Prisoners of Chance

"I paid no heed," I answered, wondering he had observed so much. "Have you supposed we may owe our escape unto him?"

"Ay! she has marked him victim to her snare, nor do I doubt the full success of her venture. 'T is small stock of virtue which bedecks itself in such Punchinello dress as that gay gallant wears. Amalekite is written upon his raiment, and he is ever attired as becomes a bridegroom to the shameless harlot ruling this devils' den. Marry, he may be good enough wielding a sword, yet will prove the undoing of all who company with him in this adventure."

"You are unjustly angry," I insisted, striving to make light of his words. "I value not the mercy of the woman, yet she used the only means she had for restraining her savage followers. It was stern necessity driving her to reliance on the magic of your red hair with which to save us all. No doubt she intends giving you early release from so painful a situation."

"You also are bewitched by her vain fleshly beauty," he bellowed stoutly. "'Tis a carnal generation. I tell you, Master Benteen, I am an old man, uplifted by communion of the Spirit above all fleshly lusts. I have faithfully preached the word of salvation to civilized and savage more than forty years, and am not likely to be led astray by a glimpse of a fair face tempting me hellward. I speak you truth, as delivered of God, so surely as were the tablets of the law delivered unto Moses, when I say that she who, by some wile of the Devil, rules this tribe and holds our lives in her hands, is an incarnate fiend, who will yet mock our agony whenever her own accursed lust shall be satisfied. 'T is not only that she jeered at me with cruel smiles, and affronted a preacher of the Word by so ribald a covering; she did as clearly reveal the hideous sin of her heart unto that sweet lady we have in our keeping."

"Madame de Noyan?" I cried in awakened interest. "Mean you this woman dared do wrong by her?"

"I report only what my eyes beheld, for I can make nothing out of their heathen gibberish. Yet she who journeyed with us, ever proving herself a modest, high-bred lady in times of sore trial, begged upon her knees, with tears hot upon her cheeks, to be permitted to accompany you and her husband. What result? Why, this good Queen; this charming creature, stood there, like an insensate stone, gazing down upon her; and later, when the poor lady would not walk voluntarily, that painted harlot ordered two lecherous warriors to drag her forth, and laughed like a fiend at the scene."