The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-29


and stabbiDg order.
This feud between the De Blieu and the Coup
court families has, matter OF course, ex-
tended TO their slaves but in the latter case the
bghts. had usually been very noisy but quite
bloodless. One instance, however, had varied
the monotony. Far back, in 1887, perhaps, De
Blieu negro by the name of Toussant had killed
a Coupcourt negro by the name Of Loup -garou.
The fight had taken place in the swamp under
peculiar circumstances and pine knots were the
weapons used. The two combatants were run
Always. each having fed to the swamp to avoid
much-merited punishment at the hands of the
overseer. They met in the very middle of the
swamp. "Bete-dlabr de Coupcourtp "Chlen
de penfer!"
They spoke es nearly as possible, each in the
accent and with the manner of his master Each
hourshed his pine knot, which had been careful
ly selected for another purpose-the repelling of
Northumberland glared at his ebony faced OPP
ponent.
That was vigorous, If not graceful duel.
The parryirg was awkward but the blows were
heavy aud resonant 'Thud-thudl Thud-
thudl Thud-thudw The dull, deadly sounds
went echoing abroad through the shadowy ST.
lence of the swamp. The owls awoke and boot
ed, the big woodpeckers quit their drumming to
listen TO that heavier pounding
The two black men uttered few EXPLANATIONS.
In terrible earnest but with strange show of
perfunctoriness. they steadily welded their pine
knots. There was little danger of any interior
ence; they had the entire jungle fighting
ground, and the rest of their lives to fight it out
In. and so they went on. "Thud-thud. Thud-
thud. Thud-thud" mauing each other with
rythmcal regularity of strokes and with sim
gularly faultless alternative of giving and re-
ceiving. When Toussant's broad back resounded
under Loup-garou's pine knot, the very next
moment the shoulder of Loup-garou gave forth
the echo of the noise The combatants leaped
nimbly about at first; but they began to
fail. Toussant forced Loup-garou back and
finally hit him on the head just as he got
tangled between the prongs of a many-forked
little tree.
Poor Loup-g arou, that was the last of him.
Toussant deliberately pounded him to death
there and then. But Toussant had not escaped
unhurt He must have suffered lesion of the
spinal cord or it may have been but the reflex
action of his terrible deed upon his already su-
perstition-tainted imagination. At all events
when he saw that Loup garou was dead he stood
as II rooted to the spot, glazing horribly How
still the swamps was, how lonely, how gloomy
and strange
Some days later Toussant came rushing out of
the swamp into the negro quarters, all haggard
and wild eyed, Furnishing the pine knot and
crying: "Loup-garoui Loup-garou!" and he fell
down and died in awful agony.
That cry: "Loup-garoul Loup-garoup took
firm hold on the hearts of the plantation me-
groes. Quickly enough dark superstition
formed itself, and the story of Loupg arou. the
fend OF the swamp began to be told. Out of
one fend grew many, and so the swamp got the
would enter that haunted region if he could help
it, especially De Bleu negro. for fear of meet
ing the terrible being that had cruelty beaten
and mangled poor Toussant 1t might have
been very different if Toussant had been able to
explain; but he was craZed beyond any power Of
connected speech He could do no more than glare
with his wild blood-shot eyes and cry aloud:
''Loup-garou, Loup-garouw Such death. as he
died could not fail to leave deep impression in
the minds of Toussant's companions Ever
ffap nd cd x,ifh hofa Iroo
and with awe-inspired gestures.
The Terre Aux Loups Garous became, in the
lmagnatlon OF the negroes, demon-land, in
which had congregated all the COLLINS and devils
of earth and of the neither regions.
So things were when Toulme de Blieu, mere
youth of twenty, returned from France to the
old De Blleu place.
The Coupcourt mansion stood upon an airy
bluff overlooking wide marsh-meadow and a
blue space of the Gulf of Mexico. 1t was large,
roughly built wooden house, surrounded by a
broad veranda and cut into four equal parts by
two wide halls cutting each other at right angles
Immense live oaks and magnolias shaded 1t, sub
tropical towering plants and vines grew around
and over tit had its scuppernong vineyard-its
orange grove-its pecan trees-its peach orchard
and its tropical vegetable garden. Across the
marsh meadow, from the house to the gulf, ran
a natural canal, as deep and straight if cut by
man, beside which stood an old boat-shed A
little sloop lay moored hard by
The De Blieu mansion was the counterpart of
its neighbor. Between them lay the great black
swamp-the Terre Aux Loups Garous. From
one place to the other although the distance was
several miles, the shrill quillmusic of rival ne
gro pipers could be heard, when the weather was
very favorable. So the songs of the cane cutters
would meet on the halfway ground and struggle
and die in the swamp.
Toulme De Blieu found q great change in
things at the De Blieu place when he returned
He had been away seven years, the war had IN
tervened, and now freedom was proclaimed to
the slaves upon the closing echoes of the war.
His father and all his brothers were dead. Sis
tiers he had not, and his mother was growing
very feeble for one of her age. He looked over
the plantation and found it badly run to weeds
and neglect, whilst many of the negroes had
gone away to enjoy wide liberty under the new
regime
Toulme was youth of fine presence, Of good
impulse and faultless manner; put he felt that
his first duty to kill Coupcouru. Great
was his chagrin, therefore, when upon inquiry
he found that there was male Coupcourt at
hand Reluctantly enough he put away his
pistols and knives and began to try to console
himself with fishing and sailing. To tell the
whole truth he soon ceased to think about the
feud and gave himself up to his soop. his fish
ing-tackle his gun and his dogs, with genuinely
boyish enthusiasm
Old Tete-Ghauve, the chief, so to speak of the
De Blieu negroes, had remained true to his for
mer owners and had hailed the return of ToElme
with such demonstrations Of delight as no one
but an aged and loving negro can make He
now followed the young master of the De Blieu
place about, as if he could never tire of serving
him. He was garrulous old fellow, given to
stories of the marvellous and the uncanny.
Toulme listened to Tete-chauve with an idle
interest. 1t revived his boyhood's memories,
and called up again the hunting legend of the
Loup-garou. No matter how hght-hearted the
young man was. he felt in indefinite way the
great change in his old home and its surround
ings. and day by day melancholy, as tenous
as it was obscure, grew in his breast. 1t was
hard to realize that the grandeur had departed
from his family name. and that he. the last of
the De Blieus, was left without future; and yet
he did, in way, understand that this was so.
Most of the time, however, he was gay enough
He was daring and expert sailor. and from
morning until night he would sport with the wind
and waves coasting about, now in the bights and
coves, and now under the white sand bluffs or
anon under the gloomy shadow of the Terre Aux