war so. I take your offering, but 

 leave your hand for another." 



" Oh, Heaven ! you cannot mean ! — Scowl ! I have lost all for you ! 

 I must — I Avill follow you ! — Oh ! look not so, for you cannot madden 

 me. — Be merciful !" 



" I will. Jane, this is your dying hour ! Say, is not death sweet 

 amid these rocks, with the waves and the stars to witness the fleeting 

 soul ?" 



" Death ! — oh ! to die with guilt so newly on me ! Heaven have 

 mercy ! Save me — save me !" 



Scowl seized the shrieking girl, who, after a short struggle, broke 

 from his grasp, and rushed to a higher point of the rock. He follows 

 her — she falls — and the next moment the beach bears a mangled 

 corse ! 



A low, long whistle echoed among the rocks. Scowl leapt from point 

 to point, gained the beach, and there beheld his master and his com- 

 rades. He threw himself into the skiff, and plied violently at the oar, 

 as though he would numb the mind's action by bodily exertion. 



For a time they proceeded in silence. At length Rapax exclaimed — 

 " What! lads, home-sick already ? What ! Scowl — dull ?" 



" Have I proved dull since we first met ?" 



" In truth, no ; you are an apt scholar." 



" 'Tis well you had me. Had I learned from another master, I might 

 have been as great a spendthrift as I will now be miser. — But whither 

 are we bound, and with whom are we to mingle .''" 



" Our destined land," replied the master, " is a fruitful one, and the 

 inhabitants as nature made them. They worship the stars, and offer 

 fruits, flowers, and shells to the spirits of air, earth, and ocean. Their 

 land is a bloodless one, and their lives pass in the constant intercourse of 

 what civilization calls benevolence !" 



" What !" said Scowl, " have they no holiness ? — ^holiness, that burns 

 and tortures one another ? So, then, be my trade hypocrisy !" 



" I," said Topaz, " will teach them to divide and subdivide their 

 lands. I will shew them how to make man-traps and spring-guns, and 

 how (blest art !) to make a mystery of common-sense I" 



" And I," cried Blitheheart, " will create disease, and then be phy- 

 sician infallible." 



" Truly," said Scowl, " our vessel hath a goodly freight — supersti- 

 tion, law-making, and physic !" 



" Welcome to your inheritance ! I give this land to your practices !" 

 exclaimed Rapax, as he pointed to the shore, which, with miraculous 

 speed, they had already approached. 



Followed by his pupils, he pursued his way into the island. At length 

 they beheld a multitude of people seated on the grass. The women were 

 lovely, and the men seemed worthy of their partners ; their limbs indi- 

 cated a pliant vigour, and in their features was that dauntless inde- 

 pendence which surely adorned men in the early day. 



It were long and vain to tell the means by which the strangers lured 

 the people from their happiness and independence — by wliich they set 

 parent against child, and child against father. In fine, the land was 

 civilized ; slaves were made, and taxes were levied ; some few fed to 

 repletion, whilst thousands pined and died with hunger. Rapax and 

 his scholars controlled the work. Trees were felled — houses built — the 



