She wished also,
by making an example that would inspire terror, to establish the
undisputed supremacy of her people in the whole island. But, side by
side with these political considerations, were the religious influences
honestly and steadfastly working in her powerful intellect. When she
communed with her Gods she thought of no earthly good or ill: she loved
these strange conceptions, and fixed her whole soul on conciliating
them. It was now her conviction that they were displeased: their
displeasure, awful as she believed it to be, did not terrify her, but it
vexed her to the inmost heart: she feared that they had not been rightly
propitiated, and resolved that the shortcoming must be remedied.
All her reflections pointed with unerring force to the same conclusion.
She held in her hands the strong frame, the stout heart, the ruling
mind. All were concentrated in Jean Letocq. He, then, must be offered up
as a fitting sacrifice. By such an offering the deities could not fail
to be appeased, and by the death of this man in this fashion all the
natural exigencies of the situation would be satisfied. She never
allowed herself to dwell for one moment on the fact that the victim was
beloved by Hilda.
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