human
So it might, but for our stove. But then our ears would have been frozen up, too. We should have been underground by this time--which they say we are not now, though it is hard, sometimes to believe them. However, we shall hear something by-and-by that will drown the drip. Among these mountains, there must be thunder. In the summer, Mars Plaisir, we may hear thunder.
gpt
In the summer!
human
That is, not you, but I. I hope they will let you out long before the summer.
gpt
Does your Excellency hope so?
human
Certainly, my poor fellow. The happiest news I expect ever to hear is that you are to be released: and this news I do expect to hear. They will not let you go home, to tell where I am; but they will take you out of this place.
gpt
Oh, your Excellency! if you think so, would your Excellency be pleased to speak for me--to ask the Commandant to let me out? If you will tell him that my rheumatism will not let me sleep--I do not want to go home-- I do not want to leave your Excellency, except for your Excellency's good. I would say all I could for you, and kneel to the First Consul; and, if they would not set you free, I would-- Here his voice faltered, but he spoke the words--
human
I would come back into your Excellency's service in the summer--when I had got cured of my rheumatism. If you would speak a word to the Commandant!
gpt
I would, if I were not sure of injuring you by doing so. Do you not see that nothing is to be granted us that we ask for? Speak not another word of liberty, and you may have it. Ask for it, and you are here for life--or for my life. Remember!
human
You have never asked for your liberty? said his master.
gpt
No. I knew that, for my sake, you had not. Has no one ever mentioned liberty to you? I understand, he continued, seeing an expression of confusion in the poor fellow's face.
human
Do not tell me anything; only hear me. If freedom should be offered to you, take it. It is my wish--it is my command. Is there more wood? None but this?
gpt
None but this damp wood that chokes us with smoke. They send us the worst wood--the green, damp wood that the poorest of the whites in the castle will not use,
human
They think the worst of everything good enough for us, because we are blacks. Oh! oh! Here his wrath was aggravated by a twinge of rheumatism.
gpt
They think anything good enough for blacks.
human
Let them think so, said his master, kindly.
gpt
God does not. God did not think so when He gave us the soil of Africa, and the sun of Saint Domingo. When he planted the gardens of the world with palms, it was for the blacks. When He spread the wide shade of the banyan, He made a tent for the blacks. When He filled the air with the scent of the cinnamon and the cacao, was it not for the blacks to enjoy the fragrance? Has He not given them music? Has he not given them love and a home? What has He not given them? Let the whites think of us as they will! They shall be welcome to a share of what God gave the blacks, though they return us nothing better than wet wood, to warm us among their snows.
human
It is true, said Mars Plaisir, his complacency completely restored--
gpt
God thinks nothing too good for the blacks. I will tell the First Consul so, if--
human
The First Consul would rather hear something else from you: and you know, Mars Plaisir, the whites laugh at us for our boastings. However, tell the First Consul what you will.