222 
A Summons for the Criminal Sessions. 
tliat were to he held not before March. When on my return from 
L’Heureuse Aventure I stepped for the first time into Maicerwari’s cell 
I hardly recognised our powerful young friend whose eyes once beamed 
so bravely. He was a real picture of misery, his whole body swollen, and 
the brilliancy of his eyes dulled. The unfortunate lad’s joy on seeing 
me was boundless, but it was even greater however when my brother 
obtained the Governor’s permission for him to walk about the prison- 
yard during the day, and to exchange (he hitherto sack of straw for his 
beloved hammock at night. 
688. The case ot‘ poor Maicerwari might almost have upset the 
whole of our calculations. The Governor’s wife and daughter arrived 
from England a short while before we were to leave. As the latter had 
received her education on the Rhine she spoke German fluently and with 
almost emotional preference, and wo spent most of the evenings up to 
the time of our departure in the company of these intellectual and 
interesting ladies: they rendered themselves equally conspicuous by their 
highly cultured tastes as well as by a kindliness of heart which enhanced 
the natural loveliness of Miss Light with the higher charm of spiritual 
grace. Tn company with other ladies Miss Light seemed to be the only 
red rose in a big bouquet of white Centifolias whom unfortunately she 
was only too soon to resemble. When we returned from the primeval 
forests to Georgetown two years later, not the slightest trace of this 
youthful bloom, this delicate tint, this breath of fresh rose, was to be 
seen on her once glowing cheeks. 
689. The last day of our stay in Georgetown was to wind up with 
a big ball which the Governor had fixed for the 22nd December in honour 
of his wife’s and daughter’s arrival in the Colony. To attend this 
enchanting entertainment was the one and only heart’s desire of all 
Georgetown's gilded youth, for the whole fashionable world was to be 
invited. All arrangements were made for going next morning direct 
from the ballroom on board the steamer, “Flora Hastings,” that had 
been already loaded and was to take us, together with our boats, up the 
Essequibo as far as Station Am pa. My brother went out to say goodbye 
to some families, whom, owing to their colour, he did not dare hope 
to meet at the Governor’s, but within a few minutes hastily returned 
looking upset. “Bring this and that here,” he said to me. “Look after 
this and that, I’ve got to clear, for I just met counsel for poor Maicerwari 
who told me I cannot leave Georgetown now as I have to attend the 
criminal sessions due in March and must again swear to what I already 
told the High Sheriff on oath. But so that I cannot escape their inten- 
tions, the warrant is just being got out and will probably be served on 
me within the next half hour.” There was not a minute more to be lost, 
because my brother had to lie secretly smuggled out of the city before the 
minion of the law crossed our threshold: were the latter to meet him, 
everv chance of the expedition getting away before the end of the 
sessions would be lost. The laws in connection with such a summons 
are so strict that if the warrant had been served on my brother by the 
bearer or had been put down in his presence, not even the Queen, much 
less the Governor, could have freed him from his legal obligations. It 
