The overseer often thought this, but never said it; he would not trust even himself with the dangerous criticism.

When he ventured to reveal the foregoing incidents to the senor he laid all the blame possible upon the man whom death had removed beyond the reach of correction, and brought his account to a climax by hazarding the asserting that Bras-Coupe was an animal that could not be whipped.
"Caramba!" exclaimed the master, with gentle emphasis, "how so ?" "Perhaps senor had better ride down to the quarters," replied the overseer.
It was a great sacrifice of dignity, but the master made it.
"Bring him out." They brought him out--chains on his feet, chains on his wrists, an iron yoke on his neck.

The Spanish Creole master had often seen the bull, with his long, keen horns and blazing eye, standing in the arena; but this was as though he had come face to face with a rhinoceros.
"This man is not a Congo," he said.
"He is a Jaloff," replied the encouraged overseer.

"See his fine, straight nose; moreover, he is a _candio_--a prince.

If I whip him he will die." The dauntless captive and fearless master stood looking into each other's eyes until each recognized in the other his peer in physical courage, and each was struck with an admiration for the other which no after difference was sufficient entirely to destroy.