THE SUDDEN MASSACRE. 
279 
tombs of the dead have been desecrated. But here, we behold the 
exhumation of the living,—the despoiling of innocent and all vulner¬ 
able creatures, poor bits of skinless flesh, to whom the very lightest 
touch had been a sufficient agony ! 
This immense execution upon the population and their young was 
hurried over so rapidly, that at three o’clock in the afternoon nearly 
all was ended; the city was sacked and depopulated in every corner, 
and its future beyond all hope of a resurrection. 
We thought that some fugitive might still be lurking in conceal¬ 
ment; that perhaps the conquerors would abandon the desert if we 
transported them, with the destroyed city, into a paved coach-yard 
outside the garden; that then would awake in them the remembrance 
of their family, to whom, moreover, they could carry nothing more to 
be devoured. Our expectation was realized. 
On the morning of the 10th of June we saw them scattered along all 
the roads which led towards their dwelling-place, at the other end of 
the garden. But the destiny of the vanquished seemed accomplished. 
The dead and silent city was nothing but a cemetery, where, with the 
exception of a few scattered bodies, could only be seen some dead wood, 
some old pods of Northern trees, and their gloomy aiguilles (pines and 
once-green firs), not less dead than the city itself. 
I confess that such a vengeance, so disproportionate to the act which 
was its cause or pretext, excited in me a strong feeling of indignation, 
and my heart, changing sides, was completely alienated from those little 
black barbarians. 
So, observing that some of them, still implacable, were promenading 
among the ruins, I sent them rudely flying over its walls (that is, 
the edges of the vase). In vain it was gently pointed out to me that 
these blacks had been provoked, that they had shown the greatest 
courage, having braved so great a peril that their destruction might 
almost have been predicted. They were cruel and savage but heroic 
tribes, like the Iroquois, the Hurons, the revengeful heroes who formerly 
peopled the forests of the Mississippi and Canada. These reasons were 
good, but did not calm me. I felt too keenly the enormity of the 
crime. Without wishing to annihilate them, I confess that if these 
