long experience tells him is, like the gun, not
there for nothing. The Black Doctor arrives,
and so does Pauline. He dares to tell the
daughter of the white man that he luvvs her;
but Pauline, in that lonely place, dares to tell
the Black Doctor that she does not reciprocate
the sentiment:—which causes Mrs. Whelks to
exclaim that she "should think not, indeed!"
Finding that Pauline declines his suit, the
Black Doctor proceeds to frighten her. He
shows his teeth and rolls his eyes (the thunder
beginning to roll simultaneously), and then,
looking anxiously round at the sad sea waves,
tells her that all escape is cut off by the waters,
and that they must perish together. Under the
influence of the gleaming teeth, the rolling
eyes and thunder, the flashing lightning, and the
rising waters, Pauline, in "the last hour of
life," as the bill says, "reveals her hoarded
secret." She loves the Black Doctor. But it
is too late. The waters are rising—not so
rapidly as they ought to have done, owing to one
of the waves catching in a nail—and there is no
escape. Pauline has just time to pray for her
mother's forgiveness—what for, or according to
what faith, does not appear—when the Black
Doctor seizes her in his arms and carries her to
the rock. But all is in vain. The ocean, having
disengaged itself from the nail which kept the
tide down, rises higher and higher, and Pauline
and the Black Doctor, clinging to the rock and
to each other, disappear amid its dusty waters.
Act drop. Mr. Whelks applauds a little in a
patronising manner, but at the same time laughs
derisively. His feelings are not stirred in the
slightest degree, and he returns to his cold
potato with the air of a philosopher who has
found everything in life vain and hollow, except
that which ministers to the man physical.

In the second act, after the two comic men
have knocked each other about, solely for the
convenience of the stage carpenters, scarcely for the
amusement of the audience, Mr. Whelks finds
the Black Doctor still alive, rescued in some
mysterious manner from the dusty ocean, and
acting as servant, in a court suit, including a
powdered bag-wig and sword, in the house of
Pauline's mother, who is a marchioness. Pauline
has also been rescued from the dusty ocean, and
what is more, has been privately married to the
Black Doctor. The B. D., whose christian
name is Fabian, finds his situation a most
tantalising one. He has taken service with the
marchioness, to be near his wife, but he dares not
show his affection for her, nor even speak to her,
except on rare occasions, when there is no one
present. He is condemned to see handsome
young gallants dangling after her, and making
love to her; and yet, under all this provocation,
he is "sigh-lent." He finds it difficult, however,
to be sigh-lent when he discovers that his hated
rival, the Chevalier de St. Luce, whose life he
saved, is making love to his wife with the intention
of marrying her; but, when he presumes to
speak, the Chevalier taunts him with having
been a slave in the Isle of Boor-bong (they are
all in France now), and says that though he                                                        wears a sword, he dares not draw it. Stung by
these contemptuous words, the Black Doctor
has another fit of intestine agony, during which
he draws his sword slowly, and with an effort,
as if he were drawing it from his own vitals.
Mr. Whelks expects that there is going to be a
combat here, and is much disgusted when the
Black Doctor restrains his feelings, breaks his
sword across his knee, and flings himself in a
heap on the table. From this attitude, illustrative
of the abject and degraded condition of
the negro, the Black Doctor is aroused by hearing
the marchioness announce to the Parisian
nobles on their return from Versailles—two
of the nobles having visited the court in
their drawers—that Pauline is about to be
married to the Chevalier de St. Luce. The
Black Doctor will be "sigh-lent" no longer.
He claims Pauline as his lawful wedded wife,
and Pauline claims the Black Doctor as her
lawful wedded husband. Mr. Whelks, who, in
the abstract, is a lover of virtue and propriety,
applauds this very much, but the wicked
Parisian nobles are greatly disgusted. The
Black Doctor receives notice to quit, and
Pauline, hearing the sentence of banishment,
falls on her knees and puts a little phial to her
lips. The Black Doctor rushes forward just in
time to prevent her swallowing the deadly
poison, exclaiming, "this act of devotion repays
me for all I have suffered." Events now follow
each other in rapid succession. The marchioness
curses Pauline, the marriage is "annulled by
aristocratic" power, Pauline is doomed to close
confinement, the Black Doctor thrust into " the
deepest dungeons of the Bastille." Tableau:
The Black Doctor in the hands of the minions of
the law.

"Act Third. The Bastille! The Contrast!

"The Rich and Poor Prisoners!"

The stage is divided into two floors, for the
purpose of showing—quite gratuitously, and
without any reference to the story—the
contrast between the treatment of the rich and poor
in the Bastille. A noble is in the upper floor,
being attended upon by his valet, while the
Black Doctor is condemned to lie upon some
straw in the deepest dungeon. While every
indulgence is shown to the noble, the jailer
takes away the Black Doctor's lamp just as he
is coming to an interesting passage in a letter
(from Pauline) which has been mysteriously
dropped, from Heaven knows where, among his
straw. At this moment, however, the revolution
breaks out, the Bastille is stormed with
many maroons, much fire, smoke, and smother,
the revolutionists rush in, cell doors are broken
open, and the Black Doctor is declared to be
free. Mr. Whelks is greatly excited here, and
applauds vociferously; indeed, with so much
appreciation as to cause the flats to be drawn
off, and the tableau repeated with one more
maroon, which, however, being short of powder,
goes off flatly, and causes Mr. Whelks to laugh.

In the last act, Mr. Whelks finds the Black
Doctor in a hut on the sea-coast of Brittany;
and, being on the sea-coast, he is suitably