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The current or the caprice of fancy soon brought Adrienne to think of Djalma. Whilst she congratulated herself on having paid to her royal kinsman the duties of a kingly hospitality, the young lady was far from regarding the prince as the hero of her future.
"I accept nothing from a friend, who thinks me capable of denying him from cowardice." "Dear prince listen to me." "Adieu, father." "Yet reflect!" "I have said it," replied Djalma, in an abrupt and almost sovereign tone, as he walked towards the door.
"It would be singular," returned Adrienne, with redoubled coldness, and still more bitter irony, "if my love admitting I were in love could have any such strange influence on Prince Djalma. What can it matter to him?" added she, with almost agonizing disdain. "What can it matter to him? Now really, my dear friend, permit me to tell you, that it is you who are jesting cruelly.
"That black panther of so rare a breed," thought he, "which I see here at Paris, upon the stage, must be the very one that the Malay" the Thug who had tatooed Djalma at Java during his sleep "took quite young from his den, and sold to a European captain. Bowanee's power is everywhere!" added the Thug, in his sanguinary superstition.
His features expressed a mixture of hate, rage, and despair, at once so terrible and so painful, that Djalma, more and more affected, exclaimed, as he seized the other's hand: "Calm this fury, and listen to the voice of friendship! It will disperse this evil influence. Speak to me!" "No, no! it is too dreadful!" "Speak, I bid thee." "No! leave the wretch to his despair!"
"We are yours, if you will be ours," answered the Indian. "I have no need of you nor you of me." "Who knows?" "I know it." "You are deceived. The English killed your father, a king; made you a captive; proscribed you, you have lost all your possessions." At this cruel reminder, the countenance of Djalma darkened. He started, and a bitter smile curled his lip.
What incurable wounds for Adrienne's pride! It mattered little, whether Djalma knew or not, that she would be a spectator of the indignity.
"'Two such actions, said Colonel Drake, with good reason, 'are sufficient to paint the man; it is with a feeling of profound respect and admiration, therefore, that I, an obscure traveller, have written the name of Prince Djalma in my book; and at the same time, I have experienced a kind of sorrow, when I have asked myself what would be the future fate of this prince, buried in the depths of a savage country, always devastated by war.
In fact, the sight of the panther had raised the wild ardor of Djalma to its utmost pitch. His eyes sparkled in their pearly orbits like two black diamonds; his upper lip was curled convulsively with an expression of animal ferocity, as if he were in a violent paroxysm of rage. Faringhea, now leaning on the front of the box, was also greatly excited, by reason of a strange coincidence.
"But please continue, and excuse me for having interrupted you; though, indeed, such impudence disgusts me." Djalma continued: "'That we may be certain of your removal from Paris for six months, you will go to the house of one of our friends in Germany. You will there be received with generous hospitality, but forcibly detained until the expiration of the term."
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