She had promised to produce the girl when she was required; to
seek the chief's assistance to enable her to fulfil the promise would be
a diminution of her prestige, and consequently of her power. Again, it
was by no means certain that the chief who, it has been said, was no
love-sick bridegroom, would consent to undertake the enterprise; nor, if
he did undertake it, was his prospect of success unquestionable, for the
islanders, though not ready listeners to the Christian teaching, would
have united to repel a heathen attack on their teachers whom they
honoured and respected. Judith therefore rejected this expedient,
arranging her plan of operations with remarkable ingenuity.
Her first aim was to promote ill-feeling between the Voizins and their
neighbours; this part of the campaign was prosecuted with vigour. Cattle
were lost on either side of the boundary; houses were burnt; old wells
ran dry; rumours, mysteriously circulated, spoke of these as no
accidental mishaps; suspicions were whispered; instances of retaliation
followed. At the time when a dangerous feeling was thus growing up a
famine broke out in the Voizin country while the islanders were well
supplied.
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