The master was lying with his eyes closed.

The fever had done a fearful three days' work.
"_Mioko-Koanga oule so' femme_ (Bras-Coupe wants his wife)." The master started wildly and stared upon his slave.
"_Bras-Coupe oule so' femme_!" repeated the black.
"Seize him!" cried the sick man, trying to rise.
But, though several servants had ventured in with frightened faces, none dared molest the giant.

The master turned his entreating eyes upon his wife, but she seemed stunned, and only covered her face with her hands and sat as if paralyzed by a foreknowledge of what was coming.
Bras-Coupe lifted his great black palm and commenced: "_Mo ce voudrai que la maison ci la, et tout ca qui pas femme' ici, s'raient encore maudits_! (May this house, and all in it who are not women, be accursed)." The master fell back upon his pillow with a groan of helpless wrath.
The African pointed his finger through the open window.
"May its fields not know the plough nor nourish the herds that overrun it." The domestics, who had thus far stood their ground, suddenly rushed from the room like stampeded cattle, and at that moment appeared Palmyre.
"Speak to him," faintly cried the panting invalid.
She went firmly up to her husband and lifted her hand.

With an easy motion, but quick as lightning, as a lion sets foot on a dog, he caught her by the arm.
"_Bras-Coupe oule so' femme_," he said, and just then Palmyre would have gone with him to the equator.
"You shall not have her!" gasped the master.
The African seemed to rise in height, and still holding his wife at arm's length, resumed his malediction: "May weeds cover the ground until the air is full of their odor and the wild beasts of the forest come and lie down under their cover." With a frantic effort the master lifted himself upon his elbow and extended his clenched fist in speechless defiance; but his brain reeled, his sight went out, and when again he saw, Palmyre and her mistress were bending over him, the overseer stood awkwardly by, and Bras-Coupe was gone.
The plantation became an invalid camp.

The words of the voudou found fulfilment on every side.