SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 375 
enced before being- driven to the tomb." After a short prayer, 
I arose and returned to the cottage. To consecrate a monu- 
ment to the memory of my father, I took two cocoa-nuts, which 
he had planted some time previous to his death, and replanted 
them beside the grave ; I then gave my orders to Etienne, and 
returned to the family at Senegal. 
Next day M. Dard came to see us at the house of M. Tho- 
mas. This worthy friend of my father told us he would not 
abandon in Senegal the orphans whom he had promised to 
assist. I come, added he, to return to the governor the leave 
he had given me to pass six months in France, and I charge 
myself with providing for all your wants till I can conyej'- 
you to Paris. Such generous devotion affected me to tears ; I 
tlianked our worthy benefactor, and he went into Madame 
Thomas's room. When he had gone, Madame Thomas took 
me aside, and said that M. Dard's intention was not only to 
adopt the wrecks of our family, but he wished also to offer 
me his hand as soon as our grief had subsided. This confi- 
dence, I own, displeased me not ; for it was delightful for me 
to think that so excellent a man, who had already given us 
such substantial assistance in our distress, did not think him- 
self degraded by uniting his fate with that of a poor orphan. 
I recollected what my father had said to me during one of our 
greatest misfortunes. " M. Dard," said that worthy man, "is 
an estimable youth, whose attachment for us has never dimi- 
nished, in spite of our wretchedness : and I am certain he pre- 
fers virtue in a wife above all other riches." 
Some days after, our benefactor came to tell us he had dis- 
embarked all his effects, and that he had resumed his func- 
tions as director of the French school at Senegal. We talked 
a long while together concerning my father's affairs, and he 
then left us. However, as one of my brothers was very ill, 
he returned in the evening to see how he was. He found us 
in tears ; for the innocent creature had expired in my arms. 
M. Dard and M. Thomas instantly buried him, for his body 
had already become putrid. We took great care to conceal 
his death from his brother, who, having a mind superior to 
his age, would doubtless have been greatly affected. Never- 
theless, on the following day, poor Charles inquired where 
his brother Gustavus was ; M. Dard, who was sitting near his 
bed, told him he was at school; but he discovered the cheat, 
and cried, weeping, that he wished a hat to go to school and 
see if Gustavus was really living. M. Dard had the kindness 
to go and purchase him one to quiet him, which, when he saw. 
