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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14731 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14731-h.htm or 14731-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h/14731-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;
+
+OR
+
+THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.
+
+A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west
+
+by
+
+WARREN T. ASHTON.
+
+Boston:
+B. B. Mussey and Company,
+and
+R. B. Fitts and Company
+
+1853.
+
+Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the
+Fisk University Library Negro Collection
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
+Hallandale, Florida 33009
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     "Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of comely virtues."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave?"
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a passenger
+on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the
+passage--one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of
+western river navigation--the plot of this story was arranged. Many of
+its incidents, and all its descriptions of steamboat life, will be
+recognized by the voyager of the Mississippi.
+
+The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin,"--before negro literature had become a mania in the community. It
+was not designed to illustrate the evils or the blessings of slavery. It
+is, as its title-page imports, a _tale_; and the author has not stepped
+out of his path to moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other
+extraneous topic. But, as its _locale_ is the South, and its principal
+character a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
+slavery.
+
+With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the public,
+hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure from its
+perusal which he experienced in its preparation.
+
+BOSTON, November 18, 1852.
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE:
+
+THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+     "_Antony_. You grow presumptuous.
+     _Ventidius_. I take the privilege of plain love to speak.
+     _Antony_. Plain love!--Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"
+
+     DRYDEN.
+
+
+On the second floor of a lofty building in ---- street, New Orleans, was
+situated the office of Anthony Maxwell, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law, Commissioner for Georgia, Alabama, and a dozen other states. His
+office had not the usual dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but
+presented more the appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but
+for the ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
+with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the visitor
+would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the walls not
+occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings, whose artistic
+beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined taste. The floor of the
+room was covered by a magnificent tapestry carpet. The chairs, lounges
+and tables, were of the most costly and elegant description. The windows
+were hung with graceful and brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of
+the office betokened luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil
+and privation to which the aspirant for legal honors must so often
+submit. The costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate
+that the young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked
+with beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
+over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have trodden.
+
+The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon one of
+the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a fragrant
+regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty years of age,
+and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly handsome. His face
+was pale, with a certain haggard appearance, which indicates the earlier
+stages of dissipation. His complexion was of a delicate white, unbrowned
+by the southern sun, and the skin was so transparent that the roots of
+his black beard were visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair
+hung in rich, wavy curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some
+renowned tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they
+arranged. His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was
+excited in manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,--disposed to
+droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
+agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there was
+something about them which the moralist would not like--a sort of
+lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual expression,
+that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he admired the Apollo.
+
+The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not yet
+become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and festered
+beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual grandeur.
+
+The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in good
+taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not court
+ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
+over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined taste, in
+his external appearance.
+
+Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A year
+before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his father's
+office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed devotion to
+business, he had effectually deceived his father and his clients into
+the belief that he was a steady, industrious young man. His talents were
+of a very respectable order, which, superadded to a native eloquence and
+an engaging demeanor, had enabled him to acquit himself with much credit
+in the cases intrusted to his management. A few months after his
+professional _début_, his father's decease had placed him in possession
+of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune, thus enabling him
+in some degree to follow the bent of his own inclinations. To those
+whose habits and desires were similar to his own, he was not long in
+unfolding his true character, though not to a sufficient extent to
+destroy at once his professional prospects. The irresponsible life of
+the man of leisure had more charms to him than an honorable distinction
+in his profession. To labor in any form he had an intolerable
+repugnance. His fortune was not sufficient to allow an entire neglect of
+business; therefore he determined to practise law in an easy manner,
+until a rich wife, or the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire
+devotion to the pleasures of affluence.
+
+In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of his
+father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent apartments we have
+described. He gave up the house in which his father had dwelt, and,
+fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of the office with oriental
+splendor, his life and habits were free from the scrutinizing gaze of
+friend and foe, and he found himself situated as nearly to his mind as
+his income would permit. These indications of a dissolute life were
+viewed with distrust by the more respectable of his clients. His
+subsequent actions were not calculated to increase their confidence;
+yet, for the respect they bore to the father's memory, they were slow in
+casting off the son.
+
+Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an impatient
+exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his mind refused to
+accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently engaged in the
+consideration of some complicated affair; and the more he thought, the
+more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar, and lit another; still
+the knotty point was not conquered. His haggard countenance at one
+moment was lighted up, as though success had dawned upon his mental
+contest; but at the next moment it darkened into disappointment, which
+he vented in an audible oath.
+
+While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating with the
+ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very formally
+announced "Miss Dumont."
+
+This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which had
+environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as if by
+magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the lady for the
+smoky atmosphere of the room.
+
+"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing of the
+usual commonplace introductions of conversation.
+
+"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this visit,"
+replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have called to
+request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father has some
+business matters upon which he requires your professional advice."
+
+"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell, with an
+appearance of sympathy.
+
+"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When shall I
+say you will come?" said the lady.
+
+"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you go
+direct."
+
+"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.
+
+This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
+approbation of the attorney.
+
+"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner; "pray,
+honor me with a moment's conversation."
+
+"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and cannot
+accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified manner, while
+a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful countenance.
+
+"Be not so unkind,--a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell, with pleading
+earnestness.
+
+"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
+returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not changed,"
+replied she, moving to the door.
+
+The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had received,
+and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great purpose in view,--a
+purpose which, accomplished, would enable him to realize the cherished
+object of his life,--would enable him to revel in the ease and affluence
+he so much coveted. Something must be done. Here was an opportunity
+afforded by the providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never
+occur again, and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he
+adopted the first expedient which presented itself.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was not aware
+that you intended to return it."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
+relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table by
+the side of which the attorney stood.
+
+"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from further
+annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with which I have
+awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents of humility, which
+were too well feigned to permit the lady to suspect them. "The
+bitterness of a blighted hope were better than the agony of suspense."
+
+A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the lady, as
+she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table. There lay
+Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had returned it! She
+only pointed to it, and looked into his face to read the shame and
+confusion her discovery must create.
+
+Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit was
+exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and said,
+
+"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to it,
+that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the heart which
+is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you cannot, know the
+misery I have endured in possessing the love upon which you so cruelly
+frown."
+
+The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart less firm
+than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression of contempt
+left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with favor to his
+suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed misery. Under any other
+circumstances, the lie he had a moment before uttered would have forever
+condemned him in her sight. But her charitable disposition compelled her
+to believe that it was the last resort of a mind on the verge of
+despair.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should have
+suffered any unhappiness on my account."
+
+"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell, hastily,
+feeling that he had gained the first point.
+
+"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned the
+lady.
+
+"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the coldness of
+indifference again!"
+
+"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an index of
+your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous means, to
+discountenance them."
+
+"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a flickering
+hope."
+
+"If you have, I regret it all the more."
+
+"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I have
+dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging fire, and
+beyond my control."
+
+"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied the
+lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I trust
+this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope you have
+cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now feel it must be
+for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on that account, to declare
+it, I repeat--I can never reciprocate the affection you profess. And now
+let this interview terminate. It is too painful to be prolonged;"--and
+she again moved towards the door.
+
+"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he followed
+her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove myself
+worthy,--anything, but do not forever extinguish the little star I have
+permitted to blaze in the firmament of my heart--the star I have dared
+to worship. Do not veil me in utter darkness!"
+
+"I can offer no hope--not the slightest, even to rid myself of an
+annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some portion of her
+former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney perplexed and
+troubled her exceedingly.
+
+"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell, heedless of the
+lady's rebuke.
+
+"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.
+
+"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till you
+examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from hopeless
+misery."
+
+"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a gentleman to
+save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont, with spirit, for her
+patience was fast ebbing out.
+
+"I will not _annoy_ you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis, as he assumed
+an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading for exemption from
+the direst of human miseries. But I will not _annoy_ you, even to save
+myself from endless woe."
+
+"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments will
+continue unchanged."
+
+"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
+resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
+that you will yet relent."
+
+"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
+Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time to
+add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however well
+acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the unsuspecting
+object of it to believe. That he really loved her was to some extent
+true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as the blight of coldness
+and inconstancy would render painful, was not true,--far from it. He had
+sought her hand, not to lay at her feet the offering of a hallowed
+affection, but to realize the object we have before mentioned,--to
+enable him, by the possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease
+and pleasure.
+
+He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some prospect of
+success. To the occasional professional visit he paid her father he had
+added frequent social calls, in which he had used all his eloquence to
+enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter. She had regarded him as an
+agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his natural abilities, the unceasing wit
+and liveliness of his conversation, had well earned him this
+distinction. Flattering himself that he should be able to win her
+affections, he had gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere
+formalist to the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These
+overtures were not well received, and, if she had before treated him
+with the favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now
+extended to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
+visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his eyes,
+and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his disposition
+was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow him to despair.
+
+Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented itself, in
+the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his ambitious wishes
+appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual was a young officer
+in the army, a sort of _protegé_ of the lady's father, who had been
+spending a furlough at Bellevue. In the matter of fortune Maxwell's
+rival was not to be dreaded, for he knew the lady was not mercenary in
+her views. The young captain was penniless; but his family was good, and
+he had the advantage of being a favorite with the father. He had won for
+himself a name on the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a
+lady's favor. He was a universal favorite both with the public and in
+the private circle.
+
+Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
+resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions he
+relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
+unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had manifested,
+he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her, eloquently and
+tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt that he could in this
+manner gain her attention to his suit,--a point which his vanity assured
+him was equivalent to a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were
+both sorely tried by the return of the letter unopened. His point was
+lost, and he was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to
+suggest any scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,--which the
+circumstances seemed to interdict,--when the visit of the lady herself
+rendered further efforts useless.
+
+His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
+heiress,--a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future prospects to
+be resigned,--was now a desperate one. Through the long vista of
+struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and the fact that he had to
+some extent compromised his heart stimulated him still more to meet and
+overcome the barriers that environed him.
+
+For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered the
+obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather than a
+disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
+He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
+bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
+precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
+and disappointment in a volley of oaths.
+
+His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's announcement
+of "Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
+Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
+no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
+demeanor.
+
+"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.
+
+"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
+requested me immediately to visit your brother."
+
+"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style
+Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.
+
+"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
+longer than I supposed it would."
+
+"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother wished
+to see you was concerning his will."
+
+"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
+apparent alarm.
+
+"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
+otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
+Jaspar, with a sickly smile.
+
+"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be
+prepared for the final event."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the
+will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste.
+Will it take you long?"
+
+"An hour or two."
+
+"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
+return."
+
+"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
+morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."
+
+Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
+courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
+first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which
+alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that
+awaited her, he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly
+suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could
+scarcely proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled _his_
+prospects in darkness; now he was preparing a will which would, at no
+distant day, place her in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was
+so firmly fixed upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to
+bend itself to the task before him.
+
+Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little impatient.
+Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the lawyer's shoulder.
+
+"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
+impatience, "and must be executed with great care."
+
+"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done," observed
+Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not unnoticed by
+the attorney.
+
+"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype of
+Jaspar's smile.
+
+A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single smile! It is
+the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts convey their untold
+and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious lover it is the bearer of the
+first tidings of joy. Long before the heart dare resort to coarse,
+material words, the smile carries the messages of affection. To the
+villain it reveals the sympathetic purposes of his according fiend. What
+the lead and line are to the pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling
+smile, is to the base mind. By means of it he feels his way into the
+heart and soul of his supposed prototype.
+
+Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the meaning of
+Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that he was cold and
+unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly lacking in common
+integrity; but that he was capable of bold and daring villany he had had
+no occasion to suspect. As he turned to the document again, the base
+character of the uncle came up for consideration in connection with his
+suit to the niece. Might not this circumstance open the way to the
+attainment of his grand purpose?
+
+But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the development of
+the history and circumstances of the Dumont family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "_Lorenzo_. You loved, and he did love!
+       _Mariana_. To say he did
+     Were to affirm what oft his eyes avouched,
+     What many an action testified--and yet,
+     What wanted confirmation of his tongue."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+On the right bank of the Mississippi river, a few miles above New
+Orleans, was situated the plantation of Colonel Dumont, which he had
+chosen to designate by the expressive appellation of "Bellevue;" though,
+it would seem, from the level nature of the country, it could not have
+been chosen on account of any fitness in the term.
+
+In territorial extent, in the number of slaves employed, and in the
+quantity of sugar annually produced, the plantation of Colonel Dumont
+was one of the most important on the river. This fact, added to the
+possession of immense estates in the city, rendered its owner a man of
+no small consequence in the vicinity. But, more than this, Colonel
+Dumont was beloved and respected for his many good qualities of mind and
+heart. In the late war with England he had served in the army, and as an
+officer had won an enviable distinction by his courage and his talents.
+Coming unexpectedly into the possession of this estate by the death of
+an uncle, he retired, at the close of the war, from a profession to
+which a genuine patriotism alone had invited him, and devoted himself
+entirely to the improvement of his lands.
+
+Colonel Dumont had been married; but, after a single year of happiness
+in the conjugal state, his wife died, leaving him an only daughter in
+remembrance of her. This child, at the opening of the tale, was within
+a few years of maturity,--the image of her father's only love,--not less
+fair, not less pure and good.
+
+Emily Dumont was a beautiful girl, fair as the lily, gentle as the dove.
+She was of a medium height, and of slender and graceful form. Her step
+was light and elastic, and, if there was any poetry in her light,
+elegant form, there was more in her easy, fairy-like motion. Her
+features were as daintily moulded as her form. Her eye was light blue,
+soft, and beautifully expressive of a pure heart. She was a little paler
+than the connoisseur in female loveliness would demand in his ideal, and
+her expression was a little inclined to sadness; but it was a
+sadness--or rather a sweet dignity--more winning than repulsive to the
+gazer.
+
+Emily Dumont, highly as fortune had favored her in the bestowal of
+worldly goods and personal beauty, was still more blessed in the gifts
+of an expansive mind and a gentle heart; and mind and heart had both
+been faithfully cultivated by the assiduous care of her devoted father.
+She was a true woman,--not a mere plaything to while away a dandy's idle
+hours, not a piece of tinsel to adorn the parlor of a nabob, but a true
+woman,--one fitted by nature and education to adorn all the varied
+scenes of life. Although brought up in unclouded prosperity, amid luxury
+and affluence, she was still prepared for the day of adversity, if it
+should ever come.
+
+As the heiress of immense wealth, her hand was eagerly sought in the
+aristocratic circle around her; but thus far she had resisted all these
+attacks upon her heart, and upon her prospective riches. In the crowd of
+suitors who gathered around her was Anthony Maxwell. In the item of
+wealth his fortune was comparatively small; and in that of a noble
+character, smaller still. Emily could have forgiven him the want of the
+former, but the latter was imperatively demanded. At the young lawyer's
+return from the North, and on his first appearance at the bar, Emily had
+regarded him with more than ordinary attention. But, after the death of
+his father, the reports which reached her ears of his dissolute habits
+and inclinations caused her to regard him with distrust. His wit,
+accomplishments and native suavity, had procured him admission into the
+circle of her more favored friends. But the report of his vices had as
+promptly produced his expulsion.
+
+The return of the army from Mexico brought with it the young officer
+whom we have before mentioned. The father of this young man had been a
+companion-in-arms of Colonel Dumont, and a strong friendship had grown
+up between the veterans. The tie was severed only by the death of the
+former, after a life of mercantile misfortunes, and finally of utter
+ruin. At the period of the father's insolvency and death, Henry Carroll,
+the son, was a cadet at West Point, and was about abandoning his chosen
+profession, for the want of means, when Colonel Dumont wrote him an
+affectionate letter, offering all that he required to complete his
+studies. This offer, coming from one who had been a heavy loser by his
+father's bankruptcy, was highly appreciated, and the young student had
+allowed no false delicacy to prevent his acceptance of the generous
+proposal, though with a stipulation to repay all sums, with interest.
+Colonel Dumont, in his regular summer tour to the North, never failed to
+visit his young friend, whose noble bearing and lofty principle entirely
+won his heart, and he charged himself with a father's duty towards him.
+A regular correspondence was kept up between the self-constituted
+guardian and his _protegé_; and the more the former read the heart of
+the young man, the more did he rejoice that he had befriended him. He
+read with mingled pride and affection the repeated instances of his
+daring courage and matchless skill which found their way into the
+newspapers; while the record of his humanity to a fallen foe contributed
+to swell the tide of the old gentleman's affection.
+
+On his return from Mexico, Henry's first care was to see his devoted
+friend and guardian, and he accepted his pressing invitation to spend a
+month at Bellevue.
+
+As an inmate of her father's family, he was, of course, a constant
+companion of Emily. Her radiant beauty had captivated his heart long ere
+the month had expired; and he saw, or thought he saw, in the heart of
+the fair girl, indications of a sympathetic sentiment. In the rashness
+of his warm blood he had allowed himself to cherish a lively hope that
+his dawning love was not entirely unrequited. He had seen that _his_
+bouquet was more fondly cherished than the offerings of others; that
+_his_ hand, as she alighted from the carriage, was more gladly received
+than any other; that _his_ conversation never wearied her; in short,
+there was in all their intercourse an unmistakable exponent of feelings
+deeper than those of common friendship.
+
+In the midst of this delighted existence,--while yet he revelled in the
+pleasure of loving and being loved,--there came to him, like a dark
+cloud over a clear sky, the unwelcome thought that it was wrong for him
+to entangle the affections of his benefactor's daughter. He was a
+beggar,--the object of her father's charity. Her prospects were
+brilliant and certain, and he felt that he had no right to mar or
+destroy them. He knew that she would love him none the less for his
+poverty; but, probably, her father had already anticipated something
+better than a beggar for his future son-in-law.
+
+Poor Captain Carroll! The modesty of true greatness of soul had left
+unconsidered the genuine nobility of the man. He thought not of the name
+he had won on the field of battle,--of the honorable wounds he bore as
+testimonials of his devotion to his country. He was poor, and, in the
+despondency which his position induced, he attributed to wealth a value
+which to the truly good it never possesses.
+
+He loved Emily, and his poverty seemed to shut him out from the hallowed
+field to which his heart fondly sought admission.
+
+Henry Carroll was a high-minded man; he felt that to love the daughter
+while the father's views were unknown to him would be rank ingratitude;
+and ingratitude towards so good a man, so kind a benefactor, was
+repugnant to every principle of his nature. There was but one path open
+to him. If he could not help loving her, he could strive to prevent the
+loved one from squandering her affections where pain and sorrow might
+ensue. They had often met; but he strove to believe, in his unwilling
+zeal, that their intimacy had not yet resulted in an incurable passion.
+She had as yet shown nothing that could not have resulted from simple
+friendship. And yet she had,--the warm glow that adorned her cheek when
+she received his flower, the expressive glance of her soft eye as he
+assisted her to the carriage, the sweet smile with which she had always
+greeted him,--ah, no, these were not friendship! I He could not believe
+that his affection was unreturned; it was too precious to remain
+unacknowledged. The will and the heart would not conform to each other.
+But his duty seemed plain, and he did not hesitate to obey its call,
+though it demanded a great sacrifice.
+
+The month to which he had limited his visit at Bellevue expired about
+the period at which our tale begins. Inclination prompted him to accept
+the pressing invitation of Colonel Dumont to prolong his stay; but,
+bitter as was the thought of parting from her he loved, his nice sense
+of honor compelled him to be firm in his purpose.
+
+The announcement of his intended departure to Emily, as they were seated
+in the drawing-room on the designated day, afforded him another evidence
+that her heart was not untouched. Her pale cheek grew paler, and the
+playful smile was instantly dismissed.
+
+"So soon?" said she, scarcely able to conceal the tremulous emotion
+which agitated her.
+
+"So soon! I have finished the month allotted to me," replied Henry
+Carroll, with a weak effort to appear gayer than he felt.
+
+"Allotted to you! And pray are you stinted in the length of your visit?"
+
+"My orders will not permit a longer stay, happy as I should be to
+remain; and I have already trespassed long on your hospitality."
+
+"Indeed, Henry, you have grown sensitive! You were not wont to consider
+your visits a trespass. Pray, have you not been regarded as one of the
+family?"
+
+"True, I have. I can never repay the debt of gratitude for the many
+kindnesses I have received at your good father's hands."
+
+"He has been a thousand times repaid by the honorable life you have
+led,--by feeling that the talents he has encouraged you to foster are
+now blessing the world," replied Emily, warmly; "so no more of your
+gratitude, if you please."
+
+"However lightly you, or your father, may regard my obligations to him,
+I cannot view them coldly."
+
+"Well, then, your presence here will give him more pleasure than any
+other token of respect you can bestow; and, I am sure, I should be
+rejoiced--that is to say--that is--I should be glad to have you stay
+longer, if you can be contented," stammered Emily, as her mantling
+blushes betrayed her confusion. Deception was not in her nature, and,
+strive as hard as she might, she must reveal her feelings.
+
+"I should be happier than it is possible for me to express in remaining
+at Bellevue. My month has passed away like a dream of pleasure,--so
+short it seemed that time had staid his wheels,--so joyous that earth
+seemed shorn of sorrow. You know not how much I have enjoyed the society
+of your father, and, pardon me, of yourself," returned Henry, scarcely
+less confused than Emily.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," she replied, with some hesitation, and
+fearful of exposing the sentiment she was conscious of cherishing. "I
+have thought that, accustomed as you are to the stirring life of the
+camp, you had grown tired of our quiet home."
+
+"You wrong me, Emily, I should never weary here; but I was fearful that
+I had already staid too long," said Henry, in a sad tone, for he felt it
+most deeply, though not in the sense that Emily understood him.
+
+"Too long! Then you are weary of us, and I will not chide you forbidding
+us adieu," said Emily, with a glance of anxiety at Henry.
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont, do not misinterpret my words. I am not weary, I
+cannot be weary, of Bellevue and its fair and good inmates."
+
+"Then what mean you by saying you have staid too long?"
+
+"Pardon me, I cannot tell why I said it; but I feel that I should do
+wrong to prolong my stay, however congenial to my feelings to do so,"
+replied Henry, with the most evident embarrassment.
+
+"How strange you talk, Henry! What mystery is this?" said Emily, to whom
+prudential motives were unknown.
+
+"If it be a mystery, pray do not press me to unravel it, for I cannot."
+
+His resolution was fast giving way before the strength of his love. He
+was sorely tempted to throw himself at her feet and pour forth the
+acknowledgment of his affection, which, he felt, would be kindly
+received. It was a difficult position for a man of sensitive feelings to
+be placed in, and he felt it keenly. But the duty he owed to his
+benefactor seemed imperative.
+
+Emily, on her part, was sadly bewildered by the strangeness of Henry's
+words; but she had no suspicion of the truth. If she had, perhaps, with
+a woman's ingenuity, she had devised some plan to extricate him from the
+dilemma. She was conscious of the strong interest she felt in the man
+before her; but the fact that she loved him was yet unrecognized. How
+should it be? She was unskilled in the subtleties even of her own
+heart. She know not the meaning of love yet. She was conscious of a
+grateful sensation in her heart; but she had yet to learn that this
+sensation was that called love in the great world. She began to fear, in
+her inability to account for Henry's strangeness in any other way, that
+some secret sorrow weighed heavily upon him.
+
+"I will not press you," said she, in a tone of affectionate sympathy;
+"but, if you have any sorrow which oppresses you, reveal it to my
+father, and take counsel against it. My father's house is your home,--at
+least, we have always endeavored to make it so. Father has always
+regarded you with the affection of a parent, and taught me to consider
+you as a brother--"
+
+"A brother!" interrupted Henry, feeling that the relation of brother and
+sister was too cold for the warmth of his affection; but, instantly
+banishing the unworthy thought, he continued,
+
+"And so, my pretty sister, you are for the first time entering upon your
+sisterly relations?"
+
+"The first time! Have I not always given you evidence of a sister's
+esteem?"
+
+"Pardon me. I only jested," said Henry, as the playful smile left his
+countenance.
+
+"Do not jest upon serious things, Henry," replied Emily. "But, brother,
+something troubles you. You cannot deny it. You look so gloomy and sad,
+and must leave us so suddenly."
+
+"Nay, my sweet sister,--since sister I am permitted to call you,--you
+must forgive me if I am obstinate just this once."
+
+"I will forgive your obstinacy because you desire it, and not because I
+am satisfied. Do you know, brother," said she, with a playful smile,
+"that I suspect you are in love?"
+
+This raillery was intended to have been uttered with a pert archness;
+but the crimson cheek and tremulous lips entirely defeated the
+intention.
+
+"Fie, sister! You are jesting now, yourself," replied Henry, with what
+was intended for a smile, but which, like his assailant's archness, was
+a signal failure.
+
+Both parties were now in the most unfortunate position imaginable.
+Neither dared to speak, for fear of disclosing their emotions. Both felt
+the awkwardness of the silence, and both felt the danger of breaking it.
+Henry twirled the tassel of the window drapery, and Emily twisted her
+pocket-handkerchief into every conceivable shape. Henry was the first to
+gather fortitude enough to venture a remark.
+
+"I must leave you, sister, now that, for the first time, the relation is
+acknowledged. I assure you, however, that I appreciate the sisterly
+kindness you have always lavished upon me. And I shall always remember
+this visit as the happiest period of my life."
+
+"Then I may hope you will often repeat it," replied Emily, sadly.
+
+"However pleasant it would be for me to do so, I fear my duty will be a
+barrier to my inclination. My future post, you are aware, is Newport."
+
+"And you depart so suddenly, and then seem inclined to make your absence
+perpetual! But we shall see you where-ever you are. We go to Newport
+this season, if father's health will permit," returned Emily, with a
+playful pout.
+
+"I would stay by you,--that is, I would stay at Bellevue forever,--if my
+duty to your father--I mean to my country--would permit," stammered
+Henry, much agitated, as he rose to depart.
+
+"I must go and bid farewell to your father," continued he, taking her
+hand, which he perceived trembled violently, in his own; "and I trust
+you will remember your absent brother--" kindly, he was about to say,
+but Emily, attempting to rise, was overpowered by the emotions which she
+had vainly striven to suppress, and sunk back in a swoon.
+
+Henry summoned assistance, and applied the usual restoratives, but he
+did not again venture to address her; and, as her pale features
+exhibited signs of returning consciousness, he hurried from the room.
+
+As the hour of his departure drew near, he bade an affectionate farewell
+to Colonel Dumont, who was confined to his room by illness. His kind
+friend used many entreaties for him to prolong his stay, but Henry
+pleaded his duty, and that the dying request of a brother officer
+required him to take a journey into Georgia, which would consume some
+three or four weeks' time. He intended to go to his future station by
+the way of the Mississippi, and promised that, if any time were left him
+on his return, he would again visit Bellevue. This, however, he thought
+was improbable.
+
+Colonel Dumont gave his _protegé_ much good advice, and, as his failing
+health had infected his usually cheerful spirits, he said that they
+would probably meet no more in this world. He frankly told him that he
+should remember him in his will, and wished him ever to regard Emily in
+the relation of a _sister_.
+
+This last wish seemed like a positive prohibition of the fond hope he
+had cherished, of regarding her in a nearer and more tender relation. He
+congratulated himself on the decision with which he had resisted the
+temptation to avow his love.
+
+This injunction of Emily's father could be interpreted in two ways,--as
+a requirement to preserve the present friendly relations, or as a
+prohibition against his ever making her his wife. The latter method of
+rendering his meaning seemed to him the most in accordance with their
+relative positions, and he was compelled to adopt it.
+
+After renewing his thanks to his benefactor, he took his leave with a
+sad heart, and departed from the mansion which contained his newly-found
+yet now rejected love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "_Macbeth_.--What is 't ye do?
+     _Witches_.--A deed without a name."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+In the management of his estates, Colonel Dumont had, for many years,
+been assisted by an only brother. This brother was directly the opposite
+of himself in character, in aims, in everything. Even in his childhood
+this brother had displayed a waywardness of disposition which gave the
+promise of much evil in his future years. As the seed sown so was the
+harvest. Parental instruction, counsel and rebuke, were alike
+unavailing, and he attained the years of manhood morose and
+unsympathizing in his disposition, avaricious and hard with his equals,
+and cruel and unjust towards his inferiors. His selfish mind, his low
+aims, and his tyrannical character, had long been preparing him for
+deeds of villany and injustice.
+
+In the earlier years of his life he had been a merchant in New Orleans;
+but, being universally detested for his meanness and duplicity, in a
+season of general panic in the financial world he was completely ruined,
+by the want of those kind offices which are so freely interchanged in
+the mercantile community. In this dilemma, he asked his brother's
+assistance. Colonel Dumont examined his affairs, and, considering his
+position in the community, with the almost hopeless embarrassment of his
+concerns, concluded that success under these circumstances was
+impossible. He frankly and kindly informed his brother of his
+conclusion, and offered him a share in his planting operations. His
+brother--Jaspar--was sorely wounded in his pride by this reply. It
+generated in him a sentiment, if not of malignity, at least of hatred,
+and from that day he was his brother's enemy. Jaspar's business was
+gone, and he never allowed his spirit of revenge even to interfere with
+his interest; so he availed himself of his brother's offer.
+
+Colonel Dumont trusted much to the gentle influence of his family circle
+to soften Jaspar's moroseness, and infuse some principle of charity and
+love. But these anticipations proved vain. He was cold and taciturn.
+Business alone could call forth the display of his energy, of which he
+was possessed of a liberal share. The society of Emily and other ladies
+he seemed to shun. The gentle influence of domestic life seemed entirely
+wasted upon him. Colonel Dumont was forced to believe his brother a
+misanthrope, and no longer strove to soften his character. Emily
+regarded his coldness as his natural manner, and left him to the full
+enjoyment of his eccentricity. Between persons of such opposite
+dispositions there could be, of course, but little sympathy, and that
+little was entirely upon one side.
+
+The demon of Jaspar's nature displayed itself in the cane-field and in
+the sugar-house, which Colonel Dumont rarely visited, having intrusted
+the entire management of the estate to him, his own attention being
+occupied by the exterior business of the plantation, and by his city
+possessions. The poor negro, who was compelled to submit to cruel usage
+and short fare, knew Jaspar's nature better than uncle or niece. His
+advent among them had been the era from which they dated the life of
+misery they led--a life so different from that they had been accustomed
+to under the superintendence of the more Christian brother.
+
+Jaspar Dumont managed the "negro stock" in the true spirit of a demon,
+and as such the "hands" learned to regard him. Runaways, which, under
+the mild management of his brother, were rarely known, were common now;
+and almost the only amusement Jaspar knew was to hunt them down with
+rifle and bloodhound.
+
+This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not appreciate the
+reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he wished not to
+interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his heart. His failing
+health had latterly withdrawn his attention still more from the
+plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the tighter when he saw that the
+humane eye was removed from him.
+
+Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the close of
+our first chapter.
+
+On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel Dumont
+felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed with the
+conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon him. To Emily
+he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and she had discovered
+no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no suspicion of the nature
+of her father's business with Maxwell, and had borne his message to the
+attorney, as she had often done before, in her frequent visits to New
+Orleans, though on this occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much
+delicacy in doing so.
+
+In her absence Colonel Dumont had become more and more impressed with
+the omens of a speedy dissolution, and in his uneasiness had despatched
+Jaspar with a draft of his intentions, wishing the attorney to write the
+will in his office (where he could have his authorities at hand), and
+return with his brother.
+
+Maxwell considered the will and his own position, while Jaspar lit
+another cigar. Each was striving to penetrate the thoughts of the other,
+but neither had the boldness to enter upon the subject which occupied
+his mind. The lawyer wanted the lady and the fortune, and he had an
+undefined purpose of obtaining them through the agency of Jaspar, who
+wanted only the fortune, and had a decided anticipation of being able to
+retain the attorney in his service. Neither knew the purposes of the
+other; but each wanted the assistance of the other.
+
+Maxwell, with an absent mind, perused and reperused the first page of
+Colonel Dumont's instructions. Without a purpose he turned the leaf, and
+his attention was attracted by the name of his formidable rival, Henry
+Carroll. He read, with astonishment, a bequest to him of fifty thousand
+dollars. If it needed anything to complete his discomfiture, this was
+sufficient. He began to think Colonel Dumont was in his dotage. He had
+scarcely heard of Captain Carroll until his return from Mexico, and now
+he was a legatee in the will of a millionaire. With much anxiety he
+completed the reading of the instructions, fearful that he should find
+the young officer's name in connection with Emily's. To his great relief
+he found no such allusion, and again he applied himself to the task of
+writing out the will.
+
+Jaspar smoked his cigar, glanced occasionally at the newspaper, and
+stared out of the window. He was evidently lost to all around him, in
+the workings of his own mind. Now his thoughts seemed to excite him, for
+his eye glared with an unusual lustre, and his thin lips moved, as if
+they would disclose the operations of his mind. "Will he do it?"
+muttered he. "He shall do it, or by ---- he shall suffer! I have the
+means of compelling him. I will use them."
+
+Apparently satisfied with his conclusion, he rose hastily and approached
+the attorney. A smooth smile--an unwonted expression on his
+features--seemed to come on demand. Again he looked over the lawyer's
+shoulder. He saw the name of Henry Carroll, and his former severe
+expression returned, and his frame was stirred by angry emotions. A
+half-suppressed oath did not escape the quick ear of the attorney, and
+he turned to observe the face of his companion. He read at a glance the
+dissatisfaction which the will occasioned. The reason was plain; and,
+with the intention of drawing out Jaspar's views, he addressed him.
+
+"This Carroll is a lucky fellow," said he.
+
+"The devil is always the luckiest fellow in the crowd," growled Jaspar,
+with an oath.
+
+"You are right, sir," returned Maxwell, pleased to see no better feeling
+between his rival and the uncle.
+
+"But who is this Carroll?" said he.
+
+"A hungry cub, whom the colonel has helped along in the world."
+
+"Well, he has proved himself a brave and skilful officer, and reflects
+credit on your brother's judgment in the selection of a _protegé_,"
+returned Maxwell, adroitly.
+
+"The fellow is all well enough, for aught I know, but he has wheedled
+the colonel out of fifty thousand dollars, and I can never forgive him
+for that," said Jaspar, in what was intended for a playful tone, but
+which was designed as a "feeler" of the attorney's conscience.
+
+"But there is still an immense property left, even after deducting the
+liberal charitable donations," said Maxwell.
+
+"There is, but where does it go to? That whining young cub has divided a
+hundred thousand with me, and the silly girl has the rest."
+
+"Which will eventually go into the hands of Captain Carroll,--lucky dog,
+he!" returned Maxwell, striving to provoke Jaspar still more.
+
+"What! what mean you, man?" said Jaspar, with a scowl, as he caught a
+glimpse of the attorney's meaning.
+
+"Is it possible, my dear sir," said Maxwell, laying down his pen, and
+turning half round, "is it possible you have not observed the intimacy
+which has grown up between this Carroll and your niece?"
+
+"Intimacy! what do you mean? Speak out! no equivocation!" said Jaspar,
+almost fiercely.
+
+"Do you not see that she will yet be the wife of Captain Carroll?"
+
+Jaspar scowled, but said nothing. He had seen nothing from which he
+could draw such an inference, but he doubted not the information was
+correct.
+
+"Well, well, it matters not. He may as well have it as she," muttered
+he. "This will suits me not, and must be broken or altered."
+
+"It _is_ hard upon you," said Maxwell, who had overheard Jaspar's
+mutterings.
+
+"It is rather hard to be placed upon the same level with a comparative
+stranger," replied Jaspar, thoughtfully, after a long pause. He had not
+intended the lawyer should hear his previous remarks, and had reflected
+whether he should disown them, or pursue the subject as thus opened.
+
+"Of course you will not mention the idle remark I made," continued
+Jaspar, in a vein of prudence. "My brother has an undoubted right to
+dispose of his property as he pleases."
+
+"O, certainly. What transpires in my office is always regarded with the
+strictest confidence, whatever its nature, and however it affects any
+individual," replied Maxwell, laying peculiar emphasis on the latter
+clause.
+
+"That's right, always be secret," said Jaspar, without any of the
+appearance of obligation for the favor which the attorney expected to
+see.
+
+"I have secrets in my possession which would ruin some of the best
+families in the State of Louisiana."
+
+"Without doubt," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+The attorney resumed his writing, and pronounced in an audible tone each
+sentence as he committed it to the paper.
+
+"To my beloved brother--Jaspar Dumont--I give and bequeath the sum of
+fifty thousand dollars."
+
+These words, as intended, again fired Jaspar's passions.
+
+"Is there no remedy for this?" asked he, hastily.
+
+"No legal remedy," replied Maxwell, indifferently, as he continued his
+task.
+
+"Is there any, legal or illegal?"
+
+"None that an honest man would be willing to resort to."
+
+"That any man would resort to?" and Jaspar was not a little provoked at
+the attorney's moral inferences.
+
+"I know of none."
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then why do you not put it into operation before it is too late? The
+will is now nearly written."
+
+"Pshaw! man; you do not understand me. A bolder step than you are
+thinking of."
+
+"Well, what do you wait for?"
+
+"I need assistance."
+
+"If I can afford you any aid, _honorably_, I shall be most happy."
+
+"_Honorably_! What the devil do you mean by _honorably_?" said Jaspar,
+exasperated by this unexpected display of morality.
+
+"What do I mean by honorably? Why, anything which does not affect the
+legal or moral rights of others," replied Maxwell, a little touched by
+the seeming reflection of Jaspar.
+
+"Fudge! how long have you been so conscientious?" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"When a man has a reputation to make or break, it becomes him to handle
+it with care."
+
+"Out upon you, man! _Your_ reputation is not so fair, that you need be
+so tender of it," replied Jaspar, with some severity.
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"O, you needn't '_sir_' me! You have led me to commit myself, and now
+assume a virtue you possess not."
+
+"Sir, I value my reputation, and--"
+
+"Of course you do, but you would not sacrifice a fortune for it,"
+interrupted Jaspar, easily changing the tenor of the conversation.
+
+"I certainly would not stain it unnecessarily," replied Maxwell, with a
+meaning smile, for he saw the folly of attempting the "high flight" with
+Jaspar.
+
+"Now you talk sensibly," said Jaspar.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, it is useless to beat about the bush any longer; if you
+have any proposition to make, out with it at once; and if I cannot aid
+you, I will, at least, keep your secret."
+
+"Will you swear never to reveal what I shall propose?"
+
+"Yes, if paid for it," said Maxwell, frankly.
+
+"It is well. Now, I will put you in the way of making ten thousand
+dollars, if you so will," said Jaspar, slapping the attorney on the back
+with a familiarity which was likely to breed contempt.
+
+This was a tempting offer, and Maxwell prepared to listen to the
+proposition. He was aware that it was some design upon the estate of
+Colonel Dumont, and he inwardly resolved to be a gainer by the
+operation, whether he joined in it or not.
+
+Jaspar Dumont laid aside his sternness, and disclosed his plot to
+Maxwell. It was, as may be supposed, a nefarious scheme, and not only
+intended to deprive Henry Carroll of his legacy, but also to disinherit
+the heiress, and cast a stigma upon the character of his brother.
+
+The plot we will not here disclose.
+
+Maxwell listened attentively, occasionally interrupting the speaker, by
+asking for details, or pointing out dangers But the foul wrong intended
+towards her for whom he entertained warmer sentiments than those of
+friendship shocked even his hardened sensibilities, and he strongly
+objected to its consummation. It would also, by stripping her of her
+broad lands, and stigmatizing her birth, render her undesirable as a
+wife. But Jaspar was firm in his purpose, and refused to listen to any
+other scheme. This one, he contended, was the safest and surest.
+
+"But it is a diabolical transaction," suggested Maxwell.
+
+"Call it what you will, it is the only one that will work well."
+
+Maxwell remained silent. He was studying to make this scheme subservient
+to his own purpose. He was obliged to confess to himself that his hopes
+with the heiress were worse than folly, and he judged that the execution
+of Jaspar's scheme would remove his rival. He looked forward years, and
+saw his own purpose gained by means of Jaspar's plan. It was true that
+he and Jaspar both could not have her estates; but then Jaspar was a
+villain, and it would be a good service, at a convenient season, to be a
+traitor to him. His plans were arranged, and he determined to encourage
+his companion to proceed, though, at the same time, to seem unwilling,
+and to keep his own hands clean from all participation in it.
+
+After this long interval of silence, which Jaspar had endured with
+patience, for he recognized the truth of the saying, that "He who
+deliberates is damned," Maxwell said,
+
+"I cannot consent to stain my hands with such gross injustice."
+
+"You cannot!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"It would ruin me."
+
+"It was part of my intention to keep the transaction a secret," said
+Jaspar, sarcastically.
+
+"Of course, and your confidence in me shall not be misplaced."
+
+Jaspar's fists were clenched, and a demoniacal expression rested on his
+countenance, as he said, savagely,
+
+"You know your own interest too well to do otherwise."
+
+"I am not to be intimidated," replied Maxwell, who despised his
+companion most heartily, and did not relish his tyrannical manner. "Your
+confidence, I repeat, is safe. _Honor_ will keep your secret,--threats
+will not compel me to do so."
+
+"_Honor_! ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Jaspar. "Do you know, Maxwell, that you
+are a ---- fool, to talk to me of your honor?"
+
+"Would you insult me, sir?" said, Maxwell, with vehemence.
+
+"O, no, my fine fellow! _Your_ honor!--ha, ha!" returned Jaspar, taking
+from his pocket a little slip of paper. "Look here, my _honorable_
+worthy, do you know this check?"
+
+Maxwell's face assumed a livid hue, and a convulsive tremor passed
+through his frame, as he read the check.
+
+In a moment of temporary embarrassment he had been tempted to forge the
+name of Colonel Dumont to this check, for five hundred dollars, to
+liquidate a debt of honor, not doubting that he should be able to obtain
+it again before the day of settlement at the bank, by means of a
+dissolute teller, a boon companion at the gaming-table. But Colonel
+Dumont, in arranging his affairs for their final settlement, had sent
+Jaspar for a statement of his bank account at an unusual time. Jaspar,
+who, in the illness of his brother, had managed all his business,
+immediately discovered the forgery. Without disputing its genuineness,
+he ascertained who had presented it, and traced the deed to the
+attorney, and thus obtained a hold upon him which was peculiarly
+favorable to the execution of his great purpose.
+
+"You see I have not laid myself open to your fire without fortifying my
+position," said Jaspar, enjoying, with hearty relish, the discomfiture
+of the lawyer. "Now, no more of _honor_ to me. I have kept your secret
+for my own interest, and now you will keep mine from the same motive."
+
+"But I _dare_ not do this thing," replied Maxwell, keenly sensitive to
+the weakness of his position; "I lack the ability."
+
+"You have signed the colonel's name once very well; perhaps you can do
+it again," sneered Jaspar, who had no mercy for an unwilling servant.
+
+"It will not be for your interest or mine that I should do it," returned
+Maxwell, determined, if possible, to avoid committing himself.
+
+"Why not?" said Jaspar.
+
+"My frequent visits to Bellevue would subject me to suspicion. I am
+known. Another would not be suspected. If I clear myself, I shall clear
+you at the same time. I can procure a person who will accomplish all in
+safety."
+
+"Think you I will trust another man with the possession of the secret?"
+
+"I shall compromise my own safety by writing the will, as you propose."
+
+"True,--who is this person?"
+
+"His name is--" and Maxwell hesitated; then a severe fit of coughing
+apparently prevented his uttering the name--"his name is Antoine De
+Guy."
+
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"You do, I think,--a kind of _street_ lawyer,--you must have met him at
+the Exchange."
+
+"What looking man is he?"
+
+"About fifty years of age," replied Maxwell, more thoughtful than the
+simple description of a person would seem to require,--"rather
+corpulent, black hair and whiskers, intermixed with gray,--dresses
+old-fashioned, and always looks rusty."
+
+"I do not remember him,--De Guy--De Guy," said Jaspar, musing; "no, I do
+not know him. Are you confident he can be trusted?"
+
+"Perfectly confident. I pledge my own safety on his fidelity," replied
+Maxwell, not a little satisfied at gaining his point,--for he had a
+point, and a strong one, as the reader may yet have occasion to know.
+
+"Very good,--I will inquire about him."
+
+"And expose us both!" replied Maxwell, in much alarm.
+
+"True,--on reflection, it would not be wise, and it would be best for
+you and I not to be seen together. But finish the will; the colonel will
+not relish my long absence. A word more: do not say anything about
+_this_ will. The colonel has a fancy to keep it secret, and this fancy
+will be the salvation of our scheme."
+
+But we will not follow the conversation any further. The reader has
+obtained a sufficient knowledge of these worthies from their own mouths,
+to believe them capable of any villany they may be called upon to
+perpetrate.
+
+The plot was further arranged in all its details. A meeting with De Guy
+was fixed for the next day, when all parties were to be prepared to act
+their parts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     "He is a man, setting his fate aside,
+     Of comely virtues;
+     Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice,
+     But with a noble fury and a fair spirit
+     He did oppose his foe."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+Colonel Dumont's melancholy forebodings proved to be too well grounded,
+for in ten days after the departure of Henry Carroll he breathed his
+last, not fully ripe in years, but mature in the stature of a good man.
+His worldly affairs had all been arranged, and with his mind at peace
+with God and man he bade a final adieu to his weeping daughter and
+dissembling brother, and calmly resigned his spirit to its Author.
+
+The mansion of Colonel Dumont had been the abode of happiness.
+Cheerfulness and contentment--rare visitors at the home of
+opulence--dwelt gracefully amid the luxurious splendor of this house.
+But now a heavy stroke of affliction had come upon the devoted Emily.
+The ruthless hand of death had struck down her father in the midst of
+prosperity and happiness. She felt that she was alone in the world. Her
+unsympathizing uncle seemed not to feel the loss, but appeared even more
+cold and churlish than ever. She could not expect from him the offices
+of kindness and sympathy. She was an orphan, but not till she was
+prepared to combat with the trials of life. Recognizing the hand of
+Providence in this visitation of the Angel of Death, she bowed meekly
+and submissively to the Master Will, and was even cheerful and happy in
+her tears.
+
+It was about ten o'clock on the night succeeding the funeral of Colonel
+Dumont that a small canoe, containing a single individual, touched at
+the bank of the river near the now gloomy mansion. Leaping from the
+canoe, which was nearly swamped by the act, the person it had contained
+drew the frail bark beyond the reach of the rapid current, and ascended
+the steep bank. Following the smooth shell road through the long vista
+of negro huts, he reached the little grove of tropical trees which
+surrounded the proprietary mansion. Casting an anxious glance around
+him, to satisfy himself that he was not watched, he cautiously
+approached the only illuminated window on that side of the house, upon
+which, after a close scrutiny of the interior of the room, he gave
+several light taps. This signal was answered by Jaspar Dumont, who, with
+a word of caution, opened the window. The stranger, with a light spring
+which belied his apparent years, gained the interior of the room, which
+was the library of the late owner.
+
+The person who had thus obtained admission was the lawyer, Antoine De
+Guy, whom Maxwell had suggested as a fit agent for the execution of
+Jaspar's scheme. He was certainly an odd-looking man. His face was of a
+very dark red color, much like that which is produced by the united
+effects of exposure and intemperance, and was encircled by a pair of
+black whiskers, intermixed with gray. His cranium was ornamented with a
+huge mass of the same parti-colored hair. His fiery red nose was placed
+in strange contrast with a pair of green spectacles, which entirely
+concealed the color and expression of his eyes. His clothes were of a
+most primitive cut, and had probably been black once, but were now rusty
+and white from long service. His form was portly, a little inclined to
+corpulency. His hands were most unprofessionally dirty; but this might
+have been occasioned by contact with the canoe in his passage. On one of
+his fingers glittered a diamond ring, which, considering the lack of
+ornaments in other respects, but ill accorded with the apparent
+parsimony of the man. It might, however, have been obtained in the way
+of trade, for Maxwell had hinted that he did business under the sign of
+the "three golden balls." He was apparently in the neighborhood of
+five-and-forty, and looked like the debauchee in the face, while his
+dress indicated the penurious man of business.
+
+"Did any one see you?" asked Jaspar, whose teeth were chattering with
+apprehension, notwithstanding his natural boldness.
+
+"Not that I am aware of," replied De Guy, in a silky tone, which,
+proceeding from such a form, would have astonished the listener.
+
+"You met no one?" interrogated the anxious Jaspar.
+
+"Not a soul! Everything was still."
+
+"Let us be sure of it. Step into this room for a moment. I will see that
+all the servants have retired," said Jaspar, pushing his confederate
+into an adjoining apartment.
+
+A light pull at the bell-rope brought to the library the body-servant of
+the late planter.
+
+This "boy," who was known by the name of _Hatchie_, was a mulatto. He
+was about forty years of age, and, having never been reduced to labor in
+the cane-fields, bore his age remarkably well. He was about six feet in
+height, very stout built, and was endowed with immense physical
+strength. His brow was a little wrinkled, and his head was a little bald
+upon the top,--and these were the only evidences of his years. His
+expression was that of great intelligence. In his countenance there was
+a kind of humility, to which his demeanor corresponded, that might have
+resulted from his condition, or have been inherent in his nature. He was
+a man who, even in a land of slavery, would be instinctively respected.
+
+He had been a great favorite with his late master, in whose family he
+had spent the greater part of his life. By being constantly in
+attendance upon him and his guests, he had acquired a much greater
+amount of information than is often found in those of his condition. He
+could read and write, and by his intelligence and singular fidelity had
+proved a valuable addition to his master's household. Possessing his
+confidence, and regarded more as a friend than a slave by Emily, he was
+a privileged person in the house,--a confidence which in no instance did
+he abuse, and which in no degree abated his affection or his fidelity.
+
+Hatchie was not a phrenologist, but he had long ago acquired a perfect
+knowledge of Jaspar's character,--a knowledge which his master or Emily
+had never obtained.
+
+Hatchie considered Emily, now that her father was dead, as his own
+especial charge, and he watched over her, in the disparity of their
+stations, very much as a faithful dog watches over a child intrusted to
+its keeping. Towards her he entertained a sentiment of the profoundest
+respect as his mistress, and of parental affection as one who had grown
+up under his eye.
+
+"Hatchie," said Jaspar, as the mulatto entered the library, "are the
+hands all in?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, whose penetrating mind detected the
+tremulous quiver of Jaspar's lip; "all in two hours ago, according to
+regulations."
+
+"All right, then. You can go to bed now."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, with his customary obeisance, as he turned
+to depart.
+
+"Stay a moment. Go to Miss Emily, and get the keys of the secretary,"
+said Jaspar, with assumed carelessness.
+
+Hatchie obeyed; and, suspecting something before, he was confirmed in
+the opinion now, and determined to watch. His suspicions of
+something--he knew not what--had been excited by seeing Maxwell in
+earnest consultation with Jaspar on the day of the funeral. He had, of
+course, no idea of the plots of the latter; but, in common with all the
+"boys," he hated Jaspar, and was willing to know more of his
+transactions.
+
+Giving the keys to Jaspar, he left the room, and heard the creaking of
+the bolt which fastened the door.
+
+As soon as the servant had departed, Jaspar called his confederate from
+his concealment.
+
+"Are you ready for business?" said he.
+
+"I am," replied De Guy, "as soon as you pay me the first instalment. I
+can't take a single step in the dark."
+
+"Here it is," and Jaspar took from his pocket the money. "Have you the
+document?"
+
+"I have," replied De Guy, producing the fictitious will, which Maxwell
+had drawn up in conformity with the instructions of Jaspar.
+
+"And you are ready to affix the signature?" said Jaspar, who appeared
+not to be in the possession of his usual confidence. Few villains ever
+become so hardened as never to tremble.
+
+"I am. I came for that purpose. Give me the genuine will, and I will
+soon make this one so near like it that the witnesses themselves shall
+not discover the cheat," replied De Guy, with an air of confidence.
+
+"You shall have it; but first read this to me. I do nothing blindly."
+
+The attorney, in his silky tones, read the paper through, and Jaspar
+pronounced it correct in every particular.
+
+"I see nothing in the way of entire success," said Jaspar, rubbing his
+hands with delight at his prospective fortune.
+
+"Nor I," replied De Guy, "except that these witnesses will deny the
+substance of it."
+
+"How can they, when they know it not? The colonel, for some reason or
+other, would not let them read it or know its purport. Maxwell and
+myself are pledged to secrecy. It is upon this fact that I based the
+scheme."
+
+"But the will would not be worth a tittle in the law with such
+witnesses."
+
+"Bah! the colonel knew no one would contest it. He did it at his own
+risk."
+
+"But will they not contest _your_ will?"
+
+"If they do, I shall find the means of proving what the document
+affirms, and my case will then stand just as well. As a kind of
+assurance for the witnesses my brother affixed a character,--a kind of
+cabalistic design,--upon the will, assuring them it was placed on the
+will alone. You have a copy of this design?"
+
+"I have. Maxwell gave it to me, and I have practised till I can do it to
+perfection. Your brother had an odd way of doing business."
+
+"He had; but his oddity in this instance is a God-send."
+
+"But the _other_ document, Mr. Dumont! My stay is already too long!"
+
+Jaspar, taking the keys from the table, opened the secretary, and took
+from a small iron safe in the lower part of it a large packet, on which
+were several large masses of wax bearing the impress of Colonel Dumont's
+seal.
+
+"Now, De Guy," said he, "do your best."
+
+"Do not fear! I never yet saw a name I could not imitate."
+
+"So much the better; but be careful, I entreat you! Think how much
+depends upon care!"
+
+"O, I can do it so nicely that your brother himself would not deny it,
+if he should step out of his grave!"
+
+"Silence, man!" said Jaspar, angrily, as a superstitious thrill of
+terror crept through his veins.
+
+Jaspar took up the packet, and was about to snap the seals, when,
+quicker than thought, the window through which De Guy had entered flew
+open, and Hatchie leaped into the room. Without giving Jaspar or his
+accomplice time to recover from the surprise of his sudden entrance, he
+levelled a blow at the lawyer, and another at the perfidious brother,
+which placed both in a rather awkward position on the floor. Hatchie
+then seized the envelope containing the will, and made his escape in the
+manner he had entered, well knowing that Jaspar would not hesitate to
+take his life rather than be foiled in his purpose.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie knocking down De Guy and Jasper, and stealing the
+will. Page 46.]
+
+The mulatto's blows produced no serious effect upon the heads of the
+two villains, and, recovering from the surprise and shock the act had
+occasioned, they lost not a moment in pursuing their assailant. Hatchie
+directed his course to the river, and scarcely a moment had elapsed
+before he heard the steps of his pursuers. Leaping down the bank, he ran
+along by the edge of the water, with the intention of reaching a boat
+which he knew was moored a few rods further down. In his flight,
+however, he discovered the canoe in which De Guy had arrived, and,
+casting it off, he paddled with astonishing rapidity towards the
+opposite shore.
+
+His pursuers reached the bank, and perceiving the canoe through the
+darkness, Jaspar discharged his rifle at it. A heavy splash followed the
+discharge. The canoe appeared to float at the mercy of the current.
+Jaspar and De Guy, satisfied that the rifle-ball had done its work,
+hastened down stream to a small point of land which projected into the
+river, with the hope of securing the canoe and the body of the slave,
+upon which they expected to find the will. The canoe was driven ashore,
+as they had anticipated; but it contained not the objects for which they
+sought. The corpse of Hatchie was nowhere to be found, though they
+paddled about the river an hour in search of it,--not that the body of
+the mulatto was of any consequence, but in the hope of obtaining the
+precious will.
+
+Here was a contingency for which Jaspar was wholly unprepared. The
+original signature of the will was not now available, and they must
+trust to luck for accuracy in signing the false one. There was little
+difficulty in this, as the will was known to have been signed in the
+usual manner, and the private character they had in their possession.
+Still Jaspar felt that the original paper afforded the surer means of
+deceiving the witnesses. They had before intended to produce a
+fac-simile, mechanically, of the original,--a purpose which could not
+now be accomplished. The witnesses were all friends of Colonel Dumont,
+and they had various papers signed by them from which to copy their
+signatures. The worst, and to Jaspar's daring mind the only difficulty
+which now presented itself, was the fear that the body of Hatchie might
+be found, and the genuine will thus brought to light. After much
+reflection and consultation with De Guy, he determined to risk all, to
+watch for the body, and be prepared to overcome any obstacle which might
+be presented. With this conclusion they returned to the library. By the
+aid of old notes, checks, and other papers, the fictitious will was duly
+signed, the significant character affixed, and the document enveloped so
+as to exactly resemble the original packet.
+
+The whole transaction was so well performed that Jaspar retired to his
+pillow confident of success, to await the result on the morrow, when the
+will was to be read.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave? I know
+     'Tis not with men as shrubs and trees, that by
+     The shoot you know the rank and order of
+     The stem. Yet who from such a stem would look
+     For such a shoot?"
+
+     Knowles.
+
+
+The morrow came. Emily was summoned to the library, to hear the reading
+of her father's will. With her no worldly consideration could mitigate
+the deep grief that pervaded her heart. She derived her only consolation
+from a purer, higher source. She was a true mourner, and the acquisition
+of the immense fortune of which she was the heiress was not an event
+which could heal the wound in her heart. She looked not forward to the
+bright scenes of triumph and of conquest that awaited her. She was not
+dazzled by the brilliancy of the position to which wealth and an
+honorable name entitled her. Such thoughts never occurred to her. She
+did think of Henry Carroll; but not in the proud situation to which her
+wealth might elevate him, but as a pure heart that would beat in unison
+with her own, that would sympathize with her in her hour of sorrow; as
+one who would mingle his tears with hers, over the bier of a common
+parent. She was not sentimental in her love, nor in her grief. Sighs and
+tears with her were not a sentimental commodity,--an offering which the
+boarding-school miss makes alike at the altar of her love, or at the
+shrine of a dead parent's memory. The desolation of heart and home was
+not a trial which wealth and honors could adorn with tinsel, and thus
+render it desirable, or even tolerable!
+
+Emily Dumont entered the library. The occasion was repugnant to her
+feelings. The unceremonious blending of dollars and cents with the
+revered name of her father was extremely painful to her sensibility. It
+seemed like a profanation of his memory.
+
+Her uncle, Maxwell, the witnesses of the will, and several
+others,--intimate friends of the family,--were already there. On
+Jaspar's countenance were no tell-tale traces of the last night's
+villany. He looked gloomy and sorrowful. So thoroughly had he schooled
+himself in hypocrisy for this occasion, that the scene he knew would, in
+a few minutes, transpire, had no prophetic indications in his features.
+Like the tragedian who is tranquil and unaffected in the scene in which
+he knows his own death or triumph occurs, Jaspar was calm, and his
+aspect even sanctimonious.
+
+As Emily entered Maxwell tendered his sympathies in his usual elegant
+manner, and so touchingly did he allude to the death of her father that
+with much difficulty she restrained a flood of tears. The scene in the
+office, and the disfavor with which she had lately regarded him, were
+forgotten in his eloquence.
+
+After this courtesy to the daughter of his former patron, Maxwell again
+seated himself, and after briefly and formally stating the reasons of
+their meeting, to which he added a short but apparently very feeling
+eulogy of the deceased, he took the packet from the safe, and proceeded
+to break the seals.
+
+In his full and musical tones the attorney read the preliminary parts of
+the instrument, and then commenced upon the principal items of the will.
+First came several legacies to charitable institutions and to personal
+friends; after which was a legacy of ten thousand dollars to Emily
+Dumont, to be paid in Cincinnati by his brother. The testator further
+declared _that the said Emily was manumitted_, and should proceed under
+the guidance of his brother to the place designated for the payment of
+the legacy.
+
+Emily, who had scarcely heeded the provisions of the will until the
+mention of her name attracted her attention, was, as may be supposed,
+somewhat astonished to hear her own name in connection with a legacy.
+She raised her sad eyes from the floor, and heard the other stipulations
+in regard to her. So utterly unexpected, so terribly revolting, was the
+clause which pronounced her a slave, that for a time she did not realize
+its awful import. But the blank dismay of her friends, the
+well-counterfeited surprise of Jaspar and Maxwell, brought her to a
+painful sense of her position. She attempted to rise, but in the act the
+color forsook her face, and she sunk back insensible. In this condition
+she was conveyed to her room.
+
+The attorney completed the reading of the will, though, after the
+extraordinary incident which had just occurred, but little attention was
+given him. The witnesses at once recognized the strange character, and
+acknowledged the signatures to be genuine. Here, then, thought they, was
+the reason why the provisions of the will had been concealed from them.
+So impressed were they with the apparent purpose of Colonel Dumont in
+throwing the veil of secrecy over the contents of his will, that the
+very strangeness of it seemed to confirm its genuineness; and they did
+not scrutinize it so closely as under other circumstances they probably
+would have done.
+
+How often may a good motive be tortured, by the appearance of evil, into
+the most despicable criminality! Colonel Dumont in this will had devised
+large sums of money to various charitable institutions, and in the event
+of his life being prolonged, did not wish to be pointed at and lauded
+for this act. True charity is modest, and Colonel Dumont did not desire
+to see his name blazoned forth to the world for doing that which he
+honestly and religiously deemed his duty.
+
+This modesty had favored Jaspar's plans. No one could now gainsay the
+will he had invented; and he felt strong in his position, especially
+after the witnesses had assented to their signatures.
+
+Among the persona who had been present in the library was Mr. Faxon, an
+aged and worthy clergyman. He had for many years been an intimate friend
+of Colonel Dumont, and was a legatee in his will to a liberal amount. A
+constant visitor in the family, its spiritual adviser and comforter, he
+had possessed the unlimited confidence of the late planter and his
+daughter. To him the whole clause relating to Emily seemed like a
+falsehood. Pure and holy in his own character, it was beyond his
+conception that a man of Colonel Dumont's lofty and Christian views
+could have lived so many years in the practice of this deception. He had
+no means of disproving the illegitimacy of Emily. The family had been
+unknown to him at the period of her birth. The house-servants, with the
+exception of Hatchie, were all younger than Emily. Then, the statement
+was made in the will, and was, therefore, the statement of Colonel
+Dumont himself,--for the genuineness of the will he did not call in
+question. In accordance with his general character, her father had
+manumitted her, and left her a competence. From this clause he inferred
+that her father intended to place her beyond the reach of harm, and
+beyond the possibility of ever being reduced to the degraded condition
+so often the lot of the quadroon at the South. He had not only given her
+freedom, but had provided for her conveyance beyond the pale of slavery.
+With these intentions, if she were in reality a slave, Mr. Faxon could
+find no fault. They were liberal in the extreme. But why had he, at this
+late period, mentioned the stain upon her birth? Why not let her live as
+he had educated her? These queries were so easily answered that the good
+clergyman could not condemn the dead on account of them. If the
+daughter, then she was the heiress; if not, legitimately, it would be
+injustice to the brother.
+
+Mr. Faxon reasoned in this manner. He could not believe, even with all
+the evidence before him. There was a reasonable answer, apparently, to
+every objection he could think of, and he resolved to apply to Jaspar
+and Hatchie for more information. All that Jaspar could say, or would
+say, in answer to his interrogatories, was that his brother's wife had
+died in giving birth to a dead child; and that Emily, who was the child
+of a house-servant by him, had so engaged his attention by her singular
+beauty that he had substituted her for his own child. This story, Jaspar
+said, his brother had told him in the strictest confidence, many years
+before. Mr. Faxon, appreciating the disappointment of a father with such
+a sensitive nature as Colonel Dumont, was willing to believe that Emily
+had been substituted to supply in his affections the place of the lost
+child; but that he should educate her as his own child, and then cast
+her out from the pale of society, was incredible!
+
+The evidence was so strong, he could see no escape from the terrible
+conclusion that the gentle being, to whom he had ministered in joy and
+in sorrow, was a slave! It required a hard struggle in his mind before
+he could reconcile himself to the revolting truth. Her beautiful
+character, built up mostly under his own supervision, he regarded with
+peculiar pride. He was not so bigoted, however, as to believe his labors
+lost, or even less worthy, because bestowed, as it now appeared, upon a
+slave. In heaven his labors would be just as apparent in the quadroon as
+in the noble-born lady.
+
+After the departure of the friends who had been summoned to the reading
+of the will, and whose stay had been prolonged by the melancholy
+interest they felt in the unfortunate Emily, Mr. Faxon requested to see
+her, and was shown to her room. She had just been restored to
+consciousness, by the assiduous efforts of her maids, as the good man
+entered.
+
+"O, Mr. Faxon!" sobbed Emily, but she could articulate no more. The
+terrible reality of her situation had entirely overcome her.
+
+"Be comforted, my dear child," said Mr. Faxon, affectionately, taking
+her hand. "The ways of Providence are mysterious, and we must bend
+humbly to our lot."
+
+"I will try to be resigned to my fate, terrible as it is," replied
+Emily, looking at the minister with a subdued expression, while hot
+tears poured down her cheeks. "You will not forsake me, if all others
+do!"
+
+"No, no, my dear child; it is my duty to wrestle with sorrow. I have
+come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
+distinctions of caste do not exist."
+
+"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair crept to
+her mind.
+
+"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's own
+good time He will call you hence."
+
+"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"
+
+"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of the
+Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in store
+for you."
+
+"But I am an outcast now,--one whom all my former friends will
+despise,--a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with her hands, and
+sobbing convulsively.
+
+"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may be a
+deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason to think
+so."
+
+Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
+brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.
+
+"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot believe that
+he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of father; who
+watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my youthful heart so
+faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called me daughter, and blessed
+me with his dying breath,--I cannot believe he has been so cruel to me!"
+
+"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of Providence are
+inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are ordered for our
+good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet be well."
+
+"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall not be
+lost upon me, slave though I am. _Dear_ father," said she, and the tears
+blinded her,--"I love his memory still, though every word of this hated
+will were true. I ought not to repine, whatever be my future lot. That
+he loved me as a daughter, I can never doubt; that he never told me I am
+a slave, I will forgive, for he meant it well."
+
+"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this painful
+event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of this trial
+before?"
+
+"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the tears which
+had gathered on her cheeks.
+
+"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which you can
+now recognize as such."
+
+Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could not.
+
+"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long ago as
+your birth?"
+
+"All but Hatchie."
+
+"Perhaps you had better send for him, and I will question him.
+
+"I will, and I pray that his knowledge may favor me."
+
+Emily sent one of the maids for Hatchie; but she returned in a few
+moments, accompanied by Jaspar, who, hearing her inquiries for the man
+his rifle-ball had sent to the other world, had come to prevent any
+injurious surmises.
+
+This man, Hatchie, had not escaped Jaspar's attention, in the maturing
+of his plot; but, as in some other of the particulars, he had trusted to
+the facilities of the moment for the means of silencing him. Being a
+man, it was not probable he could know much of the events attending the
+birth of Emily to his prejudice. If it should prove that he did, why, it
+was an easy thing to get rid of him. His rifle-ball or the slave-market
+were always available. But Jaspar's good fortune had smiled upon him,
+and he felt peculiarly happy, at this moment, in the reflection that he
+was out of the way, for he doubted not the object of Emily in sending
+for him.
+
+"Miss Emily," said Jaspar, in a tone of unwonted softness, "I am sorry
+to say that your father's favorite servant met with a sad mishap last
+night, of which I intended to have informed you before, but have not had
+an opportunity."
+
+Emily's cheek again blanched, as she saw all hope in this quarter cut
+off.
+
+"Poor Hatchie!" said she, as calmly as her excited feelings would
+permit. "What was it, Uncle Jaspar?"
+
+Jaspar's lip curled a little at the weakness which could feel for a
+slave, and he commenced the narrative he had concocted to account for
+the disappearance of Hatchie.
+
+"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to retire, I
+heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the library.
+Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at once suspected
+that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of late, had broken into
+the house. I seized my rifle, and when I opened the door the thief
+sprung out at the open window. I pursued him down the shell-road to the
+river; upon reaching which I perceived him paddling a canoe towards the
+opposite shore. I fired. A splash in the water followed the discharge.
+The canoe came ashore a short distance below, but the man was either
+killed by the ball or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of
+valuables, which had been stolen from the library,--among them your
+father's watch."
+
+"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked Emily,
+with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her slave-friend.
+
+"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is missing, and
+the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size and form. I am now
+satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the time, that he was the man
+upon whom I fired."
+
+"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.
+
+"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned Jaspar.
+
+"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr. Faxon.
+
+"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
+conclusive."
+
+"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye
+of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his
+first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your
+household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?"
+
+"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the
+anxiety within him.
+
+"Were you _alone_ when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the clergyman,
+sternly.
+
+"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you question me. I
+am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar, rather warmly, his
+natural testiness getting the better of his discretion.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock humility. "Do
+not let my curiosity affront you."
+
+"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the
+sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your business
+with this girl."
+
+"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to impart
+the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the church. Of
+course, my business could not be with _you_ in that capacity."
+
+"You seem to have departed very widely from your object," replied
+Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon religious topics.
+
+"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and so
+severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the validity of
+the will."
+
+"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the will as
+her father left it."
+
+"Uncle, you said my father's watch was stolen? Was it not in the iron
+safe, with the other articles?" asked Emily, timidly.
+
+"It was," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"How did he open it?" interrogated Mr. Faxon, taking up the suggestion
+of Emily.
+
+"Did Hatchie return the keys to you last night?" asked Jaspar of Emily,
+promptly.
+
+"He did not," replied she.
+
+"I sent for them to put a note in its place, and sent them back by him
+immediately. The fellow stood by when I opened the safe, and must have
+witnessed its contents. You can judge how he opened it now," returned
+Jaspar, with a sneer, well pleased that he had foiled their inquiries.
+
+"You say that the canoe in which he was making his escape came ashore.
+Where is it now? No canoe belongs to the estate."
+
+"There is not," said Jaspar, uneasily.
+
+"Perhaps an examination of it will disclose something of the robber, if
+not of the will."
+
+"So I thought this morning, and for this purpose went to the river, but
+the canoe was not to be found. I did not secure it last night, and
+probably it broke adrift and went down," replied Jaspar, whose ingenuity
+never deserted him.
+
+"Very likely," said the minister, with a kind of solemn sarcasm. "This
+whole affair seems more like romance than reality."
+
+"I cannot believe my father was so cruel," cried Emily, the tears again
+coming to the relief of her full heart.
+
+"Do you doubt the word of the witnesses, and the mark and signature of
+your father?" said Jaspar, fiercely, with the intention of intimidating
+her.
+
+"No, no! but, Uncle--"
+
+"Call me not uncle again! I am no longer the uncle of the progeny of my
+brother's slaves. This cheat has already been continued too long."
+
+"I will not call you uncle, but hear me," replied Emily, frightened at
+Jaspar's violence.
+
+"I will hear nothing more. You will prepare to leave for Cincinnati next
+week. I will no longer endure the presence of one upon whom my
+brother's bounty has been wasted. Have you no gratitude, girl? Remember
+what you are!"
+
+With these cruel words Jaspar hurried out of the room, satisfied that he
+had established his position, and, at least, silenced Emily. The
+minister he regarded, as he did all of his profession, with contempt.
+
+Mr. Faxon and Emily had a long consultation upon the embarrassing
+position of her who had so lately been the envied heiress. The murder of
+the mulatto, the conduct of Jaspar, and some other circumstances,
+afforded ground to believe that the will was a forgery. If such was the
+fact, the minister was compelled to acknowledge that it was a deep-laid
+plot. Everything seemed to aid the conspirators; for he was satisfied,
+both from the wording and the chirography of the will, that Jaspar,
+whatever part he played, was assisted by others. There was not the
+slightest clue by which the mystery could be unravelled. If there was
+hope that the will was a forgery, there was no immediate prospect of
+proving it such.
+
+Under these circumstances, Mr. Faxon felt compelled to advise obedience
+to the instructions of the will. The journey to the North could do no
+harm, and was, perhaps, advisable, under the state of feeling which
+would follow the publicity of the will. Emily, painful as it was to
+leave the home of her childhood at such a time, acquiesced in the
+decision of her clerical friend. But there was a feeling in her heart
+that she was wronged,--that she should go forth an exile from her _own_
+Bellevue.
+
+On the following week, Jaspar and Emily proceeded to New Orleans, in the
+family carriage, to take a steamer for Cincinnati.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     "Day after day, day after day,
+     We stuck,--nor breath, nor motion,--
+     As idle as a painted ship
+     Upon a painted ocean."
+
+     ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+It was about the time of the events related in the preceding chapters,
+at the close of a variable day, in which the storm and sunshine seemed
+to struggle for the ascendency, that a plain-looking, home-made sort of
+man might have been seen attempting to effect a safe transit of the
+steamboat levee at New Orleans. This personage was no other than Mr.
+Nathan Benson, commonly called at home "Uncle Nathan." He was one of the
+better class of New England farmers, an old bachelor, well to do in the
+world, and was now engaged in the laudable enterprise of seeing the
+country.
+
+Uncle Nathan, though he laid no claims to gentility in the popular
+signification of the term, was, nevertheless, a gentleman,--one of
+Nature's noblemen. He was dressed scrupulously neat in every particular,
+though a little too rustic to suit the meridian of fashionable society.
+He presented a very respectable figure, in spite of the fact that the
+prevailing "mode" had not been consulted in the fashioning of his
+garments. His coat was, without doubt, made by some village tailoress,
+for many of the graces with which the masculine artist adorns his
+garments were entirely wanting in those of our worthy farmer. His hat
+was two inches too low in the crown, and two inches too broad in the
+brim, for the style; still it was a good-looking and a well-meaning hat,
+for it preserved the owner's phiz from the burning rays of the sun much
+better than the "mode" would have done. His boots, though round-toed and
+very wide, were nicely polished when he commenced the passage of the
+levee, but were now encased in a thick coating of yellow clay.
+
+Uncle Nathan was a medium-sized man, and preserved as much of nature's
+grace as a man can who has labored for five-and-thirty years at the
+stubborn soil of New England. His hair was sandy, and his full,
+good-natured physiognomy was surrounded by a huge pair of reddish
+whiskers.
+
+The superficial, worldly-minded man would have deemed Uncle Nathan's
+_principles_ rather too ultra for common, everyday use; but he, good
+soul, found no difficulty in applying them to every action he performed.
+He was, to use a common phrase, a "professor of religion;" but, less
+technically, he was more than a professor, and strove to live out the
+spirit of truth and righteousness.
+
+After much difficulty, Uncle Nathan succeeded in effecting a safe
+passage to the planking which formed the landing for the boats. After a
+glance of vexation at the soiled condition of his boots (Uncle Nathan
+was a bachelor!), he commenced his search for an upward-bound steamer,
+for he was about to begin his homeward tour. Two columns of dense black
+smoke, the hissing noise of escaping steam, and the splashing paddles of
+a boat a short distance down the stream, attracted his attention, and
+towards her he directed his steps. Approaching near enough to read her
+name, he was not a little surprised to find the boat he had seen
+advertised to start a week before. Concluding, in his innocence, that
+some accident had detained her, he hastened on board. Entering the
+cabin, the scene which was there presented did not exactly coincide with
+his ideas of neatness or morality. Uncle Nathan had read descriptions of
+the magnificence of Mississippi steamers; but the Chalmetta (for this
+was the name of the boat) fell far below them. Even the best boats on
+the river he considered vastly inferior to the North River and Sound
+steamers.
+
+After a hasty survey of the Chalmetta's capability of making him
+comfortable for a week or more, he concluded to take passage in her for
+Cincinnati, and accordingly he sought for the captain. To his inquiries
+for that personage a thin, cadaverous-looking man presented himself, and
+drawled out a civil salutation.
+
+"How long afore you start, cap'n?" inquired Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We shall get off in about ten minutes," replied Captain Brawler.
+"John," continued he, turning to a waiter near him, with a wink, "tell
+the pilot to be all ready, and ring the bell."
+
+"Why, gracious!" said Uncle Nathan, hastily, as the waiter dodged into
+the pantry, "I shan't have time to get my trunk down."
+
+"How far up do you go?" inquired Captain Drawler.
+
+"To Cincinnati, if you can carry me about right," replied Uncle Nathan,
+with an eye to business.
+
+"Well, as you are going clear through, I will wait a few minutes for
+you," suggested the captain.
+
+Uncle Nathan thought him very obliging, and after some little
+"dickering" (for he had heard that Western steamboats were not
+particularly uniform in their charges), he engaged a passage, applying
+to the bargain the trite principle that "no berth is secured till paid
+for," which had been reduced to writing, and occupied a conspicuous
+place in the cabin. Without waiting to see the berth he had paid for, he
+hastened to the hotel for the large hair trunk, which contained his
+travelling wardrobe.
+
+Our worthy farmer made it a point never to cause any one an unnecessary
+inconvenience; never to read the morning paper more than half an hour
+when an impatient crowd was waiting to see it; and never in his life
+stopped his five-cattle team in the middle of a narrow, much-frequented
+road, to the annoyance of others. So the captain did not have to wait
+more than five minutes beyond the stated time. Depositing his trunk upon
+a heap of baggage in the cabin, and turning with pious horror from the
+gaming-tables there, Uncle Nathan seated himself in an arm-chair on the
+boiler deck, to await the departure of the boat, and, in anticipation,
+to feast his vision with the wonders of the Father of Waters. He waited
+very long and very patiently, for Uncle Nathan considered patience a
+cardinal virtue, and strove manfully against every feeling of
+uneasiness. The tongue of the hugs bell over him at intervals banged
+forth its stunning cadence, the hissing steam let loose from its pent-up
+cells, the water which the wheels sent surging far up upon the levee,
+all were indications, to his unsophisticated mind, of a speedy
+departure.
+
+Two hours he waited, with the same exemplary patience; but still the
+Chalmetta was a fixture.
+
+Night came, and the music of the bell, and the steam, and the surging
+water, ceased. Uncle Nathan, thinking patience no longer a virtue,
+cardinal or secondary, hastened to the captain, with some appearance of
+indignation on his honest features. The worthy officer very coolly
+informed him that, owing to the non-arrival of the mail, he should be
+unable to get off till the next morning.
+
+Uncle Nathan uttered a very peculiar "O!" and, seemingly perfectly
+satisfied with this explanation, asked to be shown his berth. The
+captain consulted the clerk, and the clerk consulted the berth-book,
+which conveyed the astounding intelligence that the berths were all
+taken!
+
+"All taken!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, aghast. "Haven't I paid for one?"
+
+The gentlemanly clerk acknowledged that he _had_ paid for one, and
+kindly offered him a mattress on the floor, assuring him that there
+would be plenty of berths after the boat got off.
+
+Uncle Nathan did not see how this could be, and was informed that many
+berths taken were not claimed.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Western steamers seldom start at the time they advertise,
+but wait until they are full of freight and passengers. The latter are
+boarded on them from the time they take passage, if they wish,--often a
+week or ten days. Berths are often engaged by "loafers," who eat and
+sleep on board, and grumble at the detention, but who suddenly decamp
+when the boat starts.]
+
+Contenting himself with this explanation, Uncle Nathan sought the boiler
+deck again, to obtain the only possible oblivion for his uneasiness in
+the society of mongrel gentlemen and monstrous mosquitos. Those who have
+been subjected to these steamboat impositions will readily perceive that
+Uncle Nathan was in no very agreeable state of mind. He was, to a
+certain extent, home-sick. There was something in his expectant state,
+and something in the gloomy aspect of the low city with its cheerless
+lights, in the damp atmosphere and the clouds of mosquitos, to produce a
+sigh for home and its joys. If any one had hummed "Sweet Home" in his
+ears, it would have brought the tears to his eyes. He thought of
+everything connected with his hallowed home: of the good-natured
+spinster who was his housekeeper, and of the ten-acre lots upon his
+farm; of the red steers and the gray mare; of the shaggy watch-dog and
+the tabby-cat; of home in all its minutiæ. Its familiar scenes visited
+him with a vividness which added ten-fold to their influence. He was as
+far abstracted as the mosquitos, which gathered in swarms upon every
+tenable spot of his flesh, would permit, when his meditations were
+disturbed by the gentleman who occupied the next chair. He wore the
+uniform of the army, and was battling the mosquitos with the smoke of a
+plantation cigar, which bore a very striking resemblance to those rolls
+of the weed vulgarly denominated "long nines."
+
+This gentleman was Henry Carroll, who had been in waiting three days for
+the sailing of the Chalmetta. On his return from Georgia he had not
+deemed it prudent to visit Bellevue. Of the startling events which had
+transpired there since his departure he was in entire ignorance.
+
+"No prospect of getting off to-night, is there?" said he to Uncle
+Nathan.
+
+"Not the least," replied the latter. "The cap'n just told me the mail
+hadn't come, so he should have to wait till mornin'."
+
+Henry turned to Uncle Nathan rather sharply, to discover any mischief
+which might lurk in his expression. Perceiving that he looked perfectly
+sincere, and was innocent of any intention to quiz him, he merely
+uttered, in the most contemptuous tone, the single word "Humbug!"
+
+"You seem a leetle out o' sorts," returned Uncle Nathan, piqued at the
+coldness with which his intelligence was received.
+
+"Well, sir, I think I have very good reason to be so," returned Henry;
+"for I have lain about this boat, like a dead dragoon, for three days,
+in suspense."
+
+"You don't say so!" responded Uncle Nathan, with interest. "When did
+they tell you they should start?"
+
+"The captain said in about ten minutes," answered Henry, with a smile.
+
+"Good gracious! he told me the same thing!" said Uncle Nathan,
+astonished at the coincidence.
+
+"But I knew he lied, when he said so; yet the boat seemed full of
+passengers, and I did not expect to wait so long."
+
+"Don't you think they will get started to-morrow?"
+
+"I cannot venture an opinion, having been so often deceived. The captain
+is trying to get a freight of soldiers on deck. The city is full of them
+now, returning to their respective states."
+
+"Then he has taken me in most outrageously," said the New Englander,
+with emphasis.
+
+"A very common occurrence, sir," replied Henry, who now explained to his
+companion some of the tricks of Western steamboat captains.
+
+"Is there no remedy?" asked Uncle Nathan, anxiously.
+
+"Certainly; you can go in the next boat, if you choose. I shall take the
+'Belle of the West,' which I am pretty well assured will sail
+to-morrow, if this one does not. But I prefer this, as many of my
+friends go in her."
+
+"But will they give you back your passage-money again?" asked the
+economical Yankee.
+
+"I have not paid it yet," replied Henry, now understanding the position
+of his fellow-traveller.
+
+"Then how did you secure a berth? The sign in the cabin says 'No berth
+secured till paid for.'"
+
+"I see how it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as though
+they were honest men." He then explained that there is no security
+against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in advance, in
+case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to detain them an
+unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show their money till
+the trip is up; and much more useful information for the voyager on the
+Western rivers.
+
+"And I have no berth yet! The fellow promised me one when we got off,"
+said Uncle Nathan, chopfallen; for, if any one is keenly sensitive to an
+imposition, the Yankee is the man.
+
+"There you are lame again," replied Henry. "You may get one, and you may
+not. As you have paid your fare, you had better keep quiet, and
+to-morrow I will assist you in securing your rights."
+
+"Thank ye," replied Uncle Nathan, truly grateful for the kind sympathy
+of the officer. "I had no sort of idee that they played _such_ tricks
+upon travellers."
+
+"Fact, sir; this New Orleans is said to be a very naughty place,"
+returned Henry, amused at the simplicity of his companion.
+
+"True as gospel!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan, fervently.
+
+"Have you been here long?"
+
+"Only about ten days; but I have seen more iniquity in that time than I
+supposed the whole airth contained."
+
+Henry smiled at the fervid utterance of his companion.
+
+"You are from the North, I perceive," said he.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am from Brookville, State of Massachusetts, which, thank
+the Lord, is a long way from New Orleans!"
+
+"Still, there are some excellent people here," suggested Henry, who had
+known and appreciated Southern kindness and hospitality.
+
+"Well--yes--I suppose there is; but their morals and religion are
+shockin'. It made my blood run cold, and my hair stand on eend, to see a
+company of soldiers marchin' through the streets last Sabba' day, to the
+tune of 'Hail Columby;' and then to think of balls and theatres on the
+Lord's day night, really it's terrible. I wouldn't live in sich a place
+for all the world!"
+
+"Very different from New England, certainly," replied Henry,
+good-naturedly, for it must be confessed he was not so much shocked at
+these desecrations.
+
+Uncle Nathan discoursed long and eloquently on Sabbath-breaking,
+gambling and intemperance, which prevail to such an extent in the
+luxurious metropolis of the South,--as long, at least, as the patience
+of his new-found military friend would permit. At his suggestion they
+retired to a hotel for the night, for the mosquitos were in undisturbed
+possession of the Chalmetta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     "--And deep the waves beneath them bending glide.
+     The youth, who seemed to watch a time to sin,
+     Approached the careless guide, and thrust him in."
+
+     PARNELL.
+
+     "Accoutred as I was, I plungéd in."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Early on the following morning, Henry Carroll and Uncle Nathan were on
+board the Chalmetta, ready and eager for a start. But they were doomed
+to more disappointment. Nearly all day the bell banged and the steam
+hissed; the captain told a hundred lies, but the boat did not budge an
+inch from her berth. Still there were certain signs that the hour of
+departure could not be far distant. Fresh provisions and ice in
+unusually large quantities were received on board about noon, and these
+are unfailing prognostics of "a good time coming."
+
+At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the captain's ten minutes, with
+which he had secured an occasional fresh passenger, seemed actually to
+have expired. Our two friends on board, however, had been so often
+disappointed that they did not allow a single bright anticipation to
+enliven their hearts, till they actually heard the order given "to cast
+off the fasts and haul in the planks." And even then their hopes were
+instantly dampened by the sudden reversion of the order.
+
+This unexpected change had been produced in the mind of the captain by
+seeing a splendid equipage dashing at a furious pace across the levee,
+the driver of which had, by his gestures, made it appear that his
+vehicle contained passengers.
+
+The carriage drew up opposite the boat, and Emily Dumont and Jaspar
+alighted from it. Picking their way through the crowd of dealers in
+cigars, shells, and obscene books, who had just been ejected from the
+boat, they were soon on board. A few moments' delay in getting up the
+baggage of the new comers, and the welcome "cast off the fasts and haul
+in the plank" was again heard. The rapid jingling of the engineer's bell
+succeeded, and, to the joy of some three hundred souls on board, she
+backed out into the stream and commenced her voyage. Uncle Nathan
+breathed freely; the load of anxiety which had oppressed him was
+removed. But his joy was short-lived, for Henry Carroll informed him
+that the boat was headed _down_ river!
+
+"What in all natur' can be the meanin' of this?" exclaimed our
+Northerner, wofully perplexed.
+
+"I cannot tell," replied Henry; "but I am much afraid we shall yet have
+to stay over Sunday in New Orleans."
+
+"The Lord deliver me!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan. "I will go into the
+swamp back of the city, afore I will look upon the iniquities of that
+Sodom again."
+
+"Rather a hard penance; but let us first see what this movement will
+amount to."
+
+At this moment Captain Drawler descended from the wheel-house, and was
+immediately besieged by a dozen angry passengers, who had resolved to
+lynch him, or leave the boat,--which he dreaded more,--if satisfaction
+was not given.
+
+The stoical captain, with perfect coolness, heard their complaints and
+their threats. He waited with commendable patience till they had vented
+their indignation, and then informed them that he only intended to
+receive a little freight at the lower city, which would not detain him
+"ten minutes."
+
+The captain's assertion, with the exception of the ten minutes, was soon
+verified by the boat touching at a sort of dépôt for naval and military
+stores. The "_freight_" which the Chalmetta was to take consisted of
+several long boxes, which lay near the landing. These boxes contained
+coffins, in which were the remains of some sixteen officers, who had
+paid the debt of nature in the discharge of their duties in Mexico.
+
+Henry Carroll, with a melancholy heart, witnessed the process of
+conveying these boxes to the deck of the steamer. In them was all that
+remained of many stout hearts, with whom, side by side, he had marched
+to glory and victory. There were the forms with whom he had triumphantly
+mounted the battlements at Vera Cruz, and raised the stars and stripes
+over the city of Mexico. There, before him, forever silent, were the
+dead heroes of Chepultepec and Perote. Those with whom he had endured
+toils and hardships of no common nature,--with whom he had contended
+against a treacherous foe, and a more treacherous climate,--were there
+encoffined before him. They died in defence of their country's honor;
+and he almost envied them the death which wrote their names, subject to
+no future stain, upon the roll of fame.
+
+The sight of these boxes, and a knowledge of their contents, also
+awakened sad reflections in the mind of Uncle Nathan. But his
+reflections were of a different character from those of the soldier. War
+he regarded as an unnecessary evil,--one which men had no more right to
+countenance than they had the deeds of the midnight assassin. The honor
+of a nation were better sacrificed than that the blood of innocent men
+should flow in its support. He was a thorough disciple of the peace
+movement. With such views as these, his sympathies naturally reverted to
+the dwelling of the departed hero; to the home rendered desolate by the
+untimely death of a father; to the circle which gathered in tears around
+the fire-side, to deplore the loss of an affectionate brother and son;
+to the widow and the orphan, whom war's desolating hand cast into the
+world to tread alone its dreary path. To Uncle Nathan victory and defeat
+were alike the messengers of woe. Both were the death-knell of human
+beings; both carried weeping and wailing to women and children.
+
+After the last box of the pile had been conveyed on board, and
+preparations were making to cast off, the reflections of hero and
+moralist were disturbed by several long, loud vociferations, in a strong
+Hibernian accent. They proceeded from a man, dressed in the tattered
+remnants of the blue army uniform, who was industriously propelling a
+wheel-barrow towards the landing, on which was a box of similar
+description to those just embarked.
+
+"Hould on!" shouted he; "hould on, will yous, and take on this bit of a
+box?"
+
+"Does it belong with the others?" asked the captain.
+
+"To be sure it does," replied Pat. "What the divil else does it belong
+to? Arn't it the body of Captain Farrell, long life to his honor! going
+home to see his frinds?"
+
+"Take it aboard," said Captain Brawler to the deck hands, after
+examining the direction.
+
+The men lifted the box rather rudely, in a manner which seemed to hurt
+poor Pat's feelings.
+
+"Bad luck to yous! where were you born, to handle the body of a dead man
+the like o' that?" said he. "Have yous no rispict for the mim'ry of a
+haro, that yous trate his ramains so ongintlemanly? Hould up your ind,
+darlint, and walk aisy wid it!"
+
+"Lively there," cried Captain Drawler, "lively, men!"
+
+"Bad luck to your soul for a blackguard, as ye are!" shouted Pat. "Where
+did you lave your pathriotism?"
+
+The box was by this time on deck, and the captain, to do him justice,
+made all haste to proceed on his voyage.
+
+The cases containing the remains of the officers were deposited in the
+after part of the hold, to which access was had by means of a hatch near
+the stern. Pat's peculiar charge was placed on top of the others, and he
+maintained a most vigilant watch over it.
+
+There was now a fair prospect of commencing the voyage, and our two
+passengers were in high spirits. Henry was not a little fearful that the
+boat would resume her long-occupied position at the levee; the very
+thought of such a calamity was painful in the extreme. But this fear was
+not realized; the Chalmetta gave the levee a wide berth. The Rubicon was
+passed; the shades of doubt and anxiety were supplanted by the clear
+sunshine of a bright prospect.
+
+"We are at last fairly started," said Henry, seating himself by the side
+of Uncle Nathan, on the boiler deck.
+
+"Thank fortin, we are!" responded the farmer, heartily. "We are fast
+getting away from that den of sin."
+
+"And you may preserve your morals yet," said Henry, with a pleasant
+laugh.
+
+"My morals are safe enough, thank the Lord!" answered Uncle Nathan, a
+little touched at this reflection upon his firmness; "but I don't like
+the place, to say nothing of its morals."
+
+"Very likely. But see that Irishman--the fellow who had charge of the
+box. He looks poorly enough, as far as this world's goods are concerned,
+but happy and full of mirth, for all that."
+
+"He looks as though he had seen hard times," added Uncle Nathan,
+indifferently.
+
+"He does, indeed, like many other of the poor soldiers; but, I warrant
+me, he has a stout will, and an honest heart. I say, my fine fellow,"
+said Henry, addressing Pat, "come up here."
+
+"Troth I will, then, for I see yous wear the colors of Uncle Sam,"
+replied the Irishman, making his way to the boiler deck.
+
+"Long life to your honor!" continued Pat, as he reached the deck, and
+making a low bow, as he doffed his slouched hat,--"but I wish I had the
+money to trate your honor."
+
+"Which means," replied Henry, "as you have not, I should treat you?"
+
+"That's jist it, your honor. I persave your honor is college-larnt by
+the way yous see into my heart."
+
+Henry laughed heartily, and so did Uncle Nathan; though, to tell the
+truth, our moralist of the North was sorry to see his companion hand the
+man a "bit" to drink with, for he was a member of the temperance
+society.
+
+Pat got the "smile," and with a grateful heart returned to his patron.
+
+"Thank your honor, kindly," said Pat.
+
+"Now tell me, Pat, what regiment you served in," said Henry.
+
+"In the first Pennsylvanians,--Captain Farrell's company."
+
+"Captain Farrell's! I knew him well,--a fine fellow and a gallant
+officer! Many were the tears shed when the vomito carried him off," said
+Henry, with much feeling. "And you were one of his company?"
+
+"Troth, I was, thin. He was every inch a sodger and a gintleman."
+
+"And the box you brought on board contains his remains?"
+
+"Upon me sowl it contains the body of as good a man as iver breathed the
+breath o' life," replied Pat, very emphatically.
+
+"Very true. You speak well of your captain, and he deserved all he will
+ever get of praise. Here, Pat, is a dollar for you; and if you want
+anything, come to me."
+
+"Thank your honor," replied Pat, uncovering, with a bow and a scrape of
+the foot. "You are as near like poor Captain Farrell as one pay is like
+another. Long life to your honor,--may you live forever, and then die
+like a haro!"
+
+"A genuine Irishman!" said Henry, as Pat descended to the main deck;
+"one in whom gratitude and faithfulness are as strong as life itself!"
+
+"He seems a good sort of man," returned Uncle Nathan, who had but little
+appreciation of the Irish heart.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the supper-bell. An
+eager multitude rushed to the cabin; but every seat was already
+occupied. On a crowded boat on the Mississippi there is often much
+selfishness displayed. On the Chalmetta half an hour before tea-time the
+most knowing of the passengers had stationed themselves in a line around
+the table, ready to charge upon the plates, like a file of soldiers, the
+moment the bell rang. Those who did not understand the necessity of this
+precaution, on entering the cabin were much surprised to find every
+place occupied, and were comforted with the assurance of a second table.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for ladies
+who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated Emily and
+her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her countenance was
+saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were reddened by weeping,
+in which she had indulged freely in the quiet of her state-room. By
+intense effort she had subdued her violent agitation, and a sad calmness
+rested upon her face, that belied her feelings.
+
+Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence, was, as
+may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable dress and
+melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had befallen her in
+the death of her father. Their eyes met, and exchanged warmer greetings
+than their words could have done. A sad smile--the smile of
+pleasure--rested upon her beautiful features, as they interchanged
+salutations. Her pale cheek was slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale
+blush. Her fluttering heart refused to retain its secret.
+
+Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had shrouded her
+in the weeds of mourning,--not in words alone, but his sorrow for the
+death of a kind friend was more eloquently told in his countenance.
+
+Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts to be
+civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for which he was
+not prepared,--the consequences of which filled him with anxiety. He
+knew that in Henry his wronged niece would have a zealous
+advocate;--not a superannuated priest, but a young man whose blood was
+warm, and whose soul was full of energy. True, he reasoned, the young
+officer was powerless as a diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the
+will, or of Emily's degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and
+character of his brother, and would be the last one to believe the
+infamous statement of the will. What the father might have said to him
+in regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
+thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones besides.
+
+At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the ordinary
+courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.
+
+The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of ill-gotten
+wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. The cries of
+the widow and the orphan continually ring in the ear of the avaricious.
+The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar. Although he saw no probability of
+his villany being exposed, the fear of discovery troubled him day and
+night. Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been,
+the present seemed a crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax
+of villany, and as he had racked his powers of invention for the means
+of attaining his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing
+it. The insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as
+the tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that
+he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which assailed him. Vain
+hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran through his
+mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only one event which
+promised the least mitigation of his mental sufferings, and this was the
+death of his niece. Black as he was at heart, he shrank from her
+murder,--not at the deed, but at the terrible consequences to him which
+might follow it.
+
+Emily was conducted to the ladies' cabin by Jaspar, who, by a dogged
+adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any further
+conversation between her and Henry. But the black chambermaid, with an
+official dignity which is oftentimes necessary in her position, politely
+requested him to retire. Jaspar left, satisfied she would be safe from
+intrusion for the present.
+
+Jaspar's disposition to prevent further conversation between Emily and
+Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied that her
+uncle's close attendance at her side--so foreign to his former
+manner--was not without its purpose. Love, which he had in vain
+attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his heart. In her
+recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in her heart was not
+abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had awakened a new interest
+in him. Disappointed in obtaining the interview he desired, he sought
+the hurricane deck to think of her, and to cherish the warm feeling in
+his heart. But what was his surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily
+there, and alone!
+
+After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery which
+surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening air. The
+gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and gentleman, she had
+ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions, more gay and happy than
+she, soon left her to the gloom and comparative silence which usually
+reigns on the upper deck. There were no other passengers there, and,
+fearing not the darkness or the loneliness, she was there venting the
+sadness which pervaded her heart. She was about to descend, when she
+recognized Henry.
+
+Emily related to him the circumstances of her father's death, and of the
+reading of the will.
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.
+
+"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it, except
+that my father's character assures me it is not so."
+
+"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you are now
+on your way to Cincinnati?"
+
+"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted. But I
+ought to be thankful for all that comes,--if I am a slave, for the
+freedom that awaits me."
+
+"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my veins!"
+
+"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now, for it
+little matters what I really am, since the will--true or false--condemns
+me to the odium of having been a slave. You will not wish now to own
+your sister!" said Emily, with a sad smile.
+
+"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the mark of
+the omniscient God! It could not alter the beauty of the features or the
+character. I should be proud of such a sister, even did she wear the
+shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon your birth!"
+
+"And can you regard me as you once did? A--"
+
+"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."
+
+"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month since. You
+are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.
+
+"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied Henry.
+
+The fear of ingratitude to a father no longer chained his heart to the
+narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden down by
+misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a child of
+misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her. He loved her
+more tenderly than before.
+
+"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant to your
+sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of emotion
+within it.
+
+"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I feared
+to--to--"
+
+"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word Henry was
+stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your sister?"
+
+"I did have confidence in the _sister_. But I fear it was not a sister's
+confidence I sought."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of surprise
+the word was intended to convey.
+
+"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which have torn
+my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her willing hand. "When
+I bade you farewell,--alas! what misfortunes have come since!--when I
+left you for I dared not think how long, you know not what violence I
+did to the warmest feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the
+struggle between that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to
+conquer it; but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me
+resist no more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have
+tried, for your sake and your father's, to conquer my love. Say, Emily,
+may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"
+
+A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he
+received--was, indeed, all he asked.
+
+"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.
+
+"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But Heaven will
+not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain unpunished. A
+month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of a millionaire!"
+
+"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my heart?"
+
+"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win your
+love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have cherished."
+
+"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily, warmly.
+
+"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his
+daughter, with which I might have interfered."
+
+"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said Emily,
+with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed from Henry.
+
+"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but now,
+Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm pressure of
+the hand.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.
+Page 79]
+
+"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the
+knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as the
+guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in future, from
+her society."
+
+"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely disregard."
+
+"Then, by--you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!" said Jaspar,
+in a passion.
+
+"I am not to be intimidated by threats."
+
+"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety of him
+whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, _her_ request I will obey," and Carroll walked forward.
+
+He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of the
+leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to the
+command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy bell.
+Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the matter he
+listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three," &c. He was about
+to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill shriek startled him from
+his revery. There was no mistaking the sound of that voice! Without an
+instant's hesitation, he called to the pilot to stop the boat, and, with
+a few bounds, was by the side of Jaspar, who was calling lustily for
+help. Henry, careless of his own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft
+the ladies' cabin, and then sprang to the single pole upon which was
+suspended the small boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower
+himself down, he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot
+where Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of
+the boat, and reached the place in season to take in the noble fellow
+who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he rose. The
+steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party was safely on
+board again.
+
+"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar, after
+assisting Emily to her state-room.
+
+Emily's fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once infer.
+Jaspar's passion, and the danger which he thought the young officer's
+presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was not attended with
+his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to place him in a more
+uncomfortable position than his former one. With the instinct of
+deception, he immediately offered a liberal reward to the man who had
+rescued her.
+
+"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"_Here_!" cried a voice from the crowd.
+
+Jaspar started and turned pale, for the voice was a familiar one.
+
+"Where is he?" called Jaspar again, concluding that he must have
+mistaken the voice.
+
+"Here!" again came forth from the crowd, and Hatchie stepped forward.
+
+"Hell!" exclaimed Jaspar, staggering back as he recognized the man whom
+he supposed his rifle-ball had sent to furnish food for the fishes. But
+he recovered his courage instantly, feeling the danger of betraying
+himself.
+
+"Here is the reward," stammered he, holding out the money.
+
+"Never!" said Hatchie; and, before the crowd could clearly understand
+the nature of the case, he had vanished behind a heap of freight.
+
+At Jaspar's suggestion, a diligent search was made in every part of the
+boat, but the mulatto was nowhere to be found. Jaspar, as usual,
+invented a story to account for the strangeness of the incident which
+had occurred. A liberal reward offered by him failed to produce the
+preserver of Emily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+               "'Tis much he dares;
+     And to that dauntless temper of his mind
+     He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
+     To act in safety."   SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Although the general condition of the negro slaves at the South is the
+most degraded in which humanity can exist, there are some exceptions to
+the rule; and among them may well be placed the body-servant of Colonel
+Dumont, Hatchie, whose sudden and mysterious reäppearance upon the deck
+of the Chalmetta must be accounted for.
+
+With an intelligence far superior to his condition, Hatchie discovered
+the villany that lurked in the eye of Jaspar, on the night of the
+forgery of the will. As we have before said, no one better than he knew
+the character of Jaspar; no one better than he knew of what villany he
+was capable. When he had been sent for the keys, an undefined sense of
+duty prompted him to watch, and, if possible, to prevent the mischief
+which he foresaw was gathering. When ordered to retire, he had pretended
+to obey; but he placed himself beneath the window through which De Guy
+had entered, a small crack of which had been accidentally left open. In
+this position he saw Jaspar take out the packet which he knew contained
+the will. He heard De Guy read the fictitious will, and at once
+discerned enough of the plot to comprehend the danger that hovered over
+his mistress. He understood that the real will was to be destroyed; and
+his first impulse was to save it, which he had adroitly accomplished as
+before related.
+
+When Hatchie reached the open air, he was sensible of the dangerous
+position in which his bold act had placed him. So sudden and
+unpremeditated had been his action that no thought of future
+consequences had accompanied it. But, undismayed, he ran at his fleetest
+speed towards the river. He heard the footsteps of his pursuers, and
+every step he advanced he expected to receive the bullet of Jaspar.
+Trusting for safety to the darkness of the night, he quickened his
+speed, till he gained the steep bank of the river. Leaping into the
+canoe which he discovered in his flight, he pushed out into the stream,
+and was several rods advanced towards the opposite shore when his
+pursuers reached the bank.
+
+Plying the canoe with all the strength and skill of which he was master,
+his progress was suddenly interrupted by a log, upon which his frail
+bark struck with much violence. The collision checked his progress, and
+swung the canoe round by the side of the log. Satisfied that Jaspar
+would fire as soon as he saw the canoe, his ready ingenuity supplied him
+with the means of avoiding the ball, and of escaping further pursuit.
+Taking the will in his mouth, he grasped the canoe with one hand, and
+paddled silently with the other and with his feet. He had turned the
+canoe adrift, and Jaspar, without waiting to examine it, had fired.
+Hatchie then jumped up in the water, and produced the splash which had
+deceived his pursuers.
+
+With much difficulty the mulatto had propelled the log beyond the reach
+of the current into comparatively still water. Here he remained quietly
+on the log, using only sufficient exertion to avoid the current, until
+he was satisfied that Jaspar and his companion had departed from the
+bank. He then returned to the shore, using the greatest precaution to
+avoid his enemies; but all was still.
+
+Immediate danger being at an end, he bethought him of securing his
+future safety,--a matter of extreme difficulty for one in his position.
+He was satisfied that Jaspar would invent some story to account for his
+disappearance; and just as well satisfied that he would shoot him, if he
+again showed himself on the plantation. He congratulated himself on the
+happy scheme he had adopted to deceive Jaspar; for he had now a
+reasonable security from being advertised and pursued as a runaway
+slave.
+
+After much reflection, he concluded his wisest plan would be to seek
+safety in New Orleans, where, in the crowd, he might escape recognition.
+The cane-brake and the cotton-grove would not protect him. He might be
+seen, and the blood-hound and the rifle bring him in a prisoner, and
+even Miss Emily would now be unable to save him from the penalty. How
+could he live in New Orleans, or how escape from there? He was without
+money, and he had sense enough to know that money is a desideratum,
+especially to the traveller.
+
+Of this useful commodity, however, he had a supply in the mansion house,
+which he had saved from the presents made him by Colonel Dumont and his
+guests. Recognizing the necessity of obtaining it, as well as some more
+clothing, he resolved to enter the house and procure them, after the
+light he saw in the library-window was removed.
+
+While waiting, he pondered more fully his position. What should be his
+future conduct in regard to the will? He carried with him, he felt, the
+future destiny of his gentle, much-loved mistress. He felt that on his
+action during the next hour depended the happiness for a lifetime of one
+whom he had been taught to revere, and whose gentleness and beauty had
+almost lured him to worship. If the morrow's sun found him in the
+vicinity of the estate, he would probably fall a victim to Jaspar's
+policy. What should he do with the will? Should he show himself at the
+hour appointed for the reading of it? He might fall into Jaspar's hands
+in the attempt, the precious document be wrested from him, and thus all
+his exertions be in vain. Without the will itself he could do
+nothing,--his word or his evidence in court would be of no avail. No
+one would believe the former against Jaspar, and the latter was
+inadmissible.
+
+Should he carry it to Mr. Faxon, or even to Miss Emily herself, Jaspar
+might obtain possession of it by some means.
+
+His deliberations could suggest no method by which immediate justice
+could be done his mistress; and the conclusion of his reflections was,
+that he must place himself in a safe position before he attempted to
+expose the villany of others. His mistress, he knew by the will which he
+had heard De Guy read, was to be conveyed to Cincinnati. He must go to
+Cincinnati--but how? This was a hard question for the faithful Hatchie
+to answer; but answer it he must. He would go to New Orleans, and there
+form his plan.
+
+After waiting till the lights were extinguished in the library, he
+entered the house, and obtained his money and clothing.
+
+By the exercise of much caution, he reached New Orleans in safety,
+where, by the disbursement of a small sum of money, he obtained a secure
+retreat in the house of a free man, with whom he had formerly been
+acquainted. His object was now to obtain a passage to Cincinnati,--a
+matter not easy to accomplish, as the law against conveying blacks,
+unprovided with the necessary permit, was very stringent. He could not
+hope, with his limited means, to offer an acceptable bribe for this
+service. To attain his object, therefore, he must resort to stratagem,
+for the chances of obtaining a passage by direct means were too remote
+and too perilous to be hoped for. But accident soon afforded him the
+means of attaining his end.
+
+The negro with whom he had obtained a shelter kept a small shop, and by
+the grace of the authorities and his neighbors was permitted to sell
+liquor, tobacco and cigars, to the steamboat cooks, stewards, sailors,
+and the soldiers who thronged the city on their return from Mexico. In
+the rear of this shop, and connected with it, was a small room in which
+the negro lived. This room afforded a safe retreat, and in it Hatchie
+had his hiding-place.
+
+One day a little knot of men, in the faded, dilapidated garments of the
+army, entered the tap-room of Hatchie's protector. They drank deeply,
+and, as was their constant practice, they seated themselves at the
+broken table, and commenced gambling with the negro's dirty cards for
+the few dollars which remained in their possession. This amusement
+terminated, as such amusements frequently do, in a fight, in which one
+of the number seemed to be singled out as an object of vengeance for the
+others. This individual was an Irishman; and, for a time, he held way
+manfully against his assailants. But, at last, in spite of the exertions
+of the "proprietor" to protect him, he was likely to get the worst of
+it, when Hatchie, no longer able to control his indignation at the
+unfairness displayed in the encounter, suddenly interfered in favor of
+the now fallen man. His enormous strength and skill soon cleared the
+room of the rioters. Hatchie drew the defeated Irishman into his
+hiding-place, and locked the door. This man was Pat Fegan, who has been
+introduced to the reader.
+
+Pat was filled with gratitude to his protector, and swore he would stick
+by him till his dying day, if he was a "naiger." A mutual friendship was
+thus established, which resulted in the disclosure of their future
+prospects. The fact that both were seeking the same destination seemed
+to strengthen the bond thus formed. Hatchie, shrewd by nature, read the
+true heart of the Irishman. He felt that he could trust him with his
+life; but his ability was quite another thing.
+
+Pat Fegan was without means, and readily accepted the hospitality which
+Hatchie offered to pay for. In the course of the long conversations with
+which the two friends beguiled the weary day, Pat related his adventures
+in Mexico, at the close of which he casually mentioned that the remains
+of several officers, who died there, were to be conveyed up the river.
+Hatchie's curiosity prompted many inquiries, which drew from the
+talkative Hibernian a full description of the boxes that contained the
+coffins, and many particulars relative to the transportation of them.
+
+Pat's description of the boxes suggested to Hatchie the means of getting
+to Cincinnati.
+
+"Could you get me a box like those which contain these coffins?" asked
+he.
+
+"Faix, I can, thin, if I only had the matther of two or three dollars.
+But what the divil makes yous ax sich a question?"
+
+"I will give you ten dollars, and pay your passage to Cincinnati
+besides, if you will get me the box," said Hatchie, disregarding Pat's
+query.
+
+"By me sowl, I'll get yous the box, and ax yous only the price meself
+pays for 't," replied Pat, touched at the idea of a reward, which
+between friends seemed base even to his rude mind.
+
+"And I shall want your help, too."
+
+"Yous may well count on that, for whin did a Fegan desart his frind? But
+tell me, honey, what yous mane to do wid it."
+
+"I intend to get to Cincinnati in it."
+
+"Is it in the box?" exclaimed Pat, astonished beyond measure. "Sure you
+will smodther!"
+
+"But, my friend, I want you to look out for that, and give me something
+to eat and drink. You can pretend that the box contains the body of your
+captain, who, you said, died in Mexico."
+
+"Arrah, me darlint, I see it all!" and Pat shook his sides with laughter
+at the idea of the mulatto's "travelling-carriage," as he styled it.
+
+Pat had procured the box, and conveyed it to Hatchie's asylum. It was
+sufficiently large to furnish quite a roomy apartment. The covering
+consisted of short boards, matched, and screwed on crossways. To
+facilitate the introduction of food and air, and to afford the means of
+a speedy exit in case of need, he had taken off half these boards, and
+fastened them together with cleats on the inner side. The ends of the
+screws were then filed off, so that this portion of the lid exactly
+corresponded with the other portion. A number of hooks were then
+procured, so as to fasten it upon the inner side. By this arrangement,
+the occupant of the box would not be dependent upon exterior aid for
+egress. When once on board the steamer, he expected he should be able to
+leave his hiding-place in the night, and perhaps at other times.
+
+Upon the outside the box was similar to the others, and was duly marked
+and consigned.
+
+Hatchie's quarters were near the dépôt from which the coffins were to be
+shipped, and Pat, watching his time, had wheeled his own charge down in
+season to be shipped with the others. In the haste of embarking, the
+clerk had not noticed that one box more had been brought on board than
+his manifest indicated.
+
+Hatchie was not aware that Emily and her uncle were passengers on the
+same boat till the moment of the accident. He had before released
+himself from his prison-box, and was enjoying the fresh air, which the
+closeness of his box rendered particularly desirable, when he heard the
+scream of his mistress. Her voice was familiar, and even in the scream
+of terror he recognized it. It needed not a second thought to convince
+him of his duty. He had saved her life, and, forgetful of the danger of
+thus exposing his person, he stood by and saw her conveyed to her
+state-room. He heard Jaspar call for her deliverer, and offer a reward.
+This he knew, if no one else did, was gross hypocrisy, and in the
+indignation of his honest heart he had stepped forward to confront him.
+The sight of Jaspar, and the thought of his own responsibility, recalled
+his prudence; and he hastened to retrieve his error by escaping to his
+hiding-place in the box, in which no one thought of searching for a
+living man.
+
+In the excitement and exertion attendant upon the incident, Henry
+Carroll had not recognized Hatchie; and, while Jaspar inquired for her
+deliverer, he had been seeking the surgeon. Henry thought of nothing but
+her safety.
+
+Hatchie at once knew the voice of Henry, but, knowing nothing of the
+relation between him and his mistress, he feared to trust him with his
+secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+                  "But as thou art a man
+     Whom I have picked and chosen from the world,
+     Swept that thou wilt be true to what I utter;
+     And when I've told thee that which only gods,
+     And men like gods, are privy to, then swear
+     No chance, or change, shall wrest it from thy bosom."
+
+                                              OTWAY.
+
+
+Emily Dumont, while yet insensible, was conveyed to her state-room,
+where, by the assiduous attention of the stewardess and the lady
+passengers, she was soon restored to consciousness. An army surgeon, who
+was fortunately on board, prescribed a course of treatment which
+prevented all evil consequences, so that on the following morning she
+appeared at breakfast as well as usual bodily, though the terrible fact
+that her uncle had attempted her life so agitated her that sleep had
+been a stranger to her eyelids. By whom she had been rescued was yet
+unknown to her.
+
+Henry Carroll again took his place opposite her at the morning meal,--a
+place he had secured by the exercise of a full hour's patience in
+occupying it. At the first convenient opportunity, he congratulated her
+upon her safe recovery, and for the first time she heard the particulars
+of her rescue. Jaspar, with an ill grace, expressed his obligations to
+him, though at the same time he wished him at the bottom of the river.
+
+Henry failed not to notice the blush which came to her cheek, as she
+modestly but fervently expressed her gratitude for the noble service he
+had rendered her. Although her accepted lover, there had been but little
+intercourse of a tender nature between them,--not enough to prevent her
+heart from fluttering when he spoke, and sending its warm blood to her
+cheek.
+
+With what indescribable pleasure does the lover recognize the blush
+which a word or an act of his own calls to the face of his new-found
+love! Like the breaking clouds which disclose to the worn mariner the
+faint outline of the distant land, he hails it as the omen of future
+bliss! It is part of the mystical language of the heart. It is part of
+the mechanism of the affections, which the will cannot conceal. The
+gentle look, the warm pressure of the hand, the eloquent language of
+love, which modesty at first forbids, are supplied by the timid,
+uncalled, beautiful blush! Prudence and delicacy cannot chain it in the
+veins.
+
+Henry read in her blush the warm current of pure love which flowed from
+her heart. It told him how willingly her gratitude coalesced with her
+love. Their position at table did not afford the opportunity of
+interchanging those feelings of the heart which each felt swelling
+within. The present, so full of joy and hope, it seemed cruel to
+surround with circumstances which forbade them to enjoy it. A crowded
+steamer is the most uncomfortable place in the world for a pair of
+lovers, and Henry and Emily felt the inconvenience of it.
+
+But, if the position of the lovers was uncomfortable, Jaspar's was
+painful. They had the consolation of loving and being loved; but he was
+now writhing under the weight of an additional torture. The appearance
+of Hatchie was the knell of all his hopes, the precursor of ruin. To him
+it was a mystery, and all his endeavors to solve it were unavailing.
+
+About noon the Chalmetta arrived at Baton Rouge, where, according to
+previous arrangement, and much to the joy of the perplexed uncle, De Guy
+came on board. Jaspar greeted him with more than usual courtesy, and
+felt, to as great a degree as guilt can feel it, a relief from the
+embarrassments which surrounded him. The first step of the red-faced
+attorney, on finding no state-room unoccupied, was to dispossess two
+flat-boatmen of theirs, by the payment of a round bonus. Jaspar thought
+this a rather extravagant move for one apparently so parsimonious; but
+his mind was too deeply engrossed with the difficulties which environed
+him to comment on extraneous subjects.
+
+To this state-room Jaspar and his confidant retired, to consider the
+condition of their operations; and while they deliberate we will return
+to another character.
+
+Uncle Nathan was in the full enjoyment of all the satisfaction which
+seeing the world affords to the observing man. He gazed with unceasing
+wonder upon the Father of Waters, on whose mighty bosom he was borne
+towards the loved scenes of home. He was edified and amused with the
+ever-varying succession of objects which presented themselves, as the
+Chalmetta progressed. Flat-boats and steamers, plantations and
+cotton-wood groves, islands and cut-offs, were all objects of interest.
+And, when he was tired of these, "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," which
+was his constant travelling companion, afforded him all the excitement
+his contented disposition required. The time promised to be easily
+disposed of, even if the passage should be unusually prolonged. Besides,
+the number and variety of dispositions on board afforded him some study,
+and some instruction. There were men of all grades of society, and all
+degrees of moral worth,--beginning, of course, at a very moderate
+standard, and descending to the vilest of the vile, which last were in a
+large majority. There were tipplers, and gamblers, and profane swearers,
+in abundance; and Uncle Nathan felt, at the bottom of his philanthropic
+heart, a desire to lead them from their sins. Not that he was officious
+and meddlesome, for he believed in "a time for everything." In his
+modest, inoffensive way, no doubt, he sowed the seeds of future
+reformation in some wayward heart.
+
+Pat Fegan proved an apt disciple, and already had Uncle Nathan given him
+the first lesson in the form of a temperance lecture, which probably had
+its effect, as he left the boiler deck without the dram for which he
+was supposed to have come up.
+
+"Now, Partrick," said Uncle Nathan, on the evening after Emily's rescue,
+"rum never did any one any good."
+
+"'Pon my soul it did, thin,--it makes me happy whin sorra thing else in
+the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.
+
+"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of doin'
+good to your feller-creturs."
+
+"It sinds throuble away--what else is happiness?"
+
+"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."
+
+"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me there."
+
+"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing the
+pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are safe."
+
+But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory lucubrations. Pat
+signed the pledge; but whether he had an appreciating sense of the
+restraint he imposed upon his appetite we cannot say. Uncle Nathan
+thought him saved from his cups, and rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if
+he had looked a little closer, he might have suspected an interested
+motive on the part of Pat. He saw none, and, feeling secure in the
+present victory, he admonished his disciple "to stick to it as long as
+he lived."
+
+"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat. "I see yous are a gintleman,
+if yous don't look jist like one. Now, do you see, Mr. Binson, you are
+jist the man I am looking for, this last six hours."
+
+"Why so, Partrick--what do you mean?" said Uncle Nathan, mystified by
+the sudden change of manner in the new convert.
+
+"Hould aisy a bit, for I'd like to hould a private correspondence wid
+yous. Will ye jist come to the hurricane deck, till I tells yous all
+about it?"
+
+"Sartain," replied Uncle Nathan, his curiosity fully excited.
+
+As soon as they reached a deserted portion of the promenade deck, Pat,
+after satisfying himself there were no listeners near, commenced, with
+an air of grave importance, his story.
+
+"Whisht now, and draw near," said he. "Can yous keep a sacret?"
+
+"Well, I think I could, if it was an honest one."
+
+"Faix, thin, it _is_ an honest one. Sure yous come from the North, and
+don't belave in keeping the naigers in bondage?"
+
+"To be sure not."
+
+"Well, then, would yous help a naiger out of throuble, if yous could as
+well as not?"
+
+"I sartainly wish 'em well; but the Scripture says 'Honor the king,'
+which means nothin' more nor less than 'obey the laws.' Arter all,
+though, perhaps we ought not to mind wicked laws."
+
+"Musha bad luck to your raysoning! Sure I'm no docthor, to blarney over
+the matther. Will yous kape the sacret?" asked Pat, a little excited,
+and somewhat disappointed to find his auditor lukewarm in "the cause."
+
+"Sartain; tell your story, and, if I can't do you any good, I won't do
+you any harm."
+
+"That's the mon for me!" replied Pat, slapping Uncle Nathan familiarly
+on the back. "Now, do you see, there's a naiger on this boat, that wants
+a frind."
+
+"A friend!" said Uncle Nathan, with some doubt, as he reflected on the
+conflict between the claims of humanity and the stringent laws of the
+slave states.
+
+"To be sure, a _frind_!" replied Pat, with emphasis.
+
+"I _will_ befriend him," replied Uncle Nathan, his natural inclination
+triumphing over his fear of the law.
+
+"Spoken like a Christian! Sure, that's jist what St. Patrick would say,
+if the saint--long life to him!--were here," replied Pat, rejoicing
+that the difficulty was overcome.
+
+"Now, dhraw near till I tells yous all about it; and, if iver you
+mintion a word of it, may your sowl never lave purgatory till it is
+burnt to a cindther! Now, do you mind, there's a naiger concayled in the
+hould of the boat, that wants to correspond with a faymale in the
+cabin."
+
+"But he will expose himself, and she may deliver him up."
+
+"Divil a bit! Didn't he save her from dhrowning, last night?" exclaimed
+Pat, warmly, for this act of Hatchie excited all his admiration.
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" and Uncle Nathan understood the
+mystery of the previous night.
+
+"Sorra a word o' lie in it."
+
+"But where in natur is the feller?" asked the wonder-struck Yankee, his
+curiosity getting the better of every other consideration.
+
+"Whisht, now," whispered Pat; "he is in one of those boxes, with the
+dead men! Do yous mind?"
+
+"Good gracious! how you talk! In a coffin?"
+
+"Divil a coffin at all. Sure as nate a bit of a box as iver held a
+Christian."
+
+"But why does he wish to speak with the lady?"
+
+"Sorra know I know," replied Pat, to whom Hatchie had communicated no
+more than was necessary.
+
+"Does he wish to see her in person?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Now, do you mind, I saw you speaking to the lady, and
+I tould him of it. Then the naiger axed me could he trust yous. I tould
+him yes; and he tould me to bring yous down to him, and that's the whole
+of it. Now, will yous go down the night and spake to him?"
+
+Uncle Nathan reflected a little; for, though no craven, he was very
+prudent, and had no romance in his composition. After deliberating some
+time, much to the detriment of Pat's patience, he replied in the
+affirmative.
+
+Pat then instructed him in relation to certain precautions to be
+observed in order to avoid notice, and left him to ponder the
+strangeness of the adventure. He had well considered his course, and,
+having decided upon it, he was earnest in pursuing it. He had chosen, he
+felt, a dangerous, but his conscience assured him a right path, and
+nothing could now deter him from proceeding in it. He was not fickle,
+and invoked many a blessing on the effort he might make for the
+salvation of the poor negro. True, his prudence had magnified the
+undertaking, which was a trivial affair, into a great adventure.
+Imagination often makes bold men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+             "_Duke_.--How's this?
+             The treason's
+             Already at the doors."
+
+                                    VENICE PRESERVED.
+
+     "_Amelia_.--I thought I heard a step.
+      _Charles_.--'T is your tyrant coming."
+
+                                               PROCTOR.
+
+
+Jaspar and De Guy were for a long time closeted in the state-room. On
+their reäppearance Jaspar felt much easier. The silky-toned attorney had
+used a variety of arguments to convince him that their schemes were
+working excellently well, and that everything, notwithstanding the
+resurrection of the negro, would terminate to his entire satisfaction.
+
+The process of "wooding-up" on a Mississippi steamer, inasmuch as it
+affords the passengers an opportunity to exercise their locomotive
+powers on shore, is regarded as an interesting incident. This was
+particularly true on board the Chalmetta, for she was crowded to nearly
+double her complement of cabin-passengers, and the space usually devoted
+to exercise was too much crowded to render it very pleasant.
+
+When, therefore, the Chalmetta touched at a wood-yard, after leaving
+Baton Rouge, the passengers hurried on shore, to enjoy the novelty of an
+unconfined promenade. De Guy, on pretence of further private
+conversation, induced Jaspar to forsake his post as sentinel over Emily,
+and join him in a walk. For half an hour the attorney in his silky tones
+regaled the ears of Jaspar with various strange schemes, until the bell
+of the steamer announced her near departure. Even then De Guy seemed in
+no haste, and assured his companion the boat would not start without
+them. But the second bell admonished them that the steamer was already
+getting under way. The passengers were all on board, and, as they heard
+in the distance the tinkling of the engineer's bell, they started at a
+run to reach her. By some accident, De Guy's foot got between Jaspar's
+legs, and he fell. The attorney stooped, as if to assist him up, but, in
+reality, struck the fallen man a blow, which rendered him insensible. De
+Guy hurried towards the boat, leaving the watchful uncle to shift for
+himself. He reached the landing in season to jump upon the stern of the
+boat as it swung in shore. Pushing through the crowd which had gathered
+to witness his exploit of getting on board, he retreated to his
+state-room, and locked the door.
+
+Jaspar was not immediately missed by Emily, and his absence was too
+desirable to be the cause of any solicitude. As the tea-hour approached,
+and the ladies were requested to take their places at table, she was
+very much surprised to see _Mr. Maxwell_ present himself as her escort
+to the table. Since the unhappy disclosure of his love in the office,
+she had regarded him with pity, rather than with the contempt he
+merited. She could not but feel that he loved her. His eloquent language
+and forlorn aspect had not been in vain, for they had saved him from her
+_utter_ contempt. A true woman cannot be conscious of possessing a
+portion of the love, even of a dissolute man, without feeling some
+respect for him. To love truly and devotedly is an element of the
+angelic character; and such love will purify and ennoble even the
+grossest of human beings. Emily unconsciously arrived at this
+conclusion; and, discerning some indications of pure love towards her in
+his gross and earthly mind, she felt that he was entitled to her
+sympathy. She cherished no affection for him; all that her gentle heart
+could contain was bestowed upon another. A suspicion had more than once
+entered her mind that Maxwell was, in some manner, connected with the
+foul plot which had drawn her into its toils. But, she reasoned, if he
+loved her, he would not injure her,--no, not even in revenge for her
+refusal. _She_ could not, and her beautiful nature would not allow her
+to believe it, even of a man as gross as her better judgment told her
+Maxwell was.
+
+To her inquiry for her uncle, Maxwell informed her that he had some
+conversation with him since he came on board at Baton Rouge, and that he
+had requested him to attend her at tea. He had not seen him since, but
+supposed he was forward, or in his state-room.
+
+Emily readily accepted his arm, for anything was a relief from the
+hateful presence of Jaspar. Maxwell used all the art which politeness
+could lend to render himself agreeable. His ready wit, and the
+adaptation of his conversation to the unhappy circumstances of her
+position, in some measure dispelled the misery of the hour. Besides, it
+was plain the attorney did not believe the statement of the will; for a
+high-born Southern gentleman would never associate in public with a
+slave girl. She had, too, a presentiment that he came on some errand to
+her. Perhaps the good minister, Mr. Faxon, had sent him with good news
+to her. Perhaps through him the will had been proved false. Such
+reflections as these imparted more interest to his society than she
+would otherwise have felt.
+
+During the tea-hour his assiduous courtesy left scarcely a particular in
+which Henry Carroll, who, as before, occupied a seat opposite to him,
+could render himself of use. He could hardly address a word to her
+without interrupting her companion. An introduction, which had before
+placed the young captain and the attorney on speaking terms, did not
+prevent the latter from mixing excessively good with excessively bad
+breeding. He was apparently unwilling that Henry should be heard by
+Emily. Maxwell had some idea of the relation which subsisted between his
+two companions; but, of course, knew nothing of the previous night's
+interview, which had indissolubly bound their hearts together. He
+seemed determined to keep their sympathies as far apart as possible.
+
+Henry Carroll wondered at the absence of Jaspar and at the sudden
+appearance of Maxwell, for he had not before seen him. His attentions to
+her he loved created no jealousy. Emily had satisfactorily acknowledged
+her affection for him, and to believe her pure nature, especially under
+the present circumstances, susceptible of coquetry, were infidelity. A
+single look beaming with love had assured him that his star was still in
+the ascendant.
+
+At the conclusion, Maxwell, with the same elegant courtesy, conducted
+her back to the ladies' cabin. Emily repeated her acknowledgments for
+the attentions, and was about to enter her state-room, when he addressed
+her.
+
+"May I beg the favor of a few moments' private conversation, Miss
+Dumont?" said he, in a more business-like manner than that he had
+assumed at the tea-table.
+
+Emily hesitated. Her supposition concerning his mission was partly
+verified in this request; but the remembrance of her last interview with
+him at his office in New Orleans came like a cloud over the bright sky
+of her hopes. Curiosity and a painful interest prompted her to risk the
+interview. If this interview was likely to be of an unpleasant nature,
+she could retire; and, if the worst she apprehended was likely to be
+realized, she knew that Henry Carroll hovered near her, at all times,
+like a guardian angel.
+
+"In your legal capacity, I presume?" said she, with a smile and a
+crimson face.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," replied Maxwell, not a little disconcerted to
+discover this troublesome caution.
+
+"Will you take a seat, then? I think no one will feel an interest in our
+conversation beside ourselves."
+
+"Excuse me," replied Maxwell, in his blandest tones, "a few words of our
+conversation overheard might expose persons we wish not to injure."
+
+"Perhaps it had better be deferred to a more convenient opportunity."
+
+"Delays are dangerous, Miss Dumont. Justice to yourself requires that my
+communication be made at once. Allow me to attend you to the promenade
+deck, where we shall be secure from interruption."
+
+Emily, with many doubts, accepted his arm, and they proceeded to the
+promenade deck.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, in a very serious tone, for she wished
+to awe the profligate into the most business-like reserve, "be as speedy
+as possible, for I am fearful of the effects of the night-air upon my
+health."
+
+Maxwell was disconcerted at this change in the manner of his companion,
+and vexed to account for it. The remembrance of past events came to his
+aid, but afforded no satisfactory solution. He could not see why Emily
+should studiously reject his overtures. His experience of female society
+had been of the most flattering character. He was perfectly aware of his
+popularity. His personal attractions always had been a strong
+recommendation, and he could not see why they should not be in this
+instance. His family was good, his fortune supposed to be
+respectable,--everybody did not know the inroads he had made upon it;
+his business was a pastime--the gate of honor and fame. It was true his
+character was dissolute, but she did not know this.
+
+Unfortunately for him and his prospects, she did know it, and the fact
+had all the weight which a virtuous mind attaches to such a
+circumstance.
+
+"I have been fortunate enough to obtain some information which may be of
+great value to you, or I should not thus have intruded upon you," said
+Maxwell, with the air of a man upon whom suspicion rested unjustly.
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Maxwell!" replied Emily, forgetting both the night-air and
+the character of the man who stood beside her; "pray, tell me all at
+once!"
+
+"Pardon me," replied he, coldly, "as the story is somewhat lengthy,
+perhaps it might be deferred till to-morrow, if your health is likely to
+suffer from exposure at this hour."
+
+Emily was confused; but she could not stoop to the weakness of deception
+to smooth over her former coldness. She was burning with impatience to
+be restored, even in imagination, to the position from which she had
+been degraded by the cruel will. Her companion's language was not
+calculated to remove her doubts of his intentions. If the communication
+was of a business character, why should he be offended at her haste to
+terminate the interview? This reflection strengthened her resolution not
+to conciliate him. She would trust to Providence and the justice of her
+cause, rather than make an intimate of a man whom she despised.
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, growing desperate at the lady's silence,
+"perhaps I have offended in some manner. If I have, it was
+unintentional, and I trust you will forgive me."
+
+"O, no, sir, not at all!" exclaimed Emily, mollified, in spite of
+herself, by the humility of the attorney. "There is no offence, and no
+apology is necessary."
+
+"I am greatly relieved by this assurance, and, with your leave, will
+proceed with my narrative."
+
+Maxwell now entered into a relation of the history of the will, but
+studiously avoided imparting a single fact with which she was not
+already acquainted. All this he had related with a lawyer's skill, to
+awaken her curiosity and interest, and to remove by distance any
+unpleasant suspicions which might have been awakened in her mind in
+regard to his motives.
+
+To all he said Emily listened with profound attention, momentarily
+expecting the development of the foul plot. But thus far Jaspar Dumont
+is as pure as an angel,--nothing is disclosed. In this manner half an
+hour passed away, and Emily was no wiser than at first.
+
+Maxwell has now, with an adroitness peculiar to the successful lawyer,
+made _himself_ the subject of his remarks. He is careful that she shall
+know how sagacious he has been in discovering the facts he has not yet
+revealed. He tells her how many weary days and nights he has spent in
+searching out the truth; what wonderful intelligence of his had
+converted the shadow of a suspicion into the reality of an
+incontrovertible conviction; how a single word he casually overheard has
+been followed through weary days and dismal nights, till he has arrived,
+with all the evidence in his hands, at the truth!
+
+Emily was certainly grateful for the deep interest he had manifested in
+her behalf, and she expressed her gratitude with modest earnestness.
+
+"But, Miss Dumont," continued Maxwell, "I could not thus have sacrificed
+myself for every client. My health and strength, under ordinary
+circumstances, would have given way, and the case have been lost."
+
+"Indeed, sir, you may rely on the fullest and most substantial
+acknowledgment for the service you have rendered. My purse shall be
+entirely at your disposal," responded Emily, warmly and innocently.
+
+"Money, Miss Dumont, would not have tempted me to make the sacrifice of
+health and comfort which this exertion has required of me. I have done
+all my humble talents would permit from a higher motive. I look for my
+reward in the consciousness of having done my duty."
+
+"I trust, Mr. Maxwell, you will receive the great reward which is sure
+to follow every noble and true action."
+
+Emily was sadly perplexed to understand this new and singular
+phenomenon.
+
+"The act itself is its own reward," said Maxwell, with an attempt to
+counterfeit humility, which was very awkward, but which deceived Emily,
+agitated as she was by hopes and fears.
+
+"But, as I said," continued he, "I would not have done this for every
+client, and I trust you will pardon me when I say the only reward I
+look forward to is your smile of approval."
+
+"I certainly cannot but approve of the motives which have actuated you,
+and your actions perhaps I could better appreciate if my knowledge of
+them was more extensive," responded Emily, disappointed and displeased,
+as her suspicions were reawakened.
+
+But a faint smile rested upon her beautiful features, as if to soften,
+the reproof she had administered, and to conceal her rising emotions.
+She felt that Maxwell could assist her, but she feared every moment that
+some allusion to the prohibited subject would compel her to banish him
+from her presence.
+
+"A smile from you were an ample reward for all my trouble and exertion,"
+said Maxwell, deceived by the smile of Emily. "To be as sincere as your
+generous nature demands, I cannot conquer the love I have before
+expressed. I--"
+
+"Excuse me, sir," indignantly interrupted Emily, "I must retire."
+
+"Nay, nay, Miss Dumont! I meant no offence. Hear me but for a moment!"
+
+"Not another instant, sir! You have deceived me."
+
+"Upon my honor, I have not. I possess the evidence by which your
+birthright and possessions may be restored."
+
+"No more! I had rather die in poverty, with the stain clinging to me,
+than owe the restoration of my rights to you. You have taken advantage
+of my unprotected condition to impose upon me."
+
+"You wrong me, Miss Dumont; as, if you will remain but a moment, I will
+prove to you," said Maxwell, pleading like an injured man.
+
+Maxwell's peculiar tone and penitent air made Emily pause, and perhaps
+think she had spoken too hastily. All the wrong of which she could
+accuse him was, that he loved her. She felt that this was not a crime.
+The remembrance of wrongs she knew he had inflicted upon others,
+perhaps weak and unprotected like herself, nerved her resolution, and to
+a word of love from him she could not listen. She wished to conciliate
+him, if possible, but not at the expense of her self-respect.
+
+"Why have you detained me all this time to listen to a story with which
+I was before as familiar as yourself? Why have you used the language of
+love, which a refusal to hear now renders insolent?"
+
+"I have offended you, Miss Dumont," said he, in the humblest tones; "can
+I hope to be forgiven?"
+
+"Your future conduct alone can secure my forgiveness."
+
+"Then I solemnly promise never again to allude to the admiration with
+which I have regarded your matchless beauty, or to mention the love
+which now consumes my heart."
+
+"I trust you are sincere," said Emily, not knowing whether to smile or
+frown upon this making and breaking the promise in the same breath. The
+deep anxiety she felt for her future fate made her disposed to forget
+the past, and in a gentler tone she expressed her forgiveness.
+
+Maxwell imagined that, at last, his star was in the ascendant. His
+experience of woman-kind only indicated that he had been too
+precipitate, and that the reserve, even the refusal he had received,
+were only the accidents of the moment, not the natural expression of an
+indifferent heart. His assurance increased as he reflected. He was led
+to believe that he might, now that the ice-barrier was removed, be more
+unreserved in his wooing. His perseverance had now overcome all
+obstacles, and the prize was in his grasp.
+
+"I have a plan to propose," said he, "which will immediately secure to
+you all your rights."
+
+"Pray what is it?" asked Emily, eagerly.
+
+"As you have forbidden me to speak of love, I am placed in a very
+unfortunate position. In short, you can obtain possession of your estate
+by returning as my wife."
+
+This last sentence was said in a whisper, and in a tone of assurance,
+as though he felt she would gladly accept the alternative.
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Emily, aghast with astonishment and indignation, for
+the abruptness of the degrading proposition nearly deprived her of the
+power of speech.
+
+"Even so, Emily. I have the power to restore your rights, and will do so
+on this condition. The ceremony may be performed at Natchez, where we
+shall arrive to-night; or, if you fear I promise more than I can
+perform, I will draw up an agreement, which you shall sign, to the
+effect that you will accept my hand on the restoration of your rights. I
+will give you two hours to think of it; and if, at the end of that time,
+you accept the proposal, I will at once take the necessary steps to
+regain your fortune, and remove the stigma which rests on your name."
+
+"Never, sir, never! I will die a beggar before I will owe my prosperity
+to such a contract!" exclaimed Emily, whose indignation now found
+utterance.
+
+"I beg madam will reflect before she decides," said Maxwell, in a
+satirical tone.
+
+"Sir, I will die upon the rack, before the hand of a villain shall lead
+me to the altar!" answered Emily, unable to control her feelings.
+
+"Softly, lady, softly!"
+
+"Leave me, sir! leave me, or I will call upon my uncle to protect me
+from further insult!"
+
+"Your _uncle_, I fear, was left at the last wood-yard; so I heard my
+friend De Guy say."
+
+Emily felt herself the victim of a plot, and, rousing all her energies,
+she said,
+
+"I see it all. The machinations of a villain--for such you are--shall be
+foiled."
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, his passions roused by the severity of her
+epithet, "do you forget your condition? You are a _slave_! Your supposed
+uncle is not here. You have no free papers, and are liable to be
+committed to the next jail."
+
+"But I am not without a friend who is able to protect me," said Emily,
+with spirit, as she saw Henry Carroll ascend to the deck upon which they
+stood.
+
+"Your friend is helpless. Another word, and I will proclaim your
+condition," and he rudely seized her by the arm. "Your friend cannot
+help you. He has not your free papers."
+
+"But he has a strong arm!" shouted Henry Carroll, as with a single blow
+he struck the attorney to the deck.
+
+"This way, Emily," said he to the weeping girl, who clung tremblingly to
+him; "you are safe now."
+
+Emily was conducted by the gallant arm which had protected her from we
+know not what indignity. She felt secure in his presence from further
+molestation, and his soothing words and hopeful promises did much to
+restore her.
+
+Maxwell soon recovered from the effects of the blow he had received,
+and, boiling with passion, swore vengeance upon the man who had
+interrupted him. But his passion was of short duration, and was
+succeeded by sober reflections upon the "position of his case." Emily
+Dumont was not of that class of women with whom he was accustomed to
+deal. He had found in her an element with which he had not before been
+conversant,--of which, indeed, he had read in books of poetry, but did
+not believe it existed in the material world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+                            "Caught, caught
+     In thine own trap! Thou hast confessed it all,--
+     The means, the end, the motive,--laid all Bare!
+     O, thou poor knave!--and that convenient friend
+     Who swears or unswears, speaks or holds his peace,
+     At thy command,--you have conspired together!"
+
+                                            LOVELL.
+
+
+On board the Chalmetta, Harwell discovered an old acquaintance in the
+person of a notorious gambler,--a class of persons who congregate on
+Mississippi steamers, and practise their arts upon the unwary traveller.
+This person, who went by the name of Vernon, was well known at the faro
+and roulette boards in New Orleans. He was an accomplished swindler. In
+the winter season, when the city is crowded with the élite of the state,
+and with strangers from all parts of the Union, Vernon found abundant
+exercise for his professional ability at the hells of the city, in the
+employment of their proprietors, acting the part of banker, or anything
+else that offered him the means of gratifying his luxurious habits. A
+twinge of conscience never prevented him from adopting any means of
+emptying the pockets of his victims, even without the formality of dice
+or cards.
+
+In the summer season he beguiled his time on the river, or migrated with
+the fashionables to Pascagoula, or a more northern watering-place,--in
+fine, to any sphere which afforded him a theatre for the exercise of his
+talents as a blackleg. Wherever he was, he never passed by an
+opportunity to obtain possession of his neighbor's valuables. If the
+monied man would accept a hand at euchre or poker, why, he was so much
+the easier cleaned out; if not, false keys, pick-locks, or
+sleight-of-hand, soon relieved the unfortunate victim of his superfluous
+possessions.
+
+Early in his career of fashionable dissipation, Maxwell had made the
+acquaintance of this notorious individual. Indeed, he had sufficient
+cause to remember him, for he had made a deep inroad into his patrimony.
+Maxwell was too great a rascal himself to be long duped by a greater
+one. A kind of business intimacy had grown up between them, and
+continued to exist at the time of our story. This connection was not,
+however, publicly acknowledged by Maxwell; it would have been the ruin
+of his fine prospects: but he used him whenever a scheme of profit or
+revenge required an unscrupulous confederate. Yet this Vernon was by no
+means a dependent creature of Maxwell's, for he was bold, reckless, and
+independent to the last degree. Whether acting as the paid devil of
+another, or on his own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own
+will. His physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
+character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon, for a
+hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the luckless
+individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his trade; but
+latterly his claims to the distinction of _gentleman_ and _man of honor_
+had been of such a questionable character, that the man who refused to
+meet him did not lose caste among the bloods of the city.
+
+Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New Orleans,
+with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As usual, he
+practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which, however, afforded him
+but a narrow field, the passengers being mostly officers, who had left
+their pay in the _cabarets_ of Mexico.
+
+By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in possession of
+a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his power he had
+endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which was constantly
+spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate victims, vainly
+striving against the coolness and trickery of professional blacklegs, to
+recruit their exhausted finances, or retrieve the ruin to which an
+unlucky hour had enticed them. Henry obstinately refused to take a hand;
+but Vernon's heart was set upon the bag of gold he knew was in Henry's
+trunk, and he resolved to possess it,--a feat not easy to accomplish on
+board a crowded steamer.
+
+After Maxwell had recovered from the blow which had felled him to the
+deck, and while Henry was soothing the distress of Emily, he met Vernon,
+who was in the act of reconnoitring the young officer's state-room.
+Vernon was just the person to serve him in this extremity. The protector
+of Emily must be removed from his charge, as her uncle had been by De
+Guy. He resolved upon a consultation with the blackleg. Accordingly he
+expressed his desire, to which the gambler replied by requesting him to
+give notice of the approach of any one, while he did a little business
+in the state-room.
+
+Maxwell vainly remonstrated, but was obliged to comply with the wishes
+of the robber, or lose his services.
+
+Vernon, thus protected from intrusion, entered the room, and by the aid
+of a pick-lock soon succeeded in obtaining possession of all poor
+Henry's earthly wealth. Beckoning Maxwell to follow, he descended to the
+main deck, where, procuring a lantern, they proceeded aft.
+
+We must return to Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, whom we left on their way
+to the fugitive in the hold of the steamer.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a whisper, as they prepared to jump down the
+hatchway; "whisht, now, and don't spake a loud word, for the life of
+yous."
+
+Uncle Nathan promised obedience, and followed Pat into the hold. All was
+total darkness, and it was not without a feeling of superstitious dread
+that Uncle Nathan heard his companion tap on the box which contained
+the mulatto. He heard the whispered recognition of its inmate, and stood
+like a statue while Hatchie freed himself from his confinement.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a low voice; "give me your hand, Mr. Binson.
+Now, there yous are," and he placed Uncle Nathan's hand in that of
+Hatchie.
+
+Uncle Nathan found the hand was warm, and felt completely relieved of
+the sensation of fear which had come over him.
+
+"Glad to see you," said he, though an instant afterwards his conscience
+asked him if he had not told a lie, inasmuch as it was so dark he could
+not see anything.
+
+"You are a _friend_, I trust," replied Hatchie, who, although he
+implicitly relied on the _faith_ of the Irish ally, had not the fullest
+confidence in his judgment. Nothing but what he deemed a stern necessity
+would have compelled him to trust the secret with any one. So many
+dangers encompassed him, that the duty he owed to his injured mistress
+obliged him to look around for the means of preserving the valuable
+document he possessed. An accident to the steamer, the continuous danger
+of being restored to Jaspar, and a hundred other painful reflections,
+brought him to the resolution of depositing the will in the hands of the
+most trustworthy person he could find. In this extremity, he canvassed
+the characters of all he knew on board. Henry Carroll, he feared, was
+too impetuous, if not actually devoted to Jaspar. He knew nothing of the
+interesting relation which the hearts of the lovers had
+recognized,--pity he did not! Uncle Nathan, whom Pat had described in
+glowing colors,--none are more highly esteemed than those who confer the
+most solid benefits,--seemed to him the proper person, especially as Pat
+had seen _her_ speak to him after the accident. An honest man is so
+easily known, that the poor Irishman's instinctive knowledge of human
+nature imparted the most correct information.
+
+"I _am_ your friend, and I trust the Lord will always put it into my
+heart to befriend the unfortunate," said Uncle Nathan, in answer to
+Hatchie's remark.
+
+"It is not on my own account that I need a friend," said Hatchie, in a
+melancholy tone, for the responsibility which rested upon him had
+solemnized his mind, and banished all reflections of self. "It matters
+little what becomes of _me_. But, sir, you are a stranger to me, and I
+know not that I may trust you."
+
+"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an honest
+sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience, why, I am
+ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."
+
+"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts in a
+great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his auditor, "can be
+done honestly; and, if your conscience approves any act, it will approve
+this one."
+
+"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and use all
+the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by the
+way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady whose life
+you saved last night."
+
+"Not exactly to talk _with_ her, but about her. I feel that I can trust
+you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress. She is an angel of
+goodness. I am perfectly willing to be _her_ slave, so that it was not
+to gain my freedom I escaped in this box. It was to save her from a
+cruel wrong which her uncle would inflict upon her."
+
+"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle Nathan.
+
+"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the world,--so different
+from my poor master, who was a good man, and loved even his slaves! This
+man would make it appear that my mistress is not the legitimate child of
+her father, but the daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned.
+He has forged a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor
+mistress of her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was
+perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my
+escape,--and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at and obliged
+to jump into the river to save my life. They think the shot killed me;
+but I shall yet expose their villany--"
+
+"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose sympathies
+wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.
+
+"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this will. I
+may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor mistress would
+never be restored."
+
+"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's reasoning,
+and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.
+
+"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person, who will
+guard it as his own life,--who will deem no sacrifice too great to
+relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said Hatchie, earnestly.
+
+"I will do the best I can."
+
+"Before I intrust it to you, I must feel that you will not only be
+discreet, but that you will labor to foil this wicked plot."
+
+"I will do everything I can," replied Uncle Nathan, warmly, for his
+heart was touched at the wrongs of Emily.
+
+"Then here is the will," said Hatchie, handing him the packet, which he
+had taken the precaution to envelop in oil-cloth. "Remember how much
+depends upon your caution and fidelity. God forgive me, if I have done
+wrong in giving it to you."
+
+"You may depend upon me. I will take good care of the document. But
+shan't I say anything to the lady about it?"
+
+"Assure her, if you can without exposing yourself, that the will is
+safe. It will give joy to her heart to know that she has the means of
+restoration to her home and name."
+
+"I will see everything done about right; and I hope soon to meet you in
+the land of liberty."
+
+"I shall never leave my mistress. I have been near her from her birth,
+and, though only a slave, I feel that I was sent into the world for no
+other purpose than to protect and serve her. Liberty away from her has
+no charms for me."
+
+"Goodness!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan; "I never should have thought it!"
+
+Hatchie's devotion to his mistress, so eloquently expressed, jostled
+rather rudely the Northerner's prejudices concerning the treatment of
+slaves.
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by three taps on the deck above
+them, produced by the brogan of Pat Fegan.
+
+Hatchie recognized the preconcerted signal, and, abruptly terminating
+his remarks, he leaped into the box, drew on the lid, and left Uncle
+Nathan to find his way out as best he could.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, whispering down the hatch. "Jump up, Mr.
+Binson!"
+
+Uncle Nathan approached the hatchway, and endeavored to leap out, an
+effort which was assisted by Pat, who, rudely seizing him by the collar,
+jerked him out with a violence that threatened his bones with
+dissolution.
+
+"How the divil did yous tumble in there?" screamed Pat, as two persons
+approached. "Are yous hurted?"
+
+"A little," replied Uncle Nathan, perceiving the ruse of his coadjutor.
+
+"I fear yous are. Thry are your legs broke?" continued Pat, whose energy
+of utterance gave a fair appearance to the deceit.
+
+"Are you much hurt?" asked one of the persons who had by their presence
+disturbed the conference.
+
+"Very little," replied Uncle Nathan, who really felt the uncomfortable
+effects of a knock on the knee he had received in his involuntary ascent
+from the hold.
+
+"Bad luck to 't, but 'twas a wicked fall!" said Pat, fearful that his
+conscientious companion would expose the deceit.
+
+"Can I render you any assistance?" asked one of the intruders, who were
+none other than Maxwell and Vernon, whom we left on their way to the
+main deck.
+
+"Thank ye, I don't need any," replied Uncle Nathan, hobbling off,
+accompanied by Pat.
+
+"Now, is the coast clear?" said Vernon, who carried a lantern he had
+borrowed from the mate.
+
+"All clear; but put out that light,--the engineers will notice us,"
+replied Maxwell.
+
+"But I can't find my way into the hold without it. There is no danger of
+the engineers. They are all asleep on the forward deck."
+
+"What do you want in the hold?" asked Maxwell, in an irritable tone.
+
+"I want to hide this bag of money," replied Vernon, in a whisper. "As
+soon as the covey finds he has been picked, they will search the boat;
+and my character is not likely to save me from the indignity of being
+obliged to open my trunk, and turn out my pockets."
+
+"It is bad business, and I wish you had not done this thing. As I told
+you before, _I_ have nothing to do with it. I feel myself rather above
+common robbery."
+
+"Self-esteem! But you came down on your own business, not on mine. You
+can return, and not trouble yourself any further," growled Vernon.
+
+"I need your help, and will pay you for it."
+
+"Very well, then, wait till _this_ job is finished."
+
+"Go on! I will follow," replied Maxwell, finding remonstrance vain.
+
+After a careful scrutiny of the premises, Vernon concealed his lantern
+under his coat, and leaped into the hold, followed by Maxwell.
+
+"Now," said Vernon, "I must put this bag into one of these boxes, to be
+guarded by the spirits of the brave men whose bones repose in them."
+
+"Are you mad, man? Would you open the coffins of the dead to hide your
+ill-gotten gold?" exclaimed Maxwell, alarmed at the purpose of his
+confederate.
+
+"Why not? We need not disturb the bodies,--only open the outside box."
+
+"Very well," said Maxwell, who felt how useless it was to oppose his
+companion. "But remember, I have nothing to do with the robbery."
+
+"Of course not, and nothing to do with sharing the proceeds; but sit
+down, if you have anything to say to me. We are perfectly safe from
+interruption here;" and Vernon seated himself on the box which was
+occupied by the mulatto.
+
+"My words need not be many. In the first place, I have been insulted,
+and must have satisfaction; and, in the second, there is a girl in the
+cabin to whom I am much attached, and she will not give me the smallest
+sign of encouragement. Have her I must, by fair means or foul. I would
+marry her. You understand?"
+
+"Certainly; but what's the plan?" asked Vernon, indifferently.
+
+"Rather a difficult one, and may require some nerve to execute it,"
+replied Maxwell, who proceeded to develop his schemes, both in respect
+to Henry Carroll and to Emily.
+
+Although the conspirators spoke in a low tone, Hatchie heard and
+understood the whole plot. The voice of Maxwell he recognized, and,
+although the name of the lady against whom his designs were meditated
+was not mentioned, he comprehended who she was.
+
+The confederated scoundrels having finished their conference, Vernon
+drew from his pocket a small screw-driver, and proceeded to remove the
+screws from one of the boxes, which, to Hatchie's great relief, was not
+the one occupied by himself. After much labor, for the boxes were
+carefully constructed, to bear the rough usage of transportation, he
+succeeded in removing the lid, and deposited the bag of money between
+the coffin and the case which enclosed it.
+
+Having effected the object which brought them to the hold, the two
+ascended again, and made their way to the cabin.
+
+In addition to the knowledge of the plot, Hatchie was made acquainted
+with a fact which afforded him much pleasure--that Henry Carroll, in
+defence of his mistress, had knocked Maxwell down. This was evidence in
+his favor. He also heard something of the preference she had bestowed
+upon him, and that on this account, more than for the blow, he was to be
+the victim of Maxwell's vengeance. But he resolved to foil both schemes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     "He must be taught to know he has presumed
+     To stand in competition with me.
+     --You will not kill him?"  SHIRLEY.
+
+           --"Wherefore com'st thou?
+     --To comfort you, and bring you joyful news."
+                                MARLOW.
+
+
+On the second night of the Chalmetta's voyage, as Henry was about to
+retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he had struck a
+"fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at once that it had
+called forth this note. On opening the billet, his supposition proved to
+be correct. It was a challenge from Maxwell.
+
+We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret that
+faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that Captain
+Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough to resist
+the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which encourages
+duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"--a lady whom he fondly loved.
+He felt that the insult which she had received was not sufficiently
+punished. Besides, there was an audacity about the man which deserved to
+be punished, and he resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry
+never reflected that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of
+innocence escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in
+defence of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that
+he should fall, _he_ who had espoused the cause of innocence, why it was
+simply impossible!
+
+He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to act as his
+"friend." The two seconds--Major Brunn on the part of Henry, and Vernon
+on the part of Maxwell--arranged the preliminaries.
+
+The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would remain there
+long enough to allow the meeting to take place.
+
+Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
+opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at ease. To
+meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell to be) was not
+a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of honor. He had a hundred
+times braved death on the field of battle, but to die in a duel with
+such a man seemed to his now tranquillized mind anything but honorable.
+Emily had retired, and he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had
+seen her for the last time on earth, for the possibility of being killed
+himself tardily came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and
+another to Uncle Nathan.
+
+The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression upon his
+mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the letter was to
+interest him in her favor,--to induce him to conduct her to his Northern
+home.
+
+Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the morality,
+and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling of honor--of
+false honor--comforted him, and, animated by its spirit, he even looked
+forward with pleasure upon his revenge,--upon the death of his opponent.
+This would be in accordance with the justice of the case, and he
+flattered himself that justice, if it did not always prevail, would
+triumph in this instance. With such reflections he closed his eyes, and
+sunk to his slumbers.
+
+The Chalmetta moved lazily on her course. Her lights had all been
+extinguished, and the idlers, who a few hours before had paced the
+decks, were now slumbering in their berths, or on the cabin floor. The
+clock over the clerk's office indicated the hour of twelve. On the main
+deck forward the sleepy firemen were languidly supplying the furnaces;
+the engineers, less actively employed, had fallen asleep by the
+cylinders.
+
+On the after quarter, laying flat upon the deck, were two men earnestly
+engaged in conversation, in which the whispered brogue of Pat Fegan
+might have been detected. After the conversation had continued some
+time, one of them cautiously raised his head, as if to penetrate the
+gloom that enshrouded them. Satisfied that they were alone, the two
+rose, and, without noise, climbed up one of the posts to the gallery
+which surrounded the cabin. Then, with a light step, they passed on, and
+stopped before the state-room occupied by Vernon.
+
+"Are you sure this is his room?" asked Hatchie, in a smothered whisper.
+
+"Troth, I am, thin," responded his companion; "but be aisy, or you'll
+wake him."
+
+"The worse for him," replied Hatchie, as his teeth ground together.
+
+Hatchie placed his hand upon the door, and softly opened it. The sleeper
+heard him not. The negro groped about the room until his hand rested
+upon some pistols which lay on a trunk by the side of the berth. These
+he took, and, handing two of them to Pat, retained the third in his
+hand. Closing the door, they proceeded, as they had come, to the main
+deck.
+
+Seating himself behind a heap of merchandise, Hatchie proceeded to
+examine the pistols by the light of a lantern which Pat had _borrowed_
+from the sleeping engineers. The pistols were of the common pattern used
+in duelling. Two of the three were mates; and Hatchie discovered, on
+examination, that neither of them were loaded with ball. The third
+pistol, which contained two balls, was very similar in form and size to
+the pair. Hatchie extracted the balls from this one, and loaded the pair
+with one ball each, leaving the unmatched one blank. They then carefully
+conveyed them to Vernon's state-room, and placed them on the trunk
+precisely as they had found them.
+
+As had been premised, the Chalmetta arrived at Natchez about daylight.
+Vernon, well acquainted with all its localities, led the parties of the
+duel to a retired place in the vicinity. The distance was measured off,
+and the principals took the stations assigned them.
+
+"Now be careful they do not see you do it," said Vernon, in a low,
+careless tone.
+
+The pistols were handed to the principals, the signal was given, and
+both fired nearly at the same instant.
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Maxwell, dropping his pistol, and grasping the
+left arm, which had been hit by Henry's ball. "How does this happen?"
+
+But Vernon was as much confounded by this unexpected result of the duel
+as his principal. He had only time to protest that he had prepared the
+pistols as agreed upon, when Major Brunn arrived at the spot.
+
+On examining the wounded man, it was found that the ball had struck the
+fleshy part of the arm. The injury was very trifling. Maxwell was much
+astonished at receiving a ball from his opponent's pistol,--a
+circumstance which was owing entirely to Hatchie's precaution on the
+previous night. He had overheard the plan by which Maxwell was to fire a
+ball at Henry, with no danger of receiving one in return. Vernon had
+loaded the pair without ball, and the single pistol with two balls.
+Henry was to select from the pair; the third was to be concealed upon
+the person of Maxwell, who was to use it instead of the blank. Major
+Brunn, supposing Vernon to be a man of honor, had not insisted upon
+examining the charge in presence of both seconds, and thus everything
+had worked to the satisfaction of the confederates up to the time of the
+firing. By Hatchie's precaution, Henry held one of the two which were
+loaded with ball, while Maxwell had fired the blank.
+
+Maxwell was, as may be supposed, vexed and disconcerted at the result
+of the duel; and, with an ill grace, he resolved to postpone his revenge
+to another time, inasmuch as he could not hope again to shoot at his foe
+in perfect safety.
+
+The party returned to the steamer just in season for her departure.
+Maxwell's wound was examined by the surgeon, and pronounced very slight.
+Henry was rejoiced at this intelligence, for the cold-blooded thoughts
+which had found a place in his heart had departed, and his naturally
+kind disposition resumed its sway. He was glad that the affair had
+terminated without the loss of life; glad that his conscience was not
+burdened with the blood of a fellow-creature; glad, too, that he had
+escaped unhurt. This last consideration was not a selfish one. He felt
+that all the energy he possessed he should require in the restoration of
+her he so tenderly loved.
+
+His first step, on returning to the steamer, was to destroy the letters
+he had written to meet the worst calamity which might befall him. Having
+occasion to open his trunk, he discovered, to his surprise, that it was
+unlocked. Further examination showed that he had been robbed of all his
+earthly possessions. This was a severe blow. The money was the
+accumulation of two years' service, and he was now penniless,--without
+even a sufficient sum to pay his passage. He immediately informed the
+captain of his loss, who gave him the comfortable assurance that the
+robber had probably gone ashore at Natchez. However, he caused a
+thorough search of the boat to be made; but, as may be supposed, the
+search was vain.
+
+Uncle Nathan sympathized with him in his loss,--not with words alone,
+but voluntarily proposed to lend him any amount he required; an offer
+which Henry accepted with gratitude.
+
+"I see you are acquainted with that lady you saved from drowning," said
+the worthy farmer, after he had passed the loan to Henry. The duel had
+before been discussed and roundly condemned. The cause of the quarrel
+had introduced the fact to which the farmer had alluded.
+
+"I am. Her father was my best friend. I spent a few weeks with him a
+short time before his death."
+
+"O, ho!" thought Uncle Nathan, "I guess the black feller didn't know
+that, or he would have given the papers to him;" and he resolved to
+inform Hatchie of Henry's presence.
+
+Descending, he soon discovered Pat Fegan, and, by his help, was enabled
+to hold a conference with Hatchie, who, now that it was daylight, talked
+through a crevice in his box.
+
+Hatchie was anxious to know the result of the duel, which Uncle Nathan
+imparted, to whom, in return, the mulatto related the means he had used
+to foil the attorney's purpose, which was nothing less than murder. He
+also disclosed the particulars of the second plot, which was to be put
+in execution that night.
+
+The information the faithful slave had gained in relation to the
+character of Henry's efforts for his mistress made him quite willing to
+have him admitted into the confidence of her secret protectors.
+
+Uncle Nathan returned to the cabin, delighted with the idea of sharing
+his responsibility with Henry. But his first wish was to relieve the
+distress of Emily, who, he rightly judged, was in continued suffering,
+on account of the painful uncertainty which shrouded her destiny.
+
+Emily rose on the morning of the duel in blissful ignorance of the
+danger which Henry had incurred on her account. She had passed a
+sleepless night, in the most intense agony. Her eyes were red and
+swollen with weeping, and her heart yet beat with the violence of her
+emotions. She felt in the most intense degree the misery of her
+situation, to which she failed not to give all its weight. She had a
+friend--a brother--more than brother--near, in the person of Henry. That
+love which she allowed her fond heart to cherish was like an oasis in
+the desert of her misery. She loved him, and in this thought--in the
+delightful sensation which accompanied it--she found her only solace.
+
+At breakfast she saw him again; again his speaking eyes told how fondly
+his heart clung to her; again his smile fanned her fevered brain, like
+the zephyr of summer, into a dream of bliss. Her heart led her back to
+the days when they had wandered together over her father's plantation.
+Then, restrained by the coyness of unrevealed love, each enjoyed a
+happiness to which the other was supposed to be a stranger.
+
+But the anguish of her painful position _would_ come to destroy the
+dream of bliss, and dissipate the bright halo her imagination had cast
+before her. She retired to her state-room, to ponder again her unhappy
+lot. "Thy will be done," murmured she, as, throwing herself into a
+chair, she resigned herself to the terrible reflection that she was a
+slave and an outcast. The bright dream of love was only a chimera, to
+make her feel more deeply the terrible reality.
+
+Whilst she was thus venting her anguish, she was roused from her
+lethargy of grief by the chambermaid, who had entered by the inner door.
+
+"Please, ma'am, a gentleman out in the cabin says he wants to speak to
+you."
+
+"A gentleman wishes to speak to me? Did he send his name?"
+
+"No, ma'am. He said you wouldn't know him, if he did; so it was no use
+to send it."
+
+"Pray, what looking gentleman is he?"--her mind reverting to Maxwell.
+
+"Well, ma'am, he's a very respectable looking gentleman," answered the
+girl, to whom Uncle Nathan (for he was the person alluded to) had given
+half a dollar. "I think he is a Yankee, by his talk."
+
+"Pray, ask him to send his name."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the chambermaid, retiring.
+
+Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's
+description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread a new enemy.
+
+The chambermaid presently returned, and said the gentleman's name was
+Benson.
+
+Emily's perplexity was not diminished, but she resolved to see the
+applicant at the door of the room, so that, if his errand was from
+Maxwell, she could easily retire from his presence. Accordingly she
+instructed the girl to show him to the door on the gallery.
+
+"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, as soon as he reached the
+position assigned him; "you are Miss Dumont, I believe?"
+
+"The same," said she, as calmly as her fluttering heart would permit.
+"May I beg to know your business with me?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, bluntly; "but don't be scart. I know
+something of your trials; and I trust the Lord will give you strength to
+endure them with patience."
+
+"Really, sir, you astonish me! May I be allowed to ask how you became
+acquainted with my affairs?"
+
+"All in good time, ma'am; I have in my possession a document, which, I'm
+told, will set matters all right with you."
+
+"What is it, sir?"--and Emily was still more astonished at the
+singularity of the adventure.
+
+"_It is your father's will_, ma'am," replied Uncle Nathan, disdaining
+all preface and preliminary to this important remark.
+
+"My father's will, sir! Impossible!"
+
+"Fact, ma'am. I will tell you all about it," and Uncle Nathan proceeded,
+in his own blunt way, to relate his adventures in the hold.
+
+Emily listened with surprise and joy to the honest farmer's story. When
+he had concluded, although she did not give way to the joy of her heart,
+a change from the depth of despair to the pinnacle of happiness took
+place in her silent heart. How devoutly she thanked the great Father
+who had watched over her in her anguish, and now shed a halo of joy
+across her darkened path! How earnest was the silent prayer which arose
+from the depths of her heart, for the safety of the faithful slave, who
+had perilled his life for her happiness! How deeply laden with the
+incense of gratitude was the song of thanksgiving which rose from her
+soul to the Giver of all good!
+
+And when Uncle Nathan told the story of the duel, a new song of
+thanksgiving arose for Henry's safety. The joy she felt in his
+preservation would not be entirely confined to her heart, and Uncle
+Nathan--unromantic bachelor as he was--could not but discern the deep
+interest she felt in him.
+
+The interview was concluded, and the worthy farmer left the gallery more
+rejoiced than if he had himself been declared heir of Colonel Dumont's
+millions; and he looked around, as excited as a school-boy on the first
+day of vacation, to find Henry, and relate the good news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     "Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash
+     Of echoing thunder."  BYRON.
+
+
+The day of the duel was a day of happiness to Emily Dumont. The
+restraint which Jaspar's presence imposed was removed. Maxwell, from
+prudence or some other motive, did not intrude upon her. Her heart was
+rejoiced by the glad tidings which Uncle Nathan had conveyed to her.
+Henry Carroll was permitted to enjoy her society. It was a day of bliss
+to both; and, though a crowded steamer could ill afford the privacy
+which new-born love ever seeks, yet opportunities of giving expression
+to their feelings were not wanting. All day long they revelled in the
+delightful emotions which warmed their hearts. Their intercourse was now
+burdened by no painful reflections on the misery which had so lately
+environed Emily. The means of her restoration to home and society were
+at hand. The only difficulty now was to discover the best method of
+establishing her rights. Against Jaspar and Maxwell they cherished no
+ill-will,--they had no desire to punish them for their wicked designs.
+
+Uncle Nathan, too, was in the "full enjoyment of his mind." The relief
+he had "providentially" been able to afford to Emily's mind was the
+medium of an abundant satisfaction. As the darkness began to gather, he
+found an opportunity of conversing with Henry, whose entire devotion to
+Emily during the day had rendered him a stranger in the gentlemen's
+cabin. The plot which Hatchie had revealed to him had caused him but
+little anxiety. Maxwell's wounded arm, he concluded, would delay its
+execution. But he gave the particulars to Henry, who was not at all
+satisfied that it would not be undertaken.
+
+"We must watch to-night," said he.
+
+"Sartain, we'll keep a good look-out; but the scamp can't do anything
+while he is wounded."
+
+"But he had confederates."
+
+"Perhaps he has. But here is another friend," said Uncle Nathan, as he
+perceived Pat Fegan, who had for some time been watching an opportunity
+to speak to him.
+
+"Sure, the naiger would like to spake wid yous," said Pat, in a whisper.
+
+"What's the matter, Pat?" asked Henry.
+
+"Nothin', your honor," replied Pat, promptly; "I was only tellin' this
+gintleman that a poor divil was dhrunk on the lower deck, and he'd
+betther go and praych timperance to him."
+
+"No, no, Partrick, that's too bad," interrupted Uncle Nathan,
+reprovingly; "I must teach you to tell the truth."
+
+Pat opened his eyes with astonishment when he heard Uncle Nathan explain
+to Henry the part he had borne in the drama, and was about to utter in
+plain Irish his opinion of a man who would thus betray a confidence,
+when Henry explained that he was an old friend of Hatchie and the lady.
+
+"Long life to your honor, if that be true!" exclaimed Pat; "and you
+won't blow on the naiger?"
+
+"I have too strong an interest in him to do anything to his injury,"
+replied Henry. "But show me the way to him, Pat."
+
+"One at a time, if yous plaze," said Pat, as he perceived Uncle Nathan
+about to follow them.
+
+Pat led the way to the after part of the lower deck, to which Hatchie
+had ascended, as on the night of the rescue, to inhale the fresh air.
+This step was a safe one in the night, as, if any one approached (which
+was seldom), he could easily and speedily regain his hiding-place.
+
+"Hould aisy," said Pat, as they approached the fugitive; "don't be
+afraid,--I have brought yous a frind."
+
+"I hope you will not bring me too many friends," replied Hatchie, a
+little disconcerted.
+
+"Don't you know me?" said Henry, as he grasped the hand of Hatchie; "I
+have just come from your mistress, and know your whole story."
+
+"Not all," replied Hatchie; "you cannot know how much anxiety I have
+endured. Miss Emily is not yet safe."
+
+"But we can easily foil the villain's future designs."
+
+"We will, at least, endeavor to do so."
+
+"I believe I have seen you before; we were companions in the rescue."
+
+"We were, and God bless you for the noble service you rendered my
+mistress!"
+
+"That service was all your own, my gallant fellow."
+
+"You undervalue your own efforts. He who gets into the Mississippi
+seldom gets out alive. Without your timely assistance, I tremble to
+think of what might have been the end. My experience of the river
+enabled me to bring her up; but without your aid at the moment it came I
+do not think I could have saved her. But this is all past. Thank God,
+she is yet safe, though another danger hovers over her."
+
+"This foul conspiracy,--will they put it in execution to-night?"
+
+"I heard the villain they call Vernon, an hour ago, engage a deck hand
+to help him row the boat."
+
+"Then there is indeed danger. I had thought Maxwell's wound would have
+prevented it for a season."
+
+"A mere scratch. I would your ball had found the villain's heart, if he
+has one. But Vernon is the most dangerous man--a more accomplished
+villain."
+
+"Vernon," said Henry, musing; "he was Maxwell's second."
+
+"Yes. That duel was a plot to murder you."
+
+"How so?"
+
+Hatchie explained the plan of Vernon, which had been rendered futile by
+his precaution.
+
+"The scoundrel! but how knew you this, and how happens it that I escaped
+while he is wounded?" said Henry.
+
+"I overheard the plot when I did the other. Vernon is a common robber.
+He came into the hold to conceal a bag of money he had stolen."
+
+"A bag of money!" interrupted Henry, his thoughts diverted from the
+subject.
+
+"Ay, a bag of money."
+
+"Do you know where they hid it?"
+
+"I do; but why do you ask?" and Hatchie was much pained to discover in
+Henry what he mistook for a feeling of rapacity. He wanted and expected
+the perfection of an angel in the man who sustained the relation of
+lover and protector to his mistress.
+
+"Because I have been robbed of all I had in the world," replied Henry,
+seeing the shade upon Hatchie's brow.
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the mulatto, his doubts removed, and pleased in
+being able to restore his money.
+
+"The money is undoubtedly mine. Your noble devotion to your mistress has
+thus proved a fortunate thing for me. But about the pistols?"
+
+Hatchie related the means he had used to derange Maxwell's plan.
+
+"I shall never be able to repay the debt I owe you," said Henry, warmly,
+as the mulatto finished his story.
+
+"I did it for my mistress' sake. I learned that you were her friend."
+
+"And she will bless you for the act."
+
+"Now, what shall be done to insure her safety to night? for they will
+attempt her abduction, I doubt not."
+
+It was arranged that Henry should watch in the vicinity of Emily's
+state-room, while Uncle Nathan, Hatchie and Pat Fegan, should occupy the
+lower deck. Emily was not to be informed of the danger; it would
+distress her to no purpose.
+
+They had no doubt of their ability to protect her. Accustomed as Henry
+was to danger, perhaps he did not fully appreciate that which was now
+gathering around Emily. He felt that, in knowing the particulars of the
+nefarious scheme, he was abundantly able, even single-handed, to prevent
+its success.
+
+Obtaining a screw-driver and a lantern from one of the engineers, he
+succeeded in obtaining possession of his stolen bag of gold. On his
+return to the cabin, he observed Vernon standing at the bar, and the
+temptation to give his moral faculties a start could not be resisted.
+Purchasing a dozen cigars, he remarked that he had no change, and coolly
+pulled the bag of gold from his pocket. Vernon's astonishment and
+consternation could not be entirely concealed, as he recognized the bag
+he had securely deposited in the box with the dead. Henry took no notice
+of him, though he heard him say, in a suppressed tone, "The devil is in
+this boat!"
+
+Henry sought his state-room, where he found Uncle Nathan impatiently
+waiting to hear the result of the interview.
+
+"There is danger," said Henry, "and we must be ready to do our duty
+manfully."
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We must watch to-night, and, if need be, fight!"
+
+"How you talk! You don't think the feller with the sore arm will try to
+do anything to-night?"
+
+"I fear he will;" and Henry opened his trunk, and took therefrom a pair
+of revolvers.
+
+"Gracious! will there be any need of pistols? Couldn't you reason with
+them?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, who, as before hinted, had a great
+repugnance to the use of deadly weapons.
+
+"I am afraid they will not listen to reason," said Henry, smiling, in
+spite of his anxiety. "If action is necessary, it must be prompt. I know
+your heart, my good friend, and I trust your non-resistant notions will
+not interfere with your duty. I must rely on your aid in this affair."
+
+"Sartain. I will do all I can, if I die for it. But I think I can get
+along very well without one of them 'ere things," said Uncle Nathan,
+eying the pistols with distrust.
+
+"Very well, I shall not urge you, though I think it would be prudent for
+you to have one. As you go to your station, you will oblige me by giving
+this one to the mulatto boy."
+
+"Sartain, cap'n," replied Uncle Nathan, taking the pistol; "I an't
+exactly a non-resistance man, only I hate to use pistols;--not that I'm
+afeered on 'em; but to take a feller-cretur's life is a dreadful thing.
+You know the New Testament says, 'Resist not evil,' and--"
+
+"Yes, I remember; but now is the time to act, and not to preach. I shall
+place myself near Miss Dumont's state-room, and your party will see that
+the stern-boat is not disturbed."
+
+"All right, cap'n, but do be careful about spilling blood!" said Uncle
+Nathan, who did not like the cool, determined air with which Henry
+handled his pistols.
+
+"Be assured I will not wantonly take the life of even the most hardened
+villain; but in defence of Miss Dumont I shall consider that the end
+will justify the means."
+
+Uncle Nathan went to his post, and Henry, muffling himself in a large
+camp-cloak, seated himself near Emily's door. Accustomed as he was to
+the perils and privations of the camp, the duty before him did not seem
+difficult or irksome. To his chivalrous spirit there was a pleasure in
+thus watching over an innocent being, while she slept, unconscious of
+the danger that menaced her. Lighting his cigar, he resigned himself to
+the dream of blissful anticipations, which relieved the monotony of the
+scene.
+
+Maxwell, in the seclusion of his state-room, had thoroughly digested the
+plan for the abduction of Emily. Vernon had arranged the details, and
+the lawyer's reflections suggested no material alteration. His wounded
+arm was a hindrance, but time was too precious to admit of delay. The
+Chalmetta was so tardy in her movements that Jaspar must soon overtake
+them, and then the opportunity would be lost.
+
+If he could get Emily into his power, and away from the influences which
+now surrounded her, he doubted not he could induce her, by threats or
+persuasion, to become his wife; then he would spring the trap upon
+Jaspar, and the coveted object of his existence would be gained. He had
+already forged a bill of sale of her person, and, thus provided with an
+implement of coercion, he doubted not that success would crown his
+efforts.
+
+As the evening advanced, and the passengers had mostly retired for the
+night, Maxwell and Vernon left the state-room, and went aft to examine
+more particularly the means of descent to the lower deck. As they
+approached Emily's state-room, they perceived Henry puffing away at his
+second cigar. Had it been any other person, Maxwell would not have
+devoted a thought to him. It was he with whom he had fought the
+duel,--whom a mysterious providence seemed to protect. Was he there by
+accident or design?
+
+The two confederates passed round the gallery, and returned to the
+cabin. A long hour they waited, and the cabin clock pointed to the hour
+of twelve; still Henry had not changed his position. His cigar was
+consumed, but there he sat like a statue, obstinately obstructing the
+completion of Maxwell's designs. The confederates began to fear he had
+some knowledge of their contemplated project. Yet how could this be? The
+plan had been arranged in the hold of the steamer. It was impossible
+that any one, even the men they had hired to row the boat, could know
+their intentions. Vernon, who had seen the stolen bag of money
+miraculously restored to its owner, who had seen two balls pass
+harmlessly through him, was perfectly willing to believe that Henry
+Carroll was the devil! But, devil or not, it was all the same to him.
+
+It was already time to commence operations. Vernon was impatient to
+begin; for, as he averred, he did not like to lose a whole night's sleep
+in so small an affair. But nothing could be done while Henry retained
+his present position, unless they silenced him by force; and he seemed
+an ugly customer.
+
+The Chalmetta pursued her way, stemming with difficulty, as it would
+seem by her lazy pace, the current of the mighty river. She had just
+passed Vicksburg. The night was dark and gloomy. Those bright, beautiful
+moons, with which the panorama-mongers are wont to gild the eddying
+current, and solemnize the scenery with a pale loveliness, were not in
+the ascendant. Even the bright stars were hid by the thick clouds. The
+darkness cast a sad gloom over the scene, which a few hours before had
+been "leaping in light, and alive with its own beauty." The yellow bank
+rose high on either side of the river, and formed a sombre wall, which
+seemed to keep the sojourner on the tide a prisoner from the world
+above.
+
+Yet, deep as was the darkness, and perilous as was the navigation of the
+river, the Chalmetta sluggishly pursued her upward course, shunning
+sand-bars and snags which the eye could not see, and which the stranger
+knew not of. Now she crept, like a thief at night, so closely beneath
+the high bank that her tall chimneys almost swept the overhanging
+branches; then, stealing from the treacherous shoal, she sped her way
+through the middle of the vast waters, as if ashamed of her former
+timidity. Here she shot through the narrow cut-off, and there left her
+foaming surge in the centre of the broad expanse.
+
+On board all was still, save the puffing blasts of steam, which, at each
+stroke of the pistons, echoed through the woods and over the plains. The
+cabin lights had long been extinguished, and, from a distance, nothing
+could be seen of her but the huge blazing furnaces, and the red signal
+lantern, which was suspended over the boiler deck. The firemen, just
+roused from their dream of comfort, no more passed round the coarse
+jest, no more whistled "Boatman, dance," but, like automata, threw the
+fuel into the roaring furnaces. Occasionally, the startling note of the
+great bell roused the deck-watch from his slumber, and he sang over
+again the monotonous song that told the pilot how far his keel was from
+the sands below. Again the bell pealed a heavy stroke, which indicated
+that the steamer was in free water, and the leadsman settled himself for
+another nap.
+
+The passengers, save those whom we have before noted, were deep in the
+arms of Morpheus, rejoicing, no doubt, in their dreams, over the many
+tedious hours they thus annihilated.
+
+Wakeful and watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever present to
+his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil was kept. Her
+image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the love-sick brain
+conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart, and the melody of her
+voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the dignity of the man, he
+built childish air-castles, wherein he throned his idol, and in a few
+fleeting moments squandered years of happiness by her side. The perils
+of the past, the sternness of the present, the responsibilities of the
+future, all faded away, and from their ashes rose the bright empress of
+his soul.
+
+This, we know, was all very foolish of him; but then it must be
+remembered he was in love, and men in love can scarcely be called
+accountable beings.
+
+Thus he dreamed, and thus he trod the fairy ground of imagination, nor
+heeded the creaking timbers and the increasing rapidity of the puffs
+from the escape-pipe. To a man not intoxicated by the dream of young
+love these facts would have indicated a great increase in the speed of
+the boat; but he noticed them not.
+
+By the motions of the Chalmetta it was plain that, though incapable of
+accomplishing any wonderful feat in the attainment of speed, she had a
+considerable amount of that commodity somewhat vulgarly termed "spunk."
+As she passed the mouth of the Yazoo river, another steamer, apparently
+of her own calibre, rounded gracefully into the channel, from a
+wood-yard. This boat--the Flatfoot, No. 3--seemed, by her straining and
+puffing, to throw the gauntlet to the Chalmetta; a challenge, real or
+imaginary, which the latter made haste to accept,--or, rather, her
+sleepy firemen did, for, without leave or license, they crammed her
+furnaces to their utmost capacity. The effects of this movement were
+soon perceptible in every part of the boat, for she creaked and groaned
+like a ship in a gale. But the Flatfoot, No. 3, had the lead, and seemed
+to gain upon her rival,--a circumstance which seemed to rouse the
+lethargic firemen of the Chalmetta to the highest pitch of excitement,
+for they packed the furnaces more closely still.
+
+Maxwell saw, with much satisfaction, the prospect of a race; not that he
+expected in this instance to enjoy the excitement which, with "fast
+men," is consequent upon such an occasion. He hoped it might distract
+the attention of the person who, by accident or design, opposed the
+execution of his purpose. He had sent Vernon to the cabin to watch the
+movements of Henry, while he remained upon the main deck, forward of the
+furnaces, to encourage the firemen in their ambitious project of passing
+the other boat. Several barrels of hams which lay upon the deck the
+apparently excited attorney ordered the firemen to throw into the
+furnaces, promising to screen them from blame by paying the owner double
+their value. The firemen, not blessed with an undue amount of caution,
+willingly obeyed the order, and soon the boilers hissed and groaned
+under the extraordinary pressure. The engineers, roused from their
+slumbers, and entering at once into the sport, secured the safety-valve
+in its place by attaching to the lever double the usual weight.
+
+Still the person whom Maxwell wished to lure from his post remained
+immovable. A few pitch-barrels were now split up, and cast into the
+furnaces, which so increased the pressure that the faithful safety-valve
+refused longer to endure the curb placed upon the discharge of its
+function. It was again secured, and the reckless firemen, urged on by
+Maxwell and the engineers, still pressed the boat to its destruction.
+
+The boilers, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure to which they were
+subjected, still realized the expectations of the confident engineers,
+and refused to be the agents of an "awful calamity." But all exertion
+was of no avail; the Flatfoot, No. 3, whose tall chimneys vomited forth
+a long trail of flame, showing that she, too, was hard pressed, was
+rapidly increasing her distance. Still the firemen plied the furnaces,
+and again the engineers added more weight to the lever of the
+safety-valve. The boilers were evidently pressed to their utmost, the,
+decks were hot, and her timbers creaked and snapped as though they would
+drop out of her.
+
+Hatchie had placed his party in the hold, one of which was on the
+look-out at the hatchway. He saw the danger of the steamer; but all his
+friends were in the safest places the boat afforded. It was an anxious
+hour for him; but everybody was in peril, and there was no remedy.
+
+Maxwell, whose excitement in the race was feigned, perceived that the
+boat was in imminent danger. He had not intended to carry the excitement
+quite so far. An explosion was not exactly the thing he desired. It
+would not be sufficiently discriminating in its choice of victims. But
+the firemen were too much excited to listen to reason; therefore he
+proceeded, with Vernon, towards the extreme after part of the boat.
+Passing round the gallery of the ladies' cabin, they perceived that
+Henry had, at last, left his post. Such was indeed the case. Roused from
+his abstraction by the terrible anticipation of an explosion, he had
+gone forward to reason with the pilots on the recklessness of their
+course in allowing the boat to be so hard pressed.
+
+"Now is our time," said Maxwell, in a whisper.
+
+"Here goes, then!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Be careful that you do not injure her,--and bring her clothes."
+
+"Ay, ay! Have the boat ready quick, for, if I mistake not, the sooner we
+are out of this boat the better."
+
+The ruffian approached the door of Emily's state-room, and was about to
+open it, when, with a noise louder than the crashing of the thunderbolt,
+the starboard boiler exploded, and the Chalmetta lay a shapeless wreck
+upon the waters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "False world, thou ly'st; thou canst not lend
+             The least delight;
+     Thy favors cannot gain a friend,
+             They are so slight."          FRANCIS QUARLES.
+
+
+The traveller on the Mississippi observes with interest the innumerable
+islands which dot the river, and relieve the monotony of the scenery.
+These islands are, for the most part, covered with a luxurious growth of
+cotton-wood trees. They have generally been formed by what are
+technically called cut-offs, or new channels, from the main land. The
+mighty torrent, scorning its own well-beaten track, ploughs a way
+through the country, and returns to its channel miles below, opening at
+once a new path for the voyager upon its tide. The portion of land thus
+separated from the main shore is often subdivided by the action of the
+waters into several smaller islands. These islets are, however, oftener
+seen in isolated positions, varying in area from a few square rods to
+several acres. A remarkable feature of these islands is their
+_locomotive_ powers,--for, strange as it may seem, they annually take a
+step down stream! Observation has shown a change of position almost
+incredible.
+
+The river, continually wearing upon the up-river side of the island,
+washes the sands and soil to the lower side. Thus, the situation of the
+island is actually changed. The fact is clearly shown by the singular
+configuration of the mass of trees growing upon them. The wood on the
+upstream side of the island is of the largest size; while that on the
+down-stream side begins at the mere shrub, and, by a regular gradation
+in height, like a pair of stairs, increases to the altitude of the
+full-grown tree. Each successive year places a new layer of soil upon
+the lower side, in which the young tree takes root; and the growth of
+each year is distinctly visible to the traveller as he ascends the
+river.
+
+On one of these islands, above Vicksburg, was located a neat cottage.
+The island differed in many respects from others. Its area might have
+been eight or ten acres. On one side of it was a narrow, but deep
+stream, which, entering from the broad river, described a semi circle,
+and returned its waters on the same side. On three sides, except at the
+mouths of the little stream, the island was rendered inaccessible by the
+high banks, while on the fourth side the shrubs grew so luxuriantly as
+to be impervious, save to the most resolute visitor. From the high banks
+which walled it in the surface of the island sloped gradually towards a
+common centre, through which rushed the little stream.
+
+This little island had probably been a part of the main land; the river
+had forced its way through a valley, and, by degrees, had worn down the
+high land on either side, till they formed the precipices which now
+frowned on the visitor. The little stream had, perhaps, once been a
+meandering rivulet,--part of one which emptied into the river on the
+opposite side.
+
+On one of the sloping sides of the interior was situated the cottage. It
+was small in size, containing but four rooms and an attic, and was
+neatly painted white. Its location in the valley concealed it from the
+main land, and from the traveller upon the river. It was accessible only
+by means of the stream, which rolled by within a few rods of the door. A
+cow grazed in the woods, which had been partly cleared of under-brush,
+and had the appearance of a park grove. Near the house a plot of land
+had been reduced to a state of cultivation, upon which an old negro
+servant managed to raise vegetables sufficient for the use of the
+family.
+
+The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with none of
+the gaudy trappings of fashion. Everything was plain and useful. On the
+side fronting the stream, which served the inmates as a highway, were
+two rooms,--a library, which was also the sitting-room, and a sleeping
+apartment. The library was far the most substantial and
+comfortable-looking room in the house, inasmuch as it was abundantly
+supplied with modern and classical lore. In the middle was a large
+writing-desk, upon which lay sundry manuscripts, apparently the last
+labor of the occupant. The books and papers were all arranged with
+scrupulous neatness and method.
+
+The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another sleeping
+apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro and his
+wife,--the property of the proprietor, and his only attendants upon the
+island. Back of the house, as is the custom of the South, was a small
+building used as a kitchen. Near it was another building, appropriated
+to the use of the cow aforesaid.
+
+In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the bank,
+was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to rank with the
+miniature yachts of our large cities. She was schooner-rigged, with a
+small cabin forward. Her masts, by an ingenious contrivance, could be
+lowered down aft, and, by means of a rope attached to the fore-top, and
+running through a block on the bowsprit, could be instantly restored to
+their original upright position. This arrangement the owner found
+necessary, on account of the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed
+the two openings of the stream into the river.
+
+On the night of the Chalmetta's terrible disaster, a man wrapped in a
+camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the landing-place. In one
+hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the other a double-barrelled
+gun. Descending the steps to the rude pier of logs, he drew the boat
+in-shore and seated himself in the stern-sheets. Unloosing the
+stern-line, which alone held her, the boat was borne on by the rapid
+stream. The helm the occupant handled with a masterly skill, and in a
+moment the little bark swept through the half-hid opening into the broad
+river. Placing the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling
+the proper line, brought the masts to their upright position. He then
+inserted the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the
+sails. By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of the
+island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the river.
+Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed close in
+shore, he laid the boat's course up the stream. The wind was blowing
+fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the current, the
+boat careened to her task, and made very good progress through the
+water. While the gallant little bark pursues her way, we will introduce
+her skipper to the reader.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was about fifty years of age. He was descended from one of
+the old French families of Louisiana; and had been, for nearly thirty
+years, a practising physician in the city of New Orleans, during which
+time he had accumulated a very handsome fortune. At the age of
+twenty-five he had been married to a lady, whose only recommendations
+were her personal beauty and her fashionable accomplishments. Her vanity
+had disgusted him, and her uncontrollable temper had embittered to its
+very dregs the cup of his existence. Being naturally of a gloomy and
+melancholy temperament, this unfortunate union had rendered his life
+almost insupportable. Domestic happiness, to which he had looked forward
+with high-wrought anticipations, proved, in his case, to have no
+foundation.
+
+He was disappointed. His dream of home and its blessings faded away, and
+was supplanted by a terrible reality. He grew more and more melancholy.
+But there was a solace, which saved him from absolute misery. Two
+children--a boy and a girl--blessed his otherwise unhallowed union. The
+education of these children was the only joy his home afforded; but
+even this to his misanthropic mind could not compensate for his
+matrimonial disappointment.
+
+Years passed away; the son was sent to college, from which, to the
+anguish of his father, he was expelled for gross misconduct. The young
+man returned to New Orleans, and became one of the most dissolute and
+abandoned characters of the city. Dr. Vaudelier disowned him, and sunk
+the deeper in his melancholy.
+
+The death of his wife left him alone with his daughter; and if the fatal
+influence of past years could have been removed, perhaps he might have
+been a happy man. The daughter was a beautiful girl, and promised to
+realize all the fond expectations of her father. Her daily education and
+method of life, as directed by her father, were better calculated to fit
+her for the occupancy of a nun's cell than for rational society.
+
+About five years previous to the time of our story, the solemn quiet of
+Dr. Vaudelier's dwelling was disturbed by the arrival of a young French
+gentleman, bearing letters of introduction to the misanthropic
+physician. This gentleman was delighted with the daughter of his host,
+and she experienced a before unknown pleasure in his society. The doctor
+was, to some extent, obliged to abandon the "pleasures of melancholy,"
+and accompany the young couple into the world.
+
+This intimacy between the young persons rapidly ripened into love. Dr.
+Vaudelier's inquiries into the character and circumstances of the young
+gentleman were not satisfactory, and he refused to sanction the union.
+Perhaps he was influenced more in this decision by the dread of parting
+with his daughter than by any other motive. The father's refusal was
+followed by the elopement of the young couple,--an act which blasted the
+only remaining hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to
+endure the shock.
+
+Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as the only
+effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to whose rites
+and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence, doomed the suicide
+to eternal woe!
+
+Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to be
+enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He could not
+endure even that which the practice of his profession demanded. The
+great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to escape from its
+hated scenes.
+
+He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and accidentally had
+noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed his residence.
+
+His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the inhabitants of
+his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with their presence. Steamers
+and flat-boats continually passed his little domain; yet the traveller
+knew not that it was occupied by human beings.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier's pursuits were of the most simple nature. He read and
+wrote nearly the whole day, and in the evening,--often at the dead of
+night,--he would unmoor his yacht, and stem the tide of the mighty
+river. His chief happiness was in communion with nature. His solitary
+habits had completely estranged him from society; and he chose the night
+for his lonely excursions on the river, to avoid the presence of man.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was a benevolent man; and his benevolence was still his
+friend. It kept his heart from corroding, or becoming entirely cold. His
+professional services he freely gave to the poor "squatter," woodman and
+boatman, whenever he could learn that they were needed. The old negro
+made frequent visits to the shore to procure provisions and other
+necessaries, and informed his master if any of his indigent neighbors
+needed his aid. Dr. Vaudelier, as far as he was known, was regarded with
+profound respect and affection, and none were disposed to disturb his
+privacy when it was understood that entire seclusion was his desire.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier reclined on the cushions in the stern-sheets of his boat.
+With an abstracted mind he gazed upon the gloomy outlines of the shore.
+Nature in this sombre dress seemed in unison with the gloom of his own
+soul. Scarcely conscious of his actions, he managed the boat with the
+most consummate skill, avoiding the unseen shoal and the unfavorable
+current, but still never allowing the sails to shiver. Far ahead of him
+he descried the blazing chimneys of a steamer. It was night, and he was
+secure from the prying gaze or the rude hail of the voyagers.
+
+His reflections were gloomy. He reviewed his earlier years. He thought
+of his affectionate daughter, who had promised to be the stay of his
+declining years, perhaps at that moment a wanderer and an outcast. He
+had heard nothing of her since her departure. He had made no effort to
+ascertain her fate. He considered his whole course of conduct to her,
+the nature of the education he had imparted to her, the example he had
+set for her imitation. His reflections were not altogether satisfactory,
+and kindled a few compunctious thoughts. The blame had not been all on
+the side of the daughter. His misanthropic character was the origin of
+some part of it.
+
+Thus he mused, and thus dawned upon his mind the first gleams of
+repentance. His melancholy temperament had caused the loss of his
+daughter; and, for the time, it grew repugnant. He felt that he was not
+living the life his Maker intended he should live.
+
+His meditations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous explosion, and
+he was at once satisfied that it proceeded from the steamer he had
+before observed. His supposition was soon verified by the flames he saw
+rising from the spot where he had last seen her. She was, he judged, at
+least three miles distant. His benevolent disposition, stimulated by the
+reflection, and, perhaps, by some unconscious resolution of the previous
+hour, prompted him to hasten to her relief. Leaving the helm, he took
+from the little cabin a stay-sail, and by the light of the lantern
+attached it to the lines and hoisted it. The lively little craft,
+feeling the additional impulse, careened till her gunnel was nearly
+submerged, and cut her way with increased velocity through the
+unfavorable current. Half an hour elapsed before he approached near
+enough to make out the condition of the shattered steamer. Another
+steamer lay as near to her as the flames, which had apparently been
+partly subdued, would permit. Men were busily engaged in throwing on
+water, and their efforts promised to be crowned with success, for the
+volume of flame was rapidly decreasing. A line was passed from the bow
+of the Chalmetta to the Flatfoot, No. 3 (for these were the steamers),
+which enabled the latter to control the drift of the former. Dr.
+Vaudelier was too far off, however, to form a very correct idea of the
+casualty.
+
+Portions of the wreck were floating by him, and occasionally his boat
+struck against a timber or cask. While anxiously straining his vision,
+to ascertain further particulars of the disaster, he heard a faint cry
+close ahead of him. By the light of his lantern, which he had hung up by
+the foremast, to attract the eye of any sufferer who might need aid, he
+saw a man clinging to a barrel floating by him. Hastily letting go the
+halyards, the fore and main sails came down, the boat was put about, and
+Dr. Vaudelier, with much exertion, succeeded in saving the almost dying
+sufferer. Conveying him to the cabin, which was of sufficient size to
+contain two berths, he placed him upon one of them, and proceeded to
+ascertain his ailments. These, as far as he could discover them,
+consisted of a broken arm, a severe contusion of the head, and several
+severe scalds. The wounded man's endeavors to aid in his own rescue had
+been too violent, and on being placed in the berth he had fainted. After
+administering such relief as he was able, he returned to the
+stern-sheets, hoisted the sails, and the boat, which had been drifting
+down-stream, again approached the wreck.
+
+The flames of the Chalmetta were now extinguished. Before the benevolent
+physician could reach her, the Flatfoot had taken her in tow, and both
+were rapidly leaving him. Further pursuit was useless; so, taking in
+the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and again turned his attention to
+the sufferer.
+
+The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid, and she
+soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager discerned
+through the darkness the narrow opening of the little stream. Taking in
+the sails and lowering the masts, the little craft glided through the
+rivulet, and in less time than is taken to relate it was securely moored
+in front of the cottage. The old negro, bewildered by the unseasonable
+summons, assisted in conveying the wounded stranger to the cottage.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, after a more thorough examination of his patient than he
+had been able to make before, was pleased to find that his wounds,
+though serious, were not of a dangerous character. He set the broken
+arm, and, by the exercise of the great skill for which he had been
+distinguished, restored him to consciousness, and made sure his future
+recovery.
+
+"Where is she? Is she safe?" murmured the sufferer, as his returning
+consciousness afforded a partial knowledge of his condition. "Where am
+I?"
+
+"You are among friends, sir,--among friends. Do not distress yourself,"
+replied the doctor, in a soothing tone.
+
+"Where is she? Great God! what has become of her?" exclaimed the wounded
+man, with startling energy.
+
+"You must be quiet, sir, or you will injure your arm," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, mildly restraining the excited man.
+
+"O, Emily, Emily!" groaned the sufferer. "Why did I leave you? Why did
+we not perish together?"
+
+"Be calm, sir,--be calm! You have lost a friend in this terrible
+disaster?"
+
+"I have. O that I could have died with her!"
+
+"Are you sure she has perished?"
+
+"She could scarcely have survived the explosion."
+
+"Was she not in the ladies' cabin?"
+
+"She was."
+
+"Then probably she is safe. The ladies' cabin was thrown from its
+position; but it appeared to be comparatively but little shattered. The
+forward cabin was blown entirely in pieces."
+
+"Thank God for this intelligence!" ejaculated Henry Carroll,--for the
+reader has already discovered that it was he whom the doctor had
+rescued.
+
+"Another steamer was close at hand, so that probably most of the ladies
+were saved, unless, as is often the case, they jumped overboard in their
+fright."
+
+"Heaven protect her!" exclaimed Henry.
+
+"But, sir, I must insist on perfect quiet. Your condition imperatively
+demands it. To-morrow everything shall be done to relieve your anxiety.
+We shall then receive Vicksburg papers, which will contain the names of
+all who are lost."
+
+"I will try to be quiet, but I cannot but be anxious till I know the
+whole truth."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier again applied a soothing balm to the scalded portions of
+his body, and gave him a powerful narcotic, the effects of which were
+soon visible in a deep, troubled slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     "But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward!
+     All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest thee.
+     Prythee avoid, nor longer cling thus round me,
+     Like something baneful, that my nature's chilled at."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+In a small log-cabin, a few miles above "Cottage Island," reposing upon
+a rude bed, on the morning of the Chalmetta's disaster, was a young and
+beautiful female. She was pale and in tears, evidently suffering the
+most excruciating mental agony. An old woman, from whose bosom her
+half-civilized mode of life had not entirely banished those refined
+sympathies which belong by intuition to her sex, was vainly striving to
+impart comfort.
+
+"You ought to be thankful, ma'am, that you wan't blowed up, with the
+rest of the poor people," said she, kindly, attempting to turn the
+lady's attention from her absorbing misery.
+
+"I had rather a thousand times have perished than fallen into the hands
+of the villain who rescued me," replied Emily,--it was she,--with a
+shudder.
+
+"O, ma'am, they shan't hurt a hair of your head. My old man wouldn't see
+such a good cretur as you hurt, for all the world."
+
+"Alas! I fear his power will not avail against this hardened villain."
+
+"Never you fear, ma'am! Two sich popinjays as them couldn't skeer my
+Jerry, nohow. Besides, my son, Jim, will be back in an hour or two."
+
+"I fear they cannot aid me."
+
+"Yes, they can. My Jerry alone would turn 'em inside out, if they are
+sarcy."
+
+"I can scarcely hope the villains--"
+
+"Softly, lady, softly! do not be harsh!" said Harwell, entering the
+apartment in which Emily was, and which was the only one the cabin
+contained.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, rising, "if you have any mercy, or pity for
+my misfortunes, let me be left alone."
+
+"I would not injure you, Miss Dumont," replied Maxwell, in a gentle
+tone. "I would see you in safety at your destination. Mr. Vernon has
+been two hours absent, in search of a carriage."
+
+"A carriage! For what?"
+
+"To convey you to a steamboat-landing."
+
+"Bless your heart, sir! you needn't go a step for that. My Jerry will
+hail the very next one that passes the wood-yard," suggested the old
+lady.
+
+"Silence, old woman!" said Maxwell, sternly, for he feared the dame
+would increase Emily's distrust of him.
+
+"Don't old-woman me, you puppy! I know what's what!" responded the dame,
+sharply, for her temper was not exactly angelic; "it's my opinion you
+don't mean this lady any good. Let me tell you, aforehand, you can't cut
+any of your didoes here!"
+
+"Silence, woman! when I need your help I will ask it. I propose, Miss
+Dumont, to convey you to Vicksburg, where you can be comfortably
+accommodated until a steamer arrives which will take you to Cincinnati.
+It may be several days, you are aware."
+
+"Several days!" exclaimed the mistress of the cabin; "who ever heerd of
+such a thing! There'll be one along afore the day is out."
+
+"For Cincinnati?" sneered Maxwell, who found the old woman's tongue a
+very formidable weapon.
+
+"I dare say there will," responded the dame.
+
+"It is extremely uncertain, Miss Dumont. We came in the last one, and it
+is scarcely possible, at this season, another followed immediately. But
+here is the carriage."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, I shall positively refuse to accompany you," said Emily,
+in a most decided tone. "This good woman, I doubt not, will accommodate
+me."
+
+"That I will," promptly responded the dame.
+
+"I am sorry, Miss Dumont, I cannot, in this instance, yield to your
+wishes. I must insist on your company to Vicksburg," said Maxwell,
+striving, by a supercilious manner, to keep down his angry passions.
+
+"By what right, sir, do you _insist_ upon it? I was not aware that you
+were invested with any legal control over me."
+
+"Then you are mistaken. I act upon undoubted authority."
+
+"Indeed, sir, are you my guardian?" said Emily, shuddering at the
+thought of the will.
+
+"Not technically a guardian. My authority is a little more definite."
+
+"I do not understand you, sir."
+
+"It is immaterial. Perhaps you had better go with me peaceably,
+however," said Maxwell, with a carelessness foreign to his feelings.
+
+"That, sir, I never will do alive!" replied Emily, surmising the nature
+of the attorney's assumed authority. "Mr. Maxwell, you have taught me to
+believe that you are a hardened villain, and I _command_ you, leave my
+presence!"
+
+The indignation of Emily was roused, and she spoke with a flashing eye,
+and with an imperativeness which her wrongs alone could have called to
+her aid.
+
+"That was very prettily done, lady; but I cannot obey. It is useless to
+multiply words. You _must_ go with me;" and Maxwell extended his hand.
+
+Emily recoiled from the proffered hand; her brow lowered, and her lips
+compressed. She regarded him with a look of ineffable scorn,--a look
+before which even Maxwell, penetrated, as he was, with evil purposes,
+quailed.
+
+"Go along, now, about your business, and don't bother the lady any
+more!" said the old woman, taking advantage of the momentary silence.
+
+"Miss Dumont, I once more ask you to go with me peaceably," said
+Maxwell, not heeding the dame's remark.
+
+"And once more I answer, _I will not_!"
+
+"I should be sorry to use compulsion. Do you forget your condition?"
+
+"I do not," replied Emily, with a tremor, but without the loss of her
+self-possession. "I am of the best blood of Louisiana."
+
+"But still a _slave!_"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed the hostess.
+
+"I am _not_ a slave! You know this is the plot of a villain like
+yourself. The true will has been found."
+
+"Indeed! Is it here?" said Maxwell, with a sneer, for while he had Emily
+in his power he feared nothing.
+
+"No; but it shall be brought forth in due season."
+
+"Until which time you are a slave; and not only a slave, but _my_
+slave," replied Maxwell, with perfect coolness, as he drew from his
+pocket-book the forged bill of sale.
+
+"Great God, desert me not in this hour of my afflictions!" groaned
+Emily. This last revelation entirely unnerved her, and exposed in a more
+terrible light her appalling position. She doubted not the paper she saw
+in Maxwell's hands was a bill of sale of her person, and that it would
+establish his claim; for his present purposes seemed too flagrant to be
+pursued without good authority. Her features, dress and language, she
+felt, would be no safeguards. She had seen slave-girls as fair and white
+as herself. She had heard of those who, with scarcely a drop of negro
+blood in their veins, were educated to pander to the appetite of
+depravity. She had seen them in the streets of New Orleans, in no manner
+differing in appearance from, the best-born ladies. Her situation,
+then, was an awful one.
+
+"Will you read this paper?" continued Maxwell.
+
+"No; like the will, it is a forgery!" replied Emily, determined to die
+rather than yield herself to the guidance of the attorney.
+
+"It gives me an undeniable right to your person, and you must obey me.
+The carriage waits in the road."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, if you have a particle of honor left, or if even a shadow
+of pity rests in your heart, leave me, and finish your despicable
+persecution!" said Emily, in a pleading tone.
+
+"I have both honor and pity; but I cannot abandon my purpose. You
+refused to trust to my honor, refused to receive the offered hand, which
+would lead you back to the home you have left. I would fain have averted
+the calamity you are madly courting; but you would not. I humbly prayed
+to be allowed to step between you and your uncle's avarice; but you
+would not. I would willingly have prevented the accomplishment of your
+uncle's plans; but--"
+
+"Then you own that it is a plot?"
+
+"I acknowledge nothing."
+
+"But you know it is a base trick?"
+
+"It is not for me to say. The law will be satisfied. I have offered to
+do all I could for you, and you have refused. You appeal to my pity.
+Pity! did you pity me when I would have been your willing slave,--when I
+pleaded for the hope you have ruthlessly crushed?"
+
+"I did pity you; but I could not help you. I could not then, and I
+cannot now, give my hand where my heart is uninterested. I feared you
+then, as I despise you now. Report said your character was not entirely
+free from stain, and you are now striving to demonstrate the truth of
+the rumors," said Emily, whose contempt would not be concealed.
+
+"Report may have belied me," replied Maxwell, struggling with his
+violent passions. "But we are wasting time. Proceed with me to
+Vicksburg, and I pledge you my honor you shall not be injured or
+insulted."
+
+"Your honor!" said Emily, bitterly. "It is but a poor dependence for an
+unprotected female."
+
+"Gently, Miss Dumont! Do not rouse the demon within me by such taunts."
+
+"I fear the worst demon of your nature is already in the ascendency."
+
+"Enough! Will you go, or will you not?" said Maxwell, impatiently.
+
+"I will not!"
+
+"Then I must claim you as my slave,--do not start!--and _compel_ you."
+
+"Bond or free, I will not stir from beneath this roof with you," replied
+Emily, with calm resolution. All hope, if she had cherished any, was
+gone. Silently she breathed a prayer for strength and meekness to endure
+all; for fortitude to enable her to struggle till death with the
+oppression of her enemy; and for courage to meet any emergency in which
+her lot might be cast.
+
+"It must be done! I will hesitate no longer!" said Maxwell, seizing
+Emily by the arm.
+
+"Look here, you varmint, that won't do here!" exclaimed the mistress of
+the house, who, much against her inclination, had remained silent during
+the past fifteen minutes. "It shan't be said that Jerry Swinger's ruff
+couldn't protect a stranger."
+
+"But, woman, she is my property," answered Maxwell, not a little
+intimidated by the ferocious aspect of the matron.
+
+"Do not believe him, good woman, do not believe him!" exclaimed Emily,
+as she saw the woman was a little staggered by the attorney's claim.
+
+"No, ma'am, I won't believe him," responded Mrs. Swinger, as her heart
+triumphed over the argument of the lawyer.
+
+"It matters little whether you believe me or not. Here is the bill of
+sale, and, in the name of the law, I take what is mine."
+
+The hostess was not a little perplexed by the document, and Emily
+observed, with terror, that she wavered in her purpose.
+
+"It is a gross forgery!" exclaimed Emily, with a glance of earnest
+pleading, which the rough but kind-hearted woman could not resist.
+
+"I don't care nothin' about your bill of sale! The gal is safe," said
+Mrs. Swinger, with emphasis.
+
+Maxwell, resolving to execute his design, again seized Emily by the arm,
+and was on the point of hurrying her out of the cabin.
+
+Mrs. Swinger was a stout, masculine woman, brought up in the woods, and
+never fainted in her life, even in presence of an alligator or a
+panther. So she had no scruples in seizing Mr. Maxwell by the nape of
+the neck, and giving him a kind of double twist, which sent him reeling
+into the corner of the cabin.
+
+"I'll teach you to put your hands upon an onprotected female, you
+varmint, you!" said she, and, going to the door, she screamed "Jerry"
+three times, with a voice that would have done honor to a Stentor.
+
+"Now, stranger," said she, elevating her tall form to its full height,
+and, with a gesture like a queen of the Amazons, pointing to the door,
+"take yourself off, or my Jerry will tote you down to the river, and
+drown you like a kitten!"
+
+Mrs. Swinger's arm fell like a tragic heroine's, and she stood proudly
+contemplating the object of her wrath, perhaps hoping the attorney would
+await the arrival of "her Jerry," in whose prowess she seemed to place
+unlimited confidence.
+
+Vernon, who was waiting near the vehicle he had procured, heard the loud
+and angry words of the excited dame, and now approached the house to
+ascertain the cause of the confusion. This redoubtable worthy had
+received the reward of his villany, and considered the deed
+accomplished; but he had no objection to a little excitement. A fight
+was his element, and he never let slip an opportunity to join in one.
+
+The worthy Jerry Swinger; the good woman's beau ideal of a man, reached
+the cabin at the moment Vernon entered.
+
+Maxwell had now the alternative of abandoning his coveted prize, or of
+fighting for it. The first he would not do; and the second, with the
+wound he had received in the duel, was not an easy matter. The latter,
+however, he determined upon. Drawing from his pocket a revolver, he
+again approached Emily.
+
+"What's all this about?" said Jerry, as he entered the cabin.
+
+"Save me, sir,--save me from these villains!" exclaimed Emily, whose
+piteous accents penetrated the heart of the honest woodman.
+
+"That I will, ma'am. Why, you infarnal, sneakin' whelp of an alligator,
+whar's your conscience? But you've run agin a snag, and you shan't make
+another bend, this trip; so sheer off! Suke, jest fotch out my rifle,
+thar."
+
+Mrs. Swinger, before the assailants could prevent it, unhung the rifle,
+and was about to present it to her husband, when Maxwell pointed his
+pistol at her, and said, "Move another inch, woman, and I will fire!"
+
+"Look here, stranger," said Jerry, approaching the attorney, "if you
+touch that trigger, I'll pull your heart out!"
+
+Vernon saw that his time had come, and, grappling with the woodman, they
+both fell upon the mud floor of the cabin.
+
+Maxwell, his pistol still pointed at the woman, advanced a step, with
+the intention of taking the rifle from her. Mrs. Swinger, perceiving his
+purpose, elevated the rifle to her shoulder as gracefully as the most
+accomplished Kentuckian would have done, and fired. But her aim was bad;
+the ball passed through the attorney's hat. It came near enough,
+however, to rouse his passion, and, without a moment's deliberation,
+which might have saved him the reproach of shooting a woman, he fired.
+His aim, better than his feminine opponent's had been, sent the ball
+through her side, and she fell. Emily, filled with horror by the
+sanguinary scene, sprung to Mrs. Swinger's aid, as she fell.
+
+"Look here, you cussed villain," said Jerry Swinger, who, in the
+struggle, had got his antagonist under him, and had drawn from his
+pocket a long clasp-knife, "if you stir an inch, I'll put this
+blood-sucker through your shrivelled-up gizzard!"
+
+Vernon attempted to rise, bowie-knife in hand, to the conflict. Jerry
+Swinger was about to put his threat in execution, when Maxwell,
+released, by the fall of the woman, from danger in that quarter, struck
+him a heavy blow upon the head with the pistol in his hand. The woodman
+sunk back, with a groan, and Vernon, rising from his fallen posture, was
+about to plunge the knife to his heart, when a new actor appeared upon
+the stage. The blade of Vernon was arrested in its deadly descent, and a
+single blow from the fist of the new-comer laid the black-leg prostrate
+by the side of the woodman. Maxwell was thrown off his guard by the
+suddenness of the new assailant's movements, and, before he could raise
+his pistol,--his only dependence,--it was wrested from him. The
+new-comer threw the pistol down, and, seizing the attorney by the neck,
+and applying a smart blow with the knee upon his back, he brought him to
+the floor. Taking a cord which hung on the cabin wall, he bound the
+fallen man hand and foot, and dragged him out of the cabin. Placing his
+back against a tree, he lashed him firmly to its trunk. Leaving the
+chop-fallen attorney to mature his plans, the conqueror returned to the
+hut.
+
+"O, Hatchie, Hatchie! you have again saved me!" exclaimed Emily, as she
+saw her deliverer reënter. "Thank God! I am safe, though at what a
+terrible sacrifice!"
+
+She had, in her terror, obtained but a very imperfect idea of the
+exciting scene which had transpired before her. When she saw Vernon
+fall, and then Maxwell, she realized that she was safe. With an
+effort,--for her excited nerves had taken away her strength,--she rose
+from her position on the floor, by the side of her lifeless hostess. At
+this moment Hatchie entered, and, with a heart full of gratitude, she
+grasped his hand.
+
+"O, Hatchie! what do I not owe you for this service!"
+
+"I am so happy to serve you, Miss Emily!" replied Hatchie, rejoiced to
+hear again his mistress' voice.
+
+"You have been my best friend in this season of adversity. Without you,
+I had been lost forever. But let us do what we may for these poor
+people, who have, I fear, sacrificed their lives in my defence."
+
+The inanimate form of Mrs. Swinger was placed upon the bed by Hatchie,
+and, while Emily endeavored to ascertain the nature of her wound, the
+mulatto examined into Jerry's condition. The worthy woodman had only
+been stunned by the blow, and Hatchie's vigorous application soon
+restored him to consciousness. With the assistance of the mulatto, he
+rose. Looking wildly around him, he discovered the form of Vernon upon
+the floor. This seemed to recall his recollection of the events of the
+hour.
+
+"Whar's Suke?" said he.
+
+Then perceiving her outstretched form upon the bed, he calmly, but very
+sorrowfully, asked, "Is she dead?"
+
+"No, thank God! she is not dead; but I fear she is badly injured,"
+replied Emily, who was still bending over the sufferer.
+
+The woodman approached the bed-side, and, observing the faint breathing
+which gently heaved her chest, he seemed comforted.
+
+"Whar's the wound?" asked he, in a melancholy tone.
+
+"In her side," replied Emily; "the bullet seems to have penetrated the
+region below the heart."
+
+"Poor gal! I'm feered it's all up with her. She has been a good woman to
+me."
+
+"I am afraid my visit to your house will prove a sad day to you, even if
+she recovers," said Emily, in a sad tone.
+
+"No, stranger, no! Suke would have died any day to save a neighbor from
+misery;" and the woodman's eyes filled with tears at the remembrance of
+his humble companion's virtues.
+
+"But let us hope for the best. Is there a physician in the vicinity?"
+
+"Ay, stranger, there is one that sometimes helps the poor folks about
+here."
+
+"Then, Hatchie, you can go for him."
+
+"Stop a little! The doctor is an oncommon strange man, and lives on an
+island down the bend."
+
+"I will go for him," said Hatchie.
+
+"I dar say; but whar you gwine? that's the pint. Nobody can find the way
+that warn't there before. My son, Jim, will soon be here."
+
+"But we must be as speedy as possible," suggested Emily.
+
+The arrival of the woodman's son terminated the difficulty. It was
+arranged that Hatchie should go with him, to assist in rowing back.
+
+As they were about to depart, Vernon showed signs of returning life, and
+Hatchie conveyed him to an out-building till a more convenient season,
+and then dismissed the negro and his vehicle, which had been brought to
+convey Emily to Vicksburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
+       Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave;
+     Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell,
+       As eager to anticipate their grave."  BYRON.
+
+
+We left the Chalmetta in a situation which demands explanation.
+
+Emily retired to her state-room on that dreadful night entirely relieved
+from the distressing anticipations which had before oppressed her. Her
+name and her home were virtually restored to her. The foul stain upon
+the honor of her father had been removed. Doubt and fear scarcely
+disturbed her; the battle yet to be fought seemed but a trifle. Maxwell
+had said her uncle was left at a wood-yard. This was strange. It looked
+not like an accident, but the doing of the wily attorney; and perhaps
+Jaspar had voluntarily withdrawn; perhaps her uncle had made _her_ the
+reward of Maxwell's silence. But these reflections were now robbed of
+their bitterness. She felt that in Henry Carroll she had a sufficient
+protection.
+
+She retired to her state-room with a light heart, and even Maxwell's
+villanous designs were forgotten as she revelled in the bright hopes
+before her. She knew nothing of the foul plot which had been concocted
+for her abduction. She knew not that Henry Carroll was then watching
+over her. In blissful ignorance of the danger that hovered near her, she
+sunk into the quiet sleep of innocence.
+
+After midnight her slumbers were disturbed by the unusual creaking of
+the boat, and the hasty puffs of steam from the escape-pipes. She
+awoke, and was at once sensible of the immense pressure to which the
+boilers were subjected. Awhile she lay and listened to the ominous
+sounds which indicated the danger of the boat; then, much alarmed, she
+rose and dressed herself. For nearly an hour she sat in the darkness of
+the room, during which time the danger seemed momentarily to increase,
+until, no longer able to endure such agonizing suspense, she was about
+to leave the room. At this moment Vernon was about to enter, when the
+explosion took place.
+
+The forward part of the Chalmetta was completely torn in pieces. The
+gentlemen's cabin was lifted from its supports, and torn into fragments.
+The unfortunate occupants of berths in this part of the boat were either
+instantly killed or severely wounded. The ladies' cabin, being at a
+greater distance from the immediate scene of the explosion, had not
+suffered so severely. Although torn from its position, and shattered by
+the shock, it had proved fatal to but a few of its occupants, who had
+been crushed by falling timbers. The hull of the boat was not injured by
+the explosion, but before those who had escaped a sudden death could
+recover their disordered faculties, the flames began to ascend from the
+wreck of the cabin, which had been precipitated upon the furnaces.
+
+The scene surpassed description. The groans of the wounded and scalded,
+the shrieks of those who were on the boat, expecting every moment to be
+carried down in her, mingled in wild confusion on the midnight air.
+Fortunately the passengers were mostly soldiers, accustomed to scenes of
+horror, who immediately turned their attention to the extinguishing of
+the flames. The Flatfoot, No. 3, approached within a short distance of
+the wreck, and a line was passed from her to the bow of the Chalmetta.
+Her passengers and crew were humanely assisting in rescuing those who
+had jumped or been thrown overboard in the disaster.
+
+By the aid of a fire-engine on board of the Flatfoot, which had
+approached near enough to render it available, the flames were
+extinguished. It was ascertained that the Chalmetta had received no
+serious damage in her hull; and as all the survivors had been picked up,
+the Flatfoot took her in tow, and proceeded up the river.
+
+Emily had been stunned by the explosion, and ere she could recover,
+Vernon, with a strong arm, bore her to the main deck. The boat was
+lowered into the water, and, before the passengers, or the petrified
+watch in the hold, could regain their self-possession, it was impelled
+by the strong arm of Vernon, and the ruffian who had been hired for the
+purpose, far astern of the wreck.
+
+The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when Vernon had
+handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by Hatchie and his
+friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck of the cabins came
+tumbling down.
+
+Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made his way,
+as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the stern, where
+he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from the forward part
+of the boat now enabled him to discover the abductors of Emily rowing
+down the river. Leaping into the water, he seized a door, which was
+floating near him, and thus enabled to sustain himself with tolerable
+ease, he swam after them.
+
+Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on the
+shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her pious heart
+was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she had been rescued
+from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to her deliverer, for
+such she supposed was the person in the boat with her. Who was he? Was
+it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was. She raised her head from the
+position in which Maxwell had placed it, and endeavored to distinguish
+his features; but the darkness defeated her wish.
+
+"Fear nothing, lady; you are safe," said Maxwell.
+
+The voice was like the knell of doom. It grated harshly upon her ears,
+and gave rise to a thousand fears in her timid heart.
+
+"Thank God, I am safe!" said she, after a pause.
+
+"And I thank God I have been the means of preserving you," replied
+Maxwell, willing to render the terrible calamity an accessory to his
+crime.
+
+"But why do you go this way?" asked Emily, as she saw the Flatfoot
+approach the wreck.
+
+"I only wish to convey you from the scene of danger."
+
+"Then why not go to that steamer?"
+
+"Probably she is by this time converted into a hospital for the
+sufferers. I would not shock your delicate nerves with such a scene of
+woe and misery as will be on board of her."
+
+"May we not render some assistance?"
+
+"No doubt there are more assistants than can labor to advantage now."
+
+Emily was silent, but not satisfied. Her fears in some measure subsided,
+when, about two miles below the scene of the disaster, Maxwell ordered
+the boat to be put in at a wood-yard. The attorney was all gentleness,
+and assisted her to the cabin of Jerry Swinger, the owner of the
+wood-yard.
+
+Hatchie had been able, by severe exertion, to keep within hearing of the
+splashing oars. The current fortunately carried him near the wood-yard,
+and, aided by the sounds he heard at the cabin, and by the boat which he
+saw, he concluded the party had landed there. Letting go the door, a few
+vigorous strokes brought him to the shore. Approaching the cabin, he
+satisfied himself that his mistress had taken shelter there. Concealing
+himself in the woods, he awaited with much anxiety the next movement of
+the attorney. In the morning he heard the noise at the cabin, and had
+been the means of saving his mistress from a calamity far more dreadful
+than death itself.
+
+On the evening of the day of the explosion, an elderly gentleman sat in
+a private apartment of one of the principal hotels in Vicksburg,
+attentively reading an "Extra," in which the particulars of the disaster
+were detailed. He read, with little apparent interest, the account,
+until he came to the names of "Saved, Killed, Wounded and Missing." An
+expression of the deepest anxiety settled upon his countenance. He
+finished reading the list of survivors, and a transient feeling of
+satisfaction was visible on his face. When in the list of the "missing"
+he read the name of "Miss Dumont, Antoine De Guy and Henry Carroll," a
+smile as of glutted revenge and malignant hatred dispelled the cloud of
+anxiety which had before brooded over his features. Throwing down the
+sheet, he drank off a glass of brandy, which had been waiting his
+pleasure on the table. The potion was not insignificant in quantity or
+strength, and the wry face he made did not add to the amiability of his
+expression. As the dose permeated his brain, and produced that agreeable
+lightness which is the first phase of intoxication, he rubbed his hands
+with childish delight, and half muttered an expression of pleasure.
+
+Suddenly his countenance assumed its former lowering aspect, his brows
+knit, and his lips compressed.
+
+"Missing!" muttered he. "What the devil does _missing_ mean? What can it
+mean but dead, defunct, gone to a better world, as the canting
+hypocrites say?"
+
+But we will not attempt to record the muttered soliloquy of the
+gentleman,--Jaspar Dumont, who had reached Vicksburg that day, from the
+wood-yard where we left him. It was too profane, too sacrilegious, to
+stain our page.
+
+Grasping the bell-rope with a sudden energy, as though a new thought had
+struck him, he gave it a violent pull, which brought to his presence a
+black waiter.
+
+"Has the Dragon returned?" asked Jaspar.
+
+"Yes, sar, jus got in, Massa."
+
+"Is there any person in the house who went up in her?"
+
+"Yes, massa, one gemman in de office."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Massa--massa--" and the darkey scratched his head, to stimulate his
+memory, which act instantly brought the name to his mind.
+
+"Massa _Lousey_."
+
+"Mister what, you black scoundrel!"
+
+"Yes, sar,--Massa Lousey; dat's de name."
+
+"Lousey?" repeated Jaspar.
+
+"Stop bit," said the waiter, a new idea penetrating his cranium. "Dar
+Lousey, dat's de name, for sartin."
+
+"Dalhousie," responded Jaspar. "Give my compliments to Mr. Dalhousie,
+and ask him to oblige me with a few moments' conversation in this room."
+
+"Yes, sar;" and the waiter retired, muttering, "Dar Lousey."
+
+The Dragon was a small steamer, which had been sent, on the intelligence
+of a "blow up," to obtain the particulars for the press, and render
+assistance to the survivors. Dalhousie was a transient visitor at the
+hotel, and, with many others, had gone in the Dragon to gratify his
+curiosity.
+
+"Sorry to trouble you, sir," said Jaspar, as the gentleman entered the
+apartment; "but I am much interested in the fate of several persons who
+were passengers on board the Chalmetta."
+
+"No trouble, Mr. Dumont, I am extremely happy to serve you," replied
+Dalhousie, whose obsequious manners were ample evidence of his
+sincerity.
+
+"My niece was on board of her," continued Jaspar, "and I see her name in
+the list of missing."
+
+"Your _niece_!" replied Dalhousie, emphasizing the latter word. He had a
+few days before come from New Orleans, and had there heard of the
+startling developments in the Dumont family.
+
+"No matter," returned Jaspar, sharply; "she went by the name of Dumont.
+Did you find any bodies?"
+
+"We picked up the remains of six men and two females."
+
+"Can you describe the females? How were they dressed?" asked Jaspar, in
+an excited manner.
+
+"One was dressed in black. The other had on a common calico."
+
+"But the one in black,--describe her,--her hair,--was she tall or
+short?" interrupted Jaspar, hurriedly.
+
+"Her hair was in curls. She was apparently about twenty-six or seven,
+and rather short in stature."
+
+"Curls," muttered Jaspar; "she has not worn curls since the colonel
+died. She may have put them on again to please that infernal Captain
+Carroll. Twenty-six years old, you think?"
+
+"She may have been younger. Her features were terribly mangled," and Mr.
+Dalhousie cast a penetrating glance at Jaspar, as though he would read
+out the beatings of his black heart.
+
+Jaspar considered again the description, and, though it did not
+correspond to his niece's, his anxiety had contributed to warp his
+judgment. He was very willing to believe the Chalmetta's fatal disaster
+had forever removed the only obstacle to the gratification of his
+ambition, and the only source of future insecurity. He paced the room,
+muttering, in his abstraction, sundry broken phrases.
+
+Dalhousie watched him, and endeavored to obtain the purport of his
+disjointed soliloquy. A stranger, without some strong motive, could
+scarcely have had so much interest in him as he appeared to have.
+
+"Had she any jewels--ornaments of any kind?" asked Dalhousie, after the
+silence had grown disagreeable to him.
+
+"She had," replied Jaspar, stopping suddenly in his perambulation of the
+room, and speaking with an eagerness which betrayed his anxiety to
+obtain more evidence. "Were any found upon her person?"
+
+"You are a man of honor, Mr. Dumont, and, if I disclose to you a
+thoughtless indiscretion of my own, you will not, of course, expose
+me?" said Dalhousie, with, hesitation, and apparent want of confidence.
+
+"Of course not," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "What has this to do with
+the matter?"
+
+"Did your niece wear a ring?"
+
+"Yes, a mourning ring."
+
+"Do you know the ring? Could you identify it?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Jaspar, who remembered having seen an ornament of
+this description on the finger of Emily.
+
+"Will you describe it to me, if you please?"
+
+But Jaspar had reckoned without his host. The details of a piece of
+jewelry were matters entirely foreign to his taste. However, he
+succeeded in giving a description, which, from its general terms, might
+have applied to one mourning ring as well as another.
+
+"Is this the one?" asked Dalhousie, with an anxiety which he could
+scarcely conceal, as he produced a ring.
+
+"That _is_ it," replied Jaspar, confidently; and the jewel did bear some
+resemblance to that worn by Emily.
+
+"But where did you obtain this?"
+
+"I must insist on the most inviolable secrecy."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"I will disclose the particulars only on the condition that you pledge
+yourself never to reveal my agency in the matter; for it would
+compromise my character."
+
+"Very well. I pledge you my honor," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "You
+took it from the corpse of the lady in black."
+
+"I did, and you must be aware that such an act would subject me to
+inconvenience, if known."
+
+"Don't be alarmed; your secret is safe."
+
+"But are you sure this is the ring worn by your niece?"
+
+"It looks like it;" but Jaspar was perplexed with a doubt. He bethought
+himself that it was only in a casual glance he had observed Emily's
+ring. He had never examined it, and, after all, this might not be the
+one. There was certainly nothing strange in any lady dressed in black
+wearing a mourning ring. Again he turned the ring over and over, and
+scrutinized it closely. His finger touched a spring, and the plate flew
+up, disclosing a small lock of gray hair, twined around the single
+letter D.
+
+"I will swear to it now," exclaimed Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed the
+malicious joy he felt at the discovery. He was perfectly satisfied now
+of the identity of the ring. It never occurred to him that D stood for
+any other name than Dumont.
+
+"This appears to be decisive evidence," replied Dalhousie. "Your
+_niece_, then, must be the person brought down by the Dragon."
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"As this matter, then, is settled to your satisfaction--"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Jaspar.
+
+"I beg your pardon," resumed Dalhousie, with a supercilious air; "I only
+meant that your mind was satisfied--relieved from a painful anxiety."
+
+"A very painful anxiety," replied Jaspar.
+
+"I understand, sir, you own a large plantation."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Perhaps you need an overseer?"
+
+Jaspar acknowledged that he did need an overseer.
+
+"I should be happy to make an engagement with you," said the other, in
+complaisant tones.
+
+"I don't think you would suit me. You are too genteel, by half,"
+returned Jaspar, bluntly.
+
+"I have been in a better position, it is true. I was born in France, but
+I understand the business."
+
+"Did you ever manage a gang of niggers?"
+
+After a little hesitation, Dalhousie replied that he had.
+
+"We will talk of it some other time," said Jaspar, satisfied, from the
+air and manner of the other, that his statement was false.
+
+Dalhousie put on his hat, and, taking the mourning ring from the table,
+was about to enfold it in a bit of paper.
+
+"What are you about, sir?" exclaimed Jaspar, as he witnessed the act.
+
+"The ring is my property, is it not?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Put it down, or, by heavens, I will expose your rascality in taking
+it!"
+
+"Do not be hasty, sir. I have not studied your looks, the last hour,
+without profiting by them."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" said Jaspar, a little startled.
+
+"I mean that the death of your niece does not seem to be received with
+that degree of sorrow which an uncle would naturally feel."
+
+"_Fool_! she was not my niece!"
+
+"Why are you so anxious to establish her decease?"
+
+"Was I anxious?" said Jaspar, not knowing how far he might have betrayed
+himself.
+
+"Quite enough so to convince even the most indifferent observer that you
+were extremely rejoiced at the event," replied Dalhousie, willing to
+make out a strong case.
+
+Jaspar did not reply, and it was plain Dalhousie's remarks had had their
+effect.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, I flatter myself I am a man of discretion. As you were
+saying, you need an overseer," said Dalhousie, with a glance at Jaspar,
+which conveyed more meaning than his words.
+
+The glance was irresistible, and Jaspar engaged him at a liberal salary,
+as well as his wife, who was to be the housekeeper at Bellevue.
+Dalhousie was a needy man. His fortunes were on the descending scale.
+Born in France, he had emigrated to this country, with the chimerical
+hope of speedily making a fortune. He could not build up the coveted
+temple stone by stone, but wished it to rise like a fairy castle. With
+such views, he had wandered about the country with his wife (whom he had
+married since his arrival), in search of the philosopher's stone. He
+had several times engaged in subordinate capacities, but his impatient
+hopes would not brook the distance between him and the goal. He had been
+to New Orleans, but the city was almost deserted. On his arrival at
+Vicksburg, Jaspar had been pointed out to him as a person who could
+probably favor his wishes, and he had obtained an introduction to him.
+
+Jaspar's thoughts and feelings he read. He discovered the nature of the
+relations between the uncle and niece,--which required but little
+sagacity, under the circumstances. Determined to profit by the knowledge
+he had obtained, his first step was to satisfy Jaspar of the death of
+Emily, of whom, in reality, he knew nothing. The initial letter of his
+wife's name in the ring had suggested the means, and he had convinced
+Jaspar as related. How Dalhousie's sense of moral rectitude would allow
+him to use the deception, we will not say; but he seemed to tolerate the
+idea that the great purpose he had in view would justify any little
+peccadilloes he might commit in obtaining it.
+
+He had gained his end, and taken the first step in the great road to
+fortune; and he doubted not his future relations with Jaspar would
+suggest a second.
+
+The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in behalf of
+Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg.
+
+In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned the next
+day to Bellevue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "Say quick! quoth he; I bid thee say,
+     What manner of man art thou?
+
+     "Forthwith, this frame of mine was wrenched
+     With a woful agony,
+     Which forced me to begin my tale;
+     And then it left me free."  ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+The morning advanced, and Henry Carroll, under the influence of the
+powerful opiate, still slept. By his side sat the misanthropic
+physician, who seemed to have learned a lesson of the dealing of the
+Creator with the creature such as he had never before acquired. He had
+rescued a fellow-creature from sure death, and the act seemed a part of
+the great duties of life which he had so long neglected. He reflected
+upon the numerous opportunities of doing good to his fellow-men from
+which his hermit-life debarred him. Again he thought of his daughter.
+Her image rose before him in the darkened chamber of the sick man, and
+seemed to reproach him for his want of faithfulness to her. The incident
+and reflections of the previous night had strangely influenced his mind,
+and changed the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of
+his lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
+vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.
+
+The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs. Swinger.
+Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in case the
+patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical instruments, he
+proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat, he took the two
+messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The wind was still fresh,
+and the yacht, with all her sails spread, bore the doctor rapidly on his
+errand of mercy. A strange impulse seemed to animate him,--an impulse of
+genuine, heart-felt sympathy towards the whole human family,--a feeling
+to which he had before been a stranger. His profession seemed to him now
+a boon of mercy to the suffering, and he saw how poorly he had performed
+his mission to the world. He felt a pleasure he had never before
+experienced, in being able to relieve the distressed, to heal the
+wounded heart, as well as the bruised limb.
+
+Under the skilful pilotage of Dr. Vaudelier the more rapid currents were
+avoided, the boat pressed to her utmost speed; and in a short time the
+party landed at the wood-yard of Jerry Swinger.
+
+During the absence of the messengers Emily, by the most assiduous
+attentions, had succeeded in restoring the wounded woman to a state of
+partial consciousness. The arrival of the doctor increased her hopes of
+a speedy restoration. The rough woodman, who had patiently watched Emily
+as she labored over his beloved partner, was melted into tears of joy
+when he heard her faintly articulate his name.
+
+After a thorough examination of the wound, the doctor announced the
+gratifying intelligence that the woman was not dangerously wounded. The
+severe operation of extracting the ball was performed, and the patient
+left to the quiet her situation demanded.
+
+On the passage from Cottage Island Hatchie had related the particulars
+of the affray, so that on his arrival Dr. Vaudelier was in possession of
+all the facts.
+
+"You have had a severe fight here, madam," said he to Emily, who had
+followed him out to inquire more particularly into the situation of her
+hostess.
+
+"We have, indeed; but I trust no lives will be lost," replied Emily.
+
+"No; the woman will do very well. The wound is a severe one, but not
+dangerous. Her strong constitution will resist all fatal consequences."
+
+"I trust it may, for this has been a day of disaster, without the loss
+of more life."
+
+"You were a passenger in the Chalmetta?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Then you have had a narrow escape."
+
+"But a more narrow one since the explosion. Thank Heaven, I have been
+preserved from both calamities!"
+
+"Had you no friends on board?"
+
+"I had--one friend;" and she hesitated. "I fear he has perished."
+
+"Hope for the best!" replied the doctor, kindly.
+
+The blush, and then the change to the paleness of death, as Emily
+thought of Henry, first as the lover, and then as a mangled corpse had
+not escaped the notice of Dr. Vaudelier. He read in her varying color
+the relation they had sustained to each other.
+
+"I have no alternative but hope," said Emily; "but it seems like hoping
+against the certainty of evil."
+
+"I saved the life of a gentleman this morning who must shortly have
+perished without aid. He, too, had lost a dear friend."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, with interest.
+
+"Yes; but he was much injured, and will require the most diligent care."
+
+"I trust your merciful endeavors will be crowned with success. Do you
+know the gentleman?"
+
+"I do not. He has not yet been able to converse much. He was dressed in
+the uniform of an officer."
+
+"An officer! Perhaps it is he!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was much interested in the adventure, and the pale,
+anxious features of Emily excited his sympathy for her.
+
+"As I dressed his wounds," said he, "I noticed the initials upon his
+linen. Perhaps these may afford some clue."
+
+"What were they?" exclaimed Emily, scarcely able to articulate, in the
+intensity of her feelings.
+
+"H.C."
+
+"It is he! It is he! And you say he is wounded?"
+
+"I am sorry to say he is."
+
+"Can I go to him?" said Emily, grasping the doctor's arm.
+
+"I fear your presence will excite him. Are you a relative?"
+
+"No, not a relative," replied Emily, blushing; "but I know he would like
+to see me."
+
+"I do not doubt it," said the doctor, with a smile,--a luxury in which
+he rarely indulged. "I am afraid your presence will agitate him."
+
+"Let me watch over him while he sleeps. He need not know I am near."
+
+"Rather difficult to manage, but you shall see him. Will you return with
+me?"
+
+"Thank you, I will. But poor Mrs. Swinger!" and a shade of anxiety
+crossed her features, as she thought of leaving her kind hostess in
+affliction.
+
+"Her husband is a good nurse, and understands her case better than you
+do. If I mistake not, your services will be full as acceptable at my
+cottage."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier tried to smile at this sally; but the effort was too much
+for him, and he sank under it.
+
+Emily, though sorry to leave her protectress, was drawn by the
+irresistible magnetism of affection to Cottage Island. She compromised
+between the opposing demands of duty by promising herself that she would
+again visit the wood-yard.
+
+She embarked with Dr. Vaudelier, and they were soon gliding down the
+mighty river on their way to Cottage Island. Emily had wished Hatchie to
+accompany her, as much for his safety as for her own; but the faithful
+fellow desired to stay at the wood-yard. They had before had an
+interview in relation to the will. Uncle Nathan, who had been made the
+custodian of it, had not been seen or heard from, and her case again
+seemed to be desperate. Hatchie assured her of his safety, and of his
+good faith. He had left him in the hold, and, with common prudence, the
+worthy farmer might have made his escape unharmed. Emily, who now
+regarded her devoted servant in the light of a guardian angel, had
+entire confidence in his reasoning and conclusions. Of Hatchie's motive
+in remaining at the wood-yard she had no conception. If she had had, she
+would probably have insisted on his attendance.
+
+After the departure of Dr. Vaudelier and Emily, Hatchie went to the
+cabin, and took therefrom a carpet-bag belonging to Maxwell,--an article
+which, even in the hurry of his exit from the steamer, he had not
+omitted to take. With this in his hand, he proceeded to the
+out-building, to satisfy himself of the security of his prisoners; but
+Vernon had fled,--the wooden door of the shed had not been proof against
+his art. Hatchie was not disconcerted by this incident. Vernon, he was
+aware, was only a subordinate, who did his evil deeds for hire, and
+against him he bore no ill will. But it immediately occurred to him that
+the ruffian might have liberated Maxwell, and this would have utterly
+deranged his present plans. Taking from the shed a long rope, he
+proceeded to the other side of the cabin, where he had secured the
+attorney to the tree. To his great satisfaction he found the prisoner
+secure. Vernon did not see him, or was too intent on his own safety to
+bestow a thought upon his late employer.
+
+Hatchie reached the scene of Maxwell's humiliation. Coolly seating
+himself on a log near the discomfited lawyer, and regarding him with a
+look of contempt, he proceeded to examine the fastenings of the
+carpet-bag. Maxwell spoke not; his pride was still "above par," and he
+returned Hatchie's contemptuous glances with a scowl of scorn and
+hatred. The attorney was in sore tribulation at the unexpected turn
+affairs had taken, and the future did not present a very encouraging
+aspect. Of the mulatto'a present intentions he could gain no idea. The
+long rope he had brought with him looked ominous, and a shudder passed
+through his frame as he considered the uses to which it might be
+applied. As he regarded the cool proceedings of his jailer, the worst
+anticipations crowded upon him. The mulatto looked like a demon of the
+inquisition to his guilty soul. But, tortured as he was by the most
+terrible forebodings, he still preserved his dignified scowl, and
+watched the operations of Hatchie with apparent coolness.
+
+Hatchie examined the lock upon the carpet-bag, and found that it
+entirely secured the contents from observation.
+
+"I will trouble you for the key of this bag," said he, politely, as he
+rose and approached the attorney.
+
+"What mean you, fellow? Would you rob me?" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Not at all, sir; do not alarm yourself. The key, if you please. In
+which pocket is it?"
+
+Hatchie approached, with the intention of searching his prisoner.
+
+"Stand off, villain!" cried Maxwell, as he gave the mulatto a hearty
+kick in the neighborhood of the knee.
+
+"Very well, sir," said Hatchie, not at all disconcerted by the blow.
+
+Taking the rope he had brought, he dexterously passed it round the legs
+of the attorney, and made it fast to the tree.
+
+"Now, sir, if you will tell which pocket contains the key, you will save
+yourself the indignity of being searched."
+
+"Miserable villain! if you wish to commit violence upon me, you must do
+it without my consent."
+
+"Sorry to disoblige you, sir," said Hatchie, with an affectation of
+civility; "but I must have the key."
+
+"I have not the key; it is lost. If I had, you should struggle for it."
+
+"You will pardon me for doubting your word. I must satisfy myself."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted the attorney, as his tormentor proceeded to put
+his threat in execution.
+
+This was a contingency for which Hatchie was not prepared. To the little
+operation he was about to perform he desired no witnesses at present,
+and a slight rustling in the bushes near him not a little disconcerted
+him. Stuffing a handkerchief into the attorney's mouth, he waited for
+the intruder upon his pastime; but no one came, and he proceeded to
+search the pockets of the lawyer. To his great disappointment, the key
+could not be found.
+
+Hatchie was persuaded that this carpet-bag must contain some evidence
+which would be of service to his mistress, in case Uncle Nathan and the
+will should not come to light. There were two acts to the drama he
+intended to perform on the present occasion; the first, alone with the
+attorney,--and the last, in the presence of witnesses. Deferring,
+therefore, the opening of the bag to the second act, he proceeded with
+the first.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said he, "as you have given me encouragement that
+you _can_ tell the truth, I have a few questions to put to you."
+
+"I will answer no questions," replied Maxwell, sullenly.
+
+He saw that the mulatto would have it all his own way; and he felt a
+desire to conciliate him, but his pride forbade. He felt very much as a
+lion would feel in the power of a mouse, if such a thing could be.
+
+"Please to consider, sir. You are entirely in my power."
+
+"No matter; do with me as you please,--I will answer no questions."
+
+"Think of it; and be assured I will do my best to _compel_ an answer. If
+I do not succeed, you will be food for the buzzards before yonder sun
+sets."
+
+"What, fellow! would you murder me?" exclaimed Maxwell, in alarm.
+
+"I would not; if you compel me to use violence, the consequences be upon
+your own head. Will you answer me?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated. The dreadful thought of being murdered in cold blood
+presented itself on the one hand, and the scarcely less disagreeable
+thought of exposing his crimes, on the other. The loss of reputation,
+his prospective fall in society, were not less terrible than death
+itself. Resolving to trust in his good fortune for the result, he firmly
+refused to answer.
+
+Hatchie now took the rope, and having cut off a portion from one end,
+with which he fastened together the legs of his prisoner, he ascended
+the tree with an end in his hand. Passing the rope over a smooth branch
+about fifteen feet from the ground, he descended and made a slip-noose
+in one end. Heedless of the remonstrances of the victim, he fastened it
+securely to his neck.
+
+Seating himself again on the log, with the other end of the rope in his
+hand, he looked sternly upon the attorney, and said,
+
+"Now, sir, I put the question again. Will you answer me?"
+
+"Never!" said Maxwell, in desperation.
+
+"Very well, then; if you have any prayers to say, say them now; your
+time is short."
+
+"Fool! villain! murderer! I have no prayers to say. I am not a
+drivelling idiot, or fanatic; I can die like a man."
+
+"You had better reconsider your determination."
+
+"No, craven! woolly-headed coward! I will not flinch. Do you think to
+_drive_ a gentleman into submission?"
+
+"Be calm, Mr. Maxwell; do not waste your last moments in idle
+invectives. The time were better spent in penitence and prayer."
+
+"Pshaw! go on, if you dare, with your murderous work!"
+
+Hatchie now unloosed the cords which secured the attorney to the tree,
+and he stood bound hand and foot beneath the branch over which the line
+was passed. Seizing the end of the rope, the mulatto pulled it gently at
+first, but gradually increasing the pressure upon the prisoner's throat,
+as if to give him a satisfactory foretaste of the hanging sensation.
+This slow torture was too much for the attorney's fortitude; and, as his
+respiration grew painful, he called to his executioner to stop. Hatchie
+promptly loosened the rope.
+
+After giving the victim time to recover from the choking sensation, the
+mulatto repeated his question.
+
+The fear of an ignominious death, of dying under such revolting
+circumstances, had a cooling effect upon the bravado spirit of the
+lawyer. His pride had received a most salutary shock, and he felt
+disposed to treat for his life, even with the despised slave of Miss
+Dumont. Had his tormentor been any other than one of that detested race,
+he could easily have regarded him as a man and conceded something for
+the boon of life. Reduced to the last extremity by the relentless energy
+of his victor, he had no choice but to yield the point or die.
+
+"Will you answer my questions?" repeated Hatchie, sternly.
+
+"What would you have me answer?" replied Maxwell, doggedly.
+
+"Did you forge the will by which my mistress is deprived of her rights?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you know who did?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated, and Hatchie again pulled the rope till his face was
+crimson.
+
+"Who forged the will?" repeated Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"I did not," replied Maxwell, as soon as he could regain breath enough
+to speak.
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"I know not."
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie forcing secrets from Maxwell. Page 178]
+
+Hatchie pulled the rope again.
+
+"Your master--"
+
+"I have no master. Miss Emily is my mistress."
+
+"I have been told his name was De Guy."
+
+"Who is De Guy?"
+
+"A lawyer of New Orleans."
+
+"And what agency had you in the affair?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"Then Mr. Dumont and De Guy are the only persons concerned in the
+transaction?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are positive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, how comes it, Mr. Maxwell, that they have intrusted you with
+their secret? How came you by this knowledge?" said Hatchie, fiercely,
+as he prepared, apparently, to swing up the attorney.
+
+Maxwell was staggered by this question, and Hatchie perceived his
+discomfiture. That Maxwell had any agency in the transaction he only
+suspected; certainly it was not he whom he had seen with Jaspar on the
+night of his escape from Bellevue. There was much evidence for and much
+against him.
+
+Maxwell, unwilling to criminate himself, was in a sad dilemma; his ready
+wits alone could save him. But his hesitation procured him another
+instant of suffocation.
+
+"I obtained the knowledge from De Guy," said he, at last.
+
+"How! did he voluntarily betray the confidence of his employer?"
+
+"No, from his inquiries concerning the affairs of the family, I
+suspected something; when the will was read my impressions were
+confirmed. I charged him with the crime."
+
+"Did he acknowledge it?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Then why did you not expose the plot?"
+
+"It did not suit my purpose."
+
+"What was your purpose?"
+
+"To marry Miss Dumont."
+
+The attorney's answers seemed plausible. His actions were in conformity
+with his avowed purpose. If he wished to marry his mistress, he would
+not have joined in the plot. But the bill of sale, which Emily had
+mentioned to him, was against him. Poor Hatchie was no lawyer, and was
+sadly perplexed by the conflicting testimony.
+
+"Where did you get that bill of sale?" said he.
+
+Again the attorney hesitated, and again Hatchie pulled the rope till he
+was ready to answer.
+
+"Is it a forgery?" said Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"Probably it is," replied Maxwell.
+
+"Who wrote it?"
+
+"De Guy."
+
+"This De Guy is a most consummate villain, and shall yet be brought to
+justice. But how came it in your possession?"
+
+"I received it from De Guy, as the agent of Mr. Dumont. In fine, I
+_bought_ the girl," said Maxwell, maliciously.
+
+Hatchie's temper had nearly got the better of him, for he made a spring
+on the rope, which threatened death to the attorney. But his judgment
+overcame his passion, and he again turned his attention to the great
+object before him.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell, as you are a lawyer," said Hatchie, "you are aware of
+the disadvantages I shall labor under in making the evidence you have
+furnished me available."
+
+"I am," replied the attorney. "Do you think I would have yielded to you,
+if I had not known it?"
+
+"Have you told me the truth in these statements?" asked Hatchie.
+
+The attorney hesitated; but a sharp twinge at the neck compelled him to
+say that he had.
+
+"Then I shall be obliged to trouble you to repeat some of your
+revelations. Now, mark me, Mr. Maxwell; I am going to procure the
+woodman and his son, to witness your statements."
+
+"Fool! what avail will they be, extorted with a rope about my neck?"
+
+"Perhaps we may be able to show you some law such as you never read in
+your books. If, as I suspect, this carpet-bag contains papers, I doubt
+not we shall find something to confirm your evidence."
+
+The face of the lawyer grew a shade paler; but he spoke not.
+
+"Before I go, let me charge you, at your peril, not to be obstinate; for
+here I solemnly assure you that you shall swing by the branch above you,
+if you refuse to answer," said Hatchie, going towards the cabin.
+
+The scene of this exploit was at some distance from the log-cabin of the
+woodman, and the mulatto had scarcely got out of sight before Vernon
+appeared. He had been at a little distance from the parties during the
+whole scene, but he had too much respect for the prowess of his late
+conqueror to venture on a rescue. He had once been tempted to do so, and
+had made the noise which had disturbed Hatchie. The blackleg, without
+much sympathy for his confederate, had rather regarded the whole scene
+as a good joke than as a serious affair; and, as he approached the
+lawyer, his merriment and keen satire were not relished by the victim.
+
+"But how is it, Maxwell, about this will? You have never told me about
+it," said Vernon, who, ruffian as he was, believed in fair play.
+
+"I will tell you another time; cut these ropes, and let us be off."
+
+"But let me tell you, my fine fellow, that though I can rob a man who
+has enough, I would not be concerned in such a dirty game as this," said
+Vernon, as he severed the ropes which bound the attorney. "If you have
+been helping old Dumont to wrong his niece, may I be hanged, as that
+nigger would have served you, if I don't blow the whole affair!"
+
+"You know nothing about it; but, let me tell you, I am not concerned in
+the affair. The girl, I have no doubt, is a slave."
+
+The confederates now made all haste to depart from their proximity to
+such dangers as both had incurred, and, by a circuitous way, reached the
+river, where, taking a boat, they rowed under the banks down stream.
+
+Hatchie was disappointed, on his return, to find his prisoner had
+escaped. A diligent search, by the precaution of the confederates, was
+rendered fruitless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     "Why should my curiosity excite me
+     To search and pry into the affairs of others,
+     Who have to employ my thoughts so many cares
+     And sorrows of my own?"                LILLO.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont sat in the library at Bellevue. It was the evening after
+his return from Vicksburg. Near him, engaged in examining a heap of
+papers, was his new overseer, Dalhousie.
+
+Jaspar was musing over the late turn his affairs had taken; and, while
+he congratulated himself on his present triumphant position, he could
+but regard with apprehension the future, which seemed to smile only to
+lure him on to certain destruction. The trite saying, "There is no peace
+for the wicked," is literally and universally true. The lowering brow,
+the threatening scowl, the suspicious glance, of the wicked uncle, were
+as reliable evidences of his misery as his naked soul, torn with doubt
+and anguish, could have been. Every new paper the overseer turned over
+produced a start of apprehension, lest it might contain evidence of his
+villany. His nerves had suffered terribly beneath the vision of guilt
+and punishment that constantly haunted him. His new overseer, whom he
+had partially admitted to his bosom as a confidant, had secured a strong
+hold upon his fears. His presence seemed necessary to cheer him in his
+lonely hours, to chase away the phantoms of vengeance that pursued him.
+Harassed by doubts and fears, his constitution was, in some degree,
+impaired, and his mind, losing the pillar upon which it rested, was
+prone to yield also.
+
+Dalhousie examined with minuteness the papers to which his attention had
+been directed. Before him was a heap of documents of various kinds, all
+in confusion,--bills and bonds, letters and deeds, were thrown
+promiscuously together. His purpose was to sort and file them away for
+future reference. This confusion among the papers was not the work of
+Colonel Dumont; he had been strictly methodical and accurate in all his
+business affairs. This fact was attested by the occasional strips of
+pasteboard, on which were marked various descriptions of papers, as well
+as by bits of red tape that had secured the bundles.
+
+Dalhousie perceived that the labyrinth he was engaged in exploring had
+not been the labor of the former owner of Bellevue, and he was perplexed
+to understand why Jaspar had taken such apparent pains to disarrange
+them. But Jaspar did have a motive; he had produced the disorder in his
+careless search for any paper which might be evidence against him. So
+heedlessly, however, had he ransacked the drawers, that, if any such
+were there, they must have escaped his notice. He was too much excited
+to do the work with the attention his own safety demanded.
+
+Dalhousie continued to examine the papers, and Jaspar still trembled
+lest something might turn up which would give the overseer a
+confirmation of the opinions he had expressed at Vicksburg. Still Jaspar
+had not the courage to undertake the task himself. He allowed the
+overseer to perform it, in the very face of the danger he wished to
+escape.
+
+The overseer seemed to Jaspar's troubled vision perfectly indifferent.
+He could discover no anxiety in his features, to indicate that he had
+any other purpose than to do his employer's bidding. A more close
+inspection would have developed a slight twinkle, as of anticipation, in
+the marble face of Dalhousie.
+
+As he turned paper after paper, his eye rested upon a packet enclosed
+in a blank envelope. His curiosity was aroused, and, glancing
+indifferently at Jaspar, he saw that his piercing eye regarded him with
+intense scrutiny. Continuing his labor without disturbing the mysterious
+packet, he waited until the sharp eye of his companion was removed from
+him.
+
+On the table by the side of Jaspar was a bottle of brandy, at which, at
+short intervals, the miserable man paid his devoir. Dalhousie did not,
+therefore, have to wait long before the keen watcher left his chair,
+and, with his back to him, took a long draught of the exciting beverage.
+The overseer, seizing the favorable opportunity, slipped the packet into
+his pocket. As indifferently as before, he completed the task, and
+Jaspar was relieved when he saw the papers again filed away.
+
+Dalhousie sought his room, and, scarcely heeding the salutation of his
+wife, he seated himself, and drew forth the packet. Removing the blank
+envelope, he found it was a letter, directed to "Emily Dumont," with a
+request to Mr. Faxon that it might be delivered to her after the
+writer's decease. This seemed to imply that the writer had intended the
+clergyman as the keeper of the letter; but with this surmise the
+overseer did not trouble himself. He turned the letter over and over,
+examined the seal of Colonel Dumont, which was upon it, and, at last, as
+though he had satisfied the warning voice of conscience, he snapped the
+wax, and opened it. The letter was quite a lengthy one, yet, without
+raising his eyes, he completed the reading of it. A faint smile of
+satisfaction played upon his lips, as he re-folded the paper, and
+returned it to the envelope.
+
+"You have a letter, Francois?" said his wife, who had watched him in
+silence as he read, and who noticed the complacent smile its contents
+had produced.
+
+"Yes, Delia, and our fortune is at last come," replied Dalhousie,
+rising, and bestowing a kiss upon the fair cheek of the lady.
+
+"Is it from France?"
+
+"No, dear; it is from the land of spirits!" answered Dalhousie, with a
+good-natured laugh.
+
+"Indeed! I was not aware that you had a correspondent there."
+
+"But I have; and I am exceedingly obliged to him for putting me in
+possession of such useful information as this letter contains."
+
+"Pray, who is your ghostly correspondent?"
+
+"Colonel Dumont,--a deceased brother of the worthy Jaspar, in whose
+employ we now are."
+
+"Do not jest, Francois!" said the lady, as a feeling akin to
+superstition rose in her mind.
+
+"Jest or not, the letter was written by him," continued her husband,
+still retaining his playful smile.
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Not exactly; but I presume he meant it for me, or it would not have
+slipped so easily through Mr. Dumont's fingers into mine."
+
+"To whom is it directed, Francois?"
+
+"You grow inquisitive, Delia. I will tell you all about it in a few
+days. I must go now and see that the hands are all in their quarters;"
+and Dalhousie, to avoid unpleasant interrogatories, left the room.
+
+The overseer went the rounds of the quarters, more as a matter of form
+than of any interest he felt in his occupation. A gentleman by birth and
+education, these duties were extremely distasteful to him,--embraced
+because necessity compelled him. His mind seemed far away from his
+business, for a party of negroes passed him on his return, upon whom he
+did not bestow the usual benediction the boys receive when found out
+after hours.
+
+"Strike while the iron is hot," muttered he, as he entered the house,
+and gave his lantern to a servant. "If I don't do it to-night, it may be
+too late another time. The letter is in safe hands; and, as to the
+other traps, I must get them if I can. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Approaching the door of the library, he knocked, and was requested to
+enter. Under pretence of receiving directions for his next day's
+operations upon the plantation, he entered, and opened a conversation
+with Jaspar. Walking carelessly up and down the room while his employer
+issued his commands, he occasionally cast a furtive glance at the
+secretary. Then, narrowing down his walk, he approached nearer and
+nearer to it, until his swinging arm could touch it as he passed.
+Finally he stopped, and leaned against the secretary, with his hands
+behind him. He appeared very thoughtful and attentive, while Jaspar,
+glad to find a theme he could converse upon, expatiated upon his
+favorite methods of managing stock and crops. The overseer listened
+patiently to all he said, occasionally interrupting with a word of
+approbation. The enthusiastic planter, suspecting nothing of the
+overseer, labored diligently in his argument, and did not notice that,
+when the attentive listener carelessly put his hands into his pockets,
+he conveyed with them the key of one of the drawers.
+
+Dalhousie, having effected the object which brought him to the library,
+soon grew tired of the planter's arguments, and edged towards the door,
+through which he rather rudely made his exit.
+
+Jaspar again relapsed into the moody melancholy from which the presence
+of the overseer had roused him. Sinking back into his chair, he again
+was a prey to the armed fears that continually goaded him. Occasionally
+he roused from his stupor, and, driven by the startling apparition of
+future retribution, paced the room in the most intense nervous
+excitement. Frequent were the stops he made at the brandy-bottle on the
+table; but, for a time, even the brandy-fiend refused to comfort
+him,--refused to excite his brain, or pour a healing balm upon his
+consuming misery. Again he sunk into his chair, overcome by the torture
+of his emotions, and again the gnawing worm forced him to the bottle,
+until, at last, nearly stupefied by the liquor, he slumbered uneasily in
+his chair. But the terrible apparition, which seldom left him when
+awake, was constant in his dreams; and, just as he was about to plunge
+into the awful abyss that always yawned before him, he awoke, and
+staggered to the bottle again. A gleam of consciousness now visited his
+inebriated mind, and he bethought himself of retiring. With a dim sense
+of his usual precaution, he reeled to the secretary, and attempted to
+lock the drawers. He discovered that one key was missing; but, too much
+intoxicated to reason upon the circumstance, he took another draught of
+brandy, and ambled towards his sleeping-room. He was too far gone to
+effect a landing at the head of the stairs, and fell full-length upon
+the floor when he released his hold of the banister.
+
+Dalhousie was still up, and his knowledge of Jaspar's habits enabled him
+to judge the occasion of the noise he heard, and he immediately hastened
+to the rescue. "Lucky!" muttered he, as he lifted the fallen man. "He
+must have been intoxicated when he examined those papers, or he would
+have seen that letter."
+
+Jaspar, who had not entirely lost his senses, muttered something about
+an accident, and clung closely to his companion, who soon deposited him
+on his bed.
+
+The overseer, instead of returning to his room, descended to the
+library, where the light was still burning. Locking the door, he seated
+himself in the large stuffed chair, and drew from his pocket the letter
+he had purloined from the secretary. Opening it, he proceeded to a
+re-perusal of it. The letter was as follows:
+
+     "MY DEAR CHILD:--When you read this letter, your father will be no
+     more. The last act of affection will have been performed, and the
+     ground closed over your only earthly protector. I am aware that you
+     will be exposed to many trials and temptations. The latter you are,
+     I trust, prepared to resist; the former must come to all. I feel
+     that I have done my duty to you, not only in bestowing an abundance
+     of this world's goods, but that I have not entirely failed to
+     implant in your mind the treasure 'which neither moth nor rust can
+     corrupt.' I have done all that I could do, and in a short time I
+     must lay my body in the grave, and leave you an orphan. But you are
+     in the hands, and under the protection, of a Father who is
+     infinitely more able to take care of you than I have been. Into His
+     hands, with my ransomed spirit, I undoubtingly commit you.
+
+     "As I write this letter, I feel the hand of death upon me. In a few
+     short days, it may be only hours, I must go. I am the less ready to
+     bid you the everlasting adieu when I think of the dangers that may
+     surround you. In my last hours I am doomed to the torments of
+     suspicion. I pray God they may be groundless. Perhaps they are only
+     idle fancies, the dotings of an over-anxious father. I feel, as the
+     sands of life are fast ebbing out, that some great calamity is
+     lowering over you. I know not that a remark I accidentally
+     overheard should thus haunt me; but it has roused my suspicions,
+     and the presage of calamity will not depart from me. I cannot, with
+     the warning voice ever ringing in my mind, help taking steps to
+     guard you against the worst that may befall you.
+
+     "My dear child, if I should disclose my suspicions, and they should
+     prove unreasonable, I shall have done a grievous wrong to him I
+     suspect. Although you cannot save me from the misery of doubting in
+     my last hour, you can save me from injuring another in your good
+     opinion. If I have wronged him, let the injury die with me. If my
+     suspicions are not groundless, I offer you the means of saving
+     yourself from the calamity that impends.
+
+     "Should any event occur after my death which deprives you of any of
+     your inheritance, follow the directions I now give you.
+
+     "In the back of the lower drawer of the secretary you will find a
+     secret aperture. The back of the drawer is a thick board, upon
+     which is screwed, on the lower side, a thin slat. Take out the
+     screws and remove the piece they secure, and the aperture will be
+     seen. It contains a sealed packet, the contents of which require no
+     explanation.
+
+     "If nothing happens after my decease, and you peaceably obtain all
+     your rights, burn the packet without opening it. My unjust
+     suspicions, then, cannot influence you, or injure the person to
+     whom they refer.
+
+     "This letter you will receive from Mr. Faxon, to whom I recommend
+     you for counsel and consolation in every trial.
+
+     "And now, my child, I must bid you farewell. I feel my end
+     approaching. May God forever bless and preserve you!
+
+     "Your dying father,
+
+     "EDGAR DUMONT."
+
+Dalhousie perused and re-perused this letter, until its contents were
+fixed in his mind. He had many doubts and scruples, both prudential and
+conscientious, in regard to the step he was about to take: but the
+chimera of fortune prompted him to risk all in the great project he had
+matured. Taking from his pocket a small screw-driver, with which he had
+prepared himself, he opened the drawer designated in the letter, the key
+of which he had secured. Emptying the drawer of its contents, he turned
+it over, and, to his great delight, perceived the slat as described in
+the letter. Removing the screws, he soon had the satisfaction of holding
+in his hand the packet which, he doubted not, would restore the heiress
+of Bellevue to her home and her estates, if she were still alive; or
+which would give him a hold upon Jaspar, by means of which he could make
+his fortune.
+
+Dalhousie was not a natural-born villain. It was the pressure of
+necessity, the almost unconscious yielding of a weak resolution, which
+had led him thus far in his present illegal and dishonorable course. Of
+the heiress he knew nothing; and the thought of restoring her had never
+entered his head, much more his heart. The great purpose of his life
+was to make his fortune, and it was this idea alone which influenced him
+in the present instance. He had entered upon his duties at Bellevue only
+the day before; but so impatient was he to realize the hope which had
+brought him there, that every hour seemed burdened with the weight of
+weeks.
+
+Carefully depositing its contents as he had found them, he locked the
+drawer, and put the key upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     "The accursed plot he overheard,
+        Its every point portrayed;
+     Yet ere the villain's words were cold.
+        The counter-plot was made."
+
+
+Hatchie was chagrined at the loss of his prisoner. His diligent search
+was of no avail. The Chalmetta's boat, which lay at the wood-yard in the
+morning, was gone; so he had no doubt Maxwell had made his escape in it.
+Having no further motive in remaining at the wood-yard, he procured a
+small canoe, with the intention of joining his mistress at Cottage
+Island.
+
+Seated in the stern of the canoe, Hatchie propelled it with only
+sufficient force to avoid the eddies which would have whirled his frail
+bark in every direction. His thoughts wandered over the events of the
+past few days. He moralized upon the conduct of the attorney and the
+uncle, and nursed his indignation over them. Hatchie was a moralist in
+his own way, but not a moralist only. The great virtue of his
+philosophy, unlike much of a more scholastic origin, was its practical
+utility. From the past, with its conquered trials, he turned to the
+future, to inquire for its dangers, to ask what snares it had spread to
+entangle the fair being whom he worshipped with all a lover's fondness,
+without the lover's sentiment.
+
+We will not follow him in his peregrinations through the mazes of the
+misty future, for they were interrupted by the appearance on the water
+of a distant object, which excited his attention. A searching and
+anxious scrutiny convinced him that it was the boat in which Maxwell had
+made his escape. Though at a great distance from him, he could see that
+it contained two men. Guardian as he was of his mistress' honor and
+safety, the sight awakened all his fears and called up all his energy.
+Did they know that his mistress had gone to Cottage Island? It was
+possible that Vernon had obtained a knowledge of her movements. The
+faithful fellow was almost maddened at the thought.
+
+The boat approached Cottage Island, and Hatchie observed them pull in
+under the high bank. This movement was ominous of evil, and all the
+mulatto's fears were confirmed, when, as they passed the mouth of the
+little stream, he saw one of them rise in the boat and point it out.
+Satisfied that his canoe was yet unnoticed by his enemies, and dreading
+no immediate danger, he paddled across the river so as to bring the
+island between them. When he had gained a position which hid him from
+their view, he used all his immense strength in propelling the canoe
+towards the island. A few minutes sufficed to bring him up with the
+western shore of the islet, his enemies being upon the opposite side.
+Keeping close to the high bank, he paddled down-stream to the lower
+extremity of the island, where the sound of voices caused him suddenly
+to check his progress, and gain a landing. Drawing the canoe out of
+reach of the current, he climbed up the bank, which, being near the
+down-stream end of the island, sloped gradually down, till it terminated
+in the low, sandy beach.
+
+He reached the high bank without attracting the attention of the party
+of whose motions he wished to obtain a knowledge. He could now
+distinctly hear their conversation, though they were still at a
+considerable distance from him. Cautiously he climbed a thick
+cotton-wood tree, whose foliage completely screened him from
+observation, and there awaited the nearer approach of Maxwell and his
+confederate.
+
+"Are you sure this is the island?" said Maxwell, when they had come
+within hearing of Hatchie.
+
+"This must be the one," replied Vernon. "We shall soon see whether it is
+inhabited or not."
+
+"With whom did the girl leave the wood-yard?"
+
+"With a doctor who lives like a hermit on this island. I saw them from a
+distance get into the sail-boat, and I asked a boatman for the
+particulars."
+
+"Who is the doctor?"
+
+"Don't know. The boatman said it was an outlandish name, and he had
+forgotten it. You mean to have the girl, do you?"
+
+"I do, if possible."
+
+"O, it's quite possible--nothing easier. You say the girl belongs to
+you?"
+
+"I do; did I not show you the bill of sale?"
+
+"That might be a trick of your own, you know. It's a devilish queer
+story."
+
+"Pshaw! man, are you crazy? This thing has startled your conscience more
+than all the crimes of a lifetime. What has gotten into you, Vernon? I
+never knew you to moralize before."
+
+"Look here, my boy, I can do almost anything; but I would not wrong a
+woman,--no, not a _woman_,--I am above that," said Vernon, with much
+emphasis.
+
+"But, man, she is my slave--a quadroon."
+
+"Property's property; but since I met the girl in the boat, I am half
+inclined to believe she is no quadroon. Maxwell, I had a sister once,
+and may my body be rent into a thousand pieces but I would tear out the
+heart of the man who would serve her as you do this girl. If she is your
+_property_, why, that alters the case."
+
+"Certainly it does; so, end your sermon, and tell me how to gain
+possession of my _property_."
+
+"We can storm the island."
+
+"What! two of us?"
+
+"I can get plenty of soldiers, if you will pay them."
+
+"I will give a thousand dollars for her; and, if I get her again, by
+heavens, she shall not escape me! I will put a pair of ruffles on her
+wrists such as the dainty girl never got of her milliner. How many
+persons are on the island?"
+
+"That I don't know--perhaps half a dozen. Your hangman will be there,"
+and Vernon chuckled at the thought of the scene he had witnessed near
+the wood-yard.
+
+Maxwell's teeth grated, and Hatchie distinctly heard the malediction he
+bestowed upon him. Fears for his personal safety did not, for a moment,
+disturb him. Prudence alone prevented him from rushing upon the
+villains, and thwarting in its embryo stage their design upon his
+mistress.
+
+"You mean," said Maxwell, "to take the girl from the house by force?"
+
+"There is no other way."
+
+"Then we had better examine the island, or it will not be an easy matter
+to land in a dark night."
+
+"How does the owner land?"
+
+"Probably by the little stream we saw above."
+
+"Rather difficult navigation for a stranger. We had better land in this
+part of the island. Let us walk through the thicket and find the house."
+
+Hatchie saw them attempt to pass through the thick brush; but the task
+was not an easy one. By the aid of a bowie-knife, with which they cut
+away some of the bushes, they penetrated to the larger growth of trees,
+where the under-brush no longer impeded their progress. They passed
+beyond the hearing of the mulatto, though from his elevated position he
+occasionally obtained a view of them, as they approached the cottage.
+Anxiously he waited their return, in the hope of getting more definite
+ideas of the time and method of the proposed attack upon the island.
+
+After a careful survey of the premises, Maxwell and Vernon returned to
+their former position.
+
+"Quite an easy job," said Vernon; "the only difficulty is this thick
+brush, which can be easily removed. I will cut away a part now."
+
+"Very well," responded Maxwell, as his associate proceeded to cut away
+the bushes, and form a pathway through, the thicket. "When shall the
+thing be done?"
+
+"As to that I can hardly say. When we get to Vicksburg we can decide.
+Better let the girl rest a week or so; for it may take that time to get
+things ready. You can't hire men to do such work as easily as you can to
+cut wood and dig ditches. It takes skill and caution."
+
+"Very well, I am in no haste."
+
+For nearly an hour Vernon labored at his task, and completed a path
+through which the party could easily pass to the cottage.
+
+The object of their visit accomplished, Hatchie saw them return to their
+boat, and row down the river. After they had disappeared round a bend,
+he descended from the tree, and examined the labors of Vernon. He found
+the bushes which had been cut down were nicely placed at each end of the
+path in an upright position, so as to conceal it from the eyes of the
+passer. For a long time the mulatto reflected upon the conversation he
+had heard, and considered the means of defeating the diabolical plot.
+Against a band of ruffians, such as Vernon would enlist for the service,
+he could not contend single-handed. To remove his mistress from the
+island, while Henry Carroll lay helpless there, would not be an
+acceptable proposition to her. Resolving to lay the information he had
+gained before Dr. Vaudelier, he returned to his canoe, and, having
+rounded the island, reached the cottage by the usual passage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Henry Carroll still slept. For six hours he had lain under the influence
+of the powerful opiate. Emily entered his chamber in company with the
+doctor, on their return from the wood-yard. The sight of Henry, pale and
+worn as he appeared, excited all her sympathy. His right arm, which was
+uninjured, lay extended on the bed; she gently grasped it, and, bending
+over him, imprinted upon his pallid lips a kiss, that was unknown and
+unappreciated by its recipient. Only a few days before she had listened
+to the eloquent confession of him who now lay insensible of her
+presence. She was a true woman, and the presence of Dr. Vaudelier did
+not restrain the expression of her woman's heart. It was visible in her
+pale cheek, in her heaving breast, and in her sparkling eye, from which
+oozed the gentle tear of affectionate sympathy.
+
+She held his hand; unconsciously, at the silent bidding of her warm
+heart, she gently pressed it. As though the magnetism of love had
+communicated itself to the sleeper, he sighed heavily, and uttered a
+groan of half-subdued anguish. His eyelids fluttered; he was apparently
+shaking off the heaviness of slumber. His lips quivered, and Emily heard
+them faintly articulate her name.
+
+At the request of the good physician, she reluctantly withdrew from the
+apartment.
+
+The sufferer endeavored to turn in the bed; the effort drew from him a
+groan of agony, which, in a more wakeful state, a proud superiority over
+every weakness would not have permitted him to utter. His eyes opened,
+and he stared vacantly about the darkened chamber. The doctor took his
+hand, and examined his pulse.
+
+"How do you feel, captain? Does your head ache?" asked he.
+
+"Slightly; I am better, I think," replied the invalid, faintly.
+
+"And you are better," said the doctor, with evident satisfaction. "The
+scalds are doing very well, and the wound on your head is not at all
+serious."
+
+"Now, sir, will you tell me where I am?"
+
+Dr. Vaudelier imparted the information.
+
+"Emily! Emily! Won but lost again!" murmured Henry. "Would that we had
+sunk together beneath the dark tide!"
+
+"Do not distress yourself, my dear captain. We must be careful of this
+fever."
+
+"Distress myself!" returned Henry, not a little provoked at the coolness
+of the doctor. "You know not the loss I have sustained."
+
+"But you must keep calm."
+
+"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed rather
+wildly at his host.
+
+This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience was of
+such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before
+marriage,--the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary hour,--and
+he sympathized with the unhappy man.
+
+"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it chilled the
+ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can understand your
+present state of feeling."
+
+"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had better
+die now than endure the misery before me."
+
+The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express the
+thought.
+
+"You will regain her," said he.
+
+"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw scores of
+dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."
+
+"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be restored to
+your arms again."
+
+"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an infallible
+prophet."
+
+"In this instance, I am."
+
+Henry looked at the doctor, and saw the smile of satisfaction that
+played upon his usually stern features. It augured hope--more than hope;
+and, as the wrecked mariner clings to the disjointed spar, his mind
+fastened upon that smile as the forerunner of a blissful reunion with
+her his soul cherished.
+
+"Be calm, sir, be calm; she is safe," continued Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Do you know it?" almost shouted Henry, attempting to rise.
+
+"Be quiet, sir," said the doctor, in a voice approaching to sternness;
+"be quiet, or I shall regret that I gave you reason to hope."
+
+"Where is she?" asked Henry, sinking back at the doctor's reproof, and
+heeding not the darting pain his attempt to rise had produced.
+
+"She is safe; let this suffice. I see you cannot bear more now."
+
+"I can bear anything, sir, anything. I will be as gentle as a lamb, if
+you will tell me all you know of her."
+
+"If you keep entirely quiet, we will, in a few days, let her speak for
+herself."
+
+"Then she is safe; she has escaped every danger?"
+
+"She has."
+
+"And was not injured?"
+
+"No; she was taken, it seems, from the wreck by a villain. Thank God,
+she has escaped his wiles!"
+
+Henry's indignation could scarcely be controlled, even by the reflection
+that Maxwell's wicked intentions had been turned, by an overruling
+Providence, into the means of her safety.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier related to his patient the incident of the wood-yard; not,
+however, without the necessity of frequently reproving his auditor,
+whose exasperation threatened serious consequences. When, at the
+conclusion of the narration, he told Henry that the loved one was at
+that moment beneath his roof, he could scarcely restrain his immoderate
+joy within the bounds of that quiet which his physician demanded.
+
+"May I not see her?" said he.
+
+"That must depend entirely upon your own behavior. You have not shown
+yourself a very tractable patient thus far."
+
+"I will be perfectly docile," pleaded Henry.
+
+"I fear I cannot trust you. You are so excitable, that you explode like
+a magazine of gunpowder."
+
+"No, no; I solemnly promise to keep perfectly quiet. She will, I know,
+be glad to see me, wounded and stricken though I am."
+
+"She has already seen you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and not content with _seeing_ you merely, your lips are not yet
+cold from the kiss she imprinted upon them;" and a smile, not altogether
+stoical, lit up the doctor's cold expression. "You shall see her, but
+the instant I perceive that the interview is prejudicial to your nerves,
+I shall remove her."
+
+"Thank you, doctor!" said Henry, fervently.
+
+"O, it is part of my treatment. It may do you more good than all my
+physic. I have known such cases."
+
+"I am sure it will," returned the patient.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier retired, and after a serious charge to Emily, he
+reëntered, leading the Hygeia who was to restore the sick man.
+
+"Be careful," was the doctor's monition, as he elevated his fore-finger,
+in the attitude of caution; "be careful."
+
+"O, Emily!" exclaimed Henry, more gently than the nature of the
+interview would seem to allow, as he extended his hand to her.
+
+Emily silently took the hand, and while a tell-tale tear started from
+her eye, she pressed it gently; but the pressure startled the sick man's
+blood, and sent it thrilling with joy through its lazy channels. The
+invalid, as much as the pressure of the hand warmed his heart, seemed
+not to be satisfied with the hand alone; for he continued to draw her
+towards himself, until her form bent over him, and their lips met. It
+was the first time when both were conscious of the act. We will not go
+into ecstasies over the unutterable bliss of that moment. We will not
+deck our page with any unseemly extravagances. If the experience of the
+reader has led him through the hallowed mystery of the first kiss of
+love, he needs not another's fancy to revive the beatific vision. If
+not, why, thousands of coy and blushing damsels, equally in the dark,
+are waiting, from whom he may select one to assist him in solving the
+mystery. Besides, it is not always wise to penetrate the secrets of the
+heart, even in a novel; for there is a sacredness about them, a kind of
+natural free-masonry, which must not be made too common.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, when he saw that the patient was disposed to behave
+himself in a reasonable manner, withdrew from the room, and left them to
+the undisturbed enjoyment of their happy reunion. In an hour he
+returned, and peremptorily forbade all further conversation. He
+permitted Emily to remain in the room, however, on the promise to allow
+the invalid to use no further exertion in talking.
+
+All day, like a ministering angel, she moved about his couch, and laved
+his fevered brow. All his art could not lure her into any conversation
+beyond the necessary replies to his questions concerning his physical
+condition. Henry was too thankful for being permitted to enjoy her
+presence to forfeit the boon by any untractableness, and, for one of his
+excitable temperament, he was exceedingly docile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "_Appius_. Well, Claudius, are the forces
+     At hand?
+
+     "_Claudius_. They are, and timely, too; the people
+     Are in unwonted ferment."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+It was midnight at Cottage Island,--the third night after the events of
+the preceding chapter. Henry Carroll, by the skilful treatment of his
+host, was in a great degree relieved from his severe pain, and had now
+sunk into a natural and quiet slumber. By his bedside sat Dr. Vaudelier.
+Emily had, an hour before, retired to the rest which her exhausted frame
+demanded. For the past three days she had watched patiently and lovingly
+by the invalid. And now she had only been induced to retire by the
+promise of the doctor to call her, if any unfavorable symptom appeared.
+
+The threatened assault upon the island had been thoroughly considered,
+and for the past two nights the island wore the appearance of a
+garrisoned fortress, rather than the secluded abode of a hermit. Emily
+knew of the peril which now menaced her, but the ample means at hand for
+protection rendered it insignificant. All thought, even of her own
+security, was merged in her generous interest in the comfort of the
+sufferer.
+
+The good physician was uneasy and disturbed, as he sat by the bedside of
+his patient. The circumstances which surrounded him were novel in the
+extreme. Accustomed as he had been to the quiet which always reigned in
+his domain, to find himself, as it were, the inmate of a fortress, in
+momentary expectation of an attack, was so singularly odd, that his
+natural indifference deserted him. He had collected quite a large force
+of his humble neighbors to assist him in his present emergency, and they
+were now making their final arrangements to meet the assault.
+
+The doctor was restless; but it was not on account of any fear of his
+personal safety,--he was above that. The lonely and innocent being whom
+he had undertaken to protect had filled his mind with a sense of
+responsibility. A single day had been long enough for Emily to win a way
+to his affections, and he had grown to regard her with the tender care
+of a father. Occasionally he left his place at the bedside, and went to
+the window, as if to assure himself that the attack had not already
+commenced.
+
+In front of the cottage a different sentiment prevailed among the motley
+group there assembled. There were twenty men, including Hatchie, all
+armed with rifle and bowie-knife, and every one anxious for the fight to
+commence. Besides their arms, each man was provided with a small cord,
+and a torch of pitch-wood, the end of which had been plentifully
+besprinkled with turpentine.
+
+The party was composed mostly of woodmen and boatmen, who had promptly
+and willingly obeyed the doctor's summons. Like most men of their class
+in that locality, they were hardy and reckless; they had not that
+healthy horror of a mortal combat which the moralist would gladly see.
+Dr. Vaudelier had always been their friend; had always promptly and
+kindly aided them in their necessities, whether moral, physical, or
+pecuniary. As he had laved the fevered brows of their wives and
+children, so had he said prayers over their dead, in the absence of a
+clergyman. He had exhorted the intemperate and the dishonest, and with
+his purse relieved the needy in their distress. They were not
+ungrateful; they appreciated his many kindnesses, and rejoiced in an
+opportunity to serve him. These men, notwithstanding their rude speech,
+their rough exteriors, and their reckless dispositions, were
+true-hearted men. They reciprocated the offering of a true friendship,
+not by smooth speeches and unmeaning smiles, but by actions of manly
+kindness. The philosopher in ethics may say what he pleases of the
+refinements of sympathy; we would not give a single such heart as those
+gathered on Cottage Island for a whole army of puling, sentimental,
+hair-splitting moralizers. They were men of action, not of words; and,
+though they hesitated not, in what they deemed a good cause, to close
+with their man in deadly combat, they were true as steel to a friend in
+the hour of his need.
+
+With these men the exploits of Hatchie, which had been related, and
+perhaps exaggerated, by Jerry Swinger, who was a leading spirit of the
+party, had been much applauded, and he had, in spite of the odium of his
+social position, obtained a powerful influence over them. They heard him
+with attention, and deferred to his skill and judgment. By his advice,
+and to remove the confusion of the affray from the vicinity of the
+cottage, it was determined to receive the invaders near the beach where
+he had overheard Vernon propose to land. Jerry Swinger, whom natural
+talent and the wish of the party seemed to indicate as leader, marched
+the expedition towards the avenue which had been made in the bushes by
+the ruffians.
+
+For so many men, excited as they were by the anticipation of a conflict,
+they were remarkably quiet and orderly. Dr. Vaudelier had cautioned them
+to avoid all noise, and not to fire a rifle unless absolutely necessary.
+He had also instructed them to make prisoners of the assailants, if
+possible, without injuring them.
+
+Jerry Swinger stationed his party near the avenue, ready to spring upon
+and overpower the foe, when the favorable moment should arrive.
+
+An hour passed by, and the impatience of the ambushed woodmen seemed
+likely to give their faithful leader some trouble, when the careful dip
+of oars near the shore saluted their ears. In a whisper Jerry gave the
+oft-repeated caution for silence, and charged them to be prompt when the
+moment came.
+
+The assaulting party approached the shore. There were two boats, the
+foremost of which contained eight men, under the direction of Maxwell,
+and the other six, led by Vernon. The latter had reconnoitred the island
+several times, and had somewhat modified the plan of the attack, on
+discovering that the cottage, for the past two nights, had been occupied
+by more than its usual occupants. Several men had been seen to land
+there; but, as his preparations on the lower part of the island were
+undisturbed, it never occurred to him that his purpose would be
+anticipated.
+
+Vernon had procured the services of fourteen men, chicken-thieves, and
+others of desperate fortunes, to engage in the enterprise, by holding
+out to them the hope of plunder, of which the cottage, he assured them,
+would afford an abundant harvest. The real purpose of the expedition
+was, therefore, unknown to any of the party, except the leaders. The
+prospect of a sharp fight had not in the least dampened the ardor of
+their hopes. With men of their craft it was a dull season, and the
+prospect of "cracking a crib" plentifully stored with valuables was
+quite a pleasant anticipation.
+
+It was arranged that Maxwell, with the larger portion of the
+desperadoes, should land at the lower part of the island, and, if any
+defenders appeared, commence hostilities, and draw them away from the
+house, while Vernon, with the most experienced of the "cracks-men,"
+should assault the house, and effect the purpose of the enterprise. In
+the person of one of the chicken-thieves a pilot for the creek was
+discovered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, it was decided that
+Vernon should approach the cottage by the usual channel.
+
+Maxwell's boat was beached, while that of Vernon proceeded up the river
+to the little stream. The skill of his pilot, of whom Vernon had felt
+many doubts, soon brought him to the creek. The current, he found, was
+quite rapid, and he feared it would carry him into the midst of the
+"enemy's camp" before Maxwell should have made his demonstration. As the
+boat was whirled along towards the centre of the island, for the oars
+could not be used, on account of their noise, his position seemed to
+grow desperate. Vernon was on the point of risking the noise, and taking
+to the oars, when he discovered an overhanging branch, which he seized
+as the boat passed under it. Fortunately for him, a bend in the stream
+turned the current from the middle of the creek, or its violence would
+have drawn him into the water. By the aid of his companions, he
+succeeded in making the boat fast to the branch. He listened; but all
+was still. There were no indications of the approach of the other party.
+
+Seating himself in the stern-sheets of the boat, he again considered the
+operations in which he was soon to engage; but, as these were
+necessarily to be directed by the circumstances of the moment, his
+deliberations soon gave way to that impatience which the perpetrator of
+crime experiences at an unexpected delay. His eager spirit was, however,
+soon gratified by sounds of conflict, which proceeded from the part of
+the island where Maxwell had landed. Awhile he listened, and the sounds
+grew more and more distinct. Loosing the boat from its aërial moorings,
+it was again driven by the current towards the landing in front of the
+cottage. Preparations were now made to effect the grand object, and,
+landing by the side of the doctor's yacht, Vernon found no one to oppose
+his progress, though the sounds from the lower extremity of the island
+indicated that the affray was growing hotter and more violent. At the
+head of his party, Vernon was about to enter the house, when the
+approach of a body of men from the scene of action caused him to pause,
+and await their approach.
+
+Maxwell had landed on the beach, and, not suspecting the proximity of
+the ambush which waited to receive him, had proceeded towards the avenue
+made at his first visit to the island. Removing the loose bushes, they
+attempted to pass through; but no sooner were they fairly involved among
+the young trees than Jerry Swinger shouted his first order, to light the
+torches, and, in an instant, the woods were illuminated, and the
+position of both parties disclosed. This was, undoubtedly, a masterly
+stroke of preparation on the part of Jerry. The torches, on the
+application of the match, emitted a broad sheet of flame, which glared
+upon the invaders like a sudden flash of lightning, and utterly
+confounded them. It seemed like the bolt of Omnipotence thrown across
+their path in the hour of their great transgression.
+
+Maxwell was unprepared for an immediate attack. He had calculated on
+effecting a junction with Vernon in the vicinity of the cottage. Before
+his party had time to recover from the panic, they were surrounded by
+the resolute woodmen. The attorney, who was as brave and active as he
+was unprincipled and cunning, was not a man to be defeated without a
+stout resistance. Encouraging his party by shouts, and by his own
+example, a general engagement ensued.
+
+Hatchie no sooner saw the foe of his mistress' peace, than, stepping
+between him and Jerry Swinger, who also had an account to settle with
+him, he knocked down the pistol which was levelled at his head, and
+grasped him by the throat. In the hands of Hatchie the attorney was as
+nothing. The stalwart mulatto cast him upon the ground, and, with his
+cord, bound him hand and foot. The leader vanquished, it was the work of
+but a few moments to secure the rest of the assailants.
+
+Jerry Swinger learned, from sundry exclamations of the defeated party,
+that another portion of the expedition was to land at the creek. Leaving
+a few of his men in charge of the prisoners, he made all haste, with the
+remainder, towards the cottage.
+
+The affray had occupied but a few moments. The sturdy woodmen,
+accustomed to such scenes, and animated by a high motive, had done their
+duty promptly and efficiently, as the woful appearance of the
+disconcerted ruffians testified. Some hard blows had been dealt; some
+few upon both sides were severely wounded; but, considering the
+desperate character of the invaders, the masterly tact of Jerry Swinger
+had evidently saved much bloodshed.
+
+Hatchie, as soon as he had secured his prisoner, hastened, somewhat in
+advance of Jerry's party, towards the cottage.
+
+Vernon waited the approach of the party in front of the cottage. While
+it was yet at some distance, he discovered Hatchie, whom he recognized
+by the light of his torch, running in front of it. The appearance of the
+mulatto, alone, he interpreted as the signal of victory to the party in
+conjunction with him, who, he imagined, were pursuing him. Resolving,
+therefore, to lose no more time, he advanced towards the house, ordering
+two of his followers to secure Hatchie.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier had heard the sounds of the distant encounter, and
+occasionally sought the window to assure himself the invaders did not
+approach the cottage. The glaring torch of Hatchie, who was running
+towards the house, gave him some misgivings, and, seizing the pistols
+which lay upon the table, he went to the door, on opening which he was
+confronted by Vernon.
+
+"Come on, boys! come on!" shouted the ruffian, as he pushed by the
+doctor. "The way is clear; let us make quick work."
+
+The pistol of Dr. Vaudelier had been raised to shoot down the assailant;
+but his hand dropped at the sound of his voice, he staggered back and
+let the weapon fall from his hand, and uttered an exclamation of intense
+feeling.
+
+"This way, men! this way!" shouted Vernon, as he pressed on.
+
+Entering the room at the right of the entry, in which a bed had been
+temporarily placed for the use of Emily, he found the affrighted girl,
+who had been aroused from her transient slumber by the noise of the
+attack. Rising from the bed upon which she had merely thrown herself,
+she was confounded by the appearance of her former persecutor.
+
+"Ah, my pretty bird, you are again in my power, and I shall take care
+that no weak indulgence again deprives me of your society," said Vernon,
+as he seized her arm, and attempted to hurry her from the room.
+
+"Unhand me, villain!" exclaimed she, roused to desperation by the sudden
+and painful change which had overtaken her.
+
+"Do not pout, my pretty dove! there is no chance to escape this time.
+Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help you; so I
+advise you to come quietly with me."
+
+"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"--and she
+struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.
+
+"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.
+
+"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the hands of
+two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your bidding."
+
+The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow on the
+back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.
+
+"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted his
+mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him, examined
+the condition of the fallen man.
+
+"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."
+
+"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily, bursting into
+tears, as the terrible scene through which she had just passed was fully
+realized. "But where is Henry--Captain Carroll--is he safe?"
+
+"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room," replied
+Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been worse."
+
+"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie, seizing the
+prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him to a tree, and I
+will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till both are hung."
+
+"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that moment
+entered. "_He is my son_!"
+
+"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on the
+sofa.
+
+"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone. "I would
+that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I recognized him as
+he entered the house, and had nearly lost my consciousness, as the
+terrible reality stared me in the face, that my son, he whose childhood
+I had watched over, who once called me by the endearing name of father,
+is a common midnight assassin!
+
+"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an abundant
+shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his eyes. "Is he
+the person who has caused you so much trouble?"
+
+"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest comfort to
+the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for Maxwell."
+
+"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an interested motive
+to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be brought so low!"--and
+the doctor wrung his hands in anguish.
+
+"Perhaps, sir," said Emily, "he is not so bad as you think; let us hear
+before we condemn him."
+
+Her resentment, if her gentle nature had for a moment harbored such a
+feeling, had all given way to the abundant sympathy she felt for the
+doctor in his deep distress. Forgiving as the spirit of mercy, she now
+applied restoratives to the man who had so lately attempted to wrong
+her; and Dr. Vaudelier, with a sad heart, assisted her in her merciful
+duty.
+
+Hatchie, on his approach to the cottage, had been assailed by the men
+whom Vernon had sent to secure him. A severe encounter had ensued, and
+although Hatchie's great muscular power and skill had enabled him to
+keep his assailants at bay, he would eventually have had the worst of
+it; but Jerry Swinger came to his aid in season for him to save his
+mistress from injury. Vernon's party, like that of Maxwell, were all
+secured.
+
+The noise caused by the entrance of Vernon had awakened Henry Carroll
+from his slumbers. He listened, but could not make out the occasion of
+it; for, in consideration of his feeble condition, he had not been
+informed of the meditated attack. The cry for help uttered by Emily
+convinced him of the nature of the disturbance. His first impulse was to
+rise and rush to her assistance; but of his inability to do this he was
+painfully reminded in his attempt to rise. The heavy fall of Vernon on
+the floor, and the voice of Hatchie, assured him that, whatever the
+affair might be, it had assumed a new phase. His painful apprehensions
+were quieted by the appearance of Hatchie, who in a concise manner
+related the events of the night.
+
+The last lingering doubt of the suspicious invalid was removed by the
+entrance of Emily herself.
+
+"You are safe, dear Emily!" exclaimed he.
+
+"I am, thank God!"
+
+"And I could not assist in your defence!"
+
+"Heaven will protect me, Henry. It seems as if a veritable angel hovered
+over my path to shield me from the thousand perils that assail me."
+
+"The angels do hover around you, Emily; you are so pure, and good, and
+true, that they are ever near you, even in your own heart. Angels always
+minister to the good,--to those who resist the temptations of the
+world."
+
+"You speak too well of me. But you have been excited by this tumult,
+Henry."
+
+"I was a little disturbed; but, unable to help myself, I could do
+nothing for others,--not even for you, dearest."
+
+"I know what you would have done, if you had been able. I know your
+heart, and I feel just as grateful as though your strong arm had rescued
+me."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, who had succeeded in restoring Vernon--or, by his true
+name, Jerome Vaudelier--to consciousness, now entered the room. He
+appeared more melancholy and harassed in mind than Emily had before seen
+him. His soul seemed to be crushed by the terrible realization that _his
+son_ was a common felon--worse than felon, the persecutor of innocence.
+A soul as sensitive as his to the distinctions of right and wrong could
+hardly endure the misery of that hour.
+
+With an absent manner, he inquired into the condition of the patient,
+and took the necessary steps to soothe him to slumber again.
+
+Hatchie, having satisfied himself that the prisoners were all safe, left
+them under guard of the woodmen, and returned to the chamber of the sick
+man; and, at the doctor's urgent request, Emily left Henry to his care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     "_Friar_ Can you forgive?
+     _Elmore_. As I would be forgiven."
+
+     LOVELL.
+
+
+On the morning following the defeat of Maxwell and Vernon, it became
+necessary to make some disposition of the prisoners, so that the
+conquerors could attend to their daily duties. Their number was too
+large to be left upon the island in the absence of its defenders. A
+consultation between Dr. Vaudelier and the principals of the party took
+place. There were so many difficulties in the way of bringing the
+invaders to justice, that it was finally decided to release them all.
+The burden of the evidence was against the physician's son. The doctor,
+however much he deprecated the deed, was anxious to save his son from
+the publicity of a trial. His friends, seeing the melancholy truth,
+relieved his mind by suggesting that all of them be released, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+Vernon had entirely recovered from the effects of Hatchie's blow, and
+was seated at the window of his apartment, contemplating the means of
+escape. At his father's request, two men had sat by him during the
+night, as much to prevent his escape as to minister to his wants. The
+watchers were still in the room. Vernon was not yet informed of the
+relation he sustained to the proprietor of the mansion in which he now
+involuntarily abode. He thought that, considering the unequivocal
+circumstances under which he had been made a prisoner, he was treated
+with a great deal of gentleness; but to him the reason was not apparent.
+He had been an alien from his father's house for a long period, and was
+not acquainted with the history of the past three or four years of the
+doctor's life.
+
+His mind was now occupied in devising the means of escape; and just as
+he had struck upon a feasible project, he was interrupted by the
+entrance of Jerry Swinger, who had been sent by Dr. Vaudelier to
+ascertain the present frame of his son's mind, and broach to him the
+tidings that he was beneath his father's roof,--a circumstance of which
+his watchers were also ignorant.
+
+"Well, stranger, how do you feel yourself, this morning?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Better. That was a cursed hard rap which some one gave me, last night,"
+replied Vernon,--as, from the force of habit, we must still call him.
+
+"That are a fack, stranger; the man that gin you that blow has a moughty
+hard fist; and I advoise you to keep clear of him, or he will beat you
+into mince-meat."
+
+"I will try to do so."
+
+"You will larn to, if he mought have one more chance at that head of
+yours."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He's an oncommon fine fellow, and made your cake dough once before."
+
+"Ah, was it Miss Dumont's--that is, the quadroon's servant."
+
+"Quadroon, man!--that's all humbug. But he's the boy, and is bound to
+fotch his missus out straight, in the end."
+
+"Well, if she is his mistress, I hope he may. I wish her no harm,
+however much appearances belie me."
+
+"Is that a fack, stranger?"
+
+"Certainly; she never did me any harm."
+
+"Then what mought be the reason you were so onmerciful to her?"
+
+"I never used her hardly. My friend said she was his slave, and all I
+wished was to have him obtain his own. In short, I was paid for my
+services."
+
+"No doubt of it, stranger. But I can't see how the tenth part of a man
+could hunt down such a gal as that,--it's onnateral. Besides, you didn't
+believe she was a slave."
+
+"'Pon my honor I did, or I would not have lifted a finger. But I see you
+have released the rest of your prisoners,--I hope you will be as
+generous towards me."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself, stranger!"
+
+"I have a mortal aversion to courts of justice."
+
+"Quite likely," returned Jerry, pleased with the man's frankness.
+
+"Besides, I belong to a respectable family, who will not mind paying
+something handsome to avoid exposure."
+
+"Can't be bought, stranger; besides, respectable villains arn't any
+better nor others."
+
+"True; but, you know, their friends, who are educated, are more
+sensitive in such matters than others."
+
+"That mought be true, for's aught I know; but it's mighty strange you
+never thought of that sarcumstance before."
+
+"Never was in limbo before."
+
+"That's the go, is't? Look-a-here, stranger, is it the darbies, or the
+crime, which brings the disgrace upon the family? Accordin' to my
+notion,--and I believe I've got something besides nits and lice in my
+head,--it's the deed, and not the punishment, that fotches the disgrace.
+But whar does your family live?"
+
+"In New Orleans," replied Vernon, who knew nothing to the contrary,
+though we are not sure that, if he had, it would have made any
+difference in his reply.
+
+"And your name is Vernon?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Is that your family name, or only a borried one?"
+
+"It is my real name," replied Vernon, not a little perplexed by the
+coolness and method of the woodman's queries.
+
+"I rather guess not," suggested Jerry, mildly.
+
+"'Pon my honor--"
+
+"Think again,--maybe you mought fotch the real one to your mind."
+
+Vernon, whose temper was not particularly gentle under contradiction,
+was nettled, and disposed to be angry.
+
+"Perhaps you know best," said he, conquering his passion, and assuming
+one of those peculiarly convincing smiles, which must be an hereditary
+possession in the family of the "father of lies."
+
+"Perhaps I do," replied Jerry. "If you don't know any better than that,
+why, then, I do know best. It arn't Vernon."
+
+"It is not manly, captain, to insult a prisoner," replied Vernon, with
+an air of dignity, which came from the same source as the liar's smile.
+
+"I don't mean to insult you, stranger; but facts is facts, all over the
+world," said Jerry, untouched by the other's rebuke.
+
+"What mean you?"
+
+"Nothin', stranger, only I know you. Your mother arn't livin'."
+
+"No," returned Vernon, with a start; for, with all his vices and his
+crimes, a sense of respect for the name and honor of his family had
+outlived the good principles imbibed upon a mother's knee. Although a
+villain in almost every sense of the word, there were many redeeming
+traits in his character, which the reader will be willing to believe, on
+recalling his expressions of conscientiousness uttered to Maxwell.
+Family pride is often hereditary, and the reverses and degradations of a
+lifetime cannot extinguish it. It was so with Vernon. His real name was
+unknown, even among his most intimate associates. He had early taken the
+precaution--not in deference to the feelings of his father--to assume a
+name; it was from pride of birth, which shuddered more at the thought of
+a stain upon the family escutcheon than at all the crimes which may
+canker and corrode the heart.
+
+"My mother is not living," continued he; "but how know you this?"
+
+"It don't matter, stranger. Have you seen your father lately?"
+
+"Not for many years. I am an outcast from his presence," replied Vernon,
+with some appearance of feeling.
+
+"That's onfortunate; does he know what sort of a lark you are?"
+
+"I hope not," replied Vernon, with a sickly smile.
+
+"But he does; he knows all about this ongodly scrape you got into last
+night."
+
+"What mean you?" said the ruffian, sternly.
+
+"Mean? Why, just exactly what I say, Mr. Vaudelier! Don't start! I know
+you as well as you know yourself."
+
+Vernon bit his lips; he was confounded at hearing his name uttered,--a
+name which had not greeted his ears for many years. His passion was
+disarmed before the rude but cutting speech of the woodman, whose
+knowledge of human nature, bred in the woods as he had been, was
+remarkable. There are men in the world, supposed to be entirely
+intractable, who, when rightly approached, prove as gentle as lambs.
+There is no evil without its antidote, however deeply it may be hid from
+the knowledge of man; and there is no man so vile that he cannot be
+reformed. The image of God, marred and disfigured as it may be, exists
+in every man, as the faultless statue exists in the rough block of
+marble; from which, when the fashioning hand, aided by the magic of
+genius, touches it, the imago of beauty shall come forth. So, when man,
+in whom always exists the elements of the highest character, shall be
+approached by the true reformer,--the highest and truest genius,--the
+bright ideal shall assume the actual form.
+
+The woodman had touched a chord in the heart of the gambler which
+vibrated at his touch. It was not the words, but the genuine sympathy
+with which they were laden, that overcame the indifference of the
+vicious man. Perceiving his advantage, the woodman followed it up,
+repeatedly disarming the bolt of passion, which was poised in the mind
+of his auditor.
+
+"Your father," said Jerry, "is a good man, and you mought go round the
+world without finding a better."
+
+"Very true!" replied Vernon, moved to a degree he was unwilling to
+acknowledge.
+
+"Now, if you jest turn over a new leaf in the book of life, and try to
+fotch out right in the end, I believe the old man would cry quits on the
+old score."
+
+"Send those men away, captain! I will not attempt to escape."
+
+Jerry complied, and the watchers took their departure.
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+"Close by, stranger. May be you'd like to see him?"
+
+"On no account!"
+
+"That's a good sign, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "You will have to see him,
+I am afraid. You are under his ruff."
+
+Vernon, completely overcome, staggered to a chair, and covered his face
+with his hands.
+
+"Not so bad a boy as one mought suppose," soliloquized Jerry, as he went
+to the door, and requested the servant to summon Dr. Vaudelier. "The
+fellow has fed on husks long enough, and, as the scripter says, he is
+goin' to rise and go to his dad."
+
+"Do not let my father see me,--anything, rather than that!" exclaimed
+Vernon, rising, and grasping the woodman's arm. "I am a great villain!"
+
+"That's very true, stranger; but you have got into the scrape, and the
+best thing you can do is to get out on't."
+
+"How can I!"
+
+"Be an honest man."
+
+"I fear I never can be that."
+
+"Try it! There is something left of you."
+
+At this moment Dr. Vaudelier entered the room. His aspect was stern and
+forbidding, and the son buried his face in his hands after the first
+glance at him.
+
+"Jerome," said he, "you will bring my gray hairs with sorrow down to the
+grave."
+
+"Easy with him, doctor, easy! He is a little touched, and, if you manage
+him right, you can fotch him over. He is under conviction now. Don't let
+on yet!"
+
+"Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me," continued the doctor.
+"Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus enter my house
+with a band of ruffians behind you?"
+
+"Father," said the convicted Vernon, "I did not know it was your house,
+or I could never have done it."
+
+"Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight assassin!" and
+Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like a child.
+
+"Forgive me, father!" exclaimed the repentant son. "Forgive me!"
+
+"God and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!"
+
+"Easy with him, doctor!" interposed Jerry, fearful lest the son's
+repentance should be dissipated before the father's sternness.
+
+"I will atone for all, to the best of my ability."
+
+"Would that you might do so!"
+
+"I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!"
+
+"Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so deeply
+injured."
+
+"I would be her slave for life!"
+
+"If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the wrongs which
+have been inflicted upon her."
+
+"I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail
+anything to her. Maxwell assured me she was his slave, and showed me the
+bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my help."
+
+"You were too willing to believe him," said the doctor, sternly.
+
+"I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew (which is but
+little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will tell you all."
+
+"Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry."
+
+Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the
+position of the matter.
+
+"Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have done?"
+
+"Freely, sir; and may God enable you to persevere in the course you have
+taken!"
+
+"Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life with the
+strength your good wishes impart."
+
+Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the attorney,
+concealing no part of his own or his confederate's villany. Of the will
+he knew nothing, his operations having been confined to the attempts to
+obtain possession of her person.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole truth. It
+was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had chosen the better
+part. His fervent prayer ascended that the penitent might be faithful to
+his good resolutions.
+
+All the circumstances relating to the will were unknown to Vernon, which
+was the occasion of much congratulation both to his father and to Emily.
+It seemed to relieve him from some portion of the guilt which the
+subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and, when these circumstances
+were related to him, a burst of generous indignation testified that he,
+the blackleg, the robber, was above such villany. However depraved in
+some respects, that vice which is commonly called _meanness_ had no
+place within him. He was, or rather had been, of that class of operators
+who "rob the rich to pay the poor;" who have no innate love of vice,
+only a desire to be free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand,
+without toil or sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.
+
+"Jerome," said Dr. Vaudelier, "this Maxwell must be watched, and, if you
+are true to yourself, no one can do this duty as well as you."
+
+"Trust me, sir! I am strong in this lady's service."
+
+"I shall not doubt you, my son, until I have occasion to do so. I am
+satisfied, if Miss Dumont is."
+
+"I feel perfectly confident in the good faith of your son, and am
+indebted to him for the zeal he manifests in my cause."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Dumont," said Vernon. "You are too generous; but, be
+assured, your confidence shall not be abused."
+
+It was determined that Vernon should immediately depart for Vicksburg,
+whither Maxwell had gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     "He gives me leave to attend you,
+     And is impatient till he sees you."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+It was the afternoon of the same day, as Dr. Vaudelier was reclining
+upon a rustic seat near the landing, he was surprised by the appearance
+of a canoe coming down the creek. The canoe contained an elderly
+gentleman, and a negro, who, after several unsuccessful attempts,
+succeeded in landing the passenger upon the little pier. He was about
+fifty years of age, apparently. His hair and whiskers were a mixture of
+gray and black; his countenance was full, and his complexion florid,
+which contrasted oddly with the green spectacles that rested upon his
+nose.
+
+"Do I have the honor of addressing Dr. Vaudelier?" said, the stranger,
+in a tone so soft and silky that the doctor could hardly persuade
+himself it did not proceed from a woman.
+
+"That is my name, sir; and to whom am I indebted for this unexpected
+pleasure?"
+
+"De Guy, sir,--Antoine De Guy, at your service," squeaked the visitor,
+with whom the reader is already acquainted.
+
+"Well, sir, may I inquire the object of your visit?"
+
+"Certainly, sir. I am informed there is a lady at present residing with
+you, one of the unfortunate persons who were on board the Chalmetta at
+the time of her late disaster. A Miss Dumont."
+
+"Who informed you, sir?"
+
+De Guy hesitated a little, and then said he heard a number of gentlemen
+discuss the late disaster at the hotel in Vicksburg; that one of them
+had mentioned this fact--he really could not tell the gentleman's name.
+
+"What is your business with the lady?" asked the doctor, to whom the
+idea of a new enemy of Emily had already presented itself.
+
+"That, sir, I can best disclose to the lady in person," squeaked the
+street-lawyer, with a low bow.
+
+"This way then," and the doctor led him to the library, into which he
+soon after conducted Emily.
+
+"Miss Dumont?" said De Guy, rising and making a profound obeisance as
+she entered. "My name is De Guy."
+
+Emily bowed slightly, but made no reply.
+
+"May I beg that our interview may be private?" said the attorney,
+glancing at Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"This gentleman is my friend and confidant; it is not necessary that he
+should retire," replied Emily, as Dr. Vaudelier was moving towards the
+door.
+
+"Very well, madam; though I think, from the nature of my business, you
+would wish it to be confidential."
+
+"Perhaps I had better withdraw," suggested the physician.
+
+"By no means, my dear sir; if this gentleman's visit relates to business
+matters, I must beg the favor of your counsel."
+
+"As you please, Miss Dumont; I come charged with a message from your
+uncle, my respected client, Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Indeed, sir!" replied Emily, a slight tremor creeping through her
+frame; "pray deliver it at once."
+
+"It is simply to say your immediate presence at your late residence is
+necessary."
+
+"Where did you see my uncle?" asked she.
+
+"At Bellevue, madam, yesterday morning. I arrived at eleven o'clock
+to-day."
+
+"When did Mr. Dumont return from his journey up the river?" asked Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+De Guy reflected a moment; from the shade of displeasure on his
+countenance, it was evident he disliked the interference of the doctor.
+
+"About four days ago."
+
+"When did you last see your uncle, Miss Dumont?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I have not seen him since the second day of our journey,"--which was
+the time that Jaspar had been left at the wood-yard.
+
+"Probably, then, he has returned to Bellevue. It is singular that, under
+the instructions of the will, he should leave you in this unceremonious
+manner."
+
+"Not at all," interrupted De Guy.
+
+"You speak as though you were familiar with his motions," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, with a penetrating glance at the attorney.
+
+"To some extent, I am," replied the silky-toned lawyer, with a smile
+which was intended to declare his own innocence in any of the plots of
+Jaspar. "He has voluntarily acquainted me with some of the particulars
+of this unfortunate affair."
+
+"Indeed, sir!"
+
+"Such is the fact," continued the attorney, with professional ease; "he
+has sent for Miss Dumont in order to effect a compromise."
+
+"A compromise!" exclaimed Emily, with disdain; "there can be no
+compromise, short of restoring, absolutely, my rights!"
+
+"It is very probable he is quite ready to do so," replied the
+accommodating attorney.
+
+"May I ask what has produced this singular and sudden change in the
+purpose of my uncle?"
+
+"Well, madam, it would be difficult to explain the precise reasons. His
+mind seemed troubled; I advised him to unburden to me, which he did. The
+conclusion of the whole matter is, he has taken this step by my
+advice," said De Guy, with an air of the deepest humility.
+
+Emily was somewhat moved, by the revelation of the attorney, from the
+stern reserve she had manifested, and said,
+
+"I am grateful for your interest in my behalf."
+
+"Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's duty,
+which is superior to every other gratification."
+
+"May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?" asked Dr. Vaudelier,
+incredulously.
+
+"The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was not
+exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt obliged
+to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of justice," said the
+attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful whether he was
+perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.
+
+"Humph!" said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.
+
+"Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir," continued
+De Guy.
+
+"Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right between
+this lady and her uncle?"
+
+"The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont," replied De Guy, readily.
+
+"You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose, just as
+it was in the very act of being consummated, without a strong motive."
+
+"True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel Dumont is
+upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this time, of his
+share in the transaction."
+
+"Well."
+
+"And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the steamer."
+
+"True."
+
+"Was not the reäppearance, the rising from the dead, of this man, quite
+enough to convince him that all his plans had failed?"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"The boy had the will!"
+
+"It is all plain to me," said Emily, more disposed to trust De Guy than
+Dr. Vaudelier was.
+
+"Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should adopt
+this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save him from
+exposure."
+
+"Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power again,"
+suggested Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"I assure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even now, at the
+guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is awakened."
+
+"And well it might be," said the doctor.
+
+"True," responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of honest
+indignation; "but when we see a man disposed to repent, we should be
+ready to assist him."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents of the
+morning,--called to mind the feelings which had been awakened in the
+presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full force of De Guy's
+argument.
+
+"If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done his
+niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means, advise her to
+follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature suggests. 'To err
+is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a Christian, and will act in
+the true spirit of Christianity."
+
+"I trust she will," responded De Guy, meekly; "I trust she will, and,
+with all convenient haste, try to mitigate his distress."
+
+"I will! I will!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Perhaps you will accompany me, as your uncle suggests," insinuated De
+Guy.
+
+"There is certainly no need of such haste as this," said the doctor.
+
+"Her uncle may change his mind."
+
+"Then his penitence is not sincere, and he cannot be trusted."
+
+"I should scarcely call it penitence, sir, since it is only the fear of
+discovery which has driven him to this step," said the attorney,
+branching off in to a new school of ethics.
+
+"I can go in a few days," said Emily. "Captain Carroll, you think, is
+out of danger now?"
+
+De Guy started, and a scowl of the deepest malignity overshadowed his
+countenance, which had before been that of a meek and truthful man. The
+change was so sudden that he seemed to be a man within a man, and the
+two creatures of an opposite character. Neither the doctor nor Emily
+noticed the start, or the sudden change of expression; and the attorney,
+seemingly aware of the danger of wearing two faces, restored the former
+aspect.
+
+"I think he is entirely out of danger," replied Dr. Vaudelier, in reply
+to Emily's question. "Perhaps he will be able to accompany you in a few
+days."
+
+Emily blushed, but made no reply, other than a sweet smile, betokening
+the happiness such an event would give her.
+
+"I fear, madam, the delay will be dangerous," suggested De Guy, who did
+not relish the proposition of the doctor.
+
+"Why dangerous? If Mr. Dumont changes his mind, we have the means of
+proving that that miserable will is false."
+
+"You forget, sir, that Mr. Benson may be lost, and with him the will,"
+interposed Emily, whose love of truth did not enable her to conceal the
+weakness of her case.
+
+"Indeed! Is the will in the hands of a third party?" said the attorney,
+with apparent indifference, while, in reality, he was inwardly chuckling
+with delight.
+
+"It matters not," replied the doctor; "the lady's case is safe. You can
+inform Mr. Dumont that his niece will present herself in a week or ten
+days."
+
+"But, my dear sir, the delay will be fatal, both to the lady and her
+uncle," said the attorney, with alarm.
+
+"It cannot be helped," said the doctor.
+
+"Mr. Dumont's health, I fear, will render it unsafe to wait so long.
+Miss Dumont does not wish her uncle to die unforgiven."
+
+"I will go, sir; I will go at once," exclaimed Emily, shocked at the
+condition of Jaspar, and anxious, as was her nature, to relieve the
+sufferings he must endure in her absence. She forgot how basely he had
+wronged her--how he had attempted her life; the divine sentiment, "Love
+your enemies," prevailed over every other consideration.
+
+"Die unforgiven," muttered the doctor. "Is he sick?"
+
+"He is, sir, and near his end."
+
+"Why have you not mentioned this circumstance before? It seems of
+sufficient importance to merit a passing word."
+
+"I wished not to distress the lady. I think I hinted that he was in
+great distress."
+
+"I fear some evil, Miss Dumont."
+
+"Be assured, sir, if Mr. Dumont meditates any further wrong, he has not
+the power of putting it into effect. He is prostrate upon his bed, and
+if his niece does not see him soon, it will be too late, if it is not so
+already. The stricken man must soon stand for judgment in another
+world," said De Guy, solemnly.
+
+"This alters the case," said the doctor, musing.
+
+"But, sir," continued the attorney, "I was aware that, after what has
+happened, my mission would be attended with many difficulties, and I
+have not come unprepared to overcome them. I do not wonder that you have
+no confidence,--I confess I should not have, under like circumstances.
+You know Dr. Le Verier?" and the attorney drew from his pocket a bundle
+of papers, and opening one, he glanced at the signature upon it, as he
+pronounced the name.
+
+"I do, very well," replied the doctor.
+
+"Our family physician!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle's physical condition,"
+said De Guy, handing her the paper.
+
+Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.
+
+"Very satisfactory," said he; "you will pardon me for doubting your
+word--"
+
+"Don't mention it, sir," replied De Guy, blandly. "I fully appreciate
+your motive, and honor you for it. And you know Mr. Faxon?"
+
+"O, yes--what of him," said Emily, eagerly.
+
+"A letter from him," replied De Guy, giving her the missive.
+
+Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents, the
+attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude such as
+attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if the pockets of
+the latter be empty.
+
+"I will go immediately!" exclaimed Emily, as she finished reading the
+letter. "Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a different man, and is
+ready to restore all my rights."
+
+"Finally," said De Guy, "here is your uncle's own signature. This letter
+I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty, signed his
+name."
+
+Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would restore
+all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to return to Bellevue
+with all possible haste. Emily recognized the signature, though it was
+apparently written by the trembling hand of a dying man.
+
+"The papers are quite satisfactory," said Dr. Vaudelier, as he completed
+the reading of the note from Jaspar. "If you had presented them at
+first, I should have been spared my uncourteous suspicions. But you will
+pardon them, and consider that the lady's case requires the utmost
+caution."
+
+"It was only in deference to the lady's nerves that I broke the
+intelligence gradually. I was quite willing to sacrifice myself, for the
+moment, in your good opinion, for her sake. I trust you will appreciate
+and regard my motives, as I do yours."
+
+Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of Emily's
+returning to Bellevue with De Guy. But a death-bed scene was a difficult
+thing to reason against, and he was obliged to yield the point before
+the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more calm persuasions of Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the party
+should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.
+
+Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in relation to
+their departure.
+
+At the mention of Hatchie's name, the attorney grew marvellously uneasy,
+and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed him to the
+island was waiting for him. He therefore proposed that Dr. Vaudelier
+should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning, which was readily
+agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat, without confronting
+the mulatto.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     "_Jaffier_. O, Belvidera!
+     _Belvidera_. Why was I last night delivered to a villain?
+     _Jaffier_. Ha! a villain?
+     _Belvidera_. Yes, to a villain!"
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+Agreeably to the arrangement of the previous night, Emily was on board
+of the "Montezuma," prepared to commence her journey to Bellevue. While
+De Guy conducted Emily to the ladies' cabin, Hatchie was getting her few
+articles of baggage on board, and the boat was fairly under weigh
+without the faithful mulatto's having had a sight of the new protector
+of Emily. The attorney congratulated himself on this circumstance; his
+mind had thus been released from the pressure of a most painful anxiety.
+His plan was now accomplished.
+
+But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy, however, now
+that they were free from the friends of Emily, no longer dreaded it.
+
+The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of his
+mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced the fact.
+His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking tone he had heard
+at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned to look upon the
+speaker, and was confounded to behold the very person who had plotted
+with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a presence of mind which never
+deserted him, he held his peace, resolved not to frighten his mistress
+by exposing the fact.
+
+Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy had
+conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in a
+quandary,--a worse quandary than the congressional hero of Kentucky has
+described in any of his thousand relations of hair-breadth escapes. His
+mistress was fairly committed to her new destiny, and how could he
+extricate her?
+
+He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,--to watch
+unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case of
+necessity. The papers which De Guy had brought from Bellevue, and which
+he heard described by the doctor, did much to assure him that no evil
+was intended towards her; but the man who had been a villain once was,
+in his opinion, exceedingly apt to be so again.
+
+Emily was ill at ease during the passage; not that she felt unsafe, or
+dreaded treachery, but something seemed to whisper that evil _might_ be
+near her. An undefined sensation of doubt seemed to beset her path, and
+urge upon her the unpleasant necessity of extreme caution. She was
+conscious of being engaged in a good work. She had forgiven her great
+enemy, and was now on her way to smooth his dying pillow. There was
+something lofty and beautiful in the thought, and she derived much
+consolation from it.
+
+De Guy rarely intruded himself upon her notice during the passage. At
+meal-hours he was scrupulously polite and attentive, but he was as cold
+and formal as she could desire. She never ventured upon the promenade
+deck, unless her faithful Hatchie was near.
+
+The mulatto, with all his watchfulness, was unable to discover any
+indications of treachery on the part of De Guy, though an apparently
+confidential conversation with the captain of the steamer, on the night
+before their arrival at New Orleans, had rather an unfavorable
+appearance.
+
+It was late at night when the Montezuma arrived at New Orleans. The
+steamer quietly took her berth at the levee, so that few of the
+passengers took any notice of their arrival, and contentedly turned
+over in their berths to wait the advent of the coming day.
+
+Hatchie, who occupied a room near the boiler deck, had been awakened by
+the confusion of making fast the steamer. His watchful vigil over the
+safety of his mistress did not permit him to slumber while the
+possibility of danger existed. He had, therefore, risen; but scarcely
+had he completed his dress, when the door of his room was suddenly
+opened, and himself violently seized by two stout men. The attack had
+been so sudden, and the movements of the assailants so well directed,
+that resistance was hopeless. Before he fully realized the presence of
+his foes, his hands were pinioned behind him. In this condition, without
+knowing why or by whom he was assailed, he was hurried away to the
+calaboose.
+
+At an early hour in the morning carriages and drays began to assemble on
+the levee, and all the noise and bustle of landing passengers, baggage
+and freight, commenced.
+
+Emily Dumont, as soon as it was fairly light, rose from her couch, and
+made her preparations to leave the steamer. Fully equipped for her
+journey to Bellevue, she entered the cabin, where De Guy soon presented
+himself.
+
+"Where is Hatchie?" was the first question she asked; for Hatchie had
+always been on the spot whenever and wherever she needed his services.
+
+"I have taken the liberty to send him up to the St. Charles with your
+luggage. You will, of course, breakfast there," said the attorney,
+blandly.
+
+"Such was not my intention," replied she, as a cold tremor--she knew not
+why--agitated her.
+
+"I am sorry to have mistaken your purpose; the ride to Bellevue is a
+long one to take without any refreshment."
+
+"I mind it not; my haste is too great to admit of any delay."
+
+"I sent by your servant to order an early breakfast, and a carriage at
+seven o'clock."
+
+"Very well, I will conform to the arrangement you have made," replied
+Emily, with a dissatisfied air.
+
+A carriage was called from the mass which had congregated, whose drivers
+were not a whit behind those of the metropolitan city in earnest
+perseverance; and De Guy assisted her into it, seating himself at a
+respectful distance on the forward seat.
+
+Now, the act of engaging a cab or a carriage is of itself quite an easy
+matter; but we question whether passengers are generally as well suited
+as in the present instance. Without troubling the worthy Mr. De Guy with
+any foolish queries as to where he should drive them, the Jehu mounted
+his box, and conducted his team apparently to the entire satisfaction of
+his fare. It may be that the intelligent driver had a way of divining
+the wishes of his customers; or it may be that De Guy, in deference to
+any supposed repugnance to business matters on the part of his
+companion, had previously discussed this topic. Without any design of
+prejudicing the reader's mind in favor of the latter supposition, we
+confess our inclination to accept it as correct.
+
+Emily vainly attempted to assure herself that her companion was
+conducting her in good faith to the home of her early years. An
+undefined feeling of insecurity was painfully besetting her, whichever
+way she turned. She considered and reconsidered the evidences he had
+brought to Cottage Island of the truth of his own statements, and of his
+own trustworthiness. It was all in vain. Could those papers have been
+forgeries? It was a terrible thought to her.
+
+The carriage stopped, and the attorney invited her to alight.
+Change--anything, was a relief to the painful sensations which had
+almost overpowered her, and without reflection she did so. Her faculties
+were so confused she did not notice that it was not the private entrance
+of the St. Charles. She took everything for granted, and accepted the
+offered arm of De Guy. She crossed the broad side-walk, and, raising her
+eyes, was overwhelmed by seeing at the side of the door she was about
+to enter the sign of "_Anthony Marwell, Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law_."
+
+"Please to walk up stairs," squeaked the attorney, drawing her after him
+to the inside of the door, which he immediately closed and bolted.
+
+"Not a step further, sir!" said she, with as much firmness as she could
+command. "What means this? Am I again betrayed?"
+
+"Nay, nay, madam, walk up quietly," said De Guy, in a soothing tone, as
+he applied a little gentle force to the arm he held.
+
+"Unhand me, sir!" screamed Emily, as loud as her agitated condition
+would permit.
+
+But De Guy heeded her not; and, without condescending to utter another
+word, he took her up like a child, and bore her up the stairs to
+Maxwell's office. Turning the key to prevent interruption, he opened the
+lawyer's private apartment in the rear, and placed the fainting girl
+upon the bed, and retired.
+
+Unlocking the office door, he was confronted by an old negress, who had
+charge of the sweeping and cleaning department of the building.
+
+"Sar! what's all dis about?" screamed she, in no gentle tone; for the
+colored lady had witnessed De Guy's achievement from the stair-case
+above.
+
+"Hush, Dido--"
+
+"Sar! who are you dat come inter Massa Maxwell's room widout no leave?"
+
+"Never mind who I am, Dido. There is a lady in the bedroom, by whom Mr.
+Maxwell sets his life--do you hear?--sets his life. She has fainted, and
+you must take care of her,"--and De Guy slipped a half-eagle into the
+negress' hands.
+
+"Dat alters de case," said the black lady, eying the money with much
+satisfaction. "Massa Maxwell's a sly dog. I take good care ob de
+lady--not de fus time, nuder."
+
+"Don't let her get away; take good care of her, and you shall have half
+a dozen just such pieces."
+
+"Never fear, Massa, I's use to de business."
+
+De Guy left the building, satisfied, it would seem, of the negress'
+fidelity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "_Lieut_. Forgive me, sir, what I'm compelled t' obey: An order for
+     your close confinement.
+
+     "_King H_. Whence comes it, good lieutenant?
+
+     "_Lieut_. Sir, from the Duke of Gloster.
+
+     "_King H_. Good-night to all, then!"
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Connected with the estate at Bellevue, of which Jaspar Dumont was now in
+actual possession, was a small slave jail. It had been constructed under
+the immediate direction of Jaspar, to afford a place of confinement for
+the runaway or refractory negroes of the plantation. It was located at
+some distance from the proprietary mansion, and from the quarters of the
+negroes. Jaspar's taste in matters of this kind was of the most refined
+character, and he had caused it to be constructed on a plan and in a
+manner that would seem to bid defiance to the skill of a Baron Trenck,
+or a Stephen Burroughs. The material was granite, brought at no trifling
+expense from the North. There were no windows upon the sides, and only
+one entrance, which was secured by double iron doors. Light and air were
+supplied, in meagre quantities, by means of a skylight in the roof,
+which was regulated by a cord passing down upon the outside.
+
+This jail, either by accident or design, was so constructed that any
+noise inside was not transmitted to the outside. Whether this was
+because of the reflecting properties of the walls, which might have sent
+the sound echoing out at the skylight on the apex of the four-sided
+roof, or because of some other natural causes, we shall not take up the
+reader's time in discussing. Its inmates might startle Heaven with their
+cries, but certainly every ear on earth below must be deaf to their
+wail. This circumstance seemed typical of the actual fact of oppression;
+but we are sure that Jaspar never meant to typify the groans, by man
+unheeded, of the victims of tyranny ascending to be heard above.
+
+It was the day after the events related in the last chapter, and the
+negro jail was tenanted; but not by a refractory or a runaway slave. It
+was now devoted to a more dignified purpose, being occupied by a white
+man and his wife, the victims of Jaspar Dumont's hatred and fears. They
+had already been prisoners for the past forty-eight hours. No sound from
+the wide, wide world without had reached them; and, though the man had
+shouted himself hoarse in endeavors to arrest the attention of any
+casual passer-by, the sound of his voice had risen to Heaven, but had
+not been heard by any mortal ear.
+
+On a heap of dirty straw, in one corner, lay a female. She was feeble
+and helpless. By her side, gazing sadly upon her, was her companion,
+pale and haggard, and apparently conquered in spirit. The sufferings of
+the frail being by his side seemed to pierce him to the soul. He felt
+not for himself; his thoughts, his feelings, all were devoted to her,
+whom he had loved and respected through many vicissitudes, whose kindly
+sympathy had cheered his heart in many of the severest of earth's
+trials. They had passed through peril and poverty together, and now the
+cup of tribulation seemed full to the brim. They were doomed to
+death,--not to the death of the malefactor, but as victims of private
+interest. No friendly jailer had been near, to bring them even a cup of
+cold water to assuage their consuming thirst. Not a morsel of food had
+they tasted since their incarceration! The terrible doom to which they
+were consigned was too apparent; there was nothing to foreshadow even
+the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with their
+inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was equal to any
+crime which his own safety demanded.
+
+The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her companion
+bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his sunken eyes, he
+imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.
+
+"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.
+
+"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a single drop
+of cold water!"
+
+"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?" exclaimed
+Dalhousie,--for it was he,--striking his hands violently upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!--I am ready to die,"
+said she, faintly.
+
+Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to permit
+his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible situation of
+his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail with long strides,
+gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate remedy for his woes.
+Escape had scarcely presented itself to his mind. He had not the energy
+of character which rises superior to every ill, and had bent himself
+supinely to the fate which awaited him. To work through the solid walls
+of the jail seemed to him an impossibility, even if provided with the
+necessary implements. The scheme was too vast for his mind,
+unaccustomed, as it was, to contend with great difficulties.
+
+Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him, armed
+with energy to break through every obstacle which might oppose him. His
+feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for her relief, and such
+a demand even his supine nature could not resist.
+
+Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had, apparently, been
+quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel with which the earth had
+been thrown out.
+
+Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated him. "_I_
+began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it for water," muttered
+he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced digging. Awhile he labored
+with the energy of desperation; but, enfeebled by long fasting, and
+unused to such severe toil, he soon felt his strength give way. It
+appeared to be his only hope, the only ministration of comfort to the
+loved one beside him, and he strove manfully against the weakness which
+beset him. An hour he labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his
+toil. Overcome by his exertions, he seated himself upon the brink of the
+pit, and gave way to the agonizing emotions which filled his soul. A
+sigh from his wife roused him to a new effort, and, partially
+invigorated by the few moments' rest, he again applied himself to his
+task. The ground was of a moist character, and he had every
+encouragement of soon finding the coveted treasure. Animated by this
+hope, he redoubled his efforts, and for another hour despair nerved his
+arm, and strengthened his sinking frame. Still the buried treasure
+eluded his search. Exhausted by his exertions, he sunk heavily upon the
+side of the pit, and the big tears coursed down his hollow cheeks.
+Deserted by man, he felt that there was no God in heaven; and no
+divinely-born sentiment came to cheer him in the hour of his
+despondency. He felt that the hand of death must soon take him and his
+loved wife into its cold embrace. With much effort he drew himself to
+her side, and endeavored to compose his mind for the struggle with the
+destroyer.
+
+Two hours he lay by her side; but his time had not yet come. Rested from
+the severe fatigue he had undergone, he felt a new vigor stealing
+through his frame. Something like hope again flitted before his
+desponding mind, and, partially raising himself from his recumbent
+posture, he gazed about the apartment. The pit he had dug was yawning
+near him. A shudder convulsed his frame, as it reminded him of the open
+grave that gaped to receive him. Had he not dug this grave for himself?
+
+The instinct of self-preservation drew him to his feet. Seizing the
+shovel, he advanced to the pit, when, to his unspeakable delight, he
+perceived that the bottom of it was covered with black, dirty water. The
+sight roused his dormant energies, and he saw before him years of life
+and happiness. Leaping into the pit, he drank from the putrid pool,
+using the palms of his hands for a drinking vessel.
+
+Tearing off the top of his glazed cap, he succeeded in making a very
+tolerable cup of it, with which he conveyed some of the precious liquid
+to the parched lips of his sinking wife. The act roused her from the
+absent mood to which she had abandoned herself. She took a long draught
+of the discolored beverage, and, had it been the pure mountain spring,
+its effect could scarcely have been more magical. It not only refreshed
+the body, but inspired the mind. With this dawning hope the poor
+prisoners built the flimsy fabric of future joy and safety.
+
+Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement. Experience,
+the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him, and imparted the
+strength and resolution which often require years to mature. Thoughts,
+and feelings, and energies, to which he had before been a stranger, came
+bounding through his mind, as the mighty river, which, having broken
+away the feeble barrier man had set in its course, roars and thunders
+down its before forsaken path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated
+by this successful act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding
+to the awful fate which awaited him. His best hours--his hours of
+unimpaired strength--had now passed away; there was no fountain at which
+he could renew it. But energy now burned within him, and, like an
+invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some great act. The impulse
+was irresistible; hopeless as his case had before appeared, he
+determined to escape. But how? This question had not yet presented
+itself. Escape from the jail!--from death!--himself,--more than himself,
+his wife! Stone walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more
+than downy masses, which his breath could blow away.
+
+Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and sounded
+upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid beneath his
+blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and he was about to
+abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when a new thought
+suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the new idea, he
+impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By the side of the
+wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging, with the intention of
+undermining it. Without a thought of his enfeebled body, he plied the
+shovel with the energy of desperation. Instead of making a calm
+calculation, and proceeding with such an economy of strength as would
+enable him to complete the work, he labored as though the task before
+him could be easily and quickly accomplished.
+
+His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken, penetrated the
+purpose of her husband; but she saw that his strength must entirely fail
+him ere the work could be accomplished.
+
+"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a little."
+
+"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice another
+moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing from his labors.
+
+"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so hard."
+
+"That would be an honorable death, at least."
+
+"And leave me to linger here?--No, let us die together, if die we must.
+Perhaps I can help you,"--and she strove to rise.
+
+"Do not rise, Delia,--keep quiet; I am strong, and will yet deliver you
+from this dungeon. Lay quiet, dear; do not add to my distress."
+
+"I fear I must lay still,--I cannot rise," said she, sinking back with
+the exhaustion of the effort.
+
+Dalhousie threw down his shovel, and hastened to her side.
+
+"Do not attempt to rise again, dear," said he. "Let me get you some more
+water."
+
+He again filled the rude cup at the pit, and, after she had taken a long
+draught of it, he laved her head, an operation which appeared to refresh
+her.
+
+"Do you feel better?"
+
+"Much better."
+
+"Now keep perfectly quiet, and I will resume my task."
+
+"I will; but pray, Francois, do not work so hard; temper your enthusiasm
+with reason. You cannot succeed, unless you are careful."
+
+"I will, dear; I will rest every little while."
+
+Dalhousie resumed his labor, and, convinced by his wife's reasoning, he
+labored more moderately. While he toils at this apparently hopelessly
+task, we will return to the night when we left him in the library, after
+having obtained possession of the secret packet.
+
+The overseer, after leaving the library, was perplexed to determine his
+future course. He was in possession of a mighty secret, a secret which
+involved his employer's very existence. The realization of a thousand
+golden dreams was at hand, and he was resolved, without an over-nice
+balancing of conscientious scruples, to make the most of the information
+he had obtained. There were two methods of procedure open to him, and
+his perplexity was occasioned by this fact. In this instance his
+resolution was not at fault, for the reins were in his own hands. It was
+not like hewing a path through the granite barriers of difficulty,
+against the very frown of destiny. He imagined that some overruling
+power had made the path, and invited him to walk in it.
+
+Should he make his fortune by means of the uncle or the niece? The
+question of his existence had narrowed itself down to this point. It
+was sure, he felt, from one or the other.
+
+Being of a naturally generous disposition, with strong affections, and
+having not a little of the natural sense of justice in his composition,
+he was decidedly in favor of permitting the niece to enrich him. This
+was his personal preference; but he was sensible of the truth of the
+axiom, that individual preferences must sometimes be sacrificed to the
+success of the main object; and, if the circumstances demanded it, he
+felt able to make the sacrifice.
+
+If he forwarded the packet to its proper destination, the lady would,
+without doubt, be soon restored to her possessions. This was the course
+he preferred, as well as the course which justice and morality demanded.
+But, alas! his moral sentiment was not sufficiently developed to make
+him pause before taking the opposite course, if his present and
+temporary interest should seem to demand it. A departure from the strict
+injunction of conscience is sure to bring misery; and this was doubly
+true in his case.
+
+The uncle was in actual possession, and he called to mind the old maxim,
+that "possession is nine points in the law." He was unwilling to risk
+the bright prospects, which had so suddenly opened upon him, on the
+tenth point. Fearing that Jaspar's unscrupulous character would enable
+him to defeat the heiress, he had not the courage to do his duty and
+trust Heaven for the reward.
+
+With this view of his position, he reluctantly--we will do him the
+justice to say reluctantly--abandoned the project of restoring the niece
+to her birthright. Thus was the great purpose of his life narrowed down
+to one point, and he retired to his pillow to consider in what manner he
+should approach Jaspar.
+
+Simple as this single point had before appeared, he found, on
+reflection, that it was environed with difficulties and dangers. Jaspar
+was intrenched in his own castle, and it would require some address even
+to approach near enough to hold a parley. Conclusive as were the
+evidences in his possession of Jaspar's perfidy, they might, by the aid
+of cunning and gold, be made to appear as forgeries, gotten up for the
+purpose of extorting money. The stake was a great one, and he determined
+with a bold hand to play the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     "_Cassius_. At such a time as this, it is not meet
+     That every nice offence should bear its comment.
+     --You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus!"
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont, on the morning after the abstraction of the papers by
+Dalhousie, rose from his inebriated slumbers; but his rest was a
+misnomer. The strong excitement, which a few weeks before had served to
+keep his mind occupied, had now passed away. His villany was
+accomplished; but it had not purchased the satisfaction he coveted--it
+had cost too much sacrifice of soul. Brandy was his only solace; and
+even this only conjured up demons of torture in his fevered imagination.
+
+He was conscious that on the previous night he had drank too much. There
+seemed to be a chasm in his recollection which all his efforts could not
+fill. He might, while in a measure unconscious of his actions, have
+betrayed some of his momentous secrets. The overseer, of whose presence
+he had an indistinct remembrance, might have obtained some further clue
+to the great mystery. These were annoying reflections, and while he
+resolved to be more temperate in future, how fervently he adjured his
+patron demon to ward off any danger he might have courted in his
+inebriation!
+
+After his accustomed ride through the cane-fields, he retired to the
+library. The decanter had been replenished with brandy, and his late
+resolutions did not deter him from freely imbibing of its contents. The
+equilibrium was restored. His mind, stimulated by the fumes of the
+liquor, resumed its usual buoyancy. He paced the room, and drank
+frequent draughts of the fiery beverage.
+
+Suddenly he stopped in his perambulation, as a faint recollection of the
+lost key came to his mind. He searched his pockets; but it could not be
+found. The drawer was locked. Suspicious as he was fearful, he trembled
+lest in his oblivious moments he had compromised his secret. He sent for
+the overseer, determined to know and provide for the worst.
+
+After the messenger left, his reflections assumed a new direction. He
+tried to laugh away his suspicions, applied epithets to himself which it
+would not have been safe for another to have applied, and in good round
+oaths cursed his own stupidity. In his privacy he was a pattern of
+candor, and bestowed upon himself such a rating as, to another, would
+have given fair promise of good results.
+
+He satisfied himself that the drawer could contain nothing to implicate
+him; and, even if it did, why, he was safe enough in the hands of
+Dalhousie. The overseer he regarded as a kind of _thing_, who, while he
+retained him in his service, would never injure him. Jaspar, for some
+reason or other, had formed no very elevated opinion of Dalhousie's
+acuteness. He had bought him off cheaply once, and could do so again. If
+he refused to be bought off cheaply,--and Jaspar grated his teeth at the
+reflection,--why, a method could be devised to get rid of him.
+
+While engaged in these musings, a knock at the door startled him to his
+feet. It was not the overseer's knock.
+
+A servant announced a strange gentleman, who declined to give his name.
+
+"Show him in," said Jaspar, re-seating himself, and striving to assume a
+tranquillity which did not pervade his mind. Since the consummation of
+his base scheme he had been a prey to nervous starts, and the
+announcement of a stranger stirred the blood in its channels, and sent
+his heart into his throat. This nervous excitement had been increasing
+upon him every day, and his devotion to the bottle by no means tended
+to allay it. Such are the consequences of guilt. If the victim, before
+he yields to temptation, could anticipate the terrible state of suspense
+into which his guilt would plunge him,--if he could see only a faint
+reflection of himself, starting at every sound in nervous terror, as
+before the appearance of some grim spirit of darkness,--he would never
+have the courage to commit a crime.
+
+The stranger entered the library. It was De Guy. At his appearance
+Jaspar's fears gave way to a most uncontrollable fit of passion.
+
+"Villain!" exclaimed he, "how dare you enter my house, after what has
+passed?"
+
+"Gently, my dear sir! You forget that we have been friends, and that our
+mutual safety requires us to remain so still," said De Guy, in his silky
+tone and compromising manner.
+
+Jaspar compressed his lips, and grated his teeth, while a smothered oath
+escaped him. But his rage soon found a more audible expression.
+
+"Friends!" By ----, I should think we had been _friends!_" said he,
+fiercely.
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir,--_friends_."
+
+"Then save me from my friends!"
+
+"Better say your enemies! I fear you have a great many."
+
+"Save me from both! May I ask to what fortunate circumstance I am
+indebted for the honor of this visit?" said Jaspar, sarcastically
+mimicking the silky tones, of the attorney.
+
+"I came to forward our mutual interest."
+
+"Then, by ----, you can take yourself off! You and I will part company."
+
+"Indeed, sir, this is ungenerous, after I have assisted you into your
+present position, to treat me in this manner," replied the attorney,
+smilingly shaking his head.
+
+"I am _not_ indebted to you for my life, or my position! You have been
+a traitor, sir!--a traitor! and, tear out my heart, but I will swing,
+before I have anything further to do with you!" roared Jaspar, with
+compound emphasis, as he rose from his chair, and advanced to the
+brandy-bottle.
+
+"Gently, Mr. Dumont, gently! Do not get into a passion! May I ask what
+you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?" interrogated the
+attorney, with a smile of assurance.
+
+"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed shabby
+trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."
+
+"My _dear_ sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily, I trust?"
+
+"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit," returned
+the attorney, complacently.
+
+"Do you take me for an idiot?"
+
+"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit such a
+supposition."
+
+"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in spite of
+himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.
+
+"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the time,
+then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will pardon the
+little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own views."
+
+Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
+companion.
+
+"Explain yourself," said he.
+
+"Everything has come out right,--has it not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are in quiet possession?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
+wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey, all
+your hopes would have been blasted."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of anxiety
+beclouded his brow.
+
+"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness with
+which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.
+
+The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
+ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's belief,
+and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was not, however,
+so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on the subject.
+
+"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of doubt or
+anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her boiler."
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were lost,--were they not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have shared
+their fate."
+
+"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked Jaspar,
+with a sneer.
+
+"Exactly so!"
+
+"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as this?"
+
+"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the attorney,
+convincingly.
+
+Jaspar looked incredulous, and resorted to the brandy-bottle, which
+seemed to bear the same relation to him that the oracle of Delphi did to
+the ancient Greeks.
+
+"You do not think me capable of _inventing_ such a story, I trust," said
+De Guy, seriously.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! you have joined the church, haven't you, since we met
+last?"
+
+"I see, sir, you think, because I assisted you in your plans, that I
+have no honor, no conscience, no humanity. Why, sir, what I have done
+for you was only a duty which my religion demanded of me."
+
+"Your creed must be an original one!" replied Jaspar, with a sickly
+laugh.
+
+"It _is_ an original one. You thought yourself better entitled to your
+brother's property than this giddy girl. So did I; and it was my duty to
+see justice done. A matter of conscience with me, upon my honor."
+
+"Enough of this!" said Jaspar, sternly, for a joke soon grew stale with
+him.
+
+"Be it so; but remember the story is true."
+
+"And you did me the favor to blow up the steamer!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"At the risk of my own life, I did. I bribed the firemen to crowd on the
+steam, and the engineers to keep down the safety-valve,--all under the
+excitement of a race, though with special reference to your interest."
+
+"Was this part of your creed, too?"
+
+"Certainly," and the attorney launched out into a dissertation of
+theology and kindred topics, with which we will not trouble the reader.
+
+Jaspar heard it not, for he was busy in considerations of a less
+metaphysical character. He was thinking of his present position, and of
+the overseer, whose step he heard on the veranda.
+
+"I see," said he, interrupting De Guy, "you have been my friend."
+
+This remark was the result of his deliberations. He might need the
+services of the attorney.
+
+"I expect my overseer on business in a moment," continued he, "and I
+should like to see you again, after he has gone. May I trouble you to
+step into this room for a few moments?"
+
+"Certainly," replied De Guy, who was congratulating himself on his
+success in conciliating the "bear of Bellevue," as he styled him among
+his boon companions.
+
+Jaspar closed the door upon the attorney, and was in the act of lighting
+a cigar, when Dalhousie entered. The overseer endeavored to discover in
+the countenance of his employer some indications of his motive in
+sending for him; but Jaspar maintained a perfect indifference, which
+defeated his object, Neither spoke for several moments; but at last the
+overseer, embarrassed by the silence, said,
+
+"You sent for me, Mr. Dumont?"
+
+"I did," said Jaspar, suddenly, as though the words had roused him from
+his profound abstraction; "I did; one of my keys is missing, so that I
+cannot open the drawer. You arranged its contents, I believe."
+
+"Yes," said Dalhousie, flustered, for he was not so deeply skilled in
+the arts of deception as to carry them on without some compunction; "but
+I left the key in the drawer."
+
+"You see It is not there," said Jaspar, fixing his sharp gray eye upon
+the overseer.
+
+"It is not," said Dalhousie, advancing to the secretary. "Probably it
+has fallen upon the floor--" and he stooped down to look for it.
+
+Jaspar watched him in silence, as he felt about the floor. The overseer
+was in no haste to find it, though his eyes were fixed on it all the
+time.
+
+"Didn't you put it into your pocket, by mistake?" suggested Jaspar.
+
+"Certainly not," replied Dalhousie; "here it is;" and, picking up the
+key, he handed it to Jaspar. "I was certain I left it here."
+
+Jaspar felt much relieved.
+
+"Sorry to have troubled you," said he, "but I wanted a paper--" and he
+rose and opened the drawer, as if in quest of it.
+
+"No trouble at all," returned the overseer. "Now that I am here, a few
+words with you would be particularly agreeable to me."
+
+Jaspar's curiosity was instantly excited, and, forgetting the paper and
+De Guy, he requested him to proceed immediately with his business.
+
+"It is a matter of much interest to both of us," continued Dalhousie,
+embarrassed by the difficulties of his position.
+
+"Well, sir, go on," said Jaspar, impatiently, for the overseer's
+hesitation had rather a bad odor.
+
+"I may as well speak bluntly and to the point," stammered Dalhousie,
+still reluctant to state his business.
+
+"Why don't you? I am not a sentimental girl, that you need make a long
+preface to your oration."
+
+"I will, sir. Every man is in duty bound to consider his own interest--"
+
+"Certainly, by all means. Go on."
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece--" and Dalhousie paused
+again.
+
+Jaspar's reddening face and the curl upon his lip indicated the volcano
+of passion which would soon burst within him.
+
+"Proceed, sir," said he, struggling to be calm.
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece, you are aware that I am
+somewhat acquainted with them."
+
+"I am; I hope you do not know too much for your own good. You know I am
+not to be trifled with."
+
+"I am not concerned for my own safety," replied Dalhousie, a little
+stung by the implied threat of Jaspar; "but I wish to provide for your
+safety. I intend to go to France."
+
+"I do not prevent you."
+
+"I lack the means."
+
+"And you wish me to furnish them?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And how large a sum do you need?"
+
+"A pretty round sum. I will keep entirely away from this part of the
+country, so that you need not fear me."
+
+"Fear you!" sneered Jaspar, rising and draining a glass of brandy. "I
+fear no man, no devil, no angel!"
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware that your reputation is in my hands."
+
+"Not at all, sir," said Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"Know, then, that I have a copy of the genuine will, and the means of
+attesting it!"
+
+Jaspar was prepared for almost anything, but this was too much. He paced
+the room with redoubled energy. His bravado had vanished, and he was as
+near pale as his bloated visage could approach to that hue. He strode up
+and down the room in silence, while his heart beat the reveille of fear.
+For a time his wonted firmness forsook him, and he felt as weak as a
+child, and sunk back into a chair.
+
+By degrees he grew calmer. The case was a desperate one. Again he
+swallowed a long draught of brandy, which seemed to reduce his nerves to
+a state of subjection. Gradually he rallied the dissipated powers of his
+mind, and was ready to meet the emergency before him.
+
+Dalhousie, after making his appalling announcement, had thrown himself
+into a chair, to await the effect of his words. He seemed in no hurry to
+continue the subject. Thus far the effect warranted his most sanguine
+hopes of the realization of his great schemes.
+
+Jaspar, after recovering some portion of his former calmness, said,
+
+"May I ask how you obtained possession of the document?"
+
+"That question, sir, I must decline answering."
+
+"You will, at least, show me the paper?"
+
+"That also I must decline."
+
+Jaspar bit his lip.
+
+"How shall I know, then, that you are not deceiving me?"
+
+"I assure you that I have the document, and you must trust to my honor
+for the rest."
+
+"Honor!" exclaimed Jaspar, giving way to his passion. "No one but a
+scoundrel ever talks of his honor! By ----, I only want to hear that
+word, to know that the man is a ---- rascal!"
+
+"Very well, sir, I shall be under the necessity of seeking out your
+niece."
+
+"My niece!" roared Jaspar, terror-stricken. "Did you not see her buried
+at Vicksburg?"
+
+"It might have been she, but it is scarcely possible."
+
+"Hell!" shouted Jaspar, unable to govern his fury. With long strides he
+paced the room, his teeth grating like a madman's, and his eyes
+bloodshot and glaring like those of a demon. His fears seemed to arm him
+with desperate fury.
+
+"Where is the ring?--the ring!" said he, stopping in front of the
+overseer. "Didn't you give me her ring?"
+
+"I gave you a ring," said Dalhousie, calmly.
+
+"Was it not _her_ ring? Did it not have her initial, and her father's
+hair in it?" and Jaspar flew to the secretary, where he had deposited
+the evidence of his niece's supposed death.
+
+"There is no longer any need of continuing the deception--"
+
+"Deception! Here is the ring, and here is the letter D. Doesn't it stand
+for Dumont?"
+
+"Not at all. It stands for Delia, my wife's name, in this instance."
+
+"Your wife's name!" exclaimed Jaspar, striking his forehead furiously.
+
+"It does, sir, and for her mother's name also, whose memory it was
+intended to commemorate."
+
+Jaspar's emotions were so violent, that the overseer began to fear some
+fatal consequences might ensue.
+
+"Calm yourself, Mr. Dumont. Do not let your passions overcome you. I
+have no intention of making an evil use of this information," said he,
+in a soothing tone.
+
+This seemed to calm the violence of Jaspar's feelings, and with a strong
+effort he recovered his command of himself.
+
+"My niece Is yet alive, is she?" said Jaspar, looking anxiously at the
+overseer.
+
+"Perhaps not; but probably she is."
+
+"And it was not she that was buried?"
+
+"As to that, I cannot say; I never saw the lady alive."
+
+"And what are your plans?" asked Jaspar, with a glance of doubt at the
+overseer.
+
+"I will go to France, if you provide the means."
+
+"Suppose I will not?"
+
+"Perhaps your niece will."
+
+"What if she is dead?"
+
+"I can better tell when I know that she is dead."
+
+"How much money do you require?"
+
+"Twenty thousand."
+
+"A large sum."
+
+"From millions your niece would gladly give more."
+
+"I will think of your proposition. Come in again in two hours, and you
+shall have my answer."
+
+"Better give me an answer now."
+
+"I wish to consider."
+
+"You have only to choose between twenty thousand dollars and the whole
+fortune. With your means at command, much reflection is not needed."
+
+"Show me the papers, and I will decide at once."
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I must consider whether your pretensions are well founded."
+
+"I will not be over nice; but any attempt to play me false shall rest
+heavily on your own head."
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, with something like a smile, but more like a
+sneer.
+
+With compressed lips, and the scowl of a demon, Jaspar witnessed the
+departure of the overseer. His case looked desperate, and he felt
+something like the gloominess of despair. Dalhousie could be disposed
+of, but the niece!--the niece, if she yet lived, would be the
+destruction of all his avaricious schemes.
+
+As usual when agitated, he paced the room; and, as he reflected upon the
+danger, and the desperate remedies which suggested themselves, his
+manner grew more and more demoniacal. He resolved to trust no man. This
+was a dark thought, and could proceed only from the darkest mind.
+
+The twenty thousand dollars he could pay; but the man who had such a
+hold upon him would never be satisfied while a dollar remained. And
+revenge was sweet! No! Dalhousie must not be _bought_ off! It was a
+feast to his mind to anticipate the torture of the overseer!
+
+An exclamation of satisfaction escaped him, as he suddenly decided upon
+the means of torture. In imagination he could see before him _the
+thing_, who had dared to threaten him, lingering out the moments of a
+hated life in slow agony. The vision was one of pleasure, and he rubbed
+his hands with delight.
+
+The means of accomplishing his dark purpose then came up for
+consideration, and in this connection he happened to think of De Guy. He
+must be the minister of his vengeance, and the herald of his future
+safety; and he summoned him again to his presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     "Thou hast stepped in between me and my hopes,
+     And ravished from me all my soul held dear."  ROWE.
+
+
+De Guy returned to the library at Jaspar's summons. The shrewd attorney
+at once perceived the conflict which agitated the mind of his patron. He
+had come to Bellevue with a purpose, and, as Jaspar's disturbed mind
+seemed to favor that purpose, he hailed it as an omen of success. But
+what had so agitated him? Jaspar was not a man to be depressed by any
+trivial circumstance.
+
+The attorney did not have to wait long in suspense, for Jaspar related
+the particulars of his interview with Dalhousie, and mentioned the price
+he had named to insure his silence. It was now De Guy's turn to be
+disturbed. The purpose for which he had come was likely to be thwarted
+by this new aspirant for a share in the Dumont estates.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed his deep
+anxiety.
+
+"Get rid of him! His story is a fabrication," returned De Guy.
+
+"Not entirely. He knows too much for our safety."
+
+"So much the worse for him!"
+
+"Why? What would you do?"
+
+"Shut his mouth! It matters not how. You do not want to--" and the
+attorney drew his under lip beneath his upper teeth, and produced an
+explosive sound, very much like the crack of a pistol, or a
+champagne-cork, but which Jaspar did not mistake for the latter. "You
+do not want to--_f-h-t_--him, if you can help it."
+
+"It would be the safest way," returned the other, not at all embarrassed
+by the attorney's ambiguous method of expressing himself.
+
+"Perhaps not; though 'dead men tell no tales,' it is also true that
+'murder will out.' Besides, I have conscientious scruples."
+
+Jaspar sneered at this last remark; but the attorney was too useful an
+adviser at that moment to be lightly provoked, and he suppressed the
+angry exclamation which rose to his lips.
+
+"How would the slave jail do?" said he, with a fiendish smile.
+
+"Too public. Our object is to save the man's life,--an act of humanity;
+but we must not endanger our own safety."
+
+"No mortal man can ever know that he is confined there. The jail was
+built under my own direction, and, owing to its peculiar construction,
+not even the hands on the estate will know that it is occupied. I always
+keep the keys myself."
+
+"If you are satisfied, it is enough. But how can you get him in?"
+
+"I can manage that, with your assistance," said Jaspar, who had already
+arranged every particular. "But his wife?"
+
+"His wife! Has he a wife?"
+
+"Ay; and one who, if I mistake not, will give us more trouble than the
+fellow himself."
+
+"She must be caged with him."
+
+"You say well, Mr. De Guy. But can you reconcile this advice with your
+dainty humanity?" said Jaspar, with a sneer.
+
+"Certainly, I can! It were cruelty to separate man and wife, even in
+death. If I had a wife, I should be sorry to part with her under any
+circumstances."
+
+Jaspar grinned a sickly smile.
+
+"But the plan!" continued the attorney. "This loving couple will not
+willingly occupy your fancy apartment."
+
+"Leave that to me. Go to the jail. Here are the keys. I will send them
+to you. When they are in, lock the doors!"
+
+De Guy smiled.
+
+"You do not understand me?"
+
+The attorney confessed that he did not.
+
+"Nevertheless, go to the jail, and wait their coming. Unlock the doors,
+and get out of sight. They will enter, like lambs."
+
+Jaspar explained a little further, and the attorney took his departure
+to obey his instructions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the time appointed, Dalhousie returned to receive Jaspar's reply.
+
+"You are punctual," said the latter.
+
+"I am," replied Dalhousie, cavalierly. "This business admits of no
+delay. Are you prepared to give me an answer?"
+
+"Yes," returned Jaspar, endeavoring to assume a crestfallen air.
+
+"Well, sir, do you accept my terms?"
+
+"I do, on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"It is, that you sign this bond never again to land in America, and to
+preserve entire silence in regard to the information you have obtained;"
+and Jaspar read an instrument he had drawn up, to blind the eyes of the
+overseer.
+
+"I agree to it."
+
+"It is well. But a further difficulty presents itself. I have not so
+much money in the world. The estate, perhaps you know, consists mostly
+of real estate, stocks, negroes, &c. I have not five thousand dollars by
+me."
+
+The overseer looked at Jaspar with a keen, contemptuous glance, as if to
+read any attempt on his part to dupe him; but the wily planter moved not
+a muscle.
+
+"Then you cannot, if you would, consummate the bargain?" said he.
+
+"I said not so," returned Jaspar. "I only remarked that a difficulty had
+presented itself."
+
+"Pray explain yourself."
+
+"The difficulty can be removed."
+
+"Well, how? What new risk must I run?"
+
+"No risk. To tell you all in a few words, I have the money in gold
+buried on the estate."
+
+"That will suit me better. I prefer gold."
+
+"It is buried three feet under ground, in the slave jail. I selected
+that place to bury it, because I could dig without attracting
+attention."
+
+"It can easily be brought to light. An hour's work with the spade will
+unearth it."
+
+"True; but I have not the strength to dig. Besides, I am engaged with a
+friend in the nest room."
+
+Dalhousie accepted the excuse, for he had seen De Guy, as he was walking
+in the garden, half an hour before.
+
+"I can dig it up myself. Show me the spot."
+
+"Very well; but sign the bond first."
+
+"Of course, if you keep not your faith with me, the bond is nothing,"
+said Dalhousie, as he affixed his signature to the paper, which Jaspar
+folded carefully, and put in his pocket.
+
+"Here are directions which will enable you to find it without the
+necessity of my attending you;" and he handed him a slip of paper, upon
+which were written minute directions to the supposed locality of the
+treasure.
+
+"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the directions, "while
+I am digging, you should close the doors upon me?"
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the heart
+belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial muscles.
+
+"I have not the highest confidence in _your_ honor."
+
+"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you any person
+at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"
+
+"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the mortifying
+fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.
+
+"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door, and, if
+she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside when I close
+the door."
+
+Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the fitness of
+the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt it.
+
+Briefly he narrated to his wife--though with some variations and
+concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all his operations--the
+history of the affair, and the good fortune that awaited him; and
+requested her attendance at the jail, to stand sentry over the gloomy
+den, while he dug up the treasure.
+
+De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his wife
+made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in a
+cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie walked
+twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building. Stationing his
+wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the locality of the
+supposed treasure.
+
+De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when the
+vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the exercise of
+extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, the rear of the
+jail. Cat-like, he crept to the corner, and listened. He could hear
+their conversation. Carefully he stole round to the corner nearest to
+the door. For an instant the wife had left her station, to observe the
+progress of her husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was
+not the man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
+which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he flew
+to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the midst of
+their vision of wealth and happiness.
+
+Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to the
+mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his neighbor's cow.
+Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently waiting his return.
+
+"Are they safe?" said he.
+
+"As safe as your jail-walls can make them. Your plan was a clumsy one,
+but I _forced_ it to succeed."
+
+"Did they not enter without scruple?"
+
+"Yes, but the sentinel."
+
+"Pshaw! did you not know she would desert her post? If she saw not
+danger, she would fear none in the day-time,--it is woman-like."
+
+"Not always; but it matters not; they are safe. Now to business."
+
+"Business!" exclaimed Jaspar, with a start, and a wild stare at the
+attorney. "The business is done."
+
+"Not all of it. There are other enemies in the field."
+
+"What mean you?" said Jaspar, alarmed. "Are we not safe yet?"
+
+"Not quite," replied the smooth attorney, with a quiet smile. "The game
+you played was a deep one, and you must needs persevere to the end."
+
+"Explain yourself, man; don't trifle with me," said Jaspar, roused by
+the smooth smile of the attorney; for that smile seemed to him full of
+meaning.
+
+"All in good time, my dear sir. Let me beg of you not to be discomposed
+by anything I may say to you."
+
+Jaspar sneered, but ventured no reply.
+
+"I have served you faithfully, you must acknowledge."
+
+"I will acknowledge nothing," said Jaspar, testily.
+
+"The steamer exploded, you remember," returned De Guy, with an
+expression of sly humor, which Jaspar did not appreciate.
+
+"I do remember it, by Heaven! But this villanous Dalhousie says my niece
+was not known to have been killed."
+
+"Exactly so."
+
+"Sir! Do you mean to say that you _know_ she was not lost?"
+
+"Precisely so."
+
+"By ----! Sir, you have been making a merit of this very thing."
+
+"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a
+particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself this
+morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan succeeded
+admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the intention of
+serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good intentions!"
+
+"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"
+
+"Did the best that could be done, under the circumstances."
+
+"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."
+
+"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of happiness
+and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my advice."
+
+"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will be the
+best that could possibly be given to a man in your condition."
+
+"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the smooth
+words of his companion.
+
+"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."
+
+"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day without
+opening your mouth."
+
+"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."
+
+"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when the girl
+herself is at hand?"
+
+"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin, always
+advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to other
+matters."
+
+"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and paying his
+devoir to the brandy-bottle.
+
+"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair and
+coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing himself
+lazily upon the sofa--"I will tell you. The case is not desperate yet.
+How much is the amount of the old colonel's property?"
+
+"How, sir! What mean you?"
+
+"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable
+_sang-froid_, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and, taking
+therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent vesuvian.
+Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely declined the courtesy,
+he continued, "It is necessary to our further progress that I have this
+information."
+
+"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What then?"
+replied Jaspar, doggedly.
+
+"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more than
+double that sum."
+
+"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.
+
+"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."
+
+"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.
+
+"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy, calmly.
+
+"He might possibly have left more."
+
+"Haven't you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the
+attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one
+perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened the
+drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.
+
+"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"
+
+"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is worth
+more,"--and he commenced fumbling over the contents of the drawer.
+
+"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains out!"
+said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the table.
+
+"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you shall have
+it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"--and he prepared to depart.
+
+"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can satisfy you,
+though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the subject."
+
+"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney, not at all
+disconcerted by what had happened.
+
+"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."
+
+"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at least. Is it
+not a million and a half?"
+
+"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.
+
+"Perhaps two millions."
+
+"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.
+
+"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a million and
+a half."
+
+"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.
+
+"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De Guy,
+loud enough to be heard by his companion.
+
+"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which betrayed
+but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as he heard these
+words.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and one-third of
+it would be very handsome for you."
+
+"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very grateful to
+you for allowing me so much."
+
+"Exactly so. Gratitude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The fact is,
+Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my expensive habits,
+one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a single man, and not
+likely to change your condition at present, so that you can have no
+possible use, either for yourself or for your heirs, for any more than
+one-third."
+
+"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering sneer.
+"But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion's share?"
+
+"O, but, my dear sir, you will not grumble! Your sense of justice will
+enable you to perceive the equity of this division."
+
+"Enough of this! I am in no humor for jesting," said Jaspar, with a
+frown.
+
+"Jesting!" exclaimed the attorney, with a well-made gesture of
+astonishment; "I was never more in earnest in my life."
+
+"May I be allowed to inquire the name of your intended bride?" sneered
+Jaspar.
+
+"A very proper question; and, considering our intimate friendship, a
+very natural one. Although my intention is a profound secret, and one I
+should not like to have go abroad at present, especially as her nearest
+of kin might possibly object, still I shall venture to inform _you_,
+since you are to have the honor of providing the means of carrying my
+matrimonial designs into effect."
+
+"I am certainly under obligations for your favorable consideration. But
+the lady's name?"
+
+"Miss Emily Dumont! a beautiful creature--high-spirited--every way
+worthy--"
+
+"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized
+the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy. "You cursed
+villain! You and I must cry quits!"
+
+"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing from his
+pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is _all_ mine."
+
+Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing down the
+pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the violence of his
+emotions.
+
+"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me. There is
+no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear all,"--and Jaspar
+felt that he was sold to the fiend before him.
+
+"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney, resuming
+his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the moment of peril.
+"I offer you the means of safety. You will escape all the dangers that
+lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to see, you perfectly
+understand."
+
+"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his forty
+pieces of silver--the more fool he, to throw them away! I could not do
+this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my money."
+
+"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice too mean
+for your noble nature."
+
+Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform their
+office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous master.
+
+"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."
+
+Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion towards
+which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the command was
+imperative. He could not resist--his will was gone.
+
+"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.
+
+"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied the
+attorney, promptly.
+
+"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you will."
+
+"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the honored
+inmate of our dwelling,--the affectionate uncle of your Emily, as of
+old," said the attorney, with infinite good humor.
+
+Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the stroke of
+this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no time.
+
+"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing a pen,
+and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have already been
+somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is your consent to my
+union with your niece. Call some one to witness it."
+
+Jaspar signed the certificate, without reading it. A witness was called,
+and the paper in due form was deposited in De Guy's pocket.
+
+"Now, sir, the lady is not altogether willing to consent to this
+arrangement; but you must persuade her, and, if need be, compel her, to
+consent. She will be here in a few days. After the marriage, it will
+only remain for me to make over to you one-third of the property, which,
+as her husband, I can then legally do. Be firm, and behave like a man,
+and your troubles are ended. Everything will be hushed up, and you can
+spend the evening of your days in peace and quiet. I bid you good-day."
+
+The attorney formally and politely ushered himself out of the library,
+and took his departure for New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     "Jaffier, you're free; but these must wait for judgment."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+We left Dalhousie engaged in the seemingly hopeless task of undermining
+the wall of the slave jail, at which he labored for several hours,
+resting at intervals, as his exhausted frame demanded. The prospect of
+realizing his hope encouraged him, and lent an artificial strength to
+his arm. He had already excavated a pit several feet in depth, but had
+not reached the bottom of the foundation wall. The quantity of earth
+piled upon the brink of the pit required extra exertion to remove it,
+but he toiled on with the energy of despair.
+
+After laboring several hours more, he discovered, to his great joy, the
+bottom of the foundation. Again he plied the spade, and, by almost
+superhuman exertions, he succeeded in excavating a hole under the
+stones, which, below the surface of the ground, were not laid in mortar.
+After loosening all the small stones around a larger one, he found that
+he could pry it out, which, with much labor, he accomplished. The
+removal of the other stones was comparatively an easy task, and a little
+time sufficed to clear a space up to the solid masonry.
+
+But here a new difficulty presented itself. The hole he had dug was
+already half filled with the stones he had tumbled from their positions.
+His strength was not sufficient to remove them, and he was compelled to
+dig again, in order to prosecute his labors.
+
+The wall removed, he commenced digging outside of the foundation wall.
+Patiently he dug down to obtain sufficient room for the deposit of earth
+from the outside. Slowly and laboriously he undermined the ground, till
+the surface above him caved in, and--joy to his panting soul!--the air,
+the pure air of heaven, rushed in through the aperture! Hastily
+enlarging the cavity, and removing the earth to the inside, he ascended
+to the surface of the ground. A feeling of gratitude thrilled through
+his frame, as he once more inhaled the free air of heaven, that he had
+escaped the terrible fate which a few hours before had seemed
+inevitable.
+
+With faltering step,--for now that his Herculean task was accomplished,
+the reality of his weakened physical condition was painfully
+apparent,--he walked round the jail, to satisfy himself that no one was
+in the vicinity. The sun was set, and the shades of night were gathering
+upon the earth. The time was favorable for his escape. Having satisfied
+himself that he was unobserved, he hastened to the garden, which was
+close at hand, to procure the means of invigorating his own body, and
+restoring to life and animation the partner of his captivity. Fruit of
+various kinds--melons, figs--rewarded his anxious search. Filling his
+handkerchief with cantelopes and figs, he hastened back to the jail,
+with all the speed his weary limbs would permit. His thoughts were fixed
+upon his wife, whose suffering had pierced his soul more deeply than all
+the anxiety and doubt he had experienced on his own account. As he
+tottered along, he asked himself if he should eat of the fruit he
+carried ere she had tasted of the banquet. He drew one of the
+rosy-cheeked, juicy figs from the handkerchief. It was no loss of
+time--no deferring of the succor she needed--to eat as he walked; run he
+could not, though he fain would have quickened his tardy pace. It would
+restore his strength, and enable him the better to protect and rescue
+her. It was not wrong, though, from the deep well of his affection, came
+up something like a reproach for his selfishness. He ate the fruit. The
+effect was, or seemed to be, magical. He thought he could feel it
+imparting strength to his exhausted form. Again he ate, and in the
+pleasant sensation to his unsated palate, his imagination, as much as
+the fruit, nerved his muscles, and he walked with a firmer step.
+
+He had not completed one-half the distance back, when he discovered two
+men in the vicinity of the jail. A cold shudder nearly paralyzed him.
+Was his labor all in vain? Had he with so much trial and suffering
+effected his escape, only to be incarcerated again? The thought was
+maddening, and he resolved to die rather than be returned to the
+dungeon.
+
+Drawing a revolver from his pocket, with which he had prudently prepared
+himself before his interview with Jaspar, he proceeded on his way.
+
+On a nearer approach, the men appeared to be strangers to him. They
+might, however, be in the employ of Jaspar. They might be engaged in
+watching over his captivity.
+
+He approached nearer. He had never seen either of them before. They did
+not look like men whom Jaspar would have been likely to select for such
+a purpose as he apprehended. Still, he took the precaution to examine
+the caps upon his pistol, and have his bowie-knife in a convenient place
+for immediate use.
+
+Dalhousie was the first to speak.
+
+"Your business here?" demanded he, regardless of the courtesy to which
+he had been all his life accustomed.
+
+"The fact on 'tis," replied one of the strangers, a little startled by
+the rude manner of Dalhousie, "the fact on 'tis, we are lookin' arter
+the mansion of a Mr. Dumont. Perhaps you will oblige us by tellin' us
+which way to go."
+
+"He lives in yonder house," replied Dalhousie, pointing it out.
+
+The simplicity of the speaker dissipated his apprehensions, and his
+curiosity was excited.
+
+"You know him, do you?" continued he.
+
+"Well, no--I can't say I do."
+
+"But you have business with him?"
+
+"Not particularly with him,--the Lord forbid!" replied the stranger,
+devoutly.
+
+"Devil a bit with him, at all," added his companion.
+
+"Since no one else resides under the same roof with him, may I ask the
+reason of your visit there, if I am not too bold?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Sure, it's only to see the counthry, about here, we've come," replied
+the Irish stranger.
+
+"No, Partrick, you know that is not the truth. Never tell a lie for
+anything, Partrick. Our business an't with him, but it consarns him. We
+don't care about mentioning it to everybody."
+
+"I do not mean to be impertinent," said Dalhousie; "but perhaps I may be
+able to serve you. The man you seek is a villain!"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan,--for we presume it is
+unnecessary to _tell_ the reader that it was he,--"I know _that_."
+
+"Indeed, then you have some knowledge of him?"
+
+"Sartain! but do you know a minister in these parts by the name of
+Faxon?"
+
+"I do; he lives close by."
+
+"Do you belong in this part of this country, Mister?" asked Uncle
+Nathan, who seemed to make the question a prelude to other inquiries.
+
+"I do. But I must leave you now. I am the bearer of life to one whom I
+love dearer than myself. I have been foully wronged by the man you
+visit."
+
+"Heavens and airth! you don't say so?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Doomed to a death by starvation, with my wife, in yonder jail, by his
+malice, I have just effected my escape. My wife is nearly dead, but I
+hope to restore her with these fruits."
+
+"Good Heavens! who would have thought there was such a monster upon the
+airth?"
+
+"By the powers!" ejaculated Pat Fegan.
+
+"Can't we help you?" asked Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Perhaps you can. I thank you, and, if it is not too late, she also will
+thank you. My strength is nearly gone."
+
+Dalhousie, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, proceeded towards the
+jail, the former relating, as they went, the terrible incidents of their
+captivity, and the means by which he had effected their happy
+deliverance.
+
+On the night of the explosion of the Chalmetta's boiler, Uncle Nathan
+and Pat Fegan had saved their lives by jumping overboard, and had been
+picked up by the Flatfoot. The true-hearted New Englander had made a
+diligent search for the parties who had intrusted the will in his
+keeping, but without success. He had been enabled to gain no tidings of
+any of them, and was now continuing his search to the mansion of the
+Dumont family.
+
+The party reached the jail, and Dalhousie leaped into the pit, followed
+by his companions. The poor wife seemed to have no realization of the
+event which had set them free, and gazed with a wild stare upon her
+husband and those who accompanied him.
+
+"We are safe, Delia! we are safe!" said Dalhousie, as he proceeded to
+untie the bundle of fruit.
+
+"Safe! no, it cannot be--only a dream! But who are these persons?"
+
+"They are friends, Delia--friends who have come to help me in saving
+you. Take one of these figs, dear. They will restore you."
+
+"Figs!" replied Delia, with a vacant look.
+
+"Yes, dearest; taste it,"--and he placed the fruit, which he had
+divested of its rind, to her lips.
+
+The act seemed to restore her wandering mind to its equilibrium, and she
+painfully lifted herself on the pallet of straw, and took the fruit in
+her hand. She gazed upon it with a kind of silent rapture, while a
+faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.
+
+"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"--and she tasted the fig.
+
+"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."
+
+"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to eat
+myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place? Are not
+these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the pit you have
+dug?"
+
+"No, dearest, they are _our_ friends," said Dalhousie, pained by the
+wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that it might end in
+insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you have eaten some of
+these figs and melons. I am almost restored by the joy of this moment,
+dearest; and you must strive to be of good cheer."
+
+Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle Nathan and
+Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not so easily
+restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to have given her
+constitution a shock from which it would take time to recover.
+
+A conference took place between the parties, to decide upon the best
+means of removing the lady, who was utterly incapable of moving a step,
+and scarcely of lifting her form on her rude couch. Uncle Nathan was not
+long in devising a method; and, directing Pat to enlarge the aperture
+through which the captives were to escape, he went in search of some
+canes, with which to construct a litter. Pat applied himself vigorously
+to his task, tumbling over the huge stones like playthings, and handling
+the shovel with all that dexterity for which the Celtic race is so
+distinguished.
+
+A rude litter was constructed, on which were laid the coats of the
+party, so as to render it as comfortable as possible to the sufferer.
+Uncle Nathan and Dalhousie, with much tenderness, though not without
+pain to the invalid, succeeded in getting her through the aperture into
+the open air, where she was placed upon the litter.
+
+It was decided to carry her to the house of Mr. Faxon, upon whose active
+sympathies they relied for shelter and assistance; and they went with
+the more confidence, because Uncle Nathan had heard from Emily the
+interest he took in her affairs. The litter was borne by Uncle Nathan
+and Pat, while Dalhousie walked by its side, to cheer the heart of his
+wife by promises of future joy, which the uncertain future might never
+redeem.
+
+Mr. Faxon received the party with scarcely an inquiry as to the nature
+of the misfortune which brought them to his door. There was a person in
+distress, and this was all his great, sympathetic heart needed to bid
+him open wide his doors.
+
+Delia Dalhousie was placed upon a bed, a negro was despatched for a
+physician, and every effort used to alleviate her physical and mental
+sufferings.
+
+After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon listened
+with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's confinement, and
+the causes which led to it; for the overseer was so candid as to relate
+all, not even omitting the bribe he had agreed to take of Jaspar.
+
+"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when they are
+unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the future. Never
+do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever befalls you in this
+changing world, you will have an approving conscience to smile upon you,
+and lighten the darkest hour of adversity. But your tale brings me
+consolation. There is yet hope that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel
+story of her death has darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in
+spite of the reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and
+I pray that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
+unfortunate."
+
+Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and acknowledged
+the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle Nathan heard with
+astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of Emily had been guilty,
+and his simple New England heart was sorely perplexed by it. He had no
+"idea" of such depravity, and he was tempted, even in spite of the
+Scripture injunction to the contrary, to "thank God that he was not like
+other men."
+
+In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the evening
+had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to broach the
+subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until a late hour, in
+discussing the means of doing justice to the injured, in restoring to
+Bellevue its rightful mistress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "To do a great right, do a little wrong."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
+Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant during
+her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with every luxury
+the most pampered appetite could desire, her confinement deserved no
+better name. She recognized the place, and doubted not she should be
+again subjected to the infamous persecution of her old enemy. She
+wondered that he had not already presented himself, and concluded he
+could not yet have returned from his up-river journey, or he would have
+done so. No one visited her but the negress, whose conversation, in her
+eagerness to serve the liberal proprietor of the office, was disgusting
+to her refined sensibilities. Not oven De Guy came, to give her any
+intimation of the nature of the fate which awaited her.
+
+Maxwell's mind, she was satisfied, was fixed upon the possession of her
+estates. She could not now entertain the belief which once, in her weak
+pity, she had countenanced, that the attorney could _love_ her. O, no!
+God forbid that even the human heart can love, and, at the same time,
+persecute the object of its affections! It was her estates; and she half
+resolved to compromise with her tormentor by yielding him one-half of
+her property, on the condition of his restoring the other half, for she
+doubted not that he was able to do so. But there was something so
+debasing to her sentiment of truth and justice in the fact of
+bargaining with so base a man, that she could not conquer her prejudice,
+and finally determined to suffer everything rather than succumb to the
+villain.
+
+Hope had not yet abandoned her. She had too much confidence in the
+omnipresent justice of an overruling Providence to doubt that all would
+yet end well.
+
+Dido was her jailer, and she scarcely left the office, through which
+alone egress was had from the apartment of Emily. There she dozed away
+the day and night, freely indulging in the fashionable habit of
+"imbibing," to chase away the _ennui_ of the heavy hours. Her liberal
+perquisites enabled her to gratify her appetite without stint or
+measure, though a sort of demi-consciousness of her responsibility
+deterred her from an entire abandonment to the pleasures of the cup.
+
+The apartment in which Emily was confined was lighted by windows of
+stained glass, opening into the main office, so that there was no
+immediate connection with the open air. This fact rendered the room so
+secure that Dido rested perfectly easy from the fear of interruption,
+save from the front of the building.
+
+The colored guardian, having imbibed rather inordinately one day, was
+disposed to court the favor of the sleepy god, and stretched herself at
+full length upon one of the easy lounges of the office. Her eyelids
+opened and closed languidly, as though she was about to sink away into
+dreamy unconsciousness, when she was startled by a loud knocking at the
+door.
+
+"Who's dar?" shouted Dido, springing to her feet; for a visit to the
+office, at this season of the year, was of rare occurrence.
+
+"Open the door, Max," responded a voice from the outside.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell not here, sar," said the colored lady, partly opening the
+door.
+
+"Not here!" returned the visitor, pushing into the office in spite of
+the negress, who was disposed to prevent his entrance. "Isn't Max in
+town?"
+
+"No sar; he went away to de Norf about a monf ago."
+
+"Look here, you black imp," said the stranger, in a severe tone, "do you
+mean to say that Max is _not_ in town?"
+
+"I do, for sartin, sar."
+
+"And he has left you to practise law for him in his absence?" returned
+the visitor, with a grin.
+
+"No sar, I takes care ob de buildin."
+
+"Fudge! Maxwell always shuts up his room when he leaves town;" and the
+stranger walked round the room towards the private apartment, much to
+the consternation of Dido.
+
+"No, Massa, he tell me, monf ago, to keep de room in order."
+
+"No doubt he did," returned the stranger, placing his hand on the handle
+of the door, and attempting to open it, which, by Dido's precaution, was
+ineffectual.
+
+"Is there no one in this room?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"No sar, de room is locked, and Massa Maxwell hab carry off de key."
+
+The stranger walked several times round the room, and thoroughly
+scrutinized everything; after which, to the entire satisfaction of the
+colored lady, he took his departure. Passing out of the building, he
+crossed the street and entered a coffee-room, at the front window of
+which he seated himself, as if with the intention of watching Maxwell's
+office.
+
+This person was the reader's old acquaintance, Vernon,--or, more
+properly, Jerome Vaudelier, whose intervening history we are now called
+upon to relate. It will be remembered that, at the request of his
+father, and at the earnest desire of Henry Carroll, as well as by the
+promptings of his own wish to do justice to the heiress, he had gone to
+Vicksburg, for the purpose of keeping an eye on the movements of
+Maxwell. On his arrival at the hotel, he found the attorney, and dined
+With him; but after dinner he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
+All Vernon's inquiries were of no avail. The landlord said he had paid
+his bill, and that was the last he had seen of him. Vernon was
+perplexed, and on learning that no boat had left since dinner, he was at
+a loss which way to proceed. Late in the afternoon he obtained, as he
+thought, some clue to him; and he departed, without loss of time, to
+Jackson, whither the attorney was supposed to have gone. His search,
+however, was futile, and he returned to Vicksburg by the morning train.
+Much disheartened, he was compelled to go to Cottage Island with the
+intelligence that his efforts had been foiled. On his arrival, he
+learned, to his astonishment, that Emily had just gone to Bellevue in
+company with De Guy--a person of whom he had no knowledge.
+
+Though Dr. Vaudelier and Henry Carroll had been satisfied with the
+evidences brought by De Guy, Vernon was not. He knew better than they
+the character of Maxwell, and it was determined that he should proceed
+immediately to New Orleans, to guard against the possibility of any evil
+to which Emily might be subjected.
+
+On the morning after De Guy's departure, he proceeded down the river,
+and landed in the vicinity of Bellevue, to which he immediately made his
+way. Without a direct application to any one, he learned that Emily had
+not yet arrived. He waited in the vicinity another day, but obtained no
+tidings of her. His worst fears were now confirmed. De Guy had deceived
+them.
+
+This De Guy, then, was an emissary of Maxwell. To his mind, now animated
+by a high purpose, the reflection was annoying. To the fate of Emily his
+new destiny seemed to be attached. His greatest error--at least, the one
+most troublesome to his awakened conscience--was the act of oppressing
+Emily. He felt that the washing of the stains from his character
+depended upon securing her rights.
+
+The _ci devant_ desperado, as we have before indicated, was radically
+changed at heart, and he now felt more interest in the welfare of Emily
+than he had ever before harbored for any human being.
+
+His position was full of embarrassments. He learned, while at Bellevue,
+that Jaspar was not, and had not been, sick. This information decided
+his future course. The mission of De Guy had only been a decoy, to lure
+her into the hands of Maxwell.
+
+Hatchie was with her; but, alas! what could a slave do against the
+powerful machinations of such a villain as Maxwell?
+
+After obtaining the information which satisfied him of the imposture, he
+proceeded to New Orleans. Knowing the name of the steamer in which De
+Guy had taken passage from Vicksburg, he hastened to the levee, to gain
+what tidings he might from the officers of the Montezuma. He found that
+a lady and gentleman answering to his description had taken a carriage
+on the morning of their arrival, and this was all they knew. In answer
+to his inquiries for Hatchie, he learned that a servant had been handed
+over to the police, to be imprisoned in the calaboose till called for.
+
+This was scanty information upon which to continue his search. His first
+step was to go to the calaboose, where he managed to obtain an interview
+with Hatchie. The poor fellow was in an agony of grief,--not on his own
+account, but on that of his mistress, for he well understood the reason
+of this imprisonment.
+
+Hatchie, of course, could give him no information of the whereabouts of
+Emily, nor offer any suggestion; and Vernon was compelled to leave the
+disheartened mulatto, with only a promise of speedily effecting his
+deliverance.
+
+Vernon's next step was to ascertain the present abiding place of
+Maxwell, if, indeed, he was in the city; and for this purpose he had
+gone to his office. The open room did not verify the statements of the
+negress. He knew that Maxwell always closed up his rooms when he left
+the city, and the fact of their being open now tended to fix suspicion
+upon him, or rather to confirm the suspicions before entertained. He
+had made the visit to the attorney's rooms to gain information; and,
+being partly convinced, by the manner of the negress, that the rear
+chamber was occupied, he retired to the coffee-room to digest the
+knowledge, and, if possible, arrive at some conclusion through it, as
+well as at the same time to keep watch of the movements at the office.
+
+Who was this De Guy, who had been the agent of Maxwell?--for such he
+determined to believe him, until convinced to the contrary. He canvassed
+their mutual acquaintances, but could remember no such person. Intimate
+as he had been with all the associates of Maxwell, he could not identify
+this bold and cunning confederate.
+
+He had not long deliberated, when, to his surprise,--albeit it was not
+an event at all remarkable,--Maxwell entered the coffee-room.
+
+Before Vernon had time to decide whether or not he should charge the
+lawyer with the abduction of Emily, that worthy approached his chair,
+and, with much cordiality,--more than he had formerly bestowed upon
+him,--extended his hand, and expressed his happiness at again meeting
+him in the city.
+
+Undecided as yet how to proceed, Vernon returned his salutations with an
+appearance of equal cordiality.
+
+"My dear fellow," said Maxwell, "I am rejoiced to see you in town again.
+I was afraid you would quite desert us."
+
+This language was new and strange to Vernon. It sounded like the days in
+which he had been respectable--before his vices had found him out.
+
+"Indeed! why did you think so?" replied Vernon.
+
+"Why, Vernon, there was some kind of a ridiculous story current at
+Vicksburg, to the effect that you had joined the church, or something of
+that sort."
+
+"Ha, ha! funny!" said Vernon, adopting the free and easy style, which
+had formerly distinguished his colloquial efforts. "Where did you pick
+up the story?"
+
+"O, it was quite current when I left Vicksburg."
+
+"A good joke, hey?" said Vernon, musing.
+
+When Maxwell left Vicksburg, it was impossible that any such story could
+have been extant. Of his reformation no one but the people of Cottage
+Island could have known anything. It seemed a little mysterious that
+Maxwell should know of it; but the fact of De Guy's visit to the house
+of his father came to his assistance, and the mystery was solved. De Guy
+had communicated this information to Maxwell, and thus he was enabled to
+establish conclusively the connection between them.
+
+Vernon's plan for the future was adopted; and manifesting no surprise,
+he denied the fact of his reformation, however strong the circumstances
+might be against him. He had often been implicated in fouler deceptions
+than this in a worse cause, and, in spite of his great resolves, he did
+not hesitate in this instance.
+
+"Quite a sell, wasn't it, this reformation? The old gentleman has a fine
+place up there,--money in the bank,--hey, boy? I saw through the whole
+of it, as soon as I heard the absurd story," said Maxwell, who, to do
+him justice, did not believe the tale. It was too much for his
+credulity, that a thing like Vernon could be animated by a good
+motive,--could, by any possibility, abandon the error of his ways.
+
+"Just so, Max. The fact is, I found the old fellow had plenty of money,
+and no one but me to leave it to; so I thought it would be a devilish
+pity to have it all go to found a hospital, an orthodox college, or some
+such absurdity, and I could not resist the temptation to become a little
+saintly, just for a few days."
+
+"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The old
+fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"
+
+"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip to from
+Vicksburg?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence, and
+thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I gave you
+the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and then taking
+the boat."
+
+"But you didn't know I had reformed then,--ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the island,--I overheard
+that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy speaking of it. But I own,
+Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you unheard."
+
+"Max, who is this De Guy?"
+
+"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know him."
+
+"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot _wool_ me? By the way, that
+was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after the girl. When he
+had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I had not come and
+assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not possibly be concerned
+in the affair."
+
+"Indeed! did you do me this essential service?" said Maxwell, forgetting
+that he had denied his connection with De Guy.
+
+"I did. If you had left the matter with me, I could have done it
+better."
+
+"Well, Vernon, I see you are all right yet; but the thing worked to a
+charm. De Guy is the cleverest fellow out. The girl is safe."
+
+"So I suppose," said Vernon, with an assumption of indifference.
+
+"But all the sport is yet to come."
+
+"Indeed," said Vernon, burning with anxiety, but striving to maintain
+his accustomed easy and reckless air.
+
+"Yes, Vernon, all the hard work we did up the river shall not be in
+vain. I shall win the prize!" and Maxwell rubbed his hands at the
+pleasant anticipation.
+
+"Wish you joy, Max! But you don't mean to marry the girl?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What! a quadroon?"
+
+"Pshaw! that story is all blown through. Her old uncle, up the river,
+got up that abstraction, so as to finger her property," said Maxwell,
+forgetting, in his candor, the scruples which his companion had
+expressed on a former occasion with relation to persecuting a white
+woman,--scruples which Vernon did not seem disposed to press upon the
+attorney's memory.
+
+"You helped him through with his scheme?" answered Vernon, with a bold,
+careless air.
+
+"'Pon honor, I had nothing to do with it. Old Jaspar did it all
+himself," replied Maxwell, with an oath.
+
+"Looks a little like you, though," said Vernon, with a nonchalance which
+provoked Maxwell, whose temper was not of the mildest tone.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is none of mine, though the plan was a creditable one.
+But it has brought old Jaspar into a wasp's nest."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I had my eye on the girl, ever since the colonel died. I saw through
+Jaspar's plot, and a little bravado made him tell me all about it."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Just so; and, as they are old clients of mine, why, I could not do less
+than get them out of the scrape, and remove the stain from the name of
+the fair heiress."
+
+"How can you do it?"
+
+"That's the point."
+
+"Looks rather complicated."
+
+"Exactly so; but energy and skill will accomplish wonders."
+
+"Very true," replied Vernon, in his usual quiet manner, well knowing
+that Maxwell would take the alarm if he appeared in the least
+inquisitive,--so he contented himself with this simple ejaculation.
+
+"Can I trust you still?" said Maxwell, in a low tone, and with an
+anxious look, after a pause of several minutes.
+
+"I care not whether you trust me or not," replied Vernon, with
+characteristic indifference.
+
+"Are you the man you were two months ago? If you are, I need ask no more
+questions."
+
+"I am. And now let me tell you, if you have work for me, the pay must be
+liberal. I have reformed in one respect, and that is from low prices to
+high ones. I have done too many of your little chores for nothing. Good
+pay is my motto now."
+
+"Be it so," replied Maxwell, whose suspicions, as Vernon had intended,
+were diverted by this by-talk. "I will pay you well. If my plan
+succeeds, three thousand."
+
+"Good! that sounds liberal. But suppose it fail?"
+
+"It cannot fail."
+
+"What is the plan? You mean to help old Jaspar out of the scrape, and
+save the girl too. How can you do it?"
+
+"There is only one way--marry the girl!"
+
+"Just so," replied Vernon, with an indifference it was hard to assume.
+
+"Here are the whole details of the plan. I have Jaspar's consent to my
+marriage with the girl, but I dare not attempt to consummate the scheme
+in the city. She is so cursed obstinate, that it is a hard matter to
+manage her. I saw Jaspar last night, and we concluded to have the
+ceremony performed at Bellevue, as soon as possible, or that fiery son
+of Mars and your worthy patriarch will be down upon us, and spoil the
+whole."
+
+"Never fear them," said Vernon. "You will not proceed for a week or
+two?"
+
+"A week or so will make no difference. But I am afraid it will take more
+time than that to induce her to consent. The difficulty which has
+troubled me more than any other is to get her to Bellevue. She tells
+Dido that she will not go alive. She fears Jaspar more than she does me,
+and rightly suspects that if she yields she will have to encounter
+both. She has not seen me since the row at the wood-yard, and I intend
+to transact all business with her through De Guy."
+
+"She is a difficult case," suggested Vernon, to fill up a pause in
+Maxwell's speech.
+
+"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that _you_ could
+manage her like a young lamb."
+
+"I!" exclaimed Vernon.
+
+"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"
+
+"Like a saint."
+
+"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you know."
+
+"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.
+
+"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."
+
+"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I _will_ pretend to effect her
+escape. But there is one difficulty--" and he suddenly checked his
+apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful air.
+
+"A difficulty?"
+
+"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes up the
+river are lost."
+
+"And you will return--"
+
+Vernon reflected, and then replied,
+
+"In four days."
+
+"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."
+
+"No."
+
+"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that the lady
+is doing well--that Jaspar's health is improving, &c. They won't hurry
+down, then."
+
+"A good thought. I _will_ write to him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Here is my hand for my true constancy."
+
+     "There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
+     I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
+     With this thy fair and outward character."
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room, "your work
+of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my seared heart can
+come up one single good impulse to guide me, I will bring the guilty and
+the innocent to their just desert."
+
+He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and prudence
+required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a boat would leave
+in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to Captain Carroll. This
+letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell had bargained for, inasmuch
+as the object of it was to request the immediate presence of his father
+and Henry at Bellevue, which promised soon to be the theatre of war.
+With this letter in his pocket, he made his way to the levee, and
+departed for Baton Rouge.
+
+It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly inconsistent
+step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the object to which he
+had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to gain time, even at the
+sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short season, so that his father
+and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue as soon as Emily. He had written
+them all the details of the plan. His own purpose was to have Emily's
+strongest friends at hand on her arrival at Bellevue, so as effectually
+to foil the machinations of Jaspar and Maxwell. His own visit to Baton
+Rouge was only a feint to avoid a meeting with Maxwell in the interim,
+thus keeping the appearance in unison with the pretension.
+
+The river had risen some three or four feet, and the large and rapid
+steamers had commenced running. The "Raven," to the clerk of which he
+had intrusted the letter for Cottage Island, was a remarkably fast boat,
+and he had every reason to hope that his plan would be successful.
+
+Three days he remained at Baton Rouge, in a state of impatience and
+inactivity, rendered doubly uncomfortable by the fear that Maxwell might
+change his plan in his absence.
+
+A downward steamer was approaching the city, and he hastened on board.
+His letter had been faithfully delivered, for almost the first person he
+discovered on board the boat was Henry Carroll, and Dr. Vaudelier was
+close at hand. This was excellent, and he congratulated himself on the
+bright prospect before him.
+
+It was arranged that the doctor and his late patient should remain in
+the vicinity of Bellevue until the following day, when Vernon would
+convey Emily to her home. They were accordingly landed at the Red
+Church, and Vernon proceeded to New Orleans.
+
+Maxwell greeted him with a cordiality which showed the interest he felt
+in the scheme, the consummation of which would realize his dreams of
+luxurious indulgence. They wended their way, without loss of time, up
+the street, deciding that Vernon should at once broach the proposition
+to Emily of going up to Bellevue. The attorney, when they had arrived
+within a short distance of the office, directed Vernon to proceed alone,
+agreeing to meet him at a coffee-room in the neighborhood.
+
+On reaching the office, a new difficulty was presented. The inflexible
+guardian of Emily refused to allow Vernon to see her, stoutly persisting
+that De Guy would not permit it. Vernon was obliged to resort to Maxwell
+in this dilemma, who, affirming that he did not wish Emily to know of
+his presence in town, had kept the secret from the negress. So what
+could he do? But, bidding Vernon wait, he left the coffee-room, and soon
+returned with an order signed by De Guy, whom, Maxwell affirmed, he had
+been so fortunate as to meet at the Exchange.
+
+"But of what use is this paper? The girl cannot read. Shall I take the
+keys from her?" asked Vernon.
+
+"The note will be sufficient. Show it to her; she will pretend to read
+it, and would, if it were in Hebrew or Sanscrit," said Maxwell, who then
+repeated the caution he had before given, not to betray the fact of his
+presence in the city.
+
+Vernon presented the note to the negress, who, with a business-like air,
+opened it; and, though he could perceive that she held it up-side down,
+she examined it long and attentively, sputtering with her thick lips, as
+though actually engaged in the to her impossible operation of reading
+it.
+
+"Dis alters de case, Massa. Why you no show dis paper before?" said
+Dido, with an air of huge importance, which would have done credit to
+the captain of a country company of militia.
+
+"Open the door, and don't stop to chatter!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Yes, Massa, I have read de letter, and now I knows dat Massa Guy wants
+you to see de leddy. Dat alters de case. I has nussin furder to say,"
+muttered Dido, as she unlocked the chamber door.
+
+Emily was seated on a sofa, reading a book she had taken with her to
+while away the time on board of the steamer.
+
+"Missus, a gemman, who hab brought a letter from Massa Guy," said Dido,
+as she opened the door.
+
+"Bring the letter, then," replied Emily, scarcely raising her eyes from
+the book.
+
+"No, Missus, de letter am for me, and I hab read it. It orders me to
+'mit dis gemman."
+
+"That is sufficient," said Vernon, pushing the attendant back, and
+closing the door.
+
+Emily rose; and great was her surprise at perceiving the son of her late
+benefactor. An avalanche of doubt rushed through her mind, and she could
+not conjecture the occasion of this visit. She had left him at his
+father's house. Had he forsaken his new-born repentance? Was he again
+the minister of Maxwell's evil purposes? She had been a prey to the most
+distressing anticipations, and had now settled down into the calmness of
+resignation. Resolved to die rather than become the bride of Maxwell,
+she had spent the hours and days of her imprisonment in nerving herself
+to meet whatever bitter fate might await her, in maintaining her purity
+and her principle.
+
+The appearance of Jerome Vaudelier caused her a thrill of apprehension,
+but it was quickly supplanted by a feeling of interest in the individual
+himself. Her own gloomy position seemed divested of its sombreness, as
+she felt that the penitence of the erring soul had not been a reality.
+
+"Jerome Vaudelier, are you, too, the minister of a villain's wishes?"
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont--"
+
+"Say that you are yet true to yourself; that you have not forgotten
+those solemn vows you made in the home of your father; say that you are
+not the tool of the vile Maxwell--say it before you speak your business
+with me!"
+
+"Miss Dumont, I acknowledge that the present appearance is against me;
+but I assure you I have come only as the minister of good to you."
+
+"Bless you for the words! I feared you had again been tempted."
+
+"So I have, lady, and apparently have yielded; but it was only to save
+you. Listen to me, and I will disclose all the details of the plots
+which are even now ripening to ensnare you,"--and Vernon, in a low tone,
+briefly narrated everything, and the means which were in operation to
+secure her safety.
+
+"You must go to Bellevue to-morrow, there to meet my father and Captain
+Carroll," said he.
+
+The color came to her pale cheek, at the mention of her lover's name.
+She felt that Vernon meant to be true to her, and true to himself. And
+it required no persuasion to induce her to acquiesce in the
+arrangements.
+
+"But, Hatchie--must I leave him in prison? It is not a meet reward for
+his fidelity."
+
+"It cannot be avoided, Miss Dumont. I will see him to-day, and when his
+honest heart knows that you are in safety, he will be just as happy in a
+prison as in a palace. He shall be set at liberty in a few days."
+
+"I hope he may. Does this De Guy accompany you?"
+
+"No; but Maxwell says he will reach Bellevue as soon as we do."
+
+"Why is this? Why does not Maxwell present himself, and urge his
+infamous proposals?"
+
+"I know not, unless it be that De Guy is the more artful of the two."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us change the scene to the next day, at the abode of Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, by the kind attentions of their host, were
+restored to a comparatively healthy state. The lady had suffered much in
+her physical and mental constitution, and a shade of deep melancholy
+rested upon her handsome features. She could not forget the horrors of
+the dungeon in which she had been confined. It seemed a great epoch in
+her life; all before it was strange and undefined, while every trivial
+incident since was a great paragraph in her history.
+
+Mr. Faxon was seated in his library, surrounded by his guests. The
+affairs of the Dumont family had again been discussed, for to them they
+were full of interest.
+
+The good minister feelingly expatiated upon the bitterness of the
+heiress' lot, brought up as she had been amid all the refinements of
+polished society, whose sensibilities were rendered doubly acute by
+nature and the circumstances which environed her, to be thus degraded
+into the condition of a base-born, despised being,--to be so suddenly
+hurled from honor and opulence,--it was a dreadful blow! So feelingly
+did he narrate the particulars, so tenderly did he describe the
+loneliness of her position, that his hearers were deeply affected, and
+Delia shed a flood of tears.
+
+"I too have been a wanderer, though a voluntary one, from the home of my
+father," said she.
+
+"Nay, Delia," said Dalhousie, tenderly; "do not revert to your own
+experience. Remember you are not strong enough to bear much excitement."
+
+"I did not intend to speak of my own experience; but the sufferings of
+poor Miss Dumont call to my mind the remembrance of similar feelings."
+
+"I presume the company are not desirous of hearing the story of an
+elopement," said Dalhousie, with a smile.
+
+"Nor I to relate one. The pure devotion of Miss Dumont to the memory of
+her father recalls the affection, the fond indulgence, of my own father.
+I have not, as she has, the consciousness of having never wilfully
+abused his confidence."
+
+"If you have erred, madam," said Mr. Faxon, "your father still lives,
+does he not? Perhaps it is not yet too late to atone for the fault."
+
+"Alas! I know not whether he is living or not. I wrote to him several
+times, but never received an answer."
+
+"Who was your father, madam?" said Mr. Faxon, with much sympathy in the
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I dread even to mention the name I bore in the innocent days of
+childhood."
+
+"Fie, Delia!" said Dalhousie, with a pleasant laugh, "what have you done
+to sink yourself so far in your own estimation? You and your father
+differed as to the propriety of our marriage; to you, as a true woman,
+your course was plain. This is the height and depth of your monstrous
+sin."
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by the announcement that a
+gentleman waited to see Mr. Faxon.
+
+The good clergyman had a habit of promptness in answering all calls upon
+him. This custom had been acquired by the reflection that a poor dying
+mortal might wait his blessing, ere he departed on his endless journey;
+that, sometimes, a moment's delay could never be atoned for; therefore
+he rose on the instant, and hastened to the parlor, where the visitor
+waited.
+
+"Ah! is it possible--Captain Carroll!" said he, as he grasped Henry's
+hand; "I am glad to see you. But how pale and thin you look!"
+
+"Good reason for it, my dear sir. I was on board of the Chalmetta."
+
+"Were you, indeed! Thank God, you escaped with life! Were you much
+injured?"
+
+"I was, but, thanks to the care of a good physician, I am nearly
+restored again."
+
+"But our poor lady--Miss Dumont--have you any tidings of her? Report
+said she was lost in the catastrophe."
+
+"She is safe, though, unfortunately, at present in bad hands;" and Henry
+related to the astonished minister the events of Emily's history since
+her departure from Bellevue, not concealing even the details of his
+present relations with her.
+
+"And now, my dear sir," said he, rising to depart, "the crisis has come.
+Dr. Vaudelier waits close by, and we are ready to witness the denouement
+of this climax of plots. It is already time for Jerome and Emily to
+arrive, and we desire your immediate presence at the mansion-house."
+
+"I will attend you. But I have in the house several friends of Miss
+Dumont--"
+
+"Bring them all with you," interrupted Henry, looking at his watch.
+"The more witnesses the better, especially if they be friends."
+
+"But wait till I tell you who they are."
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Faxon, I must not tarry longer. I will meet them at the
+mansion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     "What devil's here, dragging the dead to life,
+     To overthrow me?"
+
+     "Who art thou?
+     Speak! speak!"
+
+     "The features all are changed,
+     But the voice grows familiar on my ears."
+
+           LOVELL
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont was seated in the library. The ravages of care and vice
+were growing more plainly visible on his face. His countenance was
+haggard, and his complexion seemed to be a struggle between the wanness
+of care and the redness of intemperance.
+
+Near him sat De Guy, who had but just arrived.
+
+"The lady has come," said the attorney, adjusting his green spectacles;
+"and I am here to claim the fulfilment of our contract."
+
+Jaspar looked up from the floor, upon which his eyes had been fastened,
+and gazed with a fixed stare upon his companion.
+
+"You do not understand me," insinuated De Guy.
+
+"I do," said Jaspar, sternly; "I do; you have come to plunder me."
+
+"You do me injustice, my kind friend; I come to save you from the doom
+of a felon."
+
+"To put your foot upon my neck, and leap out of the pit your villany has
+dug!"
+
+"Very well, my dear sir, if you are of this mind, my course is plain.
+Did you not agree to this arrangement?" said De Guy, with a smile, which
+was meant to soften the hard question.
+
+"True, I did," replied Jaspar, with a whining sullenness. "What would
+you have of me now?"
+
+"Only that you fulfil the stipulations of the bargain."
+
+"Can I fulfil them? Can I marry you, even if the girl were willing?"
+
+"You can give your commands. Will she not obey them?"
+
+"Fool if she does!" muttered Jaspar, in a low tone.
+
+"She will be so glad to be restored to her home, I fancy she will not
+think the terms are hard."
+
+"I don't know," said Jaspar, eying the attorney from head to foot. "I
+consent to the marriage. I can do no more."
+
+"Perhaps you will be willing to use a little gentle force, to save your
+own neck," said the attorney, with something like a sneer.
+
+"Anything, anything, that will silence your damning tongue, and rid me
+of your teasing!"
+
+"Now, sir, you are reasonable."
+
+"Summon the girl," said Jaspar, impatiently. "I will say all I have to
+say in a few words. But, if she foils you, it is not my fault."
+
+"True sir; but Miss Dumont, at this critical juncture of her affairs,
+will have respect for your counsels;" and the attorney withdrew to call
+her.
+
+Emily entered the abode of her early years, and the memories of the past
+came crowding thick upon her. She seemed to realize that her sorrows
+were near an end, but the hope which such a pleasant thought inspired
+could not entirely overcome the gloom which the scene around her was
+calculated to produce. It was here she had often rambled with her
+father, and a thousand trivial incidents presented themselves to remind
+her of him.
+
+As she entered the house, she clung to the arm of Vernon, as though she
+was entering the abode of evil spirits; for, with all the memories of
+the past, she could not forget that the home of her childhood was
+inhabited by her inhuman uncle.
+
+She had been but a short time seated in the old, familiar drawing-room,
+like a stranger now, when De Guy entered, to request her presence in the
+library. She rose, and looked at Vernon, who, understanding the glance,
+approached, as if to bear her company.
+
+"This gentleman had better remain here," suggested De Guy.
+
+"I prefer that he should attend me," said Emily, firmly, even while her
+heart rose to her throat, at the thought of meeting her uncle.
+
+"But really, madam, his presence would embarrass the business of the
+interview."
+
+"He is a friend," stammered Emily, "and is acquainted with all the
+circumstances of this affair."
+
+"I will attend her, sir," said Vernon, who had before remained silent.
+
+"Pardon me," said the attorney, looking sharply at Vernon, "but it will
+be impossible to transact any business in presence of others."
+
+"Lead on," said Vernon, sternly; "I will attend the lady, in spite of
+all objections."
+
+"Sir, you are insolent!" said the attorney, tartly, though without the
+loss of his self-possession.
+
+"The gentleman will not in the least retard the business. Pray pass on,"
+interposed Emily, fearful of a collision between the parties.
+
+"It is impossible, madam. I must insist that he remain here. Such is Mr.
+Dumont's express order."
+
+"Will you say to Mr. Dumont that the lady demands my attendance? Perhaps
+he will yield the point," answered Vernon.
+
+"I will see him, but it is useless. I know his views;" and De Guy left
+the room.
+
+"Do not hesitate to go with him, Miss Dumont; I will be close at hand;
+but no violence will be offered you. I see my father and Captain Carroll
+coming up the road," said Vernon, looking out the window. "Yield, if
+necessary, and fear nothing."
+
+"Mr. Dumont persists in his purpose of meeting the lady alone," said De
+Guy, as he reëntered the drawing-room.
+
+"The lady, in your absence, has concluded to dispense with my
+attendance," replied Vernon.
+
+"This way, madam,"--and the attorney, with punctilious politeness, led
+the way.
+
+Vernon threw himself upon a sofa, as they were leaving; but no sooner
+had the door closed, than he rose in haste, and left the apartment.
+Reaching the veranda of the house, he met Dr. Vaudelier and Henry
+Carroll, who followed him back to the drawing-room.
+
+"This way, silently, if you please," said he, and then closed the door.
+A moment sufficed to inform the new comers of the position of affairs;
+then Vernon left the room, and went to the library door, which he found,
+by Henry's direction. Stationing himself in a recess behind some coats,
+he waited till his presence should be needed.
+
+The meeting between Emily and her uncle was not embarrassed by any
+formal greetings. Jaspar did not even raise his eyes from the floor, as
+she entered. He heard the door close, and being aware by the silence of
+the parties--for De Guy had judged an announcement unnecessary--that
+they were ready to hear him, he said, in a gentle tone,
+
+"Emily, I have sent for you to receive a proposition, which will finally
+terminate the unfortunate circumstances that have shrouded our family in
+hostility and misery."
+
+"Indeed, uncle, I have no feeling of hostility towards you. God forbid!"
+replied Emily, upon whose agitated senses Jaspar's mild words had fallen
+like promises of peace.
+
+Jaspar was astonished. He had lost much of the severity of his
+disposition in the miseries which had overtaken him. He was humiliated,
+his spirit broken, and he could not understand why his victim did not
+upbraid him, as he expected, for the wrongs he had inflicted. A
+momentary hope of reconciliation on better terms crossed his mind; but
+there stood the attorney, who would permit no other compromise.
+
+"I restore your fortune," said Jaspar, with a shudder, as he raised his
+head for the first time from the floor to look upon his niece,--"I
+restore it, on one condition."
+
+"Name not the fortune, uncle; your peace and happiness are far dearer to
+me than all the wealth of the world. You have wronged me, but I freely
+forgive you; and Heaven will also forgive you, if you sin no more. O,
+uncle, I beseech you dismiss this evil man, and let me be to you as a
+daughter!"
+
+"Let us attend to business, if you please, Mr. Dumont," said the
+attorney, in a whining tone; for, it must be confessed, the conversation
+had assumed a different turn from what he had anticipated.
+
+"I must state the business for which I requested your presence," said
+Jaspar, not a little moved by the words of Emily. Human nature is a
+strange compound of inconsistencies. This man, whose life had been
+stained with crime, was now disposed to regard the past with contrition.
+We have seen him scorning even an allusion to the higher life of the
+soul,--but success was then within the reach of his crime-stained hand!
+Now, failure on every hand awaited him, and all those bravadoes with
+which he had kept down his better nature deserted him. Not one scornful
+thought came to banish the good angel from his presence. But the feeling
+was of short duration. It was but a momentary contrition, which a
+selfish hope or a burst of passion could dissipate.
+
+"I will restore your fortune, on one condition," said he. "You can
+accept or reject it, at your option."
+
+"I beg your pardon," suggested the attorney, "these were not exactly the
+terms of our contract."
+
+"Name the condition, uncle," added Emily, indifferently; for she was
+anxious to have the business, whatever it might be, finished, so that
+she could again plead with Jaspar for his personal reformation, for she
+was a little encouraged by the appearance of humiliation he had
+manifested.
+
+"I restore your fortune, on condition that you give your hand to this
+gentleman in marriage;"--and Jaspar again fixed his eyes on the floor,
+as if he dreaded the outbreak of a storm.
+
+"This gentleman!" exclaimed Emily, indignantly. "This gentleman!"--and
+she gazed upon him with a proud look of contempt, from which the
+attorney would fain have hid his head. Her surprise was equal to her
+indignation. Vernon had told her that _Maxwell_ was to be the suppliant
+for her hand, and she could not see why his menial had the presumption
+to claim her.
+
+"This gentleman!" repeated Emily. "I had rather die a thousand deaths!"
+
+"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step," replied
+De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the energy of
+Jaspar.
+
+"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can
+administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.
+
+"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly. "Fate has
+so decreed. Your good uncle's circumstances imperatively demand it."
+
+"Is this so, uncle?"
+
+"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though it may
+be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.
+
+"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a fate. What
+circumstances do you refer to?"
+
+"I am in this man's power."
+
+"God be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my fortune,
+not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than become such a
+_thing_ as to marry that man!"
+
+"Nay, lady, _you_ are of more worth to me than your fortune, large as it
+is. I have contracted with your uncle for your hand, and he must pay the
+price," said De Guy.
+
+"He speaks truly, Emily. I have _sold_ you to him," replied Jaspar,
+vacantly.
+
+Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in allusion
+to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes, while the
+indignant blood mounted to her cheek.
+
+"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said, quickly.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of passion.
+
+"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely tried.
+
+"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but now I
+feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on which his
+brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he reseated himself.
+
+"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table with his
+fist.
+
+"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar's violence, but firm
+in her purpose.
+
+"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar, passionately.
+
+"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for--"
+
+"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy, laying
+his hand upon her arm.
+
+"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your touch!"
+exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been
+contamination.
+
+The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a scowl of
+malignity, as he said,
+
+"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let it end.
+Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day to be
+consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your whims."
+
+"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend upon your
+acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose passion had moderated a
+little.
+
+"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied Emily,
+and she again moved towards the door.
+
+"You leave not the room till you consent to this union," interposed De
+Guy.
+
+"Stand from my path, or I will summon assistance!"
+
+"Your summons would be in vain."
+
+With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance; but De
+Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled to free
+herself from the villain's grasp, without success. Knowing that Vernon
+was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the top of her voice.
+
+"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend of mine,"
+said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary of mine. Haven't
+you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture of sarcasm and
+triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.
+
+The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The door was
+wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had taken the
+precaution to lock it.
+
+"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the intrusion.
+
+"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"
+
+"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet spectator
+to the violence offered his niece.
+
+"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him, towards
+a large closet on the other side of the room.
+
+"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second time
+uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door splintered, and
+Vernon stood in the room.
+
+"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from his pocket
+a revolver.
+
+"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time,
+he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he approached the
+lawyer.
+
+"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which suddenly lost
+its silky tone, and was firm and round.
+
+"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.
+
+Jaspar's ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the prospect of a
+fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve his arm. He advanced
+behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had clasped both hands around him.
+Vernon tried to free himself from the bearish hug, and they both fell to
+the floor. Jaspar still held tight, and the struggle promised to be a
+severe one.
+
+De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the combatants
+had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his pocket, so that,
+unembarrassed, he might convey Emily to a place of security, until this
+unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was the pistol in his pocket,
+when the window behind him flew open, and the attorney was in the iron
+grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed from her assailant, retreated to
+the other side of the room, where, glancing in terror upon the new
+assault, she saw De Guy thrown violently upon the floor by her
+ever-present and ever-faithful slave, Hatchie!
+
+The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early in the
+evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the calaboose,
+and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.
+
+Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and judged that
+the conflict had begun with something more than the war of words.
+Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the library, and
+rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.
+
+The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood
+contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who had
+followed Henry into the room, assisted Jaspar to rise, and conducted him
+to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed entirely to have oozed
+out, and they remained doggedly considering the new state of things.
+
+Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket the
+revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable person, he
+loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an acknowledgment of weakness
+to hold him longer a close prisoner. Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the
+hair, he bade him rise, at the same time giving a sharp twist to the
+ornamental appendage of his cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion
+of his hand, and the entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge
+parti-colored whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly
+hair, where the mixed color had before predominated!
+
+"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair before,"
+said Henry Carroll.
+
+"The face is not of the natural color," added Dr. Vaudelier, remarking
+that the skin of the forehead, which the wig had concealed, was very
+white, and almost transparent, while the face was besmeared with the
+color that composed the florid complexion of the attorney.
+
+"Take off his spectacles, Hatchie," said Henry.
+
+The glasses were removed, and a pair of piercing black eyes glared upon
+them.
+
+"It is Maxwell, by ----," shouted Jaspar, who had in some measure
+recovered from the exhaustion of his struggle with Vernon, and had
+watched with much anxiety the "unearthing" of his confederate.
+
+"It is Maxwell," responded Hatchie, tearing open the vest which
+encircled the attorney's portly form, and displaying the cushion that
+had been used to extend his corporation.
+
+"Merciful Heaven! how narrowly have I escaped!" exclaimed Emily, laying
+her head in giddy faintness upon the shoulder of Henry, who, at the
+moment he was at liberty, had flown to her side.
+
+At this moment Mr. Faxon entered, and saw, with astonishment, the
+evidence of the recent fray.
+
+"Justice is triumphant, I see," said he, taking Emily by the hand, and
+affectionately congratulating her upon her return to Bellevue.
+
+"Heaven has been more indulgent to me than I deserve,--has preserved me
+from a thousand perils I knew not of; and has, at last, placed me again
+in this haven of repose!" replied Emily.
+
+"Bless His holy name, my child; for, though we forget Him, He can never
+forget us!" said the minister, devoutly.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," interrupted Jaspar, with a bitter scowl, "I trust,
+when you have finished your cant, you will depart, and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"We will, at this lady's pleasure," said Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Hell! would you trifle with me?" roared Jaspar, rising in a passion.
+"Would you turn me out of my house?"
+
+"Never yours, Mr. Dumont! Heaven has restored the innocent and oppressed
+to her rights," answered Mr. Faxon, calmly.
+
+"Uncle," said Emily, earnestly, "let me entreat you to lay aside the
+terrible aspect you have worn, and be again even as you once were. The
+past shall be forgotten, and I will strive to make the future happy."
+
+Jaspar gazed at her with a vacant stare, and, muttering some
+unintelligible words, sunk back into his chair, and buried his face
+beneath his hands. The consciousness of the utter failure of the plan he
+had cherished for years, and the terrible obloquy to which his crime
+subjected him, rushed like an earthquake into his mind. He was
+completely subdued in spirit, and groaned in his anguish.
+
+"The way of the transgressor is hard," remarked Mr. Faxon, in pitying
+tones.
+
+These words were heard by Jaspar. They touched his pride. He could not
+endure the notes of pity. He raised his head, and his eyes glared with
+the fury of a demon.
+
+"Leave the house, sir!" gasped he, choking with passion. "Leave my
+house, or I will tear you limb from limb! I can do it, and I _dare_ do
+it!" and he started suddenly to the floor. "Yes, I _dare_ do it, if you
+mock me with your canting words!"
+
+His eyes rolled like a maniac's, and he gasped for breath, as he
+continued,
+
+"I am a murderer already!--a double murderer! Dalhousie and his wife
+have felt my vengeance. They have starved like dogs! Their prison is
+their tomb!"
+
+"Compose yourself, Mr. Dumont," said Mr. Faxon; "your soul is still free
+from the heavy burden of such a guilt. Dalhousie and his wife live."
+
+"You lie, canting hypocrite! No mortal arm can save them. They have been
+eight days in my slave jail. Here are the keys," gasped Jaspar, drawing
+them from his pocket.
+
+"You shall see; I will call them," said Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, entered
+the room.
+
+Jaspar fixed his glaring eyes upon those whom he supposed were rotting
+within the precincts of his Inquisition. His power of speech seemed to
+have deserted him, and he shook all over like an aspen-leaf.
+
+To Jaspar alone on the estate was the secret of Dalhousie's imprisonment
+known. He had not approached the jail, and if any other person was aware
+that it had been undermined, they had not communicated the fact to him.
+
+As the last party entered, Dr. Vaudelier turned to look upon the new
+comers. Starting suddenly from his chair, he approached them, and gazed
+with earnestness into the face of Delia.
+
+"Is it possible!" said he.
+
+"My God,--my father!" and father and daughter were locked in each
+other's embrace.
+
+Maxwell, stripped of his disguise, and ruined in his own opinion, and in
+the opinion of everybody else, had watched all the proceedings we have
+narrated in silence. Ashamed of the awkward appearance he made in his
+undress, and confused by the sudden change in his affairs, he was at a
+loss to know which way to turn.
+
+Henry Carroll realized the sense of embarrassment that pervaded all
+parties, and was desirous of putting an end to the state of things which
+promised nothing but strife and confusion. So he directed Hatchie to
+fasten Maxwell's hands together, and keep him secure. This step the
+attorney seemed not inclined to permit, and a struggle ensued.
+
+"Mr. Dumont," said he, "is this by your order?"
+
+"No," replied Jaspar, anxious to secure at least one friend. "No! I am
+still in my own house, and the law will protect me."
+
+"Certainly," returned Maxwell; "this is all a farce. There is not a
+single particle of evidence to disprove the will."
+
+"Well, now, I reckon there is a leetle grain," said Uncle Nathan,
+stepping forward and producing the will, which had been intrusted to him
+on board the Chalmetta. "This will set matters about right, I rayther
+guess."
+
+"What mean you, fellow?" said Jaspar. "What is it?"
+
+"The genuine will," replied Hatchie, still holding Maxwell. "I gave it
+into his hands. To explain how I came by it, I need only call your
+attention to a certain night, when I surprised you and this honorable
+gentleman in this very apartment."
+
+"It is all over!" groaned Jaspar.
+
+"This is a forgery!" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Ay, a forgery!" repeated Jaspar, catching the attorney's idea. "Who can
+prove that this is a correct will, and the other false?"
+
+"I can," said Dalhousie. "Here is a duplicate copy, with letters
+explaining the reason for making it, in the testator's own
+hand-writing."
+
+Dalhousie candidly stated the means by which he had obtained possession
+of the papers, and trusted his indiscretion would be overlooked. Dr.
+Vaudelier frowned, as his son-in-law related the unworthy part he had
+performed, and perhaps felt a consciousness of the good intentions which
+had years before induced him to refuse his consent to the marriage of
+his daughter.
+
+Jaspar yielded the point; but Maxwell, in the hope of gaining time,
+boldly proclaimed all the papers forgeries.
+
+"It matters not; we will not stop to discuss the matter now. Tie his
+hands, Hatchie," said Henry Carroll, and, with the assistance of others,
+he was bound, and handed over to a constable, upon the warrant of Mr.
+Faxon, who was a justice.
+
+The party separated,--Henry and Emily seeking the grove in front of the
+house, to congratulate each other on the happy termination of their
+season of difficulty. The meeting between Dr. Vaudelier and his son and
+daughter was extremely interesting, and the hours passed rapidly away,
+in listening to the experience of each other. The meeting concluded with
+the making of new resolves, on the part of Dalhousie, to seek "the great
+purpose of his life" by higher and nobler means.
+
+As the dinner-hour approached, the happy parties were summoned by Mr.
+Faxon to visit his house, and partake of his hospitality. The good man
+was never happier in his life than when he said grace over the noon-day
+meal, surrounded by the restored heiress of Bellevue, and her happy
+friends.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     "From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss,
+     They lived together long, without debate;
+     Nor private jars nor spite of enemies
+     Could shake the safe assurance of their states."
+
+     SPENSER.
+
+
+Our story is told. It only remains to condense the subsequent lives of
+our characters into a few lines.
+
+Jaspar Dumont lingered along a few weeks after the return of Emily; but
+his life had lost its vitality. Continued devotion to the demon of the
+bottle laid him low,--he was found dead in the library, having been
+stricken with an apoplectic fit.
+
+After the death of Jaspar, Maxwell was tried for a variety of crimes,
+and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, accompanied by Dalhousie and his wife, removed to New
+Orleans, where they spent many happy years, devoted to those pure
+principles of truth and justice which the events of our history
+contributed not a little to create and strengthen.
+
+Vernon,--or, as he has changed his character, we may venture to change
+his name,--Jerome Vaudelier, went to California in the first of the
+excitement; where, amid the temptations of that new and dissolute land,
+he yet maintains the integrity he vowed to cherish on the night of the
+attack upon Cottage Island.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan spent a few days at Bellevue, and then
+started for the North. The honest yeoman, either on account of the many
+adventures they had passed through together, or because Pat was a true
+convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the Hibernian, and insisted
+that he should accompany him home. Pat became a very worthy man, after
+abandoning the "critter," which had been his greatest bane. For three
+years he served our New Englander faithfully on the farm, at the end of
+which period his desire to get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish
+girl to his bosom, and go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry
+and Emily, about this time, to the worthy farmer, contributed to forward
+this end; for Pat, with Celtic candor and boldness, stated to them his
+views and purposes. Before the heiress left, Pat's farm was bought and
+paid for, besides being well stocked, by her princely liberality.
+
+Jerry Swinger and his wife, who had rendered such important services to
+Emily, were not forgotten. The honest woodman disdained to receive
+compensation for any service he or his good wife had rendered, but Emily
+found a way to render them comfortable for life, without any sacrifice
+of pride on their part.
+
+One year after the events which close our history the great mansion at
+Bellevue was the scene of gay festivities. Dr. Vaudelier and his
+daughter, and Dalhousie, and Jerry Swinger and all his family, were
+there, because, in the hour of its owner's greatest happiness, she could
+not be without those who had been her friends in the season of
+adversity. All the country round was there,--New Orleans was
+there,--everybody was there, to witness the nuptials of the fair heiress
+and the gallant Captain Carroll.
+
+The great drawing-room was brilliantly illuminated. The happy couple
+entered the room, and stood up before Mr. Faxon. A step behind Emily,
+watching the proceedings with as much interest as a fond father would
+witness the espousal of a beloved daughter, stood Hatchie. Race and
+condition did not exclude him from the proud and brilliant assemblage
+that had gathered to honor the nuptials of his mistress.
+
+They were married, and, ere the good minister had concluded his
+congratulations, the huge yellow palm of the faithful slave was extended
+to receive the white-gloved hand of the bride. Nor did she shrink from
+him. With a sweet smile, and a look which told how deep were her respect
+and admiration, she gave him her hand, heedless of the proud circle
+which had gathered around her to be first in their offering of good
+wishes.
+
+"God bless you, Miss Emily! Bless you!" said he, and the tear stole into
+his eye, as he withdrew from the crowd.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14731 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14731 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress
+of Bellevue, by Warren T. Ashton</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>HATCHIE</h1>
+<h1>THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;</h1>
+<h4>OR</h4>
+<h2>THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.</h2>
+<h3><i>A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west</i></h3>
+<h4>BY WARREN T. ASHTON.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="center">"Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of
+comely virtues."<br />
+<br />
+SHAKSPEARE<br />
+<br />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+"Is this the daughter of a slave?"<br />
+<br />
+KNOWLES.</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>Boston:<br />
+B. B. Mussey and Company,<br />
+and<br />
+R. B. Fitts and Company.</h6>
+
+<h4>1853</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="center"><table>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#INTRODUCTION"><b>INTRODUCTION.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CONCLUSION"><b>CONCLUSION.</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the<br />
+Fisk University Library Negro Collection<br />
+<br />
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.<br />
+Hallandale, Florida 33009</h6>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<p>In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a
+passenger on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati.
+During the passage&mdash;one of the most prolonged and
+uncomfortable in the annals of western river navigation&mdash;the
+plot of this story was arranged. Many of its incidents, and all its
+descriptions of steamboat life, will be recognized by the voyager
+of the Mississippi.</p>
+<p>The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin,"&mdash;before negro literature had become a mania in the
+community. It was not designed to illustrate the evils or the
+blessings of slavery. It is, as its title-page imports, a
+<i>tale</i>; and the author has not stepped out of his path to
+moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other extraneous topic.
+But, as its <i>locale</i> is the South, and its principal character
+a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
+slavery.</p>
+<p>With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the
+public, hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure
+from its perusal which he experienced in its preparation.</p>
+<p>BOSTON, <i>November</i> 18, 1852.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>HATCHIE:</h1>
+<h1>THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.</h1>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Antony</i>. You grow
+presumptuous.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ventidius</i>. I take the
+privilege of plain love to speak.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Antony</i>. Plain
+love!&mdash;Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">DRYDEN.</span></p>
+<p>On the second floor of a lofty building in &mdash;&mdash;
+street, New Orleans, was situated the office of Anthony Maxwell,
+Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at Law, Commissioner for Georgia,
+Alabama, and a dozen other states. His office had not the usual
+dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but presented more the
+appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but for the
+ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
+with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the
+visitor would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the
+walls not occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings,
+whose artistic beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined
+taste. The floor of the room was covered by a magnificent tapestry
+carpet. The chairs, lounges and tables, were of the most costly and
+elegant description. The windows were hung with graceful and
+brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of the office betokened
+luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil and privation to
+which the aspirant for legal honors must so often submit. The
+costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate that the
+young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked with
+beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
+over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have
+trodden.</p>
+<p>The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon
+one of the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a
+fragrant regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty
+years of age, and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly
+handsome. His face was pale, with a certain haggard appearance,
+which indicates the earlier stages of dissipation. His complexion
+was of a delicate white, unbrowned by the southern sun, and the
+skin was so transparent that the roots of his black beard were
+visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair hung in rich, wavy
+curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some renowned
+tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they arranged.
+His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was excited in
+manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,&mdash;disposed to
+droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
+agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there
+was something about them which the moralist would not like&mdash;a
+sort of lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual
+expression, that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he
+admired the Apollo.</p>
+<p>The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not
+yet become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and
+festered beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual
+grandeur.</p>
+<p>The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in
+good taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not
+court ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
+over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined
+taste, in his external appearance.</p>
+<p>Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A
+year before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his
+father's office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed
+devotion to business, he had effectually deceived his father and
+his clients into the belief that he was a steady, industrious young
+man. His talents were of a very respectable order, which,
+superadded to a native eloquence and an engaging demeanor, had
+enabled him to acquit himself with much credit in the cases
+intrusted to his management. A few months after his professional
+<i>d&eacute;but</i>, his father's decease had placed him in
+possession of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune,
+thus enabling him in some degree to follow the bent of his own
+inclinations. To those whose habits and desires were similar to his
+own, he was not long in unfolding his true character, though not to
+a sufficient extent to destroy at once his professional prospects.
+The irresponsible life of the man of leisure had more charms to him
+than an honorable distinction in his profession. To labor in any
+form he had an intolerable repugnance. His fortune was not
+sufficient to allow an entire neglect of business; therefore he
+determined to practise law in an easy manner, until a rich wife, or
+the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire devotion to the
+pleasures of affluence.</p>
+<p>In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of
+his father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent
+apartments we have described. He gave up the house in which his
+father had dwelt, and, fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of
+the office with oriental splendor, his life and habits were free
+from the scrutinizing gaze of friend and foe, and he found himself
+situated as nearly to his mind as his income would permit. These
+indications of a dissolute life were viewed with distrust by the
+more respectable of his clients. His subsequent actions were not
+calculated to increase their confidence; yet, for the respect they
+bore to the father's memory, they were slow in casting off the
+son.</p>
+<p>Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an
+impatient exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his
+mind refused to accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently
+engaged in the consideration of some complicated affair; and the
+more he thought, the more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar,
+and lit another; still the knotty point was not conquered. His
+haggard countenance at one moment was lighted up, as though success
+had dawned upon his mental contest; but at the next moment it
+darkened into disappointment, which he vented in an audible
+oath.</p>
+<p>While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating
+with the ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very
+formally announced "Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which
+had environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as
+if by magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the
+lady for the smoky atmosphere of the room.</p>
+<p>"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing
+of the usual commonplace introductions of conversation.</p>
+<p>"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this
+visit," replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have
+called to request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father
+has some business matters upon which he requires your professional
+advice."</p>
+<p>"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell,
+with an appearance of sympathy.</p>
+<p>"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When
+shall I say you will come?" said the lady.</p>
+<p>"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you
+go direct."</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.</p>
+<p>This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
+approbation of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner;
+"pray, honor me with a moment's conversation."</p>
+<p>"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and
+cannot accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified
+manner, while a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful
+countenance.</p>
+<p>"Be not so unkind,&mdash;a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell,
+with pleading earnestness.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
+returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not
+changed," replied she, moving to the door.</p>
+<p>The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had
+received, and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great
+purpose in view,&mdash;a purpose which, accomplished, would enable
+him to realize the cherished object of his life,&mdash;would enable
+him to revel in the ease and affluence he so much coveted.
+Something must be done. Here was an opportunity afforded by the
+providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never occur again,
+and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he adopted
+the first expedient which presented itself.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was
+not aware that you intended to return it."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
+relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table
+by the side of which the attorney stood.</p>
+<p>"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from
+further annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with
+which I have awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents
+of humility, which were too well feigned to permit the lady to
+suspect them. "The bitterness of a blighted hope were better than
+the agony of suspense."</p>
+<p>A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the
+lady, as she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table.
+There lay Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had
+returned it! She only pointed to it, and looked into his face to
+read the shame and confusion her discovery must create.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit
+was exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and
+said,</p>
+<p>"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to
+it, that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the
+heart which is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you
+cannot, know the misery I have endured in possessing the love upon
+which you so cruelly frown."</p>
+<p>The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart
+less firm than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression
+of contempt left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with
+favor to his suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed
+misery. Under any other circumstances, the lie he had a moment
+before uttered would have forever condemned him in her sight. But
+her charitable disposition compelled her to believe that it was the
+last resort of a mind on the verge of despair.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should
+have suffered any unhappiness on my account."</p>
+<p>"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell,
+hastily, feeling that he had gained the first point.</p>
+<p>"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned
+the lady.</p>
+<p>"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the
+coldness of indifference again!"</p>
+<p>"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an
+index of your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous
+means, to discountenance them."</p>
+<p>"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a
+flickering hope."</p>
+<p>"If you have, I regret it all the more."</p>
+<p>"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I
+have dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging
+fire, and beyond my control."</p>
+<p>"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied
+the lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I
+trust this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope
+you have cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now
+feel it must be for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on
+that account, to declare it, I repeat&mdash;I can never reciprocate
+the affection you profess. And now let this interview terminate. It
+is too painful to be prolonged;"&mdash;and she again moved towards
+the door.</p>
+<p>"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he
+followed her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove
+myself worthy,&mdash;anything, but do not forever extinguish the
+little star I have permitted to blaze in the firmament of my
+heart&mdash;the star I have dared to worship. Do not veil me in
+utter darkness!"</p>
+<p>"I can offer no hope&mdash;not the slightest, even to rid myself
+of an annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some
+portion of her former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney
+perplexed and troubled her exceedingly.</p>
+<p>"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell,
+heedless of the lady's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.</p>
+<p>"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till
+you examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from
+hopeless misery."</p>
+<p>"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a
+gentleman to save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont,
+with spirit, for her patience was fast ebbing out.</p>
+<p>"I will not <i>annoy</i> you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis,
+as he assumed an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading
+for exemption from the direst of human miseries. But I will not
+<i>annoy</i> you, even to save myself from endless woe."</p>
+<p>"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments
+will continue unchanged."</p>
+<p>"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
+resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
+that you will yet relent."</p>
+<p>"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
+Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time
+to add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however
+well acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the
+unsuspecting object of it to believe. That he really loved her was
+to some extent true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as
+the blight of coldness and inconstancy would render painful, was
+not true,&mdash;far from it. He had sought her hand, not to lay at
+her feet the offering of a hallowed affection, but to realize the
+object we have before mentioned,&mdash;to enable him, by the
+possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease and
+pleasure.</p>
+<p>He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some
+prospect of success. To the occasional professional visit he paid
+her father he had added frequent social calls, in which he had used
+all his eloquence to enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter.
+She had regarded him as an agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his
+natural abilities, the unceasing wit and liveliness of his
+conversation, had well earned him this distinction. Flattering
+himself that he should be able to win her affections, he had
+gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere formalist to
+the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These overtures were
+not well received, and, if she had before treated him with the
+favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now extended
+to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
+visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his
+eyes, and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his
+disposition was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow
+him to despair.</p>
+<p>Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented
+itself, in the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his
+ambitious wishes appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual
+was a young officer in the army, a sort of <i>proteg&eacute;</i> of
+the lady's father, who had been spending a furlough at Bellevue. In
+the matter of fortune Maxwell's rival was not to be dreaded, for he
+knew the lady was not mercenary in her views. The young captain was
+penniless; but his family was good, and he had the advantage of
+being a favorite with the father. He had won for himself a name on
+the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a lady's favor. He
+was a universal favorite both with the public and in the private
+circle.</p>
+<p>Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
+resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions
+he relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
+unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had
+manifested, he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her,
+eloquently and tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt
+that he could in this manner gain her attention to his
+suit,&mdash;a point which his vanity assured him was equivalent to
+a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were both sorely tried
+by the return of the letter unopened. His point was lost, and he
+was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to suggest any
+scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,&mdash;which the
+circumstances seemed to interdict,&mdash;when the visit of the lady
+herself rendered further efforts useless.</p>
+<p>His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
+heiress,&mdash;a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future
+prospects to be resigned,&mdash;was now a desperate one. Through
+the long vista of struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and
+the fact that he had to some extent compromised his heart
+stimulated him still more to meet and overcome the barriers that
+environed him.</p>
+<p>For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered
+the obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather
+than a disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and
+irregular strides. He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is
+absolute, and he must bend in submission. He blamed his own
+tardiness one moment, and his precipitancy the next; then he cursed
+his ill luck, and vented his anger and disappointment in a volley
+of oaths.</p>
+<p>His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's
+announcement of "Mr. Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to
+Bellevue. Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell,
+laying aside, with no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and
+assuming his usual bland demeanor.</p>
+<p>"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.</p>
+<p>"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell.
+"She requested me immediately to visit your brother."</p>
+<p>"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will
+style Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel
+Dumont.</p>
+<p>"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having
+detained me longer than I supposed it would."</p>
+<p>"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother
+wished to see you was concerning his will."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell,
+in apparent alarm.</p>
+<p>"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he
+thinks otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in
+order," replied Jaspar, with a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to
+be prepared for the final event."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught
+of the will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all
+possible haste. Will it take you long?"</p>
+<p>"An hour or two."</p>
+<p>"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on
+my return."</p>
+<p>"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and
+the morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."</p>
+<p>Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging
+his host's courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task
+before him. The first part of the will was speedily written; but
+those parts which alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing
+the opulence that awaited her, he could not so easily pass over.
+They were so strongly suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who
+should wed her, that he could scarcely proceed with the work. An
+hour before, she had veiled <i>his</i> prospects in darkness; now
+he was preparing a will which would, at no distant day, place her
+in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was so firmly fixed
+upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to bend itself
+to the task before him.</p>
+<p>Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little
+impatient. Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the
+lawyer's shoulder.</p>
+<p>"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
+impatience, "and must be executed with great care."</p>
+<p>"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done,"
+observed Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not
+unnoticed by the attorney.</p>
+<p>"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype
+of Jaspar's smile.</p>
+<p>A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single
+smile! It is the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts
+convey their untold and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious
+lover it is the bearer of the first tidings of joy. Long before the
+heart dare resort to coarse, material words, the smile carries the
+messages of affection. To the villain it reveals the sympathetic
+purposes of his according fiend. What the lead and line are to the
+pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling smile, is to the base
+mind. By means of it he feels his way into the heart and soul of
+his supposed prototype.</p>
+<p>Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the
+meaning of Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that
+he was cold and unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly
+lacking in common integrity; but that he was capable of bold and
+daring villany he had had no occasion to suspect. As he turned to
+the document again, the base character of the uncle came up for
+consideration in connection with his suit to the niece. Might not
+this circumstance open the way to the attainment of his grand
+purpose?</p>
+<p>But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the
+development of the history and circumstances of the Dumont
+family.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Lorenzo</i>. You loved,
+and he did love!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Mariana</i>. To say he
+did</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Were to affirm what oft his eyes
+avouched,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What many an action
+testified&mdash;and yet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What wanted confirmation of his
+tongue."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">KNOWLES.</span></p>
+<p>On the right bank of the Mississippi river, a few miles above
+New Orleans, was situated the plantation of Colonel Dumont, which
+he had chosen to designate by the expressive appellation of
+"Bellevue;" though, it would seem, from the level nature of the
+country, it could not have been chosen on account of any fitness in
+the term.</p>
+<p>In territorial extent, in the number of slaves employed, and in
+the quantity of sugar annually produced, the plantation of Colonel
+Dumont was one of the most important on the river. This fact, added
+to the possession of immense estates in the city, rendered its
+owner a man of no small consequence in the vicinity. But, more than
+this, Colonel Dumont was beloved and respected for his many good
+qualities of mind and heart. In the late war with England he had
+served in the army, and as an officer had won an enviable
+distinction by his courage and his talents. Coming unexpectedly
+into the possession of this estate by the death of an uncle, he
+retired, at the close of the war, from a profession to which a
+genuine patriotism alone had invited him, and devoted himself
+entirely to the improvement of his lands.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont had been married; but, after a single year of
+happiness in the conjugal state, his wife died, leaving him an only
+daughter in remembrance of her. This child, at the opening of the
+tale, was within a few years of maturity,&mdash;the image of her
+father's only love,&mdash;not less fair, not less pure and
+good.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont was a beautiful girl, fair as the lily, gentle as
+the dove. She was of a medium height, and of slender and graceful
+form. Her step was light and elastic, and, if there was any poetry
+in her light, elegant form, there was more in her easy, fairy-like
+motion. Her features were as daintily moulded as her form. Her eye
+was light blue, soft, and beautifully expressive of a pure heart.
+She was a little paler than the connoisseur in female loveliness
+would demand in his ideal, and her expression was a little inclined
+to sadness; but it was a sadness&mdash;or rather a sweet
+dignity&mdash;more winning than repulsive to the gazer.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, highly as fortune had favored her in the bestowal
+of worldly goods and personal beauty, was still more blessed in the
+gifts of an expansive mind and a gentle heart; and mind and heart
+had both been faithfully cultivated by the assiduous care of her
+devoted father. She was a true woman,&mdash;not a mere plaything to
+while away a dandy's idle hours, not a piece of tinsel to adorn the
+parlor of a nabob, but a true woman,&mdash;one fitted by nature and
+education to adorn all the varied scenes of life. Although brought
+up in unclouded prosperity, amid luxury and affluence, she was
+still prepared for the day of adversity, if it should ever
+come.</p>
+<p>As the heiress of immense wealth, her hand was eagerly sought in
+the aristocratic circle around her; but thus far she had resisted
+all these attacks upon her heart, and upon her prospective riches.
+In the crowd of suitors who gathered around her was Anthony
+Maxwell. In the item of wealth his fortune was comparatively small;
+and in that of a noble character, smaller still. Emily could have
+forgiven him the want of the former, but the latter was
+imperatively demanded. At the young lawyer's return from the North,
+and on his first appearance at the bar, Emily had regarded him with
+more than ordinary attention. But, after the death of his father,
+the reports which reached her ears of his dissolute habits and
+inclinations caused her to regard him with distrust. His wit,
+accomplishments and native suavity, had procured him admission into
+the circle of her more favored friends. But the report of his vices
+had as promptly produced his expulsion.</p>
+<p>The return of the army from Mexico brought with it the young
+officer whom we have before mentioned. The father of this young man
+had been a companion-in-arms of Colonel Dumont, and a strong
+friendship had grown up between the veterans. The tie was severed
+only by the death of the former, after a life of mercantile
+misfortunes, and finally of utter ruin. At the period of the
+father's insolvency and death, Henry Carroll, the son, was a cadet
+at West Point, and was about abandoning his chosen profession, for
+the want of means, when Colonel Dumont wrote him an affectionate
+letter, offering all that he required to complete his studies. This
+offer, coming from one who had been a heavy loser by his father's
+bankruptcy, was highly appreciated, and the young student had
+allowed no false delicacy to prevent his acceptance of the generous
+proposal, though with a stipulation to repay all sums, with
+interest. Colonel Dumont, in his regular summer tour to the North,
+never failed to visit his young friend, whose noble bearing and
+lofty principle entirely won his heart, and he charged himself with
+a father's duty towards him. A regular correspondence was kept up
+between the self-constituted guardian and his
+<i>proteg&eacute;</i>; and the more the former read the heart of
+the young man, the more did he rejoice that he had befriended him.
+He read with mingled pride and affection the repeated instances of
+his daring courage and matchless skill which found their way into
+the newspapers; while the record of his humanity to a fallen foe
+contributed to swell the tide of the old gentleman's affection.</p>
+<p>On his return from Mexico, Henry's first care was to see his
+devoted friend and guardian, and he accepted his pressing
+invitation to spend a month at Bellevue.</p>
+<p>As an inmate of her father's family, he was, of course, a
+constant companion of Emily. Her radiant beauty had captivated his
+heart long ere the month had expired; and he saw, or thought he
+saw, in the heart of the fair girl, indications of a sympathetic
+sentiment. In the rashness of his warm blood he had allowed himself
+to cherish a lively hope that his dawning love was not entirely
+unrequited. He had seen that <i>his</i> bouquet was more fondly
+cherished than the offerings of others; that <i>his</i> hand, as
+she alighted from the carriage, was more gladly received than any
+other; that <i>his</i> conversation never wearied her; in short,
+there was in all their intercourse an unmistakable exponent of
+feelings deeper than those of common friendship.</p>
+<p>In the midst of this delighted existence,&mdash;while yet he
+revelled in the pleasure of loving and being loved,&mdash;there
+came to him, like a dark cloud over a clear sky, the unwelcome
+thought that it was wrong for him to entangle the affections of his
+benefactor's daughter. He was a beggar,&mdash;the object of her
+father's charity. Her prospects were brilliant and certain, and he
+felt that he had no right to mar or destroy them. He knew that she
+would love him none the less for his poverty; but, probably, her
+father had already anticipated something better than a beggar for
+his future son-in-law.</p>
+<p>Poor Captain Carroll! The modesty of true greatness of soul had
+left unconsidered the genuine nobility of the man. He thought not
+of the name he had won on the field of battle,&mdash;of the
+honorable wounds he bore as testimonials of his devotion to his
+country. He was poor, and, in the despondency which his position
+induced, he attributed to wealth a value which to the truly good it
+never possesses.</p>
+<p>He loved Emily, and his poverty seemed to shut him out from the
+hallowed field to which his heart fondly sought admission.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll was a high-minded man; he felt that to love the
+daughter while the father's views were unknown to him would be rank
+ingratitude; and ingratitude towards so good a man, so kind a
+benefactor, was repugnant to every principle of his nature. There
+was but one path open to him. If he could not help loving her, he
+could strive to prevent the loved one from squandering her
+affections where pain and sorrow might ensue. They had often met;
+but he strove to believe, in his unwilling zeal, that their
+intimacy had not yet resulted in an incurable passion. She had as
+yet shown nothing that could not have resulted from simple
+friendship. And yet she had,&mdash;the warm glow that adorned her
+cheek when she received his flower, the expressive glance of her
+soft eye as he assisted her to the carriage, the sweet smile with
+which she had always greeted him,&mdash;ah, no, these were not
+friendship! I He could not believe that his affection was
+unreturned; it was too precious to remain unacknowledged. The will
+and the heart would not conform to each other. But his duty seemed
+plain, and he did not hesitate to obey its call, though it demanded
+a great sacrifice.</p>
+<p>The month to which he had limited his visit at Bellevue expired
+about the period at which our tale begins. Inclination prompted him
+to accept the pressing invitation of Colonel Dumont to prolong his
+stay; but, bitter as was the thought of parting from her he loved,
+his nice sense of honor compelled him to be firm in his
+purpose.</p>
+<p>The announcement of his intended departure to Emily, as they
+were seated in the drawing-room on the designated day, afforded him
+another evidence that her heart was not untouched. Her pale cheek
+grew paler, and the playful smile was instantly dismissed.</p>
+<p>"So soon?" said she, scarcely able to conceal the tremulous
+emotion which agitated her.</p>
+<p>"So soon! I have finished the month allotted to me," replied
+Henry Carroll, with a weak effort to appear gayer than he felt.</p>
+<p>"Allotted to you! And pray are you stinted in the length of your
+visit?"</p>
+<p>"My orders will not permit a longer stay, happy as I should be
+to remain; and I have already trespassed long on your
+hospitality."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Henry, you have grown sensitive! You were not wont to
+consider your visits a trespass. Pray, have you not been regarded
+as one of the family?"</p>
+<p>"True, I have. I can never repay the debt of gratitude for the
+many kindnesses I have received at your good father's hands."</p>
+<p>"He has been a thousand times repaid by the honorable life you
+have led,&mdash;by feeling that the talents he has encouraged you
+to foster are now blessing the world," replied Emily, warmly; "so
+no more of your gratitude, if you please."</p>
+<p>"However lightly you, or your father, may regard my obligations
+to him, I cannot view them coldly."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, your presence here will give him more pleasure than
+any other token of respect you can bestow; and, I am sure, I should
+be rejoiced&mdash;that is to say&mdash;that is&mdash;I should be
+glad to have you stay longer, if you can be contented," stammered
+Emily, as her mantling blushes betrayed her confusion. Deception
+was not in her nature, and, strive as hard as she might, she must
+reveal her feelings.</p>
+<p>"I should be happier than it is possible for me to express in
+remaining at Bellevue. My month has passed away like a dream of
+pleasure,&mdash;so short it seemed that time had staid his
+wheels,&mdash;so joyous that earth seemed shorn of sorrow. You know
+not how much I have enjoyed the society of your father, and, pardon
+me, of yourself," returned Henry, scarcely less confused than
+Emily.</p>
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," she replied, with some
+hesitation, and fearful of exposing the sentiment she was conscious
+of cherishing. "I have thought that, accustomed as you are to the
+stirring life of the camp, you had grown tired of our quiet
+home."</p>
+<p>"You wrong me, Emily, I should never weary here; but I was
+fearful that I had already staid too long," said Henry, in a sad
+tone, for he felt it most deeply, though not in the sense that
+Emily understood him.</p>
+<p>"Too long! Then you are weary of us, and I will not chide you
+forbidding us adieu," said Emily, with a glance of anxiety at
+Henry.</p>
+<p>"Nay, Miss Dumont, do not misinterpret my words. I am not weary,
+I cannot be weary, of Bellevue and its fair and good inmates."</p>
+<p>"Then what mean you by saying you have staid too long?"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me, I cannot tell why I said it; but I feel that I
+should do wrong to prolong my stay, however congenial to my
+feelings to do so," replied Henry, with the most evident
+embarrassment.</p>
+<p>"How strange you talk, Henry! What mystery is this?" said Emily,
+to whom prudential motives were unknown.</p>
+<p>"If it be a mystery, pray do not press me to unravel it, for I
+cannot."</p>
+<p>His resolution was fast giving way before the strength of his
+love. He was sorely tempted to throw himself at her feet and pour
+forth the acknowledgment of his affection, which, he felt, would be
+kindly received. It was a difficult position for a man of sensitive
+feelings to be placed in, and he felt it keenly. But the duty he
+owed to his benefactor seemed imperative.</p>
+<p>Emily, on her part, was sadly bewildered by the strangeness of
+Henry's words; but she had no suspicion of the truth. If she had,
+perhaps, with a woman's ingenuity, she had devised some plan to
+extricate him from the dilemma. She was conscious of the strong
+interest she felt in the man before her; but the fact that she
+loved him was yet unrecognized. How should it be? She was unskilled
+in the subtleties even of her own heart. She know not the meaning
+of love yet. She was conscious of a grateful sensation in her
+heart; but she had yet to learn that this sensation was that called
+love in the great world. She began to fear, in her inability to
+account for Henry's strangeness in any other way, that some secret
+sorrow weighed heavily upon him.</p>
+<p>"I will not press you," said she, in a tone of affectionate
+sympathy; "but, if you have any sorrow which oppresses you, reveal
+it to my father, and take counsel against it. My father's house is
+your home,&mdash;at least, we have always endeavored to make it so.
+Father has always regarded you with the affection of a parent, and
+taught me to consider you as a brother&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"A brother!" interrupted Henry, feeling that the relation of
+brother and sister was too cold for the warmth of his affection;
+but, instantly banishing the unworthy thought, he continued,</p>
+<p>"And so, my pretty sister, you are for the first time entering
+upon your sisterly relations?"</p>
+<p>"The first time! Have I not always given you evidence of a
+sister's esteem?"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me. I only jested," said Henry, as the playful smile
+left his countenance.</p>
+<p>"Do not jest upon serious things, Henry," replied Emily. "But,
+brother, something troubles you. You cannot deny it. You look so
+gloomy and sad, and must leave us so suddenly."</p>
+<p>"Nay, my sweet sister,&mdash;since sister I am permitted to call
+you,&mdash;you must forgive me if I am obstinate just this
+once."</p>
+<p>"I will forgive your obstinacy because you desire it, and not
+because I am satisfied. Do you know, brother," said she, with a
+playful smile, "that I suspect you are in love?"</p>
+<p>This raillery was intended to have been uttered with a pert
+archness; but the crimson cheek and tremulous lips entirely
+defeated the intention.</p>
+<p>"Fie, sister! You are jesting now, yourself," replied Henry,
+with what was intended for a smile, but which, like his assailant's
+archness, was a signal failure.</p>
+<p>Both parties were now in the most unfortunate position
+imaginable. Neither dared to speak, for fear of disclosing their
+emotions. Both felt the awkwardness of the silence, and both felt
+the danger of breaking it. Henry twirled the tassel of the window
+drapery, and Emily twisted her pocket-handkerchief into every
+conceivable shape. Henry was the first to gather fortitude enough
+to venture a remark.</p>
+<p>"I must leave you, sister, now that, for the first time, the
+relation is acknowledged. I assure you, however, that I appreciate
+the sisterly kindness you have always lavished upon me. And I shall
+always remember this visit as the happiest period of my life."</p>
+<p>"Then I may hope you will often repeat it," replied Emily,
+sadly.</p>
+<p>"However pleasant it would be for me to do so, I fear my duty
+will be a barrier to my inclination. My future post, you are aware,
+is Newport."</p>
+<p>"And you depart so suddenly, and then seem inclined to make your
+absence perpetual! But we shall see you where-ever you are. We go
+to Newport this season, if father's health will permit," returned
+Emily, with a playful pout.</p>
+<p>"I would stay by you,&mdash;that is, I would stay at Bellevue
+forever,&mdash;if my duty to your father&mdash;I mean to my
+country&mdash;would permit," stammered Henry, much agitated, as he
+rose to depart.</p>
+<p>"I must go and bid farewell to your father," continued he,
+taking her hand, which he perceived trembled violently, in his own;
+"and I trust you will remember your absent brother&mdash;" kindly,
+he was about to say, but Emily, attempting to rise, was overpowered
+by the emotions which she had vainly striven to suppress, and sunk
+back in a swoon.</p>
+<p>Henry summoned assistance, and applied the usual restoratives,
+but he did not again venture to address her; and, as her pale
+features exhibited signs of returning consciousness, he hurried
+from the room.</p>
+<p>As the hour of his departure drew near, he bade an affectionate
+farewell to Colonel Dumont, who was confined to his room by
+illness. His kind friend used many entreaties for him to prolong
+his stay, but Henry pleaded his duty, and that the dying request of
+a brother officer required him to take a journey into Georgia,
+which would consume some three or four weeks' time. He intended to
+go to his future station by the way of the Mississippi, and
+promised that, if any time were left him on his return, he would
+again visit Bellevue. This, however, he thought was improbable.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont gave his <i>proteg&eacute;</i> much good advice,
+and, as his failing health had infected his usually cheerful
+spirits, he said that they would probably meet no more in this
+world. He frankly told him that he should remember him in his will,
+and wished him ever to regard Emily in the relation of a
+<i>sister</i>.</p>
+<p>This last wish seemed like a positive prohibition of the fond
+hope he had cherished, of regarding her in a nearer and more tender
+relation. He congratulated himself on the decision with which he
+had resisted the temptation to avow his love.</p>
+<p>This injunction of Emily's father could be interpreted in two
+ways,&mdash;as a requirement to preserve the present friendly
+relations, or as a prohibition against his ever making her his
+wife. The latter method of rendering his meaning seemed to him the
+most in accordance with their relative positions, and he was
+compelled to adopt it.</p>
+<p>After renewing his thanks to his benefactor, he took his leave
+with a sad heart, and departed from the mansion which contained his
+newly-found yet now rejected love.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Macbeth</i>.&mdash;What is
+'t ye do?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Witches</i>.&mdash;A deed
+without a name."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Shakespeare.</span></p>
+<p>In the management of his estates, Colonel Dumont had, for many
+years, been assisted by an only brother. This brother was directly
+the opposite of himself in character, in aims, in everything. Even
+in his childhood this brother had displayed a waywardness of
+disposition which gave the promise of much evil in his future
+years. As the seed sown so was the harvest. Parental instruction,
+counsel and rebuke, were alike unavailing, and he attained the
+years of manhood morose and unsympathizing in his disposition,
+avaricious and hard with his equals, and cruel and unjust towards
+his inferiors. His selfish mind, his low aims, and his tyrannical
+character, had long been preparing him for deeds of villany and
+injustice.</p>
+<p>In the earlier years of his life he had been a merchant in New
+Orleans; but, being universally detested for his meanness and
+duplicity, in a season of general panic in the financial world he
+was completely ruined, by the want of those kind offices which are
+so freely interchanged in the mercantile community. In this
+dilemma, he asked his brother's assistance. Colonel Dumont examined
+his affairs, and, considering his position in the community, with
+the almost hopeless embarrassment of his concerns, concluded that
+success under these circumstances was impossible. He frankly and
+kindly informed his brother of his conclusion, and offered him a
+share in his planting operations. His
+brother&mdash;Jaspar&mdash;was sorely wounded in his pride by this
+reply. It generated in him a sentiment, if not of malignity, at
+least of hatred, and from that day he was his brother's enemy.
+Jaspar's business was gone, and he never allowed his spirit of
+revenge even to interfere with his interest; so he availed himself
+of his brother's offer.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont trusted much to the gentle influence of his
+family circle to soften Jaspar's moroseness, and infuse some
+principle of charity and love. But these anticipations proved vain.
+He was cold and taciturn. Business alone could call forth the
+display of his energy, of which he was possessed of a liberal
+share. The society of Emily and other ladies he seemed to shun. The
+gentle influence of domestic life seemed entirely wasted upon him.
+Colonel Dumont was forced to believe his brother a misanthrope, and
+no longer strove to soften his character. Emily regarded his
+coldness as his natural manner, and left him to the full enjoyment
+of his eccentricity. Between persons of such opposite dispositions
+there could be, of course, but little sympathy, and that little was
+entirely upon one side.</p>
+<p>The demon of Jaspar's nature displayed itself in the cane-field
+and in the sugar-house, which Colonel Dumont rarely visited, having
+intrusted the entire management of the estate to him, his own
+attention being occupied by the exterior business of the
+plantation, and by his city possessions. The poor negro, who was
+compelled to submit to cruel usage and short fare, knew Jaspar's
+nature better than uncle or niece. His advent among them had been
+the era from which they dated the life of misery they led&mdash;a
+life so different from that they had been accustomed to under the
+superintendence of the more Christian brother.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont managed the "negro stock" in the true spirit of a
+demon, and as such the "hands" learned to regard him. Runaways,
+which, under the mild management of his brother, were rarely known,
+were common now; and almost the only amusement Jaspar knew was to
+hunt them down with rifle and bloodhound.</p>
+<p>This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not
+appreciate the reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he
+wished not to interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his
+heart. His failing health had latterly withdrawn his attention
+still more from the plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the
+tighter when he saw that the humane eye was removed from him.</p>
+<p>Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the
+close of our first chapter.</p>
+<p>On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel
+Dumont felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed
+with the conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon
+him. To Emily he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and
+she had discovered no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no
+suspicion of the nature of her father's business with Maxwell, and
+had borne his message to the attorney, as she had often done
+before, in her frequent visits to New Orleans, though on this
+occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much delicacy in doing
+so.</p>
+<p>In her absence Colonel Dumont had become more and more impressed
+with the omens of a speedy dissolution, and in his uneasiness had
+despatched Jaspar with a draft of his intentions, wishing the
+attorney to write the will in his office (where he could have his
+authorities at hand), and return with his brother.</p>
+<p>Maxwell considered the will and his own position, while Jaspar
+lit another cigar. Each was striving to penetrate the thoughts of
+the other, but neither had the boldness to enter upon the subject
+which occupied his mind. The lawyer wanted the lady and the
+fortune, and he had an undefined purpose of obtaining them through
+the agency of Jaspar, who wanted only the fortune, and had a
+decided anticipation of being able to retain the attorney in his
+service. Neither knew the purposes of the other; but each wanted
+the assistance of the other.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, with an absent mind, perused and reperused the first
+page of Colonel Dumont's instructions. Without a purpose he turned
+the leaf, and his attention was attracted by the name of his
+formidable rival, Henry Carroll. He read, with astonishment, a
+bequest to him of fifty thousand dollars. If it needed anything to
+complete his discomfiture, this was sufficient. He began to think
+Colonel Dumont was in his dotage. He had scarcely heard of Captain
+Carroll until his return from Mexico, and now he was a legatee in
+the will of a millionaire. With much anxiety he completed the
+reading of the instructions, fearful that he should find the young
+officer's name in connection with Emily's. To his great relief he
+found no such allusion, and again he applied himself to the task of
+writing out the will.</p>
+<p>Jaspar smoked his cigar, glanced occasionally at the newspaper,
+and stared out of the window. He was evidently lost to all around
+him, in the workings of his own mind. Now his thoughts seemed to
+excite him, for his eye glared with an unusual lustre, and his thin
+lips moved, as if they would disclose the operations of his mind.
+"Will he do it?" muttered he. "He shall do it, or by &mdash;&mdash;
+he shall suffer! I have the means of compelling him. I will use
+them."</p>
+<p>Apparently satisfied with his conclusion, he rose hastily and
+approached the attorney. A smooth smile&mdash;an unwonted
+expression on his features&mdash;seemed to come on demand. Again he
+looked over the lawyer's shoulder. He saw the name of Henry
+Carroll, and his former severe expression returned, and his frame
+was stirred by angry emotions. A half-suppressed oath did not
+escape the quick ear of the attorney, and he turned to observe the
+face of his companion. He read at a glance the dissatisfaction
+which the will occasioned. The reason was plain; and, with the
+intention of drawing out Jaspar's views, he addressed him.</p>
+<p>"This Carroll is a lucky fellow," said he.</p>
+<p>"The devil is always the luckiest fellow in the crowd," growled
+Jaspar, with an oath.</p>
+<p>"You are right, sir," returned Maxwell, pleased to see no better
+feeling between his rival and the uncle.</p>
+<p>"But who is this Carroll?" said he.</p>
+<p>"A hungry cub, whom the colonel has helped along in the
+world."</p>
+<p>"Well, he has proved himself a brave and skilful officer, and
+reflects credit on your brother's judgment in the selection of a
+<i>proteg&eacute;</i>," returned Maxwell, adroitly.</p>
+<p>"The fellow is all well enough, for aught I know, but he has
+wheedled the colonel out of fifty thousand dollars, and I can never
+forgive him for that," said Jaspar, in what was intended for a
+playful tone, but which was designed as a "feeler" of the
+attorney's conscience.</p>
+<p>"But there is still an immense property left, even after
+deducting the liberal charitable donations," said Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"There is, but where does it go to? That whining young cub has
+divided a hundred thousand with me, and the silly girl has the
+rest."</p>
+<p>"Which will eventually go into the hands of Captain
+Carroll,&mdash;lucky dog, he!" returned Maxwell, striving to
+provoke Jaspar still more.</p>
+<p>"What! what mean you, man?" said Jaspar, with a scowl, as he
+caught a glimpse of the attorney's meaning.</p>
+<p>"Is it possible, my dear sir," said Maxwell, laying down his
+pen, and turning half round, "is it possible you have not observed
+the intimacy which has grown up between this Carroll and your
+niece?"</p>
+<p>"Intimacy! what do you mean? Speak out! no equivocation!" said
+Jaspar, almost fiercely.</p>
+<p>"Do you not see that she will yet be the wife of Captain
+Carroll?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar scowled, but said nothing. He had seen nothing from which
+he could draw such an inference, but he doubted not the information
+was correct.</p>
+<p>"Well, well, it matters not. He may as well have it as she,"
+muttered he. "This will suits me not, and must be broken or
+altered."</p>
+<p>"It <i>is</i> hard upon you," said Maxwell, who had overheard
+Jaspar's mutterings.</p>
+<p>"It is rather hard to be placed upon the same level with a
+comparative stranger," replied Jaspar, thoughtfully, after a long
+pause. He had not intended the lawyer should hear his previous
+remarks, and had reflected whether he should disown them, or pursue
+the subject as thus opened.</p>
+<p>"Of course you will not mention the idle remark I made,"
+continued Jaspar, in a vein of prudence. "My brother has an
+undoubted right to dispose of his property as he pleases."</p>
+<p>"O, certainly. What transpires in my office is always regarded
+with the strictest confidence, whatever its nature, and however it
+affects any individual," replied Maxwell, laying peculiar emphasis
+on the latter clause.</p>
+<p>"That's right, always be secret," said Jaspar, without any of
+the appearance of obligation for the favor which the attorney
+expected to see.</p>
+<p>"I have secrets in my possession which would ruin some of the
+best families in the State of Louisiana."</p>
+<p>"Without doubt," replied Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>The attorney resumed his writing, and pronounced in an audible
+tone each sentence as he committed it to the paper.</p>
+<p>"To my beloved brother&mdash;Jaspar Dumont&mdash;I give and
+bequeath the sum of fifty thousand dollars."</p>
+<p>These words, as intended, again fired Jaspar's passions.</p>
+<p>"Is there no remedy for this?" asked he, hastily.</p>
+<p>"No legal remedy," replied Maxwell, indifferently, as he
+continued his task.</p>
+<p>"Is there any, legal or illegal?"</p>
+<p>"None that an honest man would be willing to resort to."</p>
+<p>"That any man would resort to?" and Jaspar was not a little
+provoked at the attorney's moral inferences.</p>
+<p>"I know of none."</p>
+<p>"I do."</p>
+<p>"Then why do you not put it into operation before it is too
+late? The will is now nearly written."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! man; you do not understand me. A bolder step than you
+are thinking of."</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you wait for?"</p>
+<p>"I need assistance."</p>
+<p>"If I can afford you any aid, <i>honorably</i>, I shall be most
+happy."</p>
+<p>"<i>Honorably</i>! What the devil do you mean by
+<i>honorably</i>?" said Jaspar, exasperated by this unexpected
+display of morality.</p>
+<p>"What do I mean by honorably? Why, anything which does not
+affect the legal or moral rights of others," replied Maxwell, a
+little touched by the seeming reflection of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Fudge! how long have you been so conscientious?" sneered
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"When a man has a reputation to make or break, it becomes him to
+handle it with care."</p>
+<p>"Out upon you, man! <i>Your</i> reputation is not so fair, that
+you need be so tender of it," replied Jaspar, with some
+severity.</p>
+<p>"Sir!"</p>
+<p>"O, you needn't '<i>sir</i>' me! You have led me to commit
+myself, and now assume a virtue you possess not."</p>
+<p>"Sir, I value my reputation, and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Of course you do, but you would not sacrifice a fortune for
+it," interrupted Jaspar, easily changing the tenor of the
+conversation.</p>
+<p>"I certainly would not stain it unnecessarily," replied Maxwell,
+with a meaning smile, for he saw the folly of attempting the "high
+flight" with Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Now you talk sensibly," said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont, it is useless to beat about the bush any longer; if
+you have any proposition to make, out with it at once; and if I
+cannot aid you, I will, at least, keep your secret."</p>
+<p>"Will you swear never to reveal what I shall propose?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, if paid for it," said Maxwell, frankly.</p>
+<p>"It is well. Now, I will put you in the way of making ten
+thousand dollars, if you so will," said Jaspar, slapping the
+attorney on the back with a familiarity which was likely to breed
+contempt.</p>
+<p>This was a tempting offer, and Maxwell prepared to listen to the
+proposition. He was aware that it was some design upon the estate
+of Colonel Dumont, and he inwardly resolved to be a gainer by the
+operation, whether he joined in it or not.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont laid aside his sternness, and disclosed his plot
+to Maxwell. It was, as may be supposed, a nefarious scheme, and not
+only intended to deprive Henry Carroll of his legacy, but also to
+disinherit the heiress, and cast a stigma upon the character of his
+brother.</p>
+<p>The plot we will not here disclose.</p>
+<p>Maxwell listened attentively, occasionally interrupting the
+speaker, by asking for details, or pointing out dangers But the
+foul wrong intended towards her for whom he entertained warmer
+sentiments than those of friendship shocked even his hardened
+sensibilities, and he strongly objected to its consummation. It
+would also, by stripping her of her broad lands, and stigmatizing
+her birth, render her undesirable as a wife. But Jaspar was firm in
+his purpose, and refused to listen to any other scheme. This one,
+he contended, was the safest and surest.</p>
+<p>"But it is a diabolical transaction," suggested Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Call it what you will, it is the only one that will work
+well."</p>
+<p>Maxwell remained silent. He was studying to make this scheme
+subservient to his own purpose. He was obliged to confess to
+himself that his hopes with the heiress were worse than folly, and
+he judged that the execution of Jaspar's scheme would remove his
+rival. He looked forward years, and saw his own purpose gained by
+means of Jaspar's plan. It was true that he and Jaspar both could
+not have her estates; but then Jaspar was a villain, and it would
+be a good service, at a convenient season, to be a traitor to him.
+His plans were arranged, and he determined to encourage his
+companion to proceed, though, at the same time, to seem unwilling,
+and to keep his own hands clean from all participation in it.</p>
+<p>After this long interval of silence, which Jaspar had endured
+with patience, for he recognized the truth of the saying, that "He
+who deliberates is damned," Maxwell said,</p>
+<p>"I cannot consent to stain my hands with such gross
+injustice."</p>
+<p>"You cannot!" sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"It would ruin me."</p>
+<p>"It was part of my intention to keep the transaction a secret,"
+said Jaspar, sarcastically.</p>
+<p>"Of course, and your confidence in me shall not be
+misplaced."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's fists were clenched, and a demoniacal expression rested
+on his countenance, as he said, savagely,</p>
+<p>"You know your own interest too well to do otherwise."</p>
+<p>"I am not to be intimidated," replied Maxwell, who despised his
+companion most heartily, and did not relish his tyrannical manner.
+"Your confidence, I repeat, is safe. <i>Honor</i> will keep your
+secret,&mdash;threats will not compel me to do so."</p>
+<p>"<i>Honor</i>! ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Jaspar. "Do you know,
+Maxwell, that you are a &mdash;&mdash; fool, to talk to me of your
+honor?"</p>
+<p>"Would you insult me, sir?" said, Maxwell, with vehemence.</p>
+<p>"O, no, my fine fellow! <i>Your</i> honor!&mdash;ha, ha!"
+returned Jaspar, taking from his pocket a little slip of paper.
+"Look here, my <i>honorable</i> worthy, do you know this
+check?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell's face assumed a livid hue, and a convulsive tremor
+passed through his frame, as he read the check.</p>
+<p>In a moment of temporary embarrassment he had been tempted to
+forge the name of Colonel Dumont to this check, for five hundred
+dollars, to liquidate a debt of honor, not doubting that he should
+be able to obtain it again before the day of settlement at the
+bank, by means of a dissolute teller, a boon companion at the
+gaming-table. But Colonel Dumont, in arranging his affairs for
+their final settlement, had sent Jaspar for a statement of his bank
+account at an unusual time. Jaspar, who, in the illness of his
+brother, had managed all his business, immediately discovered the
+forgery. Without disputing its genuineness, he ascertained who had
+presented it, and traced the deed to the attorney, and thus
+obtained a hold upon him which was peculiarly favorable to the
+execution of his great purpose.</p>
+<p>"You see I have not laid myself open to your fire without
+fortifying my position," said Jaspar, enjoying, with hearty relish,
+the discomfiture of the lawyer. "Now, no more of <i>honor</i> to
+me. I have kept your secret for my own interest, and now you will
+keep mine from the same motive."</p>
+<p>"But I <i>dare</i> not do this thing," replied Maxwell, keenly
+sensitive to the weakness of his position; "I lack the
+ability."</p>
+<p>"You have signed the colonel's name once very well; perhaps you
+can do it again," sneered Jaspar, who had no mercy for an unwilling
+servant.</p>
+<p>"It will not be for your interest or mine that I should do it,"
+returned Maxwell, determined, if possible, to avoid committing
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Why not?" said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"My frequent visits to Bellevue would subject me to suspicion. I
+am known. Another would not be suspected. If I clear myself, I
+shall clear you at the same time. I can procure a person who will
+accomplish all in safety."</p>
+<p>"Think you I will trust another man with the possession of the
+secret?"</p>
+<p>"I shall compromise my own safety by writing the will, as you
+propose."</p>
+<p>"True,&mdash;who is this person?"</p>
+<p>"His name is&mdash;" and Maxwell hesitated; then a severe fit of
+coughing apparently prevented his uttering the name&mdash;"his name
+is Antoine De Guy."</p>
+<p>"Do I know him?"</p>
+<p>"You do, I think,&mdash;a kind of <i>street</i>
+lawyer,&mdash;you must have met him at the Exchange."</p>
+<p>"What looking man is he?"</p>
+<p>"About fifty years of age," replied Maxwell, more thoughtful
+than the simple description of a person would seem to
+require,&mdash;"rather corpulent, black hair and whiskers,
+intermixed with gray,&mdash;dresses old-fashioned, and always looks
+rusty."</p>
+<p>"I do not remember him,&mdash;De Guy&mdash;De Guy," said Jaspar,
+musing; "no, I do not know him. Are you confident he can be
+trusted?"</p>
+<p>"Perfectly confident. I pledge my own safety on his fidelity,"
+replied Maxwell, not a little satisfied at gaining his
+point,&mdash;for he had a point, and a strong one, as the reader
+may yet have occasion to know.</p>
+<p>"Very good,&mdash;I will inquire about him."</p>
+<p>"And expose us both!" replied Maxwell, in much alarm.</p>
+<p>"True,&mdash;on reflection, it would not be wise, and it would
+be best for you and I not to be seen together. But finish the will;
+the colonel will not relish my long absence. A word more: do not
+say anything about <i>this</i> will. The colonel has a fancy to
+keep it secret, and this fancy will be the salvation of our
+scheme."</p>
+<p>But we will not follow the conversation any further. The reader
+has obtained a sufficient knowledge of these worthies from their
+own mouths, to believe them capable of any villany they may be
+called upon to perpetrate.</p>
+<p>The plot was further arranged in all its details. A meeting with
+De Guy was fixed for the next day, when all parties were to be
+prepared to act their parts.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He is a man, setting his fate
+aside,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of comely virtues;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nor did he soil the fact with
+cowardice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But with a noble fury and a fair
+spirit</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He did oppose his
+foe."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Shakespeare.</span></p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont's melancholy forebodings proved to be too well
+grounded, for in ten days after the departure of Henry Carroll he
+breathed his last, not fully ripe in years, but mature in the
+stature of a good man. His worldly affairs had all been arranged,
+and with his mind at peace with God and man he bade a final adieu
+to his weeping daughter and dissembling brother, and calmly
+resigned his spirit to its Author.</p>
+<p>The mansion of Colonel Dumont had been the abode of happiness.
+Cheerfulness and contentment&mdash;rare visitors at the home of
+opulence&mdash;dwelt gracefully amid the luxurious splendor of this
+house. But now a heavy stroke of affliction had come upon the
+devoted Emily. The ruthless hand of death had struck down her
+father in the midst of prosperity and happiness. She felt that she
+was alone in the world. Her unsympathizing uncle seemed not to feel
+the loss, but appeared even more cold and churlish than ever. She
+could not expect from him the offices of kindness and sympathy. She
+was an orphan, but not till she was prepared to combat with the
+trials of life. Recognizing the hand of Providence in this
+visitation of the Angel of Death, she bowed meekly and submissively
+to the Master Will, and was even cheerful and happy in her
+tears.</p>
+<p>It was about ten o'clock on the night succeeding the funeral of
+Colonel Dumont that a small canoe, containing a single individual,
+touched at the bank of the river near the now gloomy mansion.
+Leaping from the canoe, which was nearly swamped by the act, the
+person it had contained drew the frail bark beyond the reach of the
+rapid current, and ascended the steep bank. Following the smooth
+shell road through the long vista of negro huts, he reached the
+little grove of tropical trees which surrounded the proprietary
+mansion. Casting an anxious glance around him, to satisfy himself
+that he was not watched, he cautiously approached the only
+illuminated window on that side of the house, upon which, after a
+close scrutiny of the interior of the room, he gave several light
+taps. This signal was answered by Jaspar Dumont, who, with a word
+of caution, opened the window. The stranger, with a light spring
+which belied his apparent years, gained the interior of the room,
+which was the library of the late owner.</p>
+<p>The person who had thus obtained admission was the lawyer,
+Antoine De Guy, whom Maxwell had suggested as a fit agent for the
+execution of Jaspar's scheme. He was certainly an odd-looking man.
+His face was of a very dark red color, much like that which is
+produced by the united effects of exposure and intemperance, and
+was encircled by a pair of black whiskers, intermixed with gray.
+His cranium was ornamented with a huge mass of the same
+parti-colored hair. His fiery red nose was placed in strange
+contrast with a pair of green spectacles, which entirely concealed
+the color and expression of his eyes. His clothes were of a most
+primitive cut, and had probably been black once, but were now rusty
+and white from long service. His form was portly, a little inclined
+to corpulency. His hands were most unprofessionally dirty; but this
+might have been occasioned by contact with the canoe in his
+passage. On one of his fingers glittered a diamond ring, which,
+considering the lack of ornaments in other respects, but ill
+accorded with the apparent parsimony of the man. It might, however,
+have been obtained in the way of trade, for Maxwell had hinted that
+he did business under the sign of the "three golden balls." He was
+apparently in the neighborhood of five-and-forty, and looked like
+the debauchee in the face, while his dress indicated the penurious
+man of business.</p>
+<p>"Did any one see you?" asked Jaspar, whose teeth were chattering
+with apprehension, notwithstanding his natural boldness.</p>
+<p>"Not that I am aware of," replied De Guy, in a silky tone,
+which, proceeding from such a form, would have astonished the
+listener.</p>
+<p>"You met no one?" interrogated the anxious Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Not a soul! Everything was still."</p>
+<p>"Let us be sure of it. Step into this room for a moment. I will
+see that all the servants have retired," said Jaspar, pushing his
+confederate into an adjoining apartment.</p>
+<p>A light pull at the bell-rope brought to the library the
+body-servant of the late planter.</p>
+<p>This "boy," who was known by the name of <i>Hatchie</i>, was a
+mulatto. He was about forty years of age, and, having never been
+reduced to labor in the cane-fields, bore his age remarkably well.
+He was about six feet in height, very stout built, and was endowed
+with immense physical strength. His brow was a little wrinkled, and
+his head was a little bald upon the top,&mdash;and these were the
+only evidences of his years. His expression was that of great
+intelligence. In his countenance there was a kind of humility, to
+which his demeanor corresponded, that might have resulted from his
+condition, or have been inherent in his nature. He was a man who,
+even in a land of slavery, would be instinctively respected.</p>
+<p>He had been a great favorite with his late master, in whose
+family he had spent the greater part of his life. By being
+constantly in attendance upon him and his guests, he had acquired a
+much greater amount of information than is often found in those of
+his condition. He could read and write, and by his intelligence and
+singular fidelity had proved a valuable addition to his master's
+household. Possessing his confidence, and regarded more as a friend
+than a slave by Emily, he was a privileged person in the
+house,&mdash;a confidence which in no instance did he abuse, and
+which in no degree abated his affection or his fidelity.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was not a phrenologist, but he had long ago acquired a
+perfect knowledge of Jaspar's character,&mdash;a knowledge which
+his master or Emily had never obtained.</p>
+<p>Hatchie considered Emily, now that her father was dead, as his
+own especial charge, and he watched over her, in the disparity of
+their stations, very much as a faithful dog watches over a child
+intrusted to its keeping. Towards her he entertained a sentiment of
+the profoundest respect as his mistress, and of parental affection
+as one who had grown up under his eye.</p>
+<p>"Hatchie," said Jaspar, as the mulatto entered the library, "are
+the hands all in?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, whose penetrating mind detected the
+tremulous quiver of Jaspar's lip; "all in two hours ago, according
+to regulations."</p>
+<p>"All right, then. You can go to bed now."</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, with his customary obeisance, as he
+turned to depart.</p>
+<p>"Stay a moment. Go to Miss Emily, and get the keys of the
+secretary," said Jaspar, with assumed carelessness.</p>
+<p>Hatchie obeyed; and, suspecting something before, he was
+confirmed in the opinion now, and determined to watch. His
+suspicions of something&mdash;he knew not what&mdash;had been
+excited by seeing Maxwell in earnest consultation with Jaspar on
+the day of the funeral. He had, of course, no idea of the plots of
+the latter; but, in common with all the "boys," he hated Jaspar,
+and was willing to know more of his transactions.</p>
+<p>Giving the keys to Jaspar, he left the room, and heard the
+creaking of the bolt which fastened the door.</p>
+<p>As soon as the servant had departed, Jaspar called his
+confederate from his concealment.</p>
+<p>"Are you ready for business?" said he.</p>
+<p>"I am," replied De Guy, "as soon as you pay me the first
+instalment. I can't take a single step in the dark."</p>
+<p>"Here it is," and Jaspar took from his pocket the money. "Have
+you the document?"</p>
+<p>"I have," replied De Guy, producing the fictitious will, which
+Maxwell had drawn up in conformity with the instructions of
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"And you are ready to affix the signature?" said Jaspar, who
+appeared not to be in the possession of his usual confidence. Few
+villains ever become so hardened as never to tremble.</p>
+<p>"I am. I came for that purpose. Give me the genuine will, and I
+will soon make this one so near like it that the witnesses
+themselves shall not discover the cheat," replied De Guy, with an
+air of confidence.</p>
+<p>"You shall have it; but first read this to me. I do nothing
+blindly."</p>
+<p>The attorney, in his silky tones, read the paper through, and
+Jaspar pronounced it correct in every particular.</p>
+<p>"I see nothing in the way of entire success," said Jaspar,
+rubbing his hands with delight at his prospective fortune.</p>
+<p>"Nor I," replied De Guy, "except that these witnesses will deny
+the substance of it."</p>
+<p>"How can they, when they know it not? The colonel, for some
+reason or other, would not let them read it or know its purport.
+Maxwell and myself are pledged to secrecy. It is upon this fact
+that I based the scheme."</p>
+<p>"But the will would not be worth a tittle in the law with such
+witnesses."</p>
+<p>"Bah! the colonel knew no one would contest it. He did it at his
+own risk."</p>
+<p>"But will they not contest <i>your</i> will?"</p>
+<p>"If they do, I shall find the means of proving what the document
+affirms, and my case will then stand just as well. As a kind of
+assurance for the witnesses my brother affixed a character,&mdash;a
+kind of cabalistic design,&mdash;upon the will, assuring them it
+was placed on the will alone. You have a copy of this design?"</p>
+<p>"I have. Maxwell gave it to me, and I have practised till I can
+do it to perfection. Your brother had an odd way of doing
+business."</p>
+<p>"He had; but his oddity in this instance is a God-send."</p>
+<p>"But the <i>other</i> document, Mr. Dumont! My stay is already
+too long!"</p>
+<p>Jaspar, taking the keys from the table, opened the secretary,
+and took from a small iron safe in the lower part of it a large
+packet, on which were several large masses of wax bearing the
+impress of Colonel Dumont's seal.</p>
+<p>"Now, De Guy," said he, "do your best."</p>
+<p>"Do not fear! I never yet saw a name I could not imitate."</p>
+<p>"So much the better; but be careful, I entreat you! Think how
+much depends upon care!"</p>
+<p>"O, I can do it so nicely that your brother himself would not
+deny it, if he should step out of his grave!"</p>
+<p>"Silence, man!" said Jaspar, angrily, as a superstitious thrill
+of terror crept through his veins.</p>
+<p>Jaspar took up the packet, and was about to snap the seals,
+when, quicker than thought, the window through which De Guy had
+entered flew open, and Hatchie leaped into the room. Without giving
+Jaspar or his accomplice time to recover from the surprise of his
+sudden entrance, he levelled a blow at the lawyer, and another at
+the perfidious brother, which placed both in a rather awkward
+position on the floor. Hatchie then seized the envelope containing
+the will, and made his escape in the manner he had entered, well
+knowing that Jaspar would not hesitate to take his life rather than
+be foiled in his purpose.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/046g.jpg"><img src="images/046g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie knocking down De Guy and Jasper, and stealing the
+will.</b></div>
+<p>The mulatto's blows produced no serious effect upon the heads of
+the two villains, and, recovering from the surprise and shock the
+act had occasioned, they lost not a moment in pursuing their
+assailant. Hatchie directed his course to the river, and scarcely a
+moment had elapsed before he heard the steps of his pursuers.
+Leaping down the bank, he ran along by the edge of the water, with
+the intention of reaching a boat which he knew was moored a few
+rods further down. In his flight, however, he discovered the canoe
+in which De Guy had arrived, and, casting it off, he paddled with
+astonishing rapidity towards the opposite shore.</p>
+<p>His pursuers reached the bank, and perceiving the canoe through
+the darkness, Jaspar discharged his rifle at it. A heavy splash
+followed the discharge. The canoe appeared to float at the mercy of
+the current. Jaspar and De Guy, satisfied that the rifle-ball had
+done its work, hastened down stream to a small point of land which
+projected into the river, with the hope of securing the canoe and
+the body of the slave, upon which they expected to find the will.
+The canoe was driven ashore, as they had anticipated; but it
+contained not the objects for which they sought. The corpse of
+Hatchie was nowhere to be found, though they paddled about the
+river an hour in search of it,&mdash;not that the body of the
+mulatto was of any consequence, but in the hope of obtaining the
+precious will.</p>
+<p>Here was a contingency for which Jaspar was wholly unprepared.
+The original signature of the will was not now available, and they
+must trust to luck for accuracy in signing the false one. There was
+little difficulty in this, as the will was known to have been
+signed in the usual manner, and the private character they had in
+their possession. Still Jaspar felt that the original paper
+afforded the surer means of deceiving the witnesses. They had
+before intended to produce a fac-simile, mechanically, of the
+original,&mdash;a purpose which could not now be accomplished. The
+witnesses were all friends of Colonel Dumont, and they had various
+papers signed by them from which to copy their signatures. The
+worst, and to Jaspar's daring mind the only difficulty which now
+presented itself, was the fear that the body of Hatchie might be
+found, and the genuine will thus brought to light. After much
+reflection and consultation with De Guy, he determined to risk all,
+to watch for the body, and be prepared to overcome any obstacle
+which might be presented. With this conclusion they returned to the
+library. By the aid of old notes, checks, and other papers, the
+fictitious will was duly signed, the significant character affixed,
+and the document enveloped so as to exactly resemble the original
+packet.</p>
+<p>The whole transaction was so well performed that Jaspar retired
+to his pillow confident of success, to await the result on the
+morrow, when the will was to be read.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Is this the daughter of a
+slave? I know</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Tis not with men as shrubs and
+trees, that by</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The shoot you know the rank and
+order of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The stem. Yet who from such a
+stem would look</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For such a shoot?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Knowles.</span></p>
+<p>The morrow came. Emily was summoned to the library, to hear the
+reading of her father's will. With her no worldly consideration
+could mitigate the deep grief that pervaded her heart. She derived
+her only consolation from a purer, higher source. She was a true
+mourner, and the acquisition of the immense fortune of which she
+was the heiress was not an event which could heal the wound in her
+heart. She looked not forward to the bright scenes of triumph and
+of conquest that awaited her. She was not dazzled by the brilliancy
+of the position to which wealth and an honorable name entitled her.
+Such thoughts never occurred to her. She did think of Henry
+Carroll; but not in the proud situation to which her wealth might
+elevate him, but as a pure heart that would beat in unison with her
+own, that would sympathize with her in her hour of sorrow; as one
+who would mingle his tears with hers, over the bier of a common
+parent. She was not sentimental in her love, nor in her grief.
+Sighs and tears with her were not a sentimental commodity,&mdash;an
+offering which the boarding-school miss makes alike at the altar of
+her love, or at the shrine of a dead parent's memory. The
+desolation of heart and home was not a trial which wealth and
+honors could adorn with tinsel, and thus render it desirable, or
+even tolerable!</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont entered the library. The occasion was repugnant to
+her feelings. The unceremonious blending of dollars and cents with
+the revered name of her father was extremely painful to her
+sensibility. It seemed like a profanation of his memory.</p>
+<p>Her uncle, Maxwell, the witnesses of the will, and several
+others,&mdash;intimate friends of the family,&mdash;were already
+there. On Jaspar's countenance were no tell-tale traces of the last
+night's villany. He looked gloomy and sorrowful. So thoroughly had
+he schooled himself in hypocrisy for this occasion, that the scene
+he knew would, in a few minutes, transpire, had no prophetic
+indications in his features. Like the tragedian who is tranquil and
+unaffected in the scene in which he knows his own death or triumph
+occurs, Jaspar was calm, and his aspect even sanctimonious.</p>
+<p>As Emily entered Maxwell tendered his sympathies in his usual
+elegant manner, and so touchingly did he allude to the death of her
+father that with much difficulty she restrained a flood of tears.
+The scene in the office, and the disfavor with which she had lately
+regarded him, were forgotten in his eloquence.</p>
+<p>After this courtesy to the daughter of his former patron,
+Maxwell again seated himself, and after briefly and formally
+stating the reasons of their meeting, to which he added a short but
+apparently very feeling eulogy of the deceased, he took the packet
+from the safe, and proceeded to break the seals.</p>
+<p>In his full and musical tones the attorney read the preliminary
+parts of the instrument, and then commenced upon the principal
+items of the will. First came several legacies to charitable
+institutions and to personal friends; after which was a legacy of
+ten thousand dollars to Emily Dumont, to be paid in Cincinnati by
+his brother. The testator further declared <i>that the said Emily
+was manumitted</i>, and should proceed under the guidance of his
+brother to the place designated for the payment of the legacy.</p>
+<p>Emily, who had scarcely heeded the provisions of the will until
+the mention of her name attracted her attention, was, as may be
+supposed, somewhat astonished to hear her own name in connection
+with a legacy. She raised her sad eyes from the floor, and heard
+the other stipulations in regard to her. So utterly unexpected, so
+terribly revolting, was the clause which pronounced her a slave,
+that for a time she did not realize its awful import. But the blank
+dismay of her friends, the well-counterfeited surprise of Jaspar
+and Maxwell, brought her to a painful sense of her position. She
+attempted to rise, but in the act the color forsook her face, and
+she sunk back insensible. In this condition she was conveyed to her
+room.</p>
+<p>The attorney completed the reading of the will, though, after
+the extraordinary incident which had just occurred, but little
+attention was given him. The witnesses at once recognized the
+strange character, and acknowledged the signatures to be genuine.
+Here, then, thought they, was the reason why the provisions of the
+will had been concealed from them. So impressed were they with the
+apparent purpose of Colonel Dumont in throwing the veil of secrecy
+over the contents of his will, that the very strangeness of it
+seemed to confirm its genuineness; and they did not scrutinize it
+so closely as under other circumstances they probably would have
+done.</p>
+<p>How often may a good motive be tortured, by the appearance of
+evil, into the most despicable criminality! Colonel Dumont in this
+will had devised large sums of money to various charitable
+institutions, and in the event of his life being prolonged, did not
+wish to be pointed at and lauded for this act. True charity is
+modest, and Colonel Dumont did not desire to see his name blazoned
+forth to the world for doing that which he honestly and religiously
+deemed his duty.</p>
+<p>This modesty had favored Jaspar's plans. No one could now
+gainsay the will he had invented; and he felt strong in his
+position, especially after the witnesses had assented to their
+signatures.</p>
+<p>Among the persona who had been present in the library was Mr.
+Faxon, an aged and worthy clergyman. He had for many years been an
+intimate friend of Colonel Dumont, and was a legatee in his will to
+a liberal amount. A constant visitor in the family, its spiritual
+adviser and comforter, he had possessed the unlimited confidence of
+the late planter and his daughter. To him the whole clause relating
+to Emily seemed like a falsehood. Pure and holy in his own
+character, it was beyond his conception that a man of Colonel
+Dumont's lofty and Christian views could have lived so many years
+in the practice of this deception. He had no means of disproving
+the illegitimacy of Emily. The family had been unknown to him at
+the period of her birth. The house-servants, with the exception of
+Hatchie, were all younger than Emily. Then, the statement was made
+in the will, and was, therefore, the statement of Colonel Dumont
+himself,&mdash;for the genuineness of the will he did not call in
+question. In accordance with his general character, her father had
+manumitted her, and left her a competence. From this clause he
+inferred that her father intended to place her beyond the reach of
+harm, and beyond the possibility of ever being reduced to the
+degraded condition so often the lot of the quadroon at the South.
+He had not only given her freedom, but had provided for her
+conveyance beyond the pale of slavery. With these intentions, if
+she were in reality a slave, Mr. Faxon could find no fault. They
+were liberal in the extreme. But why had he, at this late period,
+mentioned the stain upon her birth? Why not let her live as he had
+educated her? These queries were so easily answered that the good
+clergyman could not condemn the dead on account of them. If the
+daughter, then she was the heiress; if not, legitimately, it would
+be injustice to the brother.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon reasoned in this manner. He could not believe, even
+with all the evidence before him. There was a reasonable answer,
+apparently, to every objection he could think of, and he resolved
+to apply to Jaspar and Hatchie for more information. All that
+Jaspar could say, or would say, in answer to his interrogatories,
+was that his brother's wife had died in giving birth to a dead
+child; and that Emily, who was the child of a house-servant by him,
+had so engaged his attention by her singular beauty that he had
+substituted her for his own child. This story, Jaspar said, his
+brother had told him in the strictest confidence, many years
+before. Mr. Faxon, appreciating the disappointment of a father with
+such a sensitive nature as Colonel Dumont, was willing to believe
+that Emily had been substituted to supply in his affections the
+place of the lost child; but that he should educate her as his own
+child, and then cast her out from the pale of society, was
+incredible!</p>
+<p>The evidence was so strong, he could see no escape from the
+terrible conclusion that the gentle being, to whom he had
+ministered in joy and in sorrow, was a slave! It required a hard
+struggle in his mind before he could reconcile himself to the
+revolting truth. Her beautiful character, built up mostly under his
+own supervision, he regarded with peculiar pride. He was not so
+bigoted, however, as to believe his labors lost, or even less
+worthy, because bestowed, as it now appeared, upon a slave. In
+heaven his labors would be just as apparent in the quadroon as in
+the noble-born lady.</p>
+<p>After the departure of the friends who had been summoned to the
+reading of the will, and whose stay had been prolonged by the
+melancholy interest they felt in the unfortunate Emily, Mr. Faxon
+requested to see her, and was shown to her room. She had just been
+restored to consciousness, by the assiduous efforts of her maids,
+as the good man entered.</p>
+<p>"O, Mr. Faxon!" sobbed Emily, but she could articulate no more.
+The terrible reality of her situation had entirely overcome
+her.</p>
+<p>"Be comforted, my dear child," said Mr. Faxon, affectionately,
+taking her hand. "The ways of Providence are mysterious, and we
+must bend humbly to our lot."</p>
+<p>"I will try to be resigned to my fate, terrible as it is,"
+replied Emily, looking at the minister with a subdued expression,
+while hot tears poured down her cheeks. "You will not forsake me,
+if all others do!"</p>
+<p>"No, no, my dear child; it is my duty to wrestle with sorrow. I
+have come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
+distinctions of caste do not exist."</p>
+<p>"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair
+crept to her mind.</p>
+<p>"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's
+own good time He will call you hence."</p>
+<p>"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"</p>
+<p>"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of
+the Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in
+store for you."</p>
+<p>"But I am an outcast now,&mdash;one whom all my former friends
+will despise,&mdash;a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with
+her hands, and sobbing convulsively.</p>
+<p>"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may
+be a deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason
+to think so."</p>
+<p>Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
+brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.</p>
+<p>"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot
+believe that he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of
+father; who watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my
+youthful heart so faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called
+me daughter, and blessed me with his dying breath,&mdash;I cannot
+believe he has been so cruel to me!"</p>
+<p>"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of
+Providence are inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are
+ordered for our good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet
+be well."</p>
+<p>"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall
+not be lost upon me, slave though I am. <i>Dear</i> father," said
+she, and the tears blinded her,&mdash;"I love his memory still,
+though every word of this hated will were true. I ought not to
+repine, whatever be my future lot. That he loved me as a daughter,
+I can never doubt; that he never told me I am a slave, I will
+forgive, for he meant it well."</p>
+<p>"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this
+painful event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of
+this trial before?"</p>
+<p>"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the
+tears which had gathered on her cheeks.</p>
+<p>"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which
+you can now recognize as such."</p>
+<p>Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could
+not.</p>
+<p>"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long
+ago as your birth?"</p>
+<p>"All but Hatchie."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you had better send for him, and I will question
+him.</p>
+<p>"I will, and I pray that his knowledge may favor me."</p>
+<p>Emily sent one of the maids for Hatchie; but she returned in a
+few moments, accompanied by Jaspar, who, hearing her inquiries for
+the man his rifle-ball had sent to the other world, had come to
+prevent any injurious surmises.</p>
+<p>This man, Hatchie, had not escaped Jaspar's attention, in the
+maturing of his plot; but, as in some other of the particulars, he
+had trusted to the facilities of the moment for the means of
+silencing him. Being a man, it was not probable he could know much
+of the events attending the birth of Emily to his prejudice. If it
+should prove that he did, why, it was an easy thing to get rid of
+him. His rifle-ball or the slave-market were always available. But
+Jaspar's good fortune had smiled upon him, and he felt peculiarly
+happy, at this moment, in the reflection that he was out of the
+way, for he doubted not the object of Emily in sending for him.</p>
+<p>"Miss Emily," said Jaspar, in a tone of unwonted softness, "I am
+sorry to say that your father's favorite servant met with a sad
+mishap last night, of which I intended to have informed you before,
+but have not had an opportunity."</p>
+<p>Emily's cheek again blanched, as she saw all hope in this
+quarter cut off.</p>
+<p>"Poor Hatchie!" said she, as calmly as her excited feelings
+would permit. "What was it, Uncle Jaspar?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar's lip curled a little at the weakness which could feel
+for a slave, and he commenced the narrative he had concocted to
+account for the disappearance of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to
+retire, I heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the
+library. Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at
+once suspected that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of
+late, had broken into the house. I seized my rifle, and when I
+opened the door the thief sprung out at the open window. I pursued
+him down the shell-road to the river; upon reaching which I
+perceived him paddling a canoe towards the opposite shore. I fired.
+A splash in the water followed the discharge. The canoe came ashore
+a short distance below, but the man was either killed by the ball
+or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of valuables, which had
+been stolen from the library,&mdash;among them your father's
+watch."</p>
+<p>"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked
+Emily, with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her
+slave-friend.</p>
+<p>"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is
+missing, and the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size
+and form. I am now satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the
+time, that he was the man upon whom I fired."</p>
+<p>"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.</p>
+<p>"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr.
+Faxon.</p>
+<p>"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
+conclusive."</p>
+<p>"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into
+the eye of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question
+had roused his first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only
+servant of your household who was on the estate at the time of Miss
+Dumont's birth?"</p>
+<p>"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied
+the anxiety within him.</p>
+<p>"Were you <i>alone</i> when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the
+clergyman, sternly.</p>
+<p>"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you
+question me. I am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar,
+rather warmly, his natural testiness getting the better of his
+discretion.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock
+humility. "Do not let my curiosity affront you."</p>
+<p>"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the
+sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your
+business with this girl."</p>
+<p>"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to
+impart the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the
+church. Of course, my business could not be with <i>you</i> in that
+capacity."</p>
+<p>"You seem to have departed very widely from your object,"
+replied Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon
+religious topics.</p>
+<p>"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and
+so severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the
+validity of the will."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the
+will as her father left it."</p>
+<p>"Uncle, you said my father's watch was stolen? Was it not in the
+iron safe, with the other articles?" asked Emily, timidly.</p>
+<p>"It was," replied Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>"How did he open it?" interrogated Mr. Faxon, taking up the
+suggestion of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Did Hatchie return the keys to you last night?" asked Jaspar of
+Emily, promptly.</p>
+<p>"He did not," replied she.</p>
+<p>"I sent for them to put a note in its place, and sent them back
+by him immediately. The fellow stood by when I opened the safe, and
+must have witnessed its contents. You can judge how he opened it
+now," returned Jaspar, with a sneer, well pleased that he had
+foiled their inquiries.</p>
+<p>"You say that the canoe in which he was making his escape came
+ashore. Where is it now? No canoe belongs to the estate."</p>
+<p>"There is not," said Jaspar, uneasily.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps an examination of it will disclose something of the
+robber, if not of the will."</p>
+<p>"So I thought this morning, and for this purpose went to the
+river, but the canoe was not to be found. I did not secure it last
+night, and probably it broke adrift and went down," replied Jaspar,
+whose ingenuity never deserted him.</p>
+<p>"Very likely," said the minister, with a kind of solemn sarcasm.
+"This whole affair seems more like romance than reality."</p>
+<p>"I cannot believe my father was so cruel," cried Emily, the
+tears again coming to the relief of her full heart.</p>
+<p>"Do you doubt the word of the witnesses, and the mark and
+signature of your father?" said Jaspar, fiercely, with the
+intention of intimidating her.</p>
+<p>"No, no! but, Uncle&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Call me not uncle again! I am no longer the uncle of the
+progeny of my brother's slaves. This cheat has already been
+continued too long."</p>
+<p>"I will not call you uncle, but hear me," replied Emily,
+frightened at Jaspar's violence.</p>
+<p>"I will hear nothing more. You will prepare to leave for
+Cincinnati next week. I will no longer endure the presence of one
+upon whom my brother's bounty has been wasted. Have you no
+gratitude, girl? Remember what you are!"</p>
+<p>With these cruel words Jaspar hurried out of the room, satisfied
+that he had established his position, and, at least, silenced
+Emily. The minister he regarded, as he did all of his profession,
+with contempt.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon and Emily had a long consultation upon the
+embarrassing position of her who had so lately been the envied
+heiress. The murder of the mulatto, the conduct of Jaspar, and some
+other circumstances, afforded ground to believe that the will was a
+forgery. If such was the fact, the minister was compelled to
+acknowledge that it was a deep-laid plot. Everything seemed to aid
+the conspirators; for he was satisfied, both from the wording and
+the chirography of the will, that Jaspar, whatever part he played,
+was assisted by others. There was not the slightest clue by which
+the mystery could be unravelled. If there was hope that the will
+was a forgery, there was no immediate prospect of proving it
+such.</p>
+<p>Under these circumstances, Mr. Faxon felt compelled to advise
+obedience to the instructions of the will. The journey to the North
+could do no harm, and was, perhaps, advisable, under the state of
+feeling which would follow the publicity of the will. Emily,
+painful as it was to leave the home of her childhood at such a
+time, acquiesced in the decision of her clerical friend. But there
+was a feeling in her heart that she was wronged,&mdash;that she
+should go forth an exile from her <i>own</i> Bellevue.</p>
+<p>On the following week, Jaspar and Emily proceeded to New
+Orleans, in the family carriage, to take a steamer for
+Cincinnati.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Day after day, day after
+day,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">We stuck,&mdash;nor breath, nor
+motion,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">As idle as a painted
+ship</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Upon a painted
+ocean."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">ANCIENT MARINER.</span></p>
+<p>It was about the time of the events related in the preceding
+chapters, at the close of a variable day, in which the storm and
+sunshine seemed to struggle for the ascendency, that a
+plain-looking, home-made sort of man might have been seen
+attempting to effect a safe transit of the steamboat levee at New
+Orleans. This personage was no other than Mr. Nathan Benson,
+commonly called at home "Uncle Nathan." He was one of the better
+class of New England farmers, an old bachelor, well to do in the
+world, and was now engaged in the laudable enterprise of seeing the
+country.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan, though he laid no claims to gentility in the
+popular signification of the term, was, nevertheless, a
+gentleman,&mdash;one of Nature's noblemen. He was dressed
+scrupulously neat in every particular, though a little too rustic
+to suit the meridian of fashionable society. He presented a very
+respectable figure, in spite of the fact that the prevailing "mode"
+had not been consulted in the fashioning of his garments. His coat
+was, without doubt, made by some village tailoress, for many of the
+graces with which the masculine artist adorns his garments were
+entirely wanting in those of our worthy farmer. His hat was two
+inches too low in the crown, and two inches too broad in the brim,
+for the style; still it was a good-looking and a well-meaning hat,
+for it preserved the owner's phiz from the burning rays of the sun
+much better than the "mode" would have done. His boots, though
+round-toed and very wide, were nicely polished when he commenced
+the passage of the levee, but were now encased in a thick coating
+of yellow clay.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan was a medium-sized man, and preserved as much of
+nature's grace as a man can who has labored for five-and-thirty
+years at the stubborn soil of New England. His hair was sandy, and
+his full, good-natured physiognomy was surrounded by a huge pair of
+reddish whiskers.</p>
+<p>The superficial, worldly-minded man would have deemed Uncle
+Nathan's <i>principles</i> rather too ultra for common, everyday
+use; but he, good soul, found no difficulty in applying them to
+every action he performed. He was, to use a common phrase, a
+"professor of religion;" but, less technically, he was more than a
+professor, and strove to live out the spirit of truth and
+righteousness.</p>
+<p>After much difficulty, Uncle Nathan succeeded in effecting a
+safe passage to the planking which formed the landing for the
+boats. After a glance of vexation at the soiled condition of his
+boots (Uncle Nathan was a bachelor!), he commenced his search for
+an upward-bound steamer, for he was about to begin his homeward
+tour. Two columns of dense black smoke, the hissing noise of
+escaping steam, and the splashing paddles of a boat a short
+distance down the stream, attracted his attention, and towards her
+he directed his steps. Approaching near enough to read her name, he
+was not a little surprised to find the boat he had seen advertised
+to start a week before. Concluding, in his innocence, that some
+accident had detained her, he hastened on board. Entering the
+cabin, the scene which was there presented did not exactly coincide
+with his ideas of neatness or morality. Uncle Nathan had read
+descriptions of the magnificence of Mississippi steamers; but the
+Chalmetta (for this was the name of the boat) fell far below them.
+Even the best boats on the river he considered vastly inferior to
+the North River and Sound steamers.</p>
+<p>After a hasty survey of the Chalmetta's capability of making him
+comfortable for a week or more, he concluded to take passage in her
+for Cincinnati, and accordingly he sought for the captain. To his
+inquiries for that personage a thin, cadaverous-looking man
+presented himself, and drawled out a civil salutation.</p>
+<p>"How long afore you start, cap'n?" inquired Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"We shall get off in about ten minutes," replied Captain
+Brawler. "John," continued he, turning to a waiter near him, with a
+wink, "tell the pilot to be all ready, and ring the bell."</p>
+<p>"Why, gracious!" said Uncle Nathan, hastily, as the waiter
+dodged into the pantry, "I shan't have time to get my trunk
+down."</p>
+<p>"How far up do you go?" inquired Captain Drawler.</p>
+<p>"To Cincinnati, if you can carry me about right," replied Uncle
+Nathan, with an eye to business.</p>
+<p>"Well, as you are going clear through, I will wait a few minutes
+for you," suggested the captain.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan thought him very obliging, and after some little
+"dickering" (for he had heard that Western steamboats were not
+particularly uniform in their charges), he engaged a passage,
+applying to the bargain the trite principle that "no berth is
+secured till paid for," which had been reduced to writing, and
+occupied a conspicuous place in the cabin. Without waiting to see
+the berth he had paid for, he hastened to the hotel for the large
+hair trunk, which contained his travelling wardrobe.</p>
+<p>Our worthy farmer made it a point never to cause any one an
+unnecessary inconvenience; never to read the morning paper more
+than half an hour when an impatient crowd was waiting to see it;
+and never in his life stopped his five-cattle team in the middle of
+a narrow, much-frequented road, to the annoyance of others. So the
+captain did not have to wait more than five minutes beyond the
+stated time. Depositing his trunk upon a heap of baggage in the
+cabin, and turning with pious horror from the gaming-tables there,
+Uncle Nathan seated himself in an arm-chair on the boiler deck, to
+await the departure of the boat, and, in anticipation, to feast his
+vision with the wonders of the Father of Waters. He waited very
+long and very patiently, for Uncle Nathan considered patience a
+cardinal virtue, and strove manfully against every feeling of
+uneasiness. The tongue of the hugs bell over him at intervals
+banged forth its stunning cadence, the hissing steam let loose from
+its pent-up cells, the water which the wheels sent surging far up
+upon the levee, all were indications, to his unsophisticated mind,
+of a speedy departure.</p>
+<p>Two hours he waited, with the same exemplary patience; but still
+the Chalmetta was a fixture.</p>
+<p>Night came, and the music of the bell, and the steam, and the
+surging water, ceased. Uncle Nathan, thinking patience no longer a
+virtue, cardinal or secondary, hastened to the captain, with some
+appearance of indignation on his honest features. The worthy
+officer very coolly informed him that, owing to the non-arrival of
+the mail, he should be unable to get off till the next morning.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan uttered a very peculiar "O!" and, seemingly
+perfectly satisfied with this explanation, asked to be shown his
+berth. The captain consulted the clerk, and the clerk consulted the
+berth-book, which conveyed the astounding intelligence that the
+berths were all taken!</p>
+<p>"All taken!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, aghast. "Haven't I paid for
+one?"</p>
+<p>The gentlemanly clerk acknowledged that he <i>had</i> paid for
+one, and kindly offered him a mattress on the floor, assuring him
+that there would be plenty of berths after the boat got off.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan did not see how this could be, and was informed
+that many berths taken were not claimed.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id=
+"FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class=
+"fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Western steamers
+seldom start at the time they advertise, but wait until they are
+full of freight and passengers. The latter are boarded on them from
+the time they take passage, if they wish,&mdash;often a week or ten
+days. Berths are often engaged by "loafers," who eat and sleep on
+board, and grumble at the detention, but who suddenly decamp when
+the boat starts.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Contenting himself with this explanation, Uncle Nathan sought
+the boiler deck again, to obtain the only possible oblivion for his
+uneasiness in the society of mongrel gentlemen and monstrous
+mosquitos. Those who have been subjected to these steamboat
+impositions will readily perceive that Uncle Nathan was in no very
+agreeable state of mind. He was, to a certain extent, home-sick.
+There was something in his expectant state, and something in the
+gloomy aspect of the low city with its cheerless lights, in the
+damp atmosphere and the clouds of mosquitos, to produce a sigh for
+home and its joys. If any one had hummed "Sweet Home" in his ears,
+it would have brought the tears to his eyes. He thought of
+everything connected with his hallowed home: of the good-natured
+spinster who was his housekeeper, and of the ten-acre lots upon his
+farm; of the red steers and the gray mare; of the shaggy watch-dog
+and the tabby-cat; of home in all its minuti&aelig;. Its familiar
+scenes visited him with a vividness which added ten-fold to their
+influence. He was as far abstracted as the mosquitos, which
+gathered in swarms upon every tenable spot of his flesh, would
+permit, when his meditations were disturbed by the gentleman who
+occupied the next chair. He wore the uniform of the army, and was
+battling the mosquitos with the smoke of a plantation cigar, which
+bore a very striking resemblance to those rolls of the weed
+vulgarly denominated "long nines."</p>
+<p>This gentleman was Henry Carroll, who had been in waiting three
+days for the sailing of the Chalmetta. On his return from Georgia
+he had not deemed it prudent to visit Bellevue. Of the startling
+events which had transpired there since his departure he was in
+entire ignorance.</p>
+<p>"No prospect of getting off to-night, is there?" said he to
+Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Not the least," replied the latter. "The cap'n just told me the
+mail hadn't come, so he should have to wait till mornin'."</p>
+<p>Henry turned to Uncle Nathan rather sharply, to discover any
+mischief which might lurk in his expression. Perceiving that he
+looked perfectly sincere, and was innocent of any intention to quiz
+him, he merely uttered, in the most contemptuous tone, the single
+word "Humbug!"</p>
+<p>"You seem a leetle out o' sorts," returned Uncle Nathan, piqued
+at the coldness with which his intelligence was received.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, I think I have very good reason to be so," returned
+Henry; "for I have lain about this boat, like a dead dragoon, for
+three days, in suspense."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so!" responded Uncle Nathan, with interest. "When
+did they tell you they should start?"</p>
+<p>"The captain said in about ten minutes," answered Henry, with a
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! he told me the same thing!" said Uncle Nathan,
+astonished at the coincidence.</p>
+<p>"But I knew he lied, when he said so; yet the boat seemed full
+of passengers, and I did not expect to wait so long."</p>
+<p>"Don't you think they will get started to-morrow?"</p>
+<p>"I cannot venture an opinion, having been so often deceived. The
+captain is trying to get a freight of soldiers on deck. The city is
+full of them now, returning to their respective states."</p>
+<p>"Then he has taken me in most outrageously," said the New
+Englander, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>"A very common occurrence, sir," replied Henry, who now
+explained to his companion some of the tricks of Western steamboat
+captains.</p>
+<p>"Is there no remedy?" asked Uncle Nathan, anxiously.</p>
+<p>"Certainly; you can go in the next boat, if you choose. I shall
+take the 'Belle of the West,' which I am pretty well assured will
+sail to-morrow, if this one does not. But I prefer this, as many of
+my friends go in her."</p>
+<p>"But will they give you back your passage-money again?" asked
+the economical Yankee.</p>
+<p>"I have not paid it yet," replied Henry, now understanding the
+position of his fellow-traveller.</p>
+<p>"Then how did you secure a berth? The sign in the cabin says 'No
+berth secured till paid for.'"</p>
+<p>"I see how it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as
+though they were honest men." He then explained that there is no
+security against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in
+advance, in case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to
+detain them an unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show
+their money till the trip is up; and much more useful information
+for the voyager on the Western rivers.</p>
+<p>"And I have no berth yet! The fellow promised me one when we got
+off," said Uncle Nathan, chopfallen; for, if any one is keenly
+sensitive to an imposition, the Yankee is the man.</p>
+<p>"There you are lame again," replied Henry. "You may get one, and
+you may not. As you have paid your fare, you had better keep quiet,
+and to-morrow I will assist you in securing your rights."</p>
+<p>"Thank ye," replied Uncle Nathan, truly grateful for the kind
+sympathy of the officer. "I had no sort of idee that they played
+<i>such</i> tricks upon travellers."</p>
+<p>"Fact, sir; this New Orleans is said to be a very naughty
+place," returned Henry, amused at the simplicity of his
+companion.</p>
+<p>"True as gospel!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan, fervently.</p>
+<p>"Have you been here long?"</p>
+<p>"Only about ten days; but I have seen more iniquity in that time
+than I supposed the whole airth contained."</p>
+<p>Henry smiled at the fervid utterance of his companion.</p>
+<p>"You are from the North, I perceive," said he.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir, I am from Brookville, State of Massachusetts, which,
+thank the Lord, is a long way from New Orleans!"</p>
+<p>"Still, there are some excellent people here," suggested Henry,
+who had known and appreciated Southern kindness and
+hospitality.</p>
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes&mdash;I suppose there is; but their morals and
+religion are shockin'. It made my blood run cold, and my hair stand
+on eend, to see a company of soldiers marchin' through the streets
+last Sabba' day, to the tune of 'Hail Columby;' and then to think
+of balls and theatres on the Lord's day night, really it's
+terrible. I wouldn't live in sich a place for all the world!"</p>
+<p>"Very different from New England, certainly," replied Henry,
+good-naturedly, for it must be confessed he was not so much shocked
+at these desecrations.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan discoursed long and eloquently on Sabbath-breaking,
+gambling and intemperance, which prevail to such an extent in the
+luxurious metropolis of the South,&mdash;as long, at least, as the
+patience of his new-found military friend would permit. At his
+suggestion they retired to a hotel for the night, for the mosquitos
+were in undisturbed possession of the Chalmetta.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"&mdash;And deep the waves
+beneath them bending glide.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The youth, who seemed to watch a
+time to sin,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Approached the careless guide,
+and thrust him in."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">PARNELL.</span></p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Accoutred as I was, I
+plung&eacute;d in."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Early on the following morning, Henry Carroll and Uncle Nathan
+were on board the Chalmetta, ready and eager for a start. But they
+were doomed to more disappointment. Nearly all day the bell banged
+and the steam hissed; the captain told a hundred lies, but the boat
+did not budge an inch from her berth. Still there were certain
+signs that the hour of departure could not be far distant. Fresh
+provisions and ice in unusually large quantities were received on
+board about noon, and these are unfailing prognostics of "a good
+time coming."</p>
+<p>At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the captain's ten
+minutes, with which he had secured an occasional fresh passenger,
+seemed actually to have expired. Our two friends on board, however,
+had been so often disappointed that they did not allow a single
+bright anticipation to enliven their hearts, till they actually
+heard the order given "to cast off the fasts and haul in the
+planks." And even then their hopes were instantly dampened by the
+sudden reversion of the order.</p>
+<p>This unexpected change had been produced in the mind of the
+captain by seeing a splendid equipage dashing at a furious pace
+across the levee, the driver of which had, by his gestures, made it
+appear that his vehicle contained passengers.</p>
+<p>The carriage drew up opposite the boat, and Emily Dumont and
+Jaspar alighted from it. Picking their way through the crowd of
+dealers in cigars, shells, and obscene books, who had just been
+ejected from the boat, they were soon on board. A few moments'
+delay in getting up the baggage of the new comers, and the welcome
+"cast off the fasts and haul in the plank" was again heard. The
+rapid jingling of the engineer's bell succeeded, and, to the joy of
+some three hundred souls on board, she backed out into the stream
+and commenced her voyage. Uncle Nathan breathed freely; the load of
+anxiety which had oppressed him was removed. But his joy was
+short-lived, for Henry Carroll informed him that the boat was
+headed <i>down</i> river!</p>
+<p>"What in all natur' can be the meanin' of this?" exclaimed our
+Northerner, wofully perplexed.</p>
+<p>"I cannot tell," replied Henry; "but I am much afraid we shall
+yet have to stay over Sunday in New Orleans."</p>
+<p>"The Lord deliver me!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan. "I will go into
+the swamp back of the city, afore I will look upon the iniquities
+of that Sodom again."</p>
+<p>"Rather a hard penance; but let us first see what this movement
+will amount to."</p>
+<p>At this moment Captain Drawler descended from the wheel-house,
+and was immediately besieged by a dozen angry passengers, who had
+resolved to lynch him, or leave the boat,&mdash;which he dreaded
+more,&mdash;if satisfaction was not given.</p>
+<p>The stoical captain, with perfect coolness, heard their
+complaints and their threats. He waited with commendable patience
+till they had vented their indignation, and then informed them that
+he only intended to receive a little freight at the lower city,
+which would not detain him "ten minutes."</p>
+<p>The captain's assertion, with the exception of the ten minutes,
+was soon verified by the boat touching at a sort of
+d&eacute;p&ocirc;t for naval and military stores. The
+"<i>freight</i>" which the Chalmetta was to take consisted of
+several long boxes, which lay near the landing. These boxes
+contained coffins, in which were the remains of some sixteen
+officers, who had paid the debt of nature in the discharge of their
+duties in Mexico.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, with a melancholy heart, witnessed the process of
+conveying these boxes to the deck of the steamer. In them was all
+that remained of many stout hearts, with whom, side by side, he had
+marched to glory and victory. There were the forms with whom he had
+triumphantly mounted the battlements at Vera Cruz, and raised the
+stars and stripes over the city of Mexico. There, before him,
+forever silent, were the dead heroes of Chepultepec and Perote.
+Those with whom he had endured toils and hardships of no common
+nature,&mdash;with whom he had contended against a treacherous foe,
+and a more treacherous climate,&mdash;were there encoffined before
+him. They died in defence of their country's honor; and he almost
+envied them the death which wrote their names, subject to no future
+stain, upon the roll of fame.</p>
+<p>The sight of these boxes, and a knowledge of their contents,
+also awakened sad reflections in the mind of Uncle Nathan. But his
+reflections were of a different character from those of the
+soldier. War he regarded as an unnecessary evil,&mdash;one which
+men had no more right to countenance than they had the deeds of the
+midnight assassin. The honor of a nation were better sacrificed
+than that the blood of innocent men should flow in its support. He
+was a thorough disciple of the peace movement. With such views as
+these, his sympathies naturally reverted to the dwelling of the
+departed hero; to the home rendered desolate by the untimely death
+of a father; to the circle which gathered in tears around the
+fire-side, to deplore the loss of an affectionate brother and son;
+to the widow and the orphan, whom war's desolating hand cast into
+the world to tread alone its dreary path. To Uncle Nathan victory
+and defeat were alike the messengers of woe. Both were the
+death-knell of human beings; both carried weeping and wailing to
+women and children.</p>
+<p>After the last box of the pile had been conveyed on board, and
+preparations were making to cast off, the reflections of hero and
+moralist were disturbed by several long, loud vociferations, in a
+strong Hibernian accent. They proceeded from a man, dressed in the
+tattered remnants of the blue army uniform, who was industriously
+propelling a wheel-barrow towards the landing, on which was a box
+of similar description to those just embarked.</p>
+<p>"Hould on!" shouted he; "hould on, will yous, and take on this
+bit of a box?"</p>
+<p>"Does it belong with the others?" asked the captain.</p>
+<p>"To be sure it does," replied Pat. "What the divil else does it
+belong to? Arn't it the body of Captain Farrell, long life to his
+honor! going home to see his frinds?"</p>
+<p>"Take it aboard," said Captain Brawler to the deck hands, after
+examining the direction.</p>
+<p>The men lifted the box rather rudely, in a manner which seemed
+to hurt poor Pat's feelings.</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to yous! where were you born, to handle the body of a
+dead man the like o' that?" said he. "Have yous no rispict for the
+mim'ry of a haro, that yous trate his ramains so ongintlemanly?
+Hould up your ind, darlint, and walk aisy wid it!"</p>
+<p>"Lively there," cried Captain Drawler, "lively, men!"</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to your soul for a blackguard, as ye are!" shouted
+Pat. "Where did you lave your pathriotism?"</p>
+<p>The box was by this time on deck, and the captain, to do him
+justice, made all haste to proceed on his voyage.</p>
+<p>The cases containing the remains of the officers were deposited
+in the after part of the hold, to which access was had by means of
+a hatch near the stern. Pat's peculiar charge was placed on top of
+the others, and he maintained a most vigilant watch over it.</p>
+<p>There was now a fair prospect of commencing the voyage, and our
+two passengers were in high spirits. Henry was not a little fearful
+that the boat would resume her long-occupied position at the levee;
+the very thought of such a calamity was painful in the extreme. But
+this fear was not realized; the Chalmetta gave the levee a wide
+berth. The Rubicon was passed; the shades of doubt and anxiety were
+supplanted by the clear sunshine of a bright prospect.</p>
+<p>"We are at last fairly started," said Henry, seating himself by
+the side of Uncle Nathan, on the boiler deck.</p>
+<p>"Thank fortin, we are!" responded the farmer, heartily. "We are
+fast getting away from that den of sin."</p>
+<p>"And you may preserve your morals yet," said Henry, with a
+pleasant laugh.</p>
+<p>"My morals are safe enough, thank the Lord!" answered Uncle
+Nathan, a little touched at this reflection upon his firmness; "but
+I don't like the place, to say nothing of its morals."</p>
+<p>"Very likely. But see that Irishman&mdash;the fellow who had
+charge of the box. He looks poorly enough, as far as this world's
+goods are concerned, but happy and full of mirth, for all
+that."</p>
+<p>"He looks as though he had seen hard times," added Uncle Nathan,
+indifferently.</p>
+<p>"He does, indeed, like many other of the poor soldiers; but, I
+warrant me, he has a stout will, and an honest heart. I say, my
+fine fellow," said Henry, addressing Pat, "come up here."</p>
+<p>"Troth I will, then, for I see yous wear the colors of Uncle
+Sam," replied the Irishman, making his way to the boiler deck.</p>
+<p>"Long life to your honor!" continued Pat, as he reached the
+deck, and making a low bow, as he doffed his slouched
+hat,&mdash;"but I wish I had the money to trate your honor."</p>
+<p>"Which means," replied Henry, "as you have not, I should treat
+you?"</p>
+<p>"That's jist it, your honor. I persave your honor is
+college-larnt by the way yous see into my heart."</p>
+<p>Henry laughed heartily, and so did Uncle Nathan; though, to tell
+the truth, our moralist of the North was sorry to see his companion
+hand the man a "bit" to drink with, for he was a member of the
+temperance society.</p>
+<p>Pat got the "smile," and with a grateful heart returned to his
+patron.</p>
+<p>"Thank your honor, kindly," said Pat.</p>
+<p>"Now tell me, Pat, what regiment you served in," said Henry.</p>
+<p>"In the first Pennsylvanians,&mdash;Captain Farrell's
+company."</p>
+<p>"Captain Farrell's! I knew him well,&mdash;a fine fellow and a
+gallant officer! Many were the tears shed when the vomito carried
+him off," said Henry, with much feeling. "And you were one of his
+company?"</p>
+<p>"Troth, I was, thin. He was every inch a sodger and a
+gintleman."</p>
+<p>"And the box you brought on board contains his remains?"</p>
+<p>"Upon me sowl it contains the body of as good a man as iver
+breathed the breath o' life," replied Pat, very emphatically.</p>
+<p>"Very true. You speak well of your captain, and he deserved all
+he will ever get of praise. Here, Pat, is a dollar for you; and if
+you want anything, come to me."</p>
+<p>"Thank your honor," replied Pat, uncovering, with a bow and a
+scrape of the foot. "You are as near like poor Captain Farrell as
+one pay is like another. Long life to your honor,&mdash;may you
+live forever, and then die like a haro!"</p>
+<p>"A genuine Irishman!" said Henry, as Pat descended to the main
+deck; "one in whom gratitude and faithfulness are as strong as life
+itself!"</p>
+<p>"He seems a good sort of man," returned Uncle Nathan, who had
+but little appreciation of the Irish heart.</p>
+<p>The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the
+supper-bell. An eager multitude rushed to the cabin; but every seat
+was already occupied. On a crowded boat on the Mississippi there is
+often much selfishness displayed. On the Chalmetta half an hour
+before tea-time the most knowing of the passengers had stationed
+themselves in a line around the table, ready to charge upon the
+plates, like a file of soldiers, the moment the bell rang. Those
+who did not understand the necessity of this precaution, on
+entering the cabin were much surprised to find every place
+occupied, and were comforted with the assurance of a second
+table.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for
+ladies who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated
+Emily and her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her
+countenance was saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were
+reddened by weeping, in which she had indulged freely in the quiet
+of her state-room. By intense effort she had subdued her violent
+agitation, and a sad calmness rested upon her face, that belied her
+feelings.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence,
+was, as may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable
+dress and melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had
+befallen her in the death of her father. Their eyes met, and
+exchanged warmer greetings than their words could have done. A sad
+smile&mdash;the smile of pleasure&mdash;rested upon her beautiful
+features, as they interchanged salutations. Her pale cheek was
+slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale blush. Her fluttering heart
+refused to retain its secret.</p>
+<p>Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had
+shrouded her in the weeds of mourning,&mdash;not in words alone,
+but his sorrow for the death of a kind friend was more eloquently
+told in his countenance.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts
+to be civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for
+which he was not prepared,&mdash;the consequences of which filled
+him with anxiety. He knew that in Henry his wronged niece would
+have a zealous advocate;&mdash;not a superannuated priest, but a
+young man whose blood was warm, and whose soul was full of energy.
+True, he reasoned, the young officer was powerless as a
+diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the will, or of Emily's
+degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and character of his
+brother, and would be the last one to believe the infamous
+statement of the will. What the father might have said to him in
+regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
+thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones
+besides.</p>
+<p>At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the
+ordinary courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.</p>
+<p>The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of
+ill-gotten wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his
+victim. The cries of the widow and the orphan continually ring in
+the ear of the avaricious. The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar.
+Although he saw no probability of his villany being exposed, the
+fear of discovery troubled him day and night. Revengeful and cruel,
+dauntless and bold, as he had ever been, the present seemed a
+crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax of villany, and
+as he had racked his powers of invention for the means of attaining
+his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing it. The
+insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as the
+tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that
+he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which assailed him.
+Vain hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran
+through his mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only
+one event which promised the least mitigation of his mental
+sufferings, and this was the death of his niece. Black as he was at
+heart, he shrank from her murder,&mdash;not at the deed, but at the
+terrible consequences to him which might follow it.</p>
+<p>Emily was conducted to the ladies' cabin by Jaspar, who, by a
+dogged adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any
+further conversation between her and Henry. But the black
+chambermaid, with an official dignity which is oftentimes necessary
+in her position, politely requested him to retire. Jaspar left,
+satisfied she would be safe from intrusion for the present.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's disposition to prevent further conversation between
+Emily and Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied
+that her uncle's close attendance at her side&mdash;so foreign to
+his former manner&mdash;was not without its purpose. Love, which he
+had in vain attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his
+heart. In her recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in
+her heart was not abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had
+awakened a new interest in him. Disappointed in obtaining the
+interview he desired, he sought the hurricane deck to think of her,
+and to cherish the warm feeling in his heart. But what was his
+surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily there, and alone!</p>
+<p>After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery
+which surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening
+air. The gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and
+gentleman, she had ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions,
+more gay and happy than she, soon left her to the gloom and
+comparative silence which usually reigns on the upper deck. There
+were no other passengers there, and, fearing not the darkness or
+the loneliness, she was there venting the sadness which pervaded
+her heart. She was about to descend, when she recognized Henry.</p>
+<p>Emily related to him the circumstances of her father's death,
+and of the reading of the will.</p>
+<p>"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.</p>
+<p>"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it,
+except that my father's character assures me it is not so."</p>
+<p>"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you
+are now on your way to Cincinnati?"</p>
+<p>"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted.
+But I ought to be thankful for all that comes,&mdash;if I am a
+slave, for the freedom that awaits me."</p>
+<p>"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my
+veins!"</p>
+<p>"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now,
+for it little matters what I really am, since the will&mdash;true
+or false&mdash;condemns me to the odium of having been a slave. You
+will not wish now to own your sister!" said Emily, with a sad
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the
+mark of the omniscient God! It could not alter the beauty of the
+features or the character. I should be proud of such a sister, even
+did she wear the shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon
+your birth!"</p>
+<p>"And can you regard me as you once did? A&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month
+since. You are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.</p>
+<p>"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied
+Henry.</p>
+<p>The fear of ingratitude to a father no longer chained his heart
+to the narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden
+down by misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a
+child of misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her.
+He loved her more tenderly than before.</p>
+<p>"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant
+to your sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of
+emotion within it.</p>
+<p>"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I
+feared to&mdash;to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word
+Henry was stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your
+sister?"</p>
+<p>"I did have confidence in the <i>sister</i>. But I fear it was
+not a sister's confidence I sought."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of
+surprise the word was intended to convey.</p>
+<p>"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which
+have torn my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her
+willing hand. "When I bade you farewell,&mdash;alas! what
+misfortunes have come since!&mdash;when I left you for I dared not
+think how long, you know not what violence I did to the warmest
+feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the struggle between
+that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to conquer it;
+but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me resist no
+more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have tried,
+for your sake and your father's, to conquer my love. Say, Emily,
+may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"</p>
+<p>A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he
+received&mdash;was, indeed, all he asked.</p>
+<p>"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.</p>
+<p>"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But
+Heaven will not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain
+unpunished. A month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of
+a millionaire!"</p>
+<p>"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my
+heart?"</p>
+<p>"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win
+your love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have
+cherished."</p>
+<p>"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily,
+warmly.</p>
+<p>"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his
+daughter, with which I might have interfered."</p>
+<p>"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said
+Emily, with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed
+from Henry.</p>
+<p>"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but
+now, Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm
+pressure of the hand.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/079g.jpg"><img src="images/079g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.</b></div>
+<p>"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the
+knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as
+the guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in
+future, from her society."</p>
+<p>"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely
+disregard."</p>
+<p>"Then, by&mdash;you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!"
+said Jaspar, in a passion.</p>
+<p>"I am not to be intimidated by threats."</p>
+<p>"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety
+of him whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont, <i>her</i> request I will obey," and Carroll walked
+forward.</p>
+<p>He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of
+the leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to
+the command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy
+bell. Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the
+matter he listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three,"
+&amp;c. He was about to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill
+shriek startled him from his revery. There was no mistaking the
+sound of that voice! Without an instant's hesitation, he called to
+the pilot to stop the boat, and, with a few bounds, was by the side
+of Jaspar, who was calling lustily for help. Henry, careless of his
+own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft the ladies' cabin, and
+then sprang to the single pole upon which was suspended the small
+boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower himself down,
+he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot where
+Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of the
+boat, and reached the place in season to take in the noble fellow
+who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he
+rose. The steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party
+was safely on board again.</p>
+<p>"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar,
+after assisting Emily to her state-room.</p>
+<p>Emily's fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once
+infer. Jaspar's passion, and the danger which he thought the young
+officer's presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was
+not attended with his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to
+place him in a more uncomfortable position than his former one.
+With the instinct of deception, he immediately offered a liberal
+reward to the man who had rescued her.</p>
+<p>"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"<i>Here</i>!" cried a voice from the crowd.</p>
+<p>Jaspar started and turned pale, for the voice was a familiar
+one.</p>
+<p>"Where is he?" called Jaspar again, concluding that he must have
+mistaken the voice.</p>
+<p>"Here!" again came forth from the crowd, and Hatchie stepped
+forward.</p>
+<p>"Hell!" exclaimed Jaspar, staggering back as he recognized the
+man whom he supposed his rifle-ball had sent to furnish food for
+the fishes. But he recovered his courage instantly, feeling the
+danger of betraying himself.</p>
+<p>"Here is the reward," stammered he, holding out the money.</p>
+<p>"Never!" said Hatchie; and, before the crowd could clearly
+understand the nature of the case, he had vanished behind a heap of
+freight.</p>
+<p>At Jaspar's suggestion, a diligent search was made in every part
+of the boat, but the mulatto was nowhere to be found. Jaspar, as
+usual, invented a story to account for the strangeness of the
+incident which had occurred. A liberal reward offered by him failed
+to produce the preserver of Emily.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">"'Tis much he
+dares;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And to that dauntless temper of
+his mind</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He hath a wisdom that doth guide
+his valor</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To act in safety."&nbsp;
+SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Although the general condition of the negro slaves at the South
+is the most degraded in which humanity can exist, there are some
+exceptions to the rule; and among them may well be placed the
+body-servant of Colonel Dumont, Hatchie, whose sudden and
+mysterious re&auml;ppearance upon the deck of the Chalmetta must be
+accounted for.</p>
+<p>With an intelligence far superior to his condition, Hatchie
+discovered the villany that lurked in the eye of Jaspar, on the
+night of the forgery of the will. As we have before said, no one
+better than he knew the character of Jaspar; no one better than he
+knew of what villany he was capable. When he had been sent for the
+keys, an undefined sense of duty prompted him to watch, and, if
+possible, to prevent the mischief which he foresaw was gathering.
+When ordered to retire, he had pretended to obey; but he placed
+himself beneath the window through which De Guy had entered, a
+small crack of which had been accidentally left open. In this
+position he saw Jaspar take out the packet which he knew contained
+the will. He heard De Guy read the fictitious will, and at once
+discerned enough of the plot to comprehend the danger that hovered
+over his mistress. He understood that the real will was to be
+destroyed; and his first impulse was to save it, which he had
+adroitly accomplished as before related.</p>
+<p>When Hatchie reached the open air, he was sensible of the
+dangerous position in which his bold act had placed him. So sudden
+and unpremeditated had been his action that no thought of future
+consequences had accompanied it. But, undismayed, he ran at his
+fleetest speed towards the river. He heard the footsteps of his
+pursuers, and every step he advanced he expected to receive the
+bullet of Jaspar. Trusting for safety to the darkness of the night,
+he quickened his speed, till he gained the steep bank of the river.
+Leaping into the canoe which he discovered in his flight, he pushed
+out into the stream, and was several rods advanced towards the
+opposite shore when his pursuers reached the bank.</p>
+<p>Plying the canoe with all the strength and skill of which he was
+master, his progress was suddenly interrupted by a log, upon which
+his frail bark struck with much violence. The collision checked his
+progress, and swung the canoe round by the side of the log.
+Satisfied that Jaspar would fire as soon as he saw the canoe, his
+ready ingenuity supplied him with the means of avoiding the ball,
+and of escaping further pursuit. Taking the will in his mouth, he
+grasped the canoe with one hand, and paddled silently with the
+other and with his feet. He had turned the canoe adrift, and
+Jaspar, without waiting to examine it, had fired. Hatchie then
+jumped up in the water, and produced the splash which had deceived
+his pursuers.</p>
+<p>With much difficulty the mulatto had propelled the log beyond
+the reach of the current into comparatively still water. Here he
+remained quietly on the log, using only sufficient exertion to
+avoid the current, until he was satisfied that Jaspar and his
+companion had departed from the bank. He then returned to the
+shore, using the greatest precaution to avoid his enemies; but all
+was still.</p>
+<p>Immediate danger being at an end, he bethought him of securing
+his future safety,&mdash;a matter of extreme difficulty for one in
+his position. He was satisfied that Jaspar would invent some story
+to account for his disappearance; and just as well satisfied that
+he would shoot him, if he again showed himself on the plantation.
+He congratulated himself on the happy scheme he had adopted to
+deceive Jaspar; for he had now a reasonable security from being
+advertised and pursued as a runaway slave.</p>
+<p>After much reflection, he concluded his wisest plan would be to
+seek safety in New Orleans, where, in the crowd, he might escape
+recognition. The cane-brake and the cotton-grove would not protect
+him. He might be seen, and the blood-hound and the rifle bring him
+in a prisoner, and even Miss Emily would now be unable to save him
+from the penalty. How could he live in New Orleans, or how escape
+from there? He was without money, and he had sense enough to know
+that money is a desideratum, especially to the traveller.</p>
+<p>Of this useful commodity, however, he had a supply in the
+mansion house, which he had saved from the presents made him by
+Colonel Dumont and his guests. Recognizing the necessity of
+obtaining it, as well as some more clothing, he resolved to enter
+the house and procure them, after the light he saw in the
+library-window was removed.</p>
+<p>While waiting, he pondered more fully his position. What should
+be his future conduct in regard to the will? He carried with him,
+he felt, the future destiny of his gentle, much-loved mistress. He
+felt that on his action during the next hour depended the happiness
+for a lifetime of one whom he had been taught to revere, and whose
+gentleness and beauty had almost lured him to worship. If the
+morrow's sun found him in the vicinity of the estate, he would
+probably fall a victim to Jaspar's policy. What should he do with
+the will? Should he show himself at the hour appointed for the
+reading of it? He might fall into Jaspar's hands in the attempt,
+the precious document be wrested from him, and thus all his
+exertions be in vain. Without the will itself he could do
+nothing,&mdash;his word or his evidence in court would be of no
+avail. No one would believe the former against Jaspar, and the
+latter was inadmissible.</p>
+<p>Should he carry it to Mr. Faxon, or even to Miss Emily herself,
+Jaspar might obtain possession of it by some means.</p>
+<p>His deliberations could suggest no method by which immediate
+justice could be done his mistress; and the conclusion of his
+reflections was, that he must place himself in a safe position
+before he attempted to expose the villany of others. His mistress,
+he knew by the will which he had heard De Guy read, was to be
+conveyed to Cincinnati. He must go to Cincinnati&mdash;but how?
+This was a hard question for the faithful Hatchie to answer; but
+answer it he must. He would go to New Orleans, and there form his
+plan.</p>
+<p>After waiting till the lights were extinguished in the library,
+he entered the house, and obtained his money and clothing.</p>
+<p>By the exercise of much caution, he reached New Orleans in
+safety, where, by the disbursement of a small sum of money, he
+obtained a secure retreat in the house of a free man, with whom he
+had formerly been acquainted. His object was now to obtain a
+passage to Cincinnati,&mdash;a matter not easy to accomplish, as
+the law against conveying blacks, unprovided with the necessary
+permit, was very stringent. He could not hope, with his limited
+means, to offer an acceptable bribe for this service. To attain his
+object, therefore, he must resort to stratagem, for the chances of
+obtaining a passage by direct means were too remote and too
+perilous to be hoped for. But accident soon afforded him the means
+of attaining his end.</p>
+<p>The negro with whom he had obtained a shelter kept a small shop,
+and by the grace of the authorities and his neighbors was permitted
+to sell liquor, tobacco and cigars, to the steamboat cooks,
+stewards, sailors, and the soldiers who thronged the city on their
+return from Mexico. In the rear of this shop, and connected with
+it, was a small room in which the negro lived. This room afforded a
+safe retreat, and in it Hatchie had his hiding-place.</p>
+<p>One day a little knot of men, in the faded, dilapidated garments
+of the army, entered the tap-room of Hatchie's protector. They
+drank deeply, and, as was their constant practice, they seated
+themselves at the broken table, and commenced gambling with the
+negro's dirty cards for the few dollars which remained in their
+possession. This amusement terminated, as such amusements
+frequently do, in a fight, in which one of the number seemed to be
+singled out as an object of vengeance for the others. This
+individual was an Irishman; and, for a time, he held way manfully
+against his assailants. But, at last, in spite of the exertions of
+the "proprietor" to protect him, he was likely to get the worst of
+it, when Hatchie, no longer able to control his indignation at the
+unfairness displayed in the encounter, suddenly interfered in favor
+of the now fallen man. His enormous strength and skill soon cleared
+the room of the rioters. Hatchie drew the defeated Irishman into
+his hiding-place, and locked the door. This man was Pat Fegan, who
+has been introduced to the reader.</p>
+<p>Pat was filled with gratitude to his protector, and swore he
+would stick by him till his dying day, if he was a "naiger." A
+mutual friendship was thus established, which resulted in the
+disclosure of their future prospects. The fact that both were
+seeking the same destination seemed to strengthen the bond thus
+formed. Hatchie, shrewd by nature, read the true heart of the
+Irishman. He felt that he could trust him with his life; but his
+ability was quite another thing.</p>
+<p>Pat Fegan was without means, and readily accepted the
+hospitality which Hatchie offered to pay for. In the course of the
+long conversations with which the two friends beguiled the weary
+day, Pat related his adventures in Mexico, at the close of which he
+casually mentioned that the remains of several officers, who died
+there, were to be conveyed up the river. Hatchie's curiosity
+prompted many inquiries, which drew from the talkative Hibernian a
+full description of the boxes that contained the coffins, and many
+particulars relative to the transportation of them.</p>
+<p>Pat's description of the boxes suggested to Hatchie the means of
+getting to Cincinnati.</p>
+<p>"Could you get me a box like those which contain these coffins?"
+asked he.</p>
+<p>"Faix, I can, thin, if I only had the matther of two or three
+dollars. But what the divil makes yous ax sich a question?"</p>
+<p>"I will give you ten dollars, and pay your passage to Cincinnati
+besides, if you will get me the box," said Hatchie, disregarding
+Pat's query.</p>
+<p>"By me sowl, I'll get yous the box, and ax yous only the price
+meself pays for 't," replied Pat, touched at the idea of a reward,
+which between friends seemed base even to his rude mind.</p>
+<p>"And I shall want your help, too."</p>
+<p>"Yous may well count on that, for whin did a Fegan desart his
+frind? But tell me, honey, what yous mane to do wid it."</p>
+<p>"I intend to get to Cincinnati in it."</p>
+<p>"Is it in the box?" exclaimed Pat, astonished beyond measure.
+"Sure you will smodther!"</p>
+<p>"But, my friend, I want you to look out for that, and give me
+something to eat and drink. You can pretend that the box contains
+the body of your captain, who, you said, died in Mexico."</p>
+<p>"Arrah, me darlint, I see it all!" and Pat shook his sides with
+laughter at the idea of the mulatto's "travelling-carriage," as he
+styled it.</p>
+<p>Pat had procured the box, and conveyed it to Hatchie's asylum.
+It was sufficiently large to furnish quite a roomy apartment. The
+covering consisted of short boards, matched, and screwed on
+crossways. To facilitate the introduction of food and air, and to
+afford the means of a speedy exit in case of need, he had taken off
+half these boards, and fastened them together with cleats on the
+inner side. The ends of the screws were then filed off, so that
+this portion of the lid exactly corresponded with the other
+portion. A number of hooks were then procured, so as to fasten it
+upon the inner side. By this arrangement, the occupant of the box
+would not be dependent upon exterior aid for egress. When once on
+board the steamer, he expected he should be able to leave his
+hiding-place in the night, and perhaps at other times.</p>
+<p>Upon the outside the box was similar to the others, and was duly
+marked and consigned.</p>
+<p>Hatchie's quarters were near the d&eacute;p&ocirc;t from which
+the coffins were to be shipped, and Pat, watching his time, had
+wheeled his own charge down in season to be shipped with the
+others. In the haste of embarking, the clerk had not noticed that
+one box more had been brought on board than his manifest
+indicated.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was not aware that Emily and her uncle were passengers
+on the same boat till the moment of the accident. He had before
+released himself from his prison-box, and was enjoying the fresh
+air, which the closeness of his box rendered particularly
+desirable, when he heard the scream of his mistress. Her voice was
+familiar, and even in the scream of terror he recognized it. It
+needed not a second thought to convince him of his duty. He had
+saved her life, and, forgetful of the danger of thus exposing his
+person, he stood by and saw her conveyed to her state-room. He
+heard Jaspar call for her deliverer, and offer a reward. This he
+knew, if no one else did, was gross hypocrisy, and in the
+indignation of his honest heart he had stepped forward to confront
+him. The sight of Jaspar, and the thought of his own
+responsibility, recalled his prudence; and he hastened to retrieve
+his error by escaping to his hiding-place in the box, in which no
+one thought of searching for a living man.</p>
+<p>In the excitement and exertion attendant upon the incident,
+Henry Carroll had not recognized Hatchie; and, while Jaspar
+inquired for her deliverer, he had been seeking the surgeon. Henry
+thought of nothing but her safety.</p>
+<p>Hatchie at once knew the voice of Henry, but, knowing nothing of
+the relation between him and his mistress, he feared to trust him
+with his secret.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 9em;">"But as thou art a
+man</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Whom I have picked and chosen
+from the world,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Swept that thou wilt be true to
+what I utter;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And when I've told thee that
+which only gods,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And men like gods, are privy to,
+then swear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">No chance, or change, shall wrest
+it from thy bosom."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 23em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, while yet insensible, was conveyed to her
+state-room, where, by the assiduous attention of the stewardess and
+the lady passengers, she was soon restored to consciousness. An
+army surgeon, who was fortunately on board, prescribed a course of
+treatment which prevented all evil consequences, so that on the
+following morning she appeared at breakfast as well as usual
+bodily, though the terrible fact that her uncle had attempted her
+life so agitated her that sleep had been a stranger to her eyelids.
+By whom she had been rescued was yet unknown to her.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll again took his place opposite her at the morning
+meal,&mdash;a place he had secured by the exercise of a full hour's
+patience in occupying it. At the first convenient opportunity, he
+congratulated her upon her safe recovery, and for the first time
+she heard the particulars of her rescue. Jaspar, with an ill grace,
+expressed his obligations to him, though at the same time he wished
+him at the bottom of the river.</p>
+<p>Henry failed not to notice the blush which came to her cheek, as
+she modestly but fervently expressed her gratitude for the noble
+service he had rendered her. Although her accepted lover, there had
+been but little intercourse of a tender nature between
+them,&mdash;not enough to prevent her heart from fluttering when he
+spoke, and sending its warm blood to her cheek.</p>
+<p>With what indescribable pleasure does the lover recognize the
+blush which a word or an act of his own calls to the face of his
+new-found love! Like the breaking clouds which disclose to the worn
+mariner the faint outline of the distant land, he hails it as the
+omen of future bliss! It is part of the mystical language of the
+heart. It is part of the mechanism of the affections, which the
+will cannot conceal. The gentle look, the warm pressure of the
+hand, the eloquent language of love, which modesty at first
+forbids, are supplied by the timid, uncalled, beautiful blush!
+Prudence and delicacy cannot chain it in the veins.</p>
+<p>Henry read in her blush the warm current of pure love which
+flowed from her heart. It told him how willingly her gratitude
+coalesced with her love. Their position at table did not afford the
+opportunity of interchanging those feelings of the heart which each
+felt swelling within. The present, so full of joy and hope, it
+seemed cruel to surround with circumstances which forbade them to
+enjoy it. A crowded steamer is the most uncomfortable place in the
+world for a pair of lovers, and Henry and Emily felt the
+inconvenience of it.</p>
+<p>But, if the position of the lovers was uncomfortable, Jaspar's
+was painful. They had the consolation of loving and being loved;
+but he was now writhing under the weight of an additional torture.
+The appearance of Hatchie was the knell of all his hopes, the
+precursor of ruin. To him it was a mystery, and all his endeavors
+to solve it were unavailing.</p>
+<p>About noon the Chalmetta arrived at Baton Rouge, where,
+according to previous arrangement, and much to the joy of the
+perplexed uncle, De Guy came on board. Jaspar greeted him with more
+than usual courtesy, and felt, to as great a degree as guilt can
+feel it, a relief from the embarrassments which surrounded him. The
+first step of the red-faced attorney, on finding no state-room
+unoccupied, was to dispossess two flat-boatmen of theirs, by the
+payment of a round bonus. Jaspar thought this a rather extravagant
+move for one apparently so parsimonious; but his mind was too
+deeply engrossed with the difficulties which environed him to
+comment on extraneous subjects.</p>
+<p>To this state-room Jaspar and his confidant retired, to consider
+the condition of their operations; and while they deliberate we
+will return to another character.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan was in the full enjoyment of all the satisfaction
+which seeing the world affords to the observing man. He gazed with
+unceasing wonder upon the Father of Waters, on whose mighty bosom
+he was borne towards the loved scenes of home. He was edified and
+amused with the ever-varying succession of objects which presented
+themselves, as the Chalmetta progressed. Flat-boats and steamers,
+plantations and cotton-wood groves, islands and cut-offs, were all
+objects of interest. And, when he was tired of these, "Bunyan's
+Pilgrim's Progress," which was his constant travelling companion,
+afforded him all the excitement his contented disposition required.
+The time promised to be easily disposed of, even if the passage
+should be unusually prolonged. Besides, the number and variety of
+dispositions on board afforded him some study, and some
+instruction. There were men of all grades of society, and all
+degrees of moral worth,&mdash;beginning, of course, at a very
+moderate standard, and descending to the vilest of the vile, which
+last were in a large majority. There were tipplers, and gamblers,
+and profane swearers, in abundance; and Uncle Nathan felt, at the
+bottom of his philanthropic heart, a desire to lead them from their
+sins. Not that he was officious and meddlesome, for he believed in
+"a time for everything." In his modest, inoffensive way, no doubt,
+he sowed the seeds of future reformation in some wayward heart.</p>
+<p>Pat Fegan proved an apt disciple, and already had Uncle Nathan
+given him the first lesson in the form of a temperance lecture,
+which probably had its effect, as he left the boiler deck without
+the dram for which he was supposed to have come up.</p>
+<p>"Now, Partrick," said Uncle Nathan, on the evening after Emily's
+rescue, "rum never did any one any good."</p>
+<p>"'Pon my soul it did, thin,&mdash;it makes me happy whin sorra
+thing else in the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.</p>
+<p>"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of
+doin' good to your feller-creturs."</p>
+<p>"It sinds throuble away&mdash;what else is happiness?"</p>
+<p>"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."</p>
+<p>"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me
+there."</p>
+<p>"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing
+the pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are
+safe."</p>
+<p>But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory
+lucubrations. Pat signed the pledge; but whether he had an
+appreciating sense of the restraint he imposed upon his appetite we
+cannot say. Uncle Nathan thought him saved from his cups, and
+rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if he had looked a little closer, he
+might have suspected an interested motive on the part of Pat. He
+saw none, and, feeling secure in the present victory, he admonished
+his disciple "to stick to it as long as he lived."</p>
+<p>"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat. "I see yous are a
+gintleman, if yous don't look jist like one. Now, do you see, Mr.
+Binson, you are jist the man I am looking for, this last six
+hours."</p>
+<p>"Why so, Partrick&mdash;what do you mean?" said Uncle Nathan,
+mystified by the sudden change of manner in the new convert.</p>
+<p>"Hould aisy a bit, for I'd like to hould a private
+correspondence wid yous. Will ye jist come to the hurricane deck,
+till I tells yous all about it?"</p>
+<p>"Sartain," replied Uncle Nathan, his curiosity fully
+excited.</p>
+<p>As soon as they reached a deserted portion of the promenade
+deck, Pat, after satisfying himself there were no listeners near,
+commenced, with an air of grave importance, his story.</p>
+<p>"Whisht now, and draw near," said he. "Can yous keep a
+sacret?"</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I could, if it was an honest one."</p>
+<p>"Faix, thin, it <i>is</i> an honest one. Sure yous come from the
+North, and don't belave in keeping the naigers in bondage?"</p>
+<p>"To be sure not."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, would yous help a naiger out of throuble, if yous
+could as well as not?"</p>
+<p>"I sartainly wish 'em well; but the Scripture says 'Honor the
+king,' which means nothin' more nor less than 'obey the laws.'
+Arter all, though, perhaps we ought not to mind wicked laws."</p>
+<p>"Musha bad luck to your raysoning! Sure I'm no docthor, to
+blarney over the matther. Will yous kape the sacret?" asked Pat, a
+little excited, and somewhat disappointed to find his auditor
+lukewarm in "the cause."</p>
+<p>"Sartain; tell your story, and, if I can't do you any good, I
+won't do you any harm."</p>
+<p>"That's the mon for me!" replied Pat, slapping Uncle Nathan
+familiarly on the back. "Now, do you see, there's a naiger on this
+boat, that wants a frind."</p>
+<p>"A friend!" said Uncle Nathan, with some doubt, as he reflected
+on the conflict between the claims of humanity and the stringent
+laws of the slave states.</p>
+<p>"To be sure, a <i>frind</i>!" replied Pat, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>"I <i>will</i> befriend him," replied Uncle Nathan, his natural
+inclination triumphing over his fear of the law.</p>
+<p>"Spoken like a Christian! Sure, that's jist what St. Patrick
+would say, if the saint&mdash;long life to him!&mdash;were here,"
+replied Pat, rejoicing that the difficulty was overcome.</p>
+<p>"Now, dhraw near till I tells yous all about it; and, if iver
+you mintion a word of it, may your sowl never lave purgatory till
+it is burnt to a cindther! Now, do you mind, there's a naiger
+concayled in the hould of the boat, that wants to correspond with a
+faymale in the cabin."</p>
+<p>"But he will expose himself, and she may deliver him up."</p>
+<p>"Divil a bit! Didn't he save her from dhrowning, last night?"
+exclaimed Pat, warmly, for this act of Hatchie excited all his
+admiration.</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! you don't say so!" and Uncle Nathan understood
+the mystery of the previous night.</p>
+<p>"Sorra a word o' lie in it."</p>
+<p>"But where in natur is the feller?" asked the wonder-struck
+Yankee, his curiosity getting the better of every other
+consideration.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," whispered Pat; "he is in one of those boxes, with
+the dead men! Do yous mind?"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! how you talk! In a coffin?"</p>
+<p>"Divil a coffin at all. Sure as nate a bit of a box as iver held
+a Christian."</p>
+<p>"But why does he wish to speak with the lady?"</p>
+<p>"Sorra know I know," replied Pat, to whom Hatchie had
+communicated no more than was necessary.</p>
+<p>"Does he wish to see her in person?"</p>
+<p>"Not a bit of it. Now, do you mind, I saw you speaking to the
+lady, and I tould him of it. Then the naiger axed me could he trust
+yous. I tould him yes; and he tould me to bring yous down to him,
+and that's the whole of it. Now, will yous go down the night and
+spake to him?"</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan reflected a little; for, though no craven, he was
+very prudent, and had no romance in his composition. After
+deliberating some time, much to the detriment of Pat's patience, he
+replied in the affirmative.</p>
+<p>Pat then instructed him in relation to certain precautions to be
+observed in order to avoid notice, and left him to ponder the
+strangeness of the adventure. He had well considered his course,
+and, having decided upon it, he was earnest in pursuing it. He had
+chosen, he felt, a dangerous, but his conscience assured him a
+right path, and nothing could now deter him from proceeding in it.
+He was not fickle, and invoked many a blessing on the effort he
+might make for the salvation of the poor negro. True, his prudence
+had magnified the undertaking, which was a trivial affair, into a
+great adventure. Imagination often makes bold men.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"<i>Duke</i>.&mdash;How's
+this?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The treason's</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Already at the doors."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">VENICE PRESERVED.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Amelia</i>.&mdash;I thought I
+heard a step.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Charles</i>.&mdash;'T is your
+tyrant coming."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">PROCTOR.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar and De Guy were for a long time closeted in the
+state-room. On their re&auml;ppearance Jaspar felt much easier. The
+silky-toned attorney had used a variety of arguments to convince
+him that their schemes were working excellently well, and that
+everything, notwithstanding the resurrection of the negro, would
+terminate to his entire satisfaction.</p>
+<p>The process of "wooding-up" on a Mississippi steamer, inasmuch
+as it affords the passengers an opportunity to exercise their
+locomotive powers on shore, is regarded as an interesting incident.
+This was particularly true on board the Chalmetta, for she was
+crowded to nearly double her complement of cabin-passengers, and
+the space usually devoted to exercise was too much crowded to
+render it very pleasant.</p>
+<p>When, therefore, the Chalmetta touched at a wood-yard, after
+leaving Baton Rouge, the passengers hurried on shore, to enjoy the
+novelty of an unconfined promenade. De Guy, on pretence of further
+private conversation, induced Jaspar to forsake his post as
+sentinel over Emily, and join him in a walk. For half an hour the
+attorney in his silky tones regaled the ears of Jaspar with various
+strange schemes, until the bell of the steamer announced her near
+departure. Even then De Guy seemed in no haste, and assured his
+companion the boat would not start without them. But the second
+bell admonished them that the steamer was already getting under
+way. The passengers were all on board, and, as they heard in the
+distance the tinkling of the engineer's bell, they started at a run
+to reach her. By some accident, De Guy's foot got between Jaspar's
+legs, and he fell. The attorney stooped, as if to assist him up,
+but, in reality, struck the fallen man a blow, which rendered him
+insensible. De Guy hurried towards the boat, leaving the watchful
+uncle to shift for himself. He reached the landing in season to
+jump upon the stern of the boat as it swung in shore. Pushing
+through the crowd which had gathered to witness his exploit of
+getting on board, he retreated to his state-room, and locked the
+door.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was not immediately missed by Emily, and his absence was
+too desirable to be the cause of any solicitude. As the tea-hour
+approached, and the ladies were requested to take their places at
+table, she was very much surprised to see <i>Mr. Maxwell</i>
+present himself as her escort to the table. Since the unhappy
+disclosure of his love in the office, she had regarded him with
+pity, rather than with the contempt he merited. She could not but
+feel that he loved her. His eloquent language and forlorn aspect
+had not been in vain, for they had saved him from her <i>utter</i>
+contempt. A true woman cannot be conscious of possessing a portion
+of the love, even of a dissolute man, without feeling some respect
+for him. To love truly and devotedly is an element of the angelic
+character; and such love will purify and ennoble even the grossest
+of human beings. Emily unconsciously arrived at this conclusion;
+and, discerning some indications of pure love towards her in his
+gross and earthly mind, she felt that he was entitled to her
+sympathy. She cherished no affection for him; all that her gentle
+heart could contain was bestowed upon another. A suspicion had more
+than once entered her mind that Maxwell was, in some manner,
+connected with the foul plot which had drawn her into its toils.
+But, she reasoned, if he loved her, he would not injure
+her,&mdash;no, not even in revenge for her refusal. <i>She</i>
+could not, and her beautiful nature would not allow her to believe
+it, even of a man as gross as her better judgment told her Maxwell
+was.</p>
+<p>To her inquiry for her uncle, Maxwell informed her that he had
+some conversation with him since he came on board at Baton Rouge,
+and that he had requested him to attend her at tea. He had not seen
+him since, but supposed he was forward, or in his state-room.</p>
+<p>Emily readily accepted his arm, for anything was a relief from
+the hateful presence of Jaspar. Maxwell used all the art which
+politeness could lend to render himself agreeable. His ready wit,
+and the adaptation of his conversation to the unhappy circumstances
+of her position, in some measure dispelled the misery of the hour.
+Besides, it was plain the attorney did not believe the statement of
+the will; for a high-born Southern gentleman would never associate
+in public with a slave girl. She had, too, a presentiment that he
+came on some errand to her. Perhaps the good minister, Mr. Faxon,
+had sent him with good news to her. Perhaps through him the will
+had been proved false. Such reflections as these imparted more
+interest to his society than she would otherwise have felt.</p>
+<p>During the tea-hour his assiduous courtesy left scarcely a
+particular in which Henry Carroll, who, as before, occupied a seat
+opposite to him, could render himself of use. He could hardly
+address a word to her without interrupting her companion. An
+introduction, which had before placed the young captain and the
+attorney on speaking terms, did not prevent the latter from mixing
+excessively good with excessively bad breeding. He was apparently
+unwilling that Henry should be heard by Emily. Maxwell had some
+idea of the relation which subsisted between his two companions;
+but, of course, knew nothing of the previous night's interview,
+which had indissolubly bound their hearts together. He seemed
+determined to keep their sympathies as far apart as possible.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll wondered at the absence of Jaspar and at the
+sudden appearance of Maxwell, for he had not before seen him. His
+attentions to her he loved created no jealousy. Emily had
+satisfactorily acknowledged her affection for him, and to believe
+her pure nature, especially under the present circumstances,
+susceptible of coquetry, were infidelity. A single look beaming
+with love had assured him that his star was still in the
+ascendant.</p>
+<p>At the conclusion, Maxwell, with the same elegant courtesy,
+conducted her back to the ladies' cabin. Emily repeated her
+acknowledgments for the attentions, and was about to enter her
+state-room, when he addressed her.</p>
+<p>"May I beg the favor of a few moments' private conversation,
+Miss Dumont?" said he, in a more business-like manner than that he
+had assumed at the tea-table.</p>
+<p>Emily hesitated. Her supposition concerning his mission was
+partly verified in this request; but the remembrance of her last
+interview with him at his office in New Orleans came like a cloud
+over the bright sky of her hopes. Curiosity and a painful interest
+prompted her to risk the interview. If this interview was likely to
+be of an unpleasant nature, she could retire; and, if the worst she
+apprehended was likely to be realized, she knew that Henry Carroll
+hovered near her, at all times, like a guardian angel.</p>
+<p>"In your legal capacity, I presume?" said she, with a smile and
+a crimson face.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," replied Maxwell, not a little
+disconcerted to discover this troublesome caution.</p>
+<p>"Will you take a seat, then? I think no one will feel an
+interest in our conversation beside ourselves."</p>
+<p>"Excuse me," replied Maxwell, in his blandest tones, "a few
+words of our conversation overheard might expose persons we wish
+not to injure."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it had better be deferred to a more convenient
+opportunity."</p>
+<p>"Delays are dangerous, Miss Dumont. Justice to yourself requires
+that my communication be made at once. Allow me to attend you to
+the promenade deck, where we shall be secure from
+interruption."</p>
+<p>Emily, with many doubts, accepted his arm, and they proceeded to
+the promenade deck.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, in a very serious tone, for she
+wished to awe the profligate into the most business-like reserve,
+"be as speedy as possible, for I am fearful of the effects of the
+night-air upon my health."</p>
+<p>Maxwell was disconcerted at this change in the manner of his
+companion, and vexed to account for it. The remembrance of past
+events came to his aid, but afforded no satisfactory solution. He
+could not see why Emily should studiously reject his overtures. His
+experience of female society had been of the most flattering
+character. He was perfectly aware of his popularity. His personal
+attractions always had been a strong recommendation, and he could
+not see why they should not be in this instance. His family was
+good, his fortune supposed to be respectable,&mdash;everybody did
+not know the inroads he had made upon it; his business was a
+pastime&mdash;the gate of honor and fame. It was true his character
+was dissolute, but she did not know this.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately for him and his prospects, she did know it, and
+the fact had all the weight which a virtuous mind attaches to such
+a circumstance.</p>
+<p>"I have been fortunate enough to obtain some information which
+may be of great value to you, or I should not thus have intruded
+upon you," said Maxwell, with the air of a man upon whom suspicion
+rested unjustly.</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Mr. Maxwell!" replied Emily, forgetting both the
+night-air and the character of the man who stood beside her; "pray,
+tell me all at once!"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," replied he, coldly, "as the story is somewhat
+lengthy, perhaps it might be deferred till to-morrow, if your
+health is likely to suffer from exposure at this hour."</p>
+<p>Emily was confused; but she could not stoop to the weakness of
+deception to smooth over her former coldness. She was burning with
+impatience to be restored, even in imagination, to the position
+from which she had been degraded by the cruel will. Her companion's
+language was not calculated to remove her doubts of his intentions.
+If the communication was of a business character, why should he be
+offended at her haste to terminate the interview? This reflection
+strengthened her resolution not to conciliate him. She would trust
+to Providence and the justice of her cause, rather than make an
+intimate of a man whom she despised.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, growing desperate at the lady's
+silence, "perhaps I have offended in some manner. If I have, it was
+unintentional, and I trust you will forgive me."</p>
+<p>"O, no, sir, not at all!" exclaimed Emily, mollified, in spite
+of herself, by the humility of the attorney. "There is no offence,
+and no apology is necessary."</p>
+<p>"I am greatly relieved by this assurance, and, with your leave,
+will proceed with my narrative."</p>
+<p>Maxwell now entered into a relation of the history of the will,
+but studiously avoided imparting a single fact with which she was
+not already acquainted. All this he had related with a lawyer's
+skill, to awaken her curiosity and interest, and to remove by
+distance any unpleasant suspicions which might have been awakened
+in her mind in regard to his motives.</p>
+<p>To all he said Emily listened with profound attention,
+momentarily expecting the development of the foul plot. But thus
+far Jaspar Dumont is as pure as an angel,&mdash;nothing is
+disclosed. In this manner half an hour passed away, and Emily was
+no wiser than at first.</p>
+<p>Maxwell has now, with an adroitness peculiar to the successful
+lawyer, made <i>himself</i> the subject of his remarks. He is
+careful that she shall know how sagacious he has been in
+discovering the facts he has not yet revealed. He tells her how
+many weary days and nights he has spent in searching out the truth;
+what wonderful intelligence of his had converted the shadow of a
+suspicion into the reality of an incontrovertible conviction; how a
+single word he casually overheard has been followed through weary
+days and dismal nights, till he has arrived, with all the evidence
+in his hands, at the truth!</p>
+<p>Emily was certainly grateful for the deep interest he had
+manifested in her behalf, and she expressed her gratitude with
+modest earnestness.</p>
+<p>"But, Miss Dumont," continued Maxwell, "I could not thus have
+sacrificed myself for every client. My health and strength, under
+ordinary circumstances, would have given way, and the case have
+been lost."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, you may rely on the fullest and most substantial
+acknowledgment for the service you have rendered. My purse shall be
+entirely at your disposal," responded Emily, warmly and
+innocently.</p>
+<p>"Money, Miss Dumont, would not have tempted me to make the
+sacrifice of health and comfort which this exertion has required of
+me. I have done all my humble talents would permit from a higher
+motive. I look for my reward in the consciousness of having done my
+duty."</p>
+<p>"I trust, Mr. Maxwell, you will receive the great reward which
+is sure to follow every noble and true action."</p>
+<p>Emily was sadly perplexed to understand this new and singular
+phenomenon.</p>
+<p>"The act itself is its own reward," said Maxwell, with an
+attempt to counterfeit humility, which was very awkward, but which
+deceived Emily, agitated as she was by hopes and fears.</p>
+<p>"But, as I said," continued he, "I would not have done this for
+every client, and I trust you will pardon me when I say the only
+reward I look forward to is your smile of approval."</p>
+<p>"I certainly cannot but approve of the motives which have
+actuated you, and your actions perhaps I could better appreciate if
+my knowledge of them was more extensive," responded Emily,
+disappointed and displeased, as her suspicions were reawakened.</p>
+<p>But a faint smile rested upon her beautiful features, as if to
+soften, the reproof she had administered, and to conceal her rising
+emotions. She felt that Maxwell could assist her, but she feared
+every moment that some allusion to the prohibited subject would
+compel her to banish him from her presence.</p>
+<p>"A smile from you were an ample reward for all my trouble and
+exertion," said Maxwell, deceived by the smile of Emily. "To be as
+sincere as your generous nature demands, I cannot conquer the love
+I have before expressed. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Excuse me, sir," indignantly interrupted Emily, "I must
+retire."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, Miss Dumont! I meant no offence. Hear me but for a
+moment!"</p>
+<p>"Not another instant, sir! You have deceived me."</p>
+<p>"Upon my honor, I have not. I possess the evidence by which your
+birthright and possessions may be restored."</p>
+<p>"No more! I had rather die in poverty, with the stain clinging
+to me, than owe the restoration of my rights to you. You have taken
+advantage of my unprotected condition to impose upon me."</p>
+<p>"You wrong me, Miss Dumont; as, if you will remain but a moment,
+I will prove to you," said Maxwell, pleading like an injured
+man.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's peculiar tone and penitent air made Emily pause, and
+perhaps think she had spoken too hastily. All the wrong of which
+she could accuse him was, that he loved her. She felt that this was
+not a crime. The remembrance of wrongs she knew he had inflicted
+upon others, perhaps weak and unprotected like herself, nerved her
+resolution, and to a word of love from him she could not listen.
+She wished to conciliate him, if possible, but not at the expense
+of her self-respect.</p>
+<p>"Why have you detained me all this time to listen to a story
+with which I was before as familiar as yourself? Why have you used
+the language of love, which a refusal to hear now renders
+insolent?"</p>
+<p>"I have offended you, Miss Dumont," said he, in the humblest
+tones; "can I hope to be forgiven?"</p>
+<p>"Your future conduct alone can secure my forgiveness."</p>
+<p>"Then I solemnly promise never again to allude to the admiration
+with which I have regarded your matchless beauty, or to mention the
+love which now consumes my heart."</p>
+<p>"I trust you are sincere," said Emily, not knowing whether to
+smile or frown upon this making and breaking the promise in the
+same breath. The deep anxiety she felt for her future fate made her
+disposed to forget the past, and in a gentler tone she expressed
+her forgiveness.</p>
+<p>Maxwell imagined that, at last, his star was in the ascendant.
+His experience of woman-kind only indicated that he had been too
+precipitate, and that the reserve, even the refusal he had
+received, were only the accidents of the moment, not the natural
+expression of an indifferent heart. His assurance increased as he
+reflected. He was led to believe that he might, now that the
+ice-barrier was removed, be more unreserved in his wooing. His
+perseverance had now overcome all obstacles, and the prize was in
+his grasp.</p>
+<p>"I have a plan to propose," said he, "which will immediately
+secure to you all your rights."</p>
+<p>"Pray what is it?" asked Emily, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"As you have forbidden me to speak of love, I am placed in a
+very unfortunate position. In short, you can obtain possession of
+your estate by returning as my wife."</p>
+<p>This last sentence was said in a whisper, and in a tone of
+assurance, as though he felt she would gladly accept the
+alternative.</p>
+<p>"Sir!" exclaimed Emily, aghast with astonishment and
+indignation, for the abruptness of the degrading proposition nearly
+deprived her of the power of speech.</p>
+<p>"Even so, Emily. I have the power to restore your rights, and
+will do so on this condition. The ceremony may be performed at
+Natchez, where we shall arrive to-night; or, if you fear I promise
+more than I can perform, I will draw up an agreement, which you
+shall sign, to the effect that you will accept my hand on the
+restoration of your rights. I will give you two hours to think of
+it; and if, at the end of that time, you accept the proposal, I
+will at once take the necessary steps to regain your fortune, and
+remove the stigma which rests on your name."</p>
+<p>"Never, sir, never! I will die a beggar before I will owe my
+prosperity to such a contract!" exclaimed Emily, whose indignation
+now found utterance.</p>
+<p>"I beg madam will reflect before she decides," said Maxwell, in
+a satirical tone.</p>
+<p>"Sir, I will die upon the rack, before the hand of a villain
+shall lead me to the altar!" answered Emily, unable to control her
+feelings.</p>
+<p>"Softly, lady, softly!"</p>
+<p>"Leave me, sir! leave me, or I will call upon my uncle to
+protect me from further insult!"</p>
+<p>"Your <i>uncle</i>, I fear, was left at the last wood-yard; so I
+heard my friend De Guy say."</p>
+<p>Emily felt herself the victim of a plot, and, rousing all her
+energies, she said,</p>
+<p>"I see it all. The machinations of a villain&mdash;for such you
+are&mdash;shall be foiled."</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, his passions roused by the severity
+of her epithet, "do you forget your condition? You are a
+<i>slave</i>! Your supposed uncle is not here. You have no free
+papers, and are liable to be committed to the next jail."</p>
+<p>"But I am not without a friend who is able to protect me," said
+Emily, with spirit, as she saw Henry Carroll ascend to the deck
+upon which they stood.</p>
+<p>"Your friend is helpless. Another word, and I will proclaim your
+condition," and he rudely seized her by the arm. "Your friend
+cannot help you. He has not your free papers."</p>
+<p>"But he has a strong arm!" shouted Henry Carroll, as with a
+single blow he struck the attorney to the deck.</p>
+<p>"This way, Emily," said he to the weeping girl, who clung
+tremblingly to him; "you are safe now."</p>
+<p>Emily was conducted by the gallant arm which had protected her
+from we know not what indignity. She felt secure in his presence
+from further molestation, and his soothing words and hopeful
+promises did much to restore her.</p>
+<p>Maxwell soon recovered from the effects of the blow he had
+received, and, boiling with passion, swore vengeance upon the man
+who had interrupted him. But his passion was of short duration, and
+was succeeded by sober reflections upon the "position of his case."
+Emily Dumont was not of that class of women with whom he was
+accustomed to deal. He had found in her an element with which he
+had not before been conversant,&mdash;of which, indeed, he had read
+in books of poetry, but did not believe it existed in the material
+world.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 14em;">"Caught, caught</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In thine own trap! Thou hast
+confessed it all,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The means, the end, the
+motive,&mdash;laid all Bare!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">O, thou poor knave!&mdash;and
+that convenient friend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who swears or unswears, speaks or
+holds his peace,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">At thy command,&mdash;you have
+conspired together!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 22em;">LOVELL.</span></p>
+<p>On board the Chalmetta, Harwell discovered an old acquaintance
+in the person of a notorious gambler,&mdash;a class of persons who
+congregate on Mississippi steamers, and practise their arts upon
+the unwary traveller. This person, who went by the name of Vernon,
+was well known at the faro and roulette boards in New Orleans. He
+was an accomplished swindler. In the winter season, when the city
+is crowded with the &eacute;lite of the state, and with strangers
+from all parts of the Union, Vernon found abundant exercise for his
+professional ability at the hells of the city, in the employment of
+their proprietors, acting the part of banker, or anything else that
+offered him the means of gratifying his luxurious habits. A twinge
+of conscience never prevented him from adopting any means of
+emptying the pockets of his victims, even without the formality of
+dice or cards.</p>
+<p>In the summer season he beguiled his time on the river, or
+migrated with the fashionables to Pascagoula, or a more northern
+watering-place,&mdash;in fine, to any sphere which afforded him a
+theatre for the exercise of his talents as a blackleg. Wherever he
+was, he never passed by an opportunity to obtain possession of his
+neighbor's valuables. If the monied man would accept a hand at
+euchre or poker, why, he was so much the easier cleaned out; if
+not, false keys, pick-locks, or sleight-of-hand, soon relieved the
+unfortunate victim of his superfluous possessions.</p>
+<p>Early in his career of fashionable dissipation, Maxwell had made
+the acquaintance of this notorious individual. Indeed, he had
+sufficient cause to remember him, for he had made a deep inroad
+into his patrimony. Maxwell was too great a rascal himself to be
+long duped by a greater one. A kind of business intimacy had grown
+up between them, and continued to exist at the time of our story.
+This connection was not, however, publicly acknowledged by Maxwell;
+it would have been the ruin of his fine prospects: but he used him
+whenever a scheme of profit or revenge required an unscrupulous
+confederate. Yet this Vernon was by no means a dependent creature
+of Maxwell's, for he was bold, reckless, and independent to the
+last degree. Whether acting as the paid devil of another, or on his
+own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own will. His
+physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
+character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon,
+for a hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the
+luckless individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his
+trade; but latterly his claims to the distinction of
+<i>gentleman</i> and <i>man of honor</i> had been of such a
+questionable character, that the man who refused to meet him did
+not lose caste among the bloods of the city.</p>
+<p>Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New
+Orleans, with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As
+usual, he practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which,
+however, afforded him but a narrow field, the passengers being
+mostly officers, who had left their pay in the <i>cabarets</i> of
+Mexico.</p>
+<p>By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in
+possession of a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his
+power he had endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which
+was constantly spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate
+victims, vainly striving against the coolness and trickery of
+professional blacklegs, to recruit their exhausted finances, or
+retrieve the ruin to which an unlucky hour had enticed them. Henry
+obstinately refused to take a hand; but Vernon's heart was set upon
+the bag of gold he knew was in Henry's trunk, and he resolved to
+possess it,&mdash;a feat not easy to accomplish on board a crowded
+steamer.</p>
+<p>After Maxwell had recovered from the blow which had felled him
+to the deck, and while Henry was soothing the distress of Emily, he
+met Vernon, who was in the act of reconnoitring the young officer's
+state-room. Vernon was just the person to serve him in this
+extremity. The protector of Emily must be removed from his charge,
+as her uncle had been by De Guy. He resolved upon a consultation
+with the blackleg. Accordingly he expressed his desire, to which
+the gambler replied by requesting him to give notice of the
+approach of any one, while he did a little business in the
+state-room.</p>
+<p>Maxwell vainly remonstrated, but was obliged to comply with the
+wishes of the robber, or lose his services.</p>
+<p>Vernon, thus protected from intrusion, entered the room, and by
+the aid of a pick-lock soon succeeded in obtaining possession of
+all poor Henry's earthly wealth. Beckoning Maxwell to follow, he
+descended to the main deck, where, procuring a lantern, they
+proceeded aft.</p>
+<p>We must return to Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, whom we left on
+their way to the fugitive in the hold of the steamer.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a whisper, as they prepared to jump
+down the hatchway; "whisht, now, and don't spake a loud word, for
+the life of yous."</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan promised obedience, and followed Pat into the hold.
+All was total darkness, and it was not without a feeling of
+superstitious dread that Uncle Nathan heard his companion tap on
+the box which contained the mulatto. He heard the whispered
+recognition of its inmate, and stood like a statue while Hatchie
+freed himself from his confinement.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a low voice; "give me your hand, Mr.
+Binson. Now, there yous are," and he placed Uncle Nathan's hand in
+that of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan found the hand was warm, and felt completely
+relieved of the sensation of fear which had come over him.</p>
+<p>"Glad to see you," said he, though an instant afterwards his
+conscience asked him if he had not told a lie, inasmuch as it was
+so dark he could not see anything.</p>
+<p>"You are a <i>friend</i>, I trust," replied Hatchie, who,
+although he implicitly relied on the <i>faith</i> of the Irish
+ally, had not the fullest confidence in his judgment. Nothing but
+what he deemed a stern necessity would have compelled him to trust
+the secret with any one. So many dangers encompassed him, that the
+duty he owed to his injured mistress obliged him to look around for
+the means of preserving the valuable document he possessed. An
+accident to the steamer, the continuous danger of being restored to
+Jaspar, and a hundred other painful reflections, brought him to the
+resolution of depositing the will in the hands of the most
+trustworthy person he could find. In this extremity, he canvassed
+the characters of all he knew on board. Henry Carroll, he feared,
+was too impetuous, if not actually devoted to Jaspar. He knew
+nothing of the interesting relation which the hearts of the lovers
+had recognized,&mdash;pity he did not! Uncle Nathan, whom Pat had
+described in glowing colors,&mdash;none are more highly esteemed
+than those who confer the most solid benefits,&mdash;seemed to him
+the proper person, especially as Pat had seen <i>her</i> speak to
+him after the accident. An honest man is so easily known, that the
+poor Irishman's instinctive knowledge of human nature imparted the
+most correct information.</p>
+<p>"I <i>am</i> your friend, and I trust the Lord will always put
+it into my heart to befriend the unfortunate," said Uncle Nathan,
+in answer to Hatchie's remark.</p>
+<p>"It is not on my own account that I need a friend," said
+Hatchie, in a melancholy tone, for the responsibility which rested
+upon him had solemnized his mind, and banished all reflections of
+self. "It matters little what becomes of <i>me</i>. But, sir, you
+are a stranger to me, and I know not that I may trust you."</p>
+<p>"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an
+honest sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience,
+why, I am ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."</p>
+<p>"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts
+in a great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his
+auditor, "can be done honestly; and, if your conscience approves
+any act, it will approve this one."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and
+use all the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by
+the way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady
+whose life you saved last night."</p>
+<p>"Not exactly to talk <i>with</i> her, but about her. I feel that
+I can trust you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress.
+She is an angel of goodness. I am perfectly willing to be
+<i>her</i> slave, so that it was not to gain my freedom I escaped
+in this box. It was to save her from a cruel wrong which her uncle
+would inflict upon her."</p>
+<p>"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle
+Nathan.</p>
+<p>"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the
+world,&mdash;so different from my poor master, who was a good man,
+and loved even his slaves! This man would make it appear that my
+mistress is not the legitimate child of her father, but the
+daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned. He has forged
+a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor mistress of
+her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was
+perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my
+escape,&mdash;and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at
+and obliged to jump into the river to save my life. They think the
+shot killed me; but I shall yet expose their villany&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose
+sympathies wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.</p>
+<p>"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this
+will. I may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor
+mistress would never be restored."</p>
+<p>"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's
+reasoning, and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.</p>
+<p>"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person,
+who will guard it as his own life,&mdash;who will deem no sacrifice
+too great to relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said
+Hatchie, earnestly.</p>
+<p>"I will do the best I can."</p>
+<p>"Before I intrust it to you, I must feel that you will not only
+be discreet, but that you will labor to foil this wicked plot."</p>
+<p>"I will do everything I can," replied Uncle Nathan, warmly, for
+his heart was touched at the wrongs of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Then here is the will," said Hatchie, handing him the packet,
+which he had taken the precaution to envelop in oil-cloth.
+"Remember how much depends upon your caution and fidelity. God
+forgive me, if I have done wrong in giving it to you."</p>
+<p>"You may depend upon me. I will take good care of the document.
+But shan't I say anything to the lady about it?"</p>
+<p>"Assure her, if you can without exposing yourself, that the will
+is safe. It will give joy to her heart to know that she has the
+means of restoration to her home and name."</p>
+<p>"I will see everything done about right; and I hope soon to meet
+you in the land of liberty."</p>
+<p>"I shall never leave my mistress. I have been near her from her
+birth, and, though only a slave, I feel that I was sent into the
+world for no other purpose than to protect and serve her. Liberty
+away from her has no charms for me."</p>
+<p>"Goodness!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan; "I never should have
+thought it!"</p>
+<p>Hatchie's devotion to his mistress, so eloquently expressed,
+jostled rather rudely the Northerner's prejudices concerning the
+treatment of slaves.</p>
+<p>The conversation was here interrupted by three taps on the deck
+above them, produced by the brogan of Pat Fegan.</p>
+<p>Hatchie recognized the preconcerted signal, and, abruptly
+terminating his remarks, he leaped into the box, drew on the lid,
+and left Uncle Nathan to find his way out as best he could.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, whispering down the hatch. "Jump up,
+Mr. Binson!"</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan approached the hatchway, and endeavored to leap
+out, an effort which was assisted by Pat, who, rudely seizing him
+by the collar, jerked him out with a violence that threatened his
+bones with dissolution.</p>
+<p>"How the divil did yous tumble in there?" screamed Pat, as two
+persons approached. "Are yous hurted?"</p>
+<p>"A little," replied Uncle Nathan, perceiving the ruse of his
+coadjutor.</p>
+<p>"I fear yous are. Thry are your legs broke?" continued Pat,
+whose energy of utterance gave a fair appearance to the deceit.</p>
+<p>"Are you much hurt?" asked one of the persons who had by their
+presence disturbed the conference.</p>
+<p>"Very little," replied Uncle Nathan, who really felt the
+uncomfortable effects of a knock on the knee he had received in his
+involuntary ascent from the hold.</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to 't, but 'twas a wicked fall!" said Pat, fearful
+that his conscientious companion would expose the deceit.</p>
+<p>"Can I render you any assistance?" asked one of the intruders,
+who were none other than Maxwell and Vernon, whom we left on their
+way to the main deck.</p>
+<p>"Thank ye, I don't need any," replied Uncle Nathan, hobbling
+off, accompanied by Pat.</p>
+<p>"Now, is the coast clear?" said Vernon, who carried a lantern he
+had borrowed from the mate.</p>
+<p>"All clear; but put out that light,&mdash;the engineers will
+notice us," replied Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"But I can't find my way into the hold without it. There is no
+danger of the engineers. They are all asleep on the forward
+deck."</p>
+<p>"What do you want in the hold?" asked Maxwell, in an irritable
+tone.</p>
+<p>"I want to hide this bag of money," replied Vernon, in a
+whisper. "As soon as the covey finds he has been picked, they will
+search the boat; and my character is not likely to save me from the
+indignity of being obliged to open my trunk, and turn out my
+pockets."</p>
+<p>"It is bad business, and I wish you had not done this thing. As
+I told you before, <i>I</i> have nothing to do with it. I feel
+myself rather above common robbery."</p>
+<p>"Self-esteem! But you came down on your own business, not on
+mine. You can return, and not trouble yourself any further,"
+growled Vernon.</p>
+<p>"I need your help, and will pay you for it."</p>
+<p>"Very well, then, wait till <i>this</i> job is finished."</p>
+<p>"Go on! I will follow," replied Maxwell, finding remonstrance
+vain.</p>
+<p>After a careful scrutiny of the premises, Vernon concealed his
+lantern under his coat, and leaped into the hold, followed by
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Now," said Vernon, "I must put this bag into one of these
+boxes, to be guarded by the spirits of the brave men whose bones
+repose in them."</p>
+<p>"Are you mad, man? Would you open the coffins of the dead to
+hide your ill-gotten gold?" exclaimed Maxwell, alarmed at the
+purpose of his confederate.</p>
+<p>"Why not? We need not disturb the bodies,&mdash;only open the
+outside box."</p>
+<p>"Very well," said Maxwell, who felt how useless it was to oppose
+his companion. "But remember, I have nothing to do with the
+robbery."</p>
+<p>"Of course not, and nothing to do with sharing the proceeds; but
+sit down, if you have anything to say to me. We are perfectly safe
+from interruption here;" and Vernon seated himself on the box which
+was occupied by the mulatto.</p>
+<p>"My words need not be many. In the first place, I have been
+insulted, and must have satisfaction; and, in the second, there is
+a girl in the cabin to whom I am much attached, and she will not
+give me the smallest sign of encouragement. Have her I must, by
+fair means or foul. I would marry her. You understand?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly; but what's the plan?" asked Vernon,
+indifferently.</p>
+<p>"Rather a difficult one, and may require some nerve to execute
+it," replied Maxwell, who proceeded to develop his schemes, both in
+respect to Henry Carroll and to Emily.</p>
+<p>Although the conspirators spoke in a low tone, Hatchie heard and
+understood the whole plot. The voice of Maxwell he recognized, and,
+although the name of the lady against whom his designs were
+meditated was not mentioned, he comprehended who she was.</p>
+<p>The confederated scoundrels having finished their conference,
+Vernon drew from his pocket a small screw-driver, and proceeded to
+remove the screws from one of the boxes, which, to Hatchie's great
+relief, was not the one occupied by himself. After much labor, for
+the boxes were carefully constructed, to bear the rough usage of
+transportation, he succeeded in removing the lid, and deposited the
+bag of money between the coffin and the case which enclosed it.</p>
+<p>Having effected the object which brought them to the hold, the
+two ascended again, and made their way to the cabin.</p>
+<p>In addition to the knowledge of the plot, Hatchie was made
+acquainted with a fact which afforded him much pleasure&mdash;that
+Henry Carroll, in defence of his mistress, had knocked Maxwell
+down. This was evidence in his favor. He also heard something of
+the preference she had bestowed upon him, and that on this account,
+more than for the blow, he was to be the victim of Maxwell's
+vengeance. But he resolved to foil both schemes.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He must be taught to know he
+has presumed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To stand in competition with
+me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;You will not kill
+him?"&nbsp; SHIRLEY.</span></p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">&mdash;"Wherefore com'st
+thou?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;To comfort you, and bring
+you joyful news."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">MARLOW.</span></p>
+<p>On the second night of the Chalmetta's voyage, as Henry was
+about to retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he
+had struck a "fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at
+once that it had called forth this note. On opening the billet, his
+supposition proved to be correct. It was a challenge from
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret
+that faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that
+Captain Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough
+to resist the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which
+encourages duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"&mdash;a lady
+whom he fondly loved. He felt that the insult which she had
+received was not sufficiently punished. Besides, there was an
+audacity about the man which deserved to be punished, and he
+resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry never reflected
+that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of innocence
+escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in defence
+of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that he
+should fall, <i>he</i> who had espoused the cause of innocence, why
+it was simply impossible!</p>
+<p>He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to
+act as his "friend." The two seconds&mdash;Major Brunn on the part
+of Henry, and Vernon on the part of Maxwell&mdash;arranged the
+preliminaries.</p>
+<p>The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would
+remain there long enough to allow the meeting to take place.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
+opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at
+ease. To meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell
+to be) was not a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of
+honor. He had a hundred times braved death on the field of battle,
+but to die in a duel with such a man seemed to his now
+tranquillized mind anything but honorable. Emily had retired, and
+he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had seen her for the last
+time on earth, for the possibility of being killed himself tardily
+came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and another to
+Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression
+upon his mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the
+letter was to interest him in her favor,&mdash;to induce him to
+conduct her to his Northern home.</p>
+<p>Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the
+morality, and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling
+of honor&mdash;of false honor&mdash;comforted him, and, animated by
+its spirit, he even looked forward with pleasure upon his
+revenge,&mdash;upon the death of his opponent. This would be in
+accordance with the justice of the case, and he flattered himself
+that justice, if it did not always prevail, would triumph in this
+instance. With such reflections he closed his eyes, and sunk to his
+slumbers.</p>
+<p>The Chalmetta moved lazily on her course. Her lights had all
+been extinguished, and the idlers, who a few hours before had paced
+the decks, were now slumbering in their berths, or on the cabin
+floor. The clock over the clerk's office indicated the hour of
+twelve. On the main deck forward the sleepy firemen were languidly
+supplying the furnaces; the engineers, less actively employed, had
+fallen asleep by the cylinders.</p>
+<p>On the after quarter, laying flat upon the deck, were two men
+earnestly engaged in conversation, in which the whispered brogue of
+Pat Fegan might have been detected. After the conversation had
+continued some time, one of them cautiously raised his head, as if
+to penetrate the gloom that enshrouded them. Satisfied that they
+were alone, the two rose, and, without noise, climbed up one of the
+posts to the gallery which surrounded the cabin. Then, with a light
+step, they passed on, and stopped before the state-room occupied by
+Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Are you sure this is his room?" asked Hatchie, in a smothered
+whisper.</p>
+<p>"Troth, I am, thin," responded his companion; "but be aisy, or
+you'll wake him."</p>
+<p>"The worse for him," replied Hatchie, as his teeth ground
+together.</p>
+<p>Hatchie placed his hand upon the door, and softly opened it. The
+sleeper heard him not. The negro groped about the room until his
+hand rested upon some pistols which lay on a trunk by the side of
+the berth. These he took, and, handing two of them to Pat, retained
+the third in his hand. Closing the door, they proceeded, as they
+had come, to the main deck.</p>
+<p>Seating himself behind a heap of merchandise, Hatchie proceeded
+to examine the pistols by the light of a lantern which Pat had
+<i>borrowed</i> from the sleeping engineers. The pistols were of
+the common pattern used in duelling. Two of the three were mates;
+and Hatchie discovered, on examination, that neither of them were
+loaded with ball. The third pistol, which contained two balls, was
+very similar in form and size to the pair. Hatchie extracted the
+balls from this one, and loaded the pair with one ball each,
+leaving the unmatched one blank. They then carefully conveyed them
+to Vernon's state-room, and placed them on the trunk precisely as
+they had found them.</p>
+<p>As had been premised, the Chalmetta arrived at Natchez about
+daylight. Vernon, well acquainted with all its localities, led the
+parties of the duel to a retired place in the vicinity. The
+distance was measured off, and the principals took the stations
+assigned them.</p>
+<p>"Now be careful they do not see you do it," said Vernon, in a
+low, careless tone.</p>
+<p>The pistols were handed to the principals, the signal was given,
+and both fired nearly at the same instant.</p>
+<p>"Confound it!" exclaimed Maxwell, dropping his pistol, and
+grasping the left arm, which had been hit by Henry's ball. "How
+does this happen?"</p>
+<p>But Vernon was as much confounded by this unexpected result of
+the duel as his principal. He had only time to protest that he had
+prepared the pistols as agreed upon, when Major Brunn arrived at
+the spot.</p>
+<p>On examining the wounded man, it was found that the ball had
+struck the fleshy part of the arm. The injury was very trifling.
+Maxwell was much astonished at receiving a ball from his opponent's
+pistol,&mdash;a circumstance which was owing entirely to Hatchie's
+precaution on the previous night. He had overheard the plan by
+which Maxwell was to fire a ball at Henry, with no danger of
+receiving one in return. Vernon had loaded the pair without ball,
+and the single pistol with two balls. Henry was to select from the
+pair; the third was to be concealed upon the person of Maxwell, who
+was to use it instead of the blank. Major Brunn, supposing Vernon
+to be a man of honor, had not insisted upon examining the charge in
+presence of both seconds, and thus everything had worked to the
+satisfaction of the confederates up to the time of the firing. By
+Hatchie's precaution, Henry held one of the two which were loaded
+with ball, while Maxwell had fired the blank.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was, as may be supposed, vexed and disconcerted at the
+result of the duel; and, with an ill grace, he resolved to postpone
+his revenge to another time, inasmuch as he could not hope again to
+shoot at his foe in perfect safety.</p>
+<p>The party returned to the steamer just in season for her
+departure. Maxwell's wound was examined by the surgeon, and
+pronounced very slight. Henry was rejoiced at this intelligence,
+for the cold-blooded thoughts which had found a place in his heart
+had departed, and his naturally kind disposition resumed its sway.
+He was glad that the affair had terminated without the loss of
+life; glad that his conscience was not burdened with the blood of a
+fellow-creature; glad, too, that he had escaped unhurt. This last
+consideration was not a selfish one. He felt that all the energy he
+possessed he should require in the restoration of her he so
+tenderly loved.</p>
+<p>His first step, on returning to the steamer, was to destroy the
+letters he had written to meet the worst calamity which might
+befall him. Having occasion to open his trunk, he discovered, to
+his surprise, that it was unlocked. Further examination showed that
+he had been robbed of all his earthly possessions. This was a
+severe blow. The money was the accumulation of two years' service,
+and he was now penniless,&mdash;without even a sufficient sum to
+pay his passage. He immediately informed the captain of his loss,
+who gave him the comfortable assurance that the robber had probably
+gone ashore at Natchez. However, he caused a thorough search of the
+boat to be made; but, as may be supposed, the search was vain.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan sympathized with him in his loss,&mdash;not with
+words alone, but voluntarily proposed to lend him any amount he
+required; an offer which Henry accepted with gratitude.</p>
+<p>"I see you are acquainted with that lady you saved from
+drowning," said the worthy farmer, after he had passed the loan to
+Henry. The duel had before been discussed and roundly condemned.
+The cause of the quarrel had introduced the fact to which the
+farmer had alluded.</p>
+<p>"I am. Her father was my best friend. I spent a few weeks with
+him a short time before his death."</p>
+<p>"O, ho!" thought Uncle Nathan, "I guess the black feller didn't
+know that, or he would have given the papers to him;" and he
+resolved to inform Hatchie of Henry's presence.</p>
+<p>Descending, he soon discovered Pat Fegan, and, by his help, was
+enabled to hold a conference with Hatchie, who, now that it was
+daylight, talked through a crevice in his box.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was anxious to know the result of the duel, which Uncle
+Nathan imparted, to whom, in return, the mulatto related the means
+he had used to foil the attorney's purpose, which was nothing less
+than murder. He also disclosed the particulars of the second plot,
+which was to be put in execution that night.</p>
+<p>The information the faithful slave had gained in relation to the
+character of Henry's efforts for his mistress made him quite
+willing to have him admitted into the confidence of her secret
+protectors.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan returned to the cabin, delighted with the idea of
+sharing his responsibility with Henry. But his first wish was to
+relieve the distress of Emily, who, he rightly judged, was in
+continued suffering, on account of the painful uncertainty which
+shrouded her destiny.</p>
+<p>Emily rose on the morning of the duel in blissful ignorance of
+the danger which Henry had incurred on her account. She had passed
+a sleepless night, in the most intense agony. Her eyes were red and
+swollen with weeping, and her heart yet beat with the violence of
+her emotions. She felt in the most intense degree the misery of her
+situation, to which she failed not to give all its weight. She had
+a friend&mdash;a brother&mdash;more than brother&mdash;near, in the
+person of Henry. That love which she allowed her fond heart to
+cherish was like an oasis in the desert of her misery. She loved
+him, and in this thought&mdash;in the delightful sensation which
+accompanied it&mdash;she found her only solace.</p>
+<p>At breakfast she saw him again; again his speaking eyes told how
+fondly his heart clung to her; again his smile fanned her fevered
+brain, like the zephyr of summer, into a dream of bliss. Her heart
+led her back to the days when they had wandered together over her
+father's plantation. Then, restrained by the coyness of unrevealed
+love, each enjoyed a happiness to which the other was supposed to
+be a stranger.</p>
+<p>But the anguish of her painful position <i>would</i> come to
+destroy the dream of bliss, and dissipate the bright halo her
+imagination had cast before her. She retired to her state-room, to
+ponder again her unhappy lot. "Thy will be done," murmured she, as,
+throwing herself into a chair, she resigned herself to the terrible
+reflection that she was a slave and an outcast. The bright dream of
+love was only a chimera, to make her feel more deeply the terrible
+reality.</p>
+<p>Whilst she was thus venting her anguish, she was roused from her
+lethargy of grief by the chambermaid, who had entered by the inner
+door.</p>
+<p>"Please, ma'am, a gentleman out in the cabin says he wants to
+speak to you."</p>
+<p>"A gentleman wishes to speak to me? Did he send his name?"</p>
+<p>"No, ma'am. He said you wouldn't know him, if he did; so it was
+no use to send it."</p>
+<p>"Pray, what looking gentleman is he?"&mdash;her mind reverting
+to Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Well, ma'am, he's a very respectable looking gentleman,"
+answered the girl, to whom Uncle Nathan (for he was the person
+alluded to) had given half a dollar. "I think he is a Yankee, by
+his talk."</p>
+<p>"Pray, ask him to send his name."</p>
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said the chambermaid, retiring.</p>
+<p>Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's
+description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread a new
+enemy.</p>
+<p>The chambermaid presently returned, and said the gentleman's
+name was Benson.</p>
+<p>Emily's perplexity was not diminished, but she resolved to see
+the applicant at the door of the room, so that, if his errand was
+from Maxwell, she could easily retire from his presence.
+Accordingly she instructed the girl to show him to the door on the
+gallery.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, as soon as he
+reached the position assigned him; "you are Miss Dumont, I
+believe?"</p>
+<p>"The same," said she, as calmly as her fluttering heart would
+permit. "May I beg to know your business with me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, bluntly; "but don't be scart. I
+know something of your trials; and I trust the Lord will give you
+strength to endure them with patience."</p>
+<p>"Really, sir, you astonish me! May I be allowed to ask how you
+became acquainted with my affairs?"</p>
+<p>"All in good time, ma'am; I have in my possession a document,
+which, I'm told, will set matters all right with you."</p>
+<p>"What is it, sir?"&mdash;and Emily was still more astonished at
+the singularity of the adventure.</p>
+<p>"<i>It is your father's will</i>, ma'am," replied Uncle Nathan,
+disdaining all preface and preliminary to this important
+remark.</p>
+<p>"My father's will, sir! Impossible!"</p>
+<p>"Fact, ma'am. I will tell you all about it," and Uncle Nathan
+proceeded, in his own blunt way, to relate his adventures in the
+hold.</p>
+<p>Emily listened with surprise and joy to the honest farmer's
+story. When he had concluded, although she did not give way to the
+joy of her heart, a change from the depth of despair to the
+pinnacle of happiness took place in her silent heart. How devoutly
+she thanked the great Father who had watched over her in her
+anguish, and now shed a halo of joy across her darkened path! How
+earnest was the silent prayer which arose from the depths of her
+heart, for the safety of the faithful slave, who had perilled his
+life for her happiness! How deeply laden with the incense of
+gratitude was the song of thanksgiving which rose from her soul to
+the Giver of all good!</p>
+<p>And when Uncle Nathan told the story of the duel, a new song of
+thanksgiving arose for Henry's safety. The joy she felt in his
+preservation would not be entirely confined to her heart, and Uncle
+Nathan&mdash;unromantic bachelor as he was&mdash;could not but
+discern the deep interest she felt in him.</p>
+<p>The interview was concluded, and the worthy farmer left the
+gallery more rejoiced than if he had himself been declared heir of
+Colonel Dumont's millions; and he looked around, as excited as a
+school-boy on the first day of vacation, to find Henry, and relate
+the good news.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Louder than the loud ocean,
+like a crash</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of echoing thunder."&nbsp;
+BYRON.</span></p>
+<p>The day of the duel was a day of happiness to Emily Dumont. The
+restraint which Jaspar's presence imposed was removed. Maxwell,
+from prudence or some other motive, did not intrude upon her. Her
+heart was rejoiced by the glad tidings which Uncle Nathan had
+conveyed to her. Henry Carroll was permitted to enjoy her society.
+It was a day of bliss to both; and, though a crowded steamer could
+ill afford the privacy which new-born love ever seeks, yet
+opportunities of giving expression to their feelings were not
+wanting. All day long they revelled in the delightful emotions
+which warmed their hearts. Their intercourse was now burdened by no
+painful reflections on the misery which had so lately environed
+Emily. The means of her restoration to home and society were at
+hand. The only difficulty now was to discover the best method of
+establishing her rights. Against Jaspar and Maxwell they cherished
+no ill-will,&mdash;they had no desire to punish them for their
+wicked designs.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan, too, was in the "full enjoyment of his mind." The
+relief he had "providentially" been able to afford to Emily's mind
+was the medium of an abundant satisfaction. As the darkness began
+to gather, he found an opportunity of conversing with Henry, whose
+entire devotion to Emily during the day had rendered him a stranger
+in the gentlemen's cabin. The plot which Hatchie had revealed to
+him had caused him but little anxiety. Maxwell's wounded arm, he
+concluded, would delay its execution. But he gave the particulars
+to Henry, who was not at all satisfied that it would not be
+undertaken.</p>
+<p>"We must watch to-night," said he.</p>
+<p>"Sartain, we'll keep a good look-out; but the scamp can't do
+anything while he is wounded."</p>
+<p>"But he had confederates."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps he has. But here is another friend," said Uncle Nathan,
+as he perceived Pat Fegan, who had for some time been watching an
+opportunity to speak to him.</p>
+<p>"Sure, the naiger would like to spake wid yous," said Pat, in a
+whisper.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Pat?" asked Henry.</p>
+<p>"Nothin', your honor," replied Pat, promptly; "I was only
+tellin' this gintleman that a poor divil was dhrunk on the lower
+deck, and he'd betther go and praych timperance to him."</p>
+<p>"No, no, Partrick, that's too bad," interrupted Uncle Nathan,
+reprovingly; "I must teach you to tell the truth."</p>
+<p>Pat opened his eyes with astonishment when he heard Uncle Nathan
+explain to Henry the part he had borne in the drama, and was about
+to utter in plain Irish his opinion of a man who would thus betray
+a confidence, when Henry explained that he was an old friend of
+Hatchie and the lady.</p>
+<p>"Long life to your honor, if that be true!" exclaimed Pat; "and
+you won't blow on the naiger?"</p>
+<p>"I have too strong an interest in him to do anything to his
+injury," replied Henry. "But show me the way to him, Pat."</p>
+<p>"One at a time, if yous plaze," said Pat, as he perceived Uncle
+Nathan about to follow them.</p>
+<p>Pat led the way to the after part of the lower deck, to which
+Hatchie had ascended, as on the night of the rescue, to inhale the
+fresh air. This step was a safe one in the night, as, if any one
+approached (which was seldom), he could easily and speedily regain
+his hiding-place.</p>
+<p>"Hould aisy," said Pat, as they approached the fugitive; "don't
+be afraid,&mdash;I have brought yous a frind."</p>
+<p>"I hope you will not bring me too many friends," replied
+Hatchie, a little disconcerted.</p>
+<p>"Don't you know me?" said Henry, as he grasped the hand of
+Hatchie; "I have just come from your mistress, and know your whole
+story."</p>
+<p>"Not all," replied Hatchie; "you cannot know how much anxiety I
+have endured. Miss Emily is not yet safe."</p>
+<p>"But we can easily foil the villain's future designs."</p>
+<p>"We will, at least, endeavor to do so."</p>
+<p>"I believe I have seen you before; we were companions in the
+rescue."</p>
+<p>"We were, and God bless you for the noble service you rendered
+my mistress!"</p>
+<p>"That service was all your own, my gallant fellow."</p>
+<p>"You undervalue your own efforts. He who gets into the
+Mississippi seldom gets out alive. Without your timely assistance,
+I tremble to think of what might have been the end. My experience
+of the river enabled me to bring her up; but without your aid at
+the moment it came I do not think I could have saved her. But this
+is all past. Thank God, she is yet safe, though another danger
+hovers over her."</p>
+<p>"This foul conspiracy,&mdash;will they put it in execution
+to-night?"</p>
+<p>"I heard the villain they call Vernon, an hour ago, engage a
+deck hand to help him row the boat."</p>
+<p>"Then there is indeed danger. I had thought Maxwell's wound
+would have prevented it for a season."</p>
+<p>"A mere scratch. I would your ball had found the villain's
+heart, if he has one. But Vernon is the most dangerous man&mdash;a
+more accomplished villain."</p>
+<p>"Vernon," said Henry, musing; "he was Maxwell's second."</p>
+<p>"Yes. That duel was a plot to murder you."</p>
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie explained the plan of Vernon, which had been rendered
+futile by his precaution.</p>
+<p>"The scoundrel! but how knew you this, and how happens it that I
+escaped while he is wounded?" said Henry.</p>
+<p>"I overheard the plot when I did the other. Vernon is a common
+robber. He came into the hold to conceal a bag of money he had
+stolen."</p>
+<p>"A bag of money!" interrupted Henry, his thoughts diverted from
+the subject.</p>
+<p>"Ay, a bag of money."</p>
+<p>"Do you know where they hid it?"</p>
+<p>"I do; but why do you ask?" and Hatchie was much pained to
+discover in Henry what he mistook for a feeling of rapacity. He
+wanted and expected the perfection of an angel in the man who
+sustained the relation of lover and protector to his mistress.</p>
+<p>"Because I have been robbed of all I had in the world," replied
+Henry, seeing the shade upon Hatchie's brow.</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed the mulatto, his doubts removed, and pleased
+in being able to restore his money.</p>
+<p>"The money is undoubtedly mine. Your noble devotion to your
+mistress has thus proved a fortunate thing for me. But about the
+pistols?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie related the means he had used to derange Maxwell's
+plan.</p>
+<p>"I shall never be able to repay the debt I owe you," said Henry,
+warmly, as the mulatto finished his story.</p>
+<p>"I did it for my mistress' sake. I learned that you were her
+friend."</p>
+<p>"And she will bless you for the act."</p>
+<p>"Now, what shall be done to insure her safety to night? for they
+will attempt her abduction, I doubt not."</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Henry should watch in the vicinity of
+Emily's state-room, while Uncle Nathan, Hatchie and Pat Fegan,
+should occupy the lower deck. Emily was not to be informed of the
+danger; it would distress her to no purpose.</p>
+<p>They had no doubt of their ability to protect her. Accustomed as
+Henry was to danger, perhaps he did not fully appreciate that which
+was now gathering around Emily. He felt that, in knowing the
+particulars of the nefarious scheme, he was abundantly able, even
+single-handed, to prevent its success.</p>
+<p>Obtaining a screw-driver and a lantern from one of the
+engineers, he succeeded in obtaining possession of his stolen bag
+of gold. On his return to the cabin, he observed Vernon standing at
+the bar, and the temptation to give his moral faculties a start
+could not be resisted. Purchasing a dozen cigars, he remarked that
+he had no change, and coolly pulled the bag of gold from his
+pocket. Vernon's astonishment and consternation could not be
+entirely concealed, as he recognized the bag he had securely
+deposited in the box with the dead. Henry took no notice of him,
+though he heard him say, in a suppressed tone, "The devil is in
+this boat!"</p>
+<p>Henry sought his state-room, where he found Uncle Nathan
+impatiently waiting to hear the result of the interview.</p>
+<p>"There is danger," said Henry, "and we must be ready to do our
+duty manfully."</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! you don't say so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"We must watch to-night, and, if need be, fight!"</p>
+<p>"How you talk! You don't think the feller with the sore arm will
+try to do anything to-night?"</p>
+<p>"I fear he will;" and Henry opened his trunk, and took therefrom
+a pair of revolvers.</p>
+<p>"Gracious! will there be any need of pistols? Couldn't you
+reason with them?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, who, as before hinted,
+had a great repugnance to the use of deadly weapons.</p>
+<p>"I am afraid they will not listen to reason," said Henry,
+smiling, in spite of his anxiety. "If action is necessary, it must
+be prompt. I know your heart, my good friend, and I trust your
+non-resistant notions will not interfere with your duty. I must
+rely on your aid in this affair."</p>
+<p>"Sartain. I will do all I can, if I die for it. But I think I
+can get along very well without one of them 'ere things," said
+Uncle Nathan, eying the pistols with distrust.</p>
+<p>"Very well, I shall not urge you, though I think it would be
+prudent for you to have one. As you go to your station, you will
+oblige me by giving this one to the mulatto boy."</p>
+<p>"Sartain, cap'n," replied Uncle Nathan, taking the pistol; "I
+an't exactly a non-resistance man, only I hate to use
+pistols;&mdash;not that I'm afeered on 'em; but to take a
+feller-cretur's life is a dreadful thing. You know the New
+Testament says, 'Resist not evil,' and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I remember; but now is the time to act, and not to preach.
+I shall place myself near Miss Dumont's state-room, and your party
+will see that the stern-boat is not disturbed."</p>
+<p>"All right, cap'n, but do be careful about spilling blood!" said
+Uncle Nathan, who did not like the cool, determined air with which
+Henry handled his pistols.</p>
+<p>"Be assured I will not wantonly take the life of even the most
+hardened villain; but in defence of Miss Dumont I shall consider
+that the end will justify the means."</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan went to his post, and Henry, muffling himself in a
+large camp-cloak, seated himself near Emily's door. Accustomed as
+he was to the perils and privations of the camp, the duty before
+him did not seem difficult or irksome. To his chivalrous spirit
+there was a pleasure in thus watching over an innocent being, while
+she slept, unconscious of the danger that menaced her. Lighting his
+cigar, he resigned himself to the dream of blissful anticipations,
+which relieved the monotony of the scene.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, in the seclusion of his state-room, had thoroughly
+digested the plan for the abduction of Emily. Vernon had arranged
+the details, and the lawyer's reflections suggested no material
+alteration. His wounded arm was a hindrance, but time was too
+precious to admit of delay. The Chalmetta was so tardy in her
+movements that Jaspar must soon overtake them, and then the
+opportunity would be lost.</p>
+<p>If he could get Emily into his power, and away from the
+influences which now surrounded her, he doubted not he could induce
+her, by threats or persuasion, to become his wife; then he would
+spring the trap upon Jaspar, and the coveted object of his
+existence would be gained. He had already forged a bill of sale of
+her person, and, thus provided with an implement of coercion, he
+doubted not that success would crown his efforts.</p>
+<p>As the evening advanced, and the passengers had mostly retired
+for the night, Maxwell and Vernon left the state-room, and went aft
+to examine more particularly the means of descent to the lower
+deck. As they approached Emily's state-room, they perceived Henry
+puffing away at his second cigar. Had it been any other person,
+Maxwell would not have devoted a thought to him. It was he with
+whom he had fought the duel,&mdash;whom a mysterious providence
+seemed to protect. Was he there by accident or design?</p>
+<p>The two confederates passed round the gallery, and returned to
+the cabin. A long hour they waited, and the cabin clock pointed to
+the hour of twelve; still Henry had not changed his position. His
+cigar was consumed, but there he sat like a statue, obstinately
+obstructing the completion of Maxwell's designs. The confederates
+began to fear he had some knowledge of their contemplated project.
+Yet how could this be? The plan had been arranged in the hold of
+the steamer. It was impossible that any one, even the men they had
+hired to row the boat, could know their intentions. Vernon, who had
+seen the stolen bag of money miraculously restored to its owner,
+who had seen two balls pass harmlessly through him, was perfectly
+willing to believe that Henry Carroll was the devil! But, devil or
+not, it was all the same to him.</p>
+<p>It was already time to commence operations. Vernon was impatient
+to begin; for, as he averred, he did not like to lose a whole
+night's sleep in so small an affair. But nothing could be done
+while Henry retained his present position, unless they silenced him
+by force; and he seemed an ugly customer.</p>
+<p>The Chalmetta pursued her way, stemming with difficulty, as it
+would seem by her lazy pace, the current of the mighty river. She
+had just passed Vicksburg. The night was dark and gloomy. Those
+bright, beautiful moons, with which the panorama-mongers are wont
+to gild the eddying current, and solemnize the scenery with a pale
+loveliness, were not in the ascendant. Even the bright stars were
+hid by the thick clouds. The darkness cast a sad gloom over the
+scene, which a few hours before had been "leaping in light, and
+alive with its own beauty." The yellow bank rose high on either
+side of the river, and formed a sombre wall, which seemed to keep
+the sojourner on the tide a prisoner from the world above.</p>
+<p>Yet, deep as was the darkness, and perilous as was the
+navigation of the river, the Chalmetta sluggishly pursued her
+upward course, shunning sand-bars and snags which the eye could not
+see, and which the stranger knew not of. Now she crept, like a
+thief at night, so closely beneath the high bank that her tall
+chimneys almost swept the overhanging branches; then, stealing from
+the treacherous shoal, she sped her way through the middle of the
+vast waters, as if ashamed of her former timidity. Here she shot
+through the narrow cut-off, and there left her foaming surge in the
+centre of the broad expanse.</p>
+<p>On board all was still, save the puffing blasts of steam, which,
+at each stroke of the pistons, echoed through the woods and over
+the plains. The cabin lights had long been extinguished, and, from
+a distance, nothing could be seen of her but the huge blazing
+furnaces, and the red signal lantern, which was suspended over the
+boiler deck. The firemen, just roused from their dream of comfort,
+no more passed round the coarse jest, no more whistled "Boatman,
+dance," but, like automata, threw the fuel into the roaring
+furnaces. Occasionally, the startling note of the great bell roused
+the deck-watch from his slumber, and he sang over again the
+monotonous song that told the pilot how far his keel was from the
+sands below. Again the bell pealed a heavy stroke, which indicated
+that the steamer was in free water, and the leadsman settled
+himself for another nap.</p>
+<p>The passengers, save those whom we have before noted, were deep
+in the arms of Morpheus, rejoicing, no doubt, in their dreams, over
+the many tedious hours they thus annihilated.</p>
+<p>Wakeful and watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever
+present to his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil
+was kept. Her image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the
+love-sick brain conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart,
+and the melody of her voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the
+dignity of the man, he built childish air-castles, wherein he
+throned his idol, and in a few fleeting moments squandered years of
+happiness by her side. The perils of the past, the sternness of the
+present, the responsibilities of the future, all faded away, and
+from their ashes rose the bright empress of his soul.</p>
+<p>This, we know, was all very foolish of him; but then it must be
+remembered he was in love, and men in love can scarcely be called
+accountable beings.</p>
+<p>Thus he dreamed, and thus he trod the fairy ground of
+imagination, nor heeded the creaking timbers and the increasing
+rapidity of the puffs from the escape-pipe. To a man not
+intoxicated by the dream of young love these facts would have
+indicated a great increase in the speed of the boat; but he noticed
+them not.</p>
+<p>By the motions of the Chalmetta it was plain that, though
+incapable of accomplishing any wonderful feat in the attainment of
+speed, she had a considerable amount of that commodity somewhat
+vulgarly termed "spunk." As she passed the mouth of the Yazoo
+river, another steamer, apparently of her own calibre, rounded
+gracefully into the channel, from a wood-yard. This boat&mdash;the
+Flatfoot, No. 3&mdash;seemed, by her straining and puffing, to
+throw the gauntlet to the Chalmetta; a challenge, real or
+imaginary, which the latter made haste to accept,&mdash;or, rather,
+her sleepy firemen did, for, without leave or license, they crammed
+her furnaces to their utmost capacity. The effects of this movement
+were soon perceptible in every part of the boat, for she creaked
+and groaned like a ship in a gale. But the Flatfoot, No. 3, had the
+lead, and seemed to gain upon her rival,&mdash;a circumstance which
+seemed to rouse the lethargic firemen of the Chalmetta to the
+highest pitch of excitement, for they packed the furnaces more
+closely still.</p>
+<p>Maxwell saw, with much satisfaction, the prospect of a race; not
+that he expected in this instance to enjoy the excitement which,
+with "fast men," is consequent upon such an occasion. He hoped it
+might distract the attention of the person who, by accident or
+design, opposed the execution of his purpose. He had sent Vernon to
+the cabin to watch the movements of Henry, while he remained upon
+the main deck, forward of the furnaces, to encourage the firemen in
+their ambitious project of passing the other boat. Several barrels
+of hams which lay upon the deck the apparently excited attorney
+ordered the firemen to throw into the furnaces, promising to screen
+them from blame by paying the owner double their value. The
+firemen, not blessed with an undue amount of caution, willingly
+obeyed the order, and soon the boilers hissed and groaned under the
+extraordinary pressure. The engineers, roused from their slumbers,
+and entering at once into the sport, secured the safety-valve in
+its place by attaching to the lever double the usual weight.</p>
+<p>Still the person whom Maxwell wished to lure from his post
+remained immovable. A few pitch-barrels were now split up, and cast
+into the furnaces, which so increased the pressure that the
+faithful safety-valve refused longer to endure the curb placed upon
+the discharge of its function. It was again secured, and the
+reckless firemen, urged on by Maxwell and the engineers, still
+pressed the boat to its destruction.</p>
+<p>The boilers, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure to which
+they were subjected, still realized the expectations of the
+confident engineers, and refused to be the agents of an "awful
+calamity." But all exertion was of no avail; the Flatfoot, No. 3,
+whose tall chimneys vomited forth a long trail of flame, showing
+that she, too, was hard pressed, was rapidly increasing her
+distance. Still the firemen plied the furnaces, and again the
+engineers added more weight to the lever of the safety-valve. The
+boilers were evidently pressed to their utmost, the, decks were
+hot, and her timbers creaked and snapped as though they would drop
+out of her.</p>
+<p>Hatchie had placed his party in the hold, one of which was on
+the look-out at the hatchway. He saw the danger of the steamer; but
+all his friends were in the safest places the boat afforded. It was
+an anxious hour for him; but everybody was in peril, and there was
+no remedy.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, whose excitement in the race was feigned, perceived
+that the boat was in imminent danger. He had not intended to carry
+the excitement quite so far. An explosion was not exactly the thing
+he desired. It would not be sufficiently discriminating in its
+choice of victims. But the firemen were too much excited to listen
+to reason; therefore he proceeded, with Vernon, towards the extreme
+after part of the boat. Passing round the gallery of the ladies'
+cabin, they perceived that Henry had, at last, left his post. Such
+was indeed the case. Roused from his abstraction by the terrible
+anticipation of an explosion, he had gone forward to reason with
+the pilots on the recklessness of their course in allowing the boat
+to be so hard pressed.</p>
+<p>"Now is our time," said Maxwell, in a whisper.</p>
+<p>"Here goes, then!" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Be careful that you do not injure her,&mdash;and bring her
+clothes."</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay! Have the boat ready quick, for, if I mistake not, the
+sooner we are out of this boat the better."</p>
+<p>The ruffian approached the door of Emily's state-room, and was
+about to open it, when, with a noise louder than the crashing of
+the thunderbolt, the starboard boiler exploded, and the Chalmetta
+lay a shapeless wreck upon the waters!</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"False world, thou ly'st; thou
+canst not lend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">The least delight;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thy favors cannot gain a
+friend,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">They are so slight."&nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; FRANCIS QUARLES.</span></p>
+<p>The traveller on the Mississippi observes with interest the
+innumerable islands which dot the river, and relieve the monotony
+of the scenery. These islands are, for the most part, covered with
+a luxurious growth of cotton-wood trees. They have generally been
+formed by what are technically called cut-offs, or new channels,
+from the main land. The mighty torrent, scorning its own
+well-beaten track, ploughs a way through the country, and returns
+to its channel miles below, opening at once a new path for the
+voyager upon its tide. The portion of land thus separated from the
+main shore is often subdivided by the action of the waters into
+several smaller islands. These islets are, however, oftener seen in
+isolated positions, varying in area from a few square rods to
+several acres. A remarkable feature of these islands is their
+<i>locomotive</i> powers,&mdash;for, strange as it may seem, they
+annually take a step down stream! Observation has shown a change of
+position almost incredible.</p>
+<p>The river, continually wearing upon the up-river side of the
+island, washes the sands and soil to the lower side. Thus, the
+situation of the island is actually changed. The fact is clearly
+shown by the singular configuration of the mass of trees growing
+upon them. The wood on the upstream side of the island is of the
+largest size; while that on the down-stream side begins at the mere
+shrub, and, by a regular gradation in height, like a pair of
+stairs, increases to the altitude of the full-grown tree. Each
+successive year places a new layer of soil upon the lower side, in
+which the young tree takes root; and the growth of each year is
+distinctly visible to the traveller as he ascends the river.</p>
+<p>On one of these islands, above Vicksburg, was located a neat
+cottage. The island differed in many respects from others. Its area
+might have been eight or ten acres. On one side of it was a narrow,
+but deep stream, which, entering from the broad river, described a
+semi circle, and returned its waters on the same side. On three
+sides, except at the mouths of the little stream, the island was
+rendered inaccessible by the high banks, while on the fourth side
+the shrubs grew so luxuriantly as to be impervious, save to the
+most resolute visitor. From the high banks which walled it in the
+surface of the island sloped gradually towards a common centre,
+through which rushed the little stream.</p>
+<p>This little island had probably been a part of the main land;
+the river had forced its way through a valley, and, by degrees, had
+worn down the high land on either side, till they formed the
+precipices which now frowned on the visitor. The little stream had,
+perhaps, once been a meandering rivulet,&mdash;part of one which
+emptied into the river on the opposite side.</p>
+<p>On one of the sloping sides of the interior was situated the
+cottage. It was small in size, containing but four rooms and an
+attic, and was neatly painted white. Its location in the valley
+concealed it from the main land, and from the traveller upon the
+river. It was accessible only by means of the stream, which rolled
+by within a few rods of the door. A cow grazed in the woods, which
+had been partly cleared of under-brush, and had the appearance of a
+park grove. Near the house a plot of land had been reduced to a
+state of cultivation, upon which an old negro servant managed to
+raise vegetables sufficient for the use of the family.</p>
+<p>The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with
+none of the gaudy trappings of fashion. Everything was plain and
+useful. On the side fronting the stream, which served the inmates
+as a highway, were two rooms,&mdash;a library, which was also the
+sitting-room, and a sleeping apartment. The library was far the
+most substantial and comfortable-looking room in the house,
+inasmuch as it was abundantly supplied with modern and classical
+lore. In the middle was a large writing-desk, upon which lay sundry
+manuscripts, apparently the last labor of the occupant. The books
+and papers were all arranged with scrupulous neatness and
+method.</p>
+<p>The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another
+sleeping apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro
+and his wife,&mdash;the property of the proprietor, and his only
+attendants upon the island. Back of the house, as is the custom of
+the South, was a small building used as a kitchen. Near it was
+another building, appropriated to the use of the cow aforesaid.</p>
+<p>In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the
+bank, was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to
+rank with the miniature yachts of our large cities. She was
+schooner-rigged, with a small cabin forward. Her masts, by an
+ingenious contrivance, could be lowered down aft, and, by means of
+a rope attached to the fore-top, and running through a block on the
+bowsprit, could be instantly restored to their original upright
+position. This arrangement the owner found necessary, on account of
+the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed the two openings of
+the stream into the river.</p>
+<p>On the night of the Chalmetta's terrible disaster, a man wrapped
+in a camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the
+landing-place. In one hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the
+other a double-barrelled gun. Descending the steps to the rude pier
+of logs, he drew the boat in-shore and seated himself in the
+stern-sheets. Unloosing the stern-line, which alone held her, the
+boat was borne on by the rapid stream. The helm the occupant
+handled with a masterly skill, and in a moment the little bark
+swept through the half-hid opening into the broad river. Placing
+the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling the proper
+line, brought the masts to their upright position. He then inserted
+the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the
+sails. By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of
+the island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the
+river. Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed
+close in shore, he laid the boat's course up the stream. The wind
+was blowing fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the
+current, the boat careened to her task, and made very good progress
+through the water. While the gallant little bark pursues her way,
+we will introduce her skipper to the reader.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was about fifty years of age. He was descended
+from one of the old French families of Louisiana; and had been, for
+nearly thirty years, a practising physician in the city of New
+Orleans, during which time he had accumulated a very handsome
+fortune. At the age of twenty-five he had been married to a lady,
+whose only recommendations were her personal beauty and her
+fashionable accomplishments. Her vanity had disgusted him, and her
+uncontrollable temper had embittered to its very dregs the cup of
+his existence. Being naturally of a gloomy and melancholy
+temperament, this unfortunate union had rendered his life almost
+insupportable. Domestic happiness, to which he had looked forward
+with high-wrought anticipations, proved, in his case, to have no
+foundation.</p>
+<p>He was disappointed. His dream of home and its blessings faded
+away, and was supplanted by a terrible reality. He grew more and
+more melancholy. But there was a solace, which saved him from
+absolute misery. Two children&mdash;a boy and a girl&mdash;blessed
+his otherwise unhallowed union. The education of these children was
+the only joy his home afforded; but even this to his misanthropic
+mind could not compensate for his matrimonial disappointment.</p>
+<p>Years passed away; the son was sent to college, from which, to
+the anguish of his father, he was expelled for gross misconduct.
+The young man returned to New Orleans, and became one of the most
+dissolute and abandoned characters of the city. Dr. Vaudelier
+disowned him, and sunk the deeper in his melancholy.</p>
+<p>The death of his wife left him alone with his daughter; and if
+the fatal influence of past years could have been removed, perhaps
+he might have been a happy man. The daughter was a beautiful girl,
+and promised to realize all the fond expectations of her father.
+Her daily education and method of life, as directed by her father,
+were better calculated to fit her for the occupancy of a nun's cell
+than for rational society.</p>
+<p>About five years previous to the time of our story, the solemn
+quiet of Dr. Vaudelier's dwelling was disturbed by the arrival of a
+young French gentleman, bearing letters of introduction to the
+misanthropic physician. This gentleman was delighted with the
+daughter of his host, and she experienced a before unknown pleasure
+in his society. The doctor was, to some extent, obliged to abandon
+the "pleasures of melancholy," and accompany the young couple into
+the world.</p>
+<p>This intimacy between the young persons rapidly ripened into
+love. Dr. Vaudelier's inquiries into the character and
+circumstances of the young gentleman were not satisfactory, and he
+refused to sanction the union. Perhaps he was influenced more in
+this decision by the dread of parting with his daughter than by any
+other motive. The father's refusal was followed by the elopement of
+the young couple,&mdash;an act which blasted the only remaining
+hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to endure the
+shock.</p>
+<p>Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as
+the only effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to
+whose rites and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence,
+doomed the suicide to eternal woe!</p>
+<p>Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to
+be enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He
+could not endure even that which the practice of his profession
+demanded. The great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to
+escape from its hated scenes.</p>
+<p>He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and
+accidentally had noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed
+his residence.</p>
+<p>His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the
+inhabitants of his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with
+their presence. Steamers and flat-boats continually passed his
+little domain; yet the traveller knew not that it was occupied by
+human beings.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier's pursuits were of the most simple nature. He read
+and wrote nearly the whole day, and in the evening,&mdash;often at
+the dead of night,&mdash;he would unmoor his yacht, and stem the
+tide of the mighty river. His chief happiness was in communion with
+nature. His solitary habits had completely estranged him from
+society; and he chose the night for his lonely excursions on the
+river, to avoid the presence of man.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was a benevolent man; and his benevolence was
+still his friend. It kept his heart from corroding, or becoming
+entirely cold. His professional services he freely gave to the poor
+"squatter," woodman and boatman, whenever he could learn that they
+were needed. The old negro made frequent visits to the shore to
+procure provisions and other necessaries, and informed his master
+if any of his indigent neighbors needed his aid. Dr. Vaudelier, as
+far as he was known, was regarded with profound respect and
+affection, and none were disposed to disturb his privacy when it
+was understood that entire seclusion was his desire.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier reclined on the cushions in the stern-sheets of
+his boat. With an abstracted mind he gazed upon the gloomy outlines
+of the shore. Nature in this sombre dress seemed in unison with the
+gloom of his own soul. Scarcely conscious of his actions, he
+managed the boat with the most consummate skill, avoiding the
+unseen shoal and the unfavorable current, but still never allowing
+the sails to shiver. Far ahead of him he descried the blazing
+chimneys of a steamer. It was night, and he was secure from the
+prying gaze or the rude hail of the voyagers.</p>
+<p>His reflections were gloomy. He reviewed his earlier years. He
+thought of his affectionate daughter, who had promised to be the
+stay of his declining years, perhaps at that moment a wanderer and
+an outcast. He had heard nothing of her since her departure. He had
+made no effort to ascertain her fate. He considered his whole
+course of conduct to her, the nature of the education he had
+imparted to her, the example he had set for her imitation. His
+reflections were not altogether satisfactory, and kindled a few
+compunctious thoughts. The blame had not been all on the side of
+the daughter. His misanthropic character was the origin of some
+part of it.</p>
+<p>Thus he mused, and thus dawned upon his mind the first gleams of
+repentance. His melancholy temperament had caused the loss of his
+daughter; and, for the time, it grew repugnant. He felt that he was
+not living the life his Maker intended he should live.</p>
+<p>His meditations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous
+explosion, and he was at once satisfied that it proceeded from the
+steamer he had before observed. His supposition was soon verified
+by the flames he saw rising from the spot where he had last seen
+her. She was, he judged, at least three miles distant. His
+benevolent disposition, stimulated by the reflection, and, perhaps,
+by some unconscious resolution of the previous hour, prompted him
+to hasten to her relief. Leaving the helm, he took from the little
+cabin a stay-sail, and by the light of the lantern attached it to
+the lines and hoisted it. The lively little craft, feeling the
+additional impulse, careened till her gunnel was nearly submerged,
+and cut her way with increased velocity through the unfavorable
+current. Half an hour elapsed before he approached near enough to
+make out the condition of the shattered steamer. Another steamer
+lay as near to her as the flames, which had apparently been partly
+subdued, would permit. Men were busily engaged in throwing on
+water, and their efforts promised to be crowned with success, for
+the volume of flame was rapidly decreasing. A line was passed from
+the bow of the Chalmetta to the Flatfoot, No. 3 (for these were the
+steamers), which enabled the latter to control the drift of the
+former. Dr. Vaudelier was too far off, however, to form a very
+correct idea of the casualty.</p>
+<p>Portions of the wreck were floating by him, and occasionally his
+boat struck against a timber or cask. While anxiously straining his
+vision, to ascertain further particulars of the disaster, he heard
+a faint cry close ahead of him. By the light of his lantern, which
+he had hung up by the foremast, to attract the eye of any sufferer
+who might need aid, he saw a man clinging to a barrel floating by
+him. Hastily letting go the halyards, the fore and main sails came
+down, the boat was put about, and Dr. Vaudelier, with much
+exertion, succeeded in saving the almost dying sufferer. Conveying
+him to the cabin, which was of sufficient size to contain two
+berths, he placed him upon one of them, and proceeded to ascertain
+his ailments. These, as far as he could discover them, consisted of
+a broken arm, a severe contusion of the head, and several severe
+scalds. The wounded man's endeavors to aid in his own rescue had
+been too violent, and on being placed in the berth he had fainted.
+After administering such relief as he was able, he returned to the
+stern-sheets, hoisted the sails, and the boat, which had been
+drifting down-stream, again approached the wreck.</p>
+<p>The flames of the Chalmetta were now extinguished. Before the
+benevolent physician could reach her, the Flatfoot had taken her in
+tow, and both were rapidly leaving him. Further pursuit was
+useless; so, taking in the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and
+again turned his attention to the sufferer.</p>
+<p>The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid,
+and she soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager
+discerned through the darkness the narrow opening of the little
+stream. Taking in the sails and lowering the masts, the little
+craft glided through the rivulet, and in less time than is taken to
+relate it was securely moored in front of the cottage. The old
+negro, bewildered by the unseasonable summons, assisted in
+conveying the wounded stranger to the cottage.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, after a more thorough examination of his patient
+than he had been able to make before, was pleased to find that his
+wounds, though serious, were not of a dangerous character. He set
+the broken arm, and, by the exercise of the great skill for which
+he had been distinguished, restored him to consciousness, and made
+sure his future recovery.</p>
+<p>"Where is she? Is she safe?" murmured the sufferer, as his
+returning consciousness afforded a partial knowledge of his
+condition. "Where am I?"</p>
+<p>"You are among friends, sir,&mdash;among friends. Do not
+distress yourself," replied the doctor, in a soothing tone.</p>
+<p>"Where is she? Great God! what has become of her?" exclaimed the
+wounded man, with startling energy.</p>
+<p>"You must be quiet, sir, or you will injure your arm," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, mildly restraining the excited man.</p>
+<p>"O, Emily, Emily!" groaned the sufferer. "Why did I leave you?
+Why did we not perish together?"</p>
+<p>"Be calm, sir,&mdash;be calm! You have lost a friend in this
+terrible disaster?"</p>
+<p>"I have. O that I could have died with her!"</p>
+<p>"Are you sure she has perished?"</p>
+<p>"She could scarcely have survived the explosion."</p>
+<p>"Was she not in the ladies' cabin?"</p>
+<p>"She was."</p>
+<p>"Then probably she is safe. The ladies' cabin was thrown from
+its position; but it appeared to be comparatively but little
+shattered. The forward cabin was blown entirely in pieces."</p>
+<p>"Thank God for this intelligence!" ejaculated Henry
+Carroll,&mdash;for the reader has already discovered that it was he
+whom the doctor had rescued.</p>
+<p>"Another steamer was close at hand, so that probably most of the
+ladies were saved, unless, as is often the case, they jumped
+overboard in their fright."</p>
+<p>"Heaven protect her!" exclaimed Henry.</p>
+<p>"But, sir, I must insist on perfect quiet. Your condition
+imperatively demands it. To-morrow everything shall be done to
+relieve your anxiety. We shall then receive Vicksburg papers, which
+will contain the names of all who are lost."</p>
+<p>"I will try to be quiet, but I cannot but be anxious till I know
+the whole truth."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier again applied a soothing balm to the scalded
+portions of his body, and gave him a powerful narcotic, the effects
+of which were soon visible in a deep, troubled slumber.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"But thou, a wretched, base,
+false, worthless coward!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">All eyes must shun thee, and all
+hearts detest thee.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Prythee avoid, nor longer cling
+thus round me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Like something baneful, that my
+nature's chilled at."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>In a small log-cabin, a few miles above "Cottage Island,"
+reposing upon a rude bed, on the morning of the Chalmetta's
+disaster, was a young and beautiful female. She was pale and in
+tears, evidently suffering the most excruciating mental agony. An
+old woman, from whose bosom her half-civilized mode of life had not
+entirely banished those refined sympathies which belong by
+intuition to her sex, was vainly striving to impart comfort.</p>
+<p>"You ought to be thankful, ma'am, that you wan't blowed up, with
+the rest of the poor people," said she, kindly, attempting to turn
+the lady's attention from her absorbing misery.</p>
+<p>"I had rather a thousand times have perished than fallen into
+the hands of the villain who rescued me," replied Emily,&mdash;it
+was she,&mdash;with a shudder.</p>
+<p>"O, ma'am, they shan't hurt a hair of your head. My old man
+wouldn't see such a good cretur as you hurt, for all the
+world."</p>
+<p>"Alas! I fear his power will not avail against this hardened
+villain."</p>
+<p>"Never you fear, ma'am! Two sich popinjays as them couldn't
+skeer my Jerry, nohow. Besides, my son, Jim, will be back in an
+hour or two."</p>
+<p>"I fear they cannot aid me."</p>
+<p>"Yes, they can. My Jerry alone would turn 'em inside out, if
+they are sarcy."</p>
+<p>"I can scarcely hope the villains&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Softly, lady, softly! do not be harsh!" said Harwell, entering
+the apartment in which Emily was, and which was the only one the
+cabin contained.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, rising, "if you have any mercy, or
+pity for my misfortunes, let me be left alone."</p>
+<p>"I would not injure you, Miss Dumont," replied Maxwell, in a
+gentle tone. "I would see you in safety at your destination. Mr.
+Vernon has been two hours absent, in search of a carriage."</p>
+<p>"A carriage! For what?"</p>
+<p>"To convey you to a steamboat-landing."</p>
+<p>"Bless your heart, sir! you needn't go a step for that. My Jerry
+will hail the very next one that passes the wood-yard," suggested
+the old lady.</p>
+<p>"Silence, old woman!" said Maxwell, sternly, for he feared the
+dame would increase Emily's distrust of him.</p>
+<p>"Don't old-woman me, you puppy! I know what's what!" responded
+the dame, sharply, for her temper was not exactly angelic; "it's my
+opinion you don't mean this lady any good. Let me tell you,
+aforehand, you can't cut any of your didoes here!"</p>
+<p>"Silence, woman! when I need your help I will ask it. I propose,
+Miss Dumont, to convey you to Vicksburg, where you can be
+comfortably accommodated until a steamer arrives which will take
+you to Cincinnati. It may be several days, you are aware."</p>
+<p>"Several days!" exclaimed the mistress of the cabin; "who ever
+heerd of such a thing! There'll be one along afore the day is
+out."</p>
+<p>"For Cincinnati?" sneered Maxwell, who found the old woman's
+tongue a very formidable weapon.</p>
+<p>"I dare say there will," responded the dame.</p>
+<p>"It is extremely uncertain, Miss Dumont. We came in the last
+one, and it is scarcely possible, at this season, another followed
+immediately. But here is the carriage."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, I shall positively refuse to accompany you," said
+Emily, in a most decided tone. "This good woman, I doubt not, will
+accommodate me."</p>
+<p>"That I will," promptly responded the dame.</p>
+<p>"I am sorry, Miss Dumont, I cannot, in this instance, yield to
+your wishes. I must insist on your company to Vicksburg," said
+Maxwell, striving, by a supercilious manner, to keep down his angry
+passions.</p>
+<p>"By what right, sir, do you <i>insist</i> upon it? I was not
+aware that you were invested with any legal control over me."</p>
+<p>"Then you are mistaken. I act upon undoubted authority."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, are you my guardian?" said Emily, shuddering at
+the thought of the will.</p>
+<p>"Not technically a guardian. My authority is a little more
+definite."</p>
+<p>"I do not understand you, sir."</p>
+<p>"It is immaterial. Perhaps you had better go with me peaceably,
+however," said Maxwell, with a carelessness foreign to his
+feelings.</p>
+<p>"That, sir, I never will do alive!" replied Emily, surmising the
+nature of the attorney's assumed authority. "Mr. Maxwell, you have
+taught me to believe that you are a hardened villain, and I
+<i>command</i> you, leave my presence!"</p>
+<p>The indignation of Emily was roused, and she spoke with a
+flashing eye, and with an imperativeness which her wrongs alone
+could have called to her aid.</p>
+<p>"That was very prettily done, lady; but I cannot obey. It is
+useless to multiply words. You <i>must</i> go with me;" and Maxwell
+extended his hand.</p>
+<p>Emily recoiled from the proffered hand; her brow lowered, and
+her lips compressed. She regarded him with a look of ineffable
+scorn,&mdash;a look before which even Maxwell, penetrated, as he
+was, with evil purposes, quailed.</p>
+<p>"Go along, now, about your business, and don't bother the lady
+any more!" said the old woman, taking advantage of the momentary
+silence.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont, I once more ask you to go with me peaceably," said
+Maxwell, not heeding the dame's remark.</p>
+<p>"And once more I answer, <i>I will not</i>!"</p>
+<p>"I should be sorry to use compulsion. Do you forget your
+condition?"</p>
+<p>"I do not," replied Emily, with a tremor, but without the loss
+of her self-possession. "I am of the best blood of Louisiana."</p>
+<p>"But still a <i>slave!</i>"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed the hostess.</p>
+<p>"I am <i>not</i> a slave! You know this is the plot of a villain
+like yourself. The true will has been found."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! Is it here?" said Maxwell, with a sneer, for while he
+had Emily in his power he feared nothing.</p>
+<p>"No; but it shall be brought forth in due season."</p>
+<p>"Until which time you are a slave; and not only a slave, but
+<i>my</i> slave," replied Maxwell, with perfect coolness, as he
+drew from his pocket-book the forged bill of sale.</p>
+<p>"Great God, desert me not in this hour of my afflictions!"
+groaned Emily. This last revelation entirely unnerved her, and
+exposed in a more terrible light her appalling position. She
+doubted not the paper she saw in Maxwell's hands was a bill of sale
+of her person, and that it would establish his claim; for his
+present purposes seemed too flagrant to be pursued without good
+authority. Her features, dress and language, she felt, would be no
+safeguards. She had seen slave-girls as fair and white as herself.
+She had heard of those who, with scarcely a drop of negro blood in
+their veins, were educated to pander to the appetite of depravity.
+She had seen them in the streets of New Orleans, in no manner
+differing in appearance from, the best-born ladies. Her situation,
+then, was an awful one.</p>
+<p>"Will you read this paper?" continued Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"No; like the will, it is a forgery!" replied Emily, determined
+to die rather than yield herself to the guidance of the
+attorney.</p>
+<p>"It gives me an undeniable right to your person, and you must
+obey me. The carriage waits in the road."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, if you have a particle of honor left, or if even a
+shadow of pity rests in your heart, leave me, and finish your
+despicable persecution!" said Emily, in a pleading tone.</p>
+<p>"I have both honor and pity; but I cannot abandon my purpose.
+You refused to trust to my honor, refused to receive the offered
+hand, which would lead you back to the home you have left. I would
+fain have averted the calamity you are madly courting; but you
+would not. I humbly prayed to be allowed to step between you and
+your uncle's avarice; but you would not. I would willingly have
+prevented the accomplishment of your uncle's plans; but&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Then you own that it is a plot?"</p>
+<p>"I acknowledge nothing."</p>
+<p>"But you know it is a base trick?"</p>
+<p>"It is not for me to say. The law will be satisfied. I have
+offered to do all I could for you, and you have refused. You appeal
+to my pity. Pity! did you pity me when I would have been your
+willing slave,&mdash;when I pleaded for the hope you have
+ruthlessly crushed?"</p>
+<p>"I did pity you; but I could not help you. I could not then, and
+I cannot now, give my hand where my heart is uninterested. I feared
+you then, as I despise you now. Report said your character was not
+entirely free from stain, and you are now striving to demonstrate
+the truth of the rumors," said Emily, whose contempt would not be
+concealed.</p>
+<p>"Report may have belied me," replied Maxwell, struggling with
+his violent passions. "But we are wasting time. Proceed with me to
+Vicksburg, and I pledge you my honor you shall not be injured or
+insulted."</p>
+<p>"Your honor!" said Emily, bitterly. "It is but a poor dependence
+for an unprotected female."</p>
+<p>"Gently, Miss Dumont! Do not rouse the demon within me by such
+taunts."</p>
+<p>"I fear the worst demon of your nature is already in the
+ascendency."</p>
+<p>"Enough! Will you go, or will you not?" said Maxwell,
+impatiently.</p>
+<p>"I will not!"</p>
+<p>"Then I must claim you as my slave,&mdash;do not
+start!&mdash;and <i>compel</i> you."</p>
+<p>"Bond or free, I will not stir from beneath this roof with you,"
+replied Emily, with calm resolution. All hope, if she had cherished
+any, was gone. Silently she breathed a prayer for strength and
+meekness to endure all; for fortitude to enable her to struggle
+till death with the oppression of her enemy; and for courage to
+meet any emergency in which her lot might be cast.</p>
+<p>"It must be done! I will hesitate no longer!" said Maxwell,
+seizing Emily by the arm.</p>
+<p>"Look here, you varmint, that won't do here!" exclaimed the
+mistress of the house, who, much against her inclination, had
+remained silent during the past fifteen minutes. "It shan't be said
+that Jerry Swinger's ruff couldn't protect a stranger."</p>
+<p>"But, woman, she is my property," answered Maxwell, not a little
+intimidated by the ferocious aspect of the matron.</p>
+<p>"Do not believe him, good woman, do not believe him!" exclaimed
+Emily, as she saw the woman was a little staggered by the
+attorney's claim.</p>
+<p>"No, ma'am, I won't believe him," responded Mrs. Swinger, as her
+heart triumphed over the argument of the lawyer.</p>
+<p>"It matters little whether you believe me or not. Here is the
+bill of sale, and, in the name of the law, I take what is
+mine."</p>
+<p>The hostess was not a little perplexed by the document, and
+Emily observed, with terror, that she wavered in her purpose.</p>
+<p>"It is a gross forgery!" exclaimed Emily, with a glance of
+earnest pleading, which the rough but kind-hearted woman could not
+resist.</p>
+<p>"I don't care nothin' about your bill of sale! The gal is safe,"
+said Mrs. Swinger, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, resolving to execute his design, again seized Emily by
+the arm, and was on the point of hurrying her out of the cabin.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger was a stout, masculine woman, brought up in the
+woods, and never fainted in her life, even in presence of an
+alligator or a panther. So she had no scruples in seizing Mr.
+Maxwell by the nape of the neck, and giving him a kind of double
+twist, which sent him reeling into the corner of the cabin.</p>
+<p>"I'll teach you to put your hands upon an onprotected female,
+you varmint, you!" said she, and, going to the door, she screamed
+"Jerry" three times, with a voice that would have done honor to a
+Stentor.</p>
+<p>"Now, stranger," said she, elevating her tall form to its full
+height, and, with a gesture like a queen of the Amazons, pointing
+to the door, "take yourself off, or my Jerry will tote you down to
+the river, and drown you like a kitten!"</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger's arm fell like a tragic heroine's, and she stood
+proudly contemplating the object of her wrath, perhaps hoping the
+attorney would await the arrival of "her Jerry," in whose prowess
+she seemed to place unlimited confidence.</p>
+<p>Vernon, who was waiting near the vehicle he had procured, heard
+the loud and angry words of the excited dame, and now approached
+the house to ascertain the cause of the confusion. This redoubtable
+worthy had received the reward of his villany, and considered the
+deed accomplished; but he had no objection to a little excitement.
+A fight was his element, and he never let slip an opportunity to
+join in one.</p>
+<p>The worthy Jerry Swinger; the good woman's beau ideal of a man,
+reached the cabin at the moment Vernon entered.</p>
+<p>Maxwell had now the alternative of abandoning his coveted prize,
+or of fighting for it. The first he would not do; and the second,
+with the wound he had received in the duel, was not an easy matter.
+The latter, however, he determined upon. Drawing from his pocket a
+revolver, he again approached Emily.</p>
+<p>"What's all this about?" said Jerry, as he entered the
+cabin.</p>
+<p>"Save me, sir,&mdash;save me from these villains!" exclaimed
+Emily, whose piteous accents penetrated the heart of the honest
+woodman.</p>
+<p>"That I will, ma'am. Why, you infarnal, sneakin' whelp of an
+alligator, whar's your conscience? But you've run agin a snag, and
+you shan't make another bend, this trip; so sheer off! Suke, jest
+fotch out my rifle, thar."</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger, before the assailants could prevent it, unhung the
+rifle, and was about to present it to her husband, when Maxwell
+pointed his pistol at her, and said, "Move another inch, woman, and
+I will fire!"</p>
+<p>"Look here, stranger," said Jerry, approaching the attorney, "if
+you touch that trigger, I'll pull your heart out!"</p>
+<p>Vernon saw that his time had come, and, grappling with the
+woodman, they both fell upon the mud floor of the cabin.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, his pistol still pointed at the woman, advanced a step,
+with the intention of taking the rifle from her. Mrs. Swinger,
+perceiving his purpose, elevated the rifle to her shoulder as
+gracefully as the most accomplished Kentuckian would have done, and
+fired. But her aim was bad; the ball passed through the attorney's
+hat. It came near enough, however, to rouse his passion, and,
+without a moment's deliberation, which might have saved him the
+reproach of shooting a woman, he fired. His aim, better than his
+feminine opponent's had been, sent the ball through her side, and
+she fell. Emily, filled with horror by the sanguinary scene, sprung
+to Mrs. Swinger's aid, as she fell.</p>
+<p>"Look here, you cussed villain," said Jerry Swinger, who, in the
+struggle, had got his antagonist under him, and had drawn from his
+pocket a long clasp-knife, "if you stir an inch, I'll put this
+blood-sucker through your shrivelled-up gizzard!"</p>
+<p>Vernon attempted to rise, bowie-knife in hand, to the conflict.
+Jerry Swinger was about to put his threat in execution, when
+Maxwell, released, by the fall of the woman, from danger in that
+quarter, struck him a heavy blow upon the head with the pistol in
+his hand. The woodman sunk back, with a groan, and Vernon, rising
+from his fallen posture, was about to plunge the knife to his
+heart, when a new actor appeared upon the stage. The blade of
+Vernon was arrested in its deadly descent, and a single blow from
+the fist of the new-comer laid the black-leg prostrate by the side
+of the woodman. Maxwell was thrown off his guard by the suddenness
+of the new assailant's movements, and, before he could raise his
+pistol,&mdash;his only dependence,&mdash;it was wrested from him.
+The new-comer threw the pistol down, and, seizing the attorney by
+the neck, and applying a smart blow with the knee upon his back, he
+brought him to the floor. Taking a cord which hung on the cabin
+wall, he bound the fallen man hand and foot, and dragged him out of
+the cabin. Placing his back against a tree, he lashed him firmly to
+its trunk. Leaving the chop-fallen attorney to mature his plans,
+the conqueror returned to the hut.</p>
+<p>"O, Hatchie, Hatchie! you have again saved me!" exclaimed Emily,
+as she saw her deliverer re&euml;nter. "Thank God! I am safe,
+though at what a terrible sacrifice!"</p>
+<p>She had, in her terror, obtained but a very imperfect idea of
+the exciting scene which had transpired before her. When she saw
+Vernon fall, and then Maxwell, she realized that she was safe. With
+an effort,&mdash;for her excited nerves had taken away her
+strength,&mdash;she rose from her position on the floor, by the
+side of her lifeless hostess. At this moment Hatchie entered, and,
+with a heart full of gratitude, she grasped his hand.</p>
+<p>"O, Hatchie! what do I not owe you for this service!"</p>
+<p>"I am so happy to serve you, Miss Emily!" replied Hatchie,
+rejoiced to hear again his mistress' voice.</p>
+<p>"You have been my best friend in this season of adversity.
+Without you, I had been lost forever. But let us do what we may for
+these poor people, who have, I fear, sacrificed their lives in my
+defence."</p>
+<p>The inanimate form of Mrs. Swinger was placed upon the bed by
+Hatchie, and, while Emily endeavored to ascertain the nature of her
+wound, the mulatto examined into Jerry's condition. The worthy
+woodman had only been stunned by the blow, and Hatchie's vigorous
+application soon restored him to consciousness. With the assistance
+of the mulatto, he rose. Looking wildly around him, he discovered
+the form of Vernon upon the floor. This seemed to recall his
+recollection of the events of the hour.</p>
+<p>"Whar's Suke?" said he.</p>
+<p>Then perceiving her outstretched form upon the bed, he calmly,
+but very sorrowfully, asked, "Is she dead?"</p>
+<p>"No, thank God! she is not dead; but I fear she is badly
+injured," replied Emily, who was still bending over the
+sufferer.</p>
+<p>The woodman approached the bed-side, and, observing the faint
+breathing which gently heaved her chest, he seemed comforted.</p>
+<p>"Whar's the wound?" asked he, in a melancholy tone.</p>
+<p>"In her side," replied Emily; "the bullet seems to have
+penetrated the region below the heart."</p>
+<p>"Poor gal! I'm feered it's all up with her. She has been a good
+woman to me."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid my visit to your house will prove a sad day to you,
+even if she recovers," said Emily, in a sad tone.</p>
+<p>"No, stranger, no! Suke would have died any day to save a
+neighbor from misery;" and the woodman's eyes filled with tears at
+the remembrance of his humble companion's virtues.</p>
+<p>"But let us hope for the best. Is there a physician in the
+vicinity?"</p>
+<p>"Ay, stranger, there is one that sometimes helps the poor folks
+about here."</p>
+<p>"Then, Hatchie, you can go for him."</p>
+<p>"Stop a little! The doctor is an oncommon strange man, and lives
+on an island down the bend."</p>
+<p>"I will go for him," said Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"I dar say; but whar you gwine? that's the pint. Nobody can find
+the way that warn't there before. My son, Jim, will soon be
+here."</p>
+<p>"But we must be as speedy as possible," suggested Emily.</p>
+<p>The arrival of the woodman's son terminated the difficulty. It
+was arranged that Hatchie should go with him, to assist in rowing
+back.</p>
+<p>As they were about to depart, Vernon showed signs of returning
+life, and Hatchie conveyed him to an out-building till a more
+convenient season, and then dismissed the negro and his vehicle,
+which had been brought to convey Emily to Vicksburg.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Then rose from sea to sky the
+wild farewell;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Then shrieked the timid, and
+stood still the brave;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Then some leaped overboard with
+dreadful yell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">As eager to anticipate their
+grave."&nbsp; BYRON.</span></p>
+<p>We left the Chalmetta in a situation which demands
+explanation.</p>
+<p>Emily retired to her state-room on that dreadful night entirely
+relieved from the distressing anticipations which had before
+oppressed her. Her name and her home were virtually restored to
+her. The foul stain upon the honor of her father had been removed.
+Doubt and fear scarcely disturbed her; the battle yet to be fought
+seemed but a trifle. Maxwell had said her uncle was left at a
+wood-yard. This was strange. It looked not like an accident, but
+the doing of the wily attorney; and perhaps Jaspar had voluntarily
+withdrawn; perhaps her uncle had made <i>her</i> the reward of
+Maxwell's silence. But these reflections were now robbed of their
+bitterness. She felt that in Henry Carroll she had a sufficient
+protection.</p>
+<p>She retired to her state-room with a light heart, and even
+Maxwell's villanous designs were forgotten as she revelled in the
+bright hopes before her. She knew nothing of the foul plot which
+had been concocted for her abduction. She knew not that Henry
+Carroll was then watching over her. In blissful ignorance of the
+danger that hovered near her, she sunk into the quiet sleep of
+innocence.</p>
+<p>After midnight her slumbers were disturbed by the unusual
+creaking of the boat, and the hasty puffs of steam from the
+escape-pipes. She awoke, and was at once sensible of the immense
+pressure to which the boilers were subjected. Awhile she lay and
+listened to the ominous sounds which indicated the danger of the
+boat; then, much alarmed, she rose and dressed herself. For nearly
+an hour she sat in the darkness of the room, during which time the
+danger seemed momentarily to increase, until, no longer able to
+endure such agonizing suspense, she was about to leave the room. At
+this moment Vernon was about to enter, when the explosion took
+place.</p>
+<p>The forward part of the Chalmetta was completely torn in pieces.
+The gentlemen's cabin was lifted from its supports, and torn into
+fragments. The unfortunate occupants of berths in this part of the
+boat were either instantly killed or severely wounded. The ladies'
+cabin, being at a greater distance from the immediate scene of the
+explosion, had not suffered so severely. Although torn from its
+position, and shattered by the shock, it had proved fatal to but a
+few of its occupants, who had been crushed by falling timbers. The
+hull of the boat was not injured by the explosion, but before those
+who had escaped a sudden death could recover their disordered
+faculties, the flames began to ascend from the wreck of the cabin,
+which had been precipitated upon the furnaces.</p>
+<p>The scene surpassed description. The groans of the wounded and
+scalded, the shrieks of those who were on the boat, expecting every
+moment to be carried down in her, mingled in wild confusion on the
+midnight air. Fortunately the passengers were mostly soldiers,
+accustomed to scenes of horror, who immediately turned their
+attention to the extinguishing of the flames. The Flatfoot, No. 3,
+approached within a short distance of the wreck, and a line was
+passed from her to the bow of the Chalmetta. Her passengers and
+crew were humanely assisting in rescuing those who had jumped or
+been thrown overboard in the disaster.</p>
+<p>By the aid of a fire-engine on board of the Flatfoot, which had
+approached near enough to render it available, the flames were
+extinguished. It was ascertained that the Chalmetta had received no
+serious damage in her hull; and as all the survivors had been
+picked up, the Flatfoot took her in tow, and proceeded up the
+river.</p>
+<p>Emily had been stunned by the explosion, and ere she could
+recover, Vernon, with a strong arm, bore her to the main deck. The
+boat was lowered into the water, and, before the passengers, or the
+petrified watch in the hold, could regain their self-possession, it
+was impelled by the strong arm of Vernon, and the ruffian who had
+been hired for the purpose, far astern of the wreck.</p>
+<p>The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when
+Vernon had handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by
+Hatchie and his friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck
+of the cabins came tumbling down.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made
+his way, as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the
+stern, where he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from
+the forward part of the boat now enabled him to discover the
+abductors of Emily rowing down the river. Leaping into the water,
+he seized a door, which was floating near him, and thus enabled to
+sustain himself with tolerable ease, he swam after them.</p>
+<p>Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on
+the shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her
+pious heart was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she
+had been rescued from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to
+her deliverer, for such she supposed was the person in the boat
+with her. Who was he? Was it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was. She
+raised her head from the position in which Maxwell had placed it,
+and endeavored to distinguish his features; but the darkness
+defeated her wish.</p>
+<p>"Fear nothing, lady; you are safe," said Maxwell.</p>
+<p>The voice was like the knell of doom. It grated harshly upon her
+ears, and gave rise to a thousand fears in her timid heart.</p>
+<p>"Thank God, I am safe!" said she, after a pause.</p>
+<p>"And I thank God I have been the means of preserving you,"
+replied Maxwell, willing to render the terrible calamity an
+accessory to his crime.</p>
+<p>"But why do you go this way?" asked Emily, as she saw the
+Flatfoot approach the wreck.</p>
+<p>"I only wish to convey you from the scene of danger."</p>
+<p>"Then why not go to that steamer?"</p>
+<p>"Probably she is by this time converted into a hospital for the
+sufferers. I would not shock your delicate nerves with such a scene
+of woe and misery as will be on board of her."</p>
+<p>"May we not render some assistance?"</p>
+<p>"No doubt there are more assistants than can labor to advantage
+now."</p>
+<p>Emily was silent, but not satisfied. Her fears in some measure
+subsided, when, about two miles below the scene of the disaster,
+Maxwell ordered the boat to be put in at a wood-yard. The attorney
+was all gentleness, and assisted her to the cabin of Jerry Swinger,
+the owner of the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>Hatchie had been able, by severe exertion, to keep within
+hearing of the splashing oars. The current fortunately carried him
+near the wood-yard, and, aided by the sounds he heard at the cabin,
+and by the boat which he saw, he concluded the party had landed
+there. Letting go the door, a few vigorous strokes brought him to
+the shore. Approaching the cabin, he satisfied himself that his
+mistress had taken shelter there. Concealing himself in the woods,
+he awaited with much anxiety the next movement of the attorney. In
+the morning he heard the noise at the cabin, and had been the means
+of saving his mistress from a calamity far more dreadful than death
+itself.</p>
+<p>On the evening of the day of the explosion, an elderly gentleman
+sat in a private apartment of one of the principal hotels in
+Vicksburg, attentively reading an "Extra," in which the particulars
+of the disaster were detailed. He read, with little apparent
+interest, the account, until he came to the names of "Saved,
+Killed, Wounded and Missing." An expression of the deepest anxiety
+settled upon his countenance. He finished reading the list of
+survivors, and a transient feeling of satisfaction was visible on
+his face. When in the list of the "missing" he read the name of
+"Miss Dumont, Antoine De Guy and Henry Carroll," a smile as of
+glutted revenge and malignant hatred dispelled the cloud of anxiety
+which had before brooded over his features. Throwing down the
+sheet, he drank off a glass of brandy, which had been waiting his
+pleasure on the table. The potion was not insignificant in quantity
+or strength, and the wry face he made did not add to the amiability
+of his expression. As the dose permeated his brain, and produced
+that agreeable lightness which is the first phase of intoxication,
+he rubbed his hands with childish delight, and half muttered an
+expression of pleasure.</p>
+<p>Suddenly his countenance assumed its former lowering aspect, his
+brows knit, and his lips compressed.</p>
+<p>"Missing!" muttered he. "What the devil does <i>missing</i>
+mean? What can it mean but dead, defunct, gone to a better world,
+as the canting hypocrites say?"</p>
+<p>But we will not attempt to record the muttered soliloquy of the
+gentleman,&mdash;Jaspar Dumont, who had reached Vicksburg that day,
+from the wood-yard where we left him. It was too profane, too
+sacrilegious, to stain our page.</p>
+<p>Grasping the bell-rope with a sudden energy, as though a new
+thought had struck him, he gave it a violent pull, which brought to
+his presence a black waiter.</p>
+<p>"Has the Dragon returned?" asked Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar, jus got in, Massa."</p>
+<p>"Is there any person in the house who went up in her?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, massa, one gemman in de office."</p>
+<p>"Who is he?"</p>
+<p>"Massa&mdash;massa&mdash;" and the darkey scratched his head, to
+stimulate his memory, which act instantly brought the name to his
+mind.</p>
+<p>"Massa <i>Lousey</i>."</p>
+<p>"Mister what, you black scoundrel!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar,&mdash;Massa Lousey; dat's de name."</p>
+<p>"Lousey?" repeated Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Stop bit," said the waiter, a new idea penetrating his cranium.
+"Dar Lousey, dat's de name, for sartin."</p>
+<p>"Dalhousie," responded Jaspar. "Give my compliments to Mr.
+Dalhousie, and ask him to oblige me with a few moments'
+conversation in this room."</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar;" and the waiter retired, muttering, "Dar Lousey."</p>
+<p>The Dragon was a small steamer, which had been sent, on the
+intelligence of a "blow up," to obtain the particulars for the
+press, and render assistance to the survivors. Dalhousie was a
+transient visitor at the hotel, and, with many others, had gone in
+the Dragon to gratify his curiosity.</p>
+<p>"Sorry to trouble you, sir," said Jaspar, as the gentleman
+entered the apartment; "but I am much interested in the fate of
+several persons who were passengers on board the Chalmetta."</p>
+<p>"No trouble, Mr. Dumont, I am extremely happy to serve you,"
+replied Dalhousie, whose obsequious manners were ample evidence of
+his sincerity.</p>
+<p>"My niece was on board of her," continued Jaspar, "and I see her
+name in the list of missing."</p>
+<p>"Your <i>niece</i>!" replied Dalhousie, emphasizing the latter
+word. He had a few days before come from New Orleans, and had there
+heard of the startling developments in the Dumont family.</p>
+<p>"No matter," returned Jaspar, sharply; "she went by the name of
+Dumont. Did you find any bodies?"</p>
+<p>"We picked up the remains of six men and two females."</p>
+<p>"Can you describe the females? How were they dressed?" asked
+Jaspar, in an excited manner.</p>
+<p>"One was dressed in black. The other had on a common
+calico."</p>
+<p>"But the one in black,&mdash;describe her,&mdash;her
+hair,&mdash;was she tall or short?" interrupted Jaspar,
+hurriedly.</p>
+<p>"Her hair was in curls. She was apparently about twenty-six or
+seven, and rather short in stature."</p>
+<p>"Curls," muttered Jaspar; "she has not worn curls since the
+colonel died. She may have put them on again to please that
+infernal Captain Carroll. Twenty-six years old, you think?"</p>
+<p>"She may have been younger. Her features were terribly mangled,"
+and Mr. Dalhousie cast a penetrating glance at Jaspar, as though he
+would read out the beatings of his black heart.</p>
+<p>Jaspar considered again the description, and, though it did not
+correspond to his niece's, his anxiety had contributed to warp his
+judgment. He was very willing to believe the Chalmetta's fatal
+disaster had forever removed the only obstacle to the gratification
+of his ambition, and the only source of future insecurity. He paced
+the room, muttering, in his abstraction, sundry broken phrases.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie watched him, and endeavored to obtain the purport of
+his disjointed soliloquy. A stranger, without some strong motive,
+could scarcely have had so much interest in him as he appeared to
+have.</p>
+<p>"Had she any jewels&mdash;ornaments of any kind?" asked
+Dalhousie, after the silence had grown disagreeable to him.</p>
+<p>"She had," replied Jaspar, stopping suddenly in his
+perambulation of the room, and speaking with an eagerness which
+betrayed his anxiety to obtain more evidence. "Were any found upon
+her person?"</p>
+<p>"You are a man of honor, Mr. Dumont, and, if I disclose to you a
+thoughtless indiscretion of my own, you will not, of course, expose
+me?" said Dalhousie, with, hesitation, and apparent want of
+confidence.</p>
+<p>"Of course not," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "What has this to
+do with the matter?"</p>
+<p>"Did your niece wear a ring?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, a mourning ring."</p>
+<p>"Do you know the ring? Could you identify it?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," replied Jaspar, who remembered having seen an
+ornament of this description on the finger of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Will you describe it to me, if you please?"</p>
+<p>But Jaspar had reckoned without his host. The details of a piece
+of jewelry were matters entirely foreign to his taste. However, he
+succeeded in giving a description, which, from its general terms,
+might have applied to one mourning ring as well as another.</p>
+<p>"Is this the one?" asked Dalhousie, with an anxiety which he
+could scarcely conceal, as he produced a ring.</p>
+<p>"That <i>is</i> it," replied Jaspar, confidently; and the jewel
+did bear some resemblance to that worn by Emily.</p>
+<p>"But where did you obtain this?"</p>
+<p>"I must insist on the most inviolable secrecy."</p>
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," said Jaspar, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"I will disclose the particulars only on the condition that you
+pledge yourself never to reveal my agency in the matter; for it
+would compromise my character."</p>
+<p>"Very well. I pledge you my honor," replied Jaspar, impatiently.
+"You took it from the corpse of the lady in black."</p>
+<p>"I did, and you must be aware that such an act would subject me
+to inconvenience, if known."</p>
+<p>"Don't be alarmed; your secret is safe."</p>
+<p>"But are you sure this is the ring worn by your niece?"</p>
+<p>"It looks like it;" but Jaspar was perplexed with a doubt. He
+bethought himself that it was only in a casual glance he had
+observed Emily's ring. He had never examined it, and, after all,
+this might not be the one. There was certainly nothing strange in
+any lady dressed in black wearing a mourning ring. Again he turned
+the ring over and over, and scrutinized it closely. His finger
+touched a spring, and the plate flew up, disclosing a small lock of
+gray hair, twined around the single letter D.</p>
+<p>"I will swear to it now," exclaimed Jaspar, in a tone which
+betrayed the malicious joy he felt at the discovery. He was
+perfectly satisfied now of the identity of the ring. It never
+occurred to him that D stood for any other name than Dumont.</p>
+<p>"This appears to be decisive evidence," replied Dalhousie. "Your
+<i>niece</i>, then, must be the person brought down by the
+Dragon."</p>
+<p>"Without doubt."</p>
+<p>"As this matter, then, is settled to your
+satisfaction&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sir!" exclaimed Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," resumed Dalhousie, with a supercilious air;
+"I only meant that your mind was satisfied&mdash;relieved from a
+painful anxiety."</p>
+<p>"A very painful anxiety," replied Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I understand, sir, you own a large plantation."</p>
+<p>"Well."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you need an overseer?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar acknowledged that he did need an overseer.</p>
+<p>"I should be happy to make an engagement with you," said the
+other, in complaisant tones.</p>
+<p>"I don't think you would suit me. You are too genteel, by half,"
+returned Jaspar, bluntly.</p>
+<p>"I have been in a better position, it is true. I was born in
+France, but I understand the business."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever manage a gang of niggers?"</p>
+<p>After a little hesitation, Dalhousie replied that he had.</p>
+<p>"We will talk of it some other time," said Jaspar, satisfied,
+from the air and manner of the other, that his statement was
+false.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie put on his hat, and, taking the mourning ring from the
+table, was about to enfold it in a bit of paper.</p>
+<p>"What are you about, sir?" exclaimed Jaspar, as he witnessed the
+act.</p>
+<p>"The ring is my property, is it not?" said Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>"Put it down, or, by heavens, I will expose your rascality in
+taking it!"</p>
+<p>"Do not be hasty, sir. I have not studied your looks, the last
+hour, without profiting by them."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" said Jaspar, a little startled.</p>
+<p>"I mean that the death of your niece does not seem to be
+received with that degree of sorrow which an uncle would naturally
+feel."</p>
+<p>"<i>Fool</i>! she was not my niece!"</p>
+<p>"Why are you so anxious to establish her decease?"</p>
+<p>"Was I anxious?" said Jaspar, not knowing how far he might have
+betrayed himself.</p>
+<p>"Quite enough so to convince even the most indifferent observer
+that you were extremely rejoiced at the event," replied Dalhousie,
+willing to make out a strong case.</p>
+<p>Jaspar did not reply, and it was plain Dalhousie's remarks had
+had their effect.</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Dumont, I flatter myself I am a man of discretion. As
+you were saying, you need an overseer," said Dalhousie, with a
+glance at Jaspar, which conveyed more meaning than his words.</p>
+<p>The glance was irresistible, and Jaspar engaged him at a liberal
+salary, as well as his wife, who was to be the housekeeper at
+Bellevue. Dalhousie was a needy man. His fortunes were on the
+descending scale. Born in France, he had emigrated to this country,
+with the chimerical hope of speedily making a fortune. He could not
+build up the coveted temple stone by stone, but wished it to rise
+like a fairy castle. With such views, he had wandered about the
+country with his wife (whom he had married since his arrival), in
+search of the philosopher's stone. He had several times engaged in
+subordinate capacities, but his impatient hopes would not brook the
+distance between him and the goal. He had been to New Orleans, but
+the city was almost deserted. On his arrival at Vicksburg, Jaspar
+had been pointed out to him as a person who could probably favor
+his wishes, and he had obtained an introduction to him.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's thoughts and feelings he read. He discovered the nature
+of the relations between the uncle and niece,&mdash;which required
+but little sagacity, under the circumstances. Determined to profit
+by the knowledge he had obtained, his first step was to satisfy
+Jaspar of the death of Emily, of whom, in reality, he knew nothing.
+The initial letter of his wife's name in the ring had suggested the
+means, and he had convinced Jaspar as related. How Dalhousie's
+sense of moral rectitude would allow him to use the deception, we
+will not say; but he seemed to tolerate the idea that the great
+purpose he had in view would justify any little peccadilloes he
+might commit in obtaining it.</p>
+<p>He had gained his end, and taken the first step in the great
+road to fortune; and he doubted not his future relations with
+Jaspar would suggest a second.</p>
+<p>The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in
+behalf of Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg.</p>
+<p>In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned
+the next day to Bellevue.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Say quick! quoth he; I bid
+thee say,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What manner of man art
+thou?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Forthwith, this frame of mine
+was wrenched</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With a woful agony,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Which forced me to begin my
+tale;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And then it left me free."&nbsp;
+ANCIENT MARINER.</span></p>
+<p>The morning advanced, and Henry Carroll, under the influence of
+the powerful opiate, still slept. By his side sat the misanthropic
+physician, who seemed to have learned a lesson of the dealing of
+the Creator with the creature such as he had never before acquired.
+He had rescued a fellow-creature from sure death, and the act
+seemed a part of the great duties of life which he had so long
+neglected. He reflected upon the numerous opportunities of doing
+good to his fellow-men from which his hermit-life debarred him.
+Again he thought of his daughter. Her image rose before him in the
+darkened chamber of the sick man, and seemed to reproach him for
+his want of faithfulness to her. The incident and reflections of
+the previous night had strangely influenced his mind, and changed
+the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of his
+lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
+vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.</p>
+<p>The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs.
+Swinger. Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in
+case the patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical
+instruments, he proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat,
+he took the two messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The
+wind was still fresh, and the yacht, with all her sails spread,
+bore the doctor rapidly on his errand of mercy. A strange impulse
+seemed to animate him,&mdash;an impulse of genuine, heart-felt
+sympathy towards the whole human family,&mdash;a feeling to which
+he had before been a stranger. His profession seemed to him now a
+boon of mercy to the suffering, and he saw how poorly he had
+performed his mission to the world. He felt a pleasure he had never
+before experienced, in being able to relieve the distressed, to
+heal the wounded heart, as well as the bruised limb.</p>
+<p>Under the skilful pilotage of Dr. Vaudelier the more rapid
+currents were avoided, the boat pressed to her utmost speed; and in
+a short time the party landed at the wood-yard of Jerry
+Swinger.</p>
+<p>During the absence of the messengers Emily, by the most
+assiduous attentions, had succeeded in restoring the wounded woman
+to a state of partial consciousness. The arrival of the doctor
+increased her hopes of a speedy restoration. The rough woodman, who
+had patiently watched Emily as she labored over his beloved
+partner, was melted into tears of joy when he heard her faintly
+articulate his name.</p>
+<p>After a thorough examination of the wound, the doctor announced
+the gratifying intelligence that the woman was not dangerously
+wounded. The severe operation of extracting the ball was performed,
+and the patient left to the quiet her situation demanded.</p>
+<p>On the passage from Cottage Island Hatchie had related the
+particulars of the affray, so that on his arrival Dr. Vaudelier was
+in possession of all the facts.</p>
+<p>"You have had a severe fight here, madam," said he to Emily, who
+had followed him out to inquire more particularly into the
+situation of her hostess.</p>
+<p>"We have, indeed; but I trust no lives will be lost," replied
+Emily.</p>
+<p>"No; the woman will do very well. The wound is a severe one, but
+not dangerous. Her strong constitution will resist all fatal
+consequences."</p>
+<p>"I trust it may, for this has been a day of disaster, without
+the loss of more life."</p>
+<p>"You were a passenger in the Chalmetta?"</p>
+<p>"I was."</p>
+<p>"Then you have had a narrow escape."</p>
+<p>"But a more narrow one since the explosion. Thank Heaven, I have
+been preserved from both calamities!"</p>
+<p>"Had you no friends on board?"</p>
+<p>"I had&mdash;one friend;" and she hesitated. "I fear he has
+perished."</p>
+<p>"Hope for the best!" replied the doctor, kindly.</p>
+<p>The blush, and then the change to the paleness of death, as
+Emily thought of Henry, first as the lover, and then as a mangled
+corpse had not escaped the notice of Dr. Vaudelier. He read in her
+varying color the relation they had sustained to each other.</p>
+<p>"I have no alternative but hope," said Emily; "but it seems like
+hoping against the certainty of evil."</p>
+<p>"I saved the life of a gentleman this morning who must shortly
+have perished without aid. He, too, had lost a dear friend."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Emily, with interest.</p>
+<p>"Yes; but he was much injured, and will require the most
+diligent care."</p>
+<p>"I trust your merciful endeavors will be crowned with success.
+Do you know the gentleman?"</p>
+<p>"I do not. He has not yet been able to converse much. He was
+dressed in the uniform of an officer."</p>
+<p>"An officer! Perhaps it is he!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was much interested in the adventure, and the
+pale, anxious features of Emily excited his sympathy for her.</p>
+<p>"As I dressed his wounds," said he, "I noticed the initials upon
+his linen. Perhaps these may afford some clue."</p>
+<p>"What were they?" exclaimed Emily, scarcely able to articulate,
+in the intensity of her feelings.</p>
+<p>"H.C."</p>
+<p>"It is he! It is he! And you say he is wounded?"</p>
+<p>"I am sorry to say he is."</p>
+<p>"Can I go to him?" said Emily, grasping the doctor's arm.</p>
+<p>"I fear your presence will excite him. Are you a relative?"</p>
+<p>"No, not a relative," replied Emily, blushing; "but I know he
+would like to see me."</p>
+<p>"I do not doubt it," said the doctor, with a smile,&mdash;a
+luxury in which he rarely indulged. "I am afraid your presence will
+agitate him."</p>
+<p>"Let me watch over him while he sleeps. He need not know I am
+near."</p>
+<p>"Rather difficult to manage, but you shall see him. Will you
+return with me?"</p>
+<p>"Thank you, I will. But poor Mrs. Swinger!" and a shade of
+anxiety crossed her features, as she thought of leaving her kind
+hostess in affliction.</p>
+<p>"Her husband is a good nurse, and understands her case better
+than you do. If I mistake not, your services will be full as
+acceptable at my cottage."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier tried to smile at this sally; but the effort was
+too much for him, and he sank under it.</p>
+<p>Emily, though sorry to leave her protectress, was drawn by the
+irresistible magnetism of affection to Cottage Island. She
+compromised between the opposing demands of duty by promising
+herself that she would again visit the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>She embarked with Dr. Vaudelier, and they were soon gliding down
+the mighty river on their way to Cottage Island. Emily had wished
+Hatchie to accompany her, as much for his safety as for her own;
+but the faithful fellow desired to stay at the wood-yard. They had
+before had an interview in relation to the will. Uncle Nathan, who
+had been made the custodian of it, had not been seen or heard from,
+and her case again seemed to be desperate. Hatchie assured her of
+his safety, and of his good faith. He had left him in the hold,
+and, with common prudence, the worthy farmer might have made his
+escape unharmed. Emily, who now regarded her devoted servant in the
+light of a guardian angel, had entire confidence in his reasoning
+and conclusions. Of Hatchie's motive in remaining at the wood-yard
+she had no conception. If she had had, she would probably have
+insisted on his attendance.</p>
+<p>After the departure of Dr. Vaudelier and Emily, Hatchie went to
+the cabin, and took therefrom a carpet-bag belonging to
+Maxwell,&mdash;an article which, even in the hurry of his exit from
+the steamer, he had not omitted to take. With this in his hand, he
+proceeded to the out-building, to satisfy himself of the security
+of his prisoners; but Vernon had fled,&mdash;the wooden door of the
+shed had not been proof against his art. Hatchie was not
+disconcerted by this incident. Vernon, he was aware, was only a
+subordinate, who did his evil deeds for hire, and against him he
+bore no ill will. But it immediately occurred to him that the
+ruffian might have liberated Maxwell, and this would have utterly
+deranged his present plans. Taking from the shed a long rope, he
+proceeded to the other side of the cabin, where he had secured the
+attorney to the tree. To his great satisfaction he found the
+prisoner secure. Vernon did not see him, or was too intent on his
+own safety to bestow a thought upon his late employer.</p>
+<p>Hatchie reached the scene of Maxwell's humiliation. Coolly
+seating himself on a log near the discomfited lawyer, and regarding
+him with a look of contempt, he proceeded to examine the fastenings
+of the carpet-bag. Maxwell spoke not; his pride was still "above
+par," and he returned Hatchie's contemptuous glances with a scowl
+of scorn and hatred. The attorney was in sore tribulation at the
+unexpected turn affairs had taken, and the future did not present a
+very encouraging aspect. Of the mulatto'a present intentions he
+could gain no idea. The long rope he had brought with him looked
+ominous, and a shudder passed through his frame as he considered
+the uses to which it might be applied. As he regarded the cool
+proceedings of his jailer, the worst anticipations crowded upon
+him. The mulatto looked like a demon of the inquisition to his
+guilty soul. But, tortured as he was by the most terrible
+forebodings, he still preserved his dignified scowl, and watched
+the operations of Hatchie with apparent coolness.</p>
+<p>Hatchie examined the lock upon the carpet-bag, and found that it
+entirely secured the contents from observation.</p>
+<p>"I will trouble you for the key of this bag," said he, politely,
+as he rose and approached the attorney.</p>
+<p>"What mean you, fellow? Would you rob me?" exclaimed
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir; do not alarm yourself. The key, if you please.
+In which pocket is it?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie approached, with the intention of searching his
+prisoner.</p>
+<p>"Stand off, villain!" cried Maxwell, as he gave the mulatto a
+hearty kick in the neighborhood of the knee.</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir," said Hatchie, not at all disconcerted by the
+blow.</p>
+<p>Taking the rope he had brought, he dexterously passed it round
+the legs of the attorney, and made it fast to the tree.</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, if you will tell which pocket contains the key, you
+will save yourself the indignity of being searched."</p>
+<p>"Miserable villain! if you wish to commit violence upon me, you
+must do it without my consent."</p>
+<p>"Sorry to disoblige you, sir," said Hatchie, with an affectation
+of civility; "but I must have the key."</p>
+<p>"I have not the key; it is lost. If I had, you should struggle
+for it."</p>
+<p>"You will pardon me for doubting your word. I must satisfy
+myself."</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" shouted the attorney, as his tormentor proceeded
+to put his threat in execution.</p>
+<p>This was a contingency for which Hatchie was not prepared. To
+the little operation he was about to perform he desired no
+witnesses at present, and a slight rustling in the bushes near him
+not a little disconcerted him. Stuffing a handkerchief into the
+attorney's mouth, he waited for the intruder upon his pastime; but
+no one came, and he proceeded to search the pockets of the lawyer.
+To his great disappointment, the key could not be found.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was persuaded that this carpet-bag must contain some
+evidence which would be of service to his mistress, in case Uncle
+Nathan and the will should not come to light. There were two acts
+to the drama he intended to perform on the present occasion; the
+first, alone with the attorney,&mdash;and the last, in the presence
+of witnesses. Deferring, therefore, the opening of the bag to the
+second act, he proceeded with the first.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said he, "as you have given me encouragement
+that you <i>can</i> tell the truth, I have a few questions to put
+to you."</p>
+<p>"I will answer no questions," replied Maxwell, sullenly.</p>
+<p>He saw that the mulatto would have it all his own way; and he
+felt a desire to conciliate him, but his pride forbade. He felt
+very much as a lion would feel in the power of a mouse, if such a
+thing could be.</p>
+<p>"Please to consider, sir. You are entirely in my power."</p>
+<p>"No matter; do with me as you please,&mdash;I will answer no
+questions."</p>
+<p>"Think of it; and be assured I will do my best to <i>compel</i>
+an answer. If I do not succeed, you will be food for the buzzards
+before yonder sun sets."</p>
+<p>"What, fellow! would you murder me?" exclaimed Maxwell, in
+alarm.</p>
+<p>"I would not; if you compel me to use violence, the consequences
+be upon your own head. Will you answer me?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell hesitated. The dreadful thought of being murdered in
+cold blood presented itself on the one hand, and the scarcely less
+disagreeable thought of exposing his crimes, on the other. The loss
+of reputation, his prospective fall in society, were not less
+terrible than death itself. Resolving to trust in his good fortune
+for the result, he firmly refused to answer.</p>
+<p>Hatchie now took the rope, and having cut off a portion from one
+end, with which he fastened together the legs of his prisoner, he
+ascended the tree with an end in his hand. Passing the rope over a
+smooth branch about fifteen feet from the ground, he descended and
+made a slip-noose in one end. Heedless of the remonstrances of the
+victim, he fastened it securely to his neck.</p>
+<p>Seating himself again on the log, with the other end of the rope
+in his hand, he looked sternly upon the attorney, and said,</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, I put the question again. Will you answer me?"</p>
+<p>"Never!" said Maxwell, in desperation.</p>
+<p>"Very well, then; if you have any prayers to say, say them now;
+your time is short."</p>
+<p>"Fool! villain! murderer! I have no prayers to say. I am not a
+drivelling idiot, or fanatic; I can die like a man."</p>
+<p>"You had better reconsider your determination."</p>
+<p>"No, craven! woolly-headed coward! I will not flinch. Do you
+think to <i>drive</i> a gentleman into submission?"</p>
+<p>"Be calm, Mr. Maxwell; do not waste your last moments in idle
+invectives. The time were better spent in penitence and
+prayer."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! go on, if you dare, with your murderous work!"</p>
+<p>Hatchie now unloosed the cords which secured the attorney to the
+tree, and he stood bound hand and foot beneath the branch over
+which the line was passed. Seizing the end of the rope, the mulatto
+pulled it gently at first, but gradually increasing the pressure
+upon the prisoner's throat, as if to give him a satisfactory
+foretaste of the hanging sensation. This slow torture was too much
+for the attorney's fortitude; and, as his respiration grew painful,
+he called to his executioner to stop. Hatchie promptly loosened the
+rope.</p>
+<p>After giving the victim time to recover from the choking
+sensation, the mulatto repeated his question.</p>
+<p>The fear of an ignominious death, of dying under such revolting
+circumstances, had a cooling effect upon the bravado spirit of the
+lawyer. His pride had received a most salutary shock, and he felt
+disposed to treat for his life, even with the despised slave of
+Miss Dumont. Had his tormentor been any other than one of that
+detested race, he could easily have regarded him as a man and
+conceded something for the boon of life. Reduced to the last
+extremity by the relentless energy of his victor, he had no choice
+but to yield the point or die.</p>
+<p>"Will you answer my questions?" repeated Hatchie, sternly.</p>
+<p>"What would you have me answer?" replied Maxwell, doggedly.</p>
+<p>"Did you forge the will by which my mistress is deprived of her
+rights?"</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Do you know who did?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell hesitated, and Hatchie again pulled the rope till his
+face was crimson.</p>
+<p>"Who forged the will?" repeated Hatchie, slackening the
+rope.</p>
+<p>"I did not," replied Maxwell, as soon as he could regain breath
+enough to speak.</p>
+<p>"Who did?"</p>
+<p>"I know not."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/178g.jpg"><img src="images/178g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie forcing secrets from Maxwell.</b></div>
+<p>Hatchie pulled the rope again.</p>
+<p>"Your master&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I have no master. Miss Emily is my mistress."</p>
+<p>"I have been told his name was De Guy."</p>
+<p>"Who is De Guy?"</p>
+<p>"A lawyer of New Orleans."</p>
+<p>"And what agency had you in the affair?"</p>
+<p>"None whatever."</p>
+<p>"Then Mr. Dumont and De Guy are the only persons concerned in
+the transaction?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"You are positive?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Then, how comes it, Mr. Maxwell, that they have intrusted you
+with their secret? How came you by this knowledge?" said Hatchie,
+fiercely, as he prepared, apparently, to swing up the attorney.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was staggered by this question, and Hatchie perceived
+his discomfiture. That Maxwell had any agency in the transaction he
+only suspected; certainly it was not he whom he had seen with
+Jaspar on the night of his escape from Bellevue. There was much
+evidence for and much against him.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, unwilling to criminate himself, was in a sad dilemma;
+his ready wits alone could save him. But his hesitation procured
+him another instant of suffocation.</p>
+<p>"I obtained the knowledge from De Guy," said he, at last.</p>
+<p>"How! did he voluntarily betray the confidence of his
+employer?"</p>
+<p>"No, from his inquiries concerning the affairs of the family, I
+suspected something; when the will was read my impressions were
+confirmed. I charged him with the crime."</p>
+<p>"Did he acknowledge it?"</p>
+<p>"He did."</p>
+<p>"Then why did you not expose the plot?"</p>
+<p>"It did not suit my purpose."</p>
+<p>"What was your purpose?"</p>
+<p>"To marry Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>The attorney's answers seemed plausible. His actions were in
+conformity with his avowed purpose. If he wished to marry his
+mistress, he would not have joined in the plot. But the bill of
+sale, which Emily had mentioned to him, was against him. Poor
+Hatchie was no lawyer, and was sadly perplexed by the conflicting
+testimony.</p>
+<p>"Where did you get that bill of sale?" said he.</p>
+<p>Again the attorney hesitated, and again Hatchie pulled the rope
+till he was ready to answer.</p>
+<p>"Is it a forgery?" said Hatchie, slackening the rope.</p>
+<p>"Probably it is," replied Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Who wrote it?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy."</p>
+<p>"This De Guy is a most consummate villain, and shall yet be
+brought to justice. But how came it in your possession?"</p>
+<p>"I received it from De Guy, as the agent of Mr. Dumont. In fine,
+I <i>bought</i> the girl," said Maxwell, maliciously.</p>
+<p>Hatchie's temper had nearly got the better of him, for he made a
+spring on the rope, which threatened death to the attorney. But his
+judgment overcame his passion, and he again turned his attention to
+the great object before him.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell, as you are a lawyer," said Hatchie, "you are
+aware of the disadvantages I shall labor under in making the
+evidence you have furnished me available."</p>
+<p>"I am," replied the attorney. "Do you think I would have yielded
+to you, if I had not known it?"</p>
+<p>"Have you told me the truth in these statements?" asked
+Hatchie.</p>
+<p>The attorney hesitated; but a sharp twinge at the neck compelled
+him to say that he had.</p>
+<p>"Then I shall be obliged to trouble you to repeat some of your
+revelations. Now, mark me, Mr. Maxwell; I am going to procure the
+woodman and his son, to witness your statements."</p>
+<p>"Fool! what avail will they be, extorted with a rope about my
+neck?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps we may be able to show you some law such as you never
+read in your books. If, as I suspect, this carpet-bag contains
+papers, I doubt not we shall find something to confirm your
+evidence."</p>
+<p>The face of the lawyer grew a shade paler; but he spoke not.</p>
+<p>"Before I go, let me charge you, at your peril, not to be
+obstinate; for here I solemnly assure you that you shall swing by
+the branch above you, if you refuse to answer," said Hatchie, going
+towards the cabin.</p>
+<p>The scene of this exploit was at some distance from the
+log-cabin of the woodman, and the mulatto had scarcely got out of
+sight before Vernon appeared. He had been at a little distance from
+the parties during the whole scene, but he had too much respect for
+the prowess of his late conqueror to venture on a rescue. He had
+once been tempted to do so, and had made the noise which had
+disturbed Hatchie. The blackleg, without much sympathy for his
+confederate, had rather regarded the whole scene as a good joke
+than as a serious affair; and, as he approached the lawyer, his
+merriment and keen satire were not relished by the victim.</p>
+<p>"But how is it, Maxwell, about this will? You have never told me
+about it," said Vernon, who, ruffian as he was, believed in fair
+play.</p>
+<p>"I will tell you another time; cut these ropes, and let us be
+off."</p>
+<p>"But let me tell you, my fine fellow, that though I can rob a
+man who has enough, I would not be concerned in such a dirty game
+as this," said Vernon, as he severed the ropes which bound the
+attorney. "If you have been helping old Dumont to wrong his niece,
+may I be hanged, as that nigger would have served you, if I don't
+blow the whole affair!"</p>
+<p>"You know nothing about it; but, let me tell you, I am not
+concerned in the affair. The girl, I have no doubt, is a
+slave."</p>
+<p>The confederates now made all haste to depart from their
+proximity to such dangers as both had incurred, and, by a
+circuitous way, reached the river, where, taking a boat, they rowed
+under the banks down stream.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was disappointed, on his return, to find his prisoner
+had escaped. A diligent search, by the precaution of the
+confederates, was rendered fruitless.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XVIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Why should my curiosity
+excite me</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To search and pry into the
+affairs of others,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who have to employ my thoughts so
+many cares</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And sorrows of my own?"&nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; LILLO.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont sat in the library at Bellevue. It was the evening
+after his return from Vicksburg. Near him, engaged in examining a
+heap of papers, was his new overseer, Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was musing over the late turn his affairs had taken; and,
+while he congratulated himself on his present triumphant position,
+he could but regard with apprehension the future, which seemed to
+smile only to lure him on to certain destruction. The trite saying,
+"There is no peace for the wicked," is literally and universally
+true. The lowering brow, the threatening scowl, the suspicious
+glance, of the wicked uncle, were as reliable evidences of his
+misery as his naked soul, torn with doubt and anguish, could have
+been. Every new paper the overseer turned over produced a start of
+apprehension, lest it might contain evidence of his villany. His
+nerves had suffered terribly beneath the vision of guilt and
+punishment that constantly haunted him. His new overseer, whom he
+had partially admitted to his bosom as a confidant, had secured a
+strong hold upon his fears. His presence seemed necessary to cheer
+him in his lonely hours, to chase away the phantoms of vengeance
+that pursued him. Harassed by doubts and fears, his constitution
+was, in some degree, impaired, and his mind, losing the pillar upon
+which it rested, was prone to yield also.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie examined with minuteness the papers to which his
+attention had been directed. Before him was a heap of documents of
+various kinds, all in confusion,&mdash;bills and bonds, letters and
+deeds, were thrown promiscuously together. His purpose was to sort
+and file them away for future reference. This confusion among the
+papers was not the work of Colonel Dumont; he had been strictly
+methodical and accurate in all his business affairs. This fact was
+attested by the occasional strips of pasteboard, on which were
+marked various descriptions of papers, as well as by bits of red
+tape that had secured the bundles.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie perceived that the labyrinth he was engaged in
+exploring had not been the labor of the former owner of Bellevue,
+and he was perplexed to understand why Jaspar had taken such
+apparent pains to disarrange them. But Jaspar did have a motive; he
+had produced the disorder in his careless search for any paper
+which might be evidence against him. So heedlessly, however, had he
+ransacked the drawers, that, if any such were there, they must have
+escaped his notice. He was too much excited to do the work with the
+attention his own safety demanded.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie continued to examine the papers, and Jaspar still
+trembled lest something might turn up which would give the overseer
+a confirmation of the opinions he had expressed at Vicksburg. Still
+Jaspar had not the courage to undertake the task himself. He
+allowed the overseer to perform it, in the very face of the danger
+he wished to escape.</p>
+<p>The overseer seemed to Jaspar's troubled vision perfectly
+indifferent. He could discover no anxiety in his features, to
+indicate that he had any other purpose than to do his employer's
+bidding. A more close inspection would have developed a slight
+twinkle, as of anticipation, in the marble face of Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>As he turned paper after paper, his eye rested upon a packet
+enclosed in a blank envelope. His curiosity was aroused, and,
+glancing indifferently at Jaspar, he saw that his piercing eye
+regarded him with intense scrutiny. Continuing his labor without
+disturbing the mysterious packet, he waited until the sharp eye of
+his companion was removed from him.</p>
+<p>On the table by the side of Jaspar was a bottle of brandy, at
+which, at short intervals, the miserable man paid his devoir.
+Dalhousie did not, therefore, have to wait long before the keen
+watcher left his chair, and, with his back to him, took a long
+draught of the exciting beverage. The overseer, seizing the
+favorable opportunity, slipped the packet into his pocket. As
+indifferently as before, he completed the task, and Jaspar was
+relieved when he saw the papers again filed away.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie sought his room, and, scarcely heeding the salutation
+of his wife, he seated himself, and drew forth the packet. Removing
+the blank envelope, he found it was a letter, directed to "Emily
+Dumont," with a request to Mr. Faxon that it might be delivered to
+her after the writer's decease. This seemed to imply that the
+writer had intended the clergyman as the keeper of the letter; but
+with this surmise the overseer did not trouble himself. He turned
+the letter over and over, examined the seal of Colonel Dumont,
+which was upon it, and, at last, as though he had satisfied the
+warning voice of conscience, he snapped the wax, and opened it. The
+letter was quite a lengthy one, yet, without raising his eyes, he
+completed the reading of it. A faint smile of satisfaction played
+upon his lips, as he re-folded the paper, and returned it to the
+envelope.</p>
+<p>"You have a letter, Francois?" said his wife, who had watched
+him in silence as he read, and who noticed the complacent smile its
+contents had produced.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Delia, and our fortune is at last come," replied
+Dalhousie, rising, and bestowing a kiss upon the fair cheek of the
+lady.</p>
+<p>"Is it from France?"</p>
+<p>"No, dear; it is from the land of spirits!" answered Dalhousie,
+with a good-natured laugh.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! I was not aware that you had a correspondent
+there."</p>
+<p>"But I have; and I am exceedingly obliged to him for putting me
+in possession of such useful information as this letter
+contains."</p>
+<p>"Pray, who is your ghostly correspondent?"</p>
+<p>"Colonel Dumont,&mdash;a deceased brother of the worthy Jaspar,
+in whose employ we now are."</p>
+<p>"Do not jest, Francois!" said the lady, as a feeling akin to
+superstition rose in her mind.</p>
+<p>"Jest or not, the letter was written by him," continued her
+husband, still retaining his playful smile.</p>
+<p>"To you?"</p>
+<p>"Not exactly; but I presume he meant it for me, or it would not
+have slipped so easily through Mr. Dumont's fingers into mine."</p>
+<p>"To whom is it directed, Francois?"</p>
+<p>"You grow inquisitive, Delia. I will tell you all about it in a
+few days. I must go now and see that the hands are all in their
+quarters;" and Dalhousie, to avoid unpleasant interrogatories, left
+the room.</p>
+<p>The overseer went the rounds of the quarters, more as a matter
+of form than of any interest he felt in his occupation. A gentleman
+by birth and education, these duties were extremely distasteful to
+him,&mdash;embraced because necessity compelled him. His mind
+seemed far away from his business, for a party of negroes passed
+him on his return, upon whom he did not bestow the usual
+benediction the boys receive when found out after hours.</p>
+<p>"Strike while the iron is hot," muttered he, as he entered the
+house, and gave his lantern to a servant. "If I don't do it
+to-night, it may be too late another time. The letter is in safe
+hands; and, as to the other traps, I must get them if I can. At any
+rate, I will try."</p>
+<p>Approaching the door of the library, he knocked, and was
+requested to enter. Under pretence of receiving directions for his
+next day's operations upon the plantation, he entered, and opened a
+conversation with Jaspar. Walking carelessly up and down the room
+while his employer issued his commands, he occasionally cast a
+furtive glance at the secretary. Then, narrowing down his walk, he
+approached nearer and nearer to it, until his swinging arm could
+touch it as he passed. Finally he stopped, and leaned against the
+secretary, with his hands behind him. He appeared very thoughtful
+and attentive, while Jaspar, glad to find a theme he could converse
+upon, expatiated upon his favorite methods of managing stock and
+crops. The overseer listened patiently to all he said, occasionally
+interrupting with a word of approbation. The enthusiastic planter,
+suspecting nothing of the overseer, labored diligently in his
+argument, and did not notice that, when the attentive listener
+carelessly put his hands into his pockets, he conveyed with them
+the key of one of the drawers.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, having effected the object which brought him to the
+library, soon grew tired of the planter's arguments, and edged
+towards the door, through which he rather rudely made his exit.</p>
+<p>Jaspar again relapsed into the moody melancholy from which the
+presence of the overseer had roused him. Sinking back into his
+chair, he again was a prey to the armed fears that continually
+goaded him. Occasionally he roused from his stupor, and, driven by
+the startling apparition of future retribution, paced the room in
+the most intense nervous excitement. Frequent were the stops he
+made at the brandy-bottle on the table; but, for a time, even the
+brandy-fiend refused to comfort him,&mdash;refused to excite his
+brain, or pour a healing balm upon his consuming misery. Again he
+sunk into his chair, overcome by the torture of his emotions, and
+again the gnawing worm forced him to the bottle, until, at last,
+nearly stupefied by the liquor, he slumbered uneasily in his chair.
+But the terrible apparition, which seldom left him when awake, was
+constant in his dreams; and, just as he was about to plunge into
+the awful abyss that always yawned before him, he awoke, and
+staggered to the bottle again. A gleam of consciousness now visited
+his inebriated mind, and he bethought himself of retiring. With a
+dim sense of his usual precaution, he reeled to the secretary, and
+attempted to lock the drawers. He discovered that one key was
+missing; but, too much intoxicated to reason upon the circumstance,
+he took another draught of brandy, and ambled towards his
+sleeping-room. He was too far gone to effect a landing at the head
+of the stairs, and fell full-length upon the floor when he released
+his hold of the banister.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was still up, and his knowledge of Jaspar's habits
+enabled him to judge the occasion of the noise he heard, and he
+immediately hastened to the rescue. "Lucky!" muttered he, as he
+lifted the fallen man. "He must have been intoxicated when he
+examined those papers, or he would have seen that letter."</p>
+<p>Jaspar, who had not entirely lost his senses, muttered something
+about an accident, and clung closely to his companion, who soon
+deposited him on his bed.</p>
+<p>The overseer, instead of returning to his room, descended to the
+library, where the light was still burning. Locking the door, he
+seated himself in the large stuffed chair, and drew from his pocket
+the letter he had purloined from the secretary. Opening it, he
+proceeded to a re-perusal of it. The letter was as follows:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"MY DEAR CHILD:&mdash;When you read this letter, your father
+will be no more. The last act of affection will have been
+performed, and the ground closed over your only earthly protector.
+I am aware that you will be exposed to many trials and temptations.
+The latter you are, I trust, prepared to resist; the former must
+come to all. I feel that I have done my duty to you, not only in
+bestowing an abundance of this world's goods, but that I have not
+entirely failed to implant in your mind the treasure 'which neither
+moth nor rust can corrupt.' I have done all that I could do, and in
+a short time I must lay my body in the grave, and leave you an
+orphan. But you are in the hands, and under the protection, of a
+Father who is infinitely more able to take care of you than I have
+been. Into His hands, with my ransomed spirit, I undoubtingly
+commit you.</p>
+<p>"As I write this letter, I feel the hand of death upon me. In a
+few short days, it may be only hours, I must go. I am the less
+ready to bid you the everlasting adieu when I think of the dangers
+that may surround you. In my last hours I am doomed to the torments
+of suspicion. I pray God they may be groundless. Perhaps they are
+only idle fancies, the dotings of an over-anxious father. I feel,
+as the sands of life are fast ebbing out, that some great calamity
+is lowering over you. I know not that a remark I accidentally
+overheard should thus haunt me; but it has roused my suspicions,
+and the presage of calamity will not depart from me. I cannot, with
+the warning voice ever ringing in my mind, help taking steps to
+guard you against the worst that may befall you.</p>
+<p>"My dear child, if I should disclose my suspicions, and they
+should prove unreasonable, I shall have done a grievous wrong to
+him I suspect. Although you cannot save me from the misery of
+doubting in my last hour, you can save me from injuring another in
+your good opinion. If I have wronged him, let the injury die with
+me. If my suspicions are not groundless, I offer you the means of
+saving yourself from the calamity that impends.</p>
+<p>"Should any event occur after my death which deprives you of any
+of your inheritance, follow the directions I now give you.</p>
+<p>"In the back of the lower drawer of the secretary you will find
+a secret aperture. The back of the drawer is a thick board, upon
+which is screwed, on the lower side, a thin slat. Take out the
+screws and remove the piece they secure, and the aperture will be
+seen. It contains a sealed packet, the contents of which require no
+explanation.</p>
+<p>"If nothing happens after my decease, and you peaceably obtain
+all your rights, burn the packet without opening it. My unjust
+suspicions, then, cannot influence you, or injure the person to
+whom they refer.</p>
+<p>"This letter you will receive from Mr. Faxon, to whom I
+recommend you for counsel and consolation in every trial.</p>
+<p>"And now, my child, I must bid you farewell. I feel my end
+approaching. May God forever bless and preserve you!</p>
+<p>"Your dying father,</p>
+<p>"EDGAR DUMONT."</p>
+</div>
+<p>Dalhousie perused and re-perused this letter, until its contents
+were fixed in his mind. He had many doubts and scruples, both
+prudential and conscientious, in regard to the step he was about to
+take: but the chimera of fortune prompted him to risk all in the
+great project he had matured. Taking from his pocket a small
+screw-driver, with which he had prepared himself, he opened the
+drawer designated in the letter, the key of which he had secured.
+Emptying the drawer of its contents, he turned it over, and, to his
+great delight, perceived the slat as described in the letter.
+Removing the screws, he soon had the satisfaction of holding in his
+hand the packet which, he doubted not, would restore the heiress of
+Bellevue to her home and her estates, if she were still alive; or
+which would give him a hold upon Jaspar, by means of which he could
+make his fortune.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was not a natural-born villain. It was the pressure of
+necessity, the almost unconscious yielding of a weak resolution,
+which had led him thus far in his present illegal and dishonorable
+course. Of the heiress he knew nothing; and the thought of
+restoring her had never entered his head, much more his heart. The
+great purpose of his life was to make his fortune, and it was this
+idea alone which influenced him in the present instance. He had
+entered upon his duties at Bellevue only the day before; but so
+impatient was he to realize the hope which had brought him there,
+that every hour seemed burdened with the weight of weeks.</p>
+<p>Carefully depositing its contents as he had found them, he
+locked the drawer, and put the key upon the floor.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"The accursed plot he
+overheard,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Its every point
+portrayed;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Yet ere the villain's words were
+cold.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The counter-plot was
+made."</span></p>
+<p>Hatchie was chagrined at the loss of his prisoner. His diligent
+search was of no avail. The Chalmetta's boat, which lay at the
+wood-yard in the morning, was gone; so he had no doubt Maxwell had
+made his escape in it. Having no further motive in remaining at the
+wood-yard, he procured a small canoe, with the intention of joining
+his mistress at Cottage Island.</p>
+<p>Seated in the stern of the canoe, Hatchie propelled it with only
+sufficient force to avoid the eddies which would have whirled his
+frail bark in every direction. His thoughts wandered over the
+events of the past few days. He moralized upon the conduct of the
+attorney and the uncle, and nursed his indignation over them.
+Hatchie was a moralist in his own way, but not a moralist only. The
+great virtue of his philosophy, unlike much of a more scholastic
+origin, was its practical utility. From the past, with its
+conquered trials, he turned to the future, to inquire for its
+dangers, to ask what snares it had spread to entangle the fair
+being whom he worshipped with all a lover's fondness, without the
+lover's sentiment.</p>
+<p>We will not follow him in his peregrinations through the mazes
+of the misty future, for they were interrupted by the appearance on
+the water of a distant object, which excited his attention. A
+searching and anxious scrutiny convinced him that it was the boat
+in which Maxwell had made his escape. Though at a great distance
+from him, he could see that it contained two men. Guardian as he
+was of his mistress' honor and safety, the sight awakened all his
+fears and called up all his energy. Did they know that his mistress
+had gone to Cottage Island? It was possible that Vernon had
+obtained a knowledge of her movements. The faithful fellow was
+almost maddened at the thought.</p>
+<p>The boat approached Cottage Island, and Hatchie observed them
+pull in under the high bank. This movement was ominous of evil, and
+all the mulatto's fears were confirmed, when, as they passed the
+mouth of the little stream, he saw one of them rise in the boat and
+point it out. Satisfied that his canoe was yet unnoticed by his
+enemies, and dreading no immediate danger, he paddled across the
+river so as to bring the island between them. When he had gained a
+position which hid him from their view, he used all his immense
+strength in propelling the canoe towards the island. A few minutes
+sufficed to bring him up with the western shore of the islet, his
+enemies being upon the opposite side. Keeping close to the high
+bank, he paddled down-stream to the lower extremity of the island,
+where the sound of voices caused him suddenly to check his
+progress, and gain a landing. Drawing the canoe out of reach of the
+current, he climbed up the bank, which, being near the down-stream
+end of the island, sloped gradually down, till it terminated in the
+low, sandy beach.</p>
+<p>He reached the high bank without attracting the attention of the
+party of whose motions he wished to obtain a knowledge. He could
+now distinctly hear their conversation, though they were still at a
+considerable distance from him. Cautiously he climbed a thick
+cotton-wood tree, whose foliage completely screened him from
+observation, and there awaited the nearer approach of Maxwell and
+his confederate.</p>
+<p>"Are you sure this is the island?" said Maxwell, when they had
+come within hearing of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"This must be the one," replied Vernon. "We shall soon see
+whether it is inhabited or not."</p>
+<p>"With whom did the girl leave the wood-yard?"</p>
+<p>"With a doctor who lives like a hermit on this island. I saw
+them from a distance get into the sail-boat, and I asked a boatman
+for the particulars."</p>
+<p>"Who is the doctor?"</p>
+<p>"Don't know. The boatman said it was an outlandish name, and he
+had forgotten it. You mean to have the girl, do you?"</p>
+<p>"I do, if possible."</p>
+<p>"O, it's quite possible&mdash;nothing easier. You say the girl
+belongs to you?"</p>
+<p>"I do; did I not show you the bill of sale?"</p>
+<p>"That might be a trick of your own, you know. It's a devilish
+queer story."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! man, are you crazy? This thing has startled your
+conscience more than all the crimes of a lifetime. What has gotten
+into you, Vernon? I never knew you to moralize before."</p>
+<p>"Look here, my boy, I can do almost anything; but I would not
+wrong a woman,&mdash;no, not a <i>woman</i>,&mdash;I am above
+that," said Vernon, with much emphasis.</p>
+<p>"But, man, she is my slave&mdash;a quadroon."</p>
+<p>"Property's property; but since I met the girl in the boat, I am
+half inclined to believe she is no quadroon. Maxwell, I had a
+sister once, and may my body be rent into a thousand pieces but I
+would tear out the heart of the man who would serve her as you do
+this girl. If she is your <i>property</i>, why, that alters the
+case."</p>
+<p>"Certainly it does; so, end your sermon, and tell me how to gain
+possession of my <i>property</i>."</p>
+<p>"We can storm the island."</p>
+<p>"What! two of us?"</p>
+<p>"I can get plenty of soldiers, if you will pay them."</p>
+<p>"I will give a thousand dollars for her; and, if I get her
+again, by heavens, she shall not escape me! I will put a pair of
+ruffles on her wrists such as the dainty girl never got of her
+milliner. How many persons are on the island?"</p>
+<p>"That I don't know&mdash;perhaps half a dozen. Your hangman will
+be there," and Vernon chuckled at the thought of the scene he had
+witnessed near the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's teeth grated, and Hatchie distinctly heard the
+malediction he bestowed upon him. Fears for his personal safety did
+not, for a moment, disturb him. Prudence alone prevented him from
+rushing upon the villains, and thwarting in its embryo stage their
+design upon his mistress.</p>
+<p>"You mean," said Maxwell, "to take the girl from the house by
+force?"</p>
+<p>"There is no other way."</p>
+<p>"Then we had better examine the island, or it will not be an
+easy matter to land in a dark night."</p>
+<p>"How does the owner land?"</p>
+<p>"Probably by the little stream we saw above."</p>
+<p>"Rather difficult navigation for a stranger. We had better land
+in this part of the island. Let us walk through the thicket and
+find the house."</p>
+<p>Hatchie saw them attempt to pass through the thick brush; but
+the task was not an easy one. By the aid of a bowie-knife, with
+which they cut away some of the bushes, they penetrated to the
+larger growth of trees, where the under-brush no longer impeded
+their progress. They passed beyond the hearing of the mulatto,
+though from his elevated position he occasionally obtained a view
+of them, as they approached the cottage. Anxiously he waited their
+return, in the hope of getting more definite ideas of the time and
+method of the proposed attack upon the island.</p>
+<p>After a careful survey of the premises, Maxwell and Vernon
+returned to their former position.</p>
+<p>"Quite an easy job," said Vernon; "the only difficulty is this
+thick brush, which can be easily removed. I will cut away a part
+now."</p>
+<p>"Very well," responded Maxwell, as his associate proceeded to
+cut away the bushes, and form a pathway through, the thicket. "When
+shall the thing be done?"</p>
+<p>"As to that I can hardly say. When we get to Vicksburg we can
+decide. Better let the girl rest a week or so; for it may take that
+time to get things ready. You can't hire men to do such work as
+easily as you can to cut wood and dig ditches. It takes skill and
+caution."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I am in no haste."</p>
+<p>For nearly an hour Vernon labored at his task, and completed a
+path through which the party could easily pass to the cottage.</p>
+<p>The object of their visit accomplished, Hatchie saw them return
+to their boat, and row down the river. After they had disappeared
+round a bend, he descended from the tree, and examined the labors
+of Vernon. He found the bushes which had been cut down were nicely
+placed at each end of the path in an upright position, so as to
+conceal it from the eyes of the passer. For a long time the mulatto
+reflected upon the conversation he had heard, and considered the
+means of defeating the diabolical plot. Against a band of ruffians,
+such as Vernon would enlist for the service, he could not contend
+single-handed. To remove his mistress from the island, while Henry
+Carroll lay helpless there, would not be an acceptable proposition
+to her. Resolving to lay the information he had gained before Dr.
+Vaudelier, he returned to his canoe, and, having rounded the
+island, reached the cottage by the usual passage.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>Henry Carroll still slept. For six hours he had lain under the
+influence of the powerful opiate. Emily entered his chamber in
+company with the doctor, on their return from the wood-yard. The
+sight of Henry, pale and worn as he appeared, excited all her
+sympathy. His right arm, which was uninjured, lay extended on the
+bed; she gently grasped it, and, bending over him, imprinted upon
+his pallid lips a kiss, that was unknown and unappreciated by its
+recipient. Only a few days before she had listened to the eloquent
+confession of him who now lay insensible of her presence. She was a
+true woman, and the presence of Dr. Vaudelier did not restrain the
+expression of her woman's heart. It was visible in her pale cheek,
+in her heaving breast, and in her sparkling eye, from which oozed
+the gentle tear of affectionate sympathy.</p>
+<p>She held his hand; unconsciously, at the silent bidding of her
+warm heart, she gently pressed it. As though the magnetism of love
+had communicated itself to the sleeper, he sighed heavily, and
+uttered a groan of half-subdued anguish. His eyelids fluttered; he
+was apparently shaking off the heaviness of slumber. His lips
+quivered, and Emily heard them faintly articulate her name.</p>
+<p>At the request of the good physician, she reluctantly withdrew
+from the apartment.</p>
+<p>The sufferer endeavored to turn in the bed; the effort drew from
+him a groan of agony, which, in a more wakeful state, a proud
+superiority over every weakness would not have permitted him to
+utter. His eyes opened, and he stared vacantly about the darkened
+chamber. The doctor took his hand, and examined his pulse.</p>
+<p>"How do you feel, captain? Does your head ache?" asked he.</p>
+<p>"Slightly; I am better, I think," replied the invalid,
+faintly.</p>
+<p>"And you are better," said the doctor, with evident
+satisfaction. "The scalds are doing very well, and the wound on
+your head is not at all serious."</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, will you tell me where I am?"</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier imparted the information.</p>
+<p>"Emily! Emily! Won but lost again!" murmured Henry. "Would that
+we had sunk together beneath the dark tide!"</p>
+<p>"Do not distress yourself, my dear captain. We must be careful
+of this fever."</p>
+<p>"Distress myself!" returned Henry, not a little provoked at the
+coolness of the doctor. "You know not the loss I have
+sustained."</p>
+<p>"But you must keep calm."</p>
+<p>"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed
+rather wildly at his host.</p>
+<p>This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience
+was of such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before
+marriage,&mdash;the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary
+hour,&mdash;and he sympathized with the unhappy man.</p>
+<p>"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it
+chilled the ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can
+understand your present state of feeling."</p>
+<p>"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had
+better die now than endure the misery before me."</p>
+<p>The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express
+the thought.</p>
+<p>"You will regain her," said he.</p>
+<p>"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw
+scores of dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."</p>
+<p>"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be
+restored to your arms again."</p>
+<p>"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an
+infallible prophet."</p>
+<p>"In this instance, I am."</p>
+<p>Henry looked at the doctor, and saw the smile of satisfaction
+that played upon his usually stern features. It augured
+hope&mdash;more than hope; and, as the wrecked mariner clings to
+the disjointed spar, his mind fastened upon that smile as the
+forerunner of a blissful reunion with her his soul cherished.</p>
+<p>"Be calm, sir, be calm; she is safe," continued Dr.
+Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"Do you know it?" almost shouted Henry, attempting to rise.</p>
+<p>"Be quiet, sir," said the doctor, in a voice approaching to
+sternness; "be quiet, or I shall regret that I gave you reason to
+hope."</p>
+<p>"Where is she?" asked Henry, sinking back at the doctor's
+reproof, and heeding not the darting pain his attempt to rise had
+produced.</p>
+<p>"She is safe; let this suffice. I see you cannot bear more
+now."</p>
+<p>"I can bear anything, sir, anything. I will be as gentle as a
+lamb, if you will tell me all you know of her."</p>
+<p>"If you keep entirely quiet, we will, in a few days, let her
+speak for herself."</p>
+<p>"Then she is safe; she has escaped every danger?"</p>
+<p>"She has."</p>
+<p>"And was not injured?"</p>
+<p>"No; she was taken, it seems, from the wreck by a villain. Thank
+God, she has escaped his wiles!"</p>
+<p>Henry's indignation could scarcely be controlled, even by the
+reflection that Maxwell's wicked intentions had been turned, by an
+overruling Providence, into the means of her safety.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier related to his patient the incident of the
+wood-yard; not, however, without the necessity of frequently
+reproving his auditor, whose exasperation threatened serious
+consequences. When, at the conclusion of the narration, he told
+Henry that the loved one was at that moment beneath his roof, he
+could scarcely restrain his immoderate joy within the bounds of
+that quiet which his physician demanded.</p>
+<p>"May I not see her?" said he.</p>
+<p>"That must depend entirely upon your own behavior. You have not
+shown yourself a very tractable patient thus far."</p>
+<p>"I will be perfectly docile," pleaded Henry.</p>
+<p>"I fear I cannot trust you. You are so excitable, that you
+explode like a magazine of gunpowder."</p>
+<p>"No, no; I solemnly promise to keep perfectly quiet. She will, I
+know, be glad to see me, wounded and stricken though I am."</p>
+<p>"She has already seen you."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!"</p>
+<p>"Yes; and not content with <i>seeing</i> you merely, your lips
+are not yet cold from the kiss she imprinted upon them;" and a
+smile, not altogether stoical, lit up the doctor's cold expression.
+"You shall see her, but the instant I perceive that the interview
+is prejudicial to your nerves, I shall remove her."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, doctor!" said Henry, fervently.</p>
+<p>"O, it is part of my treatment. It may do you more good than all
+my physic. I have known such cases."</p>
+<p>"I am sure it will," returned the patient.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier retired, and after a serious charge to Emily, he
+re&euml;ntered, leading the Hygeia who was to restore the sick
+man.</p>
+<p>"Be careful," was the doctor's monition, as he elevated his
+fore-finger, in the attitude of caution; "be careful."</p>
+<p>"O, Emily!" exclaimed Henry, more gently than the nature of the
+interview would seem to allow, as he extended his hand to her.</p>
+<p>Emily silently took the hand, and while a tell-tale tear started
+from her eye, she pressed it gently; but the pressure startled the
+sick man's blood, and sent it thrilling with joy through its lazy
+channels. The invalid, as much as the pressure of the hand warmed
+his heart, seemed not to be satisfied with the hand alone; for he
+continued to draw her towards himself, until her form bent over
+him, and their lips met. It was the first time when both were
+conscious of the act. We will not go into ecstasies over the
+unutterable bliss of that moment. We will not deck our page with
+any unseemly extravagances. If the experience of the reader has led
+him through the hallowed mystery of the first kiss of love, he
+needs not another's fancy to revive the beatific vision. If not,
+why, thousands of coy and blushing damsels, equally in the dark,
+are waiting, from whom he may select one to assist him in solving
+the mystery. Besides, it is not always wise to penetrate the
+secrets of the heart, even in a novel; for there is a sacredness
+about them, a kind of natural free-masonry, which must not be made
+too common.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, when he saw that the patient was disposed to
+behave himself in a reasonable manner, withdrew from the room, and
+left them to the undisturbed enjoyment of their happy reunion. In
+an hour he returned, and peremptorily forbade all further
+conversation. He permitted Emily to remain in the room, however, on
+the promise to allow the invalid to use no further exertion in
+talking.</p>
+<p>All day, like a ministering angel, she moved about his couch,
+and laved his fevered brow. All his art could not lure her into any
+conversation beyond the necessary replies to his questions
+concerning his physical condition. Henry was too thankful for being
+permitted to enjoy her presence to forfeit the boon by any
+untractableness, and, for one of his excitable temperament, he was
+exceedingly docile.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Appius</i>. Well,
+Claudius, are the forces</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">At hand?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Claudius</i>. They are, and
+timely, too; the people</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Are in unwonted
+ferment."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">KNOWLES.</span></p>
+<p>It was midnight at Cottage Island,&mdash;the third night after
+the events of the preceding chapter. Henry Carroll, by the skilful
+treatment of his host, was in a great degree relieved from his
+severe pain, and had now sunk into a natural and quiet slumber. By
+his bedside sat Dr. Vaudelier. Emily had, an hour before, retired
+to the rest which her exhausted frame demanded. For the past three
+days she had watched patiently and lovingly by the invalid. And now
+she had only been induced to retire by the promise of the doctor to
+call her, if any unfavorable symptom appeared.</p>
+<p>The threatened assault upon the island had been thoroughly
+considered, and for the past two nights the island wore the
+appearance of a garrisoned fortress, rather than the secluded abode
+of a hermit. Emily knew of the peril which now menaced her, but the
+ample means at hand for protection rendered it insignificant. All
+thought, even of her own security, was merged in her generous
+interest in the comfort of the sufferer.</p>
+<p>The good physician was uneasy and disturbed, as he sat by the
+bedside of his patient. The circumstances which surrounded him were
+novel in the extreme. Accustomed as he had been to the quiet which
+always reigned in his domain, to find himself, as it were, the
+inmate of a fortress, in momentary expectation of an attack, was so
+singularly odd, that his natural indifference deserted him. He had
+collected quite a large force of his humble neighbors to assist him
+in his present emergency, and they were now making their final
+arrangements to meet the assault.</p>
+<p>The doctor was restless; but it was not on account of any fear
+of his personal safety,&mdash;he was above that. The lonely and
+innocent being whom he had undertaken to protect had filled his
+mind with a sense of responsibility. A single day had been long
+enough for Emily to win a way to his affections, and he had grown
+to regard her with the tender care of a father. Occasionally he
+left his place at the bedside, and went to the window, as if to
+assure himself that the attack had not already commenced.</p>
+<p>In front of the cottage a different sentiment prevailed among
+the motley group there assembled. There were twenty men, including
+Hatchie, all armed with rifle and bowie-knife, and every one
+anxious for the fight to commence. Besides their arms, each man was
+provided with a small cord, and a torch of pitch-wood, the end of
+which had been plentifully besprinkled with turpentine.</p>
+<p>The party was composed mostly of woodmen and boatmen, who had
+promptly and willingly obeyed the doctor's summons. Like most men
+of their class in that locality, they were hardy and reckless; they
+had not that healthy horror of a mortal combat which the moralist
+would gladly see. Dr. Vaudelier had always been their friend; had
+always promptly and kindly aided them in their necessities, whether
+moral, physical, or pecuniary. As he had laved the fevered brows of
+their wives and children, so had he said prayers over their dead,
+in the absence of a clergyman. He had exhorted the intemperate and
+the dishonest, and with his purse relieved the needy in their
+distress. They were not ungrateful; they appreciated his many
+kindnesses, and rejoiced in an opportunity to serve him. These men,
+notwithstanding their rude speech, their rough exteriors, and their
+reckless dispositions, were true-hearted men. They reciprocated the
+offering of a true friendship, not by smooth speeches and unmeaning
+smiles, but by actions of manly kindness. The philosopher in ethics
+may say what he pleases of the refinements of sympathy; we would
+not give a single such heart as those gathered on Cottage Island
+for a whole army of puling, sentimental, hair-splitting moralizers.
+They were men of action, not of words; and, though they hesitated
+not, in what they deemed a good cause, to close with their man in
+deadly combat, they were true as steel to a friend in the hour of
+his need.</p>
+<p>With these men the exploits of Hatchie, which had been related,
+and perhaps exaggerated, by Jerry Swinger, who was a leading spirit
+of the party, had been much applauded, and he had, in spite of the
+odium of his social position, obtained a powerful influence over
+them. They heard him with attention, and deferred to his skill and
+judgment. By his advice, and to remove the confusion of the affray
+from the vicinity of the cottage, it was determined to receive the
+invaders near the beach where he had overheard Vernon propose to
+land. Jerry Swinger, whom natural talent and the wish of the party
+seemed to indicate as leader, marched the expedition towards the
+avenue which had been made in the bushes by the ruffians.</p>
+<p>For so many men, excited as they were by the anticipation of a
+conflict, they were remarkably quiet and orderly. Dr. Vaudelier had
+cautioned them to avoid all noise, and not to fire a rifle unless
+absolutely necessary. He had also instructed them to make prisoners
+of the assailants, if possible, without injuring them.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger stationed his party near the avenue, ready to
+spring upon and overpower the foe, when the favorable moment should
+arrive.</p>
+<p>An hour passed by, and the impatience of the ambushed woodmen
+seemed likely to give their faithful leader some trouble, when the
+careful dip of oars near the shore saluted their ears. In a whisper
+Jerry gave the oft-repeated caution for silence, and charged them
+to be prompt when the moment came.</p>
+<p>The assaulting party approached the shore. There were two boats,
+the foremost of which contained eight men, under the direction of
+Maxwell, and the other six, led by Vernon. The latter had
+reconnoitred the island several times, and had somewhat modified
+the plan of the attack, on discovering that the cottage, for the
+past two nights, had been occupied by more than its usual
+occupants. Several men had been seen to land there; but, as his
+preparations on the lower part of the island were undisturbed, it
+never occurred to him that his purpose would be anticipated.</p>
+<p>Vernon had procured the services of fourteen men,
+chicken-thieves, and others of desperate fortunes, to engage in the
+enterprise, by holding out to them the hope of plunder, of which
+the cottage, he assured them, would afford an abundant harvest. The
+real purpose of the expedition was, therefore, unknown to any of
+the party, except the leaders. The prospect of a sharp fight had
+not in the least dampened the ardor of their hopes. With men of
+their craft it was a dull season, and the prospect of "cracking a
+crib" plentifully stored with valuables was quite a pleasant
+anticipation.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Maxwell, with the larger portion of the
+desperadoes, should land at the lower part of the island, and, if
+any defenders appeared, commence hostilities, and draw them away
+from the house, while Vernon, with the most experienced of the
+"cracks-men," should assault the house, and effect the purpose of
+the enterprise. In the person of one of the chicken-thieves a pilot
+for the creek was discovered; and, to make assurance doubly sure,
+it was decided that Vernon should approach the cottage by the usual
+channel.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's boat was beached, while that of Vernon proceeded up
+the river to the little stream. The skill of his pilot, of whom
+Vernon had felt many doubts, soon brought him to the creek. The
+current, he found, was quite rapid, and he feared it would carry
+him into the midst of the "enemy's camp" before Maxwell should have
+made his demonstration. As the boat was whirled along towards the
+centre of the island, for the oars could not be used, on account of
+their noise, his position seemed to grow desperate. Vernon was on
+the point of risking the noise, and taking to the oars, when he
+discovered an overhanging branch, which he seized as the boat
+passed under it. Fortunately for him, a bend in the stream turned
+the current from the middle of the creek, or its violence would
+have drawn him into the water. By the aid of his companions, he
+succeeded in making the boat fast to the branch. He listened; but
+all was still. There were no indications of the approach of the
+other party.</p>
+<p>Seating himself in the stern-sheets of the boat, he again
+considered the operations in which he was soon to engage; but, as
+these were necessarily to be directed by the circumstances of the
+moment, his deliberations soon gave way to that impatience which
+the perpetrator of crime experiences at an unexpected delay. His
+eager spirit was, however, soon gratified by sounds of conflict,
+which proceeded from the part of the island where Maxwell had
+landed. Awhile he listened, and the sounds grew more and more
+distinct. Loosing the boat from its a&euml;rial moorings, it was
+again driven by the current towards the landing in front of the
+cottage. Preparations were now made to effect the grand object,
+and, landing by the side of the doctor's yacht, Vernon found no one
+to oppose his progress, though the sounds from the lower extremity
+of the island indicated that the affray was growing hotter and more
+violent. At the head of his party, Vernon was about to enter the
+house, when the approach of a body of men from the scene of action
+caused him to pause, and await their approach.</p>
+<p>Maxwell had landed on the beach, and, not suspecting the
+proximity of the ambush which waited to receive him, had proceeded
+towards the avenue made at his first visit to the island. Removing
+the loose bushes, they attempted to pass through; but no sooner
+were they fairly involved among the young trees than Jerry Swinger
+shouted his first order, to light the torches, and, in an instant,
+the woods were illuminated, and the position of both parties
+disclosed. This was, undoubtedly, a masterly stroke of preparation
+on the part of Jerry. The torches, on the application of the match,
+emitted a broad sheet of flame, which glared upon the invaders like
+a sudden flash of lightning, and utterly confounded them. It seemed
+like the bolt of Omnipotence thrown across their path in the hour
+of their great transgression.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was unprepared for an immediate attack. He had
+calculated on effecting a junction with Vernon in the vicinity of
+the cottage. Before his party had time to recover from the panic,
+they were surrounded by the resolute woodmen. The attorney, who was
+as brave and active as he was unprincipled and cunning, was not a
+man to be defeated without a stout resistance. Encouraging his
+party by shouts, and by his own example, a general engagement
+ensued.</p>
+<p>Hatchie no sooner saw the foe of his mistress' peace, than,
+stepping between him and Jerry Swinger, who also had an account to
+settle with him, he knocked down the pistol which was levelled at
+his head, and grasped him by the throat. In the hands of Hatchie
+the attorney was as nothing. The stalwart mulatto cast him upon the
+ground, and, with his cord, bound him hand and foot. The leader
+vanquished, it was the work of but a few moments to secure the rest
+of the assailants.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger learned, from sundry exclamations of the defeated
+party, that another portion of the expedition was to land at the
+creek. Leaving a few of his men in charge of the prisoners, he made
+all haste, with the remainder, towards the cottage.</p>
+<p>The affray had occupied but a few moments. The sturdy woodmen,
+accustomed to such scenes, and animated by a high motive, had done
+their duty promptly and efficiently, as the woful appearance of the
+disconcerted ruffians testified. Some hard blows had been dealt;
+some few upon both sides were severely wounded; but, considering
+the desperate character of the invaders, the masterly tact of Jerry
+Swinger had evidently saved much bloodshed.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, as soon as he had secured his prisoner, hastened,
+somewhat in advance of Jerry's party, towards the cottage.</p>
+<p>Vernon waited the approach of the party in front of the cottage.
+While it was yet at some distance, he discovered Hatchie, whom he
+recognized by the light of his torch, running in front of it. The
+appearance of the mulatto, alone, he interpreted as the signal of
+victory to the party in conjunction with him, who, he imagined,
+were pursuing him. Resolving, therefore, to lose no more time, he
+advanced towards the house, ordering two of his followers to secure
+Hatchie.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier had heard the sounds of the distant encounter, and
+occasionally sought the window to assure himself the invaders did
+not approach the cottage. The glaring torch of Hatchie, who was
+running towards the house, gave him some misgivings, and, seizing
+the pistols which lay upon the table, he went to the door, on
+opening which he was confronted by Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Come on, boys! come on!" shouted the ruffian, as he pushed by
+the doctor. "The way is clear; let us make quick work."</p>
+<p>The pistol of Dr. Vaudelier had been raised to shoot down the
+assailant; but his hand dropped at the sound of his voice, he
+staggered back and let the weapon fall from his hand, and uttered
+an exclamation of intense feeling.</p>
+<p>"This way, men! this way!" shouted Vernon, as he pressed on.</p>
+<p>Entering the room at the right of the entry, in which a bed had
+been temporarily placed for the use of Emily, he found the
+affrighted girl, who had been aroused from her transient slumber by
+the noise of the attack. Rising from the bed upon which she had
+merely thrown herself, she was confounded by the appearance of her
+former persecutor.</p>
+<p>"Ah, my pretty bird, you are again in my power, and I shall take
+care that no weak indulgence again deprives me of your society,"
+said Vernon, as he seized her arm, and attempted to hurry her from
+the room.</p>
+<p>"Unhand me, villain!" exclaimed she, roused to desperation by
+the sudden and painful change which had overtaken her.</p>
+<p>"Do not pout, my pretty dove! there is no chance to escape this
+time. Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help
+you; so I advise you to come quietly with me."</p>
+<p>"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"&mdash;and
+she struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.</p>
+<p>"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the
+hands of two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your
+bidding."</p>
+<p>The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow
+on the back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.</p>
+<p>"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted
+his mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him,
+examined the condition of the fallen man.</p>
+<p>"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."</p>
+<p>"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily,
+bursting into tears, as the terrible scene through which she had
+just passed was fully realized. "But where is Henry&mdash;Captain
+Carroll&mdash;is he safe?"</p>
+<p>"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room,"
+replied Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been
+worse."</p>
+<p>"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie,
+seizing the prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him
+to a tree, and I will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till
+both are hung."</p>
+<p>"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that
+moment entered. "<i>He is my son</i>!"</p>
+<p>"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on
+the sofa.</p>
+<p>"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone.
+"I would that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I
+recognized him as he entered the house, and had nearly lost my
+consciousness, as the terrible reality stared me in the face, that
+my son, he whose childhood I had watched over, who once called me
+by the endearing name of father, is a common midnight assassin!</p>
+<p>"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an
+abundant shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his
+eyes. "Is he the person who has caused you so much trouble?"</p>
+<p>"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest
+comfort to the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for
+Maxwell."</p>
+<p>"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an
+interested motive to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be
+brought so low!"&mdash;and the doctor wrung his hands in
+anguish.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps, sir," said Emily, "he is not so bad as you think; let
+us hear before we condemn him."</p>
+<p>Her resentment, if her gentle nature had for a moment harbored
+such a feeling, had all given way to the abundant sympathy she felt
+for the doctor in his deep distress. Forgiving as the spirit of
+mercy, she now applied restoratives to the man who had so lately
+attempted to wrong her; and Dr. Vaudelier, with a sad heart,
+assisted her in her merciful duty.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, on his approach to the cottage, had been assailed by
+the men whom Vernon had sent to secure him. A severe encounter had
+ensued, and although Hatchie's great muscular power and skill had
+enabled him to keep his assailants at bay, he would eventually have
+had the worst of it; but Jerry Swinger came to his aid in season
+for him to save his mistress from injury. Vernon's party, like that
+of Maxwell, were all secured.</p>
+<p>The noise caused by the entrance of Vernon had awakened Henry
+Carroll from his slumbers. He listened, but could not make out the
+occasion of it; for, in consideration of his feeble condition, he
+had not been informed of the meditated attack. The cry for help
+uttered by Emily convinced him of the nature of the disturbance.
+His first impulse was to rise and rush to her assistance; but of
+his inability to do this he was painfully reminded in his attempt
+to rise. The heavy fall of Vernon on the floor, and the voice of
+Hatchie, assured him that, whatever the affair might be, it had
+assumed a new phase. His painful apprehensions were quieted by the
+appearance of Hatchie, who in a concise manner related the events
+of the night.</p>
+<p>The last lingering doubt of the suspicious invalid was removed
+by the entrance of Emily herself.</p>
+<p>"You are safe, dear Emily!" exclaimed he.</p>
+<p>"I am, thank God!"</p>
+<p>"And I could not assist in your defence!"</p>
+<p>"Heaven will protect me, Henry. It seems as if a veritable angel
+hovered over my path to shield me from the thousand perils that
+assail me."</p>
+<p>"The angels do hover around you, Emily; you are so pure, and
+good, and true, that they are ever near you, even in your own
+heart. Angels always minister to the good,&mdash;to those who
+resist the temptations of the world."</p>
+<p>"You speak too well of me. But you have been excited by this
+tumult, Henry."</p>
+<p>"I was a little disturbed; but, unable to help myself, I could
+do nothing for others,&mdash;not even for you, dearest."</p>
+<p>"I know what you would have done, if you had been able. I know
+your heart, and I feel just as grateful as though your strong arm
+had rescued me."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, who had succeeded in restoring Vernon&mdash;or,
+by his true name, Jerome Vaudelier&mdash;to consciousness, now
+entered the room. He appeared more melancholy and harassed in mind
+than Emily had before seen him. His soul seemed to be crushed by
+the terrible realization that <i>his son</i> was a common
+felon&mdash;worse than felon, the persecutor of innocence. A soul
+as sensitive as his to the distinctions of right and wrong could
+hardly endure the misery of that hour.</p>
+<p>With an absent manner, he inquired into the condition of the
+patient, and took the necessary steps to soothe him to slumber
+again.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, having satisfied himself that the prisoners were all
+safe, left them under guard of the woodmen, and returned to the
+chamber of the sick man; and, at the doctor's urgent request, Emily
+left Henry to his care.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Friar</i> Can you
+forgive?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Elmore</i>. As I would be
+forgiven."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">LOVELL.</span></p>
+<p>On the morning following the defeat of Maxwell and Vernon, it
+became necessary to make some disposition of the prisoners, so that
+the conquerors could attend to their daily duties. Their number was
+too large to be left upon the island in the absence of its
+defenders. A consultation between Dr. Vaudelier and the principals
+of the party took place. There were so many difficulties in the way
+of bringing the invaders to justice, that it was finally decided to
+release them all. The burden of the evidence was against the
+physician's son. The doctor, however much he deprecated the deed,
+was anxious to save his son from the publicity of a trial. His
+friends, seeing the melancholy truth, relieved his mind by
+suggesting that all of them be released, which was accordingly
+done.</p>
+<p>Vernon had entirely recovered from the effects of Hatchie's
+blow, and was seated at the window of his apartment, contemplating
+the means of escape. At his father's request, two men had sat by
+him during the night, as much to prevent his escape as to minister
+to his wants. The watchers were still in the room. Vernon was not
+yet informed of the relation he sustained to the proprietor of the
+mansion in which he now involuntarily abode. He thought that,
+considering the unequivocal circumstances under which he had been
+made a prisoner, he was treated with a great deal of gentleness;
+but to him the reason was not apparent. He had been an alien from
+his father's house for a long period, and was not acquainted with
+the history of the past three or four years of the doctor's
+life.</p>
+<p>His mind was now occupied in devising the means of escape; and
+just as he had struck upon a feasible project, he was interrupted
+by the entrance of Jerry Swinger, who had been sent by Dr.
+Vaudelier to ascertain the present frame of his son's mind, and
+broach to him the tidings that he was beneath his father's
+roof,&mdash;a circumstance of which his watchers were also
+ignorant.</p>
+<p>"Well, stranger, how do you feel yourself, this morning?" asked
+Jerry.</p>
+<p>"Better. That was a cursed hard rap which some one gave me, last
+night," replied Vernon,&mdash;as, from the force of habit, we must
+still call him.</p>
+<p>"That are a fack, stranger; the man that gin you that blow has a
+moughty hard fist; and I advoise you to keep clear of him, or he
+will beat you into mince-meat."</p>
+<p>"I will try to do so."</p>
+<p>"You will larn to, if he mought have one more chance at that
+head of yours."</p>
+<p>"Who is he?"</p>
+<p>"He's an oncommon fine fellow, and made your cake dough once
+before."</p>
+<p>"Ah, was it Miss Dumont's&mdash;that is, the quadroon's
+servant."</p>
+<p>"Quadroon, man!&mdash;that's all humbug. But he's the boy, and
+is bound to fotch his missus out straight, in the end."</p>
+<p>"Well, if she is his mistress, I hope he may. I wish her no
+harm, however much appearances belie me."</p>
+<p>"Is that a fack, stranger?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly; she never did me any harm."</p>
+<p>"Then what mought be the reason you were so onmerciful to
+her?"</p>
+<p>"I never used her hardly. My friend said she was his slave, and
+all I wished was to have him obtain his own. In short, I was paid
+for my services."</p>
+<p>"No doubt of it, stranger. But I can't see how the tenth part of
+a man could hunt down such a gal as that,&mdash;it's onnateral.
+Besides, you didn't believe she was a slave."</p>
+<p>"'Pon my honor I did, or I would not have lifted a finger. But I
+see you have released the rest of your prisoners,&mdash;I hope you
+will be as generous towards me."</p>
+<p>"Don't flatter yourself, stranger!"</p>
+<p>"I have a mortal aversion to courts of justice."</p>
+<p>"Quite likely," returned Jerry, pleased with the man's
+frankness.</p>
+<p>"Besides, I belong to a respectable family, who will not mind
+paying something handsome to avoid exposure."</p>
+<p>"Can't be bought, stranger; besides, respectable villains arn't
+any better nor others."</p>
+<p>"True; but, you know, their friends, who are educated, are more
+sensitive in such matters than others."</p>
+<p>"That mought be true, for's aught I know; but it's mighty
+strange you never thought of that sarcumstance before."</p>
+<p>"Never was in limbo before."</p>
+<p>"That's the go, is't? Look-a-here, stranger, is it the darbies,
+or the crime, which brings the disgrace upon the family? Accordin'
+to my notion,&mdash;and I believe I've got something besides nits
+and lice in my head,&mdash;it's the deed, and not the punishment,
+that fotches the disgrace. But whar does your family live?"</p>
+<p>"In New Orleans," replied Vernon, who knew nothing to the
+contrary, though we are not sure that, if he had, it would have
+made any difference in his reply.</p>
+<p>"And your name is Vernon?"</p>
+<p>"It is."</p>
+<p>"Is that your family name, or only a borried one?"</p>
+<p>"It is my real name," replied Vernon, not a little perplexed by
+the coolness and method of the woodman's queries.</p>
+<p>"I rather guess not," suggested Jerry, mildly.</p>
+<p>"'Pon my honor&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Think again,&mdash;maybe you mought fotch the real one to your
+mind."</p>
+<p>Vernon, whose temper was not particularly gentle under
+contradiction, was nettled, and disposed to be angry.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you know best," said he, conquering his passion, and
+assuming one of those peculiarly convincing smiles, which must be
+an hereditary possession in the family of the "father of lies."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I do," replied Jerry. "If you don't know any better
+than that, why, then, I do know best. It arn't Vernon."</p>
+<p>"It is not manly, captain, to insult a prisoner," replied
+Vernon, with an air of dignity, which came from the same source as
+the liar's smile.</p>
+<p>"I don't mean to insult you, stranger; but facts is facts, all
+over the world," said Jerry, untouched by the other's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"What mean you?"</p>
+<p>"Nothin', stranger, only I know you. Your mother arn't
+livin'."</p>
+<p>"No," returned Vernon, with a start; for, with all his vices and
+his crimes, a sense of respect for the name and honor of his family
+had outlived the good principles imbibed upon a mother's knee.
+Although a villain in almost every sense of the word, there were
+many redeeming traits in his character, which the reader will be
+willing to believe, on recalling his expressions of
+conscientiousness uttered to Maxwell. Family pride is often
+hereditary, and the reverses and degradations of a lifetime cannot
+extinguish it. It was so with Vernon. His real name was unknown,
+even among his most intimate associates. He had early taken the
+precaution&mdash;not in deference to the feelings of his
+father&mdash;to assume a name; it was from pride of birth, which
+shuddered more at the thought of a stain upon the family escutcheon
+than at all the crimes which may canker and corrode the heart.</p>
+<p>"My mother is not living," continued he; "but how know you
+this?"</p>
+<p>"It don't matter, stranger. Have you seen your father
+lately?"</p>
+<p>"Not for many years. I am an outcast from his presence," replied
+Vernon, with some appearance of feeling.</p>
+<p>"That's onfortunate; does he know what sort of a lark you
+are?"</p>
+<p>"I hope not," replied Vernon, with a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"But he does; he knows all about this ongodly scrape you got
+into last night."</p>
+<p>"What mean you?" said the ruffian, sternly.</p>
+<p>"Mean? Why, just exactly what I say, Mr. Vaudelier! Don't start!
+I know you as well as you know yourself."</p>
+<p>Vernon bit his lips; he was confounded at hearing his name
+uttered,&mdash;a name which had not greeted his ears for many
+years. His passion was disarmed before the rude but cutting speech
+of the woodman, whose knowledge of human nature, bred in the woods
+as he had been, was remarkable. There are men in the world,
+supposed to be entirely intractable, who, when rightly approached,
+prove as gentle as lambs. There is no evil without its antidote,
+however deeply it may be hid from the knowledge of man; and there
+is no man so vile that he cannot be reformed. The image of God,
+marred and disfigured as it may be, exists in every man, as the
+faultless statue exists in the rough block of marble; from which,
+when the fashioning hand, aided by the magic of genius, touches it,
+the imago of beauty shall come forth. So, when man, in whom always
+exists the elements of the highest character, shall be approached
+by the true reformer,&mdash;the highest and truest
+genius,&mdash;the bright ideal shall assume the actual form.</p>
+<p>The woodman had touched a chord in the heart of the gambler
+which vibrated at his touch. It was not the words, but the genuine
+sympathy with which they were laden, that overcame the indifference
+of the vicious man. Perceiving his advantage, the woodman followed
+it up, repeatedly disarming the bolt of passion, which was poised
+in the mind of his auditor.</p>
+<p>"Your father," said Jerry, "is a good man, and you mought go
+round the world without finding a better."</p>
+<p>"Very true!" replied Vernon, moved to a degree he was unwilling
+to acknowledge.</p>
+<p>"Now, if you jest turn over a new leaf in the book of life, and
+try to fotch out right in the end, I believe the old man would cry
+quits on the old score."</p>
+<p>"Send those men away, captain! I will not attempt to
+escape."</p>
+<p>Jerry complied, and the watchers took their departure.</p>
+<p>"Where is my father?"</p>
+<p>"Close by, stranger. May be you'd like to see him?"</p>
+<p>"On no account!"</p>
+<p>"That's a good sign, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "You will have to
+see him, I am afraid. You are under his ruff."</p>
+<p>Vernon, completely overcome, staggered to a chair, and covered
+his face with his hands.</p>
+<p>"Not so bad a boy as one mought suppose," soliloquized Jerry, as
+he went to the door, and requested the servant to summon Dr.
+Vaudelier. "The fellow has fed on husks long enough, and, as the
+scripter says, he is goin' to rise and go to his dad."</p>
+<p>"Do not let my father see me,&mdash;anything, rather than that!"
+exclaimed Vernon, rising, and grasping the woodman's arm. "I am a
+great villain!"</p>
+<p>"That's very true, stranger; but you have got into the scrape,
+and the best thing you can do is to get out on't."</p>
+<p>"How can I!"</p>
+<p>"Be an honest man."</p>
+<p>"I fear I never can be that."</p>
+<p>"Try it! There is something left of you."</p>
+<p>At this moment Dr. Vaudelier entered the room. His aspect was
+stern and forbidding, and the son buried his face in his hands
+after the first glance at him.</p>
+<p>"Jerome," said he, "you will bring my gray hairs with sorrow
+down to the grave."</p>
+<p>"Easy with him, doctor, easy! He is a little touched, and, if
+you manage him right, you can fotch him over. He is under
+conviction now. Don't let on yet!"</p>
+<p>"Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me," continued the
+doctor. "Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus
+enter my house with a band of ruffians behind you?"</p>
+<p>"Father," said the convicted Vernon, "I did not know it was your
+house, or I could never have done it."</p>
+<p>"Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight
+assassin!" and Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and
+sobbed like a child.</p>
+<p>"Forgive me, father!" exclaimed the repentant son. "Forgive
+me!"</p>
+<p>"God and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!"</p>
+<p>"Easy with him, doctor!" interposed Jerry, fearful lest the
+son's repentance should be dissipated before the father's
+sternness.</p>
+<p>"I will atone for all, to the best of my ability."</p>
+<p>"Would that you might do so!"</p>
+<p>"I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!"</p>
+<p>"Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so
+deeply injured."</p>
+<p>"I would be her slave for life!"</p>
+<p>"If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the
+wrongs which have been inflicted upon her."</p>
+<p>"I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail
+anything to her. Maxwell assured me she was his slave, and showed
+me the bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my
+help."</p>
+<p>"You were too willing to believe him," said the doctor,
+sternly.</p>
+<p>"I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew
+(which is but little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will
+tell you all."</p>
+<p>"Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry."</p>
+<p>Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the
+position of the matter.</p>
+<p>"Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have
+done?"</p>
+<p>"Freely, sir; and may God enable you to persevere in the course
+you have taken!"</p>
+<p>"Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life
+with the strength your good wishes impart."</p>
+<p>Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the
+attorney, concealing no part of his own or his confederate's
+villany. Of the will he knew nothing, his operations having been
+confined to the attempts to obtain possession of her person.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole
+truth. It was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had
+chosen the better part. His fervent prayer ascended that the
+penitent might be faithful to his good resolutions.</p>
+<p>All the circumstances relating to the will were unknown to
+Vernon, which was the occasion of much congratulation both to his
+father and to Emily. It seemed to relieve him from some portion of
+the guilt which the subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and,
+when these circumstances were related to him, a burst of generous
+indignation testified that he, the blackleg, the robber, was above
+such villany. However depraved in some respects, that vice which is
+commonly called <i>meanness</i> had no place within him. He was, or
+rather had been, of that class of operators who "rob the rich to
+pay the poor;" who have no innate love of vice, only a desire to be
+free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand, without toil or
+sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.</p>
+<p>"Jerome," said Dr. Vaudelier, "this Maxwell must be watched,
+and, if you are true to yourself, no one can do this duty as well
+as you."</p>
+<p>"Trust me, sir! I am strong in this lady's service."</p>
+<p>"I shall not doubt you, my son, until I have occasion to do so.
+I am satisfied, if Miss Dumont is."</p>
+<p>"I feel perfectly confident in the good faith of your son, and
+am indebted to him for the zeal he manifests in my cause."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Miss Dumont," said Vernon. "You are too generous;
+but, be assured, your confidence shall not be abused."</p>
+<p>It was determined that Vernon should immediately depart for
+Vicksburg, whither Maxwell had gone.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He gives me leave to attend
+you,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And is impatient till he sees
+you."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>It was the afternoon of the same day, as Dr. Vaudelier was
+reclining upon a rustic seat near the landing, he was surprised by
+the appearance of a canoe coming down the creek. The canoe
+contained an elderly gentleman, and a negro, who, after several
+unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in landing the passenger upon the
+little pier. He was about fifty years of age, apparently. His hair
+and whiskers were a mixture of gray and black; his countenance was
+full, and his complexion florid, which contrasted oddly with the
+green spectacles that rested upon his nose.</p>
+<p>"Do I have the honor of addressing Dr. Vaudelier?" said, the
+stranger, in a tone so soft and silky that the doctor could hardly
+persuade himself it did not proceed from a woman.</p>
+<p>"That is my name, sir; and to whom am I indebted for this
+unexpected pleasure?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy, sir,&mdash;Antoine De Guy, at your service," squeaked
+the visitor, with whom the reader is already acquainted.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, may I inquire the object of your visit?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, sir. I am informed there is a lady at present
+residing with you, one of the unfortunate persons who were on board
+the Chalmetta at the time of her late disaster. A Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Who informed you, sir?"</p>
+<p>De Guy hesitated a little, and then said he heard a number of
+gentlemen discuss the late disaster at the hotel in Vicksburg; that
+one of them had mentioned this fact&mdash;he really could not tell
+the gentleman's name.</p>
+<p>"What is your business with the lady?" asked the doctor, to whom
+the idea of a new enemy of Emily had already presented itself.</p>
+<p>"That, sir, I can best disclose to the lady in person," squeaked
+the street-lawyer, with a low bow.</p>
+<p>"This way then," and the doctor led him to the library, into
+which he soon after conducted Emily.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont?" said De Guy, rising and making a profound
+obeisance as she entered. "My name is De Guy."</p>
+<p>Emily bowed slightly, but made no reply.</p>
+<p>"May I beg that our interview may be private?" said the
+attorney, glancing at Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman is my friend and confidant; it is not necessary
+that he should retire," replied Emily, as Dr. Vaudelier was moving
+towards the door.</p>
+<p>"Very well, madam; though I think, from the nature of my
+business, you would wish it to be confidential."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I had better withdraw," suggested the physician.</p>
+<p>"By no means, my dear sir; if this gentleman's visit relates to
+business matters, I must beg the favor of your counsel."</p>
+<p>"As you please, Miss Dumont; I come charged with a message from
+your uncle, my respected client, Mr. Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir!" replied Emily, a slight tremor creeping through
+her frame; "pray deliver it at once."</p>
+<p>"It is simply to say your immediate presence at your late
+residence is necessary."</p>
+<p>"Where did you see my uncle?" asked she.</p>
+<p>"At Bellevue, madam, yesterday morning. I arrived at eleven
+o'clock to-day."</p>
+<p>"When did Mr. Dumont return from his journey up the river?"
+asked Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>De Guy reflected a moment; from the shade of displeasure on his
+countenance, it was evident he disliked the interference of the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"About four days ago."</p>
+<p>"When did you last see your uncle, Miss Dumont?" asked the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"I have not seen him since the second day of our
+journey,"&mdash;which was the time that Jaspar had been left at the
+wood-yard.</p>
+<p>"Probably, then, he has returned to Bellevue. It is singular
+that, under the instructions of the will, he should leave you in
+this unceremonious manner."</p>
+<p>"Not at all," interrupted De Guy.</p>
+<p>"You speak as though you were familiar with his motions," said
+Dr. Vaudelier, with a penetrating glance at the attorney.</p>
+<p>"To some extent, I am," replied the silky-toned lawyer, with a
+smile which was intended to declare his own innocence in any of the
+plots of Jaspar. "He has voluntarily acquainted me with some of the
+particulars of this unfortunate affair."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir!"</p>
+<p>"Such is the fact," continued the attorney, with professional
+ease; "he has sent for Miss Dumont in order to effect a
+compromise."</p>
+<p>"A compromise!" exclaimed Emily, with disdain; "there can be no
+compromise, short of restoring, absolutely, my rights!"</p>
+<p>"It is very probable he is quite ready to do so," replied the
+accommodating attorney.</p>
+<p>"May I ask what has produced this singular and sudden change in
+the purpose of my uncle?"</p>
+<p>"Well, madam, it would be difficult to explain the precise
+reasons. His mind seemed troubled; I advised him to unburden to me,
+which he did. The conclusion of the whole matter is, he has taken
+this step by my advice," said De Guy, with an air of the deepest
+humility.</p>
+<p>Emily was somewhat moved, by the revelation of the attorney,
+from the stern reserve she had manifested, and said,</p>
+<p>"I am grateful for your interest in my behalf."</p>
+<p>"Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's
+duty, which is superior to every other gratification."</p>
+<p>"May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?" asked Dr.
+Vaudelier, incredulously.</p>
+<p>"The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was
+not exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt
+obliged to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of
+justice," said the attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful
+whether he was perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.</p>
+<p>"Humph!" said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.</p>
+<p>"Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir,"
+continued De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right
+between this lady and her uncle?"</p>
+<p>"The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont," replied De Guy,
+readily.</p>
+<p>"You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose,
+just as it was in the very act of being consummated, without a
+strong motive."</p>
+<p>"True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel
+Dumont is upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this
+time, of his share in the transaction."</p>
+<p>"Well."</p>
+<p>"And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the
+steamer."</p>
+<p>"True."</p>
+<p>"Was not the re&auml;ppearance, the rising from the dead, of
+this man, quite enough to convince him that all his plans had
+failed?"</p>
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+<p>"The boy had the will!"</p>
+<p>"It is all plain to me," said Emily, more disposed to trust De
+Guy than Dr. Vaudelier was.</p>
+<p>"Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should
+adopt this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save
+him from exposure."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power
+again," suggested Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"I assure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even
+now, at the guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is
+awakened."</p>
+<p>"And well it might be," said the doctor.</p>
+<p>"True," responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of
+honest indignation; "but when we see a man disposed to repent, we
+should be ready to assist him."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents
+of the morning,&mdash;called to mind the feelings which had been
+awakened in the presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full
+force of De Guy's argument.</p>
+<p>"If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done
+his niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means,
+advise her to follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature
+suggests. 'To err is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a
+Christian, and will act in the true spirit of Christianity."</p>
+<p>"I trust she will," responded De Guy, meekly; "I trust she will,
+and, with all convenient haste, try to mitigate his distress."</p>
+<p>"I will! I will!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you will accompany me, as your uncle suggests,"
+insinuated De Guy.</p>
+<p>"There is certainly no need of such haste as this," said the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"Her uncle may change his mind."</p>
+<p>"Then his penitence is not sincere, and he cannot be
+trusted."</p>
+<p>"I should scarcely call it penitence, sir, since it is only the
+fear of discovery which has driven him to this step," said the
+attorney, branching off in to a new school of ethics.</p>
+<p>"I can go in a few days," said Emily. "Captain Carroll, you
+think, is out of danger now?"</p>
+<p>De Guy started, and a scowl of the deepest malignity
+overshadowed his countenance, which had before been that of a meek
+and truthful man. The change was so sudden that he seemed to be a
+man within a man, and the two creatures of an opposite character.
+Neither the doctor nor Emily noticed the start, or the sudden
+change of expression; and the attorney, seemingly aware of the
+danger of wearing two faces, restored the former aspect.</p>
+<p>"I think he is entirely out of danger," replied Dr. Vaudelier,
+in reply to Emily's question. "Perhaps he will be able to accompany
+you in a few days."</p>
+<p>Emily blushed, but made no reply, other than a sweet smile,
+betokening the happiness such an event would give her.</p>
+<p>"I fear, madam, the delay will be dangerous," suggested De Guy,
+who did not relish the proposition of the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Why dangerous? If Mr. Dumont changes his mind, we have the
+means of proving that that miserable will is false."</p>
+<p>"You forget, sir, that Mr. Benson may be lost, and with him the
+will," interposed Emily, whose love of truth did not enable her to
+conceal the weakness of her case.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! Is the will in the hands of a third party?" said the
+attorney, with apparent indifference, while, in reality, he was
+inwardly chuckling with delight.</p>
+<p>"It matters not," replied the doctor; "the lady's case is safe.
+You can inform Mr. Dumont that his niece will present herself in a
+week or ten days."</p>
+<p>"But, my dear sir, the delay will be fatal, both to the lady and
+her uncle," said the attorney, with alarm.</p>
+<p>"It cannot be helped," said the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont's health, I fear, will render it unsafe to wait so
+long. Miss Dumont does not wish her uncle to die unforgiven."</p>
+<p>"I will go, sir; I will go at once," exclaimed Emily, shocked at
+the condition of Jaspar, and anxious, as was her nature, to relieve
+the sufferings he must endure in her absence. She forgot how basely
+he had wronged her&mdash;how he had attempted her life; the divine
+sentiment, "Love your enemies," prevailed over every other
+consideration.</p>
+<p>"Die unforgiven," muttered the doctor. "Is he sick?"</p>
+<p>"He is, sir, and near his end."</p>
+<p>"Why have you not mentioned this circumstance before? It seems
+of sufficient importance to merit a passing word."</p>
+<p>"I wished not to distress the lady. I think I hinted that he was
+in great distress."</p>
+<p>"I fear some evil, Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Be assured, sir, if Mr. Dumont meditates any further wrong, he
+has not the power of putting it into effect. He is prostrate upon
+his bed, and if his niece does not see him soon, it will be too
+late, if it is not so already. The stricken man must soon stand for
+judgment in another world," said De Guy, solemnly.</p>
+<p>"This alters the case," said the doctor, musing.</p>
+<p>"But, sir," continued the attorney, "I was aware that, after
+what has happened, my mission would be attended with many
+difficulties, and I have not come unprepared to overcome them. I do
+not wonder that you have no confidence,&mdash;I confess I should
+not have, under like circumstances. You know Dr. Le Verier?" and
+the attorney drew from his pocket a bundle of papers, and opening
+one, he glanced at the signature upon it, as he pronounced the
+name.</p>
+<p>"I do, very well," replied the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Our family physician!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>"Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle's physical
+condition," said De Guy, handing her the paper.</p>
+<p>Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Very satisfactory," said he; "you will pardon me for doubting
+your word&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't mention it, sir," replied De Guy, blandly. "I fully
+appreciate your motive, and honor you for it. And you know Mr.
+Faxon?"</p>
+<p>"O, yes&mdash;what of him," said Emily, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"A letter from him," replied De Guy, giving her the missive.</p>
+<p>Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents,
+the attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude
+such as attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if
+the pockets of the latter be empty.</p>
+<p>"I will go immediately!" exclaimed Emily, as she finished
+reading the letter. "Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a
+different man, and is ready to restore all my rights."</p>
+<p>"Finally," said De Guy, "here is your uncle's own signature.
+This letter I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty,
+signed his name."</p>
+<p>Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would
+restore all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to
+return to Bellevue with all possible haste. Emily recognized the
+signature, though it was apparently written by the trembling hand
+of a dying man.</p>
+<p>"The papers are quite satisfactory," said Dr. Vaudelier, as he
+completed the reading of the note from Jaspar. "If you had
+presented them at first, I should have been spared my uncourteous
+suspicions. But you will pardon them, and consider that the lady's
+case requires the utmost caution."</p>
+<p>"It was only in deference to the lady's nerves that I broke the
+intelligence gradually. I was quite willing to sacrifice myself,
+for the moment, in your good opinion, for her sake. I trust you
+will appreciate and regard my motives, as I do yours."</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of
+Emily's returning to Bellevue with De Guy. But a death-bed scene
+was a difficult thing to reason against, and he was obliged to
+yield the point before the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more
+calm persuasions of Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the
+party should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in
+relation to their departure.</p>
+<p>At the mention of Hatchie's name, the attorney grew marvellously
+uneasy, and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed
+him to the island was waiting for him. He therefore proposed that
+Dr. Vaudelier should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning,
+which was readily agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat,
+without confronting the mulatto.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Jaffier</i>. O,
+Belvidera!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Belvidera</i>. Why was I last
+night delivered to a villain?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Jaffier</i>. Ha! a
+villain?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Belvidera</i>. Yes, to a
+villain!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>Agreeably to the arrangement of the previous night, Emily was on
+board of the "Montezuma," prepared to commence her journey to
+Bellevue. While De Guy conducted Emily to the ladies' cabin,
+Hatchie was getting her few articles of baggage on board, and the
+boat was fairly under weigh without the faithful mulatto's having
+had a sight of the new protector of Emily. The attorney
+congratulated himself on this circumstance; his mind had thus been
+released from the pressure of a most painful anxiety. His plan was
+now accomplished.</p>
+<p>But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy,
+however, now that they were free from the friends of Emily, no
+longer dreaded it.</p>
+<p>The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of
+his mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced
+the fact. His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking
+tone he had heard at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned
+to look upon the speaker, and was confounded to behold the very
+person who had plotted with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a
+presence of mind which never deserted him, he held his peace,
+resolved not to frighten his mistress by exposing the fact.</p>
+<p>Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy
+had conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in
+a quandary,&mdash;a worse quandary than the congressional hero of
+Kentucky has described in any of his thousand relations of
+hair-breadth escapes. His mistress was fairly committed to her new
+destiny, and how could he extricate her?</p>
+<p>He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,&mdash;to
+watch unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case
+of necessity. The papers which De Guy had brought from Bellevue,
+and which he heard described by the doctor, did much to assure him
+that no evil was intended towards her; but the man who had been a
+villain once was, in his opinion, exceedingly apt to be so
+again.</p>
+<p>Emily was ill at ease during the passage; not that she felt
+unsafe, or dreaded treachery, but something seemed to whisper that
+evil <i>might</i> be near her. An undefined sensation of doubt
+seemed to beset her path, and urge upon her the unpleasant
+necessity of extreme caution. She was conscious of being engaged in
+a good work. She had forgiven her great enemy, and was now on her
+way to smooth his dying pillow. There was something lofty and
+beautiful in the thought, and she derived much consolation from
+it.</p>
+<p>De Guy rarely intruded himself upon her notice during the
+passage. At meal-hours he was scrupulously polite and attentive,
+but he was as cold and formal as she could desire. She never
+ventured upon the promenade deck, unless her faithful Hatchie was
+near.</p>
+<p>The mulatto, with all his watchfulness, was unable to discover
+any indications of treachery on the part of De Guy, though an
+apparently confidential conversation with the captain of the
+steamer, on the night before their arrival at New Orleans, had
+rather an unfavorable appearance.</p>
+<p>It was late at night when the Montezuma arrived at New Orleans.
+The steamer quietly took her berth at the levee, so that few of the
+passengers took any notice of their arrival, and contentedly turned
+over in their berths to wait the advent of the coming day.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, who occupied a room near the boiler deck, had been
+awakened by the confusion of making fast the steamer. His watchful
+vigil over the safety of his mistress did not permit him to slumber
+while the possibility of danger existed. He had, therefore, risen;
+but scarcely had he completed his dress, when the door of his room
+was suddenly opened, and himself violently seized by two stout men.
+The attack had been so sudden, and the movements of the assailants
+so well directed, that resistance was hopeless. Before he fully
+realized the presence of his foes, his hands were pinioned behind
+him. In this condition, without knowing why or by whom he was
+assailed, he was hurried away to the calaboose.</p>
+<p>At an early hour in the morning carriages and drays began to
+assemble on the levee, and all the noise and bustle of landing
+passengers, baggage and freight, commenced.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, as soon as it was fairly light, rose from her
+couch, and made her preparations to leave the steamer. Fully
+equipped for her journey to Bellevue, she entered the cabin, where
+De Guy soon presented himself.</p>
+<p>"Where is Hatchie?" was the first question she asked; for
+Hatchie had always been on the spot whenever and wherever she
+needed his services.</p>
+<p>"I have taken the liberty to send him up to the St. Charles with
+your luggage. You will, of course, breakfast there," said the
+attorney, blandly.</p>
+<p>"Such was not my intention," replied she, as a cold
+tremor&mdash;she knew not why&mdash;agitated her.</p>
+<p>"I am sorry to have mistaken your purpose; the ride to Bellevue
+is a long one to take without any refreshment."</p>
+<p>"I mind it not; my haste is too great to admit of any
+delay."</p>
+<p>"I sent by your servant to order an early breakfast, and a
+carriage at seven o'clock."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I will conform to the arrangement you have made,"
+replied Emily, with a dissatisfied air.</p>
+<p>A carriage was called from the mass which had congregated, whose
+drivers were not a whit behind those of the metropolitan city in
+earnest perseverance; and De Guy assisted her into it, seating
+himself at a respectful distance on the forward seat.</p>
+<p>Now, the act of engaging a cab or a carriage is of itself quite
+an easy matter; but we question whether passengers are generally as
+well suited as in the present instance. Without troubling the
+worthy Mr. De Guy with any foolish queries as to where he should
+drive them, the Jehu mounted his box, and conducted his team
+apparently to the entire satisfaction of his fare. It may be that
+the intelligent driver had a way of divining the wishes of his
+customers; or it may be that De Guy, in deference to any supposed
+repugnance to business matters on the part of his companion, had
+previously discussed this topic. Without any design of prejudicing
+the reader's mind in favor of the latter supposition, we confess
+our inclination to accept it as correct.</p>
+<p>Emily vainly attempted to assure herself that her companion was
+conducting her in good faith to the home of her early years. An
+undefined feeling of insecurity was painfully besetting her,
+whichever way she turned. She considered and reconsidered the
+evidences he had brought to Cottage Island of the truth of his own
+statements, and of his own trustworthiness. It was all in vain.
+Could those papers have been forgeries? It was a terrible thought
+to her.</p>
+<p>The carriage stopped, and the attorney invited her to alight.
+Change&mdash;anything, was a relief to the painful sensations which
+had almost overpowered her, and without reflection she did so. Her
+faculties were so confused she did not notice that it was not the
+private entrance of the St. Charles. She took everything for
+granted, and accepted the offered arm of De Guy. She crossed the
+broad side-walk, and, raising her eyes, was overwhelmed by seeing
+at the side of the door she was about to enter the sign of
+"<i>Anthony Marwell, Attorney and Counsellor at Law</i>."</p>
+<p>"Please to walk up stairs," squeaked the attorney, drawing her
+after him to the inside of the door, which he immediately closed
+and bolted.</p>
+<p>"Not a step further, sir!" said she, with as much firmness as
+she could command. "What means this? Am I again betrayed?"</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, madam, walk up quietly," said De Guy, in a soothing
+tone, as he applied a little gentle force to the arm he held.</p>
+<p>"Unhand me, sir!" screamed Emily, as loud as her agitated
+condition would permit.</p>
+<p>But De Guy heeded her not; and, without condescending to utter
+another word, he took her up like a child, and bore her up the
+stairs to Maxwell's office. Turning the key to prevent
+interruption, he opened the lawyer's private apartment in the rear,
+and placed the fainting girl upon the bed, and retired.</p>
+<p>Unlocking the office door, he was confronted by an old negress,
+who had charge of the sweeping and cleaning department of the
+building.</p>
+<p>"Sar! what's all dis about?" screamed she, in no gentle tone;
+for the colored lady had witnessed De Guy's achievement from the
+stair-case above.</p>
+<p>"Hush, Dido&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sar! who are you dat come inter Massa Maxwell's room widout no
+leave?"</p>
+<p>"Never mind who I am, Dido. There is a lady in the bedroom, by
+whom Mr. Maxwell sets his life&mdash;do you hear?&mdash;sets his
+life. She has fainted, and you must take care of her,"&mdash;and De
+Guy slipped a half-eagle into the negress' hands.</p>
+<p>"Dat alters de case," said the black lady, eying the money with
+much satisfaction. "Massa Maxwell's a sly dog. I take good care ob
+de lady&mdash;not de fus time, nuder."</p>
+<p>"Don't let her get away; take good care of her, and you shall
+have half a dozen just such pieces."</p>
+<p>"Never fear, Massa, I's use to de business."</p>
+<p>De Guy left the building, satisfied, it would seem, of the
+negress' fidelity.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"<i>Lieut</i>. Forgive me, sir, what I'm compelled t' obey: An
+order for your close confinement.</p>
+<p>"<i>King H</i>. Whence comes it, good lieutenant?</p>
+<p>"<i>Lieut</i>. Sir, from the Duke of Gloster.</p>
+<p>"<i>King H</i>. Good-night to all, then!" SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Connected with the estate at Bellevue, of which Jaspar Dumont
+was now in actual possession, was a small slave jail. It had been
+constructed under the immediate direction of Jaspar, to afford a
+place of confinement for the runaway or refractory negroes of the
+plantation. It was located at some distance from the proprietary
+mansion, and from the quarters of the negroes. Jaspar's taste in
+matters of this kind was of the most refined character, and he had
+caused it to be constructed on a plan and in a manner that would
+seem to bid defiance to the skill of a Baron Trenck, or a Stephen
+Burroughs. The material was granite, brought at no trifling expense
+from the North. There were no windows upon the sides, and only one
+entrance, which was secured by double iron doors. Light and air
+were supplied, in meagre quantities, by means of a skylight in the
+roof, which was regulated by a cord passing down upon the
+outside.</p>
+<p>This jail, either by accident or design, was so constructed that
+any noise inside was not transmitted to the outside. Whether this
+was because of the reflecting properties of the walls, which might
+have sent the sound echoing out at the skylight on the apex of the
+four-sided roof, or because of some other natural causes, we shall
+not take up the reader's time in discussing. Its inmates might
+startle Heaven with their cries, but certainly every ear on earth
+below must be deaf to their wail. This circumstance seemed typical
+of the actual fact of oppression; but we are sure that Jaspar never
+meant to typify the groans, by man unheeded, of the victims of
+tyranny ascending to be heard above.</p>
+<p>It was the day after the events related in the last chapter, and
+the negro jail was tenanted; but not by a refractory or a runaway
+slave. It was now devoted to a more dignified purpose, being
+occupied by a white man and his wife, the victims of Jaspar
+Dumont's hatred and fears. They had already been prisoners for the
+past forty-eight hours. No sound from the wide, wide world without
+had reached them; and, though the man had shouted himself hoarse in
+endeavors to arrest the attention of any casual passer-by, the
+sound of his voice had risen to Heaven, but had not been heard by
+any mortal ear.</p>
+<p>On a heap of dirty straw, in one corner, lay a female. She was
+feeble and helpless. By her side, gazing sadly upon her, was her
+companion, pale and haggard, and apparently conquered in spirit.
+The sufferings of the frail being by his side seemed to pierce him
+to the soul. He felt not for himself; his thoughts, his feelings,
+all were devoted to her, whom he had loved and respected through
+many vicissitudes, whose kindly sympathy had cheered his heart in
+many of the severest of earth's trials. They had passed through
+peril and poverty together, and now the cup of tribulation seemed
+full to the brim. They were doomed to death,&mdash;not to the death
+of the malefactor, but as victims of private interest. No friendly
+jailer had been near, to bring them even a cup of cold water to
+assuage their consuming thirst. Not a morsel of food had they
+tasted since their incarceration! The terrible doom to which they
+were consigned was too apparent; there was nothing to foreshadow
+even the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with
+their inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was
+equal to any crime which his own safety demanded.</p>
+<p>The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her
+companion bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his
+sunken eyes, he imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.</p>
+<p>"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.</p>
+<p>"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a
+single drop of cold water!"</p>
+<p>"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?"
+exclaimed Dalhousie,&mdash;for it was he,&mdash;striking his hands
+violently upon his forehead.</p>
+<p>"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!&mdash;I am
+ready to die," said she, faintly.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to
+permit his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible
+situation of his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail
+with long strides, gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate
+remedy for his woes. Escape had scarcely presented itself to his
+mind. He had not the energy of character which rises superior to
+every ill, and had bent himself supinely to the fate which awaited
+him. To work through the solid walls of the jail seemed to him an
+impossibility, even if provided with the necessary implements. The
+scheme was too vast for his mind, unaccustomed, as it was, to
+contend with great difficulties.</p>
+<p>Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him,
+armed with energy to break through every obstacle which might
+oppose him. His feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for
+her relief, and such a demand even his supine nature could not
+resist.</p>
+<p>Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had,
+apparently, been quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel
+with which the earth had been thrown out.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated
+him. "<i>I</i> began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it
+for water," muttered he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced
+digging. Awhile he labored with the energy of desperation; but,
+enfeebled by long fasting, and unused to such severe toil, he soon
+felt his strength give way. It appeared to be his only hope, the
+only ministration of comfort to the loved one beside him, and he
+strove manfully against the weakness which beset him. An hour he
+labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his toil. Overcome by
+his exertions, he seated himself upon the brink of the pit, and
+gave way to the agonizing emotions which filled his soul. A sigh
+from his wife roused him to a new effort, and, partially
+invigorated by the few moments' rest, he again applied himself to
+his task. The ground was of a moist character, and he had every
+encouragement of soon finding the coveted treasure. Animated by
+this hope, he redoubled his efforts, and for another hour despair
+nerved his arm, and strengthened his sinking frame. Still the
+buried treasure eluded his search. Exhausted by his exertions, he
+sunk heavily upon the side of the pit, and the big tears coursed
+down his hollow cheeks. Deserted by man, he felt that there was no
+God in heaven; and no divinely-born sentiment came to cheer him in
+the hour of his despondency. He felt that the hand of death must
+soon take him and his loved wife into its cold embrace. With much
+effort he drew himself to her side, and endeavored to compose his
+mind for the struggle with the destroyer.</p>
+<p>Two hours he lay by her side; but his time had not yet come.
+Rested from the severe fatigue he had undergone, he felt a new
+vigor stealing through his frame. Something like hope again flitted
+before his desponding mind, and, partially raising himself from his
+recumbent posture, he gazed about the apartment. The pit he had dug
+was yawning near him. A shudder convulsed his frame, as it reminded
+him of the open grave that gaped to receive him. Had he not dug
+this grave for himself?</p>
+<p>The instinct of self-preservation drew him to his feet. Seizing
+the shovel, he advanced to the pit, when, to his unspeakable
+delight, he perceived that the bottom of it was covered with black,
+dirty water. The sight roused his dormant energies, and he saw
+before him years of life and happiness. Leaping into the pit, he
+drank from the putrid pool, using the palms of his hands for a
+drinking vessel.</p>
+<p>Tearing off the top of his glazed cap, he succeeded in making a
+very tolerable cup of it, with which he conveyed some of the
+precious liquid to the parched lips of his sinking wife. The act
+roused her from the absent mood to which she had abandoned herself.
+She took a long draught of the discolored beverage, and, had it
+been the pure mountain spring, its effect could scarcely have been
+more magical. It not only refreshed the body, but inspired the
+mind. With this dawning hope the poor prisoners built the flimsy
+fabric of future joy and safety.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement.
+Experience, the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him,
+and imparted the strength and resolution which often require years
+to mature. Thoughts, and feelings, and energies, to which he had
+before been a stranger, came bounding through his mind, as the
+mighty river, which, having broken away the feeble barrier man had
+set in its course, roars and thunders down its before forsaken
+path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated by this successful
+act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding to the awful
+fate which awaited him. His best hours&mdash;his hours of
+unimpaired strength&mdash;had now passed away; there was no
+fountain at which he could renew it. But energy now burned within
+him, and, like an invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some
+great act. The impulse was irresistible; hopeless as his case had
+before appeared, he determined to escape. But how? This question
+had not yet presented itself. Escape from the jail!&mdash;from
+death!&mdash;himself,&mdash;more than himself, his wife! Stone
+walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more than downy
+masses, which his breath could blow away.</p>
+<p>Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and
+sounded upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid
+beneath his blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and
+he was about to abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when
+a new thought suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the
+new idea, he impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By
+the side of the wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging,
+with the intention of undermining it. Without a thought of his
+enfeebled body, he plied the shovel with the energy of desperation.
+Instead of making a calm calculation, and proceeding with such an
+economy of strength as would enable him to complete the work, he
+labored as though the task before him could be easily and quickly
+accomplished.</p>
+<p>His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken,
+penetrated the purpose of her husband; but she saw that his
+strength must entirely fail him ere the work could be
+accomplished.</p>
+<p>"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a
+little."</p>
+<p>"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice
+another moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing
+from his labors.</p>
+<p>"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so
+hard."</p>
+<p>"That would be an honorable death, at least."</p>
+<p>"And leave me to linger here?&mdash;No, let us die together, if
+die we must. Perhaps I can help you,"&mdash;and she strove to
+rise.</p>
+<p>"Do not rise, Delia,&mdash;keep quiet; I am strong, and will yet
+deliver you from this dungeon. Lay quiet, dear; do not add to my
+distress."</p>
+<p>"I fear I must lay still,&mdash;I cannot rise," said she,
+sinking back with the exhaustion of the effort.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie threw down his shovel, and hastened to her side.</p>
+<p>"Do not attempt to rise again, dear," said he. "Let me get you
+some more water."</p>
+<p>He again filled the rude cup at the pit, and, after she had
+taken a long draught of it, he laved her head, an operation which
+appeared to refresh her.</p>
+<p>"Do you feel better?"</p>
+<p>"Much better."</p>
+<p>"Now keep perfectly quiet, and I will resume my task."</p>
+<p>"I will; but pray, Francois, do not work so hard; temper your
+enthusiasm with reason. You cannot succeed, unless you are
+careful."</p>
+<p>"I will, dear; I will rest every little while."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie resumed his labor, and, convinced by his wife's
+reasoning, he labored more moderately. While he toils at this
+apparently hopelessly task, we will return to the night when we
+left him in the library, after having obtained possession of the
+secret packet.</p>
+<p>The overseer, after leaving the library, was perplexed to
+determine his future course. He was in possession of a mighty
+secret, a secret which involved his employer's very existence. The
+realization of a thousand golden dreams was at hand, and he was
+resolved, without an over-nice balancing of conscientious scruples,
+to make the most of the information he had obtained. There were two
+methods of procedure open to him, and his perplexity was occasioned
+by this fact. In this instance his resolution was not at fault, for
+the reins were in his own hands. It was not like hewing a path
+through the granite barriers of difficulty, against the very frown
+of destiny. He imagined that some overruling power had made the
+path, and invited him to walk in it.</p>
+<p>Should he make his fortune by means of the uncle or the niece?
+The question of his existence had narrowed itself down to this
+point. It was sure, he felt, from one or the other.</p>
+<p>Being of a naturally generous disposition, with strong
+affections, and having not a little of the natural sense of justice
+in his composition, he was decidedly in favor of permitting the
+niece to enrich him. This was his personal preference; but he was
+sensible of the truth of the axiom, that individual preferences
+must sometimes be sacrificed to the success of the main object;
+and, if the circumstances demanded it, he felt able to make the
+sacrifice.</p>
+<p>If he forwarded the packet to its proper destination, the lady
+would, without doubt, be soon restored to her possessions. This was
+the course he preferred, as well as the course which justice and
+morality demanded. But, alas! his moral sentiment was not
+sufficiently developed to make him pause before taking the opposite
+course, if his present and temporary interest should seem to demand
+it. A departure from the strict injunction of conscience is sure to
+bring misery; and this was doubly true in his case.</p>
+<p>The uncle was in actual possession, and he called to mind the
+old maxim, that "possession is nine points in the law." He was
+unwilling to risk the bright prospects, which had so suddenly
+opened upon him, on the tenth point. Fearing that Jaspar's
+unscrupulous character would enable him to defeat the heiress, he
+had not the courage to do his duty and trust Heaven for the
+reward.</p>
+<p>With this view of his position, he reluctantly&mdash;we will do
+him the justice to say reluctantly&mdash;abandoned the project of
+restoring the niece to her birthright. Thus was the great purpose
+of his life narrowed down to one point, and he retired to his
+pillow to consider in what manner he should approach Jaspar.</p>
+<p>Simple as this single point had before appeared, he found, on
+reflection, that it was environed with difficulties and dangers.
+Jaspar was intrenched in his own castle, and it would require some
+address even to approach near enough to hold a parley. Conclusive
+as were the evidences in his possession of Jaspar's perfidy, they
+might, by the aid of cunning and gold, be made to appear as
+forgeries, gotten up for the purpose of extorting money. The stake
+was a great one, and he determined with a bold hand to play the
+game.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Cassius</i>. At such a
+time as this, it is not meet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">That every nice offence should
+bear its comment.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;You wrong me every way;
+you wrong me, Brutus!"</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont, on the morning after the abstraction of the
+papers by Dalhousie, rose from his inebriated slumbers; but his
+rest was a misnomer. The strong excitement, which a few weeks
+before had served to keep his mind occupied, had now passed away.
+His villany was accomplished; but it had not purchased the
+satisfaction he coveted&mdash;it had cost too much sacrifice of
+soul. Brandy was his only solace; and even this only conjured up
+demons of torture in his fevered imagination.</p>
+<p>He was conscious that on the previous night he had drank too
+much. There seemed to be a chasm in his recollection which all his
+efforts could not fill. He might, while in a measure unconscious of
+his actions, have betrayed some of his momentous secrets. The
+overseer, of whose presence he had an indistinct remembrance, might
+have obtained some further clue to the great mystery. These were
+annoying reflections, and while he resolved to be more temperate in
+future, how fervently he adjured his patron demon to ward off any
+danger he might have courted in his inebriation!</p>
+<p>After his accustomed ride through the cane-fields, he retired to
+the library. The decanter had been replenished with brandy, and his
+late resolutions did not deter him from freely imbibing of its
+contents. The equilibrium was restored. His mind, stimulated by the
+fumes of the liquor, resumed its usual buoyancy. He paced the room,
+and drank frequent draughts of the fiery beverage.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he stopped in his perambulation, as a faint
+recollection of the lost key came to his mind. He searched his
+pockets; but it could not be found. The drawer was locked.
+Suspicious as he was fearful, he trembled lest in his oblivious
+moments he had compromised his secret. He sent for the overseer,
+determined to know and provide for the worst.</p>
+<p>After the messenger left, his reflections assumed a new
+direction. He tried to laugh away his suspicions, applied epithets
+to himself which it would not have been safe for another to have
+applied, and in good round oaths cursed his own stupidity. In his
+privacy he was a pattern of candor, and bestowed upon himself such
+a rating as, to another, would have given fair promise of good
+results.</p>
+<p>He satisfied himself that the drawer could contain nothing to
+implicate him; and, even if it did, why, he was safe enough in the
+hands of Dalhousie. The overseer he regarded as a kind of
+<i>thing</i>, who, while he retained him in his service, would
+never injure him. Jaspar, for some reason or other, had formed no
+very elevated opinion of Dalhousie's acuteness. He had bought him
+off cheaply once, and could do so again. If he refused to be bought
+off cheaply,&mdash;and Jaspar grated his teeth at the
+reflection,&mdash;why, a method could be devised to get rid of
+him.</p>
+<p>While engaged in these musings, a knock at the door startled him
+to his feet. It was not the overseer's knock.</p>
+<p>A servant announced a strange gentleman, who declined to give
+his name.</p>
+<p>"Show him in," said Jaspar, re-seating himself, and striving to
+assume a tranquillity which did not pervade his mind. Since the
+consummation of his base scheme he had been a prey to nervous
+starts, and the announcement of a stranger stirred the blood in its
+channels, and sent his heart into his throat. This nervous
+excitement had been increasing upon him every day, and his devotion
+to the bottle by no means tended to allay it. Such are the
+consequences of guilt. If the victim, before he yields to
+temptation, could anticipate the terrible state of suspense into
+which his guilt would plunge him,&mdash;if he could see only a
+faint reflection of himself, starting at every sound in nervous
+terror, as before the appearance of some grim spirit of
+darkness,&mdash;he would never have the courage to commit a
+crime.</p>
+<p>The stranger entered the library. It was De Guy. At his
+appearance Jaspar's fears gave way to a most uncontrollable fit of
+passion.</p>
+<p>"Villain!" exclaimed he, "how dare you enter my house, after
+what has passed?"</p>
+<p>"Gently, my dear sir! You forget that we have been friends, and
+that our mutual safety requires us to remain so still," said De
+Guy, in his silky tone and compromising manner.</p>
+<p>Jaspar compressed his lips, and grated his teeth, while a
+smothered oath escaped him. But his rage soon found a more audible
+expression.</p>
+<p>"Friends!" By &mdash;&mdash;, I should think we had been
+<i>friends!</i>" said he, fiercely.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, my dear sir,&mdash;<i>friends</i>."</p>
+<p>"Then save me from my friends!"</p>
+<p>"Better say your enemies! I fear you have a great many."</p>
+<p>"Save me from both! May I ask to what fortunate circumstance I
+am indebted for the honor of this visit?" said Jaspar,
+sarcastically mimicking the silky tones, of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"I came to forward our mutual interest."</p>
+<p>"Then, by &mdash;&mdash;, you can take yourself off! You and I
+will part company."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, this is ungenerous, after I have assisted you into
+your present position, to treat me in this manner," replied the
+attorney, smilingly shaking his head.</p>
+<p>"I am <i>not</i> indebted to you for my life, or my position!
+You have been a traitor, sir!&mdash;a traitor! and, tear out my
+heart, but I will swing, before I have anything further to do with
+you!" roared Jaspar, with compound emphasis, as he rose from his
+chair, and advanced to the brandy-bottle.</p>
+<p>"Gently, Mr. Dumont, gently! Do not get into a passion! May I
+ask what you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?"
+interrogated the attorney, with a smile of assurance.</p>
+<p>"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed
+shabby trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."</p>
+<p>"My <i>dear</i> sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily,
+I trust?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."</p>
+<p>"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit,"
+returned the attorney, complacently.</p>
+<p>"Do you take me for an idiot?"</p>
+<p>"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit
+such a supposition."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in
+spite of himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the
+time, then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will
+pardon the little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own
+views."</p>
+<p>Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
+companion.</p>
+<p>"Explain yourself," said he.</p>
+<p>"Everything has come out right,&mdash;has it not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"You are in quiet possession?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
+wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey,
+all your hopes would have been blasted."</p>
+<p>"I do not understand you."</p>
+<p>"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of
+anxiety beclouded his brow.</p>
+<p>"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness
+with which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.</p>
+<p>The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
+ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's
+belief, and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was
+not, however, so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on
+the subject.</p>
+<p>"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of
+doubt or anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her
+boiler."</p>
+<p>"Well!"</p>
+<p>"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were
+lost,&mdash;were they not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have
+shared their fate."</p>
+<p>"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked
+Jaspar, with a sneer.</p>
+<p>"Exactly so!"</p>
+<p>"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as
+this?"</p>
+<p>"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the
+attorney, convincingly.</p>
+<p>Jaspar looked incredulous, and resorted to the brandy-bottle,
+which seemed to bear the same relation to him that the oracle of
+Delphi did to the ancient Greeks.</p>
+<p>"You do not think me capable of <i>inventing</i> such a story, I
+trust," said De Guy, seriously.</p>
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! you have joined the church, haven't you, since we
+met last?"</p>
+<p>"I see, sir, you think, because I assisted you in your plans,
+that I have no honor, no conscience, no humanity. Why, sir, what I
+have done for you was only a duty which my religion demanded of
+me."</p>
+<p>"Your creed must be an original one!" replied Jaspar, with a
+sickly laugh.</p>
+<p>"It <i>is</i> an original one. You thought yourself better
+entitled to your brother's property than this giddy girl. So did I;
+and it was my duty to see justice done. A matter of conscience with
+me, upon my honor."</p>
+<p>"Enough of this!" said Jaspar, sternly, for a joke soon grew
+stale with him.</p>
+<p>"Be it so; but remember the story is true."</p>
+<p>"And you did me the favor to blow up the steamer!" sneered
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"At the risk of my own life, I did. I bribed the firemen to
+crowd on the steam, and the engineers to keep down the
+safety-valve,&mdash;all under the excitement of a race, though with
+special reference to your interest."</p>
+<p>"Was this part of your creed, too?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," and the attorney launched out into a dissertation
+of theology and kindred topics, with which we will not trouble the
+reader.</p>
+<p>Jaspar heard it not, for he was busy in considerations of a less
+metaphysical character. He was thinking of his present position,
+and of the overseer, whose step he heard on the veranda.</p>
+<p>"I see," said he, interrupting De Guy, "you have been my
+friend."</p>
+<p>This remark was the result of his deliberations. He might need
+the services of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"I expect my overseer on business in a moment," continued he,
+"and I should like to see you again, after he has gone. May I
+trouble you to step into this room for a few moments?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," replied De Guy, who was congratulating himself on
+his success in conciliating the "bear of Bellevue," as he styled
+him among his boon companions.</p>
+<p>Jaspar closed the door upon the attorney, and was in the act of
+lighting a cigar, when Dalhousie entered. The overseer endeavored
+to discover in the countenance of his employer some indications of
+his motive in sending for him; but Jaspar maintained a perfect
+indifference, which defeated his object, Neither spoke for several
+moments; but at last the overseer, embarrassed by the silence,
+said,</p>
+<p>"You sent for me, Mr. Dumont?"</p>
+<p>"I did," said Jaspar, suddenly, as though the words had roused
+him from his profound abstraction; "I did; one of my keys is
+missing, so that I cannot open the drawer. You arranged its
+contents, I believe."</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Dalhousie, flustered, for he was not so deeply
+skilled in the arts of deception as to carry them on without some
+compunction; "but I left the key in the drawer."</p>
+<p>"You see It is not there," said Jaspar, fixing his sharp gray
+eye upon the overseer.</p>
+<p>"It is not," said Dalhousie, advancing to the secretary.
+"Probably it has fallen upon the floor&mdash;" and he stooped down
+to look for it.</p>
+<p>Jaspar watched him in silence, as he felt about the floor. The
+overseer was in no haste to find it, though his eyes were fixed on
+it all the time.</p>
+<p>"Didn't you put it into your pocket, by mistake?" suggested
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Certainly not," replied Dalhousie; "here it is;" and, picking
+up the key, he handed it to Jaspar. "I was certain I left it
+here."</p>
+<p>Jaspar felt much relieved.</p>
+<p>"Sorry to have troubled you," said he, "but I wanted a
+paper&mdash;" and he rose and opened the drawer, as if in quest of
+it.</p>
+<p>"No trouble at all," returned the overseer. "Now that I am here,
+a few words with you would be particularly agreeable to me."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's curiosity was instantly excited, and, forgetting the
+paper and De Guy, he requested him to proceed immediately with his
+business.</p>
+<p>"It is a matter of much interest to both of us," continued
+Dalhousie, embarrassed by the difficulties of his position.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, go on," said Jaspar, impatiently, for the overseer's
+hesitation had rather a bad odor.</p>
+<p>"I may as well speak bluntly and to the point," stammered
+Dalhousie, still reluctant to state his business.</p>
+<p>"Why don't you? I am not a sentimental girl, that you need make
+a long preface to your oration."</p>
+<p>"I will, sir. Every man is in duty bound to consider his own
+interest&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, by all means. Go on."</p>
+<p>"In regard to your relations with your niece&mdash;" and
+Dalhousie paused again.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's reddening face and the curl upon his lip indicated the
+volcano of passion which would soon burst within him.</p>
+<p>"Proceed, sir," said he, struggling to be calm.</p>
+<p>"In regard to your relations with your niece, you are aware that
+I am somewhat acquainted with them."</p>
+<p>"I am; I hope you do not know too much for your own good. You
+know I am not to be trifled with."</p>
+<p>"I am not concerned for my own safety," replied Dalhousie, a
+little stung by the implied threat of Jaspar; "but I wish to
+provide for your safety. I intend to go to France."</p>
+<p>"I do not prevent you."</p>
+<p>"I lack the means."</p>
+<p>"And you wish me to furnish them?"</p>
+<p>"I do."</p>
+<p>"And how large a sum do you need?"</p>
+<p>"A pretty round sum. I will keep entirely away from this part of
+the country, so that you need not fear me."</p>
+<p>"Fear you!" sneered Jaspar, rising and draining a glass of
+brandy. "I fear no man, no devil, no angel!"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you are not aware that your reputation is in my
+hands."</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir," said Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>"Know, then, that I have a copy of the genuine will, and the
+means of attesting it!"</p>
+<p>Jaspar was prepared for almost anything, but this was too much.
+He paced the room with redoubled energy. His bravado had vanished,
+and he was as near pale as his bloated visage could approach to
+that hue. He strode up and down the room in silence, while his
+heart beat the reveille of fear. For a time his wonted firmness
+forsook him, and he felt as weak as a child, and sunk back into a
+chair.</p>
+<p>By degrees he grew calmer. The case was a desperate one. Again
+he swallowed a long draught of brandy, which seemed to reduce his
+nerves to a state of subjection. Gradually he rallied the
+dissipated powers of his mind, and was ready to meet the emergency
+before him.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, after making his appalling announcement, had thrown
+himself into a chair, to await the effect of his words. He seemed
+in no hurry to continue the subject. Thus far the effect warranted
+his most sanguine hopes of the realization of his great
+schemes.</p>
+<p>Jaspar, after recovering some portion of his former calmness,
+said,</p>
+<p>"May I ask how you obtained possession of the document?"</p>
+<p>"That question, sir, I must decline answering."</p>
+<p>"You will, at least, show me the paper?"</p>
+<p>"That also I must decline."</p>
+<p>Jaspar bit his lip.</p>
+<p>"How shall I know, then, that you are not deceiving me?"</p>
+<p>"I assure you that I have the document, and you must trust to my
+honor for the rest."</p>
+<p>"Honor!" exclaimed Jaspar, giving way to his passion. "No one
+but a scoundrel ever talks of his honor! By &mdash;&mdash;, I only
+want to hear that word, to know that the man is a &mdash;&mdash;
+rascal!"</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir, I shall be under the necessity of seeking out
+your niece."</p>
+<p>"My niece!" roared Jaspar, terror-stricken. "Did you not see her
+buried at Vicksburg?"</p>
+<p>"It might have been she, but it is scarcely possible."</p>
+<p>"Hell!" shouted Jaspar, unable to govern his fury. With long
+strides he paced the room, his teeth grating like a madman's, and
+his eyes bloodshot and glaring like those of a demon. His fears
+seemed to arm him with desperate fury.</p>
+<p>"Where is the ring?&mdash;the ring!" said he, stopping in front
+of the overseer. "Didn't you give me her ring?"</p>
+<p>"I gave you a ring," said Dalhousie, calmly.</p>
+<p>"Was it not <i>her</i> ring? Did it not have her initial, and
+her father's hair in it?" and Jaspar flew to the secretary, where
+he had deposited the evidence of his niece's supposed death.</p>
+<p>"There is no longer any need of continuing the
+deception&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Deception! Here is the ring, and here is the letter D. Doesn't
+it stand for Dumont?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all. It stands for Delia, my wife's name, in this
+instance."</p>
+<p>"Your wife's name!" exclaimed Jaspar, striking his forehead
+furiously.</p>
+<p>"It does, sir, and for her mother's name also, whose memory it
+was intended to commemorate."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's emotions were so violent, that the overseer began to
+fear some fatal consequences might ensue.</p>
+<p>"Calm yourself, Mr. Dumont. Do not let your passions overcome
+you. I have no intention of making an evil use of this
+information," said he, in a soothing tone.</p>
+<p>This seemed to calm the violence of Jaspar's feelings, and with
+a strong effort he recovered his command of himself.</p>
+<p>"My niece Is yet alive, is she?" said Jaspar, looking anxiously
+at the overseer.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; but probably she is."</p>
+<p>"And it was not she that was buried?"</p>
+<p>"As to that, I cannot say; I never saw the lady alive."</p>
+<p>"And what are your plans?" asked Jaspar, with a glance of doubt
+at the overseer.</p>
+<p>"I will go to France, if you provide the means."</p>
+<p>"Suppose I will not?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps your niece will."</p>
+<p>"What if she is dead?"</p>
+<p>"I can better tell when I know that she is dead."</p>
+<p>"How much money do you require?"</p>
+<p>"Twenty thousand."</p>
+<p>"A large sum."</p>
+<p>"From millions your niece would gladly give more."</p>
+<p>"I will think of your proposition. Come in again in two hours,
+and you shall have my answer."</p>
+<p>"Better give me an answer now."</p>
+<p>"I wish to consider."</p>
+<p>"You have only to choose between twenty thousand dollars and the
+whole fortune. With your means at command, much reflection is not
+needed."</p>
+<p>"Show me the papers, and I will decide at once."</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Then I must consider whether your pretensions are well
+founded."</p>
+<p>"I will not be over nice; but any attempt to play me false shall
+rest heavily on your own head."</p>
+<p>"Honor!" said Jaspar, with something like a smile, but more like
+a sneer.</p>
+<p>With compressed lips, and the scowl of a demon, Jaspar witnessed
+the departure of the overseer. His case looked desperate, and he
+felt something like the gloominess of despair. Dalhousie could be
+disposed of, but the niece!&mdash;the niece, if she yet lived,
+would be the destruction of all his avaricious schemes.</p>
+<p>As usual when agitated, he paced the room; and, as he reflected
+upon the danger, and the desperate remedies which suggested
+themselves, his manner grew more and more demoniacal. He resolved
+to trust no man. This was a dark thought, and could proceed only
+from the darkest mind.</p>
+<p>The twenty thousand dollars he could pay; but the man who had
+such a hold upon him would never be satisfied while a dollar
+remained. And revenge was sweet! No! Dalhousie must not be
+<i>bought</i> off! It was a feast to his mind to anticipate the
+torture of the overseer!</p>
+<p>An exclamation of satisfaction escaped him, as he suddenly
+decided upon the means of torture. In imagination he could see
+before him <i>the thing</i>, who had dared to threaten him,
+lingering out the moments of a hated life in slow agony. The vision
+was one of pleasure, and he rubbed his hands with delight.</p>
+<p>The means of accomplishing his dark purpose then came up for
+consideration, and in this connection he happened to think of De
+Guy. He must be the minister of his vengeance, and the herald of
+his future safety; and he summoned him again to his presence.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Thou hast stepped in between
+me and my hopes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And ravished from me all my soul
+held dear."&nbsp; ROWE.</span></p>
+<p>De Guy returned to the library at Jaspar's summons. The shrewd
+attorney at once perceived the conflict which agitated the mind of
+his patron. He had come to Bellevue with a purpose, and, as
+Jaspar's disturbed mind seemed to favor that purpose, he hailed it
+as an omen of success. But what had so agitated him? Jaspar was not
+a man to be depressed by any trivial circumstance.</p>
+<p>The attorney did not have to wait long in suspense, for Jaspar
+related the particulars of his interview with Dalhousie, and
+mentioned the price he had named to insure his silence. It was now
+De Guy's turn to be disturbed. The purpose for which he had come
+was likely to be thwarted by this new aspirant for a share in the
+Dumont estates.</p>
+<p>"What is to be done?" said Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed his
+deep anxiety.</p>
+<p>"Get rid of him! His story is a fabrication," returned De
+Guy.</p>
+<p>"Not entirely. He knows too much for our safety."</p>
+<p>"So much the worse for him!"</p>
+<p>"Why? What would you do?"</p>
+<p>"Shut his mouth! It matters not how. You do not want to&mdash;"
+and the attorney drew his under lip beneath his upper teeth, and
+produced an explosive sound, very much like the crack of a pistol,
+or a champagne-cork, but which Jaspar did not mistake for the
+latter. "You do not want to&mdash;<i>f-h-t</i>&mdash;him, if you
+can help it."</p>
+<p>"It would be the safest way," returned the other, not at all
+embarrassed by the attorney's ambiguous method of expressing
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; though 'dead men tell no tales,' it is also true
+that 'murder will out.' Besides, I have conscientious
+scruples."</p>
+<p>Jaspar sneered at this last remark; but the attorney was too
+useful an adviser at that moment to be lightly provoked, and he
+suppressed the angry exclamation which rose to his lips.</p>
+<p>"How would the slave jail do?" said he, with a fiendish
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Too public. Our object is to save the man's life,&mdash;an act
+of humanity; but we must not endanger our own safety."</p>
+<p>"No mortal man can ever know that he is confined there. The jail
+was built under my own direction, and, owing to its peculiar
+construction, not even the hands on the estate will know that it is
+occupied. I always keep the keys myself."</p>
+<p>"If you are satisfied, it is enough. But how can you get him
+in?"</p>
+<p>"I can manage that, with your assistance," said Jaspar, who had
+already arranged every particular. "But his wife?"</p>
+<p>"His wife! Has he a wife?"</p>
+<p>"Ay; and one who, if I mistake not, will give us more trouble
+than the fellow himself."</p>
+<p>"She must be caged with him."</p>
+<p>"You say well, Mr. De Guy. But can you reconcile this advice
+with your dainty humanity?" said Jaspar, with a sneer.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, I can! It were cruelty to separate man and wife,
+even in death. If I had a wife, I should be sorry to part with her
+under any circumstances."</p>
+<p>Jaspar grinned a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"But the plan!" continued the attorney. "This loving couple will
+not willingly occupy your fancy apartment."</p>
+<p>"Leave that to me. Go to the jail. Here are the keys. I will
+send them to you. When they are in, lock the doors!"</p>
+<p>De Guy smiled.</p>
+<p>"You do not understand me?"</p>
+<p>The attorney confessed that he did not.</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, go to the jail, and wait their coming. Unlock the
+doors, and get out of sight. They will enter, like lambs."</p>
+<p>Jaspar explained a little further, and the attorney took his
+departure to obey his instructions.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>At the time appointed, Dalhousie returned to receive Jaspar's
+reply.</p>
+<p>"You are punctual," said the latter.</p>
+<p>"I am," replied Dalhousie, cavalierly. "This business admits of
+no delay. Are you prepared to give me an answer?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," returned Jaspar, endeavoring to assume a crestfallen
+air.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, do you accept my terms?"</p>
+<p>"I do, on one condition."</p>
+<p>"Name it."</p>
+<p>"It is, that you sign this bond never again to land in America,
+and to preserve entire silence in regard to the information you
+have obtained;" and Jaspar read an instrument he had drawn up, to
+blind the eyes of the overseer.</p>
+<p>"I agree to it."</p>
+<p>"It is well. But a further difficulty presents itself. I have
+not so much money in the world. The estate, perhaps you know,
+consists mostly of real estate, stocks, negroes, &amp;c. I have not
+five thousand dollars by me."</p>
+<p>The overseer looked at Jaspar with a keen, contemptuous glance,
+as if to read any attempt on his part to dupe him; but the wily
+planter moved not a muscle.</p>
+<p>"Then you cannot, if you would, consummate the bargain?" said
+he.</p>
+<p>"I said not so," returned Jaspar. "I only remarked that a
+difficulty had presented itself."</p>
+<p>"Pray explain yourself."</p>
+<p>"The difficulty can be removed."</p>
+<p>"Well, how? What new risk must I run?"</p>
+<p>"No risk. To tell you all in a few words, I have the money in
+gold buried on the estate."</p>
+<p>"That will suit me better. I prefer gold."</p>
+<p>"It is buried three feet under ground, in the slave jail. I
+selected that place to bury it, because I could dig without
+attracting attention."</p>
+<p>"It can easily be brought to light. An hour's work with the
+spade will unearth it."</p>
+<p>"True; but I have not the strength to dig. Besides, I am engaged
+with a friend in the nest room."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie accepted the excuse, for he had seen De Guy, as he was
+walking in the garden, half an hour before.</p>
+<p>"I can dig it up myself. Show me the spot."</p>
+<p>"Very well; but sign the bond first."</p>
+<p>"Of course, if you keep not your faith with me, the bond is
+nothing," said Dalhousie, as he affixed his signature to the paper,
+which Jaspar folded carefully, and put in his pocket.</p>
+<p>"Here are directions which will enable you to find it without
+the necessity of my attending you;" and he handed him a slip of
+paper, upon which were written minute directions to the supposed
+locality of the treasure.</p>
+<p>"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the
+directions, "while I am digging, you should close the doors upon
+me?"</p>
+<p>"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the
+heart belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial
+muscles.</p>
+<p>"I have not the highest confidence in <i>your</i> honor."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you
+any person at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"</p>
+<p>"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the
+mortifying fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.</p>
+<p>"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door,
+and, if she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside
+when I close the door."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the
+fitness of the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt
+it.</p>
+<p>Briefly he narrated to his wife&mdash;though with some
+variations and concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all
+his operations&mdash;the history of the affair, and the good
+fortune that awaited him; and requested her attendance at the jail,
+to stand sentry over the gloomy den, while he dug up the
+treasure.</p>
+<p>De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his
+wife made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in
+a cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie
+walked twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building.
+Stationing his wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the
+locality of the supposed treasure.</p>
+<p>De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when
+the vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the
+exercise of extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching,
+undiscovered, the rear of the jail. Cat-like, he crept to the
+corner, and listened. He could hear their conversation. Carefully
+he stole round to the corner nearest to the door. For an instant
+the wife had left her station, to observe the progress of her
+husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was not the
+man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
+which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he
+flew to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the
+midst of their vision of wealth and happiness.</p>
+<p>Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to
+the mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his
+neighbor's cow. Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently
+waiting his return.</p>
+<p>"Are they safe?" said he.</p>
+<p>"As safe as your jail-walls can make them. Your plan was a
+clumsy one, but I <i>forced</i> it to succeed."</p>
+<p>"Did they not enter without scruple?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but the sentinel."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! did you not know she would desert her post? If she saw
+not danger, she would fear none in the day-time,&mdash;it is
+woman-like."</p>
+<p>"Not always; but it matters not; they are safe. Now to
+business."</p>
+<p>"Business!" exclaimed Jaspar, with a start, and a wild stare at
+the attorney. "The business is done."</p>
+<p>"Not all of it. There are other enemies in the field."</p>
+<p>"What mean you?" said Jaspar, alarmed. "Are we not safe
+yet?"</p>
+<p>"Not quite," replied the smooth attorney, with a quiet smile.
+"The game you played was a deep one, and you must needs persevere
+to the end."</p>
+<p>"Explain yourself, man; don't trifle with me," said Jaspar,
+roused by the smooth smile of the attorney; for that smile seemed
+to him full of meaning.</p>
+<p>"All in good time, my dear sir. Let me beg of you not to be
+discomposed by anything I may say to you."</p>
+<p>Jaspar sneered, but ventured no reply.</p>
+<p>"I have served you faithfully, you must acknowledge."</p>
+<p>"I will acknowledge nothing," said Jaspar, testily.</p>
+<p>"The steamer exploded, you remember," returned De Guy, with an
+expression of sly humor, which Jaspar did not appreciate.</p>
+<p>"I do remember it, by Heaven! But this villanous Dalhousie says
+my niece was not known to have been killed."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so."</p>
+<p>"Sir! Do you mean to say that you <i>know</i> she was not
+lost?"</p>
+<p>"Precisely so."</p>
+<p>"By &mdash;&mdash;! Sir, you have been making a merit of this
+very thing."</p>
+<p>"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a
+particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself
+this morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan
+succeeded admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the
+intention of serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good
+intentions!"</p>
+<p>"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"</p>
+<p>"Did the best that could be done, under the circumstances."</p>
+<p>"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."</p>
+<p>"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of
+happiness and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my
+advice."</p>
+<p>"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will
+be the best that could possibly be given to a man in your
+condition."</p>
+<p>"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the
+smooth words of his companion.</p>
+<p>"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."</p>
+<p>"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day
+without opening your mouth."</p>
+<p>"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."</p>
+<p>"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when
+the girl herself is at hand?"</p>
+<p>"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin,
+always advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to
+other matters."</p>
+<p>"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and
+paying his devoir to the brandy-bottle.</p>
+<p>"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair
+and coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing
+himself lazily upon the sofa&mdash;"I will tell you. The case is
+not desperate yet. How much is the amount of the old colonel's
+property?"</p>
+<p>"How, sir! What mean you?"</p>
+<p>"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable
+<i>sang-froid</i>, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and,
+taking therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent
+vesuvian. Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely
+declined the courtesy, he continued, "It is necessary to our
+further progress that I have this information."</p>
+<p>"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What
+then?" replied Jaspar, doggedly.</p>
+<p>"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more
+than double that sum."</p>
+<p>"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."</p>
+<p>"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.</p>
+<p>"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy,
+calmly.</p>
+<p>"He might possibly have left more."</p>
+<p>"Haven't you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the
+attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one
+perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened
+the drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.</p>
+<p>"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is
+worth more,"&mdash;and he commenced fumbling over the contents of
+the drawer.</p>
+<p>"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains
+out!" said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the
+table.</p>
+<p>"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you
+shall have it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"&mdash;and
+he prepared to depart.</p>
+<p>"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can
+satisfy you, though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the
+subject."</p>
+<p>"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney,
+not at all disconcerted by what had happened.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."</p>
+<p>"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at
+least. Is it not a million and a half?"</p>
+<p>"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps two millions."</p>
+<p>"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.</p>
+<p>"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a
+million and a half."</p>
+<p>"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.</p>
+<p>"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De
+Guy, loud enough to be heard by his companion.</p>
+<p>"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which
+betrayed but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as
+he heard these words.</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and
+one-third of it would be very handsome for you."</p>
+<p>"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very
+grateful to you for allowing me so much."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so. Gratitude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The
+fact is, Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my
+expensive habits, one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a
+single man, and not likely to change your condition at present, so
+that you can have no possible use, either for yourself or for your
+heirs, for any more than one-third."</p>
+<p>"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering
+sneer. "But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion's
+share?"</p>
+<p>"O, but, my dear sir, you will not grumble! Your sense of
+justice will enable you to perceive the equity of this
+division."</p>
+<p>"Enough of this! I am in no humor for jesting," said Jaspar,
+with a frown.</p>
+<p>"Jesting!" exclaimed the attorney, with a well-made gesture of
+astonishment; "I was never more in earnest in my life."</p>
+<p>"May I be allowed to inquire the name of your intended bride?"
+sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"A very proper question; and, considering our intimate
+friendship, a very natural one. Although my intention is a profound
+secret, and one I should not like to have go abroad at present,
+especially as her nearest of kin might possibly object, still I
+shall venture to inform <i>you</i>, since you are to have the honor
+of providing the means of carrying my matrimonial designs into
+effect."</p>
+<p>"I am certainly under obligations for your favorable
+consideration. But the lady's name?"</p>
+<p>"Miss Emily Dumont! a beautiful
+creature&mdash;high-spirited&mdash;every way worthy&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he
+seized the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy.
+"You cursed villain! You and I must cry quits!"</p>
+<p>"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing
+from his pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is
+<i>all</i> mine."</p>
+<p>Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing
+down the pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the
+violence of his emotions.</p>
+<p>"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me.
+There is no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear
+all,"&mdash;and Jaspar felt that he was sold to the fiend before
+him.</p>
+<p>"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney,
+resuming his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the
+moment of peril. "I offer you the means of safety. You will escape
+all the dangers that lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to
+see, you perfectly understand."</p>
+<p>"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his
+forty pieces of silver&mdash;the more fool he, to throw them away!
+I could not do this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my
+money."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice
+too mean for your noble nature."</p>
+<p>Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform
+their office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous
+master.</p>
+<p>"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."</p>
+<p>Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion
+towards which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the
+command was imperative. He could not resist&mdash;his will was
+gone.</p>
+<p>"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.</p>
+<p>"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied
+the attorney, promptly.</p>
+<p>"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you
+will."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the
+honored inmate of our dwelling,&mdash;the affectionate uncle of
+your Emily, as of old," said the attorney, with infinite good
+humor.</p>
+<p>Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the
+stroke of this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no
+time.</p>
+<p>"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing
+a pen, and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have
+already been somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is
+your consent to my union with your niece. Call some one to witness
+it."</p>
+<p>Jaspar signed the certificate, without reading it. A witness was
+called, and the paper in due form was deposited in De Guy's
+pocket.</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, the lady is not altogether willing to consent to this
+arrangement; but you must persuade her, and, if need be, compel
+her, to consent. She will be here in a few days. After the
+marriage, it will only remain for me to make over to you one-third
+of the property, which, as her husband, I can then legally do. Be
+firm, and behave like a man, and your troubles are ended.
+Everything will be hushed up, and you can spend the evening of your
+days in peace and quiet. I bid you good-day."</p>
+<p>The attorney formally and politely ushered himself out of the
+library, and took his departure for New Orleans.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVII.</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Jaffier, you're free; but these must wait for judgment."</p>
+<p>OTWAY.</p>
+</div>
+<p>We left Dalhousie engaged in the seemingly hopeless task of
+undermining the wall of the slave jail, at which he labored for
+several hours, resting at intervals, as his exhausted frame
+demanded. The prospect of realizing his hope encouraged him, and
+lent an artificial strength to his arm. He had already excavated a
+pit several feet in depth, but had not reached the bottom of the
+foundation wall. The quantity of earth piled upon the brink of the
+pit required extra exertion to remove it, but he toiled on with the
+energy of despair.</p>
+<p>After laboring several hours more, he discovered, to his great
+joy, the bottom of the foundation. Again he plied the spade, and,
+by almost superhuman exertions, he succeeded in excavating a hole
+under the stones, which, below the surface of the ground, were not
+laid in mortar. After loosening all the small stones around a
+larger one, he found that he could pry it out, which, with much
+labor, he accomplished. The removal of the other stones was
+comparatively an easy task, and a little time sufficed to clear a
+space up to the solid masonry.</p>
+<p>But here a new difficulty presented itself. The hole he had dug
+was already half filled with the stones he had tumbled from their
+positions. His strength was not sufficient to remove them, and he
+was compelled to dig again, in order to prosecute his labors.</p>
+<p>The wall removed, he commenced digging outside of the foundation
+wall. Patiently he dug down to obtain sufficient room for the
+deposit of earth from the outside. Slowly and laboriously he
+undermined the ground, till the surface above him caved in,
+and&mdash;joy to his panting soul!&mdash;the air, the pure air of
+heaven, rushed in through the aperture! Hastily enlarging the
+cavity, and removing the earth to the inside, he ascended to the
+surface of the ground. A feeling of gratitude thrilled through his
+frame, as he once more inhaled the free air of heaven, that he had
+escaped the terrible fate which a few hours before had seemed
+inevitable.</p>
+<p>With faltering step,&mdash;for now that his Herculean task was
+accomplished, the reality of his weakened physical condition was
+painfully apparent,&mdash;he walked round the jail, to satisfy
+himself that no one was in the vicinity. The sun was set, and the
+shades of night were gathering upon the earth. The time was
+favorable for his escape. Having satisfied himself that he was
+unobserved, he hastened to the garden, which was close at hand, to
+procure the means of invigorating his own body, and restoring to
+life and animation the partner of his captivity. Fruit of various
+kinds&mdash;melons, figs&mdash;rewarded his anxious search. Filling
+his handkerchief with cantelopes and figs, he hastened back to the
+jail, with all the speed his weary limbs would permit. His thoughts
+were fixed upon his wife, whose suffering had pierced his soul more
+deeply than all the anxiety and doubt he had experienced on his own
+account. As he tottered along, he asked himself if he should eat of
+the fruit he carried ere she had tasted of the banquet. He drew one
+of the rosy-cheeked, juicy figs from the handkerchief. It was no
+loss of time&mdash;no deferring of the succor she needed&mdash;to
+eat as he walked; run he could not, though he fain would have
+quickened his tardy pace. It would restore his strength, and enable
+him the better to protect and rescue her. It was not wrong, though,
+from the deep well of his affection, came up something like a
+reproach for his selfishness. He ate the fruit. The effect was, or
+seemed to be, magical. He thought he could feel it imparting
+strength to his exhausted form. Again he ate, and in the pleasant
+sensation to his unsated palate, his imagination, as much as the
+fruit, nerved his muscles, and he walked with a firmer step.</p>
+<p>He had not completed one-half the distance back, when he
+discovered two men in the vicinity of the jail. A cold shudder
+nearly paralyzed him. Was his labor all in vain? Had he with so
+much trial and suffering effected his escape, only to be
+incarcerated again? The thought was maddening, and he resolved to
+die rather than be returned to the dungeon.</p>
+<p>Drawing a revolver from his pocket, with which he had prudently
+prepared himself before his interview with Jaspar, he proceeded on
+his way.</p>
+<p>On a nearer approach, the men appeared to be strangers to him.
+They might, however, be in the employ of Jaspar. They might be
+engaged in watching over his captivity.</p>
+<p>He approached nearer. He had never seen either of them before.
+They did not look like men whom Jaspar would have been likely to
+select for such a purpose as he apprehended. Still, he took the
+precaution to examine the caps upon his pistol, and have his
+bowie-knife in a convenient place for immediate use.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was the first to speak.</p>
+<p>"Your business here?" demanded he, regardless of the courtesy to
+which he had been all his life accustomed.</p>
+<p>"The fact on 'tis," replied one of the strangers, a little
+startled by the rude manner of Dalhousie, "the fact on 'tis, we are
+lookin' arter the mansion of a Mr. Dumont. Perhaps you will oblige
+us by tellin' us which way to go."</p>
+<p>"He lives in yonder house," replied Dalhousie, pointing it
+out.</p>
+<p>The simplicity of the speaker dissipated his apprehensions, and
+his curiosity was excited.</p>
+<p>"You know him, do you?" continued he.</p>
+<p>"Well, no&mdash;I can't say I do."</p>
+<p>"But you have business with him?"</p>
+<p>"Not particularly with him,&mdash;the Lord forbid!" replied the
+stranger, devoutly.</p>
+<p>"Devil a bit with him, at all," added his companion.</p>
+<p>"Since no one else resides under the same roof with him, may I
+ask the reason of your visit there, if I am not too bold?" said
+Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>"Sure, it's only to see the counthry, about here, we've come,"
+replied the Irish stranger.</p>
+<p>"No, Partrick, you know that is not the truth. Never tell a lie
+for anything, Partrick. Our business an't with him, but it consarns
+him. We don't care about mentioning it to everybody."</p>
+<p>"I do not mean to be impertinent," said Dalhousie; "but perhaps
+I may be able to serve you. The man you seek is a villain!"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan,&mdash;for we presume it
+is unnecessary to <i>tell</i> the reader that it was he,&mdash;"I
+know <i>that</i>."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, then you have some knowledge of him?"</p>
+<p>"Sartain! but do you know a minister in these parts by the name
+of Faxon?"</p>
+<p>"I do; he lives close by."</p>
+<p>"Do you belong in this part of this country, Mister?" asked
+Uncle Nathan, who seemed to make the question a prelude to other
+inquiries.</p>
+<p>"I do. But I must leave you now. I am the bearer of life to one
+whom I love dearer than myself. I have been foully wronged by the
+man you visit."</p>
+<p>"Heavens and airth! you don't say so?" exclaimed Uncle
+Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Doomed to a death by starvation, with my wife, in yonder jail,
+by his malice, I have just effected my escape. My wife is nearly
+dead, but I hope to restore her with these fruits."</p>
+<p>"Good Heavens! who would have thought there was such a monster
+upon the airth?"</p>
+<p>"By the powers!" ejaculated Pat Fegan.</p>
+<p>"Can't we help you?" asked Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you can. I thank you, and, if it is not too late, she
+also will thank you. My strength is nearly gone."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, proceeded
+towards the jail, the former relating, as they went, the terrible
+incidents of their captivity, and the means by which he had
+effected their happy deliverance.</p>
+<p>On the night of the explosion of the Chalmetta's boiler, Uncle
+Nathan and Pat Fegan had saved their lives by jumping overboard,
+and had been picked up by the Flatfoot. The true-hearted New
+Englander had made a diligent search for the parties who had
+intrusted the will in his keeping, but without success. He had been
+enabled to gain no tidings of any of them, and was now continuing
+his search to the mansion of the Dumont family.</p>
+<p>The party reached the jail, and Dalhousie leaped into the pit,
+followed by his companions. The poor wife seemed to have no
+realization of the event which had set them free, and gazed with a
+wild stare upon her husband and those who accompanied him.</p>
+<p>"We are safe, Delia! we are safe!" said Dalhousie, as he
+proceeded to untie the bundle of fruit.</p>
+<p>"Safe! no, it cannot be&mdash;only a dream! But who are these
+persons?"</p>
+<p>"They are friends, Delia&mdash;friends who have come to help me
+in saving you. Take one of these figs, dear. They will restore
+you."</p>
+<p>"Figs!" replied Delia, with a vacant look.</p>
+<p>"Yes, dearest; taste it,"&mdash;and he placed the fruit, which
+he had divested of its rind, to her lips.</p>
+<p>The act seemed to restore her wandering mind to its equilibrium,
+and she painfully lifted herself on the pallet of straw, and took
+the fruit in her hand. She gazed upon it with a kind of silent
+rapture, while a faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.</p>
+<p>"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"&mdash;and she
+tasted the fig.</p>
+<p>"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."</p>
+<p>"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to
+eat myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place?
+Are not these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the
+pit you have dug?"</p>
+<p>"No, dearest, they are <i>our</i> friends," said Dalhousie,
+pained by the wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that
+it might end in insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you
+have eaten some of these figs and melons. I am almost restored by
+the joy of this moment, dearest; and you must strive to be of good
+cheer."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle
+Nathan and Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not
+so easily restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to
+have given her constitution a shock from which it would take time
+to recover.</p>
+<p>A conference took place between the parties, to decide upon the
+best means of removing the lady, who was utterly incapable of
+moving a step, and scarcely of lifting her form on her rude couch.
+Uncle Nathan was not long in devising a method; and, directing Pat
+to enlarge the aperture through which the captives were to escape,
+he went in search of some canes, with which to construct a litter.
+Pat applied himself vigorously to his task, tumbling over the huge
+stones like playthings, and handling the shovel with all that
+dexterity for which the Celtic race is so distinguished.</p>
+<p>A rude litter was constructed, on which were laid the coats of
+the party, so as to render it as comfortable as possible to the
+sufferer. Uncle Nathan and Dalhousie, with much tenderness, though
+not without pain to the invalid, succeeded in getting her through
+the aperture into the open air, where she was placed upon the
+litter.</p>
+<p>It was decided to carry her to the house of Mr. Faxon, upon
+whose active sympathies they relied for shelter and assistance; and
+they went with the more confidence, because Uncle Nathan had heard
+from Emily the interest he took in her affairs. The litter was
+borne by Uncle Nathan and Pat, while Dalhousie walked by its side,
+to cheer the heart of his wife by promises of future joy, which the
+uncertain future might never redeem.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon received the party with scarcely an inquiry as to the
+nature of the misfortune which brought them to his door. There was
+a person in distress, and this was all his great, sympathetic heart
+needed to bid him open wide his doors.</p>
+<p>Delia Dalhousie was placed upon a bed, a negro was despatched
+for a physician, and every effort used to alleviate her physical
+and mental sufferings.</p>
+<p>After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon
+listened with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's
+confinement, and the causes which led to it; for the overseer was
+so candid as to relate all, not even omitting the bribe he had
+agreed to take of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when
+they are unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the
+future. Never do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever
+befalls you in this changing world, you will have an approving
+conscience to smile upon you, and lighten the darkest hour of
+adversity. But your tale brings me consolation. There is yet hope
+that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel story of her death has
+darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in spite of the
+reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and I pray
+that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
+unfortunate."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and
+acknowledged the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle
+Nathan heard with astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of
+Emily had been guilty, and his simple New England heart was sorely
+perplexed by it. He had no "idea" of such depravity, and he was
+tempted, even in spite of the Scripture injunction to the contrary,
+to "thank God that he was not like other men."</p>
+<p>In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the
+evening had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to
+broach the subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until
+a late hour, in discussing the means of doing justice to the
+injured, in restoring to Bellevue its rightful mistress.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"To do a great right, do a
+little wrong."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
+Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant
+during her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with
+every luxury the most pampered appetite could desire, her
+confinement deserved no better name. She recognized the place, and
+doubted not she should be again subjected to the infamous
+persecution of her old enemy. She wondered that he had not already
+presented himself, and concluded he could not yet have returned
+from his up-river journey, or he would have done so. No one visited
+her but the negress, whose conversation, in her eagerness to serve
+the liberal proprietor of the office, was disgusting to her refined
+sensibilities. Not oven De Guy came, to give her any intimation of
+the nature of the fate which awaited her.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's mind, she was satisfied, was fixed upon the possession
+of her estates. She could not now entertain the belief which once,
+in her weak pity, she had countenanced, that the attorney could
+<i>love</i> her. O, no! God forbid that even the human heart can
+love, and, at the same time, persecute the object of its
+affections! It was her estates; and she half resolved to compromise
+with her tormentor by yielding him one-half of her property, on the
+condition of his restoring the other half, for she doubted not that
+he was able to do so. But there was something so debasing to her
+sentiment of truth and justice in the fact of bargaining with so
+base a man, that she could not conquer her prejudice, and finally
+determined to suffer everything rather than succumb to the
+villain.</p>
+<p>Hope had not yet abandoned her. She had too much confidence in
+the omnipresent justice of an overruling Providence to doubt that
+all would yet end well.</p>
+<p>Dido was her jailer, and she scarcely left the office, through
+which alone egress was had from the apartment of Emily. There she
+dozed away the day and night, freely indulging in the fashionable
+habit of "imbibing," to chase away the <i>ennui</i> of the heavy
+hours. Her liberal perquisites enabled her to gratify her appetite
+without stint or measure, though a sort of demi-consciousness of
+her responsibility deterred her from an entire abandonment to the
+pleasures of the cup.</p>
+<p>The apartment in which Emily was confined was lighted by windows
+of stained glass, opening into the main office, so that there was
+no immediate connection with the open air. This fact rendered the
+room so secure that Dido rested perfectly easy from the fear of
+interruption, save from the front of the building.</p>
+<p>The colored guardian, having imbibed rather inordinately one
+day, was disposed to court the favor of the sleepy god, and
+stretched herself at full length upon one of the easy lounges of
+the office. Her eyelids opened and closed languidly, as though she
+was about to sink away into dreamy unconsciousness, when she was
+startled by a loud knocking at the door.</p>
+<p>"Who's dar?" shouted Dido, springing to her feet; for a visit to
+the office, at this season of the year, was of rare occurrence.</p>
+<p>"Open the door, Max," responded a voice from the outside.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell not here, sar," said the colored lady, partly
+opening the door.</p>
+<p>"Not here!" returned the visitor, pushing into the office in
+spite of the negress, who was disposed to prevent his entrance.
+"Isn't Max in town?"</p>
+<p>"No sar; he went away to de Norf about a monf ago."</p>
+<p>"Look here, you black imp," said the stranger, in a severe tone,
+"do you mean to say that Max is <i>not</i> in town?"</p>
+<p>"I do, for sartin, sar."</p>
+<p>"And he has left you to practise law for him in his absence?"
+returned the visitor, with a grin.</p>
+<p>"No sar, I takes care ob de buildin."</p>
+<p>"Fudge! Maxwell always shuts up his room when he leaves town;"
+and the stranger walked round the room towards the private
+apartment, much to the consternation of Dido.</p>
+<p>"No, Massa, he tell me, monf ago, to keep de room in order."</p>
+<p>"No doubt he did," returned the stranger, placing his hand on
+the handle of the door, and attempting to open it, which, by Dido's
+precaution, was ineffectual.</p>
+<p>"Is there no one in this room?" asked the gentleman.</p>
+<p>"No sar, de room is locked, and Massa Maxwell hab carry off de
+key."</p>
+<p>The stranger walked several times round the room, and thoroughly
+scrutinized everything; after which, to the entire satisfaction of
+the colored lady, he took his departure. Passing out of the
+building, he crossed the street and entered a coffee-room, at the
+front window of which he seated himself, as if with the intention
+of watching Maxwell's office.</p>
+<p>This person was the reader's old acquaintance, Vernon,&mdash;or,
+more properly, Jerome Vaudelier, whose intervening history we are
+now called upon to relate. It will be remembered that, at the
+request of his father, and at the earnest desire of Henry Carroll,
+as well as by the promptings of his own wish to do justice to the
+heiress, he had gone to Vicksburg, for the purpose of keeping an
+eye on the movements of Maxwell. On his arrival at the hotel, he
+found the attorney, and dined With him; but after dinner he
+suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. All Vernon's inquiries were
+of no avail. The landlord said he had paid his bill, and that was
+the last he had seen of him. Vernon was perplexed, and on learning
+that no boat had left since dinner, he was at a loss which way to
+proceed. Late in the afternoon he obtained, as he thought, some
+clue to him; and he departed, without loss of time, to Jackson,
+whither the attorney was supposed to have gone. His search,
+however, was futile, and he returned to Vicksburg by the morning
+train. Much disheartened, he was compelled to go to Cottage Island
+with the intelligence that his efforts had been foiled. On his
+arrival, he learned, to his astonishment, that Emily had just gone
+to Bellevue in company with De Guy&mdash;a person of whom he had no
+knowledge.</p>
+<p>Though Dr. Vaudelier and Henry Carroll had been satisfied with
+the evidences brought by De Guy, Vernon was not. He knew better
+than they the character of Maxwell, and it was determined that he
+should proceed immediately to New Orleans, to guard against the
+possibility of any evil to which Emily might be subjected.</p>
+<p>On the morning after De Guy's departure, he proceeded down the
+river, and landed in the vicinity of Bellevue, to which he
+immediately made his way. Without a direct application to any one,
+he learned that Emily had not yet arrived. He waited in the
+vicinity another day, but obtained no tidings of her. His worst
+fears were now confirmed. De Guy had deceived them.</p>
+<p>This De Guy, then, was an emissary of Maxwell. To his mind, now
+animated by a high purpose, the reflection was annoying. To the
+fate of Emily his new destiny seemed to be attached. His greatest
+error&mdash;at least, the one most troublesome to his awakened
+conscience&mdash;was the act of oppressing Emily. He felt that the
+washing of the stains from his character depended upon securing her
+rights.</p>
+<p>The <i>ci devant</i> desperado, as we have before indicated, was
+radically changed at heart, and he now felt more interest in the
+welfare of Emily than he had ever before harbored for any human
+being.</p>
+<p>His position was full of embarrassments. He learned, while at
+Bellevue, that Jaspar was not, and had not been, sick. This
+information decided his future course. The mission of De Guy had
+only been a decoy, to lure her into the hands of Maxwell.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was with her; but, alas! what could a slave do against
+the powerful machinations of such a villain as Maxwell?</p>
+<p>After obtaining the information which satisfied him of the
+imposture, he proceeded to New Orleans. Knowing the name of the
+steamer in which De Guy had taken passage from Vicksburg, he
+hastened to the levee, to gain what tidings he might from the
+officers of the Montezuma. He found that a lady and gentleman
+answering to his description had taken a carriage on the morning of
+their arrival, and this was all they knew. In answer to his
+inquiries for Hatchie, he learned that a servant had been handed
+over to the police, to be imprisoned in the calaboose till called
+for.</p>
+<p>This was scanty information upon which to continue his search.
+His first step was to go to the calaboose, where he managed to
+obtain an interview with Hatchie. The poor fellow was in an agony
+of grief,&mdash;not on his own account, but on that of his
+mistress, for he well understood the reason of this
+imprisonment.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, of course, could give him no information of the
+whereabouts of Emily, nor offer any suggestion; and Vernon was
+compelled to leave the disheartened mulatto, with only a promise of
+speedily effecting his deliverance.</p>
+<p>Vernon's next step was to ascertain the present abiding place of
+Maxwell, if, indeed, he was in the city; and for this purpose he
+had gone to his office. The open room did not verify the statements
+of the negress. He knew that Maxwell always closed up his rooms
+when he left the city, and the fact of their being open now tended
+to fix suspicion upon him, or rather to confirm the suspicions
+before entertained. He had made the visit to the attorney's rooms
+to gain information; and, being partly convinced, by the manner of
+the negress, that the rear chamber was occupied, he retired to the
+coffee-room to digest the knowledge, and, if possible, arrive at
+some conclusion through it, as well as at the same time to keep
+watch of the movements at the office.</p>
+<p>Who was this De Guy, who had been the agent of
+Maxwell?&mdash;for such he determined to believe him, until
+convinced to the contrary. He canvassed their mutual acquaintances,
+but could remember no such person. Intimate as he had been with all
+the associates of Maxwell, he could not identify this bold and
+cunning confederate.</p>
+<p>He had not long deliberated, when, to his surprise,&mdash;albeit
+it was not an event at all remarkable,&mdash;Maxwell entered the
+coffee-room.</p>
+<p>Before Vernon had time to decide whether or not he should charge
+the lawyer with the abduction of Emily, that worthy approached his
+chair, and, with much cordiality,&mdash;more than he had formerly
+bestowed upon him,&mdash;extended his hand, and expressed his
+happiness at again meeting him in the city.</p>
+<p>Undecided as yet how to proceed, Vernon returned his salutations
+with an appearance of equal cordiality.</p>
+<p>"My dear fellow," said Maxwell, "I am rejoiced to see you in
+town again. I was afraid you would quite desert us."</p>
+<p>This language was new and strange to Vernon. It sounded like the
+days in which he had been respectable&mdash;before his vices had
+found him out.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! why did you think so?" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Why, Vernon, there was some kind of a ridiculous story current
+at Vicksburg, to the effect that you had joined the church, or
+something of that sort."</p>
+<p>"Ha, ha! funny!" said Vernon, adopting the free and easy style,
+which had formerly distinguished his colloquial efforts. "Where did
+you pick up the story?"</p>
+<p>"O, it was quite current when I left Vicksburg."</p>
+<p>"A good joke, hey?" said Vernon, musing.</p>
+<p>When Maxwell left Vicksburg, it was impossible that any such
+story could have been extant. Of his reformation no one but the
+people of Cottage Island could have known anything. It seemed a
+little mysterious that Maxwell should know of it; but the fact of
+De Guy's visit to the house of his father came to his assistance,
+and the mystery was solved. De Guy had communicated this
+information to Maxwell, and thus he was enabled to establish
+conclusively the connection between them.</p>
+<p>Vernon's plan for the future was adopted; and manifesting no
+surprise, he denied the fact of his reformation, however strong the
+circumstances might be against him. He had often been implicated in
+fouler deceptions than this in a worse cause, and, in spite of his
+great resolves, he did not hesitate in this instance.</p>
+<p>"Quite a sell, wasn't it, this reformation? The old gentleman
+has a fine place up there,&mdash;money in the bank,&mdash;hey, boy?
+I saw through the whole of it, as soon as I heard the absurd
+story," said Maxwell, who, to do him justice, did not believe the
+tale. It was too much for his credulity, that a thing like Vernon
+could be animated by a good motive,&mdash;could, by any
+possibility, abandon the error of his ways.</p>
+<p>"Just so, Max. The fact is, I found the old fellow had plenty of
+money, and no one but me to leave it to; so I thought it would be a
+devilish pity to have it all go to found a hospital, an orthodox
+college, or some such absurdity, and I could not resist the
+temptation to become a little saintly, just for a few days."</p>
+<p>"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The
+old fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"</p>
+<p>"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip
+to from Vicksburg?"</p>
+<p>"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence,
+and thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I
+gave you the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and
+then taking the boat."</p>
+<p>"But you didn't know I had reformed then,&mdash;ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+<p>"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the
+island,&mdash;I overheard that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy
+speaking of it. But I own, Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you
+unheard."</p>
+<p>"Max, who is this De Guy?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know
+him."</p>
+<p>"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot <i>wool</i> me? By the
+way, that was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after
+the girl. When he had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I
+had not come and assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not
+possibly be concerned in the affair."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! did you do me this essential service?" said Maxwell,
+forgetting that he had denied his connection with De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I did. If you had left the matter with me, I could have done it
+better."</p>
+<p>"Well, Vernon, I see you are all right yet; but the thing worked
+to a charm. De Guy is the cleverest fellow out. The girl is
+safe."</p>
+<p>"So I suppose," said Vernon, with an assumption of
+indifference.</p>
+<p>"But all the sport is yet to come."</p>
+<p>"Indeed," said Vernon, burning with anxiety, but striving to
+maintain his accustomed easy and reckless air.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Vernon, all the hard work we did up the river shall not be
+in vain. I shall win the prize!" and Maxwell rubbed his hands at
+the pleasant anticipation.</p>
+<p>"Wish you joy, Max! But you don't mean to marry the girl?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+<p>"What! a quadroon?"</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! that story is all blown through. Her old uncle, up the
+river, got up that abstraction, so as to finger her property," said
+Maxwell, forgetting, in his candor, the scruples which his
+companion had expressed on a former occasion with relation to
+persecuting a white woman,&mdash;scruples which Vernon did not seem
+disposed to press upon the attorney's memory.</p>
+<p>"You helped him through with his scheme?" answered Vernon, with
+a bold, careless air.</p>
+<p>"'Pon honor, I had nothing to do with it. Old Jaspar did it all
+himself," replied Maxwell, with an oath.</p>
+<p>"Looks a little like you, though," said Vernon, with a
+nonchalance which provoked Maxwell, whose temper was not of the
+mildest tone.</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, it is none of mine, though the plan was a
+creditable one. But it has brought old Jaspar into a wasp's
+nest."</p>
+<p>"How's that?"</p>
+<p>"I had my eye on the girl, ever since the colonel died. I saw
+through Jaspar's plot, and a little bravado made him tell me all
+about it."</p>
+<p>"Good!"</p>
+<p>"Just so; and, as they are old clients of mine, why, I could not
+do less than get them out of the scrape, and remove the stain from
+the name of the fair heiress."</p>
+<p>"How can you do it?"</p>
+<p>"That's the point."</p>
+<p>"Looks rather complicated."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so; but energy and skill will accomplish wonders."</p>
+<p>"Very true," replied Vernon, in his usual quiet manner, well
+knowing that Maxwell would take the alarm if he appeared in the
+least inquisitive,&mdash;so he contented himself with this simple
+ejaculation.</p>
+<p>"Can I trust you still?" said Maxwell, in a low tone, and with
+an anxious look, after a pause of several minutes.</p>
+<p>"I care not whether you trust me or not," replied Vernon, with
+characteristic indifference.</p>
+<p>"Are you the man you were two months ago? If you are, I need ask
+no more questions."</p>
+<p>"I am. And now let me tell you, if you have work for me, the pay
+must be liberal. I have reformed in one respect, and that is from
+low prices to high ones. I have done too many of your little chores
+for nothing. Good pay is my motto now."</p>
+<p>"Be it so," replied Maxwell, whose suspicions, as Vernon had
+intended, were diverted by this by-talk. "I will pay you well. If
+my plan succeeds, three thousand."</p>
+<p>"Good! that sounds liberal. But suppose it fail?"</p>
+<p>"It cannot fail."</p>
+<p>"What is the plan? You mean to help old Jaspar out of the
+scrape, and save the girl too. How can you do it?"</p>
+<p>"There is only one way&mdash;marry the girl!"</p>
+<p>"Just so," replied Vernon, with an indifference it was hard to
+assume.</p>
+<p>"Here are the whole details of the plan. I have Jaspar's consent
+to my marriage with the girl, but I dare not attempt to consummate
+the scheme in the city. She is so cursed obstinate, that it is a
+hard matter to manage her. I saw Jaspar last night, and we
+concluded to have the ceremony performed at Bellevue, as soon as
+possible, or that fiery son of Mars and your worthy patriarch will
+be down upon us, and spoil the whole."</p>
+<p>"Never fear them," said Vernon. "You will not proceed for a week
+or two?"</p>
+<p>"A week or so will make no difference. But I am afraid it will
+take more time than that to induce her to consent. The difficulty
+which has troubled me more than any other is to get her to
+Bellevue. She tells Dido that she will not go alive. She fears
+Jaspar more than she does me, and rightly suspects that if she
+yields she will have to encounter both. She has not seen me since
+the row at the wood-yard, and I intend to transact all business
+with her through De Guy."</p>
+<p>"She is a difficult case," suggested Vernon, to fill up a pause
+in Maxwell's speech.</p>
+<p>"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that
+<i>you</i> could manage her like a young lamb."</p>
+<p>"I!" exclaimed Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"</p>
+<p>"Like a saint."</p>
+<p>"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you
+know."</p>
+<p>"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."</p>
+<p>"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I <i>will</i> pretend to
+effect her escape. But there is one difficulty&mdash;" and he
+suddenly checked his apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful
+air.</p>
+<p>"A difficulty?"</p>
+<p>"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes
+up the river are lost."</p>
+<p>"And you will return&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Vernon reflected, and then replied,</p>
+<p>"In four days."</p>
+<p>"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that
+the lady is doing well&mdash;that Jaspar's health is improving,
+&amp;c. They won't hurry down, then."</p>
+<p>"A good thought. I <i>will</i> write to him."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Here is my hand for my true
+constancy."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"There is a fair behavior in
+thee, captain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">I will believe thou hast a mind
+that suits</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With this thy fair and outward
+character."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room,
+"your work of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my
+seared heart can come up one single good impulse to guide me, I
+will bring the guilty and the innocent to their just desert."</p>
+<p>He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and
+prudence required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a
+boat would leave in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to
+Captain Carroll. This letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell
+had bargained for, inasmuch as the object of it was to request the
+immediate presence of his father and Henry at Bellevue, which
+promised soon to be the theatre of war. With this letter in his
+pocket, he made his way to the levee, and departed for Baton
+Rouge.</p>
+<p>It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly
+inconsistent step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the
+object to which he had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to
+gain time, even at the sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short
+season, so that his father and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue
+as soon as Emily. He had written them all the details of the plan.
+His own purpose was to have Emily's strongest friends at hand on
+her arrival at Bellevue, so as effectually to foil the machinations
+of Jaspar and Maxwell. His own visit to Baton Rouge was only a
+feint to avoid a meeting with Maxwell in the interim, thus keeping
+the appearance in unison with the pretension.</p>
+<p>The river had risen some three or four feet, and the large and
+rapid steamers had commenced running. The "Raven," to the clerk of
+which he had intrusted the letter for Cottage Island, was a
+remarkably fast boat, and he had every reason to hope that his plan
+would be successful.</p>
+<p>Three days he remained at Baton Rouge, in a state of impatience
+and inactivity, rendered doubly uncomfortable by the fear that
+Maxwell might change his plan in his absence.</p>
+<p>A downward steamer was approaching the city, and he hastened on
+board. His letter had been faithfully delivered, for almost the
+first person he discovered on board the boat was Henry Carroll, and
+Dr. Vaudelier was close at hand. This was excellent, and he
+congratulated himself on the bright prospect before him.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that the doctor and his late patient should
+remain in the vicinity of Bellevue until the following day, when
+Vernon would convey Emily to her home. They were accordingly landed
+at the Red Church, and Vernon proceeded to New Orleans.</p>
+<p>Maxwell greeted him with a cordiality which showed the interest
+he felt in the scheme, the consummation of which would realize his
+dreams of luxurious indulgence. They wended their way, without loss
+of time, up the street, deciding that Vernon should at once broach
+the proposition to Emily of going up to Bellevue. The attorney,
+when they had arrived within a short distance of the office,
+directed Vernon to proceed alone, agreeing to meet him at a
+coffee-room in the neighborhood.</p>
+<p>On reaching the office, a new difficulty was presented. The
+inflexible guardian of Emily refused to allow Vernon to see her,
+stoutly persisting that De Guy would not permit it. Vernon was
+obliged to resort to Maxwell in this dilemma, who, affirming that
+he did not wish Emily to know of his presence in town, had kept the
+secret from the negress. So what could he do? But, bidding Vernon
+wait, he left the coffee-room, and soon returned with an order
+signed by De Guy, whom, Maxwell affirmed, he had been so fortunate
+as to meet at the Exchange.</p>
+<p>"But of what use is this paper? The girl cannot read. Shall I
+take the keys from her?" asked Vernon.</p>
+<p>"The note will be sufficient. Show it to her; she will pretend
+to read it, and would, if it were in Hebrew or Sanscrit," said
+Maxwell, who then repeated the caution he had before given, not to
+betray the fact of his presence in the city.</p>
+<p>Vernon presented the note to the negress, who, with a
+business-like air, opened it; and, though he could perceive that
+she held it up-side down, she examined it long and attentively,
+sputtering with her thick lips, as though actually engaged in the
+to her impossible operation of reading it.</p>
+<p>"Dis alters de case, Massa. Why you no show dis paper before?"
+said Dido, with an air of huge importance, which would have done
+credit to the captain of a country company of militia.</p>
+<p>"Open the door, and don't stop to chatter!" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Massa, I have read de letter, and now I knows dat Massa
+Guy wants you to see de leddy. Dat alters de case. I has nussin
+furder to say," muttered Dido, as she unlocked the chamber
+door.</p>
+<p>Emily was seated on a sofa, reading a book she had taken with
+her to while away the time on board of the steamer.</p>
+<p>"Missus, a gemman, who hab brought a letter from Massa Guy,"
+said Dido, as she opened the door.</p>
+<p>"Bring the letter, then," replied Emily, scarcely raising her
+eyes from the book.</p>
+<p>"No, Missus, de letter am for me, and I hab read it. It orders
+me to 'mit dis gemman."</p>
+<p>"That is sufficient," said Vernon, pushing the attendant back,
+and closing the door.</p>
+<p>Emily rose; and great was her surprise at perceiving the son of
+her late benefactor. An avalanche of doubt rushed through her mind,
+and she could not conjecture the occasion of this visit. She had
+left him at his father's house. Had he forsaken his new-born
+repentance? Was he again the minister of Maxwell's evil purposes?
+She had been a prey to the most distressing anticipations, and had
+now settled down into the calmness of resignation. Resolved to die
+rather than become the bride of Maxwell, she had spent the hours
+and days of her imprisonment in nerving herself to meet whatever
+bitter fate might await her, in maintaining her purity and her
+principle.</p>
+<p>The appearance of Jerome Vaudelier caused her a thrill of
+apprehension, but it was quickly supplanted by a feeling of
+interest in the individual himself. Her own gloomy position seemed
+divested of its sombreness, as she felt that the penitence of the
+erring soul had not been a reality.</p>
+<p>"Jerome Vaudelier, are you, too, the minister of a villain's
+wishes?"</p>
+<p>"Nay, Miss Dumont&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Say that you are yet true to yourself; that you have not
+forgotten those solemn vows you made in the home of your father;
+say that you are not the tool of the vile Maxwell&mdash;say it
+before you speak your business with me!"</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont, I acknowledge that the present appearance is
+against me; but I assure you I have come only as the minister of
+good to you."</p>
+<p>"Bless you for the words! I feared you had again been
+tempted."</p>
+<p>"So I have, lady, and apparently have yielded; but it was only
+to save you. Listen to me, and I will disclose all the details of
+the plots which are even now ripening to ensnare you,"&mdash;and
+Vernon, in a low tone, briefly narrated everything, and the means
+which were in operation to secure her safety.</p>
+<p>"You must go to Bellevue to-morrow, there to meet my father and
+Captain Carroll," said he.</p>
+<p>The color came to her pale cheek, at the mention of her lover's
+name. She felt that Vernon meant to be true to her, and true to
+himself. And it required no persuasion to induce her to acquiesce
+in the arrangements.</p>
+<p>"But, Hatchie&mdash;must I leave him in prison? It is not a meet
+reward for his fidelity."</p>
+<p>"It cannot be avoided, Miss Dumont. I will see him to-day, and
+when his honest heart knows that you are in safety, he will be just
+as happy in a prison as in a palace. He shall be set at liberty in
+a few days."</p>
+<p>"I hope he may. Does this De Guy accompany you?"</p>
+<p>"No; but Maxwell says he will reach Bellevue as soon as we
+do."</p>
+<p>"Why is this? Why does not Maxwell present himself, and urge his
+infamous proposals?"</p>
+<p>"I know not, unless it be that De Guy is the more artful of the
+two."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>Let us change the scene to the next day, at the abode of Mr.
+Faxon.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife, by the kind attentions of their host,
+were restored to a comparatively healthy state. The lady had
+suffered much in her physical and mental constitution, and a shade
+of deep melancholy rested upon her handsome features. She could not
+forget the horrors of the dungeon in which she had been confined.
+It seemed a great epoch in her life; all before it was strange and
+undefined, while every trivial incident since was a great paragraph
+in her history.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon was seated in his library, surrounded by his guests.
+The affairs of the Dumont family had again been discussed, for to
+them they were full of interest.</p>
+<p>The good minister feelingly expatiated upon the bitterness of
+the heiress' lot, brought up as she had been amid all the
+refinements of polished society, whose sensibilities were rendered
+doubly acute by nature and the circumstances which environed her,
+to be thus degraded into the condition of a base-born, despised
+being,&mdash;to be so suddenly hurled from honor and
+opulence,&mdash;it was a dreadful blow! So feelingly did he narrate
+the particulars, so tenderly did he describe the loneliness of her
+position, that his hearers were deeply affected, and Delia shed a
+flood of tears.</p>
+<p>"I too have been a wanderer, though a voluntary one, from the
+home of my father," said she.</p>
+<p>"Nay, Delia," said Dalhousie, tenderly; "do not revert to your
+own experience. Remember you are not strong enough to bear much
+excitement."</p>
+<p>"I did not intend to speak of my own experience; but the
+sufferings of poor Miss Dumont call to my mind the remembrance of
+similar feelings."</p>
+<p>"I presume the company are not desirous of hearing the story of
+an elopement," said Dalhousie, with a smile.</p>
+<p>"Nor I to relate one. The pure devotion of Miss Dumont to the
+memory of her father recalls the affection, the fond indulgence, of
+my own father. I have not, as she has, the consciousness of having
+never wilfully abused his confidence."</p>
+<p>"If you have erred, madam," said Mr. Faxon, "your father still
+lives, does he not? Perhaps it is not yet too late to atone for the
+fault."</p>
+<p>"Alas! I know not whether he is living or not. I wrote to him
+several times, but never received an answer."</p>
+<p>"Who was your father, madam?" said Mr. Faxon, with much sympathy
+in the tones of his voice.</p>
+<p>"I dread even to mention the name I bore in the innocent days of
+childhood."</p>
+<p>"Fie, Delia!" said Dalhousie, with a pleasant laugh, "what have
+you done to sink yourself so far in your own estimation? You and
+your father differed as to the propriety of our marriage; to you,
+as a true woman, your course was plain. This is the height and
+depth of your monstrous sin."</p>
+<p>The conversation was here interrupted by the announcement that a
+gentleman waited to see Mr. Faxon.</p>
+<p>The good clergyman had a habit of promptness in answering all
+calls upon him. This custom had been acquired by the reflection
+that a poor dying mortal might wait his blessing, ere he departed
+on his endless journey; that, sometimes, a moment's delay could
+never be atoned for; therefore he rose on the instant, and hastened
+to the parlor, where the visitor waited.</p>
+<p>"Ah! is it possible&mdash;Captain Carroll!" said he, as he
+grasped Henry's hand; "I am glad to see you. But how pale and thin
+you look!"</p>
+<p>"Good reason for it, my dear sir. I was on board of the
+Chalmetta."</p>
+<p>"Were you, indeed! Thank God, you escaped with life! Were you
+much injured?"</p>
+<p>"I was, but, thanks to the care of a good physician, I am nearly
+restored again."</p>
+<p>"But our poor lady&mdash;Miss Dumont&mdash;have you any tidings
+of her? Report said she was lost in the catastrophe."</p>
+<p>"She is safe, though, unfortunately, at present in bad hands;"
+and Henry related to the astonished minister the events of Emily's
+history since her departure from Bellevue, not concealing even the
+details of his present relations with her.</p>
+<p>"And now, my dear sir," said he, rising to depart, "the crisis
+has come. Dr. Vaudelier waits close by, and we are ready to witness
+the denouement of this climax of plots. It is already time for
+Jerome and Emily to arrive, and we desire your immediate presence
+at the mansion-house."</p>
+<p>"I will attend you. But I have in the house several friends of
+Miss Dumont&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Bring them all with you," interrupted Henry, looking at his
+watch. "The more witnesses the better, especially if they be
+friends."</p>
+<p>"But wait till I tell you who they are."</p>
+<p>"Excuse me, Mr. Faxon, I must not tarry longer. I will meet them
+at the mansion."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"What devil's here, dragging
+the dead to life,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To overthrow me?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Who art thou?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Speak! speak!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"The features all are
+changed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But the voice grows familiar on
+my ears."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">LOVELL</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont was seated in the library. The ravages of care and
+vice were growing more plainly visible on his face. His countenance
+was haggard, and his complexion seemed to be a struggle between the
+wanness of care and the redness of intemperance.</p>
+<p>Near him sat De Guy, who had but just arrived.</p>
+<p>"The lady has come," said the attorney, adjusting his green
+spectacles; "and I am here to claim the fulfilment of our
+contract."</p>
+<p>Jaspar looked up from the floor, upon which his eyes had been
+fastened, and gazed with a fixed stare upon his companion.</p>
+<p>"You do not understand me," insinuated De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I do," said Jaspar, sternly; "I do; you have come to plunder
+me."</p>
+<p>"You do me injustice, my kind friend; I come to save you from
+the doom of a felon."</p>
+<p>"To put your foot upon my neck, and leap out of the pit your
+villany has dug!"</p>
+<p>"Very well, my dear sir, if you are of this mind, my course is
+plain. Did you not agree to this arrangement?" said De Guy, with a
+smile, which was meant to soften the hard question.</p>
+<p>"True, I did," replied Jaspar, with a whining sullenness. "What
+would you have of me now?"</p>
+<p>"Only that you fulfil the stipulations of the bargain."</p>
+<p>"Can I fulfil them? Can I marry you, even if the girl were
+willing?"</p>
+<p>"You can give your commands. Will she not obey them?"</p>
+<p>"Fool if she does!" muttered Jaspar, in a low tone.</p>
+<p>"She will be so glad to be restored to her home, I fancy she
+will not think the terms are hard."</p>
+<p>"I don't know," said Jaspar, eying the attorney from head to
+foot. "I consent to the marriage. I can do no more."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you will be willing to use a little gentle force, to
+save your own neck," said the attorney, with something like a
+sneer.</p>
+<p>"Anything, anything, that will silence your damning tongue, and
+rid me of your teasing!"</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, you are reasonable."</p>
+<p>"Summon the girl," said Jaspar, impatiently. "I will say all I
+have to say in a few words. But, if she foils you, it is not my
+fault."</p>
+<p>"True sir; but Miss Dumont, at this critical juncture of her
+affairs, will have respect for your counsels;" and the attorney
+withdrew to call her.</p>
+<p>Emily entered the abode of her early years, and the memories of
+the past came crowding thick upon her. She seemed to realize that
+her sorrows were near an end, but the hope which such a pleasant
+thought inspired could not entirely overcome the gloom which the
+scene around her was calculated to produce. It was here she had
+often rambled with her father, and a thousand trivial incidents
+presented themselves to remind her of him.</p>
+<p>As she entered the house, she clung to the arm of Vernon, as
+though she was entering the abode of evil spirits; for, with all
+the memories of the past, she could not forget that the home of her
+childhood was inhabited by her inhuman uncle.</p>
+<p>She had been but a short time seated in the old, familiar
+drawing-room, like a stranger now, when De Guy entered, to request
+her presence in the library. She rose, and looked at Vernon, who,
+understanding the glance, approached, as if to bear her
+company.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman had better remain here," suggested De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I prefer that he should attend me," said Emily, firmly, even
+while her heart rose to her throat, at the thought of meeting her
+uncle.</p>
+<p>"But really, madam, his presence would embarrass the business of
+the interview."</p>
+<p>"He is a friend," stammered Emily, "and is acquainted with all
+the circumstances of this affair."</p>
+<p>"I will attend her, sir," said Vernon, who had before remained
+silent.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," said the attorney, looking sharply at Vernon, "but
+it will be impossible to transact any business in presence of
+others."</p>
+<p>"Lead on," said Vernon, sternly; "I will attend the lady, in
+spite of all objections."</p>
+<p>"Sir, you are insolent!" said the attorney, tartly, though
+without the loss of his self-possession.</p>
+<p>"The gentleman will not in the least retard the business. Pray
+pass on," interposed Emily, fearful of a collision between the
+parties.</p>
+<p>"It is impossible, madam. I must insist that he remain here.
+Such is Mr. Dumont's express order."</p>
+<p>"Will you say to Mr. Dumont that the lady demands my attendance?
+Perhaps he will yield the point," answered Vernon.</p>
+<p>"I will see him, but it is useless. I know his views;" and De
+Guy left the room.</p>
+<p>"Do not hesitate to go with him, Miss Dumont; I will be close at
+hand; but no violence will be offered you. I see my father and
+Captain Carroll coming up the road," said Vernon, looking out the
+window. "Yield, if necessary, and fear nothing."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont persists in his purpose of meeting the lady alone,"
+said De Guy, as he re&euml;ntered the drawing-room.</p>
+<p>"The lady, in your absence, has concluded to dispense with my
+attendance," replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"This way, madam,"&mdash;and the attorney, with punctilious
+politeness, led the way.</p>
+<p>Vernon threw himself upon a sofa, as they were leaving; but no
+sooner had the door closed, than he rose in haste, and left the
+apartment. Reaching the veranda of the house, he met Dr. Vaudelier
+and Henry Carroll, who followed him back to the drawing-room.</p>
+<p>"This way, silently, if you please," said he, and then closed
+the door. A moment sufficed to inform the new comers of the
+position of affairs; then Vernon left the room, and went to the
+library door, which he found, by Henry's direction. Stationing
+himself in a recess behind some coats, he waited till his presence
+should be needed.</p>
+<p>The meeting between Emily and her uncle was not embarrassed by
+any formal greetings. Jaspar did not even raise his eyes from the
+floor, as she entered. He heard the door close, and being aware by
+the silence of the parties&mdash;for De Guy had judged an
+announcement unnecessary&mdash;that they were ready to hear him, he
+said, in a gentle tone,</p>
+<p>"Emily, I have sent for you to receive a proposition, which will
+finally terminate the unfortunate circumstances that have shrouded
+our family in hostility and misery."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, uncle, I have no feeling of hostility towards you. God
+forbid!" replied Emily, upon whose agitated senses Jaspar's mild
+words had fallen like promises of peace.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was astonished. He had lost much of the severity of his
+disposition in the miseries which had overtaken him. He was
+humiliated, his spirit broken, and he could not understand why his
+victim did not upbraid him, as he expected, for the wrongs he had
+inflicted. A momentary hope of reconciliation on better terms
+crossed his mind; but there stood the attorney, who would permit no
+other compromise.</p>
+<p>"I restore your fortune," said Jaspar, with a shudder, as he
+raised his head for the first time from the floor to look upon his
+niece,&mdash;"I restore it, on one condition."</p>
+<p>"Name not the fortune, uncle; your peace and happiness are far
+dearer to me than all the wealth of the world. You have wronged me,
+but I freely forgive you; and Heaven will also forgive you, if you
+sin no more. O, uncle, I beseech you dismiss this evil man, and let
+me be to you as a daughter!"</p>
+<p>"Let us attend to business, if you please, Mr. Dumont," said the
+attorney, in a whining tone; for, it must be confessed, the
+conversation had assumed a different turn from what he had
+anticipated.</p>
+<p>"I must state the business for which I requested your presence,"
+said Jaspar, not a little moved by the words of Emily. Human nature
+is a strange compound of inconsistencies. This man, whose life had
+been stained with crime, was now disposed to regard the past with
+contrition. We have seen him scorning even an allusion to the
+higher life of the soul,&mdash;but success was then within the
+reach of his crime-stained hand! Now, failure on every hand awaited
+him, and all those bravadoes with which he had kept down his better
+nature deserted him. Not one scornful thought came to banish the
+good angel from his presence. But the feeling was of short
+duration. It was but a momentary contrition, which a selfish hope
+or a burst of passion could dissipate.</p>
+<p>"I will restore your fortune, on one condition," said he. "You
+can accept or reject it, at your option."</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," suggested the attorney, "these were not
+exactly the terms of our contract."</p>
+<p>"Name the condition, uncle," added Emily, indifferently; for she
+was anxious to have the business, whatever it might be, finished,
+so that she could again plead with Jaspar for his personal
+reformation, for she was a little encouraged by the appearance of
+humiliation he had manifested.</p>
+<p>"I restore your fortune, on condition that you give your hand to
+this gentleman in marriage;"&mdash;and Jaspar again fixed his eyes
+on the floor, as if he dreaded the outbreak of a storm.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman!" exclaimed Emily, indignantly. "This
+gentleman!"&mdash;and she gazed upon him with a proud look of
+contempt, from which the attorney would fain have hid his head. Her
+surprise was equal to her indignation. Vernon had told her that
+<i>Maxwell</i> was to be the suppliant for her hand, and she could
+not see why his menial had the presumption to claim her.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman!" repeated Emily. "I had rather die a thousand
+deaths!"</p>
+<p>"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step,"
+replied De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the
+energy of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can
+administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.</p>
+<p>"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly.
+"Fate has so decreed. Your good uncle's circumstances imperatively
+demand it."</p>
+<p>"Is this so, uncle?"</p>
+<p>"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though
+it may be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.</p>
+<p>"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a
+fate. What circumstances do you refer to?"</p>
+<p>"I am in this man's power."</p>
+<p>"God be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my
+fortune, not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than
+become such a <i>thing</i> as to marry that man!"</p>
+<p>"Nay, lady, <i>you</i> are of more worth to me than your
+fortune, large as it is. I have contracted with your uncle for your
+hand, and he must pay the price," said De Guy.</p>
+<p>"He speaks truly, Emily. I have <i>sold</i> you to him," replied
+Jaspar, vacantly.</p>
+<p>Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in
+allusion to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes,
+while the indignant blood mounted to her cheek.</p>
+<p>"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said,
+quickly.</p>
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of passion.</p>
+<p>"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely
+tried.</p>
+<p>"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but
+now I feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on
+which his brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he
+reseated himself.</p>
+<p>"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table
+with his fist.</p>
+<p>"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar's violence,
+but firm in her purpose.</p>
+<p>"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar,
+passionately.</p>
+<p>"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy,
+laying his hand upon her arm.</p>
+<p>"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your
+touch!" exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been
+contamination.</p>
+<p>The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a
+scowl of malignity, as he said,</p>
+<p>"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let
+it end. Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day
+to be consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your
+whims."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend
+upon your acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose passion
+had moderated a little.</p>
+<p>"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied
+Emily, and she again moved towards the door.</p>
+<p>"You leave not the room till you consent to this union,"
+interposed De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Stand from my path, or I will summon assistance!"</p>
+<p>"Your summons would be in vain."</p>
+<p>With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance;
+but De Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled
+to free herself from the villain's grasp, without success. Knowing
+that Vernon was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the
+top of her voice.</p>
+<p>"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend
+of mine," said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary
+of mine. Haven't you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture
+of sarcasm and triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.</p>
+<p>The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The
+door was wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had
+taken the precaution to lock it.</p>
+<p>"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the
+intrusion.</p>
+<p>"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"</p>
+<p>"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet
+spectator to the violence offered his niece.</p>
+<p>"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him,
+towards a large closet on the other side of the room.</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second
+time uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door
+splintered, and Vernon stood in the room.</p>
+<p>"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from
+his pocket a revolver.</p>
+<p>"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the
+same time, he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he
+approached the lawyer.</p>
+<p>"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which
+suddenly lost its silky tone, and was firm and round.</p>
+<p>"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the
+prospect of a fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve
+his arm. He advanced behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had
+clasped both hands around him. Vernon tried to free himself from
+the bearish hug, and they both fell to the floor. Jaspar still held
+tight, and the struggle promised to be a severe one.</p>
+<p>De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the
+combatants had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his
+pocket, so that, unembarrassed, he might convey Emily to a place of
+security, until this unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was
+the pistol in his pocket, when the window behind him flew open, and
+the attorney was in the iron grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed
+from her assailant, retreated to the other side of the room, where,
+glancing in terror upon the new assault, she saw De Guy thrown
+violently upon the floor by her ever-present and ever-faithful
+slave, Hatchie!</p>
+<p>The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early
+in the evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the
+calaboose, and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and
+judged that the conflict had begun with something more than the war
+of words. Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the
+library, and rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood
+contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who
+had followed Henry into the room, assisted Jaspar to rise, and
+conducted him to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed
+entirely to have oozed out, and they remained doggedly considering
+the new state of things.</p>
+<p>Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket
+the revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable
+person, he loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an
+acknowledgment of weakness to hold him longer a close prisoner.
+Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the hair, he bade him rise, at the
+same time giving a sharp twist to the ornamental appendage of his
+cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion of his hand, and the
+entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge parti-colored
+whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly hair,
+where the mixed color had before predominated!</p>
+<p>"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair
+before," said Henry Carroll.</p>
+<p>"The face is not of the natural color," added Dr. Vaudelier,
+remarking that the skin of the forehead, which the wig had
+concealed, was very white, and almost transparent, while the face
+was besmeared with the color that composed the florid complexion of
+the attorney.</p>
+<p>"Take off his spectacles, Hatchie," said Henry.</p>
+<p>The glasses were removed, and a pair of piercing black eyes
+glared upon them.</p>
+<p>"It is Maxwell, by &mdash;&mdash;," shouted Jaspar, who had in
+some measure recovered from the exhaustion of his struggle with
+Vernon, and had watched with much anxiety the "unearthing" of his
+confederate.</p>
+<p>"It is Maxwell," responded Hatchie, tearing open the vest which
+encircled the attorney's portly form, and displaying the cushion
+that had been used to extend his corporation.</p>
+<p>"Merciful Heaven! how narrowly have I escaped!" exclaimed Emily,
+laying her head in giddy faintness upon the shoulder of Henry, who,
+at the moment he was at liberty, had flown to her side.</p>
+<p>At this moment Mr. Faxon entered, and saw, with astonishment,
+the evidence of the recent fray.</p>
+<p>"Justice is triumphant, I see," said he, taking Emily by the
+hand, and affectionately congratulating her upon her return to
+Bellevue.</p>
+<p>"Heaven has been more indulgent to me than I deserve,&mdash;has
+preserved me from a thousand perils I knew not of; and has, at
+last, placed me again in this haven of repose!" replied Emily.</p>
+<p>"Bless His holy name, my child; for, though we forget Him, He
+can never forget us!" said the minister, devoutly.</p>
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," interrupted Jaspar, with a bitter scowl, "I
+trust, when you have finished your cant, you will depart, and leave
+me in peace."</p>
+<p>"We will, at this lady's pleasure," said Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"Hell! would you trifle with me?" roared Jaspar, rising in a
+passion. "Would you turn me out of my house?"</p>
+<p>"Never yours, Mr. Dumont! Heaven has restored the innocent and
+oppressed to her rights," answered Mr. Faxon, calmly.</p>
+<p>"Uncle," said Emily, earnestly, "let me entreat you to lay aside
+the terrible aspect you have worn, and be again even as you once
+were. The past shall be forgotten, and I will strive to make the
+future happy."</p>
+<p>Jaspar gazed at her with a vacant stare, and, muttering some
+unintelligible words, sunk back into his chair, and buried his face
+beneath his hands. The consciousness of the utter failure of the
+plan he had cherished for years, and the terrible obloquy to which
+his crime subjected him, rushed like an earthquake into his mind.
+He was completely subdued in spirit, and groaned in his
+anguish.</p>
+<p>"The way of the transgressor is hard," remarked Mr. Faxon, in
+pitying tones.</p>
+<p>These words were heard by Jaspar. They touched his pride. He
+could not endure the notes of pity. He raised his head, and his
+eyes glared with the fury of a demon.</p>
+<p>"Leave the house, sir!" gasped he, choking with passion. "Leave
+my house, or I will tear you limb from limb! I can do it, and I
+<i>dare</i> do it!" and he started suddenly to the floor. "Yes, I
+<i>dare</i> do it, if you mock me with your canting words!"</p>
+<p>His eyes rolled like a maniac's, and he gasped for breath, as he
+continued,</p>
+<p>"I am a murderer already!&mdash;a double murderer! Dalhousie and
+his wife have felt my vengeance. They have starved like dogs! Their
+prison is their tomb!"</p>
+<p>"Compose yourself, Mr. Dumont," said Mr. Faxon; "your soul is
+still free from the heavy burden of such a guilt. Dalhousie and his
+wife live."</p>
+<p>"You lie, canting hypocrite! No mortal arm can save them. They
+have been eight days in my slave jail. Here are the keys," gasped
+Jaspar, drawing them from his pocket.</p>
+<p>"You shall see; I will call them," said Mr. Faxon.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan,
+entered the room.</p>
+<p>Jaspar fixed his glaring eyes upon those whom he supposed were
+rotting within the precincts of his Inquisition. His power of
+speech seemed to have deserted him, and he shook all over like an
+aspen-leaf.</p>
+<p>To Jaspar alone on the estate was the secret of Dalhousie's
+imprisonment known. He had not approached the jail, and if any
+other person was aware that it had been undermined, they had not
+communicated the fact to him.</p>
+<p>As the last party entered, Dr. Vaudelier turned to look upon the
+new comers. Starting suddenly from his chair, he approached them,
+and gazed with earnestness into the face of Delia.</p>
+<p>"Is it possible!" said he.</p>
+<p>"My God,&mdash;my father!" and father and daughter were locked
+in each other's embrace.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, stripped of his disguise, and ruined in his own
+opinion, and in the opinion of everybody else, had watched all the
+proceedings we have narrated in silence. Ashamed of the awkward
+appearance he made in his undress, and confused by the sudden
+change in his affairs, he was at a loss to know which way to
+turn.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll realized the sense of embarrassment that pervaded
+all parties, and was desirous of putting an end to the state of
+things which promised nothing but strife and confusion. So he
+directed Hatchie to fasten Maxwell's hands together, and keep him
+secure. This step the attorney seemed not inclined to permit, and a
+struggle ensued.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont," said he, "is this by your order?"</p>
+<p>"No," replied Jaspar, anxious to secure at least one friend.
+"No! I am still in my own house, and the law will protect me."</p>
+<p>"Certainly," returned Maxwell; "this is all a farce. There is
+not a single particle of evidence to disprove the will."</p>
+<p>"Well, now, I reckon there is a leetle grain," said Uncle
+Nathan, stepping forward and producing the will, which had been
+intrusted to him on board the Chalmetta. "This will set matters
+about right, I rayther guess."</p>
+<p>"What mean you, fellow?" said Jaspar. "What is it?"</p>
+<p>"The genuine will," replied Hatchie, still holding Maxwell. "I
+gave it into his hands. To explain how I came by it, I need only
+call your attention to a certain night, when I surprised you and
+this honorable gentleman in this very apartment."</p>
+<p>"It is all over!" groaned Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"This is a forgery!" exclaimed Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Ay, a forgery!" repeated Jaspar, catching the attorney's idea.
+"Who can prove that this is a correct will, and the other
+false?"</p>
+<p>"I can," said Dalhousie. "Here is a duplicate copy, with letters
+explaining the reason for making it, in the testator's own
+hand-writing."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie candidly stated the means by which he had obtained
+possession of the papers, and trusted his indiscretion would be
+overlooked. Dr. Vaudelier frowned, as his son-in-law related the
+unworthy part he had performed, and perhaps felt a consciousness of
+the good intentions which had years before induced him to refuse
+his consent to the marriage of his daughter.</p>
+<p>Jaspar yielded the point; but Maxwell, in the hope of gaining
+time, boldly proclaimed all the papers forgeries.</p>
+<p>"It matters not; we will not stop to discuss the matter now. Tie
+his hands, Hatchie," said Henry Carroll, and, with the assistance
+of others, he was bound, and handed over to a constable, upon the
+warrant of Mr. Faxon, who was a justice.</p>
+<p>The party separated,&mdash;Henry and Emily seeking the grove in
+front of the house, to congratulate each other on the happy
+termination of their season of difficulty. The meeting between Dr.
+Vaudelier and his son and daughter was extremely interesting, and
+the hours passed rapidly away, in listening to the experience of
+each other. The meeting concluded with the making of new resolves,
+on the part of Dalhousie, to seek "the great purpose of his life"
+by higher and nobler means.</p>
+<p>As the dinner-hour approached, the happy parties were summoned
+by Mr. Faxon to visit his house, and partake of his hospitality.
+The good man was never happier in his life than when he said grace
+over the noon-day meal, surrounded by the restored heiress of
+Bellevue, and her happy friends.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONCLUSION" id="CONCLUSION"></a>CONCLUSION.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"From that day forth, in peace
+and joyous bliss,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">They lived together long, without
+debate;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nor private jars nor spite of
+enemies</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Could shake the safe assurance of
+their states."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SPENSER.</span></p>
+<p>Our story is told. It only remains to condense the subsequent
+lives of our characters into a few lines.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont lingered along a few weeks after the return of
+Emily; but his life had lost its vitality. Continued devotion to
+the demon of the bottle laid him low,&mdash;he was found dead in
+the library, having been stricken with an apoplectic fit.</p>
+<p>After the death of Jaspar, Maxwell was tried for a variety of
+crimes, and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, accompanied by Dalhousie and his wife, removed to
+New Orleans, where they spent many happy years, devoted to those
+pure principles of truth and justice which the events of our
+history contributed not a little to create and strengthen.</p>
+<p>Vernon,&mdash;or, as he has changed his character, we may
+venture to change his name,&mdash;Jerome Vaudelier, went to
+California in the first of the excitement; where, amid the
+temptations of that new and dissolute land, he yet maintains the
+integrity he vowed to cherish on the night of the attack upon
+Cottage Island.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan spent a few days at Bellevue, and
+then started for the North. The honest yeoman, either on account of
+the many adventures they had passed through together, or because
+Pat was a true convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the
+Hibernian, and insisted that he should accompany him home. Pat
+became a very worthy man, after abandoning the "critter," which had
+been his greatest bane. For three years he served our New Englander
+faithfully on the farm, at the end of which period his desire to
+get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish girl to his bosom, and
+go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry and Emily, about
+this time, to the worthy farmer, contributed to forward this end;
+for Pat, with Celtic candor and boldness, stated to them his views
+and purposes. Before the heiress left, Pat's farm was bought and
+paid for, besides being well stocked, by her princely
+liberality.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger and his wife, who had rendered such important
+services to Emily, were not forgotten. The honest woodman disdained
+to receive compensation for any service he or his good wife had
+rendered, but Emily found a way to render them comfortable for
+life, without any sacrifice of pride on their part.</p>
+<p>One year after the events which close our history the great
+mansion at Bellevue was the scene of gay festivities. Dr. Vaudelier
+and his daughter, and Dalhousie, and Jerry Swinger and all his
+family, were there, because, in the hour of its owner's greatest
+happiness, she could not be without those who had been her friends
+in the season of adversity. All the country round was
+there,&mdash;New Orleans was there,&mdash;everybody was there, to
+witness the nuptials of the fair heiress and the gallant Captain
+Carroll.</p>
+<p>The great drawing-room was brilliantly illuminated. The happy
+couple entered the room, and stood up before Mr. Faxon. A step
+behind Emily, watching the proceedings with as much interest as a
+fond father would witness the espousal of a beloved daughter, stood
+Hatchie. Race and condition did not exclude him from the proud and
+brilliant assemblage that had gathered to honor the nuptials of his
+mistress.</p>
+<p>They were married, and, ere the good minister had concluded his
+congratulations, the huge yellow palm of the faithful slave was
+extended to receive the white-gloved hand of the bride. Nor did she
+shrink from him. With a sweet smile, and a look which told how deep
+were her respect and admiration, she gave him her hand, heedless of
+the proud circle which had gathered around her to be first in their
+offering of good wishes.</p>
+<p>"God bless you, Miss Emily! Bless you!" said he, and the tear
+stole into his eye, as he withdrew from the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14731 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14731 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14731)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress
+of Bellevue, by Warren T. Ashton
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue
+
+Author: Warren T. Ashton
+
+Release Date: January 19, 2005  [eBook #14731]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR,
+THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14731-h.htm or 14731-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h/14731-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;
+
+OR
+
+THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.
+
+A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west
+
+by
+
+WARREN T. ASHTON.
+
+Boston:
+B. B. Mussey and Company,
+and
+R. B. Fitts and Company
+
+1853.
+
+Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the
+Fisk University Library Negro Collection
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
+Hallandale, Florida 33009
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     "Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of comely virtues."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave?"
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a passenger
+on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the
+passage--one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of
+western river navigation--the plot of this story was arranged. Many of
+its incidents, and all its descriptions of steamboat life, will be
+recognized by the voyager of the Mississippi.
+
+The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin,"--before negro literature had become a mania in the community. It
+was not designed to illustrate the evils or the blessings of slavery. It
+is, as its title-page imports, a _tale_; and the author has not stepped
+out of his path to moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other
+extraneous topic. But, as its _locale_ is the South, and its principal
+character a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
+slavery.
+
+With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the public,
+hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure from its
+perusal which he experienced in its preparation.
+
+BOSTON, November 18, 1852.
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE:
+
+THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+     "_Antony_. You grow presumptuous.
+     _Ventidius_. I take the privilege of plain love to speak.
+     _Antony_. Plain love!--Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"
+
+     DRYDEN.
+
+
+On the second floor of a lofty building in ---- street, New Orleans, was
+situated the office of Anthony Maxwell, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law, Commissioner for Georgia, Alabama, and a dozen other states. His
+office had not the usual dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but
+presented more the appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but
+for the ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
+with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the visitor
+would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the walls not
+occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings, whose artistic
+beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined taste. The floor of the
+room was covered by a magnificent tapestry carpet. The chairs, lounges
+and tables, were of the most costly and elegant description. The windows
+were hung with graceful and brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of
+the office betokened luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil
+and privation to which the aspirant for legal honors must so often
+submit. The costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate
+that the young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked
+with beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
+over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have trodden.
+
+The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon one of
+the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a fragrant
+regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty years of age,
+and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly handsome. His face
+was pale, with a certain haggard appearance, which indicates the earlier
+stages of dissipation. His complexion was of a delicate white, unbrowned
+by the southern sun, and the skin was so transparent that the roots of
+his black beard were visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair
+hung in rich, wavy curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some
+renowned tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they
+arranged. His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was
+excited in manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,--disposed to
+droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
+agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there was
+something about them which the moralist would not like--a sort of
+lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual expression,
+that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he admired the Apollo.
+
+The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not yet
+become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and festered
+beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual grandeur.
+
+The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in good
+taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not court
+ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
+over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined taste, in
+his external appearance.
+
+Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A year
+before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his father's
+office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed devotion to
+business, he had effectually deceived his father and his clients into
+the belief that he was a steady, industrious young man. His talents were
+of a very respectable order, which, superadded to a native eloquence and
+an engaging demeanor, had enabled him to acquit himself with much credit
+in the cases intrusted to his management. A few months after his
+professional _début_, his father's decease had placed him in possession
+of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune, thus enabling him
+in some degree to follow the bent of his own inclinations. To those
+whose habits and desires were similar to his own, he was not long in
+unfolding his true character, though not to a sufficient extent to
+destroy at once his professional prospects. The irresponsible life of
+the man of leisure had more charms to him than an honorable distinction
+in his profession. To labor in any form he had an intolerable
+repugnance. His fortune was not sufficient to allow an entire neglect of
+business; therefore he determined to practise law in an easy manner,
+until a rich wife, or the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire
+devotion to the pleasures of affluence.
+
+In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of his
+father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent apartments we have
+described. He gave up the house in which his father had dwelt, and,
+fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of the office with oriental
+splendor, his life and habits were free from the scrutinizing gaze of
+friend and foe, and he found himself situated as nearly to his mind as
+his income would permit. These indications of a dissolute life were
+viewed with distrust by the more respectable of his clients. His
+subsequent actions were not calculated to increase their confidence;
+yet, for the respect they bore to the father's memory, they were slow in
+casting off the son.
+
+Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an impatient
+exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his mind refused to
+accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently engaged in the
+consideration of some complicated affair; and the more he thought, the
+more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar, and lit another; still
+the knotty point was not conquered. His haggard countenance at one
+moment was lighted up, as though success had dawned upon his mental
+contest; but at the next moment it darkened into disappointment, which
+he vented in an audible oath.
+
+While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating with the
+ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very formally
+announced "Miss Dumont."
+
+This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which had
+environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as if by
+magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the lady for the
+smoky atmosphere of the room.
+
+"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing of the
+usual commonplace introductions of conversation.
+
+"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this visit,"
+replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have called to
+request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father has some
+business matters upon which he requires your professional advice."
+
+"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell, with an
+appearance of sympathy.
+
+"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When shall I
+say you will come?" said the lady.
+
+"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you go
+direct."
+
+"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.
+
+This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
+approbation of the attorney.
+
+"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner; "pray,
+honor me with a moment's conversation."
+
+"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and cannot
+accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified manner, while
+a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful countenance.
+
+"Be not so unkind,--a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell, with pleading
+earnestness.
+
+"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
+returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not changed,"
+replied she, moving to the door.
+
+The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had received,
+and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great purpose in view,--a
+purpose which, accomplished, would enable him to realize the cherished
+object of his life,--would enable him to revel in the ease and affluence
+he so much coveted. Something must be done. Here was an opportunity
+afforded by the providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never
+occur again, and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he
+adopted the first expedient which presented itself.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was not aware
+that you intended to return it."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
+relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table by
+the side of which the attorney stood.
+
+"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from further
+annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with which I have
+awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents of humility, which
+were too well feigned to permit the lady to suspect them. "The
+bitterness of a blighted hope were better than the agony of suspense."
+
+A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the lady, as
+she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table. There lay
+Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had returned it! She
+only pointed to it, and looked into his face to read the shame and
+confusion her discovery must create.
+
+Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit was
+exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and said,
+
+"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to it,
+that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the heart which
+is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you cannot, know the
+misery I have endured in possessing the love upon which you so cruelly
+frown."
+
+The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart less firm
+than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression of contempt
+left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with favor to his
+suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed misery. Under any other
+circumstances, the lie he had a moment before uttered would have forever
+condemned him in her sight. But her charitable disposition compelled her
+to believe that it was the last resort of a mind on the verge of
+despair.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should have
+suffered any unhappiness on my account."
+
+"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell, hastily,
+feeling that he had gained the first point.
+
+"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned the
+lady.
+
+"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the coldness of
+indifference again!"
+
+"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an index of
+your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous means, to
+discountenance them."
+
+"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a flickering
+hope."
+
+"If you have, I regret it all the more."
+
+"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I have
+dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging fire, and
+beyond my control."
+
+"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied the
+lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I trust
+this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope you have
+cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now feel it must be
+for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on that account, to declare
+it, I repeat--I can never reciprocate the affection you profess. And now
+let this interview terminate. It is too painful to be prolonged;"--and
+she again moved towards the door.
+
+"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he followed
+her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove myself
+worthy,--anything, but do not forever extinguish the little star I have
+permitted to blaze in the firmament of my heart--the star I have dared
+to worship. Do not veil me in utter darkness!"
+
+"I can offer no hope--not the slightest, even to rid myself of an
+annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some portion of her
+former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney perplexed and
+troubled her exceedingly.
+
+"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell, heedless of the
+lady's rebuke.
+
+"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.
+
+"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till you
+examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from hopeless
+misery."
+
+"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a gentleman to
+save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont, with spirit, for her
+patience was fast ebbing out.
+
+"I will not _annoy_ you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis, as he assumed
+an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading for exemption from
+the direst of human miseries. But I will not _annoy_ you, even to save
+myself from endless woe."
+
+"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments will
+continue unchanged."
+
+"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
+resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
+that you will yet relent."
+
+"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
+Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time to
+add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however well
+acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the unsuspecting
+object of it to believe. That he really loved her was to some extent
+true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as the blight of coldness
+and inconstancy would render painful, was not true,--far from it. He had
+sought her hand, not to lay at her feet the offering of a hallowed
+affection, but to realize the object we have before mentioned,--to
+enable him, by the possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease
+and pleasure.
+
+He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some prospect of
+success. To the occasional professional visit he paid her father he had
+added frequent social calls, in which he had used all his eloquence to
+enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter. She had regarded him as an
+agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his natural abilities, the unceasing wit
+and liveliness of his conversation, had well earned him this
+distinction. Flattering himself that he should be able to win her
+affections, he had gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere
+formalist to the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These
+overtures were not well received, and, if she had before treated him
+with the favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now
+extended to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
+visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his eyes,
+and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his disposition
+was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow him to despair.
+
+Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented itself, in
+the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his ambitious wishes
+appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual was a young officer
+in the army, a sort of _protegé_ of the lady's father, who had been
+spending a furlough at Bellevue. In the matter of fortune Maxwell's
+rival was not to be dreaded, for he knew the lady was not mercenary in
+her views. The young captain was penniless; but his family was good, and
+he had the advantage of being a favorite with the father. He had won for
+himself a name on the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a
+lady's favor. He was a universal favorite both with the public and in
+the private circle.
+
+Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
+resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions he
+relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
+unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had manifested,
+he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her, eloquently and
+tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt that he could in this
+manner gain her attention to his suit,--a point which his vanity assured
+him was equivalent to a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were
+both sorely tried by the return of the letter unopened. His point was
+lost, and he was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to
+suggest any scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,--which the
+circumstances seemed to interdict,--when the visit of the lady herself
+rendered further efforts useless.
+
+His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
+heiress,--a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future prospects to
+be resigned,--was now a desperate one. Through the long vista of
+struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and the fact that he had to
+some extent compromised his heart stimulated him still more to meet and
+overcome the barriers that environed him.
+
+For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered the
+obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather than a
+disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
+He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
+bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
+precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
+and disappointment in a volley of oaths.
+
+His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's announcement
+of "Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
+Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
+no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
+demeanor.
+
+"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.
+
+"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
+requested me immediately to visit your brother."
+
+"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style
+Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.
+
+"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
+longer than I supposed it would."
+
+"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother wished
+to see you was concerning his will."
+
+"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
+apparent alarm.
+
+"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
+otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
+Jaspar, with a sickly smile.
+
+"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be
+prepared for the final event."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the
+will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste.
+Will it take you long?"
+
+"An hour or two."
+
+"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
+return."
+
+"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
+morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."
+
+Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
+courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
+first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which
+alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that
+awaited her, he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly
+suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could
+scarcely proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled _his_
+prospects in darkness; now he was preparing a will which would, at no
+distant day, place her in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was
+so firmly fixed upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to
+bend itself to the task before him.
+
+Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little impatient.
+Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the lawyer's shoulder.
+
+"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
+impatience, "and must be executed with great care."
+
+"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done," observed
+Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not unnoticed by
+the attorney.
+
+"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype of
+Jaspar's smile.
+
+A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single smile! It is
+the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts convey their untold
+and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious lover it is the bearer of the
+first tidings of joy. Long before the heart dare resort to coarse,
+material words, the smile carries the messages of affection. To the
+villain it reveals the sympathetic purposes of his according fiend. What
+the lead and line are to the pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling
+smile, is to the base mind. By means of it he feels his way into the
+heart and soul of his supposed prototype.
+
+Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the meaning of
+Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that he was cold and
+unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly lacking in common
+integrity; but that he was capable of bold and daring villany he had had
+no occasion to suspect. As he turned to the document again, the base
+character of the uncle came up for consideration in connection with his
+suit to the niece. Might not this circumstance open the way to the
+attainment of his grand purpose?
+
+But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the development of
+the history and circumstances of the Dumont family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "_Lorenzo_. You loved, and he did love!
+       _Mariana_. To say he did
+     Were to affirm what oft his eyes avouched,
+     What many an action testified--and yet,
+     What wanted confirmation of his tongue."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+On the right bank of the Mississippi river, a few miles above New
+Orleans, was situated the plantation of Colonel Dumont, which he had
+chosen to designate by the expressive appellation of "Bellevue;" though,
+it would seem, from the level nature of the country, it could not have
+been chosen on account of any fitness in the term.
+
+In territorial extent, in the number of slaves employed, and in the
+quantity of sugar annually produced, the plantation of Colonel Dumont
+was one of the most important on the river. This fact, added to the
+possession of immense estates in the city, rendered its owner a man of
+no small consequence in the vicinity. But, more than this, Colonel
+Dumont was beloved and respected for his many good qualities of mind and
+heart. In the late war with England he had served in the army, and as an
+officer had won an enviable distinction by his courage and his talents.
+Coming unexpectedly into the possession of this estate by the death of
+an uncle, he retired, at the close of the war, from a profession to
+which a genuine patriotism alone had invited him, and devoted himself
+entirely to the improvement of his lands.
+
+Colonel Dumont had been married; but, after a single year of happiness
+in the conjugal state, his wife died, leaving him an only daughter in
+remembrance of her. This child, at the opening of the tale, was within
+a few years of maturity,--the image of her father's only love,--not less
+fair, not less pure and good.
+
+Emily Dumont was a beautiful girl, fair as the lily, gentle as the dove.
+She was of a medium height, and of slender and graceful form. Her step
+was light and elastic, and, if there was any poetry in her light,
+elegant form, there was more in her easy, fairy-like motion. Her
+features were as daintily moulded as her form. Her eye was light blue,
+soft, and beautifully expressive of a pure heart. She was a little paler
+than the connoisseur in female loveliness would demand in his ideal, and
+her expression was a little inclined to sadness; but it was a
+sadness--or rather a sweet dignity--more winning than repulsive to the
+gazer.
+
+Emily Dumont, highly as fortune had favored her in the bestowal of
+worldly goods and personal beauty, was still more blessed in the gifts
+of an expansive mind and a gentle heart; and mind and heart had both
+been faithfully cultivated by the assiduous care of her devoted father.
+She was a true woman,--not a mere plaything to while away a dandy's idle
+hours, not a piece of tinsel to adorn the parlor of a nabob, but a true
+woman,--one fitted by nature and education to adorn all the varied
+scenes of life. Although brought up in unclouded prosperity, amid luxury
+and affluence, she was still prepared for the day of adversity, if it
+should ever come.
+
+As the heiress of immense wealth, her hand was eagerly sought in the
+aristocratic circle around her; but thus far she had resisted all these
+attacks upon her heart, and upon her prospective riches. In the crowd of
+suitors who gathered around her was Anthony Maxwell. In the item of
+wealth his fortune was comparatively small; and in that of a noble
+character, smaller still. Emily could have forgiven him the want of the
+former, but the latter was imperatively demanded. At the young lawyer's
+return from the North, and on his first appearance at the bar, Emily had
+regarded him with more than ordinary attention. But, after the death of
+his father, the reports which reached her ears of his dissolute habits
+and inclinations caused her to regard him with distrust. His wit,
+accomplishments and native suavity, had procured him admission into the
+circle of her more favored friends. But the report of his vices had as
+promptly produced his expulsion.
+
+The return of the army from Mexico brought with it the young officer
+whom we have before mentioned. The father of this young man had been a
+companion-in-arms of Colonel Dumont, and a strong friendship had grown
+up between the veterans. The tie was severed only by the death of the
+former, after a life of mercantile misfortunes, and finally of utter
+ruin. At the period of the father's insolvency and death, Henry Carroll,
+the son, was a cadet at West Point, and was about abandoning his chosen
+profession, for the want of means, when Colonel Dumont wrote him an
+affectionate letter, offering all that he required to complete his
+studies. This offer, coming from one who had been a heavy loser by his
+father's bankruptcy, was highly appreciated, and the young student had
+allowed no false delicacy to prevent his acceptance of the generous
+proposal, though with a stipulation to repay all sums, with interest.
+Colonel Dumont, in his regular summer tour to the North, never failed to
+visit his young friend, whose noble bearing and lofty principle entirely
+won his heart, and he charged himself with a father's duty towards him.
+A regular correspondence was kept up between the self-constituted
+guardian and his _protegé_; and the more the former read the heart of
+the young man, the more did he rejoice that he had befriended him. He
+read with mingled pride and affection the repeated instances of his
+daring courage and matchless skill which found their way into the
+newspapers; while the record of his humanity to a fallen foe contributed
+to swell the tide of the old gentleman's affection.
+
+On his return from Mexico, Henry's first care was to see his devoted
+friend and guardian, and he accepted his pressing invitation to spend a
+month at Bellevue.
+
+As an inmate of her father's family, he was, of course, a constant
+companion of Emily. Her radiant beauty had captivated his heart long ere
+the month had expired; and he saw, or thought he saw, in the heart of
+the fair girl, indications of a sympathetic sentiment. In the rashness
+of his warm blood he had allowed himself to cherish a lively hope that
+his dawning love was not entirely unrequited. He had seen that _his_
+bouquet was more fondly cherished than the offerings of others; that
+_his_ hand, as she alighted from the carriage, was more gladly received
+than any other; that _his_ conversation never wearied her; in short,
+there was in all their intercourse an unmistakable exponent of feelings
+deeper than those of common friendship.
+
+In the midst of this delighted existence,--while yet he revelled in the
+pleasure of loving and being loved,--there came to him, like a dark
+cloud over a clear sky, the unwelcome thought that it was wrong for him
+to entangle the affections of his benefactor's daughter. He was a
+beggar,--the object of her father's charity. Her prospects were
+brilliant and certain, and he felt that he had no right to mar or
+destroy them. He knew that she would love him none the less for his
+poverty; but, probably, her father had already anticipated something
+better than a beggar for his future son-in-law.
+
+Poor Captain Carroll! The modesty of true greatness of soul had left
+unconsidered the genuine nobility of the man. He thought not of the name
+he had won on the field of battle,--of the honorable wounds he bore as
+testimonials of his devotion to his country. He was poor, and, in the
+despondency which his position induced, he attributed to wealth a value
+which to the truly good it never possesses.
+
+He loved Emily, and his poverty seemed to shut him out from the hallowed
+field to which his heart fondly sought admission.
+
+Henry Carroll was a high-minded man; he felt that to love the daughter
+while the father's views were unknown to him would be rank ingratitude;
+and ingratitude towards so good a man, so kind a benefactor, was
+repugnant to every principle of his nature. There was but one path open
+to him. If he could not help loving her, he could strive to prevent the
+loved one from squandering her affections where pain and sorrow might
+ensue. They had often met; but he strove to believe, in his unwilling
+zeal, that their intimacy had not yet resulted in an incurable passion.
+She had as yet shown nothing that could not have resulted from simple
+friendship. And yet she had,--the warm glow that adorned her cheek when
+she received his flower, the expressive glance of her soft eye as he
+assisted her to the carriage, the sweet smile with which she had always
+greeted him,--ah, no, these were not friendship! I He could not believe
+that his affection was unreturned; it was too precious to remain
+unacknowledged. The will and the heart would not conform to each other.
+But his duty seemed plain, and he did not hesitate to obey its call,
+though it demanded a great sacrifice.
+
+The month to which he had limited his visit at Bellevue expired about
+the period at which our tale begins. Inclination prompted him to accept
+the pressing invitation of Colonel Dumont to prolong his stay; but,
+bitter as was the thought of parting from her he loved, his nice sense
+of honor compelled him to be firm in his purpose.
+
+The announcement of his intended departure to Emily, as they were seated
+in the drawing-room on the designated day, afforded him another evidence
+that her heart was not untouched. Her pale cheek grew paler, and the
+playful smile was instantly dismissed.
+
+"So soon?" said she, scarcely able to conceal the tremulous emotion
+which agitated her.
+
+"So soon! I have finished the month allotted to me," replied Henry
+Carroll, with a weak effort to appear gayer than he felt.
+
+"Allotted to you! And pray are you stinted in the length of your visit?"
+
+"My orders will not permit a longer stay, happy as I should be to
+remain; and I have already trespassed long on your hospitality."
+
+"Indeed, Henry, you have grown sensitive! You were not wont to consider
+your visits a trespass. Pray, have you not been regarded as one of the
+family?"
+
+"True, I have. I can never repay the debt of gratitude for the many
+kindnesses I have received at your good father's hands."
+
+"He has been a thousand times repaid by the honorable life you have
+led,--by feeling that the talents he has encouraged you to foster are
+now blessing the world," replied Emily, warmly; "so no more of your
+gratitude, if you please."
+
+"However lightly you, or your father, may regard my obligations to him,
+I cannot view them coldly."
+
+"Well, then, your presence here will give him more pleasure than any
+other token of respect you can bestow; and, I am sure, I should be
+rejoiced--that is to say--that is--I should be glad to have you stay
+longer, if you can be contented," stammered Emily, as her mantling
+blushes betrayed her confusion. Deception was not in her nature, and,
+strive as hard as she might, she must reveal her feelings.
+
+"I should be happier than it is possible for me to express in remaining
+at Bellevue. My month has passed away like a dream of pleasure,--so
+short it seemed that time had staid his wheels,--so joyous that earth
+seemed shorn of sorrow. You know not how much I have enjoyed the society
+of your father, and, pardon me, of yourself," returned Henry, scarcely
+less confused than Emily.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," she replied, with some hesitation, and
+fearful of exposing the sentiment she was conscious of cherishing. "I
+have thought that, accustomed as you are to the stirring life of the
+camp, you had grown tired of our quiet home."
+
+"You wrong me, Emily, I should never weary here; but I was fearful that
+I had already staid too long," said Henry, in a sad tone, for he felt it
+most deeply, though not in the sense that Emily understood him.
+
+"Too long! Then you are weary of us, and I will not chide you forbidding
+us adieu," said Emily, with a glance of anxiety at Henry.
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont, do not misinterpret my words. I am not weary, I
+cannot be weary, of Bellevue and its fair and good inmates."
+
+"Then what mean you by saying you have staid too long?"
+
+"Pardon me, I cannot tell why I said it; but I feel that I should do
+wrong to prolong my stay, however congenial to my feelings to do so,"
+replied Henry, with the most evident embarrassment.
+
+"How strange you talk, Henry! What mystery is this?" said Emily, to whom
+prudential motives were unknown.
+
+"If it be a mystery, pray do not press me to unravel it, for I cannot."
+
+His resolution was fast giving way before the strength of his love. He
+was sorely tempted to throw himself at her feet and pour forth the
+acknowledgment of his affection, which, he felt, would be kindly
+received. It was a difficult position for a man of sensitive feelings to
+be placed in, and he felt it keenly. But the duty he owed to his
+benefactor seemed imperative.
+
+Emily, on her part, was sadly bewildered by the strangeness of Henry's
+words; but she had no suspicion of the truth. If she had, perhaps, with
+a woman's ingenuity, she had devised some plan to extricate him from the
+dilemma. She was conscious of the strong interest she felt in the man
+before her; but the fact that she loved him was yet unrecognized. How
+should it be? She was unskilled in the subtleties even of her own
+heart. She know not the meaning of love yet. She was conscious of a
+grateful sensation in her heart; but she had yet to learn that this
+sensation was that called love in the great world. She began to fear, in
+her inability to account for Henry's strangeness in any other way, that
+some secret sorrow weighed heavily upon him.
+
+"I will not press you," said she, in a tone of affectionate sympathy;
+"but, if you have any sorrow which oppresses you, reveal it to my
+father, and take counsel against it. My father's house is your home,--at
+least, we have always endeavored to make it so. Father has always
+regarded you with the affection of a parent, and taught me to consider
+you as a brother--"
+
+"A brother!" interrupted Henry, feeling that the relation of brother and
+sister was too cold for the warmth of his affection; but, instantly
+banishing the unworthy thought, he continued,
+
+"And so, my pretty sister, you are for the first time entering upon your
+sisterly relations?"
+
+"The first time! Have I not always given you evidence of a sister's
+esteem?"
+
+"Pardon me. I only jested," said Henry, as the playful smile left his
+countenance.
+
+"Do not jest upon serious things, Henry," replied Emily. "But, brother,
+something troubles you. You cannot deny it. You look so gloomy and sad,
+and must leave us so suddenly."
+
+"Nay, my sweet sister,--since sister I am permitted to call you,--you
+must forgive me if I am obstinate just this once."
+
+"I will forgive your obstinacy because you desire it, and not because I
+am satisfied. Do you know, brother," said she, with a playful smile,
+"that I suspect you are in love?"
+
+This raillery was intended to have been uttered with a pert archness;
+but the crimson cheek and tremulous lips entirely defeated the
+intention.
+
+"Fie, sister! You are jesting now, yourself," replied Henry, with what
+was intended for a smile, but which, like his assailant's archness, was
+a signal failure.
+
+Both parties were now in the most unfortunate position imaginable.
+Neither dared to speak, for fear of disclosing their emotions. Both felt
+the awkwardness of the silence, and both felt the danger of breaking it.
+Henry twirled the tassel of the window drapery, and Emily twisted her
+pocket-handkerchief into every conceivable shape. Henry was the first to
+gather fortitude enough to venture a remark.
+
+"I must leave you, sister, now that, for the first time, the relation is
+acknowledged. I assure you, however, that I appreciate the sisterly
+kindness you have always lavished upon me. And I shall always remember
+this visit as the happiest period of my life."
+
+"Then I may hope you will often repeat it," replied Emily, sadly.
+
+"However pleasant it would be for me to do so, I fear my duty will be a
+barrier to my inclination. My future post, you are aware, is Newport."
+
+"And you depart so suddenly, and then seem inclined to make your absence
+perpetual! But we shall see you where-ever you are. We go to Newport
+this season, if father's health will permit," returned Emily, with a
+playful pout.
+
+"I would stay by you,--that is, I would stay at Bellevue forever,--if my
+duty to your father--I mean to my country--would permit," stammered
+Henry, much agitated, as he rose to depart.
+
+"I must go and bid farewell to your father," continued he, taking her
+hand, which he perceived trembled violently, in his own; "and I trust
+you will remember your absent brother--" kindly, he was about to say,
+but Emily, attempting to rise, was overpowered by the emotions which she
+had vainly striven to suppress, and sunk back in a swoon.
+
+Henry summoned assistance, and applied the usual restoratives, but he
+did not again venture to address her; and, as her pale features
+exhibited signs of returning consciousness, he hurried from the room.
+
+As the hour of his departure drew near, he bade an affectionate farewell
+to Colonel Dumont, who was confined to his room by illness. His kind
+friend used many entreaties for him to prolong his stay, but Henry
+pleaded his duty, and that the dying request of a brother officer
+required him to take a journey into Georgia, which would consume some
+three or four weeks' time. He intended to go to his future station by
+the way of the Mississippi, and promised that, if any time were left him
+on his return, he would again visit Bellevue. This, however, he thought
+was improbable.
+
+Colonel Dumont gave his _protegé_ much good advice, and, as his failing
+health had infected his usually cheerful spirits, he said that they
+would probably meet no more in this world. He frankly told him that he
+should remember him in his will, and wished him ever to regard Emily in
+the relation of a _sister_.
+
+This last wish seemed like a positive prohibition of the fond hope he
+had cherished, of regarding her in a nearer and more tender relation. He
+congratulated himself on the decision with which he had resisted the
+temptation to avow his love.
+
+This injunction of Emily's father could be interpreted in two ways,--as
+a requirement to preserve the present friendly relations, or as a
+prohibition against his ever making her his wife. The latter method of
+rendering his meaning seemed to him the most in accordance with their
+relative positions, and he was compelled to adopt it.
+
+After renewing his thanks to his benefactor, he took his leave with a
+sad heart, and departed from the mansion which contained his newly-found
+yet now rejected love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "_Macbeth_.--What is 't ye do?
+     _Witches_.--A deed without a name."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+In the management of his estates, Colonel Dumont had, for many years,
+been assisted by an only brother. This brother was directly the opposite
+of himself in character, in aims, in everything. Even in his childhood
+this brother had displayed a waywardness of disposition which gave the
+promise of much evil in his future years. As the seed sown so was the
+harvest. Parental instruction, counsel and rebuke, were alike
+unavailing, and he attained the years of manhood morose and
+unsympathizing in his disposition, avaricious and hard with his equals,
+and cruel and unjust towards his inferiors. His selfish mind, his low
+aims, and his tyrannical character, had long been preparing him for
+deeds of villany and injustice.
+
+In the earlier years of his life he had been a merchant in New Orleans;
+but, being universally detested for his meanness and duplicity, in a
+season of general panic in the financial world he was completely ruined,
+by the want of those kind offices which are so freely interchanged in
+the mercantile community. In this dilemma, he asked his brother's
+assistance. Colonel Dumont examined his affairs, and, considering his
+position in the community, with the almost hopeless embarrassment of his
+concerns, concluded that success under these circumstances was
+impossible. He frankly and kindly informed his brother of his
+conclusion, and offered him a share in his planting operations. His
+brother--Jaspar--was sorely wounded in his pride by this reply. It
+generated in him a sentiment, if not of malignity, at least of hatred,
+and from that day he was his brother's enemy. Jaspar's business was
+gone, and he never allowed his spirit of revenge even to interfere with
+his interest; so he availed himself of his brother's offer.
+
+Colonel Dumont trusted much to the gentle influence of his family circle
+to soften Jaspar's moroseness, and infuse some principle of charity and
+love. But these anticipations proved vain. He was cold and taciturn.
+Business alone could call forth the display of his energy, of which he
+was possessed of a liberal share. The society of Emily and other ladies
+he seemed to shun. The gentle influence of domestic life seemed entirely
+wasted upon him. Colonel Dumont was forced to believe his brother a
+misanthrope, and no longer strove to soften his character. Emily
+regarded his coldness as his natural manner, and left him to the full
+enjoyment of his eccentricity. Between persons of such opposite
+dispositions there could be, of course, but little sympathy, and that
+little was entirely upon one side.
+
+The demon of Jaspar's nature displayed itself in the cane-field and in
+the sugar-house, which Colonel Dumont rarely visited, having intrusted
+the entire management of the estate to him, his own attention being
+occupied by the exterior business of the plantation, and by his city
+possessions. The poor negro, who was compelled to submit to cruel usage
+and short fare, knew Jaspar's nature better than uncle or niece. His
+advent among them had been the era from which they dated the life of
+misery they led--a life so different from that they had been accustomed
+to under the superintendence of the more Christian brother.
+
+Jaspar Dumont managed the "negro stock" in the true spirit of a demon,
+and as such the "hands" learned to regard him. Runaways, which, under
+the mild management of his brother, were rarely known, were common now;
+and almost the only amusement Jaspar knew was to hunt them down with
+rifle and bloodhound.
+
+This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not appreciate the
+reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he wished not to
+interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his heart. His failing
+health had latterly withdrawn his attention still more from the
+plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the tighter when he saw that the
+humane eye was removed from him.
+
+Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the close of
+our first chapter.
+
+On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel Dumont
+felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed with the
+conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon him. To Emily
+he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and she had discovered
+no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no suspicion of the nature
+of her father's business with Maxwell, and had borne his message to the
+attorney, as she had often done before, in her frequent visits to New
+Orleans, though on this occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much
+delicacy in doing so.
+
+In her absence Colonel Dumont had become more and more impressed with
+the omens of a speedy dissolution, and in his uneasiness had despatched
+Jaspar with a draft of his intentions, wishing the attorney to write the
+will in his office (where he could have his authorities at hand), and
+return with his brother.
+
+Maxwell considered the will and his own position, while Jaspar lit
+another cigar. Each was striving to penetrate the thoughts of the other,
+but neither had the boldness to enter upon the subject which occupied
+his mind. The lawyer wanted the lady and the fortune, and he had an
+undefined purpose of obtaining them through the agency of Jaspar, who
+wanted only the fortune, and had a decided anticipation of being able to
+retain the attorney in his service. Neither knew the purposes of the
+other; but each wanted the assistance of the other.
+
+Maxwell, with an absent mind, perused and reperused the first page of
+Colonel Dumont's instructions. Without a purpose he turned the leaf, and
+his attention was attracted by the name of his formidable rival, Henry
+Carroll. He read, with astonishment, a bequest to him of fifty thousand
+dollars. If it needed anything to complete his discomfiture, this was
+sufficient. He began to think Colonel Dumont was in his dotage. He had
+scarcely heard of Captain Carroll until his return from Mexico, and now
+he was a legatee in the will of a millionaire. With much anxiety he
+completed the reading of the instructions, fearful that he should find
+the young officer's name in connection with Emily's. To his great relief
+he found no such allusion, and again he applied himself to the task of
+writing out the will.
+
+Jaspar smoked his cigar, glanced occasionally at the newspaper, and
+stared out of the window. He was evidently lost to all around him, in
+the workings of his own mind. Now his thoughts seemed to excite him, for
+his eye glared with an unusual lustre, and his thin lips moved, as if
+they would disclose the operations of his mind. "Will he do it?"
+muttered he. "He shall do it, or by ---- he shall suffer! I have the
+means of compelling him. I will use them."
+
+Apparently satisfied with his conclusion, he rose hastily and approached
+the attorney. A smooth smile--an unwonted expression on his
+features--seemed to come on demand. Again he looked over the lawyer's
+shoulder. He saw the name of Henry Carroll, and his former severe
+expression returned, and his frame was stirred by angry emotions. A
+half-suppressed oath did not escape the quick ear of the attorney, and
+he turned to observe the face of his companion. He read at a glance the
+dissatisfaction which the will occasioned. The reason was plain; and,
+with the intention of drawing out Jaspar's views, he addressed him.
+
+"This Carroll is a lucky fellow," said he.
+
+"The devil is always the luckiest fellow in the crowd," growled Jaspar,
+with an oath.
+
+"You are right, sir," returned Maxwell, pleased to see no better feeling
+between his rival and the uncle.
+
+"But who is this Carroll?" said he.
+
+"A hungry cub, whom the colonel has helped along in the world."
+
+"Well, he has proved himself a brave and skilful officer, and reflects
+credit on your brother's judgment in the selection of a _protegé_,"
+returned Maxwell, adroitly.
+
+"The fellow is all well enough, for aught I know, but he has wheedled
+the colonel out of fifty thousand dollars, and I can never forgive him
+for that," said Jaspar, in what was intended for a playful tone, but
+which was designed as a "feeler" of the attorney's conscience.
+
+"But there is still an immense property left, even after deducting the
+liberal charitable donations," said Maxwell.
+
+"There is, but where does it go to? That whining young cub has divided a
+hundred thousand with me, and the silly girl has the rest."
+
+"Which will eventually go into the hands of Captain Carroll,--lucky dog,
+he!" returned Maxwell, striving to provoke Jaspar still more.
+
+"What! what mean you, man?" said Jaspar, with a scowl, as he caught a
+glimpse of the attorney's meaning.
+
+"Is it possible, my dear sir," said Maxwell, laying down his pen, and
+turning half round, "is it possible you have not observed the intimacy
+which has grown up between this Carroll and your niece?"
+
+"Intimacy! what do you mean? Speak out! no equivocation!" said Jaspar,
+almost fiercely.
+
+"Do you not see that she will yet be the wife of Captain Carroll?"
+
+Jaspar scowled, but said nothing. He had seen nothing from which he
+could draw such an inference, but he doubted not the information was
+correct.
+
+"Well, well, it matters not. He may as well have it as she," muttered
+he. "This will suits me not, and must be broken or altered."
+
+"It _is_ hard upon you," said Maxwell, who had overheard Jaspar's
+mutterings.
+
+"It is rather hard to be placed upon the same level with a comparative
+stranger," replied Jaspar, thoughtfully, after a long pause. He had not
+intended the lawyer should hear his previous remarks, and had reflected
+whether he should disown them, or pursue the subject as thus opened.
+
+"Of course you will not mention the idle remark I made," continued
+Jaspar, in a vein of prudence. "My brother has an undoubted right to
+dispose of his property as he pleases."
+
+"O, certainly. What transpires in my office is always regarded with the
+strictest confidence, whatever its nature, and however it affects any
+individual," replied Maxwell, laying peculiar emphasis on the latter
+clause.
+
+"That's right, always be secret," said Jaspar, without any of the
+appearance of obligation for the favor which the attorney expected to
+see.
+
+"I have secrets in my possession which would ruin some of the best
+families in the State of Louisiana."
+
+"Without doubt," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+The attorney resumed his writing, and pronounced in an audible tone each
+sentence as he committed it to the paper.
+
+"To my beloved brother--Jaspar Dumont--I give and bequeath the sum of
+fifty thousand dollars."
+
+These words, as intended, again fired Jaspar's passions.
+
+"Is there no remedy for this?" asked he, hastily.
+
+"No legal remedy," replied Maxwell, indifferently, as he continued his
+task.
+
+"Is there any, legal or illegal?"
+
+"None that an honest man would be willing to resort to."
+
+"That any man would resort to?" and Jaspar was not a little provoked at
+the attorney's moral inferences.
+
+"I know of none."
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then why do you not put it into operation before it is too late? The
+will is now nearly written."
+
+"Pshaw! man; you do not understand me. A bolder step than you are
+thinking of."
+
+"Well, what do you wait for?"
+
+"I need assistance."
+
+"If I can afford you any aid, _honorably_, I shall be most happy."
+
+"_Honorably_! What the devil do you mean by _honorably_?" said Jaspar,
+exasperated by this unexpected display of morality.
+
+"What do I mean by honorably? Why, anything which does not affect the
+legal or moral rights of others," replied Maxwell, a little touched by
+the seeming reflection of Jaspar.
+
+"Fudge! how long have you been so conscientious?" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"When a man has a reputation to make or break, it becomes him to handle
+it with care."
+
+"Out upon you, man! _Your_ reputation is not so fair, that you need be
+so tender of it," replied Jaspar, with some severity.
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"O, you needn't '_sir_' me! You have led me to commit myself, and now
+assume a virtue you possess not."
+
+"Sir, I value my reputation, and--"
+
+"Of course you do, but you would not sacrifice a fortune for it,"
+interrupted Jaspar, easily changing the tenor of the conversation.
+
+"I certainly would not stain it unnecessarily," replied Maxwell, with a
+meaning smile, for he saw the folly of attempting the "high flight" with
+Jaspar.
+
+"Now you talk sensibly," said Jaspar.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, it is useless to beat about the bush any longer; if you
+have any proposition to make, out with it at once; and if I cannot aid
+you, I will, at least, keep your secret."
+
+"Will you swear never to reveal what I shall propose?"
+
+"Yes, if paid for it," said Maxwell, frankly.
+
+"It is well. Now, I will put you in the way of making ten thousand
+dollars, if you so will," said Jaspar, slapping the attorney on the back
+with a familiarity which was likely to breed contempt.
+
+This was a tempting offer, and Maxwell prepared to listen to the
+proposition. He was aware that it was some design upon the estate of
+Colonel Dumont, and he inwardly resolved to be a gainer by the
+operation, whether he joined in it or not.
+
+Jaspar Dumont laid aside his sternness, and disclosed his plot to
+Maxwell. It was, as may be supposed, a nefarious scheme, and not only
+intended to deprive Henry Carroll of his legacy, but also to disinherit
+the heiress, and cast a stigma upon the character of his brother.
+
+The plot we will not here disclose.
+
+Maxwell listened attentively, occasionally interrupting the speaker, by
+asking for details, or pointing out dangers But the foul wrong intended
+towards her for whom he entertained warmer sentiments than those of
+friendship shocked even his hardened sensibilities, and he strongly
+objected to its consummation. It would also, by stripping her of her
+broad lands, and stigmatizing her birth, render her undesirable as a
+wife. But Jaspar was firm in his purpose, and refused to listen to any
+other scheme. This one, he contended, was the safest and surest.
+
+"But it is a diabolical transaction," suggested Maxwell.
+
+"Call it what you will, it is the only one that will work well."
+
+Maxwell remained silent. He was studying to make this scheme subservient
+to his own purpose. He was obliged to confess to himself that his hopes
+with the heiress were worse than folly, and he judged that the execution
+of Jaspar's scheme would remove his rival. He looked forward years, and
+saw his own purpose gained by means of Jaspar's plan. It was true that
+he and Jaspar both could not have her estates; but then Jaspar was a
+villain, and it would be a good service, at a convenient season, to be a
+traitor to him. His plans were arranged, and he determined to encourage
+his companion to proceed, though, at the same time, to seem unwilling,
+and to keep his own hands clean from all participation in it.
+
+After this long interval of silence, which Jaspar had endured with
+patience, for he recognized the truth of the saying, that "He who
+deliberates is damned," Maxwell said,
+
+"I cannot consent to stain my hands with such gross injustice."
+
+"You cannot!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"It would ruin me."
+
+"It was part of my intention to keep the transaction a secret," said
+Jaspar, sarcastically.
+
+"Of course, and your confidence in me shall not be misplaced."
+
+Jaspar's fists were clenched, and a demoniacal expression rested on his
+countenance, as he said, savagely,
+
+"You know your own interest too well to do otherwise."
+
+"I am not to be intimidated," replied Maxwell, who despised his
+companion most heartily, and did not relish his tyrannical manner. "Your
+confidence, I repeat, is safe. _Honor_ will keep your secret,--threats
+will not compel me to do so."
+
+"_Honor_! ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Jaspar. "Do you know, Maxwell, that you
+are a ---- fool, to talk to me of your honor?"
+
+"Would you insult me, sir?" said, Maxwell, with vehemence.
+
+"O, no, my fine fellow! _Your_ honor!--ha, ha!" returned Jaspar, taking
+from his pocket a little slip of paper. "Look here, my _honorable_
+worthy, do you know this check?"
+
+Maxwell's face assumed a livid hue, and a convulsive tremor passed
+through his frame, as he read the check.
+
+In a moment of temporary embarrassment he had been tempted to forge the
+name of Colonel Dumont to this check, for five hundred dollars, to
+liquidate a debt of honor, not doubting that he should be able to obtain
+it again before the day of settlement at the bank, by means of a
+dissolute teller, a boon companion at the gaming-table. But Colonel
+Dumont, in arranging his affairs for their final settlement, had sent
+Jaspar for a statement of his bank account at an unusual time. Jaspar,
+who, in the illness of his brother, had managed all his business,
+immediately discovered the forgery. Without disputing its genuineness,
+he ascertained who had presented it, and traced the deed to the
+attorney, and thus obtained a hold upon him which was peculiarly
+favorable to the execution of his great purpose.
+
+"You see I have not laid myself open to your fire without fortifying my
+position," said Jaspar, enjoying, with hearty relish, the discomfiture
+of the lawyer. "Now, no more of _honor_ to me. I have kept your secret
+for my own interest, and now you will keep mine from the same motive."
+
+"But I _dare_ not do this thing," replied Maxwell, keenly sensitive to
+the weakness of his position; "I lack the ability."
+
+"You have signed the colonel's name once very well; perhaps you can do
+it again," sneered Jaspar, who had no mercy for an unwilling servant.
+
+"It will not be for your interest or mine that I should do it," returned
+Maxwell, determined, if possible, to avoid committing himself.
+
+"Why not?" said Jaspar.
+
+"My frequent visits to Bellevue would subject me to suspicion. I am
+known. Another would not be suspected. If I clear myself, I shall clear
+you at the same time. I can procure a person who will accomplish all in
+safety."
+
+"Think you I will trust another man with the possession of the secret?"
+
+"I shall compromise my own safety by writing the will, as you propose."
+
+"True,--who is this person?"
+
+"His name is--" and Maxwell hesitated; then a severe fit of coughing
+apparently prevented his uttering the name--"his name is Antoine De
+Guy."
+
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"You do, I think,--a kind of _street_ lawyer,--you must have met him at
+the Exchange."
+
+"What looking man is he?"
+
+"About fifty years of age," replied Maxwell, more thoughtful than the
+simple description of a person would seem to require,--"rather
+corpulent, black hair and whiskers, intermixed with gray,--dresses
+old-fashioned, and always looks rusty."
+
+"I do not remember him,--De Guy--De Guy," said Jaspar, musing; "no, I do
+not know him. Are you confident he can be trusted?"
+
+"Perfectly confident. I pledge my own safety on his fidelity," replied
+Maxwell, not a little satisfied at gaining his point,--for he had a
+point, and a strong one, as the reader may yet have occasion to know.
+
+"Very good,--I will inquire about him."
+
+"And expose us both!" replied Maxwell, in much alarm.
+
+"True,--on reflection, it would not be wise, and it would be best for
+you and I not to be seen together. But finish the will; the colonel will
+not relish my long absence. A word more: do not say anything about
+_this_ will. The colonel has a fancy to keep it secret, and this fancy
+will be the salvation of our scheme."
+
+But we will not follow the conversation any further. The reader has
+obtained a sufficient knowledge of these worthies from their own mouths,
+to believe them capable of any villany they may be called upon to
+perpetrate.
+
+The plot was further arranged in all its details. A meeting with De Guy
+was fixed for the next day, when all parties were to be prepared to act
+their parts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     "He is a man, setting his fate aside,
+     Of comely virtues;
+     Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice,
+     But with a noble fury and a fair spirit
+     He did oppose his foe."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+Colonel Dumont's melancholy forebodings proved to be too well grounded,
+for in ten days after the departure of Henry Carroll he breathed his
+last, not fully ripe in years, but mature in the stature of a good man.
+His worldly affairs had all been arranged, and with his mind at peace
+with God and man he bade a final adieu to his weeping daughter and
+dissembling brother, and calmly resigned his spirit to its Author.
+
+The mansion of Colonel Dumont had been the abode of happiness.
+Cheerfulness and contentment--rare visitors at the home of
+opulence--dwelt gracefully amid the luxurious splendor of this house.
+But now a heavy stroke of affliction had come upon the devoted Emily.
+The ruthless hand of death had struck down her father in the midst of
+prosperity and happiness. She felt that she was alone in the world. Her
+unsympathizing uncle seemed not to feel the loss, but appeared even more
+cold and churlish than ever. She could not expect from him the offices
+of kindness and sympathy. She was an orphan, but not till she was
+prepared to combat with the trials of life. Recognizing the hand of
+Providence in this visitation of the Angel of Death, she bowed meekly
+and submissively to the Master Will, and was even cheerful and happy in
+her tears.
+
+It was about ten o'clock on the night succeeding the funeral of Colonel
+Dumont that a small canoe, containing a single individual, touched at
+the bank of the river near the now gloomy mansion. Leaping from the
+canoe, which was nearly swamped by the act, the person it had contained
+drew the frail bark beyond the reach of the rapid current, and ascended
+the steep bank. Following the smooth shell road through the long vista
+of negro huts, he reached the little grove of tropical trees which
+surrounded the proprietary mansion. Casting an anxious glance around
+him, to satisfy himself that he was not watched, he cautiously
+approached the only illuminated window on that side of the house, upon
+which, after a close scrutiny of the interior of the room, he gave
+several light taps. This signal was answered by Jaspar Dumont, who, with
+a word of caution, opened the window. The stranger, with a light spring
+which belied his apparent years, gained the interior of the room, which
+was the library of the late owner.
+
+The person who had thus obtained admission was the lawyer, Antoine De
+Guy, whom Maxwell had suggested as a fit agent for the execution of
+Jaspar's scheme. He was certainly an odd-looking man. His face was of a
+very dark red color, much like that which is produced by the united
+effects of exposure and intemperance, and was encircled by a pair of
+black whiskers, intermixed with gray. His cranium was ornamented with a
+huge mass of the same parti-colored hair. His fiery red nose was placed
+in strange contrast with a pair of green spectacles, which entirely
+concealed the color and expression of his eyes. His clothes were of a
+most primitive cut, and had probably been black once, but were now rusty
+and white from long service. His form was portly, a little inclined to
+corpulency. His hands were most unprofessionally dirty; but this might
+have been occasioned by contact with the canoe in his passage. On one of
+his fingers glittered a diamond ring, which, considering the lack of
+ornaments in other respects, but ill accorded with the apparent
+parsimony of the man. It might, however, have been obtained in the way
+of trade, for Maxwell had hinted that he did business under the sign of
+the "three golden balls." He was apparently in the neighborhood of
+five-and-forty, and looked like the debauchee in the face, while his
+dress indicated the penurious man of business.
+
+"Did any one see you?" asked Jaspar, whose teeth were chattering with
+apprehension, notwithstanding his natural boldness.
+
+"Not that I am aware of," replied De Guy, in a silky tone, which,
+proceeding from such a form, would have astonished the listener.
+
+"You met no one?" interrogated the anxious Jaspar.
+
+"Not a soul! Everything was still."
+
+"Let us be sure of it. Step into this room for a moment. I will see that
+all the servants have retired," said Jaspar, pushing his confederate
+into an adjoining apartment.
+
+A light pull at the bell-rope brought to the library the body-servant of
+the late planter.
+
+This "boy," who was known by the name of _Hatchie_, was a mulatto. He
+was about forty years of age, and, having never been reduced to labor in
+the cane-fields, bore his age remarkably well. He was about six feet in
+height, very stout built, and was endowed with immense physical
+strength. His brow was a little wrinkled, and his head was a little bald
+upon the top,--and these were the only evidences of his years. His
+expression was that of great intelligence. In his countenance there was
+a kind of humility, to which his demeanor corresponded, that might have
+resulted from his condition, or have been inherent in his nature. He was
+a man who, even in a land of slavery, would be instinctively respected.
+
+He had been a great favorite with his late master, in whose family he
+had spent the greater part of his life. By being constantly in
+attendance upon him and his guests, he had acquired a much greater
+amount of information than is often found in those of his condition. He
+could read and write, and by his intelligence and singular fidelity had
+proved a valuable addition to his master's household. Possessing his
+confidence, and regarded more as a friend than a slave by Emily, he was
+a privileged person in the house,--a confidence which in no instance did
+he abuse, and which in no degree abated his affection or his fidelity.
+
+Hatchie was not a phrenologist, but he had long ago acquired a perfect
+knowledge of Jaspar's character,--a knowledge which his master or Emily
+had never obtained.
+
+Hatchie considered Emily, now that her father was dead, as his own
+especial charge, and he watched over her, in the disparity of their
+stations, very much as a faithful dog watches over a child intrusted to
+its keeping. Towards her he entertained a sentiment of the profoundest
+respect as his mistress, and of parental affection as one who had grown
+up under his eye.
+
+"Hatchie," said Jaspar, as the mulatto entered the library, "are the
+hands all in?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, whose penetrating mind detected the
+tremulous quiver of Jaspar's lip; "all in two hours ago, according to
+regulations."
+
+"All right, then. You can go to bed now."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, with his customary obeisance, as he turned
+to depart.
+
+"Stay a moment. Go to Miss Emily, and get the keys of the secretary,"
+said Jaspar, with assumed carelessness.
+
+Hatchie obeyed; and, suspecting something before, he was confirmed in
+the opinion now, and determined to watch. His suspicions of
+something--he knew not what--had been excited by seeing Maxwell in
+earnest consultation with Jaspar on the day of the funeral. He had, of
+course, no idea of the plots of the latter; but, in common with all the
+"boys," he hated Jaspar, and was willing to know more of his
+transactions.
+
+Giving the keys to Jaspar, he left the room, and heard the creaking of
+the bolt which fastened the door.
+
+As soon as the servant had departed, Jaspar called his confederate from
+his concealment.
+
+"Are you ready for business?" said he.
+
+"I am," replied De Guy, "as soon as you pay me the first instalment. I
+can't take a single step in the dark."
+
+"Here it is," and Jaspar took from his pocket the money. "Have you the
+document?"
+
+"I have," replied De Guy, producing the fictitious will, which Maxwell
+had drawn up in conformity with the instructions of Jaspar.
+
+"And you are ready to affix the signature?" said Jaspar, who appeared
+not to be in the possession of his usual confidence. Few villains ever
+become so hardened as never to tremble.
+
+"I am. I came for that purpose. Give me the genuine will, and I will
+soon make this one so near like it that the witnesses themselves shall
+not discover the cheat," replied De Guy, with an air of confidence.
+
+"You shall have it; but first read this to me. I do nothing blindly."
+
+The attorney, in his silky tones, read the paper through, and Jaspar
+pronounced it correct in every particular.
+
+"I see nothing in the way of entire success," said Jaspar, rubbing his
+hands with delight at his prospective fortune.
+
+"Nor I," replied De Guy, "except that these witnesses will deny the
+substance of it."
+
+"How can they, when they know it not? The colonel, for some reason or
+other, would not let them read it or know its purport. Maxwell and
+myself are pledged to secrecy. It is upon this fact that I based the
+scheme."
+
+"But the will would not be worth a tittle in the law with such
+witnesses."
+
+"Bah! the colonel knew no one would contest it. He did it at his own
+risk."
+
+"But will they not contest _your_ will?"
+
+"If they do, I shall find the means of proving what the document
+affirms, and my case will then stand just as well. As a kind of
+assurance for the witnesses my brother affixed a character,--a kind of
+cabalistic design,--upon the will, assuring them it was placed on the
+will alone. You have a copy of this design?"
+
+"I have. Maxwell gave it to me, and I have practised till I can do it to
+perfection. Your brother had an odd way of doing business."
+
+"He had; but his oddity in this instance is a God-send."
+
+"But the _other_ document, Mr. Dumont! My stay is already too long!"
+
+Jaspar, taking the keys from the table, opened the secretary, and took
+from a small iron safe in the lower part of it a large packet, on which
+were several large masses of wax bearing the impress of Colonel Dumont's
+seal.
+
+"Now, De Guy," said he, "do your best."
+
+"Do not fear! I never yet saw a name I could not imitate."
+
+"So much the better; but be careful, I entreat you! Think how much
+depends upon care!"
+
+"O, I can do it so nicely that your brother himself would not deny it,
+if he should step out of his grave!"
+
+"Silence, man!" said Jaspar, angrily, as a superstitious thrill of
+terror crept through his veins.
+
+Jaspar took up the packet, and was about to snap the seals, when,
+quicker than thought, the window through which De Guy had entered flew
+open, and Hatchie leaped into the room. Without giving Jaspar or his
+accomplice time to recover from the surprise of his sudden entrance, he
+levelled a blow at the lawyer, and another at the perfidious brother,
+which placed both in a rather awkward position on the floor. Hatchie
+then seized the envelope containing the will, and made his escape in the
+manner he had entered, well knowing that Jaspar would not hesitate to
+take his life rather than be foiled in his purpose.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie knocking down De Guy and Jasper, and stealing the
+will. Page 46.]
+
+The mulatto's blows produced no serious effect upon the heads of the
+two villains, and, recovering from the surprise and shock the act had
+occasioned, they lost not a moment in pursuing their assailant. Hatchie
+directed his course to the river, and scarcely a moment had elapsed
+before he heard the steps of his pursuers. Leaping down the bank, he ran
+along by the edge of the water, with the intention of reaching a boat
+which he knew was moored a few rods further down. In his flight,
+however, he discovered the canoe in which De Guy had arrived, and,
+casting it off, he paddled with astonishing rapidity towards the
+opposite shore.
+
+His pursuers reached the bank, and perceiving the canoe through the
+darkness, Jaspar discharged his rifle at it. A heavy splash followed the
+discharge. The canoe appeared to float at the mercy of the current.
+Jaspar and De Guy, satisfied that the rifle-ball had done its work,
+hastened down stream to a small point of land which projected into the
+river, with the hope of securing the canoe and the body of the slave,
+upon which they expected to find the will. The canoe was driven ashore,
+as they had anticipated; but it contained not the objects for which they
+sought. The corpse of Hatchie was nowhere to be found, though they
+paddled about the river an hour in search of it,--not that the body of
+the mulatto was of any consequence, but in the hope of obtaining the
+precious will.
+
+Here was a contingency for which Jaspar was wholly unprepared. The
+original signature of the will was not now available, and they must
+trust to luck for accuracy in signing the false one. There was little
+difficulty in this, as the will was known to have been signed in the
+usual manner, and the private character they had in their possession.
+Still Jaspar felt that the original paper afforded the surer means of
+deceiving the witnesses. They had before intended to produce a
+fac-simile, mechanically, of the original,--a purpose which could not
+now be accomplished. The witnesses were all friends of Colonel Dumont,
+and they had various papers signed by them from which to copy their
+signatures. The worst, and to Jaspar's daring mind the only difficulty
+which now presented itself, was the fear that the body of Hatchie might
+be found, and the genuine will thus brought to light. After much
+reflection and consultation with De Guy, he determined to risk all, to
+watch for the body, and be prepared to overcome any obstacle which might
+be presented. With this conclusion they returned to the library. By the
+aid of old notes, checks, and other papers, the fictitious will was duly
+signed, the significant character affixed, and the document enveloped so
+as to exactly resemble the original packet.
+
+The whole transaction was so well performed that Jaspar retired to his
+pillow confident of success, to await the result on the morrow, when the
+will was to be read.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave? I know
+     'Tis not with men as shrubs and trees, that by
+     The shoot you know the rank and order of
+     The stem. Yet who from such a stem would look
+     For such a shoot?"
+
+     Knowles.
+
+
+The morrow came. Emily was summoned to the library, to hear the reading
+of her father's will. With her no worldly consideration could mitigate
+the deep grief that pervaded her heart. She derived her only consolation
+from a purer, higher source. She was a true mourner, and the acquisition
+of the immense fortune of which she was the heiress was not an event
+which could heal the wound in her heart. She looked not forward to the
+bright scenes of triumph and of conquest that awaited her. She was not
+dazzled by the brilliancy of the position to which wealth and an
+honorable name entitled her. Such thoughts never occurred to her. She
+did think of Henry Carroll; but not in the proud situation to which her
+wealth might elevate him, but as a pure heart that would beat in unison
+with her own, that would sympathize with her in her hour of sorrow; as
+one who would mingle his tears with hers, over the bier of a common
+parent. She was not sentimental in her love, nor in her grief. Sighs and
+tears with her were not a sentimental commodity,--an offering which the
+boarding-school miss makes alike at the altar of her love, or at the
+shrine of a dead parent's memory. The desolation of heart and home was
+not a trial which wealth and honors could adorn with tinsel, and thus
+render it desirable, or even tolerable!
+
+Emily Dumont entered the library. The occasion was repugnant to her
+feelings. The unceremonious blending of dollars and cents with the
+revered name of her father was extremely painful to her sensibility. It
+seemed like a profanation of his memory.
+
+Her uncle, Maxwell, the witnesses of the will, and several
+others,--intimate friends of the family,--were already there. On
+Jaspar's countenance were no tell-tale traces of the last night's
+villany. He looked gloomy and sorrowful. So thoroughly had he schooled
+himself in hypocrisy for this occasion, that the scene he knew would, in
+a few minutes, transpire, had no prophetic indications in his features.
+Like the tragedian who is tranquil and unaffected in the scene in which
+he knows his own death or triumph occurs, Jaspar was calm, and his
+aspect even sanctimonious.
+
+As Emily entered Maxwell tendered his sympathies in his usual elegant
+manner, and so touchingly did he allude to the death of her father that
+with much difficulty she restrained a flood of tears. The scene in the
+office, and the disfavor with which she had lately regarded him, were
+forgotten in his eloquence.
+
+After this courtesy to the daughter of his former patron, Maxwell again
+seated himself, and after briefly and formally stating the reasons of
+their meeting, to which he added a short but apparently very feeling
+eulogy of the deceased, he took the packet from the safe, and proceeded
+to break the seals.
+
+In his full and musical tones the attorney read the preliminary parts of
+the instrument, and then commenced upon the principal items of the will.
+First came several legacies to charitable institutions and to personal
+friends; after which was a legacy of ten thousand dollars to Emily
+Dumont, to be paid in Cincinnati by his brother. The testator further
+declared _that the said Emily was manumitted_, and should proceed under
+the guidance of his brother to the place designated for the payment of
+the legacy.
+
+Emily, who had scarcely heeded the provisions of the will until the
+mention of her name attracted her attention, was, as may be supposed,
+somewhat astonished to hear her own name in connection with a legacy.
+She raised her sad eyes from the floor, and heard the other stipulations
+in regard to her. So utterly unexpected, so terribly revolting, was the
+clause which pronounced her a slave, that for a time she did not realize
+its awful import. But the blank dismay of her friends, the
+well-counterfeited surprise of Jaspar and Maxwell, brought her to a
+painful sense of her position. She attempted to rise, but in the act the
+color forsook her face, and she sunk back insensible. In this condition
+she was conveyed to her room.
+
+The attorney completed the reading of the will, though, after the
+extraordinary incident which had just occurred, but little attention was
+given him. The witnesses at once recognized the strange character, and
+acknowledged the signatures to be genuine. Here, then, thought they, was
+the reason why the provisions of the will had been concealed from them.
+So impressed were they with the apparent purpose of Colonel Dumont in
+throwing the veil of secrecy over the contents of his will, that the
+very strangeness of it seemed to confirm its genuineness; and they did
+not scrutinize it so closely as under other circumstances they probably
+would have done.
+
+How often may a good motive be tortured, by the appearance of evil, into
+the most despicable criminality! Colonel Dumont in this will had devised
+large sums of money to various charitable institutions, and in the event
+of his life being prolonged, did not wish to be pointed at and lauded
+for this act. True charity is modest, and Colonel Dumont did not desire
+to see his name blazoned forth to the world for doing that which he
+honestly and religiously deemed his duty.
+
+This modesty had favored Jaspar's plans. No one could now gainsay the
+will he had invented; and he felt strong in his position, especially
+after the witnesses had assented to their signatures.
+
+Among the persona who had been present in the library was Mr. Faxon, an
+aged and worthy clergyman. He had for many years been an intimate friend
+of Colonel Dumont, and was a legatee in his will to a liberal amount. A
+constant visitor in the family, its spiritual adviser and comforter, he
+had possessed the unlimited confidence of the late planter and his
+daughter. To him the whole clause relating to Emily seemed like a
+falsehood. Pure and holy in his own character, it was beyond his
+conception that a man of Colonel Dumont's lofty and Christian views
+could have lived so many years in the practice of this deception. He had
+no means of disproving the illegitimacy of Emily. The family had been
+unknown to him at the period of her birth. The house-servants, with the
+exception of Hatchie, were all younger than Emily. Then, the statement
+was made in the will, and was, therefore, the statement of Colonel
+Dumont himself,--for the genuineness of the will he did not call in
+question. In accordance with his general character, her father had
+manumitted her, and left her a competence. From this clause he inferred
+that her father intended to place her beyond the reach of harm, and
+beyond the possibility of ever being reduced to the degraded condition
+so often the lot of the quadroon at the South. He had not only given her
+freedom, but had provided for her conveyance beyond the pale of slavery.
+With these intentions, if she were in reality a slave, Mr. Faxon could
+find no fault. They were liberal in the extreme. But why had he, at this
+late period, mentioned the stain upon her birth? Why not let her live as
+he had educated her? These queries were so easily answered that the good
+clergyman could not condemn the dead on account of them. If the
+daughter, then she was the heiress; if not, legitimately, it would be
+injustice to the brother.
+
+Mr. Faxon reasoned in this manner. He could not believe, even with all
+the evidence before him. There was a reasonable answer, apparently, to
+every objection he could think of, and he resolved to apply to Jaspar
+and Hatchie for more information. All that Jaspar could say, or would
+say, in answer to his interrogatories, was that his brother's wife had
+died in giving birth to a dead child; and that Emily, who was the child
+of a house-servant by him, had so engaged his attention by her singular
+beauty that he had substituted her for his own child. This story, Jaspar
+said, his brother had told him in the strictest confidence, many years
+before. Mr. Faxon, appreciating the disappointment of a father with such
+a sensitive nature as Colonel Dumont, was willing to believe that Emily
+had been substituted to supply in his affections the place of the lost
+child; but that he should educate her as his own child, and then cast
+her out from the pale of society, was incredible!
+
+The evidence was so strong, he could see no escape from the terrible
+conclusion that the gentle being, to whom he had ministered in joy and
+in sorrow, was a slave! It required a hard struggle in his mind before
+he could reconcile himself to the revolting truth. Her beautiful
+character, built up mostly under his own supervision, he regarded with
+peculiar pride. He was not so bigoted, however, as to believe his labors
+lost, or even less worthy, because bestowed, as it now appeared, upon a
+slave. In heaven his labors would be just as apparent in the quadroon as
+in the noble-born lady.
+
+After the departure of the friends who had been summoned to the reading
+of the will, and whose stay had been prolonged by the melancholy
+interest they felt in the unfortunate Emily, Mr. Faxon requested to see
+her, and was shown to her room. She had just been restored to
+consciousness, by the assiduous efforts of her maids, as the good man
+entered.
+
+"O, Mr. Faxon!" sobbed Emily, but she could articulate no more. The
+terrible reality of her situation had entirely overcome her.
+
+"Be comforted, my dear child," said Mr. Faxon, affectionately, taking
+her hand. "The ways of Providence are mysterious, and we must bend
+humbly to our lot."
+
+"I will try to be resigned to my fate, terrible as it is," replied
+Emily, looking at the minister with a subdued expression, while hot
+tears poured down her cheeks. "You will not forsake me, if all others
+do!"
+
+"No, no, my dear child; it is my duty to wrestle with sorrow. I have
+come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
+distinctions of caste do not exist."
+
+"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair crept to
+her mind.
+
+"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's own
+good time He will call you hence."
+
+"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"
+
+"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of the
+Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in store
+for you."
+
+"But I am an outcast now,--one whom all my former friends will
+despise,--a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with her hands, and
+sobbing convulsively.
+
+"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may be a
+deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason to think
+so."
+
+Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
+brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.
+
+"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot believe that
+he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of father; who
+watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my youthful heart so
+faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called me daughter, and blessed
+me with his dying breath,--I cannot believe he has been so cruel to me!"
+
+"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of Providence are
+inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are ordered for our
+good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet be well."
+
+"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall not be
+lost upon me, slave though I am. _Dear_ father," said she, and the tears
+blinded her,--"I love his memory still, though every word of this hated
+will were true. I ought not to repine, whatever be my future lot. That
+he loved me as a daughter, I can never doubt; that he never told me I am
+a slave, I will forgive, for he meant it well."
+
+"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this painful
+event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of this trial
+before?"
+
+"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the tears which
+had gathered on her cheeks.
+
+"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which you can
+now recognize as such."
+
+Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could not.
+
+"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long ago as
+your birth?"
+
+"All but Hatchie."
+
+"Perhaps you had better send for him, and I will question him.
+
+"I will, and I pray that his knowledge may favor me."
+
+Emily sent one of the maids for Hatchie; but she returned in a few
+moments, accompanied by Jaspar, who, hearing her inquiries for the man
+his rifle-ball had sent to the other world, had come to prevent any
+injurious surmises.
+
+This man, Hatchie, had not escaped Jaspar's attention, in the maturing
+of his plot; but, as in some other of the particulars, he had trusted to
+the facilities of the moment for the means of silencing him. Being a
+man, it was not probable he could know much of the events attending the
+birth of Emily to his prejudice. If it should prove that he did, why, it
+was an easy thing to get rid of him. His rifle-ball or the slave-market
+were always available. But Jaspar's good fortune had smiled upon him,
+and he felt peculiarly happy, at this moment, in the reflection that he
+was out of the way, for he doubted not the object of Emily in sending
+for him.
+
+"Miss Emily," said Jaspar, in a tone of unwonted softness, "I am sorry
+to say that your father's favorite servant met with a sad mishap last
+night, of which I intended to have informed you before, but have not had
+an opportunity."
+
+Emily's cheek again blanched, as she saw all hope in this quarter cut
+off.
+
+"Poor Hatchie!" said she, as calmly as her excited feelings would
+permit. "What was it, Uncle Jaspar?"
+
+Jaspar's lip curled a little at the weakness which could feel for a
+slave, and he commenced the narrative he had concocted to account for
+the disappearance of Hatchie.
+
+"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to retire, I
+heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the library.
+Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at once suspected
+that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of late, had broken into
+the house. I seized my rifle, and when I opened the door the thief
+sprung out at the open window. I pursued him down the shell-road to the
+river; upon reaching which I perceived him paddling a canoe towards the
+opposite shore. I fired. A splash in the water followed the discharge.
+The canoe came ashore a short distance below, but the man was either
+killed by the ball or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of
+valuables, which had been stolen from the library,--among them your
+father's watch."
+
+"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked Emily,
+with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her slave-friend.
+
+"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is missing, and
+the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size and form. I am now
+satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the time, that he was the man
+upon whom I fired."
+
+"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.
+
+"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned Jaspar.
+
+"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr. Faxon.
+
+"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
+conclusive."
+
+"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye
+of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his
+first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your
+household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?"
+
+"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the
+anxiety within him.
+
+"Were you _alone_ when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the clergyman,
+sternly.
+
+"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you question me. I
+am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar, rather warmly, his
+natural testiness getting the better of his discretion.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock humility. "Do
+not let my curiosity affront you."
+
+"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the
+sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your business
+with this girl."
+
+"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to impart
+the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the church. Of
+course, my business could not be with _you_ in that capacity."
+
+"You seem to have departed very widely from your object," replied
+Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon religious topics.
+
+"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and so
+severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the validity of
+the will."
+
+"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the will as
+her father left it."
+
+"Uncle, you said my father's watch was stolen? Was it not in the iron
+safe, with the other articles?" asked Emily, timidly.
+
+"It was," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"How did he open it?" interrogated Mr. Faxon, taking up the suggestion
+of Emily.
+
+"Did Hatchie return the keys to you last night?" asked Jaspar of Emily,
+promptly.
+
+"He did not," replied she.
+
+"I sent for them to put a note in its place, and sent them back by him
+immediately. The fellow stood by when I opened the safe, and must have
+witnessed its contents. You can judge how he opened it now," returned
+Jaspar, with a sneer, well pleased that he had foiled their inquiries.
+
+"You say that the canoe in which he was making his escape came ashore.
+Where is it now? No canoe belongs to the estate."
+
+"There is not," said Jaspar, uneasily.
+
+"Perhaps an examination of it will disclose something of the robber, if
+not of the will."
+
+"So I thought this morning, and for this purpose went to the river, but
+the canoe was not to be found. I did not secure it last night, and
+probably it broke adrift and went down," replied Jaspar, whose ingenuity
+never deserted him.
+
+"Very likely," said the minister, with a kind of solemn sarcasm. "This
+whole affair seems more like romance than reality."
+
+"I cannot believe my father was so cruel," cried Emily, the tears again
+coming to the relief of her full heart.
+
+"Do you doubt the word of the witnesses, and the mark and signature of
+your father?" said Jaspar, fiercely, with the intention of intimidating
+her.
+
+"No, no! but, Uncle--"
+
+"Call me not uncle again! I am no longer the uncle of the progeny of my
+brother's slaves. This cheat has already been continued too long."
+
+"I will not call you uncle, but hear me," replied Emily, frightened at
+Jaspar's violence.
+
+"I will hear nothing more. You will prepare to leave for Cincinnati next
+week. I will no longer endure the presence of one upon whom my
+brother's bounty has been wasted. Have you no gratitude, girl? Remember
+what you are!"
+
+With these cruel words Jaspar hurried out of the room, satisfied that he
+had established his position, and, at least, silenced Emily. The
+minister he regarded, as he did all of his profession, with contempt.
+
+Mr. Faxon and Emily had a long consultation upon the embarrassing
+position of her who had so lately been the envied heiress. The murder of
+the mulatto, the conduct of Jaspar, and some other circumstances,
+afforded ground to believe that the will was a forgery. If such was the
+fact, the minister was compelled to acknowledge that it was a deep-laid
+plot. Everything seemed to aid the conspirators; for he was satisfied,
+both from the wording and the chirography of the will, that Jaspar,
+whatever part he played, was assisted by others. There was not the
+slightest clue by which the mystery could be unravelled. If there was
+hope that the will was a forgery, there was no immediate prospect of
+proving it such.
+
+Under these circumstances, Mr. Faxon felt compelled to advise obedience
+to the instructions of the will. The journey to the North could do no
+harm, and was, perhaps, advisable, under the state of feeling which
+would follow the publicity of the will. Emily, painful as it was to
+leave the home of her childhood at such a time, acquiesced in the
+decision of her clerical friend. But there was a feeling in her heart
+that she was wronged,--that she should go forth an exile from her _own_
+Bellevue.
+
+On the following week, Jaspar and Emily proceeded to New Orleans, in the
+family carriage, to take a steamer for Cincinnati.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     "Day after day, day after day,
+     We stuck,--nor breath, nor motion,--
+     As idle as a painted ship
+     Upon a painted ocean."
+
+     ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+It was about the time of the events related in the preceding chapters,
+at the close of a variable day, in which the storm and sunshine seemed
+to struggle for the ascendency, that a plain-looking, home-made sort of
+man might have been seen attempting to effect a safe transit of the
+steamboat levee at New Orleans. This personage was no other than Mr.
+Nathan Benson, commonly called at home "Uncle Nathan." He was one of the
+better class of New England farmers, an old bachelor, well to do in the
+world, and was now engaged in the laudable enterprise of seeing the
+country.
+
+Uncle Nathan, though he laid no claims to gentility in the popular
+signification of the term, was, nevertheless, a gentleman,--one of
+Nature's noblemen. He was dressed scrupulously neat in every particular,
+though a little too rustic to suit the meridian of fashionable society.
+He presented a very respectable figure, in spite of the fact that the
+prevailing "mode" had not been consulted in the fashioning of his
+garments. His coat was, without doubt, made by some village tailoress,
+for many of the graces with which the masculine artist adorns his
+garments were entirely wanting in those of our worthy farmer. His hat
+was two inches too low in the crown, and two inches too broad in the
+brim, for the style; still it was a good-looking and a well-meaning hat,
+for it preserved the owner's phiz from the burning rays of the sun much
+better than the "mode" would have done. His boots, though round-toed and
+very wide, were nicely polished when he commenced the passage of the
+levee, but were now encased in a thick coating of yellow clay.
+
+Uncle Nathan was a medium-sized man, and preserved as much of nature's
+grace as a man can who has labored for five-and-thirty years at the
+stubborn soil of New England. His hair was sandy, and his full,
+good-natured physiognomy was surrounded by a huge pair of reddish
+whiskers.
+
+The superficial, worldly-minded man would have deemed Uncle Nathan's
+_principles_ rather too ultra for common, everyday use; but he, good
+soul, found no difficulty in applying them to every action he performed.
+He was, to use a common phrase, a "professor of religion;" but, less
+technically, he was more than a professor, and strove to live out the
+spirit of truth and righteousness.
+
+After much difficulty, Uncle Nathan succeeded in effecting a safe
+passage to the planking which formed the landing for the boats. After a
+glance of vexation at the soiled condition of his boots (Uncle Nathan
+was a bachelor!), he commenced his search for an upward-bound steamer,
+for he was about to begin his homeward tour. Two columns of dense black
+smoke, the hissing noise of escaping steam, and the splashing paddles of
+a boat a short distance down the stream, attracted his attention, and
+towards her he directed his steps. Approaching near enough to read her
+name, he was not a little surprised to find the boat he had seen
+advertised to start a week before. Concluding, in his innocence, that
+some accident had detained her, he hastened on board. Entering the
+cabin, the scene which was there presented did not exactly coincide with
+his ideas of neatness or morality. Uncle Nathan had read descriptions of
+the magnificence of Mississippi steamers; but the Chalmetta (for this
+was the name of the boat) fell far below them. Even the best boats on
+the river he considered vastly inferior to the North River and Sound
+steamers.
+
+After a hasty survey of the Chalmetta's capability of making him
+comfortable for a week or more, he concluded to take passage in her for
+Cincinnati, and accordingly he sought for the captain. To his inquiries
+for that personage a thin, cadaverous-looking man presented himself, and
+drawled out a civil salutation.
+
+"How long afore you start, cap'n?" inquired Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We shall get off in about ten minutes," replied Captain Brawler.
+"John," continued he, turning to a waiter near him, with a wink, "tell
+the pilot to be all ready, and ring the bell."
+
+"Why, gracious!" said Uncle Nathan, hastily, as the waiter dodged into
+the pantry, "I shan't have time to get my trunk down."
+
+"How far up do you go?" inquired Captain Drawler.
+
+"To Cincinnati, if you can carry me about right," replied Uncle Nathan,
+with an eye to business.
+
+"Well, as you are going clear through, I will wait a few minutes for
+you," suggested the captain.
+
+Uncle Nathan thought him very obliging, and after some little
+"dickering" (for he had heard that Western steamboats were not
+particularly uniform in their charges), he engaged a passage, applying
+to the bargain the trite principle that "no berth is secured till paid
+for," which had been reduced to writing, and occupied a conspicuous
+place in the cabin. Without waiting to see the berth he had paid for, he
+hastened to the hotel for the large hair trunk, which contained his
+travelling wardrobe.
+
+Our worthy farmer made it a point never to cause any one an unnecessary
+inconvenience; never to read the morning paper more than half an hour
+when an impatient crowd was waiting to see it; and never in his life
+stopped his five-cattle team in the middle of a narrow, much-frequented
+road, to the annoyance of others. So the captain did not have to wait
+more than five minutes beyond the stated time. Depositing his trunk upon
+a heap of baggage in the cabin, and turning with pious horror from the
+gaming-tables there, Uncle Nathan seated himself in an arm-chair on the
+boiler deck, to await the departure of the boat, and, in anticipation,
+to feast his vision with the wonders of the Father of Waters. He waited
+very long and very patiently, for Uncle Nathan considered patience a
+cardinal virtue, and strove manfully against every feeling of
+uneasiness. The tongue of the hugs bell over him at intervals banged
+forth its stunning cadence, the hissing steam let loose from its pent-up
+cells, the water which the wheels sent surging far up upon the levee,
+all were indications, to his unsophisticated mind, of a speedy
+departure.
+
+Two hours he waited, with the same exemplary patience; but still the
+Chalmetta was a fixture.
+
+Night came, and the music of the bell, and the steam, and the surging
+water, ceased. Uncle Nathan, thinking patience no longer a virtue,
+cardinal or secondary, hastened to the captain, with some appearance of
+indignation on his honest features. The worthy officer very coolly
+informed him that, owing to the non-arrival of the mail, he should be
+unable to get off till the next morning.
+
+Uncle Nathan uttered a very peculiar "O!" and, seemingly perfectly
+satisfied with this explanation, asked to be shown his berth. The
+captain consulted the clerk, and the clerk consulted the berth-book,
+which conveyed the astounding intelligence that the berths were all
+taken!
+
+"All taken!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, aghast. "Haven't I paid for one?"
+
+The gentlemanly clerk acknowledged that he _had_ paid for one, and
+kindly offered him a mattress on the floor, assuring him that there
+would be plenty of berths after the boat got off.
+
+Uncle Nathan did not see how this could be, and was informed that many
+berths taken were not claimed.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Western steamers seldom start at the time they advertise,
+but wait until they are full of freight and passengers. The latter are
+boarded on them from the time they take passage, if they wish,--often a
+week or ten days. Berths are often engaged by "loafers," who eat and
+sleep on board, and grumble at the detention, but who suddenly decamp
+when the boat starts.]
+
+Contenting himself with this explanation, Uncle Nathan sought the boiler
+deck again, to obtain the only possible oblivion for his uneasiness in
+the society of mongrel gentlemen and monstrous mosquitos. Those who have
+been subjected to these steamboat impositions will readily perceive that
+Uncle Nathan was in no very agreeable state of mind. He was, to a
+certain extent, home-sick. There was something in his expectant state,
+and something in the gloomy aspect of the low city with its cheerless
+lights, in the damp atmosphere and the clouds of mosquitos, to produce a
+sigh for home and its joys. If any one had hummed "Sweet Home" in his
+ears, it would have brought the tears to his eyes. He thought of
+everything connected with his hallowed home: of the good-natured
+spinster who was his housekeeper, and of the ten-acre lots upon his
+farm; of the red steers and the gray mare; of the shaggy watch-dog and
+the tabby-cat; of home in all its minutiæ. Its familiar scenes visited
+him with a vividness which added ten-fold to their influence. He was as
+far abstracted as the mosquitos, which gathered in swarms upon every
+tenable spot of his flesh, would permit, when his meditations were
+disturbed by the gentleman who occupied the next chair. He wore the
+uniform of the army, and was battling the mosquitos with the smoke of a
+plantation cigar, which bore a very striking resemblance to those rolls
+of the weed vulgarly denominated "long nines."
+
+This gentleman was Henry Carroll, who had been in waiting three days for
+the sailing of the Chalmetta. On his return from Georgia he had not
+deemed it prudent to visit Bellevue. Of the startling events which had
+transpired there since his departure he was in entire ignorance.
+
+"No prospect of getting off to-night, is there?" said he to Uncle
+Nathan.
+
+"Not the least," replied the latter. "The cap'n just told me the mail
+hadn't come, so he should have to wait till mornin'."
+
+Henry turned to Uncle Nathan rather sharply, to discover any mischief
+which might lurk in his expression. Perceiving that he looked perfectly
+sincere, and was innocent of any intention to quiz him, he merely
+uttered, in the most contemptuous tone, the single word "Humbug!"
+
+"You seem a leetle out o' sorts," returned Uncle Nathan, piqued at the
+coldness with which his intelligence was received.
+
+"Well, sir, I think I have very good reason to be so," returned Henry;
+"for I have lain about this boat, like a dead dragoon, for three days,
+in suspense."
+
+"You don't say so!" responded Uncle Nathan, with interest. "When did
+they tell you they should start?"
+
+"The captain said in about ten minutes," answered Henry, with a smile.
+
+"Good gracious! he told me the same thing!" said Uncle Nathan,
+astonished at the coincidence.
+
+"But I knew he lied, when he said so; yet the boat seemed full of
+passengers, and I did not expect to wait so long."
+
+"Don't you think they will get started to-morrow?"
+
+"I cannot venture an opinion, having been so often deceived. The captain
+is trying to get a freight of soldiers on deck. The city is full of them
+now, returning to their respective states."
+
+"Then he has taken me in most outrageously," said the New Englander,
+with emphasis.
+
+"A very common occurrence, sir," replied Henry, who now explained to his
+companion some of the tricks of Western steamboat captains.
+
+"Is there no remedy?" asked Uncle Nathan, anxiously.
+
+"Certainly; you can go in the next boat, if you choose. I shall take the
+'Belle of the West,' which I am pretty well assured will sail
+to-morrow, if this one does not. But I prefer this, as many of my
+friends go in her."
+
+"But will they give you back your passage-money again?" asked the
+economical Yankee.
+
+"I have not paid it yet," replied Henry, now understanding the position
+of his fellow-traveller.
+
+"Then how did you secure a berth? The sign in the cabin says 'No berth
+secured till paid for.'"
+
+"I see how it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as though
+they were honest men." He then explained that there is no security
+against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in advance, in
+case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to detain them an
+unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show their money till
+the trip is up; and much more useful information for the voyager on the
+Western rivers.
+
+"And I have no berth yet! The fellow promised me one when we got off,"
+said Uncle Nathan, chopfallen; for, if any one is keenly sensitive to an
+imposition, the Yankee is the man.
+
+"There you are lame again," replied Henry. "You may get one, and you may
+not. As you have paid your fare, you had better keep quiet, and
+to-morrow I will assist you in securing your rights."
+
+"Thank ye," replied Uncle Nathan, truly grateful for the kind sympathy
+of the officer. "I had no sort of idee that they played _such_ tricks
+upon travellers."
+
+"Fact, sir; this New Orleans is said to be a very naughty place,"
+returned Henry, amused at the simplicity of his companion.
+
+"True as gospel!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan, fervently.
+
+"Have you been here long?"
+
+"Only about ten days; but I have seen more iniquity in that time than I
+supposed the whole airth contained."
+
+Henry smiled at the fervid utterance of his companion.
+
+"You are from the North, I perceive," said he.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am from Brookville, State of Massachusetts, which, thank
+the Lord, is a long way from New Orleans!"
+
+"Still, there are some excellent people here," suggested Henry, who had
+known and appreciated Southern kindness and hospitality.
+
+"Well--yes--I suppose there is; but their morals and religion are
+shockin'. It made my blood run cold, and my hair stand on eend, to see a
+company of soldiers marchin' through the streets last Sabba' day, to the
+tune of 'Hail Columby;' and then to think of balls and theatres on the
+Lord's day night, really it's terrible. I wouldn't live in sich a place
+for all the world!"
+
+"Very different from New England, certainly," replied Henry,
+good-naturedly, for it must be confessed he was not so much shocked at
+these desecrations.
+
+Uncle Nathan discoursed long and eloquently on Sabbath-breaking,
+gambling and intemperance, which prevail to such an extent in the
+luxurious metropolis of the South,--as long, at least, as the patience
+of his new-found military friend would permit. At his suggestion they
+retired to a hotel for the night, for the mosquitos were in undisturbed
+possession of the Chalmetta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     "--And deep the waves beneath them bending glide.
+     The youth, who seemed to watch a time to sin,
+     Approached the careless guide, and thrust him in."
+
+     PARNELL.
+
+     "Accoutred as I was, I plungéd in."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Early on the following morning, Henry Carroll and Uncle Nathan were on
+board the Chalmetta, ready and eager for a start. But they were doomed
+to more disappointment. Nearly all day the bell banged and the steam
+hissed; the captain told a hundred lies, but the boat did not budge an
+inch from her berth. Still there were certain signs that the hour of
+departure could not be far distant. Fresh provisions and ice in
+unusually large quantities were received on board about noon, and these
+are unfailing prognostics of "a good time coming."
+
+At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the captain's ten minutes, with
+which he had secured an occasional fresh passenger, seemed actually to
+have expired. Our two friends on board, however, had been so often
+disappointed that they did not allow a single bright anticipation to
+enliven their hearts, till they actually heard the order given "to cast
+off the fasts and haul in the planks." And even then their hopes were
+instantly dampened by the sudden reversion of the order.
+
+This unexpected change had been produced in the mind of the captain by
+seeing a splendid equipage dashing at a furious pace across the levee,
+the driver of which had, by his gestures, made it appear that his
+vehicle contained passengers.
+
+The carriage drew up opposite the boat, and Emily Dumont and Jaspar
+alighted from it. Picking their way through the crowd of dealers in
+cigars, shells, and obscene books, who had just been ejected from the
+boat, they were soon on board. A few moments' delay in getting up the
+baggage of the new comers, and the welcome "cast off the fasts and haul
+in the plank" was again heard. The rapid jingling of the engineer's bell
+succeeded, and, to the joy of some three hundred souls on board, she
+backed out into the stream and commenced her voyage. Uncle Nathan
+breathed freely; the load of anxiety which had oppressed him was
+removed. But his joy was short-lived, for Henry Carroll informed him
+that the boat was headed _down_ river!
+
+"What in all natur' can be the meanin' of this?" exclaimed our
+Northerner, wofully perplexed.
+
+"I cannot tell," replied Henry; "but I am much afraid we shall yet have
+to stay over Sunday in New Orleans."
+
+"The Lord deliver me!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan. "I will go into the
+swamp back of the city, afore I will look upon the iniquities of that
+Sodom again."
+
+"Rather a hard penance; but let us first see what this movement will
+amount to."
+
+At this moment Captain Drawler descended from the wheel-house, and was
+immediately besieged by a dozen angry passengers, who had resolved to
+lynch him, or leave the boat,--which he dreaded more,--if satisfaction
+was not given.
+
+The stoical captain, with perfect coolness, heard their complaints and
+their threats. He waited with commendable patience till they had vented
+their indignation, and then informed them that he only intended to
+receive a little freight at the lower city, which would not detain him
+"ten minutes."
+
+The captain's assertion, with the exception of the ten minutes, was soon
+verified by the boat touching at a sort of dépôt for naval and military
+stores. The "_freight_" which the Chalmetta was to take consisted of
+several long boxes, which lay near the landing. These boxes contained
+coffins, in which were the remains of some sixteen officers, who had
+paid the debt of nature in the discharge of their duties in Mexico.
+
+Henry Carroll, with a melancholy heart, witnessed the process of
+conveying these boxes to the deck of the steamer. In them was all that
+remained of many stout hearts, with whom, side by side, he had marched
+to glory and victory. There were the forms with whom he had triumphantly
+mounted the battlements at Vera Cruz, and raised the stars and stripes
+over the city of Mexico. There, before him, forever silent, were the
+dead heroes of Chepultepec and Perote. Those with whom he had endured
+toils and hardships of no common nature,--with whom he had contended
+against a treacherous foe, and a more treacherous climate,--were there
+encoffined before him. They died in defence of their country's honor;
+and he almost envied them the death which wrote their names, subject to
+no future stain, upon the roll of fame.
+
+The sight of these boxes, and a knowledge of their contents, also
+awakened sad reflections in the mind of Uncle Nathan. But his
+reflections were of a different character from those of the soldier. War
+he regarded as an unnecessary evil,--one which men had no more right to
+countenance than they had the deeds of the midnight assassin. The honor
+of a nation were better sacrificed than that the blood of innocent men
+should flow in its support. He was a thorough disciple of the peace
+movement. With such views as these, his sympathies naturally reverted to
+the dwelling of the departed hero; to the home rendered desolate by the
+untimely death of a father; to the circle which gathered in tears around
+the fire-side, to deplore the loss of an affectionate brother and son;
+to the widow and the orphan, whom war's desolating hand cast into the
+world to tread alone its dreary path. To Uncle Nathan victory and defeat
+were alike the messengers of woe. Both were the death-knell of human
+beings; both carried weeping and wailing to women and children.
+
+After the last box of the pile had been conveyed on board, and
+preparations were making to cast off, the reflections of hero and
+moralist were disturbed by several long, loud vociferations, in a strong
+Hibernian accent. They proceeded from a man, dressed in the tattered
+remnants of the blue army uniform, who was industriously propelling a
+wheel-barrow towards the landing, on which was a box of similar
+description to those just embarked.
+
+"Hould on!" shouted he; "hould on, will yous, and take on this bit of a
+box?"
+
+"Does it belong with the others?" asked the captain.
+
+"To be sure it does," replied Pat. "What the divil else does it belong
+to? Arn't it the body of Captain Farrell, long life to his honor! going
+home to see his frinds?"
+
+"Take it aboard," said Captain Brawler to the deck hands, after
+examining the direction.
+
+The men lifted the box rather rudely, in a manner which seemed to hurt
+poor Pat's feelings.
+
+"Bad luck to yous! where were you born, to handle the body of a dead man
+the like o' that?" said he. "Have yous no rispict for the mim'ry of a
+haro, that yous trate his ramains so ongintlemanly? Hould up your ind,
+darlint, and walk aisy wid it!"
+
+"Lively there," cried Captain Drawler, "lively, men!"
+
+"Bad luck to your soul for a blackguard, as ye are!" shouted Pat. "Where
+did you lave your pathriotism?"
+
+The box was by this time on deck, and the captain, to do him justice,
+made all haste to proceed on his voyage.
+
+The cases containing the remains of the officers were deposited in the
+after part of the hold, to which access was had by means of a hatch near
+the stern. Pat's peculiar charge was placed on top of the others, and he
+maintained a most vigilant watch over it.
+
+There was now a fair prospect of commencing the voyage, and our two
+passengers were in high spirits. Henry was not a little fearful that the
+boat would resume her long-occupied position at the levee; the very
+thought of such a calamity was painful in the extreme. But this fear was
+not realized; the Chalmetta gave the levee a wide berth. The Rubicon was
+passed; the shades of doubt and anxiety were supplanted by the clear
+sunshine of a bright prospect.
+
+"We are at last fairly started," said Henry, seating himself by the side
+of Uncle Nathan, on the boiler deck.
+
+"Thank fortin, we are!" responded the farmer, heartily. "We are fast
+getting away from that den of sin."
+
+"And you may preserve your morals yet," said Henry, with a pleasant
+laugh.
+
+"My morals are safe enough, thank the Lord!" answered Uncle Nathan, a
+little touched at this reflection upon his firmness; "but I don't like
+the place, to say nothing of its morals."
+
+"Very likely. But see that Irishman--the fellow who had charge of the
+box. He looks poorly enough, as far as this world's goods are concerned,
+but happy and full of mirth, for all that."
+
+"He looks as though he had seen hard times," added Uncle Nathan,
+indifferently.
+
+"He does, indeed, like many other of the poor soldiers; but, I warrant
+me, he has a stout will, and an honest heart. I say, my fine fellow,"
+said Henry, addressing Pat, "come up here."
+
+"Troth I will, then, for I see yous wear the colors of Uncle Sam,"
+replied the Irishman, making his way to the boiler deck.
+
+"Long life to your honor!" continued Pat, as he reached the deck, and
+making a low bow, as he doffed his slouched hat,--"but I wish I had the
+money to trate your honor."
+
+"Which means," replied Henry, "as you have not, I should treat you?"
+
+"That's jist it, your honor. I persave your honor is college-larnt by
+the way yous see into my heart."
+
+Henry laughed heartily, and so did Uncle Nathan; though, to tell the
+truth, our moralist of the North was sorry to see his companion hand the
+man a "bit" to drink with, for he was a member of the temperance
+society.
+
+Pat got the "smile," and with a grateful heart returned to his patron.
+
+"Thank your honor, kindly," said Pat.
+
+"Now tell me, Pat, what regiment you served in," said Henry.
+
+"In the first Pennsylvanians,--Captain Farrell's company."
+
+"Captain Farrell's! I knew him well,--a fine fellow and a gallant
+officer! Many were the tears shed when the vomito carried him off," said
+Henry, with much feeling. "And you were one of his company?"
+
+"Troth, I was, thin. He was every inch a sodger and a gintleman."
+
+"And the box you brought on board contains his remains?"
+
+"Upon me sowl it contains the body of as good a man as iver breathed the
+breath o' life," replied Pat, very emphatically.
+
+"Very true. You speak well of your captain, and he deserved all he will
+ever get of praise. Here, Pat, is a dollar for you; and if you want
+anything, come to me."
+
+"Thank your honor," replied Pat, uncovering, with a bow and a scrape of
+the foot. "You are as near like poor Captain Farrell as one pay is like
+another. Long life to your honor,--may you live forever, and then die
+like a haro!"
+
+"A genuine Irishman!" said Henry, as Pat descended to the main deck;
+"one in whom gratitude and faithfulness are as strong as life itself!"
+
+"He seems a good sort of man," returned Uncle Nathan, who had but little
+appreciation of the Irish heart.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the supper-bell. An
+eager multitude rushed to the cabin; but every seat was already
+occupied. On a crowded boat on the Mississippi there is often much
+selfishness displayed. On the Chalmetta half an hour before tea-time the
+most knowing of the passengers had stationed themselves in a line around
+the table, ready to charge upon the plates, like a file of soldiers, the
+moment the bell rang. Those who did not understand the necessity of this
+precaution, on entering the cabin were much surprised to find every
+place occupied, and were comforted with the assurance of a second table.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for ladies
+who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated Emily and
+her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her countenance was
+saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were reddened by weeping,
+in which she had indulged freely in the quiet of her state-room. By
+intense effort she had subdued her violent agitation, and a sad calmness
+rested upon her face, that belied her feelings.
+
+Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence, was, as
+may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable dress and
+melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had befallen her in
+the death of her father. Their eyes met, and exchanged warmer greetings
+than their words could have done. A sad smile--the smile of
+pleasure--rested upon her beautiful features, as they interchanged
+salutations. Her pale cheek was slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale
+blush. Her fluttering heart refused to retain its secret.
+
+Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had shrouded her
+in the weeds of mourning,--not in words alone, but his sorrow for the
+death of a kind friend was more eloquently told in his countenance.
+
+Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts to be
+civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for which he was
+not prepared,--the consequences of which filled him with anxiety. He
+knew that in Henry his wronged niece would have a zealous
+advocate;--not a superannuated priest, but a young man whose blood was
+warm, and whose soul was full of energy. True, he reasoned, the young
+officer was powerless as a diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the
+will, or of Emily's degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and
+character of his brother, and would be the last one to believe the
+infamous statement of the will. What the father might have said to him
+in regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
+thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones besides.
+
+At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the ordinary
+courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.
+
+The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of ill-gotten
+wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. The cries of
+the widow and the orphan continually ring in the ear of the avaricious.
+The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar. Although he saw no probability of
+his villany being exposed, the fear of discovery troubled him day and
+night. Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been,
+the present seemed a crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax
+of villany, and as he had racked his powers of invention for the means
+of attaining his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing
+it. The insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as
+the tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that
+he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which assailed him. Vain
+hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran through his
+mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only one event which
+promised the least mitigation of his mental sufferings, and this was the
+death of his niece. Black as he was at heart, he shrank from her
+murder,--not at the deed, but at the terrible consequences to him which
+might follow it.
+
+Emily was conducted to the ladies' cabin by Jaspar, who, by a dogged
+adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any further
+conversation between her and Henry. But the black chambermaid, with an
+official dignity which is oftentimes necessary in her position, politely
+requested him to retire. Jaspar left, satisfied she would be safe from
+intrusion for the present.
+
+Jaspar's disposition to prevent further conversation between Emily and
+Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied that her
+uncle's close attendance at her side--so foreign to his former
+manner--was not without its purpose. Love, which he had in vain
+attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his heart. In her
+recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in her heart was not
+abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had awakened a new interest
+in him. Disappointed in obtaining the interview he desired, he sought
+the hurricane deck to think of her, and to cherish the warm feeling in
+his heart. But what was his surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily
+there, and alone!
+
+After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery which
+surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening air. The
+gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and gentleman, she had
+ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions, more gay and happy than
+she, soon left her to the gloom and comparative silence which usually
+reigns on the upper deck. There were no other passengers there, and,
+fearing not the darkness or the loneliness, she was there venting the
+sadness which pervaded her heart. She was about to descend, when she
+recognized Henry.
+
+Emily related to him the circumstances of her father's death, and of the
+reading of the will.
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.
+
+"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it, except
+that my father's character assures me it is not so."
+
+"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you are now
+on your way to Cincinnati?"
+
+"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted. But I
+ought to be thankful for all that comes,--if I am a slave, for the
+freedom that awaits me."
+
+"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my veins!"
+
+"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now, for it
+little matters what I really am, since the will--true or false--condemns
+me to the odium of having been a slave. You will not wish now to own
+your sister!" said Emily, with a sad smile.
+
+"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the mark of
+the omniscient God! It could not alter the beauty of the features or the
+character. I should be proud of such a sister, even did she wear the
+shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon your birth!"
+
+"And can you regard me as you once did? A--"
+
+"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."
+
+"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month since. You
+are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.
+
+"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied Henry.
+
+The fear of ingratitude to a father no longer chained his heart to the
+narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden down by
+misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a child of
+misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her. He loved her
+more tenderly than before.
+
+"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant to your
+sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of emotion
+within it.
+
+"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I feared
+to--to--"
+
+"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word Henry was
+stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your sister?"
+
+"I did have confidence in the _sister_. But I fear it was not a sister's
+confidence I sought."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of surprise
+the word was intended to convey.
+
+"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which have torn
+my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her willing hand. "When
+I bade you farewell,--alas! what misfortunes have come since!--when I
+left you for I dared not think how long, you know not what violence I
+did to the warmest feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the
+struggle between that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to
+conquer it; but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me
+resist no more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have
+tried, for your sake and your father's, to conquer my love. Say, Emily,
+may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"
+
+A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he
+received--was, indeed, all he asked.
+
+"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.
+
+"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But Heaven will
+not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain unpunished. A
+month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of a millionaire!"
+
+"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my heart?"
+
+"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win your
+love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have cherished."
+
+"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily, warmly.
+
+"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his
+daughter, with which I might have interfered."
+
+"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said Emily,
+with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed from Henry.
+
+"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but now,
+Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm pressure of
+the hand.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.
+Page 79]
+
+"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the
+knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as the
+guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in future, from
+her society."
+
+"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely disregard."
+
+"Then, by--you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!" said Jaspar,
+in a passion.
+
+"I am not to be intimidated by threats."
+
+"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety of him
+whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, _her_ request I will obey," and Carroll walked forward.
+
+He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of the
+leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to the
+command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy bell.
+Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the matter he
+listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three," &c. He was about
+to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill shriek startled him from
+his revery. There was no mistaking the sound of that voice! Without an
+instant's hesitation, he called to the pilot to stop the boat, and, with
+a few bounds, was by the side of Jaspar, who was calling lustily for
+help. Henry, careless of his own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft
+the ladies' cabin, and then sprang to the single pole upon which was
+suspended the small boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower
+himself down, he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot
+where Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of
+the boat, and reached the place in season to take in the noble fellow
+who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he rose. The
+steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party was safely on
+board again.
+
+"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar, after
+assisting Emily to her state-room.
+
+Emily's fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once infer.
+Jaspar's passion, and the danger which he thought the young officer's
+presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was not attended with
+his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to place him in a more
+uncomfortable position than his former one. With the instinct of
+deception, he immediately offered a liberal reward to the man who had
+rescued her.
+
+"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"_Here_!" cried a voice from the crowd.
+
+Jaspar started and turned pale, for the voice was a familiar one.
+
+"Where is he?" called Jaspar again, concluding that he must have
+mistaken the voice.
+
+"Here!" again came forth from the crowd, and Hatchie stepped forward.
+
+"Hell!" exclaimed Jaspar, staggering back as he recognized the man whom
+he supposed his rifle-ball had sent to furnish food for the fishes. But
+he recovered his courage instantly, feeling the danger of betraying
+himself.
+
+"Here is the reward," stammered he, holding out the money.
+
+"Never!" said Hatchie; and, before the crowd could clearly understand
+the nature of the case, he had vanished behind a heap of freight.
+
+At Jaspar's suggestion, a diligent search was made in every part of the
+boat, but the mulatto was nowhere to be found. Jaspar, as usual,
+invented a story to account for the strangeness of the incident which
+had occurred. A liberal reward offered by him failed to produce the
+preserver of Emily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+               "'Tis much he dares;
+     And to that dauntless temper of his mind
+     He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
+     To act in safety."   SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Although the general condition of the negro slaves at the South is the
+most degraded in which humanity can exist, there are some exceptions to
+the rule; and among them may well be placed the body-servant of Colonel
+Dumont, Hatchie, whose sudden and mysterious reäppearance upon the deck
+of the Chalmetta must be accounted for.
+
+With an intelligence far superior to his condition, Hatchie discovered
+the villany that lurked in the eye of Jaspar, on the night of the
+forgery of the will. As we have before said, no one better than he knew
+the character of Jaspar; no one better than he knew of what villany he
+was capable. When he had been sent for the keys, an undefined sense of
+duty prompted him to watch, and, if possible, to prevent the mischief
+which he foresaw was gathering. When ordered to retire, he had pretended
+to obey; but he placed himself beneath the window through which De Guy
+had entered, a small crack of which had been accidentally left open. In
+this position he saw Jaspar take out the packet which he knew contained
+the will. He heard De Guy read the fictitious will, and at once
+discerned enough of the plot to comprehend the danger that hovered over
+his mistress. He understood that the real will was to be destroyed; and
+his first impulse was to save it, which he had adroitly accomplished as
+before related.
+
+When Hatchie reached the open air, he was sensible of the dangerous
+position in which his bold act had placed him. So sudden and
+unpremeditated had been his action that no thought of future
+consequences had accompanied it. But, undismayed, he ran at his fleetest
+speed towards the river. He heard the footsteps of his pursuers, and
+every step he advanced he expected to receive the bullet of Jaspar.
+Trusting for safety to the darkness of the night, he quickened his
+speed, till he gained the steep bank of the river. Leaping into the
+canoe which he discovered in his flight, he pushed out into the stream,
+and was several rods advanced towards the opposite shore when his
+pursuers reached the bank.
+
+Plying the canoe with all the strength and skill of which he was master,
+his progress was suddenly interrupted by a log, upon which his frail
+bark struck with much violence. The collision checked his progress, and
+swung the canoe round by the side of the log. Satisfied that Jaspar
+would fire as soon as he saw the canoe, his ready ingenuity supplied him
+with the means of avoiding the ball, and of escaping further pursuit.
+Taking the will in his mouth, he grasped the canoe with one hand, and
+paddled silently with the other and with his feet. He had turned the
+canoe adrift, and Jaspar, without waiting to examine it, had fired.
+Hatchie then jumped up in the water, and produced the splash which had
+deceived his pursuers.
+
+With much difficulty the mulatto had propelled the log beyond the reach
+of the current into comparatively still water. Here he remained quietly
+on the log, using only sufficient exertion to avoid the current, until
+he was satisfied that Jaspar and his companion had departed from the
+bank. He then returned to the shore, using the greatest precaution to
+avoid his enemies; but all was still.
+
+Immediate danger being at an end, he bethought him of securing his
+future safety,--a matter of extreme difficulty for one in his position.
+He was satisfied that Jaspar would invent some story to account for his
+disappearance; and just as well satisfied that he would shoot him, if he
+again showed himself on the plantation. He congratulated himself on the
+happy scheme he had adopted to deceive Jaspar; for he had now a
+reasonable security from being advertised and pursued as a runaway
+slave.
+
+After much reflection, he concluded his wisest plan would be to seek
+safety in New Orleans, where, in the crowd, he might escape recognition.
+The cane-brake and the cotton-grove would not protect him. He might be
+seen, and the blood-hound and the rifle bring him in a prisoner, and
+even Miss Emily would now be unable to save him from the penalty. How
+could he live in New Orleans, or how escape from there? He was without
+money, and he had sense enough to know that money is a desideratum,
+especially to the traveller.
+
+Of this useful commodity, however, he had a supply in the mansion house,
+which he had saved from the presents made him by Colonel Dumont and his
+guests. Recognizing the necessity of obtaining it, as well as some more
+clothing, he resolved to enter the house and procure them, after the
+light he saw in the library-window was removed.
+
+While waiting, he pondered more fully his position. What should be his
+future conduct in regard to the will? He carried with him, he felt, the
+future destiny of his gentle, much-loved mistress. He felt that on his
+action during the next hour depended the happiness for a lifetime of one
+whom he had been taught to revere, and whose gentleness and beauty had
+almost lured him to worship. If the morrow's sun found him in the
+vicinity of the estate, he would probably fall a victim to Jaspar's
+policy. What should he do with the will? Should he show himself at the
+hour appointed for the reading of it? He might fall into Jaspar's hands
+in the attempt, the precious document be wrested from him, and thus all
+his exertions be in vain. Without the will itself he could do
+nothing,--his word or his evidence in court would be of no avail. No
+one would believe the former against Jaspar, and the latter was
+inadmissible.
+
+Should he carry it to Mr. Faxon, or even to Miss Emily herself, Jaspar
+might obtain possession of it by some means.
+
+His deliberations could suggest no method by which immediate justice
+could be done his mistress; and the conclusion of his reflections was,
+that he must place himself in a safe position before he attempted to
+expose the villany of others. His mistress, he knew by the will which he
+had heard De Guy read, was to be conveyed to Cincinnati. He must go to
+Cincinnati--but how? This was a hard question for the faithful Hatchie
+to answer; but answer it he must. He would go to New Orleans, and there
+form his plan.
+
+After waiting till the lights were extinguished in the library, he
+entered the house, and obtained his money and clothing.
+
+By the exercise of much caution, he reached New Orleans in safety,
+where, by the disbursement of a small sum of money, he obtained a secure
+retreat in the house of a free man, with whom he had formerly been
+acquainted. His object was now to obtain a passage to Cincinnati,--a
+matter not easy to accomplish, as the law against conveying blacks,
+unprovided with the necessary permit, was very stringent. He could not
+hope, with his limited means, to offer an acceptable bribe for this
+service. To attain his object, therefore, he must resort to stratagem,
+for the chances of obtaining a passage by direct means were too remote
+and too perilous to be hoped for. But accident soon afforded him the
+means of attaining his end.
+
+The negro with whom he had obtained a shelter kept a small shop, and by
+the grace of the authorities and his neighbors was permitted to sell
+liquor, tobacco and cigars, to the steamboat cooks, stewards, sailors,
+and the soldiers who thronged the city on their return from Mexico. In
+the rear of this shop, and connected with it, was a small room in which
+the negro lived. This room afforded a safe retreat, and in it Hatchie
+had his hiding-place.
+
+One day a little knot of men, in the faded, dilapidated garments of the
+army, entered the tap-room of Hatchie's protector. They drank deeply,
+and, as was their constant practice, they seated themselves at the
+broken table, and commenced gambling with the negro's dirty cards for
+the few dollars which remained in their possession. This amusement
+terminated, as such amusements frequently do, in a fight, in which one
+of the number seemed to be singled out as an object of vengeance for the
+others. This individual was an Irishman; and, for a time, he held way
+manfully against his assailants. But, at last, in spite of the exertions
+of the "proprietor" to protect him, he was likely to get the worst of
+it, when Hatchie, no longer able to control his indignation at the
+unfairness displayed in the encounter, suddenly interfered in favor of
+the now fallen man. His enormous strength and skill soon cleared the
+room of the rioters. Hatchie drew the defeated Irishman into his
+hiding-place, and locked the door. This man was Pat Fegan, who has been
+introduced to the reader.
+
+Pat was filled with gratitude to his protector, and swore he would stick
+by him till his dying day, if he was a "naiger." A mutual friendship was
+thus established, which resulted in the disclosure of their future
+prospects. The fact that both were seeking the same destination seemed
+to strengthen the bond thus formed. Hatchie, shrewd by nature, read the
+true heart of the Irishman. He felt that he could trust him with his
+life; but his ability was quite another thing.
+
+Pat Fegan was without means, and readily accepted the hospitality which
+Hatchie offered to pay for. In the course of the long conversations with
+which the two friends beguiled the weary day, Pat related his adventures
+in Mexico, at the close of which he casually mentioned that the remains
+of several officers, who died there, were to be conveyed up the river.
+Hatchie's curiosity prompted many inquiries, which drew from the
+talkative Hibernian a full description of the boxes that contained the
+coffins, and many particulars relative to the transportation of them.
+
+Pat's description of the boxes suggested to Hatchie the means of getting
+to Cincinnati.
+
+"Could you get me a box like those which contain these coffins?" asked
+he.
+
+"Faix, I can, thin, if I only had the matther of two or three dollars.
+But what the divil makes yous ax sich a question?"
+
+"I will give you ten dollars, and pay your passage to Cincinnati
+besides, if you will get me the box," said Hatchie, disregarding Pat's
+query.
+
+"By me sowl, I'll get yous the box, and ax yous only the price meself
+pays for 't," replied Pat, touched at the idea of a reward, which
+between friends seemed base even to his rude mind.
+
+"And I shall want your help, too."
+
+"Yous may well count on that, for whin did a Fegan desart his frind? But
+tell me, honey, what yous mane to do wid it."
+
+"I intend to get to Cincinnati in it."
+
+"Is it in the box?" exclaimed Pat, astonished beyond measure. "Sure you
+will smodther!"
+
+"But, my friend, I want you to look out for that, and give me something
+to eat and drink. You can pretend that the box contains the body of your
+captain, who, you said, died in Mexico."
+
+"Arrah, me darlint, I see it all!" and Pat shook his sides with laughter
+at the idea of the mulatto's "travelling-carriage," as he styled it.
+
+Pat had procured the box, and conveyed it to Hatchie's asylum. It was
+sufficiently large to furnish quite a roomy apartment. The covering
+consisted of short boards, matched, and screwed on crossways. To
+facilitate the introduction of food and air, and to afford the means of
+a speedy exit in case of need, he had taken off half these boards, and
+fastened them together with cleats on the inner side. The ends of the
+screws were then filed off, so that this portion of the lid exactly
+corresponded with the other portion. A number of hooks were then
+procured, so as to fasten it upon the inner side. By this arrangement,
+the occupant of the box would not be dependent upon exterior aid for
+egress. When once on board the steamer, he expected he should be able to
+leave his hiding-place in the night, and perhaps at other times.
+
+Upon the outside the box was similar to the others, and was duly marked
+and consigned.
+
+Hatchie's quarters were near the dépôt from which the coffins were to be
+shipped, and Pat, watching his time, had wheeled his own charge down in
+season to be shipped with the others. In the haste of embarking, the
+clerk had not noticed that one box more had been brought on board than
+his manifest indicated.
+
+Hatchie was not aware that Emily and her uncle were passengers on the
+same boat till the moment of the accident. He had before released
+himself from his prison-box, and was enjoying the fresh air, which the
+closeness of his box rendered particularly desirable, when he heard the
+scream of his mistress. Her voice was familiar, and even in the scream
+of terror he recognized it. It needed not a second thought to convince
+him of his duty. He had saved her life, and, forgetful of the danger of
+thus exposing his person, he stood by and saw her conveyed to her
+state-room. He heard Jaspar call for her deliverer, and offer a reward.
+This he knew, if no one else did, was gross hypocrisy, and in the
+indignation of his honest heart he had stepped forward to confront him.
+The sight of Jaspar, and the thought of his own responsibility, recalled
+his prudence; and he hastened to retrieve his error by escaping to his
+hiding-place in the box, in which no one thought of searching for a
+living man.
+
+In the excitement and exertion attendant upon the incident, Henry
+Carroll had not recognized Hatchie; and, while Jaspar inquired for her
+deliverer, he had been seeking the surgeon. Henry thought of nothing but
+her safety.
+
+Hatchie at once knew the voice of Henry, but, knowing nothing of the
+relation between him and his mistress, he feared to trust him with his
+secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+                  "But as thou art a man
+     Whom I have picked and chosen from the world,
+     Swept that thou wilt be true to what I utter;
+     And when I've told thee that which only gods,
+     And men like gods, are privy to, then swear
+     No chance, or change, shall wrest it from thy bosom."
+
+                                              OTWAY.
+
+
+Emily Dumont, while yet insensible, was conveyed to her state-room,
+where, by the assiduous attention of the stewardess and the lady
+passengers, she was soon restored to consciousness. An army surgeon, who
+was fortunately on board, prescribed a course of treatment which
+prevented all evil consequences, so that on the following morning she
+appeared at breakfast as well as usual bodily, though the terrible fact
+that her uncle had attempted her life so agitated her that sleep had
+been a stranger to her eyelids. By whom she had been rescued was yet
+unknown to her.
+
+Henry Carroll again took his place opposite her at the morning meal,--a
+place he had secured by the exercise of a full hour's patience in
+occupying it. At the first convenient opportunity, he congratulated her
+upon her safe recovery, and for the first time she heard the particulars
+of her rescue. Jaspar, with an ill grace, expressed his obligations to
+him, though at the same time he wished him at the bottom of the river.
+
+Henry failed not to notice the blush which came to her cheek, as she
+modestly but fervently expressed her gratitude for the noble service he
+had rendered her. Although her accepted lover, there had been but little
+intercourse of a tender nature between them,--not enough to prevent her
+heart from fluttering when he spoke, and sending its warm blood to her
+cheek.
+
+With what indescribable pleasure does the lover recognize the blush
+which a word or an act of his own calls to the face of his new-found
+love! Like the breaking clouds which disclose to the worn mariner the
+faint outline of the distant land, he hails it as the omen of future
+bliss! It is part of the mystical language of the heart. It is part of
+the mechanism of the affections, which the will cannot conceal. The
+gentle look, the warm pressure of the hand, the eloquent language of
+love, which modesty at first forbids, are supplied by the timid,
+uncalled, beautiful blush! Prudence and delicacy cannot chain it in the
+veins.
+
+Henry read in her blush the warm current of pure love which flowed from
+her heart. It told him how willingly her gratitude coalesced with her
+love. Their position at table did not afford the opportunity of
+interchanging those feelings of the heart which each felt swelling
+within. The present, so full of joy and hope, it seemed cruel to
+surround with circumstances which forbade them to enjoy it. A crowded
+steamer is the most uncomfortable place in the world for a pair of
+lovers, and Henry and Emily felt the inconvenience of it.
+
+But, if the position of the lovers was uncomfortable, Jaspar's was
+painful. They had the consolation of loving and being loved; but he was
+now writhing under the weight of an additional torture. The appearance
+of Hatchie was the knell of all his hopes, the precursor of ruin. To him
+it was a mystery, and all his endeavors to solve it were unavailing.
+
+About noon the Chalmetta arrived at Baton Rouge, where, according to
+previous arrangement, and much to the joy of the perplexed uncle, De Guy
+came on board. Jaspar greeted him with more than usual courtesy, and
+felt, to as great a degree as guilt can feel it, a relief from the
+embarrassments which surrounded him. The first step of the red-faced
+attorney, on finding no state-room unoccupied, was to dispossess two
+flat-boatmen of theirs, by the payment of a round bonus. Jaspar thought
+this a rather extravagant move for one apparently so parsimonious; but
+his mind was too deeply engrossed with the difficulties which environed
+him to comment on extraneous subjects.
+
+To this state-room Jaspar and his confidant retired, to consider the
+condition of their operations; and while they deliberate we will return
+to another character.
+
+Uncle Nathan was in the full enjoyment of all the satisfaction which
+seeing the world affords to the observing man. He gazed with unceasing
+wonder upon the Father of Waters, on whose mighty bosom he was borne
+towards the loved scenes of home. He was edified and amused with the
+ever-varying succession of objects which presented themselves, as the
+Chalmetta progressed. Flat-boats and steamers, plantations and
+cotton-wood groves, islands and cut-offs, were all objects of interest.
+And, when he was tired of these, "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," which
+was his constant travelling companion, afforded him all the excitement
+his contented disposition required. The time promised to be easily
+disposed of, even if the passage should be unusually prolonged. Besides,
+the number and variety of dispositions on board afforded him some study,
+and some instruction. There were men of all grades of society, and all
+degrees of moral worth,--beginning, of course, at a very moderate
+standard, and descending to the vilest of the vile, which last were in a
+large majority. There were tipplers, and gamblers, and profane swearers,
+in abundance; and Uncle Nathan felt, at the bottom of his philanthropic
+heart, a desire to lead them from their sins. Not that he was officious
+and meddlesome, for he believed in "a time for everything." In his
+modest, inoffensive way, no doubt, he sowed the seeds of future
+reformation in some wayward heart.
+
+Pat Fegan proved an apt disciple, and already had Uncle Nathan given him
+the first lesson in the form of a temperance lecture, which probably had
+its effect, as he left the boiler deck without the dram for which he
+was supposed to have come up.
+
+"Now, Partrick," said Uncle Nathan, on the evening after Emily's rescue,
+"rum never did any one any good."
+
+"'Pon my soul it did, thin,--it makes me happy whin sorra thing else in
+the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.
+
+"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of doin'
+good to your feller-creturs."
+
+"It sinds throuble away--what else is happiness?"
+
+"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."
+
+"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me there."
+
+"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing the
+pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are safe."
+
+But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory lucubrations. Pat
+signed the pledge; but whether he had an appreciating sense of the
+restraint he imposed upon his appetite we cannot say. Uncle Nathan
+thought him saved from his cups, and rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if
+he had looked a little closer, he might have suspected an interested
+motive on the part of Pat. He saw none, and, feeling secure in the
+present victory, he admonished his disciple "to stick to it as long as
+he lived."
+
+"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat. "I see yous are a gintleman,
+if yous don't look jist like one. Now, do you see, Mr. Binson, you are
+jist the man I am looking for, this last six hours."
+
+"Why so, Partrick--what do you mean?" said Uncle Nathan, mystified by
+the sudden change of manner in the new convert.
+
+"Hould aisy a bit, for I'd like to hould a private correspondence wid
+yous. Will ye jist come to the hurricane deck, till I tells yous all
+about it?"
+
+"Sartain," replied Uncle Nathan, his curiosity fully excited.
+
+As soon as they reached a deserted portion of the promenade deck, Pat,
+after satisfying himself there were no listeners near, commenced, with
+an air of grave importance, his story.
+
+"Whisht now, and draw near," said he. "Can yous keep a sacret?"
+
+"Well, I think I could, if it was an honest one."
+
+"Faix, thin, it _is_ an honest one. Sure yous come from the North, and
+don't belave in keeping the naigers in bondage?"
+
+"To be sure not."
+
+"Well, then, would yous help a naiger out of throuble, if yous could as
+well as not?"
+
+"I sartainly wish 'em well; but the Scripture says 'Honor the king,'
+which means nothin' more nor less than 'obey the laws.' Arter all,
+though, perhaps we ought not to mind wicked laws."
+
+"Musha bad luck to your raysoning! Sure I'm no docthor, to blarney over
+the matther. Will yous kape the sacret?" asked Pat, a little excited,
+and somewhat disappointed to find his auditor lukewarm in "the cause."
+
+"Sartain; tell your story, and, if I can't do you any good, I won't do
+you any harm."
+
+"That's the mon for me!" replied Pat, slapping Uncle Nathan familiarly
+on the back. "Now, do you see, there's a naiger on this boat, that wants
+a frind."
+
+"A friend!" said Uncle Nathan, with some doubt, as he reflected on the
+conflict between the claims of humanity and the stringent laws of the
+slave states.
+
+"To be sure, a _frind_!" replied Pat, with emphasis.
+
+"I _will_ befriend him," replied Uncle Nathan, his natural inclination
+triumphing over his fear of the law.
+
+"Spoken like a Christian! Sure, that's jist what St. Patrick would say,
+if the saint--long life to him!--were here," replied Pat, rejoicing
+that the difficulty was overcome.
+
+"Now, dhraw near till I tells yous all about it; and, if iver you
+mintion a word of it, may your sowl never lave purgatory till it is
+burnt to a cindther! Now, do you mind, there's a naiger concayled in the
+hould of the boat, that wants to correspond with a faymale in the
+cabin."
+
+"But he will expose himself, and she may deliver him up."
+
+"Divil a bit! Didn't he save her from dhrowning, last night?" exclaimed
+Pat, warmly, for this act of Hatchie excited all his admiration.
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" and Uncle Nathan understood the
+mystery of the previous night.
+
+"Sorra a word o' lie in it."
+
+"But where in natur is the feller?" asked the wonder-struck Yankee, his
+curiosity getting the better of every other consideration.
+
+"Whisht, now," whispered Pat; "he is in one of those boxes, with the
+dead men! Do yous mind?"
+
+"Good gracious! how you talk! In a coffin?"
+
+"Divil a coffin at all. Sure as nate a bit of a box as iver held a
+Christian."
+
+"But why does he wish to speak with the lady?"
+
+"Sorra know I know," replied Pat, to whom Hatchie had communicated no
+more than was necessary.
+
+"Does he wish to see her in person?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Now, do you mind, I saw you speaking to the lady, and
+I tould him of it. Then the naiger axed me could he trust yous. I tould
+him yes; and he tould me to bring yous down to him, and that's the whole
+of it. Now, will yous go down the night and spake to him?"
+
+Uncle Nathan reflected a little; for, though no craven, he was very
+prudent, and had no romance in his composition. After deliberating some
+time, much to the detriment of Pat's patience, he replied in the
+affirmative.
+
+Pat then instructed him in relation to certain precautions to be
+observed in order to avoid notice, and left him to ponder the
+strangeness of the adventure. He had well considered his course, and,
+having decided upon it, he was earnest in pursuing it. He had chosen, he
+felt, a dangerous, but his conscience assured him a right path, and
+nothing could now deter him from proceeding in it. He was not fickle,
+and invoked many a blessing on the effort he might make for the
+salvation of the poor negro. True, his prudence had magnified the
+undertaking, which was a trivial affair, into a great adventure.
+Imagination often makes bold men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+             "_Duke_.--How's this?
+             The treason's
+             Already at the doors."
+
+                                    VENICE PRESERVED.
+
+     "_Amelia_.--I thought I heard a step.
+      _Charles_.--'T is your tyrant coming."
+
+                                               PROCTOR.
+
+
+Jaspar and De Guy were for a long time closeted in the state-room. On
+their reäppearance Jaspar felt much easier. The silky-toned attorney had
+used a variety of arguments to convince him that their schemes were
+working excellently well, and that everything, notwithstanding the
+resurrection of the negro, would terminate to his entire satisfaction.
+
+The process of "wooding-up" on a Mississippi steamer, inasmuch as it
+affords the passengers an opportunity to exercise their locomotive
+powers on shore, is regarded as an interesting incident. This was
+particularly true on board the Chalmetta, for she was crowded to nearly
+double her complement of cabin-passengers, and the space usually devoted
+to exercise was too much crowded to render it very pleasant.
+
+When, therefore, the Chalmetta touched at a wood-yard, after leaving
+Baton Rouge, the passengers hurried on shore, to enjoy the novelty of an
+unconfined promenade. De Guy, on pretence of further private
+conversation, induced Jaspar to forsake his post as sentinel over Emily,
+and join him in a walk. For half an hour the attorney in his silky tones
+regaled the ears of Jaspar with various strange schemes, until the bell
+of the steamer announced her near departure. Even then De Guy seemed in
+no haste, and assured his companion the boat would not start without
+them. But the second bell admonished them that the steamer was already
+getting under way. The passengers were all on board, and, as they heard
+in the distance the tinkling of the engineer's bell, they started at a
+run to reach her. By some accident, De Guy's foot got between Jaspar's
+legs, and he fell. The attorney stooped, as if to assist him up, but, in
+reality, struck the fallen man a blow, which rendered him insensible. De
+Guy hurried towards the boat, leaving the watchful uncle to shift for
+himself. He reached the landing in season to jump upon the stern of the
+boat as it swung in shore. Pushing through the crowd which had gathered
+to witness his exploit of getting on board, he retreated to his
+state-room, and locked the door.
+
+Jaspar was not immediately missed by Emily, and his absence was too
+desirable to be the cause of any solicitude. As the tea-hour approached,
+and the ladies were requested to take their places at table, she was
+very much surprised to see _Mr. Maxwell_ present himself as her escort
+to the table. Since the unhappy disclosure of his love in the office,
+she had regarded him with pity, rather than with the contempt he
+merited. She could not but feel that he loved her. His eloquent language
+and forlorn aspect had not been in vain, for they had saved him from her
+_utter_ contempt. A true woman cannot be conscious of possessing a
+portion of the love, even of a dissolute man, without feeling some
+respect for him. To love truly and devotedly is an element of the
+angelic character; and such love will purify and ennoble even the
+grossest of human beings. Emily unconsciously arrived at this
+conclusion; and, discerning some indications of pure love towards her in
+his gross and earthly mind, she felt that he was entitled to her
+sympathy. She cherished no affection for him; all that her gentle heart
+could contain was bestowed upon another. A suspicion had more than once
+entered her mind that Maxwell was, in some manner, connected with the
+foul plot which had drawn her into its toils. But, she reasoned, if he
+loved her, he would not injure her,--no, not even in revenge for her
+refusal. _She_ could not, and her beautiful nature would not allow her
+to believe it, even of a man as gross as her better judgment told her
+Maxwell was.
+
+To her inquiry for her uncle, Maxwell informed her that he had some
+conversation with him since he came on board at Baton Rouge, and that he
+had requested him to attend her at tea. He had not seen him since, but
+supposed he was forward, or in his state-room.
+
+Emily readily accepted his arm, for anything was a relief from the
+hateful presence of Jaspar. Maxwell used all the art which politeness
+could lend to render himself agreeable. His ready wit, and the
+adaptation of his conversation to the unhappy circumstances of her
+position, in some measure dispelled the misery of the hour. Besides, it
+was plain the attorney did not believe the statement of the will; for a
+high-born Southern gentleman would never associate in public with a
+slave girl. She had, too, a presentiment that he came on some errand to
+her. Perhaps the good minister, Mr. Faxon, had sent him with good news
+to her. Perhaps through him the will had been proved false. Such
+reflections as these imparted more interest to his society than she
+would otherwise have felt.
+
+During the tea-hour his assiduous courtesy left scarcely a particular in
+which Henry Carroll, who, as before, occupied a seat opposite to him,
+could render himself of use. He could hardly address a word to her
+without interrupting her companion. An introduction, which had before
+placed the young captain and the attorney on speaking terms, did not
+prevent the latter from mixing excessively good with excessively bad
+breeding. He was apparently unwilling that Henry should be heard by
+Emily. Maxwell had some idea of the relation which subsisted between his
+two companions; but, of course, knew nothing of the previous night's
+interview, which had indissolubly bound their hearts together. He
+seemed determined to keep their sympathies as far apart as possible.
+
+Henry Carroll wondered at the absence of Jaspar and at the sudden
+appearance of Maxwell, for he had not before seen him. His attentions to
+her he loved created no jealousy. Emily had satisfactorily acknowledged
+her affection for him, and to believe her pure nature, especially under
+the present circumstances, susceptible of coquetry, were infidelity. A
+single look beaming with love had assured him that his star was still in
+the ascendant.
+
+At the conclusion, Maxwell, with the same elegant courtesy, conducted
+her back to the ladies' cabin. Emily repeated her acknowledgments for
+the attentions, and was about to enter her state-room, when he addressed
+her.
+
+"May I beg the favor of a few moments' private conversation, Miss
+Dumont?" said he, in a more business-like manner than that he had
+assumed at the tea-table.
+
+Emily hesitated. Her supposition concerning his mission was partly
+verified in this request; but the remembrance of her last interview with
+him at his office in New Orleans came like a cloud over the bright sky
+of her hopes. Curiosity and a painful interest prompted her to risk the
+interview. If this interview was likely to be of an unpleasant nature,
+she could retire; and, if the worst she apprehended was likely to be
+realized, she knew that Henry Carroll hovered near her, at all times,
+like a guardian angel.
+
+"In your legal capacity, I presume?" said she, with a smile and a
+crimson face.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," replied Maxwell, not a little disconcerted to
+discover this troublesome caution.
+
+"Will you take a seat, then? I think no one will feel an interest in our
+conversation beside ourselves."
+
+"Excuse me," replied Maxwell, in his blandest tones, "a few words of our
+conversation overheard might expose persons we wish not to injure."
+
+"Perhaps it had better be deferred to a more convenient opportunity."
+
+"Delays are dangerous, Miss Dumont. Justice to yourself requires that my
+communication be made at once. Allow me to attend you to the promenade
+deck, where we shall be secure from interruption."
+
+Emily, with many doubts, accepted his arm, and they proceeded to the
+promenade deck.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, in a very serious tone, for she wished
+to awe the profligate into the most business-like reserve, "be as speedy
+as possible, for I am fearful of the effects of the night-air upon my
+health."
+
+Maxwell was disconcerted at this change in the manner of his companion,
+and vexed to account for it. The remembrance of past events came to his
+aid, but afforded no satisfactory solution. He could not see why Emily
+should studiously reject his overtures. His experience of female society
+had been of the most flattering character. He was perfectly aware of his
+popularity. His personal attractions always had been a strong
+recommendation, and he could not see why they should not be in this
+instance. His family was good, his fortune supposed to be
+respectable,--everybody did not know the inroads he had made upon it;
+his business was a pastime--the gate of honor and fame. It was true his
+character was dissolute, but she did not know this.
+
+Unfortunately for him and his prospects, she did know it, and the fact
+had all the weight which a virtuous mind attaches to such a
+circumstance.
+
+"I have been fortunate enough to obtain some information which may be of
+great value to you, or I should not thus have intruded upon you," said
+Maxwell, with the air of a man upon whom suspicion rested unjustly.
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Maxwell!" replied Emily, forgetting both the night-air and
+the character of the man who stood beside her; "pray, tell me all at
+once!"
+
+"Pardon me," replied he, coldly, "as the story is somewhat lengthy,
+perhaps it might be deferred till to-morrow, if your health is likely to
+suffer from exposure at this hour."
+
+Emily was confused; but she could not stoop to the weakness of deception
+to smooth over her former coldness. She was burning with impatience to
+be restored, even in imagination, to the position from which she had
+been degraded by the cruel will. Her companion's language was not
+calculated to remove her doubts of his intentions. If the communication
+was of a business character, why should he be offended at her haste to
+terminate the interview? This reflection strengthened her resolution not
+to conciliate him. She would trust to Providence and the justice of her
+cause, rather than make an intimate of a man whom she despised.
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, growing desperate at the lady's silence,
+"perhaps I have offended in some manner. If I have, it was
+unintentional, and I trust you will forgive me."
+
+"O, no, sir, not at all!" exclaimed Emily, mollified, in spite of
+herself, by the humility of the attorney. "There is no offence, and no
+apology is necessary."
+
+"I am greatly relieved by this assurance, and, with your leave, will
+proceed with my narrative."
+
+Maxwell now entered into a relation of the history of the will, but
+studiously avoided imparting a single fact with which she was not
+already acquainted. All this he had related with a lawyer's skill, to
+awaken her curiosity and interest, and to remove by distance any
+unpleasant suspicions which might have been awakened in her mind in
+regard to his motives.
+
+To all he said Emily listened with profound attention, momentarily
+expecting the development of the foul plot. But thus far Jaspar Dumont
+is as pure as an angel,--nothing is disclosed. In this manner half an
+hour passed away, and Emily was no wiser than at first.
+
+Maxwell has now, with an adroitness peculiar to the successful lawyer,
+made _himself_ the subject of his remarks. He is careful that she shall
+know how sagacious he has been in discovering the facts he has not yet
+revealed. He tells her how many weary days and nights he has spent in
+searching out the truth; what wonderful intelligence of his had
+converted the shadow of a suspicion into the reality of an
+incontrovertible conviction; how a single word he casually overheard has
+been followed through weary days and dismal nights, till he has arrived,
+with all the evidence in his hands, at the truth!
+
+Emily was certainly grateful for the deep interest he had manifested in
+her behalf, and she expressed her gratitude with modest earnestness.
+
+"But, Miss Dumont," continued Maxwell, "I could not thus have sacrificed
+myself for every client. My health and strength, under ordinary
+circumstances, would have given way, and the case have been lost."
+
+"Indeed, sir, you may rely on the fullest and most substantial
+acknowledgment for the service you have rendered. My purse shall be
+entirely at your disposal," responded Emily, warmly and innocently.
+
+"Money, Miss Dumont, would not have tempted me to make the sacrifice of
+health and comfort which this exertion has required of me. I have done
+all my humble talents would permit from a higher motive. I look for my
+reward in the consciousness of having done my duty."
+
+"I trust, Mr. Maxwell, you will receive the great reward which is sure
+to follow every noble and true action."
+
+Emily was sadly perplexed to understand this new and singular
+phenomenon.
+
+"The act itself is its own reward," said Maxwell, with an attempt to
+counterfeit humility, which was very awkward, but which deceived Emily,
+agitated as she was by hopes and fears.
+
+"But, as I said," continued he, "I would not have done this for every
+client, and I trust you will pardon me when I say the only reward I
+look forward to is your smile of approval."
+
+"I certainly cannot but approve of the motives which have actuated you,
+and your actions perhaps I could better appreciate if my knowledge of
+them was more extensive," responded Emily, disappointed and displeased,
+as her suspicions were reawakened.
+
+But a faint smile rested upon her beautiful features, as if to soften,
+the reproof she had administered, and to conceal her rising emotions.
+She felt that Maxwell could assist her, but she feared every moment that
+some allusion to the prohibited subject would compel her to banish him
+from her presence.
+
+"A smile from you were an ample reward for all my trouble and exertion,"
+said Maxwell, deceived by the smile of Emily. "To be as sincere as your
+generous nature demands, I cannot conquer the love I have before
+expressed. I--"
+
+"Excuse me, sir," indignantly interrupted Emily, "I must retire."
+
+"Nay, nay, Miss Dumont! I meant no offence. Hear me but for a moment!"
+
+"Not another instant, sir! You have deceived me."
+
+"Upon my honor, I have not. I possess the evidence by which your
+birthright and possessions may be restored."
+
+"No more! I had rather die in poverty, with the stain clinging to me,
+than owe the restoration of my rights to you. You have taken advantage
+of my unprotected condition to impose upon me."
+
+"You wrong me, Miss Dumont; as, if you will remain but a moment, I will
+prove to you," said Maxwell, pleading like an injured man.
+
+Maxwell's peculiar tone and penitent air made Emily pause, and perhaps
+think she had spoken too hastily. All the wrong of which she could
+accuse him was, that he loved her. She felt that this was not a crime.
+The remembrance of wrongs she knew he had inflicted upon others,
+perhaps weak and unprotected like herself, nerved her resolution, and to
+a word of love from him she could not listen. She wished to conciliate
+him, if possible, but not at the expense of her self-respect.
+
+"Why have you detained me all this time to listen to a story with which
+I was before as familiar as yourself? Why have you used the language of
+love, which a refusal to hear now renders insolent?"
+
+"I have offended you, Miss Dumont," said he, in the humblest tones; "can
+I hope to be forgiven?"
+
+"Your future conduct alone can secure my forgiveness."
+
+"Then I solemnly promise never again to allude to the admiration with
+which I have regarded your matchless beauty, or to mention the love
+which now consumes my heart."
+
+"I trust you are sincere," said Emily, not knowing whether to smile or
+frown upon this making and breaking the promise in the same breath. The
+deep anxiety she felt for her future fate made her disposed to forget
+the past, and in a gentler tone she expressed her forgiveness.
+
+Maxwell imagined that, at last, his star was in the ascendant. His
+experience of woman-kind only indicated that he had been too
+precipitate, and that the reserve, even the refusal he had received,
+were only the accidents of the moment, not the natural expression of an
+indifferent heart. His assurance increased as he reflected. He was led
+to believe that he might, now that the ice-barrier was removed, be more
+unreserved in his wooing. His perseverance had now overcome all
+obstacles, and the prize was in his grasp.
+
+"I have a plan to propose," said he, "which will immediately secure to
+you all your rights."
+
+"Pray what is it?" asked Emily, eagerly.
+
+"As you have forbidden me to speak of love, I am placed in a very
+unfortunate position. In short, you can obtain possession of your estate
+by returning as my wife."
+
+This last sentence was said in a whisper, and in a tone of assurance,
+as though he felt she would gladly accept the alternative.
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Emily, aghast with astonishment and indignation, for
+the abruptness of the degrading proposition nearly deprived her of the
+power of speech.
+
+"Even so, Emily. I have the power to restore your rights, and will do so
+on this condition. The ceremony may be performed at Natchez, where we
+shall arrive to-night; or, if you fear I promise more than I can
+perform, I will draw up an agreement, which you shall sign, to the
+effect that you will accept my hand on the restoration of your rights. I
+will give you two hours to think of it; and if, at the end of that time,
+you accept the proposal, I will at once take the necessary steps to
+regain your fortune, and remove the stigma which rests on your name."
+
+"Never, sir, never! I will die a beggar before I will owe my prosperity
+to such a contract!" exclaimed Emily, whose indignation now found
+utterance.
+
+"I beg madam will reflect before she decides," said Maxwell, in a
+satirical tone.
+
+"Sir, I will die upon the rack, before the hand of a villain shall lead
+me to the altar!" answered Emily, unable to control her feelings.
+
+"Softly, lady, softly!"
+
+"Leave me, sir! leave me, or I will call upon my uncle to protect me
+from further insult!"
+
+"Your _uncle_, I fear, was left at the last wood-yard; so I heard my
+friend De Guy say."
+
+Emily felt herself the victim of a plot, and, rousing all her energies,
+she said,
+
+"I see it all. The machinations of a villain--for such you are--shall be
+foiled."
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, his passions roused by the severity of her
+epithet, "do you forget your condition? You are a _slave_! Your supposed
+uncle is not here. You have no free papers, and are liable to be
+committed to the next jail."
+
+"But I am not without a friend who is able to protect me," said Emily,
+with spirit, as she saw Henry Carroll ascend to the deck upon which they
+stood.
+
+"Your friend is helpless. Another word, and I will proclaim your
+condition," and he rudely seized her by the arm. "Your friend cannot
+help you. He has not your free papers."
+
+"But he has a strong arm!" shouted Henry Carroll, as with a single blow
+he struck the attorney to the deck.
+
+"This way, Emily," said he to the weeping girl, who clung tremblingly to
+him; "you are safe now."
+
+Emily was conducted by the gallant arm which had protected her from we
+know not what indignity. She felt secure in his presence from further
+molestation, and his soothing words and hopeful promises did much to
+restore her.
+
+Maxwell soon recovered from the effects of the blow he had received,
+and, boiling with passion, swore vengeance upon the man who had
+interrupted him. But his passion was of short duration, and was
+succeeded by sober reflections upon the "position of his case." Emily
+Dumont was not of that class of women with whom he was accustomed to
+deal. He had found in her an element with which he had not before been
+conversant,--of which, indeed, he had read in books of poetry, but did
+not believe it existed in the material world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+                            "Caught, caught
+     In thine own trap! Thou hast confessed it all,--
+     The means, the end, the motive,--laid all Bare!
+     O, thou poor knave!--and that convenient friend
+     Who swears or unswears, speaks or holds his peace,
+     At thy command,--you have conspired together!"
+
+                                            LOVELL.
+
+
+On board the Chalmetta, Harwell discovered an old acquaintance in the
+person of a notorious gambler,--a class of persons who congregate on
+Mississippi steamers, and practise their arts upon the unwary traveller.
+This person, who went by the name of Vernon, was well known at the faro
+and roulette boards in New Orleans. He was an accomplished swindler. In
+the winter season, when the city is crowded with the élite of the state,
+and with strangers from all parts of the Union, Vernon found abundant
+exercise for his professional ability at the hells of the city, in the
+employment of their proprietors, acting the part of banker, or anything
+else that offered him the means of gratifying his luxurious habits. A
+twinge of conscience never prevented him from adopting any means of
+emptying the pockets of his victims, even without the formality of dice
+or cards.
+
+In the summer season he beguiled his time on the river, or migrated with
+the fashionables to Pascagoula, or a more northern watering-place,--in
+fine, to any sphere which afforded him a theatre for the exercise of his
+talents as a blackleg. Wherever he was, he never passed by an
+opportunity to obtain possession of his neighbor's valuables. If the
+monied man would accept a hand at euchre or poker, why, he was so much
+the easier cleaned out; if not, false keys, pick-locks, or
+sleight-of-hand, soon relieved the unfortunate victim of his superfluous
+possessions.
+
+Early in his career of fashionable dissipation, Maxwell had made the
+acquaintance of this notorious individual. Indeed, he had sufficient
+cause to remember him, for he had made a deep inroad into his patrimony.
+Maxwell was too great a rascal himself to be long duped by a greater
+one. A kind of business intimacy had grown up between them, and
+continued to exist at the time of our story. This connection was not,
+however, publicly acknowledged by Maxwell; it would have been the ruin
+of his fine prospects: but he used him whenever a scheme of profit or
+revenge required an unscrupulous confederate. Yet this Vernon was by no
+means a dependent creature of Maxwell's, for he was bold, reckless, and
+independent to the last degree. Whether acting as the paid devil of
+another, or on his own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own
+will. His physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
+character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon, for a
+hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the luckless
+individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his trade; but
+latterly his claims to the distinction of _gentleman_ and _man of honor_
+had been of such a questionable character, that the man who refused to
+meet him did not lose caste among the bloods of the city.
+
+Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New Orleans,
+with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As usual, he
+practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which, however, afforded him
+but a narrow field, the passengers being mostly officers, who had left
+their pay in the _cabarets_ of Mexico.
+
+By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in possession of
+a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his power he had
+endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which was constantly
+spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate victims, vainly
+striving against the coolness and trickery of professional blacklegs, to
+recruit their exhausted finances, or retrieve the ruin to which an
+unlucky hour had enticed them. Henry obstinately refused to take a hand;
+but Vernon's heart was set upon the bag of gold he knew was in Henry's
+trunk, and he resolved to possess it,--a feat not easy to accomplish on
+board a crowded steamer.
+
+After Maxwell had recovered from the blow which had felled him to the
+deck, and while Henry was soothing the distress of Emily, he met Vernon,
+who was in the act of reconnoitring the young officer's state-room.
+Vernon was just the person to serve him in this extremity. The protector
+of Emily must be removed from his charge, as her uncle had been by De
+Guy. He resolved upon a consultation with the blackleg. Accordingly he
+expressed his desire, to which the gambler replied by requesting him to
+give notice of the approach of any one, while he did a little business
+in the state-room.
+
+Maxwell vainly remonstrated, but was obliged to comply with the wishes
+of the robber, or lose his services.
+
+Vernon, thus protected from intrusion, entered the room, and by the aid
+of a pick-lock soon succeeded in obtaining possession of all poor
+Henry's earthly wealth. Beckoning Maxwell to follow, he descended to the
+main deck, where, procuring a lantern, they proceeded aft.
+
+We must return to Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, whom we left on their way
+to the fugitive in the hold of the steamer.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a whisper, as they prepared to jump down the
+hatchway; "whisht, now, and don't spake a loud word, for the life of
+yous."
+
+Uncle Nathan promised obedience, and followed Pat into the hold. All was
+total darkness, and it was not without a feeling of superstitious dread
+that Uncle Nathan heard his companion tap on the box which contained
+the mulatto. He heard the whispered recognition of its inmate, and stood
+like a statue while Hatchie freed himself from his confinement.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a low voice; "give me your hand, Mr. Binson.
+Now, there yous are," and he placed Uncle Nathan's hand in that of
+Hatchie.
+
+Uncle Nathan found the hand was warm, and felt completely relieved of
+the sensation of fear which had come over him.
+
+"Glad to see you," said he, though an instant afterwards his conscience
+asked him if he had not told a lie, inasmuch as it was so dark he could
+not see anything.
+
+"You are a _friend_, I trust," replied Hatchie, who, although he
+implicitly relied on the _faith_ of the Irish ally, had not the fullest
+confidence in his judgment. Nothing but what he deemed a stern necessity
+would have compelled him to trust the secret with any one. So many
+dangers encompassed him, that the duty he owed to his injured mistress
+obliged him to look around for the means of preserving the valuable
+document he possessed. An accident to the steamer, the continuous danger
+of being restored to Jaspar, and a hundred other painful reflections,
+brought him to the resolution of depositing the will in the hands of the
+most trustworthy person he could find. In this extremity, he canvassed
+the characters of all he knew on board. Henry Carroll, he feared, was
+too impetuous, if not actually devoted to Jaspar. He knew nothing of the
+interesting relation which the hearts of the lovers had
+recognized,--pity he did not! Uncle Nathan, whom Pat had described in
+glowing colors,--none are more highly esteemed than those who confer the
+most solid benefits,--seemed to him the proper person, especially as Pat
+had seen _her_ speak to him after the accident. An honest man is so
+easily known, that the poor Irishman's instinctive knowledge of human
+nature imparted the most correct information.
+
+"I _am_ your friend, and I trust the Lord will always put it into my
+heart to befriend the unfortunate," said Uncle Nathan, in answer to
+Hatchie's remark.
+
+"It is not on my own account that I need a friend," said Hatchie, in a
+melancholy tone, for the responsibility which rested upon him had
+solemnized his mind, and banished all reflections of self. "It matters
+little what becomes of _me_. But, sir, you are a stranger to me, and I
+know not that I may trust you."
+
+"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an honest
+sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience, why, I am
+ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."
+
+"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts in a
+great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his auditor, "can be
+done honestly; and, if your conscience approves any act, it will approve
+this one."
+
+"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and use all
+the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by the
+way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady whose life
+you saved last night."
+
+"Not exactly to talk _with_ her, but about her. I feel that I can trust
+you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress. She is an angel of
+goodness. I am perfectly willing to be _her_ slave, so that it was not
+to gain my freedom I escaped in this box. It was to save her from a
+cruel wrong which her uncle would inflict upon her."
+
+"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle Nathan.
+
+"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the world,--so different
+from my poor master, who was a good man, and loved even his slaves! This
+man would make it appear that my mistress is not the legitimate child of
+her father, but the daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned.
+He has forged a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor
+mistress of her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was
+perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my
+escape,--and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at and obliged
+to jump into the river to save my life. They think the shot killed me;
+but I shall yet expose their villany--"
+
+"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose sympathies
+wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.
+
+"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this will. I
+may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor mistress would
+never be restored."
+
+"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's reasoning,
+and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.
+
+"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person, who will
+guard it as his own life,--who will deem no sacrifice too great to
+relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said Hatchie, earnestly.
+
+"I will do the best I can."
+
+"Before I intrust it to you, I must feel that you will not only be
+discreet, but that you will labor to foil this wicked plot."
+
+"I will do everything I can," replied Uncle Nathan, warmly, for his
+heart was touched at the wrongs of Emily.
+
+"Then here is the will," said Hatchie, handing him the packet, which he
+had taken the precaution to envelop in oil-cloth. "Remember how much
+depends upon your caution and fidelity. God forgive me, if I have done
+wrong in giving it to you."
+
+"You may depend upon me. I will take good care of the document. But
+shan't I say anything to the lady about it?"
+
+"Assure her, if you can without exposing yourself, that the will is
+safe. It will give joy to her heart to know that she has the means of
+restoration to her home and name."
+
+"I will see everything done about right; and I hope soon to meet you in
+the land of liberty."
+
+"I shall never leave my mistress. I have been near her from her birth,
+and, though only a slave, I feel that I was sent into the world for no
+other purpose than to protect and serve her. Liberty away from her has
+no charms for me."
+
+"Goodness!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan; "I never should have thought it!"
+
+Hatchie's devotion to his mistress, so eloquently expressed, jostled
+rather rudely the Northerner's prejudices concerning the treatment of
+slaves.
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by three taps on the deck above
+them, produced by the brogan of Pat Fegan.
+
+Hatchie recognized the preconcerted signal, and, abruptly terminating
+his remarks, he leaped into the box, drew on the lid, and left Uncle
+Nathan to find his way out as best he could.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, whispering down the hatch. "Jump up, Mr.
+Binson!"
+
+Uncle Nathan approached the hatchway, and endeavored to leap out, an
+effort which was assisted by Pat, who, rudely seizing him by the collar,
+jerked him out with a violence that threatened his bones with
+dissolution.
+
+"How the divil did yous tumble in there?" screamed Pat, as two persons
+approached. "Are yous hurted?"
+
+"A little," replied Uncle Nathan, perceiving the ruse of his coadjutor.
+
+"I fear yous are. Thry are your legs broke?" continued Pat, whose energy
+of utterance gave a fair appearance to the deceit.
+
+"Are you much hurt?" asked one of the persons who had by their presence
+disturbed the conference.
+
+"Very little," replied Uncle Nathan, who really felt the uncomfortable
+effects of a knock on the knee he had received in his involuntary ascent
+from the hold.
+
+"Bad luck to 't, but 'twas a wicked fall!" said Pat, fearful that his
+conscientious companion would expose the deceit.
+
+"Can I render you any assistance?" asked one of the intruders, who were
+none other than Maxwell and Vernon, whom we left on their way to the
+main deck.
+
+"Thank ye, I don't need any," replied Uncle Nathan, hobbling off,
+accompanied by Pat.
+
+"Now, is the coast clear?" said Vernon, who carried a lantern he had
+borrowed from the mate.
+
+"All clear; but put out that light,--the engineers will notice us,"
+replied Maxwell.
+
+"But I can't find my way into the hold without it. There is no danger of
+the engineers. They are all asleep on the forward deck."
+
+"What do you want in the hold?" asked Maxwell, in an irritable tone.
+
+"I want to hide this bag of money," replied Vernon, in a whisper. "As
+soon as the covey finds he has been picked, they will search the boat;
+and my character is not likely to save me from the indignity of being
+obliged to open my trunk, and turn out my pockets."
+
+"It is bad business, and I wish you had not done this thing. As I told
+you before, _I_ have nothing to do with it. I feel myself rather above
+common robbery."
+
+"Self-esteem! But you came down on your own business, not on mine. You
+can return, and not trouble yourself any further," growled Vernon.
+
+"I need your help, and will pay you for it."
+
+"Very well, then, wait till _this_ job is finished."
+
+"Go on! I will follow," replied Maxwell, finding remonstrance vain.
+
+After a careful scrutiny of the premises, Vernon concealed his lantern
+under his coat, and leaped into the hold, followed by Maxwell.
+
+"Now," said Vernon, "I must put this bag into one of these boxes, to be
+guarded by the spirits of the brave men whose bones repose in them."
+
+"Are you mad, man? Would you open the coffins of the dead to hide your
+ill-gotten gold?" exclaimed Maxwell, alarmed at the purpose of his
+confederate.
+
+"Why not? We need not disturb the bodies,--only open the outside box."
+
+"Very well," said Maxwell, who felt how useless it was to oppose his
+companion. "But remember, I have nothing to do with the robbery."
+
+"Of course not, and nothing to do with sharing the proceeds; but sit
+down, if you have anything to say to me. We are perfectly safe from
+interruption here;" and Vernon seated himself on the box which was
+occupied by the mulatto.
+
+"My words need not be many. In the first place, I have been insulted,
+and must have satisfaction; and, in the second, there is a girl in the
+cabin to whom I am much attached, and she will not give me the smallest
+sign of encouragement. Have her I must, by fair means or foul. I would
+marry her. You understand?"
+
+"Certainly; but what's the plan?" asked Vernon, indifferently.
+
+"Rather a difficult one, and may require some nerve to execute it,"
+replied Maxwell, who proceeded to develop his schemes, both in respect
+to Henry Carroll and to Emily.
+
+Although the conspirators spoke in a low tone, Hatchie heard and
+understood the whole plot. The voice of Maxwell he recognized, and,
+although the name of the lady against whom his designs were meditated
+was not mentioned, he comprehended who she was.
+
+The confederated scoundrels having finished their conference, Vernon
+drew from his pocket a small screw-driver, and proceeded to remove the
+screws from one of the boxes, which, to Hatchie's great relief, was not
+the one occupied by himself. After much labor, for the boxes were
+carefully constructed, to bear the rough usage of transportation, he
+succeeded in removing the lid, and deposited the bag of money between
+the coffin and the case which enclosed it.
+
+Having effected the object which brought them to the hold, the two
+ascended again, and made their way to the cabin.
+
+In addition to the knowledge of the plot, Hatchie was made acquainted
+with a fact which afforded him much pleasure--that Henry Carroll, in
+defence of his mistress, had knocked Maxwell down. This was evidence in
+his favor. He also heard something of the preference she had bestowed
+upon him, and that on this account, more than for the blow, he was to be
+the victim of Maxwell's vengeance. But he resolved to foil both schemes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     "He must be taught to know he has presumed
+     To stand in competition with me.
+     --You will not kill him?"  SHIRLEY.
+
+           --"Wherefore com'st thou?
+     --To comfort you, and bring you joyful news."
+                                MARLOW.
+
+
+On the second night of the Chalmetta's voyage, as Henry was about to
+retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he had struck a
+"fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at once that it had
+called forth this note. On opening the billet, his supposition proved to
+be correct. It was a challenge from Maxwell.
+
+We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret that
+faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that Captain
+Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough to resist
+the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which encourages
+duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"--a lady whom he fondly loved.
+He felt that the insult which she had received was not sufficiently
+punished. Besides, there was an audacity about the man which deserved to
+be punished, and he resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry
+never reflected that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of
+innocence escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in
+defence of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that
+he should fall, _he_ who had espoused the cause of innocence, why it was
+simply impossible!
+
+He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to act as his
+"friend." The two seconds--Major Brunn on the part of Henry, and Vernon
+on the part of Maxwell--arranged the preliminaries.
+
+The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would remain there
+long enough to allow the meeting to take place.
+
+Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
+opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at ease. To
+meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell to be) was not
+a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of honor. He had a hundred
+times braved death on the field of battle, but to die in a duel with
+such a man seemed to his now tranquillized mind anything but honorable.
+Emily had retired, and he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had
+seen her for the last time on earth, for the possibility of being killed
+himself tardily came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and
+another to Uncle Nathan.
+
+The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression upon his
+mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the letter was to
+interest him in her favor,--to induce him to conduct her to his Northern
+home.
+
+Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the morality,
+and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling of honor--of
+false honor--comforted him, and, animated by its spirit, he even looked
+forward with pleasure upon his revenge,--upon the death of his opponent.
+This would be in accordance with the justice of the case, and he
+flattered himself that justice, if it did not always prevail, would
+triumph in this instance. With such reflections he closed his eyes, and
+sunk to his slumbers.
+
+The Chalmetta moved lazily on her course. Her lights had all been
+extinguished, and the idlers, who a few hours before had paced the
+decks, were now slumbering in their berths, or on the cabin floor. The
+clock over the clerk's office indicated the hour of twelve. On the main
+deck forward the sleepy firemen were languidly supplying the furnaces;
+the engineers, less actively employed, had fallen asleep by the
+cylinders.
+
+On the after quarter, laying flat upon the deck, were two men earnestly
+engaged in conversation, in which the whispered brogue of Pat Fegan
+might have been detected. After the conversation had continued some
+time, one of them cautiously raised his head, as if to penetrate the
+gloom that enshrouded them. Satisfied that they were alone, the two
+rose, and, without noise, climbed up one of the posts to the gallery
+which surrounded the cabin. Then, with a light step, they passed on, and
+stopped before the state-room occupied by Vernon.
+
+"Are you sure this is his room?" asked Hatchie, in a smothered whisper.
+
+"Troth, I am, thin," responded his companion; "but be aisy, or you'll
+wake him."
+
+"The worse for him," replied Hatchie, as his teeth ground together.
+
+Hatchie placed his hand upon the door, and softly opened it. The sleeper
+heard him not. The negro groped about the room until his hand rested
+upon some pistols which lay on a trunk by the side of the berth. These
+he took, and, handing two of them to Pat, retained the third in his
+hand. Closing the door, they proceeded, as they had come, to the main
+deck.
+
+Seating himself behind a heap of merchandise, Hatchie proceeded to
+examine the pistols by the light of a lantern which Pat had _borrowed_
+from the sleeping engineers. The pistols were of the common pattern used
+in duelling. Two of the three were mates; and Hatchie discovered, on
+examination, that neither of them were loaded with ball. The third
+pistol, which contained two balls, was very similar in form and size to
+the pair. Hatchie extracted the balls from this one, and loaded the pair
+with one ball each, leaving the unmatched one blank. They then carefully
+conveyed them to Vernon's state-room, and placed them on the trunk
+precisely as they had found them.
+
+As had been premised, the Chalmetta arrived at Natchez about daylight.
+Vernon, well acquainted with all its localities, led the parties of the
+duel to a retired place in the vicinity. The distance was measured off,
+and the principals took the stations assigned them.
+
+"Now be careful they do not see you do it," said Vernon, in a low,
+careless tone.
+
+The pistols were handed to the principals, the signal was given, and
+both fired nearly at the same instant.
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Maxwell, dropping his pistol, and grasping the
+left arm, which had been hit by Henry's ball. "How does this happen?"
+
+But Vernon was as much confounded by this unexpected result of the duel
+as his principal. He had only time to protest that he had prepared the
+pistols as agreed upon, when Major Brunn arrived at the spot.
+
+On examining the wounded man, it was found that the ball had struck the
+fleshy part of the arm. The injury was very trifling. Maxwell was much
+astonished at receiving a ball from his opponent's pistol,--a
+circumstance which was owing entirely to Hatchie's precaution on the
+previous night. He had overheard the plan by which Maxwell was to fire a
+ball at Henry, with no danger of receiving one in return. Vernon had
+loaded the pair without ball, and the single pistol with two balls.
+Henry was to select from the pair; the third was to be concealed upon
+the person of Maxwell, who was to use it instead of the blank. Major
+Brunn, supposing Vernon to be a man of honor, had not insisted upon
+examining the charge in presence of both seconds, and thus everything
+had worked to the satisfaction of the confederates up to the time of the
+firing. By Hatchie's precaution, Henry held one of the two which were
+loaded with ball, while Maxwell had fired the blank.
+
+Maxwell was, as may be supposed, vexed and disconcerted at the result
+of the duel; and, with an ill grace, he resolved to postpone his revenge
+to another time, inasmuch as he could not hope again to shoot at his foe
+in perfect safety.
+
+The party returned to the steamer just in season for her departure.
+Maxwell's wound was examined by the surgeon, and pronounced very slight.
+Henry was rejoiced at this intelligence, for the cold-blooded thoughts
+which had found a place in his heart had departed, and his naturally
+kind disposition resumed its sway. He was glad that the affair had
+terminated without the loss of life; glad that his conscience was not
+burdened with the blood of a fellow-creature; glad, too, that he had
+escaped unhurt. This last consideration was not a selfish one. He felt
+that all the energy he possessed he should require in the restoration of
+her he so tenderly loved.
+
+His first step, on returning to the steamer, was to destroy the letters
+he had written to meet the worst calamity which might befall him. Having
+occasion to open his trunk, he discovered, to his surprise, that it was
+unlocked. Further examination showed that he had been robbed of all his
+earthly possessions. This was a severe blow. The money was the
+accumulation of two years' service, and he was now penniless,--without
+even a sufficient sum to pay his passage. He immediately informed the
+captain of his loss, who gave him the comfortable assurance that the
+robber had probably gone ashore at Natchez. However, he caused a
+thorough search of the boat to be made; but, as may be supposed, the
+search was vain.
+
+Uncle Nathan sympathized with him in his loss,--not with words alone,
+but voluntarily proposed to lend him any amount he required; an offer
+which Henry accepted with gratitude.
+
+"I see you are acquainted with that lady you saved from drowning," said
+the worthy farmer, after he had passed the loan to Henry. The duel had
+before been discussed and roundly condemned. The cause of the quarrel
+had introduced the fact to which the farmer had alluded.
+
+"I am. Her father was my best friend. I spent a few weeks with him a
+short time before his death."
+
+"O, ho!" thought Uncle Nathan, "I guess the black feller didn't know
+that, or he would have given the papers to him;" and he resolved to
+inform Hatchie of Henry's presence.
+
+Descending, he soon discovered Pat Fegan, and, by his help, was enabled
+to hold a conference with Hatchie, who, now that it was daylight, talked
+through a crevice in his box.
+
+Hatchie was anxious to know the result of the duel, which Uncle Nathan
+imparted, to whom, in return, the mulatto related the means he had used
+to foil the attorney's purpose, which was nothing less than murder. He
+also disclosed the particulars of the second plot, which was to be put
+in execution that night.
+
+The information the faithful slave had gained in relation to the
+character of Henry's efforts for his mistress made him quite willing to
+have him admitted into the confidence of her secret protectors.
+
+Uncle Nathan returned to the cabin, delighted with the idea of sharing
+his responsibility with Henry. But his first wish was to relieve the
+distress of Emily, who, he rightly judged, was in continued suffering,
+on account of the painful uncertainty which shrouded her destiny.
+
+Emily rose on the morning of the duel in blissful ignorance of the
+danger which Henry had incurred on her account. She had passed a
+sleepless night, in the most intense agony. Her eyes were red and
+swollen with weeping, and her heart yet beat with the violence of her
+emotions. She felt in the most intense degree the misery of her
+situation, to which she failed not to give all its weight. She had a
+friend--a brother--more than brother--near, in the person of Henry. That
+love which she allowed her fond heart to cherish was like an oasis in
+the desert of her misery. She loved him, and in this thought--in the
+delightful sensation which accompanied it--she found her only solace.
+
+At breakfast she saw him again; again his speaking eyes told how fondly
+his heart clung to her; again his smile fanned her fevered brain, like
+the zephyr of summer, into a dream of bliss. Her heart led her back to
+the days when they had wandered together over her father's plantation.
+Then, restrained by the coyness of unrevealed love, each enjoyed a
+happiness to which the other was supposed to be a stranger.
+
+But the anguish of her painful position _would_ come to destroy the
+dream of bliss, and dissipate the bright halo her imagination had cast
+before her. She retired to her state-room, to ponder again her unhappy
+lot. "Thy will be done," murmured she, as, throwing herself into a
+chair, she resigned herself to the terrible reflection that she was a
+slave and an outcast. The bright dream of love was only a chimera, to
+make her feel more deeply the terrible reality.
+
+Whilst she was thus venting her anguish, she was roused from her
+lethargy of grief by the chambermaid, who had entered by the inner door.
+
+"Please, ma'am, a gentleman out in the cabin says he wants to speak to
+you."
+
+"A gentleman wishes to speak to me? Did he send his name?"
+
+"No, ma'am. He said you wouldn't know him, if he did; so it was no use
+to send it."
+
+"Pray, what looking gentleman is he?"--her mind reverting to Maxwell.
+
+"Well, ma'am, he's a very respectable looking gentleman," answered the
+girl, to whom Uncle Nathan (for he was the person alluded to) had given
+half a dollar. "I think he is a Yankee, by his talk."
+
+"Pray, ask him to send his name."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the chambermaid, retiring.
+
+Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's
+description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread a new enemy.
+
+The chambermaid presently returned, and said the gentleman's name was
+Benson.
+
+Emily's perplexity was not diminished, but she resolved to see the
+applicant at the door of the room, so that, if his errand was from
+Maxwell, she could easily retire from his presence. Accordingly she
+instructed the girl to show him to the door on the gallery.
+
+"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, as soon as he reached the
+position assigned him; "you are Miss Dumont, I believe?"
+
+"The same," said she, as calmly as her fluttering heart would permit.
+"May I beg to know your business with me?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, bluntly; "but don't be scart. I know
+something of your trials; and I trust the Lord will give you strength to
+endure them with patience."
+
+"Really, sir, you astonish me! May I be allowed to ask how you became
+acquainted with my affairs?"
+
+"All in good time, ma'am; I have in my possession a document, which, I'm
+told, will set matters all right with you."
+
+"What is it, sir?"--and Emily was still more astonished at the
+singularity of the adventure.
+
+"_It is your father's will_, ma'am," replied Uncle Nathan, disdaining
+all preface and preliminary to this important remark.
+
+"My father's will, sir! Impossible!"
+
+"Fact, ma'am. I will tell you all about it," and Uncle Nathan proceeded,
+in his own blunt way, to relate his adventures in the hold.
+
+Emily listened with surprise and joy to the honest farmer's story. When
+he had concluded, although she did not give way to the joy of her heart,
+a change from the depth of despair to the pinnacle of happiness took
+place in her silent heart. How devoutly she thanked the great Father
+who had watched over her in her anguish, and now shed a halo of joy
+across her darkened path! How earnest was the silent prayer which arose
+from the depths of her heart, for the safety of the faithful slave, who
+had perilled his life for her happiness! How deeply laden with the
+incense of gratitude was the song of thanksgiving which rose from her
+soul to the Giver of all good!
+
+And when Uncle Nathan told the story of the duel, a new song of
+thanksgiving arose for Henry's safety. The joy she felt in his
+preservation would not be entirely confined to her heart, and Uncle
+Nathan--unromantic bachelor as he was--could not but discern the deep
+interest she felt in him.
+
+The interview was concluded, and the worthy farmer left the gallery more
+rejoiced than if he had himself been declared heir of Colonel Dumont's
+millions; and he looked around, as excited as a school-boy on the first
+day of vacation, to find Henry, and relate the good news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     "Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash
+     Of echoing thunder."  BYRON.
+
+
+The day of the duel was a day of happiness to Emily Dumont. The
+restraint which Jaspar's presence imposed was removed. Maxwell, from
+prudence or some other motive, did not intrude upon her. Her heart was
+rejoiced by the glad tidings which Uncle Nathan had conveyed to her.
+Henry Carroll was permitted to enjoy her society. It was a day of bliss
+to both; and, though a crowded steamer could ill afford the privacy
+which new-born love ever seeks, yet opportunities of giving expression
+to their feelings were not wanting. All day long they revelled in the
+delightful emotions which warmed their hearts. Their intercourse was now
+burdened by no painful reflections on the misery which had so lately
+environed Emily. The means of her restoration to home and society were
+at hand. The only difficulty now was to discover the best method of
+establishing her rights. Against Jaspar and Maxwell they cherished no
+ill-will,--they had no desire to punish them for their wicked designs.
+
+Uncle Nathan, too, was in the "full enjoyment of his mind." The relief
+he had "providentially" been able to afford to Emily's mind was the
+medium of an abundant satisfaction. As the darkness began to gather, he
+found an opportunity of conversing with Henry, whose entire devotion to
+Emily during the day had rendered him a stranger in the gentlemen's
+cabin. The plot which Hatchie had revealed to him had caused him but
+little anxiety. Maxwell's wounded arm, he concluded, would delay its
+execution. But he gave the particulars to Henry, who was not at all
+satisfied that it would not be undertaken.
+
+"We must watch to-night," said he.
+
+"Sartain, we'll keep a good look-out; but the scamp can't do anything
+while he is wounded."
+
+"But he had confederates."
+
+"Perhaps he has. But here is another friend," said Uncle Nathan, as he
+perceived Pat Fegan, who had for some time been watching an opportunity
+to speak to him.
+
+"Sure, the naiger would like to spake wid yous," said Pat, in a whisper.
+
+"What's the matter, Pat?" asked Henry.
+
+"Nothin', your honor," replied Pat, promptly; "I was only tellin' this
+gintleman that a poor divil was dhrunk on the lower deck, and he'd
+betther go and praych timperance to him."
+
+"No, no, Partrick, that's too bad," interrupted Uncle Nathan,
+reprovingly; "I must teach you to tell the truth."
+
+Pat opened his eyes with astonishment when he heard Uncle Nathan explain
+to Henry the part he had borne in the drama, and was about to utter in
+plain Irish his opinion of a man who would thus betray a confidence,
+when Henry explained that he was an old friend of Hatchie and the lady.
+
+"Long life to your honor, if that be true!" exclaimed Pat; "and you
+won't blow on the naiger?"
+
+"I have too strong an interest in him to do anything to his injury,"
+replied Henry. "But show me the way to him, Pat."
+
+"One at a time, if yous plaze," said Pat, as he perceived Uncle Nathan
+about to follow them.
+
+Pat led the way to the after part of the lower deck, to which Hatchie
+had ascended, as on the night of the rescue, to inhale the fresh air.
+This step was a safe one in the night, as, if any one approached (which
+was seldom), he could easily and speedily regain his hiding-place.
+
+"Hould aisy," said Pat, as they approached the fugitive; "don't be
+afraid,--I have brought yous a frind."
+
+"I hope you will not bring me too many friends," replied Hatchie, a
+little disconcerted.
+
+"Don't you know me?" said Henry, as he grasped the hand of Hatchie; "I
+have just come from your mistress, and know your whole story."
+
+"Not all," replied Hatchie; "you cannot know how much anxiety I have
+endured. Miss Emily is not yet safe."
+
+"But we can easily foil the villain's future designs."
+
+"We will, at least, endeavor to do so."
+
+"I believe I have seen you before; we were companions in the rescue."
+
+"We were, and God bless you for the noble service you rendered my
+mistress!"
+
+"That service was all your own, my gallant fellow."
+
+"You undervalue your own efforts. He who gets into the Mississippi
+seldom gets out alive. Without your timely assistance, I tremble to
+think of what might have been the end. My experience of the river
+enabled me to bring her up; but without your aid at the moment it came I
+do not think I could have saved her. But this is all past. Thank God,
+she is yet safe, though another danger hovers over her."
+
+"This foul conspiracy,--will they put it in execution to-night?"
+
+"I heard the villain they call Vernon, an hour ago, engage a deck hand
+to help him row the boat."
+
+"Then there is indeed danger. I had thought Maxwell's wound would have
+prevented it for a season."
+
+"A mere scratch. I would your ball had found the villain's heart, if he
+has one. But Vernon is the most dangerous man--a more accomplished
+villain."
+
+"Vernon," said Henry, musing; "he was Maxwell's second."
+
+"Yes. That duel was a plot to murder you."
+
+"How so?"
+
+Hatchie explained the plan of Vernon, which had been rendered futile by
+his precaution.
+
+"The scoundrel! but how knew you this, and how happens it that I escaped
+while he is wounded?" said Henry.
+
+"I overheard the plot when I did the other. Vernon is a common robber.
+He came into the hold to conceal a bag of money he had stolen."
+
+"A bag of money!" interrupted Henry, his thoughts diverted from the
+subject.
+
+"Ay, a bag of money."
+
+"Do you know where they hid it?"
+
+"I do; but why do you ask?" and Hatchie was much pained to discover in
+Henry what he mistook for a feeling of rapacity. He wanted and expected
+the perfection of an angel in the man who sustained the relation of
+lover and protector to his mistress.
+
+"Because I have been robbed of all I had in the world," replied Henry,
+seeing the shade upon Hatchie's brow.
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the mulatto, his doubts removed, and pleased in
+being able to restore his money.
+
+"The money is undoubtedly mine. Your noble devotion to your mistress has
+thus proved a fortunate thing for me. But about the pistols?"
+
+Hatchie related the means he had used to derange Maxwell's plan.
+
+"I shall never be able to repay the debt I owe you," said Henry, warmly,
+as the mulatto finished his story.
+
+"I did it for my mistress' sake. I learned that you were her friend."
+
+"And she will bless you for the act."
+
+"Now, what shall be done to insure her safety to night? for they will
+attempt her abduction, I doubt not."
+
+It was arranged that Henry should watch in the vicinity of Emily's
+state-room, while Uncle Nathan, Hatchie and Pat Fegan, should occupy the
+lower deck. Emily was not to be informed of the danger; it would
+distress her to no purpose.
+
+They had no doubt of their ability to protect her. Accustomed as Henry
+was to danger, perhaps he did not fully appreciate that which was now
+gathering around Emily. He felt that, in knowing the particulars of the
+nefarious scheme, he was abundantly able, even single-handed, to prevent
+its success.
+
+Obtaining a screw-driver and a lantern from one of the engineers, he
+succeeded in obtaining possession of his stolen bag of gold. On his
+return to the cabin, he observed Vernon standing at the bar, and the
+temptation to give his moral faculties a start could not be resisted.
+Purchasing a dozen cigars, he remarked that he had no change, and coolly
+pulled the bag of gold from his pocket. Vernon's astonishment and
+consternation could not be entirely concealed, as he recognized the bag
+he had securely deposited in the box with the dead. Henry took no notice
+of him, though he heard him say, in a suppressed tone, "The devil is in
+this boat!"
+
+Henry sought his state-room, where he found Uncle Nathan impatiently
+waiting to hear the result of the interview.
+
+"There is danger," said Henry, "and we must be ready to do our duty
+manfully."
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We must watch to-night, and, if need be, fight!"
+
+"How you talk! You don't think the feller with the sore arm will try to
+do anything to-night?"
+
+"I fear he will;" and Henry opened his trunk, and took therefrom a pair
+of revolvers.
+
+"Gracious! will there be any need of pistols? Couldn't you reason with
+them?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, who, as before hinted, had a great
+repugnance to the use of deadly weapons.
+
+"I am afraid they will not listen to reason," said Henry, smiling, in
+spite of his anxiety. "If action is necessary, it must be prompt. I know
+your heart, my good friend, and I trust your non-resistant notions will
+not interfere with your duty. I must rely on your aid in this affair."
+
+"Sartain. I will do all I can, if I die for it. But I think I can get
+along very well without one of them 'ere things," said Uncle Nathan,
+eying the pistols with distrust.
+
+"Very well, I shall not urge you, though I think it would be prudent for
+you to have one. As you go to your station, you will oblige me by giving
+this one to the mulatto boy."
+
+"Sartain, cap'n," replied Uncle Nathan, taking the pistol; "I an't
+exactly a non-resistance man, only I hate to use pistols;--not that I'm
+afeered on 'em; but to take a feller-cretur's life is a dreadful thing.
+You know the New Testament says, 'Resist not evil,' and--"
+
+"Yes, I remember; but now is the time to act, and not to preach. I shall
+place myself near Miss Dumont's state-room, and your party will see that
+the stern-boat is not disturbed."
+
+"All right, cap'n, but do be careful about spilling blood!" said Uncle
+Nathan, who did not like the cool, determined air with which Henry
+handled his pistols.
+
+"Be assured I will not wantonly take the life of even the most hardened
+villain; but in defence of Miss Dumont I shall consider that the end
+will justify the means."
+
+Uncle Nathan went to his post, and Henry, muffling himself in a large
+camp-cloak, seated himself near Emily's door. Accustomed as he was to
+the perils and privations of the camp, the duty before him did not seem
+difficult or irksome. To his chivalrous spirit there was a pleasure in
+thus watching over an innocent being, while she slept, unconscious of
+the danger that menaced her. Lighting his cigar, he resigned himself to
+the dream of blissful anticipations, which relieved the monotony of the
+scene.
+
+Maxwell, in the seclusion of his state-room, had thoroughly digested the
+plan for the abduction of Emily. Vernon had arranged the details, and
+the lawyer's reflections suggested no material alteration. His wounded
+arm was a hindrance, but time was too precious to admit of delay. The
+Chalmetta was so tardy in her movements that Jaspar must soon overtake
+them, and then the opportunity would be lost.
+
+If he could get Emily into his power, and away from the influences which
+now surrounded her, he doubted not he could induce her, by threats or
+persuasion, to become his wife; then he would spring the trap upon
+Jaspar, and the coveted object of his existence would be gained. He had
+already forged a bill of sale of her person, and, thus provided with an
+implement of coercion, he doubted not that success would crown his
+efforts.
+
+As the evening advanced, and the passengers had mostly retired for the
+night, Maxwell and Vernon left the state-room, and went aft to examine
+more particularly the means of descent to the lower deck. As they
+approached Emily's state-room, they perceived Henry puffing away at his
+second cigar. Had it been any other person, Maxwell would not have
+devoted a thought to him. It was he with whom he had fought the
+duel,--whom a mysterious providence seemed to protect. Was he there by
+accident or design?
+
+The two confederates passed round the gallery, and returned to the
+cabin. A long hour they waited, and the cabin clock pointed to the hour
+of twelve; still Henry had not changed his position. His cigar was
+consumed, but there he sat like a statue, obstinately obstructing the
+completion of Maxwell's designs. The confederates began to fear he had
+some knowledge of their contemplated project. Yet how could this be? The
+plan had been arranged in the hold of the steamer. It was impossible
+that any one, even the men they had hired to row the boat, could know
+their intentions. Vernon, who had seen the stolen bag of money
+miraculously restored to its owner, who had seen two balls pass
+harmlessly through him, was perfectly willing to believe that Henry
+Carroll was the devil! But, devil or not, it was all the same to him.
+
+It was already time to commence operations. Vernon was impatient to
+begin; for, as he averred, he did not like to lose a whole night's sleep
+in so small an affair. But nothing could be done while Henry retained
+his present position, unless they silenced him by force; and he seemed
+an ugly customer.
+
+The Chalmetta pursued her way, stemming with difficulty, as it would
+seem by her lazy pace, the current of the mighty river. She had just
+passed Vicksburg. The night was dark and gloomy. Those bright, beautiful
+moons, with which the panorama-mongers are wont to gild the eddying
+current, and solemnize the scenery with a pale loveliness, were not in
+the ascendant. Even the bright stars were hid by the thick clouds. The
+darkness cast a sad gloom over the scene, which a few hours before had
+been "leaping in light, and alive with its own beauty." The yellow bank
+rose high on either side of the river, and formed a sombre wall, which
+seemed to keep the sojourner on the tide a prisoner from the world
+above.
+
+Yet, deep as was the darkness, and perilous as was the navigation of the
+river, the Chalmetta sluggishly pursued her upward course, shunning
+sand-bars and snags which the eye could not see, and which the stranger
+knew not of. Now she crept, like a thief at night, so closely beneath
+the high bank that her tall chimneys almost swept the overhanging
+branches; then, stealing from the treacherous shoal, she sped her way
+through the middle of the vast waters, as if ashamed of her former
+timidity. Here she shot through the narrow cut-off, and there left her
+foaming surge in the centre of the broad expanse.
+
+On board all was still, save the puffing blasts of steam, which, at each
+stroke of the pistons, echoed through the woods and over the plains. The
+cabin lights had long been extinguished, and, from a distance, nothing
+could be seen of her but the huge blazing furnaces, and the red signal
+lantern, which was suspended over the boiler deck. The firemen, just
+roused from their dream of comfort, no more passed round the coarse
+jest, no more whistled "Boatman, dance," but, like automata, threw the
+fuel into the roaring furnaces. Occasionally, the startling note of the
+great bell roused the deck-watch from his slumber, and he sang over
+again the monotonous song that told the pilot how far his keel was from
+the sands below. Again the bell pealed a heavy stroke, which indicated
+that the steamer was in free water, and the leadsman settled himself for
+another nap.
+
+The passengers, save those whom we have before noted, were deep in the
+arms of Morpheus, rejoicing, no doubt, in their dreams, over the many
+tedious hours they thus annihilated.
+
+Wakeful and watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever present to
+his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil was kept. Her
+image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the love-sick brain
+conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart, and the melody of her
+voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the dignity of the man, he
+built childish air-castles, wherein he throned his idol, and in a few
+fleeting moments squandered years of happiness by her side. The perils
+of the past, the sternness of the present, the responsibilities of the
+future, all faded away, and from their ashes rose the bright empress of
+his soul.
+
+This, we know, was all very foolish of him; but then it must be
+remembered he was in love, and men in love can scarcely be called
+accountable beings.
+
+Thus he dreamed, and thus he trod the fairy ground of imagination, nor
+heeded the creaking timbers and the increasing rapidity of the puffs
+from the escape-pipe. To a man not intoxicated by the dream of young
+love these facts would have indicated a great increase in the speed of
+the boat; but he noticed them not.
+
+By the motions of the Chalmetta it was plain that, though incapable of
+accomplishing any wonderful feat in the attainment of speed, she had a
+considerable amount of that commodity somewhat vulgarly termed "spunk."
+As she passed the mouth of the Yazoo river, another steamer, apparently
+of her own calibre, rounded gracefully into the channel, from a
+wood-yard. This boat--the Flatfoot, No. 3--seemed, by her straining and
+puffing, to throw the gauntlet to the Chalmetta; a challenge, real or
+imaginary, which the latter made haste to accept,--or, rather, her
+sleepy firemen did, for, without leave or license, they crammed her
+furnaces to their utmost capacity. The effects of this movement were
+soon perceptible in every part of the boat, for she creaked and groaned
+like a ship in a gale. But the Flatfoot, No. 3, had the lead, and seemed
+to gain upon her rival,--a circumstance which seemed to rouse the
+lethargic firemen of the Chalmetta to the highest pitch of excitement,
+for they packed the furnaces more closely still.
+
+Maxwell saw, with much satisfaction, the prospect of a race; not that he
+expected in this instance to enjoy the excitement which, with "fast
+men," is consequent upon such an occasion. He hoped it might distract
+the attention of the person who, by accident or design, opposed the
+execution of his purpose. He had sent Vernon to the cabin to watch the
+movements of Henry, while he remained upon the main deck, forward of the
+furnaces, to encourage the firemen in their ambitious project of passing
+the other boat. Several barrels of hams which lay upon the deck the
+apparently excited attorney ordered the firemen to throw into the
+furnaces, promising to screen them from blame by paying the owner double
+their value. The firemen, not blessed with an undue amount of caution,
+willingly obeyed the order, and soon the boilers hissed and groaned
+under the extraordinary pressure. The engineers, roused from their
+slumbers, and entering at once into the sport, secured the safety-valve
+in its place by attaching to the lever double the usual weight.
+
+Still the person whom Maxwell wished to lure from his post remained
+immovable. A few pitch-barrels were now split up, and cast into the
+furnaces, which so increased the pressure that the faithful safety-valve
+refused longer to endure the curb placed upon the discharge of its
+function. It was again secured, and the reckless firemen, urged on by
+Maxwell and the engineers, still pressed the boat to its destruction.
+
+The boilers, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure to which they were
+subjected, still realized the expectations of the confident engineers,
+and refused to be the agents of an "awful calamity." But all exertion
+was of no avail; the Flatfoot, No. 3, whose tall chimneys vomited forth
+a long trail of flame, showing that she, too, was hard pressed, was
+rapidly increasing her distance. Still the firemen plied the furnaces,
+and again the engineers added more weight to the lever of the
+safety-valve. The boilers were evidently pressed to their utmost, the,
+decks were hot, and her timbers creaked and snapped as though they would
+drop out of her.
+
+Hatchie had placed his party in the hold, one of which was on the
+look-out at the hatchway. He saw the danger of the steamer; but all his
+friends were in the safest places the boat afforded. It was an anxious
+hour for him; but everybody was in peril, and there was no remedy.
+
+Maxwell, whose excitement in the race was feigned, perceived that the
+boat was in imminent danger. He had not intended to carry the excitement
+quite so far. An explosion was not exactly the thing he desired. It
+would not be sufficiently discriminating in its choice of victims. But
+the firemen were too much excited to listen to reason; therefore he
+proceeded, with Vernon, towards the extreme after part of the boat.
+Passing round the gallery of the ladies' cabin, they perceived that
+Henry had, at last, left his post. Such was indeed the case. Roused from
+his abstraction by the terrible anticipation of an explosion, he had
+gone forward to reason with the pilots on the recklessness of their
+course in allowing the boat to be so hard pressed.
+
+"Now is our time," said Maxwell, in a whisper.
+
+"Here goes, then!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Be careful that you do not injure her,--and bring her clothes."
+
+"Ay, ay! Have the boat ready quick, for, if I mistake not, the sooner we
+are out of this boat the better."
+
+The ruffian approached the door of Emily's state-room, and was about to
+open it, when, with a noise louder than the crashing of the thunderbolt,
+the starboard boiler exploded, and the Chalmetta lay a shapeless wreck
+upon the waters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "False world, thou ly'st; thou canst not lend
+             The least delight;
+     Thy favors cannot gain a friend,
+             They are so slight."          FRANCIS QUARLES.
+
+
+The traveller on the Mississippi observes with interest the innumerable
+islands which dot the river, and relieve the monotony of the scenery.
+These islands are, for the most part, covered with a luxurious growth of
+cotton-wood trees. They have generally been formed by what are
+technically called cut-offs, or new channels, from the main land. The
+mighty torrent, scorning its own well-beaten track, ploughs a way
+through the country, and returns to its channel miles below, opening at
+once a new path for the voyager upon its tide. The portion of land thus
+separated from the main shore is often subdivided by the action of the
+waters into several smaller islands. These islets are, however, oftener
+seen in isolated positions, varying in area from a few square rods to
+several acres. A remarkable feature of these islands is their
+_locomotive_ powers,--for, strange as it may seem, they annually take a
+step down stream! Observation has shown a change of position almost
+incredible.
+
+The river, continually wearing upon the up-river side of the island,
+washes the sands and soil to the lower side. Thus, the situation of the
+island is actually changed. The fact is clearly shown by the singular
+configuration of the mass of trees growing upon them. The wood on the
+upstream side of the island is of the largest size; while that on the
+down-stream side begins at the mere shrub, and, by a regular gradation
+in height, like a pair of stairs, increases to the altitude of the
+full-grown tree. Each successive year places a new layer of soil upon
+the lower side, in which the young tree takes root; and the growth of
+each year is distinctly visible to the traveller as he ascends the
+river.
+
+On one of these islands, above Vicksburg, was located a neat cottage.
+The island differed in many respects from others. Its area might have
+been eight or ten acres. On one side of it was a narrow, but deep
+stream, which, entering from the broad river, described a semi circle,
+and returned its waters on the same side. On three sides, except at the
+mouths of the little stream, the island was rendered inaccessible by the
+high banks, while on the fourth side the shrubs grew so luxuriantly as
+to be impervious, save to the most resolute visitor. From the high banks
+which walled it in the surface of the island sloped gradually towards a
+common centre, through which rushed the little stream.
+
+This little island had probably been a part of the main land; the river
+had forced its way through a valley, and, by degrees, had worn down the
+high land on either side, till they formed the precipices which now
+frowned on the visitor. The little stream had, perhaps, once been a
+meandering rivulet,--part of one which emptied into the river on the
+opposite side.
+
+On one of the sloping sides of the interior was situated the cottage. It
+was small in size, containing but four rooms and an attic, and was
+neatly painted white. Its location in the valley concealed it from the
+main land, and from the traveller upon the river. It was accessible only
+by means of the stream, which rolled by within a few rods of the door. A
+cow grazed in the woods, which had been partly cleared of under-brush,
+and had the appearance of a park grove. Near the house a plot of land
+had been reduced to a state of cultivation, upon which an old negro
+servant managed to raise vegetables sufficient for the use of the
+family.
+
+The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with none of
+the gaudy trappings of fashion. Everything was plain and useful. On the
+side fronting the stream, which served the inmates as a highway, were
+two rooms,--a library, which was also the sitting-room, and a sleeping
+apartment. The library was far the most substantial and
+comfortable-looking room in the house, inasmuch as it was abundantly
+supplied with modern and classical lore. In the middle was a large
+writing-desk, upon which lay sundry manuscripts, apparently the last
+labor of the occupant. The books and papers were all arranged with
+scrupulous neatness and method.
+
+The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another sleeping
+apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro and his
+wife,--the property of the proprietor, and his only attendants upon the
+island. Back of the house, as is the custom of the South, was a small
+building used as a kitchen. Near it was another building, appropriated
+to the use of the cow aforesaid.
+
+In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the bank,
+was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to rank with the
+miniature yachts of our large cities. She was schooner-rigged, with a
+small cabin forward. Her masts, by an ingenious contrivance, could be
+lowered down aft, and, by means of a rope attached to the fore-top, and
+running through a block on the bowsprit, could be instantly restored to
+their original upright position. This arrangement the owner found
+necessary, on account of the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed
+the two openings of the stream into the river.
+
+On the night of the Chalmetta's terrible disaster, a man wrapped in a
+camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the landing-place. In one
+hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the other a double-barrelled
+gun. Descending the steps to the rude pier of logs, he drew the boat
+in-shore and seated himself in the stern-sheets. Unloosing the
+stern-line, which alone held her, the boat was borne on by the rapid
+stream. The helm the occupant handled with a masterly skill, and in a
+moment the little bark swept through the half-hid opening into the broad
+river. Placing the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling
+the proper line, brought the masts to their upright position. He then
+inserted the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the
+sails. By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of the
+island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the river.
+Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed close in
+shore, he laid the boat's course up the stream. The wind was blowing
+fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the current, the
+boat careened to her task, and made very good progress through the
+water. While the gallant little bark pursues her way, we will introduce
+her skipper to the reader.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was about fifty years of age. He was descended from one of
+the old French families of Louisiana; and had been, for nearly thirty
+years, a practising physician in the city of New Orleans, during which
+time he had accumulated a very handsome fortune. At the age of
+twenty-five he had been married to a lady, whose only recommendations
+were her personal beauty and her fashionable accomplishments. Her vanity
+had disgusted him, and her uncontrollable temper had embittered to its
+very dregs the cup of his existence. Being naturally of a gloomy and
+melancholy temperament, this unfortunate union had rendered his life
+almost insupportable. Domestic happiness, to which he had looked forward
+with high-wrought anticipations, proved, in his case, to have no
+foundation.
+
+He was disappointed. His dream of home and its blessings faded away, and
+was supplanted by a terrible reality. He grew more and more melancholy.
+But there was a solace, which saved him from absolute misery. Two
+children--a boy and a girl--blessed his otherwise unhallowed union. The
+education of these children was the only joy his home afforded; but
+even this to his misanthropic mind could not compensate for his
+matrimonial disappointment.
+
+Years passed away; the son was sent to college, from which, to the
+anguish of his father, he was expelled for gross misconduct. The young
+man returned to New Orleans, and became one of the most dissolute and
+abandoned characters of the city. Dr. Vaudelier disowned him, and sunk
+the deeper in his melancholy.
+
+The death of his wife left him alone with his daughter; and if the fatal
+influence of past years could have been removed, perhaps he might have
+been a happy man. The daughter was a beautiful girl, and promised to
+realize all the fond expectations of her father. Her daily education and
+method of life, as directed by her father, were better calculated to fit
+her for the occupancy of a nun's cell than for rational society.
+
+About five years previous to the time of our story, the solemn quiet of
+Dr. Vaudelier's dwelling was disturbed by the arrival of a young French
+gentleman, bearing letters of introduction to the misanthropic
+physician. This gentleman was delighted with the daughter of his host,
+and she experienced a before unknown pleasure in his society. The doctor
+was, to some extent, obliged to abandon the "pleasures of melancholy,"
+and accompany the young couple into the world.
+
+This intimacy between the young persons rapidly ripened into love. Dr.
+Vaudelier's inquiries into the character and circumstances of the young
+gentleman were not satisfactory, and he refused to sanction the union.
+Perhaps he was influenced more in this decision by the dread of parting
+with his daughter than by any other motive. The father's refusal was
+followed by the elopement of the young couple,--an act which blasted the
+only remaining hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to
+endure the shock.
+
+Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as the only
+effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to whose rites
+and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence, doomed the suicide
+to eternal woe!
+
+Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to be
+enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He could not
+endure even that which the practice of his profession demanded. The
+great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to escape from its
+hated scenes.
+
+He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and accidentally had
+noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed his residence.
+
+His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the inhabitants of
+his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with their presence. Steamers
+and flat-boats continually passed his little domain; yet the traveller
+knew not that it was occupied by human beings.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier's pursuits were of the most simple nature. He read and
+wrote nearly the whole day, and in the evening,--often at the dead of
+night,--he would unmoor his yacht, and stem the tide of the mighty
+river. His chief happiness was in communion with nature. His solitary
+habits had completely estranged him from society; and he chose the night
+for his lonely excursions on the river, to avoid the presence of man.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was a benevolent man; and his benevolence was still his
+friend. It kept his heart from corroding, or becoming entirely cold. His
+professional services he freely gave to the poor "squatter," woodman and
+boatman, whenever he could learn that they were needed. The old negro
+made frequent visits to the shore to procure provisions and other
+necessaries, and informed his master if any of his indigent neighbors
+needed his aid. Dr. Vaudelier, as far as he was known, was regarded with
+profound respect and affection, and none were disposed to disturb his
+privacy when it was understood that entire seclusion was his desire.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier reclined on the cushions in the stern-sheets of his boat.
+With an abstracted mind he gazed upon the gloomy outlines of the shore.
+Nature in this sombre dress seemed in unison with the gloom of his own
+soul. Scarcely conscious of his actions, he managed the boat with the
+most consummate skill, avoiding the unseen shoal and the unfavorable
+current, but still never allowing the sails to shiver. Far ahead of him
+he descried the blazing chimneys of a steamer. It was night, and he was
+secure from the prying gaze or the rude hail of the voyagers.
+
+His reflections were gloomy. He reviewed his earlier years. He thought
+of his affectionate daughter, who had promised to be the stay of his
+declining years, perhaps at that moment a wanderer and an outcast. He
+had heard nothing of her since her departure. He had made no effort to
+ascertain her fate. He considered his whole course of conduct to her,
+the nature of the education he had imparted to her, the example he had
+set for her imitation. His reflections were not altogether satisfactory,
+and kindled a few compunctious thoughts. The blame had not been all on
+the side of the daughter. His misanthropic character was the origin of
+some part of it.
+
+Thus he mused, and thus dawned upon his mind the first gleams of
+repentance. His melancholy temperament had caused the loss of his
+daughter; and, for the time, it grew repugnant. He felt that he was not
+living the life his Maker intended he should live.
+
+His meditations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous explosion, and
+he was at once satisfied that it proceeded from the steamer he had
+before observed. His supposition was soon verified by the flames he saw
+rising from the spot where he had last seen her. She was, he judged, at
+least three miles distant. His benevolent disposition, stimulated by the
+reflection, and, perhaps, by some unconscious resolution of the previous
+hour, prompted him to hasten to her relief. Leaving the helm, he took
+from the little cabin a stay-sail, and by the light of the lantern
+attached it to the lines and hoisted it. The lively little craft,
+feeling the additional impulse, careened till her gunnel was nearly
+submerged, and cut her way with increased velocity through the
+unfavorable current. Half an hour elapsed before he approached near
+enough to make out the condition of the shattered steamer. Another
+steamer lay as near to her as the flames, which had apparently been
+partly subdued, would permit. Men were busily engaged in throwing on
+water, and their efforts promised to be crowned with success, for the
+volume of flame was rapidly decreasing. A line was passed from the bow
+of the Chalmetta to the Flatfoot, No. 3 (for these were the steamers),
+which enabled the latter to control the drift of the former. Dr.
+Vaudelier was too far off, however, to form a very correct idea of the
+casualty.
+
+Portions of the wreck were floating by him, and occasionally his boat
+struck against a timber or cask. While anxiously straining his vision,
+to ascertain further particulars of the disaster, he heard a faint cry
+close ahead of him. By the light of his lantern, which he had hung up by
+the foremast, to attract the eye of any sufferer who might need aid, he
+saw a man clinging to a barrel floating by him. Hastily letting go the
+halyards, the fore and main sails came down, the boat was put about, and
+Dr. Vaudelier, with much exertion, succeeded in saving the almost dying
+sufferer. Conveying him to the cabin, which was of sufficient size to
+contain two berths, he placed him upon one of them, and proceeded to
+ascertain his ailments. These, as far as he could discover them,
+consisted of a broken arm, a severe contusion of the head, and several
+severe scalds. The wounded man's endeavors to aid in his own rescue had
+been too violent, and on being placed in the berth he had fainted. After
+administering such relief as he was able, he returned to the
+stern-sheets, hoisted the sails, and the boat, which had been drifting
+down-stream, again approached the wreck.
+
+The flames of the Chalmetta were now extinguished. Before the benevolent
+physician could reach her, the Flatfoot had taken her in tow, and both
+were rapidly leaving him. Further pursuit was useless; so, taking in
+the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and again turned his attention to
+the sufferer.
+
+The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid, and she
+soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager discerned
+through the darkness the narrow opening of the little stream. Taking in
+the sails and lowering the masts, the little craft glided through the
+rivulet, and in less time than is taken to relate it was securely moored
+in front of the cottage. The old negro, bewildered by the unseasonable
+summons, assisted in conveying the wounded stranger to the cottage.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, after a more thorough examination of his patient than he
+had been able to make before, was pleased to find that his wounds,
+though serious, were not of a dangerous character. He set the broken
+arm, and, by the exercise of the great skill for which he had been
+distinguished, restored him to consciousness, and made sure his future
+recovery.
+
+"Where is she? Is she safe?" murmured the sufferer, as his returning
+consciousness afforded a partial knowledge of his condition. "Where am
+I?"
+
+"You are among friends, sir,--among friends. Do not distress yourself,"
+replied the doctor, in a soothing tone.
+
+"Where is she? Great God! what has become of her?" exclaimed the wounded
+man, with startling energy.
+
+"You must be quiet, sir, or you will injure your arm," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, mildly restraining the excited man.
+
+"O, Emily, Emily!" groaned the sufferer. "Why did I leave you? Why did
+we not perish together?"
+
+"Be calm, sir,--be calm! You have lost a friend in this terrible
+disaster?"
+
+"I have. O that I could have died with her!"
+
+"Are you sure she has perished?"
+
+"She could scarcely have survived the explosion."
+
+"Was she not in the ladies' cabin?"
+
+"She was."
+
+"Then probably she is safe. The ladies' cabin was thrown from its
+position; but it appeared to be comparatively but little shattered. The
+forward cabin was blown entirely in pieces."
+
+"Thank God for this intelligence!" ejaculated Henry Carroll,--for the
+reader has already discovered that it was he whom the doctor had
+rescued.
+
+"Another steamer was close at hand, so that probably most of the ladies
+were saved, unless, as is often the case, they jumped overboard in their
+fright."
+
+"Heaven protect her!" exclaimed Henry.
+
+"But, sir, I must insist on perfect quiet. Your condition imperatively
+demands it. To-morrow everything shall be done to relieve your anxiety.
+We shall then receive Vicksburg papers, which will contain the names of
+all who are lost."
+
+"I will try to be quiet, but I cannot but be anxious till I know the
+whole truth."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier again applied a soothing balm to the scalded portions of
+his body, and gave him a powerful narcotic, the effects of which were
+soon visible in a deep, troubled slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     "But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward!
+     All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest thee.
+     Prythee avoid, nor longer cling thus round me,
+     Like something baneful, that my nature's chilled at."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+In a small log-cabin, a few miles above "Cottage Island," reposing upon
+a rude bed, on the morning of the Chalmetta's disaster, was a young and
+beautiful female. She was pale and in tears, evidently suffering the
+most excruciating mental agony. An old woman, from whose bosom her
+half-civilized mode of life had not entirely banished those refined
+sympathies which belong by intuition to her sex, was vainly striving to
+impart comfort.
+
+"You ought to be thankful, ma'am, that you wan't blowed up, with the
+rest of the poor people," said she, kindly, attempting to turn the
+lady's attention from her absorbing misery.
+
+"I had rather a thousand times have perished than fallen into the hands
+of the villain who rescued me," replied Emily,--it was she,--with a
+shudder.
+
+"O, ma'am, they shan't hurt a hair of your head. My old man wouldn't see
+such a good cretur as you hurt, for all the world."
+
+"Alas! I fear his power will not avail against this hardened villain."
+
+"Never you fear, ma'am! Two sich popinjays as them couldn't skeer my
+Jerry, nohow. Besides, my son, Jim, will be back in an hour or two."
+
+"I fear they cannot aid me."
+
+"Yes, they can. My Jerry alone would turn 'em inside out, if they are
+sarcy."
+
+"I can scarcely hope the villains--"
+
+"Softly, lady, softly! do not be harsh!" said Harwell, entering the
+apartment in which Emily was, and which was the only one the cabin
+contained.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, rising, "if you have any mercy, or pity for
+my misfortunes, let me be left alone."
+
+"I would not injure you, Miss Dumont," replied Maxwell, in a gentle
+tone. "I would see you in safety at your destination. Mr. Vernon has
+been two hours absent, in search of a carriage."
+
+"A carriage! For what?"
+
+"To convey you to a steamboat-landing."
+
+"Bless your heart, sir! you needn't go a step for that. My Jerry will
+hail the very next one that passes the wood-yard," suggested the old
+lady.
+
+"Silence, old woman!" said Maxwell, sternly, for he feared the dame
+would increase Emily's distrust of him.
+
+"Don't old-woman me, you puppy! I know what's what!" responded the dame,
+sharply, for her temper was not exactly angelic; "it's my opinion you
+don't mean this lady any good. Let me tell you, aforehand, you can't cut
+any of your didoes here!"
+
+"Silence, woman! when I need your help I will ask it. I propose, Miss
+Dumont, to convey you to Vicksburg, where you can be comfortably
+accommodated until a steamer arrives which will take you to Cincinnati.
+It may be several days, you are aware."
+
+"Several days!" exclaimed the mistress of the cabin; "who ever heerd of
+such a thing! There'll be one along afore the day is out."
+
+"For Cincinnati?" sneered Maxwell, who found the old woman's tongue a
+very formidable weapon.
+
+"I dare say there will," responded the dame.
+
+"It is extremely uncertain, Miss Dumont. We came in the last one, and it
+is scarcely possible, at this season, another followed immediately. But
+here is the carriage."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, I shall positively refuse to accompany you," said Emily,
+in a most decided tone. "This good woman, I doubt not, will accommodate
+me."
+
+"That I will," promptly responded the dame.
+
+"I am sorry, Miss Dumont, I cannot, in this instance, yield to your
+wishes. I must insist on your company to Vicksburg," said Maxwell,
+striving, by a supercilious manner, to keep down his angry passions.
+
+"By what right, sir, do you _insist_ upon it? I was not aware that you
+were invested with any legal control over me."
+
+"Then you are mistaken. I act upon undoubted authority."
+
+"Indeed, sir, are you my guardian?" said Emily, shuddering at the
+thought of the will.
+
+"Not technically a guardian. My authority is a little more definite."
+
+"I do not understand you, sir."
+
+"It is immaterial. Perhaps you had better go with me peaceably,
+however," said Maxwell, with a carelessness foreign to his feelings.
+
+"That, sir, I never will do alive!" replied Emily, surmising the nature
+of the attorney's assumed authority. "Mr. Maxwell, you have taught me to
+believe that you are a hardened villain, and I _command_ you, leave my
+presence!"
+
+The indignation of Emily was roused, and she spoke with a flashing eye,
+and with an imperativeness which her wrongs alone could have called to
+her aid.
+
+"That was very prettily done, lady; but I cannot obey. It is useless to
+multiply words. You _must_ go with me;" and Maxwell extended his hand.
+
+Emily recoiled from the proffered hand; her brow lowered, and her lips
+compressed. She regarded him with a look of ineffable scorn,--a look
+before which even Maxwell, penetrated, as he was, with evil purposes,
+quailed.
+
+"Go along, now, about your business, and don't bother the lady any
+more!" said the old woman, taking advantage of the momentary silence.
+
+"Miss Dumont, I once more ask you to go with me peaceably," said
+Maxwell, not heeding the dame's remark.
+
+"And once more I answer, _I will not_!"
+
+"I should be sorry to use compulsion. Do you forget your condition?"
+
+"I do not," replied Emily, with a tremor, but without the loss of her
+self-possession. "I am of the best blood of Louisiana."
+
+"But still a _slave!_"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed the hostess.
+
+"I am _not_ a slave! You know this is the plot of a villain like
+yourself. The true will has been found."
+
+"Indeed! Is it here?" said Maxwell, with a sneer, for while he had Emily
+in his power he feared nothing.
+
+"No; but it shall be brought forth in due season."
+
+"Until which time you are a slave; and not only a slave, but _my_
+slave," replied Maxwell, with perfect coolness, as he drew from his
+pocket-book the forged bill of sale.
+
+"Great God, desert me not in this hour of my afflictions!" groaned
+Emily. This last revelation entirely unnerved her, and exposed in a more
+terrible light her appalling position. She doubted not the paper she saw
+in Maxwell's hands was a bill of sale of her person, and that it would
+establish his claim; for his present purposes seemed too flagrant to be
+pursued without good authority. Her features, dress and language, she
+felt, would be no safeguards. She had seen slave-girls as fair and white
+as herself. She had heard of those who, with scarcely a drop of negro
+blood in their veins, were educated to pander to the appetite of
+depravity. She had seen them in the streets of New Orleans, in no manner
+differing in appearance from, the best-born ladies. Her situation,
+then, was an awful one.
+
+"Will you read this paper?" continued Maxwell.
+
+"No; like the will, it is a forgery!" replied Emily, determined to die
+rather than yield herself to the guidance of the attorney.
+
+"It gives me an undeniable right to your person, and you must obey me.
+The carriage waits in the road."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, if you have a particle of honor left, or if even a shadow
+of pity rests in your heart, leave me, and finish your despicable
+persecution!" said Emily, in a pleading tone.
+
+"I have both honor and pity; but I cannot abandon my purpose. You
+refused to trust to my honor, refused to receive the offered hand, which
+would lead you back to the home you have left. I would fain have averted
+the calamity you are madly courting; but you would not. I humbly prayed
+to be allowed to step between you and your uncle's avarice; but you
+would not. I would willingly have prevented the accomplishment of your
+uncle's plans; but--"
+
+"Then you own that it is a plot?"
+
+"I acknowledge nothing."
+
+"But you know it is a base trick?"
+
+"It is not for me to say. The law will be satisfied. I have offered to
+do all I could for you, and you have refused. You appeal to my pity.
+Pity! did you pity me when I would have been your willing slave,--when I
+pleaded for the hope you have ruthlessly crushed?"
+
+"I did pity you; but I could not help you. I could not then, and I
+cannot now, give my hand where my heart is uninterested. I feared you
+then, as I despise you now. Report said your character was not entirely
+free from stain, and you are now striving to demonstrate the truth of
+the rumors," said Emily, whose contempt would not be concealed.
+
+"Report may have belied me," replied Maxwell, struggling with his
+violent passions. "But we are wasting time. Proceed with me to
+Vicksburg, and I pledge you my honor you shall not be injured or
+insulted."
+
+"Your honor!" said Emily, bitterly. "It is but a poor dependence for an
+unprotected female."
+
+"Gently, Miss Dumont! Do not rouse the demon within me by such taunts."
+
+"I fear the worst demon of your nature is already in the ascendency."
+
+"Enough! Will you go, or will you not?" said Maxwell, impatiently.
+
+"I will not!"
+
+"Then I must claim you as my slave,--do not start!--and _compel_ you."
+
+"Bond or free, I will not stir from beneath this roof with you," replied
+Emily, with calm resolution. All hope, if she had cherished any, was
+gone. Silently she breathed a prayer for strength and meekness to endure
+all; for fortitude to enable her to struggle till death with the
+oppression of her enemy; and for courage to meet any emergency in which
+her lot might be cast.
+
+"It must be done! I will hesitate no longer!" said Maxwell, seizing
+Emily by the arm.
+
+"Look here, you varmint, that won't do here!" exclaimed the mistress of
+the house, who, much against her inclination, had remained silent during
+the past fifteen minutes. "It shan't be said that Jerry Swinger's ruff
+couldn't protect a stranger."
+
+"But, woman, she is my property," answered Maxwell, not a little
+intimidated by the ferocious aspect of the matron.
+
+"Do not believe him, good woman, do not believe him!" exclaimed Emily,
+as she saw the woman was a little staggered by the attorney's claim.
+
+"No, ma'am, I won't believe him," responded Mrs. Swinger, as her heart
+triumphed over the argument of the lawyer.
+
+"It matters little whether you believe me or not. Here is the bill of
+sale, and, in the name of the law, I take what is mine."
+
+The hostess was not a little perplexed by the document, and Emily
+observed, with terror, that she wavered in her purpose.
+
+"It is a gross forgery!" exclaimed Emily, with a glance of earnest
+pleading, which the rough but kind-hearted woman could not resist.
+
+"I don't care nothin' about your bill of sale! The gal is safe," said
+Mrs. Swinger, with emphasis.
+
+Maxwell, resolving to execute his design, again seized Emily by the arm,
+and was on the point of hurrying her out of the cabin.
+
+Mrs. Swinger was a stout, masculine woman, brought up in the woods, and
+never fainted in her life, even in presence of an alligator or a
+panther. So she had no scruples in seizing Mr. Maxwell by the nape of
+the neck, and giving him a kind of double twist, which sent him reeling
+into the corner of the cabin.
+
+"I'll teach you to put your hands upon an onprotected female, you
+varmint, you!" said she, and, going to the door, she screamed "Jerry"
+three times, with a voice that would have done honor to a Stentor.
+
+"Now, stranger," said she, elevating her tall form to its full height,
+and, with a gesture like a queen of the Amazons, pointing to the door,
+"take yourself off, or my Jerry will tote you down to the river, and
+drown you like a kitten!"
+
+Mrs. Swinger's arm fell like a tragic heroine's, and she stood proudly
+contemplating the object of her wrath, perhaps hoping the attorney would
+await the arrival of "her Jerry," in whose prowess she seemed to place
+unlimited confidence.
+
+Vernon, who was waiting near the vehicle he had procured, heard the loud
+and angry words of the excited dame, and now approached the house to
+ascertain the cause of the confusion. This redoubtable worthy had
+received the reward of his villany, and considered the deed
+accomplished; but he had no objection to a little excitement. A fight
+was his element, and he never let slip an opportunity to join in one.
+
+The worthy Jerry Swinger; the good woman's beau ideal of a man, reached
+the cabin at the moment Vernon entered.
+
+Maxwell had now the alternative of abandoning his coveted prize, or of
+fighting for it. The first he would not do; and the second, with the
+wound he had received in the duel, was not an easy matter. The latter,
+however, he determined upon. Drawing from his pocket a revolver, he
+again approached Emily.
+
+"What's all this about?" said Jerry, as he entered the cabin.
+
+"Save me, sir,--save me from these villains!" exclaimed Emily, whose
+piteous accents penetrated the heart of the honest woodman.
+
+"That I will, ma'am. Why, you infarnal, sneakin' whelp of an alligator,
+whar's your conscience? But you've run agin a snag, and you shan't make
+another bend, this trip; so sheer off! Suke, jest fotch out my rifle,
+thar."
+
+Mrs. Swinger, before the assailants could prevent it, unhung the rifle,
+and was about to present it to her husband, when Maxwell pointed his
+pistol at her, and said, "Move another inch, woman, and I will fire!"
+
+"Look here, stranger," said Jerry, approaching the attorney, "if you
+touch that trigger, I'll pull your heart out!"
+
+Vernon saw that his time had come, and, grappling with the woodman, they
+both fell upon the mud floor of the cabin.
+
+Maxwell, his pistol still pointed at the woman, advanced a step, with
+the intention of taking the rifle from her. Mrs. Swinger, perceiving his
+purpose, elevated the rifle to her shoulder as gracefully as the most
+accomplished Kentuckian would have done, and fired. But her aim was bad;
+the ball passed through the attorney's hat. It came near enough,
+however, to rouse his passion, and, without a moment's deliberation,
+which might have saved him the reproach of shooting a woman, he fired.
+His aim, better than his feminine opponent's had been, sent the ball
+through her side, and she fell. Emily, filled with horror by the
+sanguinary scene, sprung to Mrs. Swinger's aid, as she fell.
+
+"Look here, you cussed villain," said Jerry Swinger, who, in the
+struggle, had got his antagonist under him, and had drawn from his
+pocket a long clasp-knife, "if you stir an inch, I'll put this
+blood-sucker through your shrivelled-up gizzard!"
+
+Vernon attempted to rise, bowie-knife in hand, to the conflict. Jerry
+Swinger was about to put his threat in execution, when Maxwell,
+released, by the fall of the woman, from danger in that quarter, struck
+him a heavy blow upon the head with the pistol in his hand. The woodman
+sunk back, with a groan, and Vernon, rising from his fallen posture, was
+about to plunge the knife to his heart, when a new actor appeared upon
+the stage. The blade of Vernon was arrested in its deadly descent, and a
+single blow from the fist of the new-comer laid the black-leg prostrate
+by the side of the woodman. Maxwell was thrown off his guard by the
+suddenness of the new assailant's movements, and, before he could raise
+his pistol,--his only dependence,--it was wrested from him. The
+new-comer threw the pistol down, and, seizing the attorney by the neck,
+and applying a smart blow with the knee upon his back, he brought him to
+the floor. Taking a cord which hung on the cabin wall, he bound the
+fallen man hand and foot, and dragged him out of the cabin. Placing his
+back against a tree, he lashed him firmly to its trunk. Leaving the
+chop-fallen attorney to mature his plans, the conqueror returned to the
+hut.
+
+"O, Hatchie, Hatchie! you have again saved me!" exclaimed Emily, as she
+saw her deliverer reënter. "Thank God! I am safe, though at what a
+terrible sacrifice!"
+
+She had, in her terror, obtained but a very imperfect idea of the
+exciting scene which had transpired before her. When she saw Vernon
+fall, and then Maxwell, she realized that she was safe. With an
+effort,--for her excited nerves had taken away her strength,--she rose
+from her position on the floor, by the side of her lifeless hostess. At
+this moment Hatchie entered, and, with a heart full of gratitude, she
+grasped his hand.
+
+"O, Hatchie! what do I not owe you for this service!"
+
+"I am so happy to serve you, Miss Emily!" replied Hatchie, rejoiced to
+hear again his mistress' voice.
+
+"You have been my best friend in this season of adversity. Without you,
+I had been lost forever. But let us do what we may for these poor
+people, who have, I fear, sacrificed their lives in my defence."
+
+The inanimate form of Mrs. Swinger was placed upon the bed by Hatchie,
+and, while Emily endeavored to ascertain the nature of her wound, the
+mulatto examined into Jerry's condition. The worthy woodman had only
+been stunned by the blow, and Hatchie's vigorous application soon
+restored him to consciousness. With the assistance of the mulatto, he
+rose. Looking wildly around him, he discovered the form of Vernon upon
+the floor. This seemed to recall his recollection of the events of the
+hour.
+
+"Whar's Suke?" said he.
+
+Then perceiving her outstretched form upon the bed, he calmly, but very
+sorrowfully, asked, "Is she dead?"
+
+"No, thank God! she is not dead; but I fear she is badly injured,"
+replied Emily, who was still bending over the sufferer.
+
+The woodman approached the bed-side, and, observing the faint breathing
+which gently heaved her chest, he seemed comforted.
+
+"Whar's the wound?" asked he, in a melancholy tone.
+
+"In her side," replied Emily; "the bullet seems to have penetrated the
+region below the heart."
+
+"Poor gal! I'm feered it's all up with her. She has been a good woman to
+me."
+
+"I am afraid my visit to your house will prove a sad day to you, even if
+she recovers," said Emily, in a sad tone.
+
+"No, stranger, no! Suke would have died any day to save a neighbor from
+misery;" and the woodman's eyes filled with tears at the remembrance of
+his humble companion's virtues.
+
+"But let us hope for the best. Is there a physician in the vicinity?"
+
+"Ay, stranger, there is one that sometimes helps the poor folks about
+here."
+
+"Then, Hatchie, you can go for him."
+
+"Stop a little! The doctor is an oncommon strange man, and lives on an
+island down the bend."
+
+"I will go for him," said Hatchie.
+
+"I dar say; but whar you gwine? that's the pint. Nobody can find the way
+that warn't there before. My son, Jim, will soon be here."
+
+"But we must be as speedy as possible," suggested Emily.
+
+The arrival of the woodman's son terminated the difficulty. It was
+arranged that Hatchie should go with him, to assist in rowing back.
+
+As they were about to depart, Vernon showed signs of returning life, and
+Hatchie conveyed him to an out-building till a more convenient season,
+and then dismissed the negro and his vehicle, which had been brought to
+convey Emily to Vicksburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
+       Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave;
+     Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell,
+       As eager to anticipate their grave."  BYRON.
+
+
+We left the Chalmetta in a situation which demands explanation.
+
+Emily retired to her state-room on that dreadful night entirely relieved
+from the distressing anticipations which had before oppressed her. Her
+name and her home were virtually restored to her. The foul stain upon
+the honor of her father had been removed. Doubt and fear scarcely
+disturbed her; the battle yet to be fought seemed but a trifle. Maxwell
+had said her uncle was left at a wood-yard. This was strange. It looked
+not like an accident, but the doing of the wily attorney; and perhaps
+Jaspar had voluntarily withdrawn; perhaps her uncle had made _her_ the
+reward of Maxwell's silence. But these reflections were now robbed of
+their bitterness. She felt that in Henry Carroll she had a sufficient
+protection.
+
+She retired to her state-room with a light heart, and even Maxwell's
+villanous designs were forgotten as she revelled in the bright hopes
+before her. She knew nothing of the foul plot which had been concocted
+for her abduction. She knew not that Henry Carroll was then watching
+over her. In blissful ignorance of the danger that hovered near her, she
+sunk into the quiet sleep of innocence.
+
+After midnight her slumbers were disturbed by the unusual creaking of
+the boat, and the hasty puffs of steam from the escape-pipes. She
+awoke, and was at once sensible of the immense pressure to which the
+boilers were subjected. Awhile she lay and listened to the ominous
+sounds which indicated the danger of the boat; then, much alarmed, she
+rose and dressed herself. For nearly an hour she sat in the darkness of
+the room, during which time the danger seemed momentarily to increase,
+until, no longer able to endure such agonizing suspense, she was about
+to leave the room. At this moment Vernon was about to enter, when the
+explosion took place.
+
+The forward part of the Chalmetta was completely torn in pieces. The
+gentlemen's cabin was lifted from its supports, and torn into fragments.
+The unfortunate occupants of berths in this part of the boat were either
+instantly killed or severely wounded. The ladies' cabin, being at a
+greater distance from the immediate scene of the explosion, had not
+suffered so severely. Although torn from its position, and shattered by
+the shock, it had proved fatal to but a few of its occupants, who had
+been crushed by falling timbers. The hull of the boat was not injured by
+the explosion, but before those who had escaped a sudden death could
+recover their disordered faculties, the flames began to ascend from the
+wreck of the cabin, which had been precipitated upon the furnaces.
+
+The scene surpassed description. The groans of the wounded and scalded,
+the shrieks of those who were on the boat, expecting every moment to be
+carried down in her, mingled in wild confusion on the midnight air.
+Fortunately the passengers were mostly soldiers, accustomed to scenes of
+horror, who immediately turned their attention to the extinguishing of
+the flames. The Flatfoot, No. 3, approached within a short distance of
+the wreck, and a line was passed from her to the bow of the Chalmetta.
+Her passengers and crew were humanely assisting in rescuing those who
+had jumped or been thrown overboard in the disaster.
+
+By the aid of a fire-engine on board of the Flatfoot, which had
+approached near enough to render it available, the flames were
+extinguished. It was ascertained that the Chalmetta had received no
+serious damage in her hull; and as all the survivors had been picked up,
+the Flatfoot took her in tow, and proceeded up the river.
+
+Emily had been stunned by the explosion, and ere she could recover,
+Vernon, with a strong arm, bore her to the main deck. The boat was
+lowered into the water, and, before the passengers, or the petrified
+watch in the hold, could regain their self-possession, it was impelled
+by the strong arm of Vernon, and the ruffian who had been hired for the
+purpose, far astern of the wreck.
+
+The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when Vernon had
+handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by Hatchie and his
+friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck of the cabins came
+tumbling down.
+
+Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made his way,
+as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the stern, where
+he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from the forward part
+of the boat now enabled him to discover the abductors of Emily rowing
+down the river. Leaping into the water, he seized a door, which was
+floating near him, and thus enabled to sustain himself with tolerable
+ease, he swam after them.
+
+Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on the
+shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her pious heart
+was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she had been rescued
+from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to her deliverer, for
+such she supposed was the person in the boat with her. Who was he? Was
+it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was. She raised her head from the
+position in which Maxwell had placed it, and endeavored to distinguish
+his features; but the darkness defeated her wish.
+
+"Fear nothing, lady; you are safe," said Maxwell.
+
+The voice was like the knell of doom. It grated harshly upon her ears,
+and gave rise to a thousand fears in her timid heart.
+
+"Thank God, I am safe!" said she, after a pause.
+
+"And I thank God I have been the means of preserving you," replied
+Maxwell, willing to render the terrible calamity an accessory to his
+crime.
+
+"But why do you go this way?" asked Emily, as she saw the Flatfoot
+approach the wreck.
+
+"I only wish to convey you from the scene of danger."
+
+"Then why not go to that steamer?"
+
+"Probably she is by this time converted into a hospital for the
+sufferers. I would not shock your delicate nerves with such a scene of
+woe and misery as will be on board of her."
+
+"May we not render some assistance?"
+
+"No doubt there are more assistants than can labor to advantage now."
+
+Emily was silent, but not satisfied. Her fears in some measure subsided,
+when, about two miles below the scene of the disaster, Maxwell ordered
+the boat to be put in at a wood-yard. The attorney was all gentleness,
+and assisted her to the cabin of Jerry Swinger, the owner of the
+wood-yard.
+
+Hatchie had been able, by severe exertion, to keep within hearing of the
+splashing oars. The current fortunately carried him near the wood-yard,
+and, aided by the sounds he heard at the cabin, and by the boat which he
+saw, he concluded the party had landed there. Letting go the door, a few
+vigorous strokes brought him to the shore. Approaching the cabin, he
+satisfied himself that his mistress had taken shelter there. Concealing
+himself in the woods, he awaited with much anxiety the next movement of
+the attorney. In the morning he heard the noise at the cabin, and had
+been the means of saving his mistress from a calamity far more dreadful
+than death itself.
+
+On the evening of the day of the explosion, an elderly gentleman sat in
+a private apartment of one of the principal hotels in Vicksburg,
+attentively reading an "Extra," in which the particulars of the disaster
+were detailed. He read, with little apparent interest, the account,
+until he came to the names of "Saved, Killed, Wounded and Missing." An
+expression of the deepest anxiety settled upon his countenance. He
+finished reading the list of survivors, and a transient feeling of
+satisfaction was visible on his face. When in the list of the "missing"
+he read the name of "Miss Dumont, Antoine De Guy and Henry Carroll," a
+smile as of glutted revenge and malignant hatred dispelled the cloud of
+anxiety which had before brooded over his features. Throwing down the
+sheet, he drank off a glass of brandy, which had been waiting his
+pleasure on the table. The potion was not insignificant in quantity or
+strength, and the wry face he made did not add to the amiability of his
+expression. As the dose permeated his brain, and produced that agreeable
+lightness which is the first phase of intoxication, he rubbed his hands
+with childish delight, and half muttered an expression of pleasure.
+
+Suddenly his countenance assumed its former lowering aspect, his brows
+knit, and his lips compressed.
+
+"Missing!" muttered he. "What the devil does _missing_ mean? What can it
+mean but dead, defunct, gone to a better world, as the canting
+hypocrites say?"
+
+But we will not attempt to record the muttered soliloquy of the
+gentleman,--Jaspar Dumont, who had reached Vicksburg that day, from the
+wood-yard where we left him. It was too profane, too sacrilegious, to
+stain our page.
+
+Grasping the bell-rope with a sudden energy, as though a new thought had
+struck him, he gave it a violent pull, which brought to his presence a
+black waiter.
+
+"Has the Dragon returned?" asked Jaspar.
+
+"Yes, sar, jus got in, Massa."
+
+"Is there any person in the house who went up in her?"
+
+"Yes, massa, one gemman in de office."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Massa--massa--" and the darkey scratched his head, to stimulate his
+memory, which act instantly brought the name to his mind.
+
+"Massa _Lousey_."
+
+"Mister what, you black scoundrel!"
+
+"Yes, sar,--Massa Lousey; dat's de name."
+
+"Lousey?" repeated Jaspar.
+
+"Stop bit," said the waiter, a new idea penetrating his cranium. "Dar
+Lousey, dat's de name, for sartin."
+
+"Dalhousie," responded Jaspar. "Give my compliments to Mr. Dalhousie,
+and ask him to oblige me with a few moments' conversation in this room."
+
+"Yes, sar;" and the waiter retired, muttering, "Dar Lousey."
+
+The Dragon was a small steamer, which had been sent, on the intelligence
+of a "blow up," to obtain the particulars for the press, and render
+assistance to the survivors. Dalhousie was a transient visitor at the
+hotel, and, with many others, had gone in the Dragon to gratify his
+curiosity.
+
+"Sorry to trouble you, sir," said Jaspar, as the gentleman entered the
+apartment; "but I am much interested in the fate of several persons who
+were passengers on board the Chalmetta."
+
+"No trouble, Mr. Dumont, I am extremely happy to serve you," replied
+Dalhousie, whose obsequious manners were ample evidence of his
+sincerity.
+
+"My niece was on board of her," continued Jaspar, "and I see her name in
+the list of missing."
+
+"Your _niece_!" replied Dalhousie, emphasizing the latter word. He had a
+few days before come from New Orleans, and had there heard of the
+startling developments in the Dumont family.
+
+"No matter," returned Jaspar, sharply; "she went by the name of Dumont.
+Did you find any bodies?"
+
+"We picked up the remains of six men and two females."
+
+"Can you describe the females? How were they dressed?" asked Jaspar, in
+an excited manner.
+
+"One was dressed in black. The other had on a common calico."
+
+"But the one in black,--describe her,--her hair,--was she tall or
+short?" interrupted Jaspar, hurriedly.
+
+"Her hair was in curls. She was apparently about twenty-six or seven,
+and rather short in stature."
+
+"Curls," muttered Jaspar; "she has not worn curls since the colonel
+died. She may have put them on again to please that infernal Captain
+Carroll. Twenty-six years old, you think?"
+
+"She may have been younger. Her features were terribly mangled," and Mr.
+Dalhousie cast a penetrating glance at Jaspar, as though he would read
+out the beatings of his black heart.
+
+Jaspar considered again the description, and, though it did not
+correspond to his niece's, his anxiety had contributed to warp his
+judgment. He was very willing to believe the Chalmetta's fatal disaster
+had forever removed the only obstacle to the gratification of his
+ambition, and the only source of future insecurity. He paced the room,
+muttering, in his abstraction, sundry broken phrases.
+
+Dalhousie watched him, and endeavored to obtain the purport of his
+disjointed soliloquy. A stranger, without some strong motive, could
+scarcely have had so much interest in him as he appeared to have.
+
+"Had she any jewels--ornaments of any kind?" asked Dalhousie, after the
+silence had grown disagreeable to him.
+
+"She had," replied Jaspar, stopping suddenly in his perambulation of the
+room, and speaking with an eagerness which betrayed his anxiety to
+obtain more evidence. "Were any found upon her person?"
+
+"You are a man of honor, Mr. Dumont, and, if I disclose to you a
+thoughtless indiscretion of my own, you will not, of course, expose
+me?" said Dalhousie, with, hesitation, and apparent want of confidence.
+
+"Of course not," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "What has this to do with
+the matter?"
+
+"Did your niece wear a ring?"
+
+"Yes, a mourning ring."
+
+"Do you know the ring? Could you identify it?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Jaspar, who remembered having seen an ornament of
+this description on the finger of Emily.
+
+"Will you describe it to me, if you please?"
+
+But Jaspar had reckoned without his host. The details of a piece of
+jewelry were matters entirely foreign to his taste. However, he
+succeeded in giving a description, which, from its general terms, might
+have applied to one mourning ring as well as another.
+
+"Is this the one?" asked Dalhousie, with an anxiety which he could
+scarcely conceal, as he produced a ring.
+
+"That _is_ it," replied Jaspar, confidently; and the jewel did bear some
+resemblance to that worn by Emily.
+
+"But where did you obtain this?"
+
+"I must insist on the most inviolable secrecy."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"I will disclose the particulars only on the condition that you pledge
+yourself never to reveal my agency in the matter; for it would
+compromise my character."
+
+"Very well. I pledge you my honor," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "You
+took it from the corpse of the lady in black."
+
+"I did, and you must be aware that such an act would subject me to
+inconvenience, if known."
+
+"Don't be alarmed; your secret is safe."
+
+"But are you sure this is the ring worn by your niece?"
+
+"It looks like it;" but Jaspar was perplexed with a doubt. He bethought
+himself that it was only in a casual glance he had observed Emily's
+ring. He had never examined it, and, after all, this might not be the
+one. There was certainly nothing strange in any lady dressed in black
+wearing a mourning ring. Again he turned the ring over and over, and
+scrutinized it closely. His finger touched a spring, and the plate flew
+up, disclosing a small lock of gray hair, twined around the single
+letter D.
+
+"I will swear to it now," exclaimed Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed the
+malicious joy he felt at the discovery. He was perfectly satisfied now
+of the identity of the ring. It never occurred to him that D stood for
+any other name than Dumont.
+
+"This appears to be decisive evidence," replied Dalhousie. "Your
+_niece_, then, must be the person brought down by the Dragon."
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"As this matter, then, is settled to your satisfaction--"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Jaspar.
+
+"I beg your pardon," resumed Dalhousie, with a supercilious air; "I only
+meant that your mind was satisfied--relieved from a painful anxiety."
+
+"A very painful anxiety," replied Jaspar.
+
+"I understand, sir, you own a large plantation."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Perhaps you need an overseer?"
+
+Jaspar acknowledged that he did need an overseer.
+
+"I should be happy to make an engagement with you," said the other, in
+complaisant tones.
+
+"I don't think you would suit me. You are too genteel, by half,"
+returned Jaspar, bluntly.
+
+"I have been in a better position, it is true. I was born in France, but
+I understand the business."
+
+"Did you ever manage a gang of niggers?"
+
+After a little hesitation, Dalhousie replied that he had.
+
+"We will talk of it some other time," said Jaspar, satisfied, from the
+air and manner of the other, that his statement was false.
+
+Dalhousie put on his hat, and, taking the mourning ring from the table,
+was about to enfold it in a bit of paper.
+
+"What are you about, sir?" exclaimed Jaspar, as he witnessed the act.
+
+"The ring is my property, is it not?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Put it down, or, by heavens, I will expose your rascality in taking
+it!"
+
+"Do not be hasty, sir. I have not studied your looks, the last hour,
+without profiting by them."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" said Jaspar, a little startled.
+
+"I mean that the death of your niece does not seem to be received with
+that degree of sorrow which an uncle would naturally feel."
+
+"_Fool_! she was not my niece!"
+
+"Why are you so anxious to establish her decease?"
+
+"Was I anxious?" said Jaspar, not knowing how far he might have betrayed
+himself.
+
+"Quite enough so to convince even the most indifferent observer that you
+were extremely rejoiced at the event," replied Dalhousie, willing to
+make out a strong case.
+
+Jaspar did not reply, and it was plain Dalhousie's remarks had had their
+effect.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, I flatter myself I am a man of discretion. As you were
+saying, you need an overseer," said Dalhousie, with a glance at Jaspar,
+which conveyed more meaning than his words.
+
+The glance was irresistible, and Jaspar engaged him at a liberal salary,
+as well as his wife, who was to be the housekeeper at Bellevue.
+Dalhousie was a needy man. His fortunes were on the descending scale.
+Born in France, he had emigrated to this country, with the chimerical
+hope of speedily making a fortune. He could not build up the coveted
+temple stone by stone, but wished it to rise like a fairy castle. With
+such views, he had wandered about the country with his wife (whom he had
+married since his arrival), in search of the philosopher's stone. He
+had several times engaged in subordinate capacities, but his impatient
+hopes would not brook the distance between him and the goal. He had been
+to New Orleans, but the city was almost deserted. On his arrival at
+Vicksburg, Jaspar had been pointed out to him as a person who could
+probably favor his wishes, and he had obtained an introduction to him.
+
+Jaspar's thoughts and feelings he read. He discovered the nature of the
+relations between the uncle and niece,--which required but little
+sagacity, under the circumstances. Determined to profit by the knowledge
+he had obtained, his first step was to satisfy Jaspar of the death of
+Emily, of whom, in reality, he knew nothing. The initial letter of his
+wife's name in the ring had suggested the means, and he had convinced
+Jaspar as related. How Dalhousie's sense of moral rectitude would allow
+him to use the deception, we will not say; but he seemed to tolerate the
+idea that the great purpose he had in view would justify any little
+peccadilloes he might commit in obtaining it.
+
+He had gained his end, and taken the first step in the great road to
+fortune; and he doubted not his future relations with Jaspar would
+suggest a second.
+
+The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in behalf of
+Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg.
+
+In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned the next
+day to Bellevue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "Say quick! quoth he; I bid thee say,
+     What manner of man art thou?
+
+     "Forthwith, this frame of mine was wrenched
+     With a woful agony,
+     Which forced me to begin my tale;
+     And then it left me free."  ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+The morning advanced, and Henry Carroll, under the influence of the
+powerful opiate, still slept. By his side sat the misanthropic
+physician, who seemed to have learned a lesson of the dealing of the
+Creator with the creature such as he had never before acquired. He had
+rescued a fellow-creature from sure death, and the act seemed a part of
+the great duties of life which he had so long neglected. He reflected
+upon the numerous opportunities of doing good to his fellow-men from
+which his hermit-life debarred him. Again he thought of his daughter.
+Her image rose before him in the darkened chamber of the sick man, and
+seemed to reproach him for his want of faithfulness to her. The incident
+and reflections of the previous night had strangely influenced his mind,
+and changed the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of
+his lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
+vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.
+
+The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs. Swinger.
+Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in case the
+patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical instruments, he
+proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat, he took the two
+messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The wind was still fresh,
+and the yacht, with all her sails spread, bore the doctor rapidly on his
+errand of mercy. A strange impulse seemed to animate him,--an impulse of
+genuine, heart-felt sympathy towards the whole human family,--a feeling
+to which he had before been a stranger. His profession seemed to him now
+a boon of mercy to the suffering, and he saw how poorly he had performed
+his mission to the world. He felt a pleasure he had never before
+experienced, in being able to relieve the distressed, to heal the
+wounded heart, as well as the bruised limb.
+
+Under the skilful pilotage of Dr. Vaudelier the more rapid currents were
+avoided, the boat pressed to her utmost speed; and in a short time the
+party landed at the wood-yard of Jerry Swinger.
+
+During the absence of the messengers Emily, by the most assiduous
+attentions, had succeeded in restoring the wounded woman to a state of
+partial consciousness. The arrival of the doctor increased her hopes of
+a speedy restoration. The rough woodman, who had patiently watched Emily
+as she labored over his beloved partner, was melted into tears of joy
+when he heard her faintly articulate his name.
+
+After a thorough examination of the wound, the doctor announced the
+gratifying intelligence that the woman was not dangerously wounded. The
+severe operation of extracting the ball was performed, and the patient
+left to the quiet her situation demanded.
+
+On the passage from Cottage Island Hatchie had related the particulars
+of the affray, so that on his arrival Dr. Vaudelier was in possession of
+all the facts.
+
+"You have had a severe fight here, madam," said he to Emily, who had
+followed him out to inquire more particularly into the situation of her
+hostess.
+
+"We have, indeed; but I trust no lives will be lost," replied Emily.
+
+"No; the woman will do very well. The wound is a severe one, but not
+dangerous. Her strong constitution will resist all fatal consequences."
+
+"I trust it may, for this has been a day of disaster, without the loss
+of more life."
+
+"You were a passenger in the Chalmetta?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Then you have had a narrow escape."
+
+"But a more narrow one since the explosion. Thank Heaven, I have been
+preserved from both calamities!"
+
+"Had you no friends on board?"
+
+"I had--one friend;" and she hesitated. "I fear he has perished."
+
+"Hope for the best!" replied the doctor, kindly.
+
+The blush, and then the change to the paleness of death, as Emily
+thought of Henry, first as the lover, and then as a mangled corpse had
+not escaped the notice of Dr. Vaudelier. He read in her varying color
+the relation they had sustained to each other.
+
+"I have no alternative but hope," said Emily; "but it seems like hoping
+against the certainty of evil."
+
+"I saved the life of a gentleman this morning who must shortly have
+perished without aid. He, too, had lost a dear friend."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, with interest.
+
+"Yes; but he was much injured, and will require the most diligent care."
+
+"I trust your merciful endeavors will be crowned with success. Do you
+know the gentleman?"
+
+"I do not. He has not yet been able to converse much. He was dressed in
+the uniform of an officer."
+
+"An officer! Perhaps it is he!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was much interested in the adventure, and the pale,
+anxious features of Emily excited his sympathy for her.
+
+"As I dressed his wounds," said he, "I noticed the initials upon his
+linen. Perhaps these may afford some clue."
+
+"What were they?" exclaimed Emily, scarcely able to articulate, in the
+intensity of her feelings.
+
+"H.C."
+
+"It is he! It is he! And you say he is wounded?"
+
+"I am sorry to say he is."
+
+"Can I go to him?" said Emily, grasping the doctor's arm.
+
+"I fear your presence will excite him. Are you a relative?"
+
+"No, not a relative," replied Emily, blushing; "but I know he would like
+to see me."
+
+"I do not doubt it," said the doctor, with a smile,--a luxury in which
+he rarely indulged. "I am afraid your presence will agitate him."
+
+"Let me watch over him while he sleeps. He need not know I am near."
+
+"Rather difficult to manage, but you shall see him. Will you return with
+me?"
+
+"Thank you, I will. But poor Mrs. Swinger!" and a shade of anxiety
+crossed her features, as she thought of leaving her kind hostess in
+affliction.
+
+"Her husband is a good nurse, and understands her case better than you
+do. If I mistake not, your services will be full as acceptable at my
+cottage."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier tried to smile at this sally; but the effort was too much
+for him, and he sank under it.
+
+Emily, though sorry to leave her protectress, was drawn by the
+irresistible magnetism of affection to Cottage Island. She compromised
+between the opposing demands of duty by promising herself that she would
+again visit the wood-yard.
+
+She embarked with Dr. Vaudelier, and they were soon gliding down the
+mighty river on their way to Cottage Island. Emily had wished Hatchie to
+accompany her, as much for his safety as for her own; but the faithful
+fellow desired to stay at the wood-yard. They had before had an
+interview in relation to the will. Uncle Nathan, who had been made the
+custodian of it, had not been seen or heard from, and her case again
+seemed to be desperate. Hatchie assured her of his safety, and of his
+good faith. He had left him in the hold, and, with common prudence, the
+worthy farmer might have made his escape unharmed. Emily, who now
+regarded her devoted servant in the light of a guardian angel, had
+entire confidence in his reasoning and conclusions. Of Hatchie's motive
+in remaining at the wood-yard she had no conception. If she had had, she
+would probably have insisted on his attendance.
+
+After the departure of Dr. Vaudelier and Emily, Hatchie went to the
+cabin, and took therefrom a carpet-bag belonging to Maxwell,--an article
+which, even in the hurry of his exit from the steamer, he had not
+omitted to take. With this in his hand, he proceeded to the
+out-building, to satisfy himself of the security of his prisoners; but
+Vernon had fled,--the wooden door of the shed had not been proof against
+his art. Hatchie was not disconcerted by this incident. Vernon, he was
+aware, was only a subordinate, who did his evil deeds for hire, and
+against him he bore no ill will. But it immediately occurred to him that
+the ruffian might have liberated Maxwell, and this would have utterly
+deranged his present plans. Taking from the shed a long rope, he
+proceeded to the other side of the cabin, where he had secured the
+attorney to the tree. To his great satisfaction he found the prisoner
+secure. Vernon did not see him, or was too intent on his own safety to
+bestow a thought upon his late employer.
+
+Hatchie reached the scene of Maxwell's humiliation. Coolly seating
+himself on a log near the discomfited lawyer, and regarding him with a
+look of contempt, he proceeded to examine the fastenings of the
+carpet-bag. Maxwell spoke not; his pride was still "above par," and he
+returned Hatchie's contemptuous glances with a scowl of scorn and
+hatred. The attorney was in sore tribulation at the unexpected turn
+affairs had taken, and the future did not present a very encouraging
+aspect. Of the mulatto'a present intentions he could gain no idea. The
+long rope he had brought with him looked ominous, and a shudder passed
+through his frame as he considered the uses to which it might be
+applied. As he regarded the cool proceedings of his jailer, the worst
+anticipations crowded upon him. The mulatto looked like a demon of the
+inquisition to his guilty soul. But, tortured as he was by the most
+terrible forebodings, he still preserved his dignified scowl, and
+watched the operations of Hatchie with apparent coolness.
+
+Hatchie examined the lock upon the carpet-bag, and found that it
+entirely secured the contents from observation.
+
+"I will trouble you for the key of this bag," said he, politely, as he
+rose and approached the attorney.
+
+"What mean you, fellow? Would you rob me?" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Not at all, sir; do not alarm yourself. The key, if you please. In
+which pocket is it?"
+
+Hatchie approached, with the intention of searching his prisoner.
+
+"Stand off, villain!" cried Maxwell, as he gave the mulatto a hearty
+kick in the neighborhood of the knee.
+
+"Very well, sir," said Hatchie, not at all disconcerted by the blow.
+
+Taking the rope he had brought, he dexterously passed it round the legs
+of the attorney, and made it fast to the tree.
+
+"Now, sir, if you will tell which pocket contains the key, you will save
+yourself the indignity of being searched."
+
+"Miserable villain! if you wish to commit violence upon me, you must do
+it without my consent."
+
+"Sorry to disoblige you, sir," said Hatchie, with an affectation of
+civility; "but I must have the key."
+
+"I have not the key; it is lost. If I had, you should struggle for it."
+
+"You will pardon me for doubting your word. I must satisfy myself."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted the attorney, as his tormentor proceeded to put
+his threat in execution.
+
+This was a contingency for which Hatchie was not prepared. To the little
+operation he was about to perform he desired no witnesses at present,
+and a slight rustling in the bushes near him not a little disconcerted
+him. Stuffing a handkerchief into the attorney's mouth, he waited for
+the intruder upon his pastime; but no one came, and he proceeded to
+search the pockets of the lawyer. To his great disappointment, the key
+could not be found.
+
+Hatchie was persuaded that this carpet-bag must contain some evidence
+which would be of service to his mistress, in case Uncle Nathan and the
+will should not come to light. There were two acts to the drama he
+intended to perform on the present occasion; the first, alone with the
+attorney,--and the last, in the presence of witnesses. Deferring,
+therefore, the opening of the bag to the second act, he proceeded with
+the first.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said he, "as you have given me encouragement that
+you _can_ tell the truth, I have a few questions to put to you."
+
+"I will answer no questions," replied Maxwell, sullenly.
+
+He saw that the mulatto would have it all his own way; and he felt a
+desire to conciliate him, but his pride forbade. He felt very much as a
+lion would feel in the power of a mouse, if such a thing could be.
+
+"Please to consider, sir. You are entirely in my power."
+
+"No matter; do with me as you please,--I will answer no questions."
+
+"Think of it; and be assured I will do my best to _compel_ an answer. If
+I do not succeed, you will be food for the buzzards before yonder sun
+sets."
+
+"What, fellow! would you murder me?" exclaimed Maxwell, in alarm.
+
+"I would not; if you compel me to use violence, the consequences be upon
+your own head. Will you answer me?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated. The dreadful thought of being murdered in cold blood
+presented itself on the one hand, and the scarcely less disagreeable
+thought of exposing his crimes, on the other. The loss of reputation,
+his prospective fall in society, were not less terrible than death
+itself. Resolving to trust in his good fortune for the result, he firmly
+refused to answer.
+
+Hatchie now took the rope, and having cut off a portion from one end,
+with which he fastened together the legs of his prisoner, he ascended
+the tree with an end in his hand. Passing the rope over a smooth branch
+about fifteen feet from the ground, he descended and made a slip-noose
+in one end. Heedless of the remonstrances of the victim, he fastened it
+securely to his neck.
+
+Seating himself again on the log, with the other end of the rope in his
+hand, he looked sternly upon the attorney, and said,
+
+"Now, sir, I put the question again. Will you answer me?"
+
+"Never!" said Maxwell, in desperation.
+
+"Very well, then; if you have any prayers to say, say them now; your
+time is short."
+
+"Fool! villain! murderer! I have no prayers to say. I am not a
+drivelling idiot, or fanatic; I can die like a man."
+
+"You had better reconsider your determination."
+
+"No, craven! woolly-headed coward! I will not flinch. Do you think to
+_drive_ a gentleman into submission?"
+
+"Be calm, Mr. Maxwell; do not waste your last moments in idle
+invectives. The time were better spent in penitence and prayer."
+
+"Pshaw! go on, if you dare, with your murderous work!"
+
+Hatchie now unloosed the cords which secured the attorney to the tree,
+and he stood bound hand and foot beneath the branch over which the line
+was passed. Seizing the end of the rope, the mulatto pulled it gently at
+first, but gradually increasing the pressure upon the prisoner's throat,
+as if to give him a satisfactory foretaste of the hanging sensation.
+This slow torture was too much for the attorney's fortitude; and, as his
+respiration grew painful, he called to his executioner to stop. Hatchie
+promptly loosened the rope.
+
+After giving the victim time to recover from the choking sensation, the
+mulatto repeated his question.
+
+The fear of an ignominious death, of dying under such revolting
+circumstances, had a cooling effect upon the bravado spirit of the
+lawyer. His pride had received a most salutary shock, and he felt
+disposed to treat for his life, even with the despised slave of Miss
+Dumont. Had his tormentor been any other than one of that detested race,
+he could easily have regarded him as a man and conceded something for
+the boon of life. Reduced to the last extremity by the relentless energy
+of his victor, he had no choice but to yield the point or die.
+
+"Will you answer my questions?" repeated Hatchie, sternly.
+
+"What would you have me answer?" replied Maxwell, doggedly.
+
+"Did you forge the will by which my mistress is deprived of her rights?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you know who did?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated, and Hatchie again pulled the rope till his face was
+crimson.
+
+"Who forged the will?" repeated Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"I did not," replied Maxwell, as soon as he could regain breath enough
+to speak.
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"I know not."
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie forcing secrets from Maxwell. Page 178]
+
+Hatchie pulled the rope again.
+
+"Your master--"
+
+"I have no master. Miss Emily is my mistress."
+
+"I have been told his name was De Guy."
+
+"Who is De Guy?"
+
+"A lawyer of New Orleans."
+
+"And what agency had you in the affair?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"Then Mr. Dumont and De Guy are the only persons concerned in the
+transaction?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are positive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, how comes it, Mr. Maxwell, that they have intrusted you with
+their secret? How came you by this knowledge?" said Hatchie, fiercely,
+as he prepared, apparently, to swing up the attorney.
+
+Maxwell was staggered by this question, and Hatchie perceived his
+discomfiture. That Maxwell had any agency in the transaction he only
+suspected; certainly it was not he whom he had seen with Jaspar on the
+night of his escape from Bellevue. There was much evidence for and much
+against him.
+
+Maxwell, unwilling to criminate himself, was in a sad dilemma; his ready
+wits alone could save him. But his hesitation procured him another
+instant of suffocation.
+
+"I obtained the knowledge from De Guy," said he, at last.
+
+"How! did he voluntarily betray the confidence of his employer?"
+
+"No, from his inquiries concerning the affairs of the family, I
+suspected something; when the will was read my impressions were
+confirmed. I charged him with the crime."
+
+"Did he acknowledge it?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Then why did you not expose the plot?"
+
+"It did not suit my purpose."
+
+"What was your purpose?"
+
+"To marry Miss Dumont."
+
+The attorney's answers seemed plausible. His actions were in conformity
+with his avowed purpose. If he wished to marry his mistress, he would
+not have joined in the plot. But the bill of sale, which Emily had
+mentioned to him, was against him. Poor Hatchie was no lawyer, and was
+sadly perplexed by the conflicting testimony.
+
+"Where did you get that bill of sale?" said he.
+
+Again the attorney hesitated, and again Hatchie pulled the rope till he
+was ready to answer.
+
+"Is it a forgery?" said Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"Probably it is," replied Maxwell.
+
+"Who wrote it?"
+
+"De Guy."
+
+"This De Guy is a most consummate villain, and shall yet be brought to
+justice. But how came it in your possession?"
+
+"I received it from De Guy, as the agent of Mr. Dumont. In fine, I
+_bought_ the girl," said Maxwell, maliciously.
+
+Hatchie's temper had nearly got the better of him, for he made a spring
+on the rope, which threatened death to the attorney. But his judgment
+overcame his passion, and he again turned his attention to the great
+object before him.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell, as you are a lawyer," said Hatchie, "you are aware of
+the disadvantages I shall labor under in making the evidence you have
+furnished me available."
+
+"I am," replied the attorney. "Do you think I would have yielded to you,
+if I had not known it?"
+
+"Have you told me the truth in these statements?" asked Hatchie.
+
+The attorney hesitated; but a sharp twinge at the neck compelled him to
+say that he had.
+
+"Then I shall be obliged to trouble you to repeat some of your
+revelations. Now, mark me, Mr. Maxwell; I am going to procure the
+woodman and his son, to witness your statements."
+
+"Fool! what avail will they be, extorted with a rope about my neck?"
+
+"Perhaps we may be able to show you some law such as you never read in
+your books. If, as I suspect, this carpet-bag contains papers, I doubt
+not we shall find something to confirm your evidence."
+
+The face of the lawyer grew a shade paler; but he spoke not.
+
+"Before I go, let me charge you, at your peril, not to be obstinate; for
+here I solemnly assure you that you shall swing by the branch above you,
+if you refuse to answer," said Hatchie, going towards the cabin.
+
+The scene of this exploit was at some distance from the log-cabin of the
+woodman, and the mulatto had scarcely got out of sight before Vernon
+appeared. He had been at a little distance from the parties during the
+whole scene, but he had too much respect for the prowess of his late
+conqueror to venture on a rescue. He had once been tempted to do so, and
+had made the noise which had disturbed Hatchie. The blackleg, without
+much sympathy for his confederate, had rather regarded the whole scene
+as a good joke than as a serious affair; and, as he approached the
+lawyer, his merriment and keen satire were not relished by the victim.
+
+"But how is it, Maxwell, about this will? You have never told me about
+it," said Vernon, who, ruffian as he was, believed in fair play.
+
+"I will tell you another time; cut these ropes, and let us be off."
+
+"But let me tell you, my fine fellow, that though I can rob a man who
+has enough, I would not be concerned in such a dirty game as this," said
+Vernon, as he severed the ropes which bound the attorney. "If you have
+been helping old Dumont to wrong his niece, may I be hanged, as that
+nigger would have served you, if I don't blow the whole affair!"
+
+"You know nothing about it; but, let me tell you, I am not concerned in
+the affair. The girl, I have no doubt, is a slave."
+
+The confederates now made all haste to depart from their proximity to
+such dangers as both had incurred, and, by a circuitous way, reached the
+river, where, taking a boat, they rowed under the banks down stream.
+
+Hatchie was disappointed, on his return, to find his prisoner had
+escaped. A diligent search, by the precaution of the confederates, was
+rendered fruitless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     "Why should my curiosity excite me
+     To search and pry into the affairs of others,
+     Who have to employ my thoughts so many cares
+     And sorrows of my own?"                LILLO.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont sat in the library at Bellevue. It was the evening after
+his return from Vicksburg. Near him, engaged in examining a heap of
+papers, was his new overseer, Dalhousie.
+
+Jaspar was musing over the late turn his affairs had taken; and, while
+he congratulated himself on his present triumphant position, he could
+but regard with apprehension the future, which seemed to smile only to
+lure him on to certain destruction. The trite saying, "There is no peace
+for the wicked," is literally and universally true. The lowering brow,
+the threatening scowl, the suspicious glance, of the wicked uncle, were
+as reliable evidences of his misery as his naked soul, torn with doubt
+and anguish, could have been. Every new paper the overseer turned over
+produced a start of apprehension, lest it might contain evidence of his
+villany. His nerves had suffered terribly beneath the vision of guilt
+and punishment that constantly haunted him. His new overseer, whom he
+had partially admitted to his bosom as a confidant, had secured a strong
+hold upon his fears. His presence seemed necessary to cheer him in his
+lonely hours, to chase away the phantoms of vengeance that pursued him.
+Harassed by doubts and fears, his constitution was, in some degree,
+impaired, and his mind, losing the pillar upon which it rested, was
+prone to yield also.
+
+Dalhousie examined with minuteness the papers to which his attention had
+been directed. Before him was a heap of documents of various kinds, all
+in confusion,--bills and bonds, letters and deeds, were thrown
+promiscuously together. His purpose was to sort and file them away for
+future reference. This confusion among the papers was not the work of
+Colonel Dumont; he had been strictly methodical and accurate in all his
+business affairs. This fact was attested by the occasional strips of
+pasteboard, on which were marked various descriptions of papers, as well
+as by bits of red tape that had secured the bundles.
+
+Dalhousie perceived that the labyrinth he was engaged in exploring had
+not been the labor of the former owner of Bellevue, and he was perplexed
+to understand why Jaspar had taken such apparent pains to disarrange
+them. But Jaspar did have a motive; he had produced the disorder in his
+careless search for any paper which might be evidence against him. So
+heedlessly, however, had he ransacked the drawers, that, if any such
+were there, they must have escaped his notice. He was too much excited
+to do the work with the attention his own safety demanded.
+
+Dalhousie continued to examine the papers, and Jaspar still trembled
+lest something might turn up which would give the overseer a
+confirmation of the opinions he had expressed at Vicksburg. Still Jaspar
+had not the courage to undertake the task himself. He allowed the
+overseer to perform it, in the very face of the danger he wished to
+escape.
+
+The overseer seemed to Jaspar's troubled vision perfectly indifferent.
+He could discover no anxiety in his features, to indicate that he had
+any other purpose than to do his employer's bidding. A more close
+inspection would have developed a slight twinkle, as of anticipation, in
+the marble face of Dalhousie.
+
+As he turned paper after paper, his eye rested upon a packet enclosed
+in a blank envelope. His curiosity was aroused, and, glancing
+indifferently at Jaspar, he saw that his piercing eye regarded him with
+intense scrutiny. Continuing his labor without disturbing the mysterious
+packet, he waited until the sharp eye of his companion was removed from
+him.
+
+On the table by the side of Jaspar was a bottle of brandy, at which, at
+short intervals, the miserable man paid his devoir. Dalhousie did not,
+therefore, have to wait long before the keen watcher left his chair,
+and, with his back to him, took a long draught of the exciting beverage.
+The overseer, seizing the favorable opportunity, slipped the packet into
+his pocket. As indifferently as before, he completed the task, and
+Jaspar was relieved when he saw the papers again filed away.
+
+Dalhousie sought his room, and, scarcely heeding the salutation of his
+wife, he seated himself, and drew forth the packet. Removing the blank
+envelope, he found it was a letter, directed to "Emily Dumont," with a
+request to Mr. Faxon that it might be delivered to her after the
+writer's decease. This seemed to imply that the writer had intended the
+clergyman as the keeper of the letter; but with this surmise the
+overseer did not trouble himself. He turned the letter over and over,
+examined the seal of Colonel Dumont, which was upon it, and, at last, as
+though he had satisfied the warning voice of conscience, he snapped the
+wax, and opened it. The letter was quite a lengthy one, yet, without
+raising his eyes, he completed the reading of it. A faint smile of
+satisfaction played upon his lips, as he re-folded the paper, and
+returned it to the envelope.
+
+"You have a letter, Francois?" said his wife, who had watched him in
+silence as he read, and who noticed the complacent smile its contents
+had produced.
+
+"Yes, Delia, and our fortune is at last come," replied Dalhousie,
+rising, and bestowing a kiss upon the fair cheek of the lady.
+
+"Is it from France?"
+
+"No, dear; it is from the land of spirits!" answered Dalhousie, with a
+good-natured laugh.
+
+"Indeed! I was not aware that you had a correspondent there."
+
+"But I have; and I am exceedingly obliged to him for putting me in
+possession of such useful information as this letter contains."
+
+"Pray, who is your ghostly correspondent?"
+
+"Colonel Dumont,--a deceased brother of the worthy Jaspar, in whose
+employ we now are."
+
+"Do not jest, Francois!" said the lady, as a feeling akin to
+superstition rose in her mind.
+
+"Jest or not, the letter was written by him," continued her husband,
+still retaining his playful smile.
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Not exactly; but I presume he meant it for me, or it would not have
+slipped so easily through Mr. Dumont's fingers into mine."
+
+"To whom is it directed, Francois?"
+
+"You grow inquisitive, Delia. I will tell you all about it in a few
+days. I must go now and see that the hands are all in their quarters;"
+and Dalhousie, to avoid unpleasant interrogatories, left the room.
+
+The overseer went the rounds of the quarters, more as a matter of form
+than of any interest he felt in his occupation. A gentleman by birth and
+education, these duties were extremely distasteful to him,--embraced
+because necessity compelled him. His mind seemed far away from his
+business, for a party of negroes passed him on his return, upon whom he
+did not bestow the usual benediction the boys receive when found out
+after hours.
+
+"Strike while the iron is hot," muttered he, as he entered the house,
+and gave his lantern to a servant. "If I don't do it to-night, it may be
+too late another time. The letter is in safe hands; and, as to the
+other traps, I must get them if I can. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Approaching the door of the library, he knocked, and was requested to
+enter. Under pretence of receiving directions for his next day's
+operations upon the plantation, he entered, and opened a conversation
+with Jaspar. Walking carelessly up and down the room while his employer
+issued his commands, he occasionally cast a furtive glance at the
+secretary. Then, narrowing down his walk, he approached nearer and
+nearer to it, until his swinging arm could touch it as he passed.
+Finally he stopped, and leaned against the secretary, with his hands
+behind him. He appeared very thoughtful and attentive, while Jaspar,
+glad to find a theme he could converse upon, expatiated upon his
+favorite methods of managing stock and crops. The overseer listened
+patiently to all he said, occasionally interrupting with a word of
+approbation. The enthusiastic planter, suspecting nothing of the
+overseer, labored diligently in his argument, and did not notice that,
+when the attentive listener carelessly put his hands into his pockets,
+he conveyed with them the key of one of the drawers.
+
+Dalhousie, having effected the object which brought him to the library,
+soon grew tired of the planter's arguments, and edged towards the door,
+through which he rather rudely made his exit.
+
+Jaspar again relapsed into the moody melancholy from which the presence
+of the overseer had roused him. Sinking back into his chair, he again
+was a prey to the armed fears that continually goaded him. Occasionally
+he roused from his stupor, and, driven by the startling apparition of
+future retribution, paced the room in the most intense nervous
+excitement. Frequent were the stops he made at the brandy-bottle on the
+table; but, for a time, even the brandy-fiend refused to comfort
+him,--refused to excite his brain, or pour a healing balm upon his
+consuming misery. Again he sunk into his chair, overcome by the torture
+of his emotions, and again the gnawing worm forced him to the bottle,
+until, at last, nearly stupefied by the liquor, he slumbered uneasily in
+his chair. But the terrible apparition, which seldom left him when
+awake, was constant in his dreams; and, just as he was about to plunge
+into the awful abyss that always yawned before him, he awoke, and
+staggered to the bottle again. A gleam of consciousness now visited his
+inebriated mind, and he bethought himself of retiring. With a dim sense
+of his usual precaution, he reeled to the secretary, and attempted to
+lock the drawers. He discovered that one key was missing; but, too much
+intoxicated to reason upon the circumstance, he took another draught of
+brandy, and ambled towards his sleeping-room. He was too far gone to
+effect a landing at the head of the stairs, and fell full-length upon
+the floor when he released his hold of the banister.
+
+Dalhousie was still up, and his knowledge of Jaspar's habits enabled him
+to judge the occasion of the noise he heard, and he immediately hastened
+to the rescue. "Lucky!" muttered he, as he lifted the fallen man. "He
+must have been intoxicated when he examined those papers, or he would
+have seen that letter."
+
+Jaspar, who had not entirely lost his senses, muttered something about
+an accident, and clung closely to his companion, who soon deposited him
+on his bed.
+
+The overseer, instead of returning to his room, descended to the
+library, where the light was still burning. Locking the door, he seated
+himself in the large stuffed chair, and drew from his pocket the letter
+he had purloined from the secretary. Opening it, he proceeded to a
+re-perusal of it. The letter was as follows:
+
+     "MY DEAR CHILD:--When you read this letter, your father will be no
+     more. The last act of affection will have been performed, and the
+     ground closed over your only earthly protector. I am aware that you
+     will be exposed to many trials and temptations. The latter you are,
+     I trust, prepared to resist; the former must come to all. I feel
+     that I have done my duty to you, not only in bestowing an abundance
+     of this world's goods, but that I have not entirely failed to
+     implant in your mind the treasure 'which neither moth nor rust can
+     corrupt.' I have done all that I could do, and in a short time I
+     must lay my body in the grave, and leave you an orphan. But you are
+     in the hands, and under the protection, of a Father who is
+     infinitely more able to take care of you than I have been. Into His
+     hands, with my ransomed spirit, I undoubtingly commit you.
+
+     "As I write this letter, I feel the hand of death upon me. In a few
+     short days, it may be only hours, I must go. I am the less ready to
+     bid you the everlasting adieu when I think of the dangers that may
+     surround you. In my last hours I am doomed to the torments of
+     suspicion. I pray God they may be groundless. Perhaps they are only
+     idle fancies, the dotings of an over-anxious father. I feel, as the
+     sands of life are fast ebbing out, that some great calamity is
+     lowering over you. I know not that a remark I accidentally
+     overheard should thus haunt me; but it has roused my suspicions,
+     and the presage of calamity will not depart from me. I cannot, with
+     the warning voice ever ringing in my mind, help taking steps to
+     guard you against the worst that may befall you.
+
+     "My dear child, if I should disclose my suspicions, and they should
+     prove unreasonable, I shall have done a grievous wrong to him I
+     suspect. Although you cannot save me from the misery of doubting in
+     my last hour, you can save me from injuring another in your good
+     opinion. If I have wronged him, let the injury die with me. If my
+     suspicions are not groundless, I offer you the means of saving
+     yourself from the calamity that impends.
+
+     "Should any event occur after my death which deprives you of any of
+     your inheritance, follow the directions I now give you.
+
+     "In the back of the lower drawer of the secretary you will find a
+     secret aperture. The back of the drawer is a thick board, upon
+     which is screwed, on the lower side, a thin slat. Take out the
+     screws and remove the piece they secure, and the aperture will be
+     seen. It contains a sealed packet, the contents of which require no
+     explanation.
+
+     "If nothing happens after my decease, and you peaceably obtain all
+     your rights, burn the packet without opening it. My unjust
+     suspicions, then, cannot influence you, or injure the person to
+     whom they refer.
+
+     "This letter you will receive from Mr. Faxon, to whom I recommend
+     you for counsel and consolation in every trial.
+
+     "And now, my child, I must bid you farewell. I feel my end
+     approaching. May God forever bless and preserve you!
+
+     "Your dying father,
+
+     "EDGAR DUMONT."
+
+Dalhousie perused and re-perused this letter, until its contents were
+fixed in his mind. He had many doubts and scruples, both prudential and
+conscientious, in regard to the step he was about to take: but the
+chimera of fortune prompted him to risk all in the great project he had
+matured. Taking from his pocket a small screw-driver, with which he had
+prepared himself, he opened the drawer designated in the letter, the key
+of which he had secured. Emptying the drawer of its contents, he turned
+it over, and, to his great delight, perceived the slat as described in
+the letter. Removing the screws, he soon had the satisfaction of holding
+in his hand the packet which, he doubted not, would restore the heiress
+of Bellevue to her home and her estates, if she were still alive; or
+which would give him a hold upon Jaspar, by means of which he could make
+his fortune.
+
+Dalhousie was not a natural-born villain. It was the pressure of
+necessity, the almost unconscious yielding of a weak resolution, which
+had led him thus far in his present illegal and dishonorable course. Of
+the heiress he knew nothing; and the thought of restoring her had never
+entered his head, much more his heart. The great purpose of his life
+was to make his fortune, and it was this idea alone which influenced him
+in the present instance. He had entered upon his duties at Bellevue only
+the day before; but so impatient was he to realize the hope which had
+brought him there, that every hour seemed burdened with the weight of
+weeks.
+
+Carefully depositing its contents as he had found them, he locked the
+drawer, and put the key upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     "The accursed plot he overheard,
+        Its every point portrayed;
+     Yet ere the villain's words were cold.
+        The counter-plot was made."
+
+
+Hatchie was chagrined at the loss of his prisoner. His diligent search
+was of no avail. The Chalmetta's boat, which lay at the wood-yard in the
+morning, was gone; so he had no doubt Maxwell had made his escape in it.
+Having no further motive in remaining at the wood-yard, he procured a
+small canoe, with the intention of joining his mistress at Cottage
+Island.
+
+Seated in the stern of the canoe, Hatchie propelled it with only
+sufficient force to avoid the eddies which would have whirled his frail
+bark in every direction. His thoughts wandered over the events of the
+past few days. He moralized upon the conduct of the attorney and the
+uncle, and nursed his indignation over them. Hatchie was a moralist in
+his own way, but not a moralist only. The great virtue of his
+philosophy, unlike much of a more scholastic origin, was its practical
+utility. From the past, with its conquered trials, he turned to the
+future, to inquire for its dangers, to ask what snares it had spread to
+entangle the fair being whom he worshipped with all a lover's fondness,
+without the lover's sentiment.
+
+We will not follow him in his peregrinations through the mazes of the
+misty future, for they were interrupted by the appearance on the water
+of a distant object, which excited his attention. A searching and
+anxious scrutiny convinced him that it was the boat in which Maxwell had
+made his escape. Though at a great distance from him, he could see that
+it contained two men. Guardian as he was of his mistress' honor and
+safety, the sight awakened all his fears and called up all his energy.
+Did they know that his mistress had gone to Cottage Island? It was
+possible that Vernon had obtained a knowledge of her movements. The
+faithful fellow was almost maddened at the thought.
+
+The boat approached Cottage Island, and Hatchie observed them pull in
+under the high bank. This movement was ominous of evil, and all the
+mulatto's fears were confirmed, when, as they passed the mouth of the
+little stream, he saw one of them rise in the boat and point it out.
+Satisfied that his canoe was yet unnoticed by his enemies, and dreading
+no immediate danger, he paddled across the river so as to bring the
+island between them. When he had gained a position which hid him from
+their view, he used all his immense strength in propelling the canoe
+towards the island. A few minutes sufficed to bring him up with the
+western shore of the islet, his enemies being upon the opposite side.
+Keeping close to the high bank, he paddled down-stream to the lower
+extremity of the island, where the sound of voices caused him suddenly
+to check his progress, and gain a landing. Drawing the canoe out of
+reach of the current, he climbed up the bank, which, being near the
+down-stream end of the island, sloped gradually down, till it terminated
+in the low, sandy beach.
+
+He reached the high bank without attracting the attention of the party
+of whose motions he wished to obtain a knowledge. He could now
+distinctly hear their conversation, though they were still at a
+considerable distance from him. Cautiously he climbed a thick
+cotton-wood tree, whose foliage completely screened him from
+observation, and there awaited the nearer approach of Maxwell and his
+confederate.
+
+"Are you sure this is the island?" said Maxwell, when they had come
+within hearing of Hatchie.
+
+"This must be the one," replied Vernon. "We shall soon see whether it is
+inhabited or not."
+
+"With whom did the girl leave the wood-yard?"
+
+"With a doctor who lives like a hermit on this island. I saw them from a
+distance get into the sail-boat, and I asked a boatman for the
+particulars."
+
+"Who is the doctor?"
+
+"Don't know. The boatman said it was an outlandish name, and he had
+forgotten it. You mean to have the girl, do you?"
+
+"I do, if possible."
+
+"O, it's quite possible--nothing easier. You say the girl belongs to
+you?"
+
+"I do; did I not show you the bill of sale?"
+
+"That might be a trick of your own, you know. It's a devilish queer
+story."
+
+"Pshaw! man, are you crazy? This thing has startled your conscience more
+than all the crimes of a lifetime. What has gotten into you, Vernon? I
+never knew you to moralize before."
+
+"Look here, my boy, I can do almost anything; but I would not wrong a
+woman,--no, not a _woman_,--I am above that," said Vernon, with much
+emphasis.
+
+"But, man, she is my slave--a quadroon."
+
+"Property's property; but since I met the girl in the boat, I am half
+inclined to believe she is no quadroon. Maxwell, I had a sister once,
+and may my body be rent into a thousand pieces but I would tear out the
+heart of the man who would serve her as you do this girl. If she is your
+_property_, why, that alters the case."
+
+"Certainly it does; so, end your sermon, and tell me how to gain
+possession of my _property_."
+
+"We can storm the island."
+
+"What! two of us?"
+
+"I can get plenty of soldiers, if you will pay them."
+
+"I will give a thousand dollars for her; and, if I get her again, by
+heavens, she shall not escape me! I will put a pair of ruffles on her
+wrists such as the dainty girl never got of her milliner. How many
+persons are on the island?"
+
+"That I don't know--perhaps half a dozen. Your hangman will be there,"
+and Vernon chuckled at the thought of the scene he had witnessed near
+the wood-yard.
+
+Maxwell's teeth grated, and Hatchie distinctly heard the malediction he
+bestowed upon him. Fears for his personal safety did not, for a moment,
+disturb him. Prudence alone prevented him from rushing upon the
+villains, and thwarting in its embryo stage their design upon his
+mistress.
+
+"You mean," said Maxwell, "to take the girl from the house by force?"
+
+"There is no other way."
+
+"Then we had better examine the island, or it will not be an easy matter
+to land in a dark night."
+
+"How does the owner land?"
+
+"Probably by the little stream we saw above."
+
+"Rather difficult navigation for a stranger. We had better land in this
+part of the island. Let us walk through the thicket and find the house."
+
+Hatchie saw them attempt to pass through the thick brush; but the task
+was not an easy one. By the aid of a bowie-knife, with which they cut
+away some of the bushes, they penetrated to the larger growth of trees,
+where the under-brush no longer impeded their progress. They passed
+beyond the hearing of the mulatto, though from his elevated position he
+occasionally obtained a view of them, as they approached the cottage.
+Anxiously he waited their return, in the hope of getting more definite
+ideas of the time and method of the proposed attack upon the island.
+
+After a careful survey of the premises, Maxwell and Vernon returned to
+their former position.
+
+"Quite an easy job," said Vernon; "the only difficulty is this thick
+brush, which can be easily removed. I will cut away a part now."
+
+"Very well," responded Maxwell, as his associate proceeded to cut away
+the bushes, and form a pathway through, the thicket. "When shall the
+thing be done?"
+
+"As to that I can hardly say. When we get to Vicksburg we can decide.
+Better let the girl rest a week or so; for it may take that time to get
+things ready. You can't hire men to do such work as easily as you can to
+cut wood and dig ditches. It takes skill and caution."
+
+"Very well, I am in no haste."
+
+For nearly an hour Vernon labored at his task, and completed a path
+through which the party could easily pass to the cottage.
+
+The object of their visit accomplished, Hatchie saw them return to their
+boat, and row down the river. After they had disappeared round a bend,
+he descended from the tree, and examined the labors of Vernon. He found
+the bushes which had been cut down were nicely placed at each end of the
+path in an upright position, so as to conceal it from the eyes of the
+passer. For a long time the mulatto reflected upon the conversation he
+had heard, and considered the means of defeating the diabolical plot.
+Against a band of ruffians, such as Vernon would enlist for the service,
+he could not contend single-handed. To remove his mistress from the
+island, while Henry Carroll lay helpless there, would not be an
+acceptable proposition to her. Resolving to lay the information he had
+gained before Dr. Vaudelier, he returned to his canoe, and, having
+rounded the island, reached the cottage by the usual passage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Henry Carroll still slept. For six hours he had lain under the influence
+of the powerful opiate. Emily entered his chamber in company with the
+doctor, on their return from the wood-yard. The sight of Henry, pale and
+worn as he appeared, excited all her sympathy. His right arm, which was
+uninjured, lay extended on the bed; she gently grasped it, and, bending
+over him, imprinted upon his pallid lips a kiss, that was unknown and
+unappreciated by its recipient. Only a few days before she had listened
+to the eloquent confession of him who now lay insensible of her
+presence. She was a true woman, and the presence of Dr. Vaudelier did
+not restrain the expression of her woman's heart. It was visible in her
+pale cheek, in her heaving breast, and in her sparkling eye, from which
+oozed the gentle tear of affectionate sympathy.
+
+She held his hand; unconsciously, at the silent bidding of her warm
+heart, she gently pressed it. As though the magnetism of love had
+communicated itself to the sleeper, he sighed heavily, and uttered a
+groan of half-subdued anguish. His eyelids fluttered; he was apparently
+shaking off the heaviness of slumber. His lips quivered, and Emily heard
+them faintly articulate her name.
+
+At the request of the good physician, she reluctantly withdrew from the
+apartment.
+
+The sufferer endeavored to turn in the bed; the effort drew from him a
+groan of agony, which, in a more wakeful state, a proud superiority over
+every weakness would not have permitted him to utter. His eyes opened,
+and he stared vacantly about the darkened chamber. The doctor took his
+hand, and examined his pulse.
+
+"How do you feel, captain? Does your head ache?" asked he.
+
+"Slightly; I am better, I think," replied the invalid, faintly.
+
+"And you are better," said the doctor, with evident satisfaction. "The
+scalds are doing very well, and the wound on your head is not at all
+serious."
+
+"Now, sir, will you tell me where I am?"
+
+Dr. Vaudelier imparted the information.
+
+"Emily! Emily! Won but lost again!" murmured Henry. "Would that we had
+sunk together beneath the dark tide!"
+
+"Do not distress yourself, my dear captain. We must be careful of this
+fever."
+
+"Distress myself!" returned Henry, not a little provoked at the coolness
+of the doctor. "You know not the loss I have sustained."
+
+"But you must keep calm."
+
+"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed rather
+wildly at his host.
+
+This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience was of
+such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before
+marriage,--the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary hour,--and
+he sympathized with the unhappy man.
+
+"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it chilled the
+ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can understand your
+present state of feeling."
+
+"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had better
+die now than endure the misery before me."
+
+The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express the
+thought.
+
+"You will regain her," said he.
+
+"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw scores of
+dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."
+
+"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be restored to
+your arms again."
+
+"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an infallible
+prophet."
+
+"In this instance, I am."
+
+Henry looked at the doctor, and saw the smile of satisfaction that
+played upon his usually stern features. It augured hope--more than hope;
+and, as the wrecked mariner clings to the disjointed spar, his mind
+fastened upon that smile as the forerunner of a blissful reunion with
+her his soul cherished.
+
+"Be calm, sir, be calm; she is safe," continued Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Do you know it?" almost shouted Henry, attempting to rise.
+
+"Be quiet, sir," said the doctor, in a voice approaching to sternness;
+"be quiet, or I shall regret that I gave you reason to hope."
+
+"Where is she?" asked Henry, sinking back at the doctor's reproof, and
+heeding not the darting pain his attempt to rise had produced.
+
+"She is safe; let this suffice. I see you cannot bear more now."
+
+"I can bear anything, sir, anything. I will be as gentle as a lamb, if
+you will tell me all you know of her."
+
+"If you keep entirely quiet, we will, in a few days, let her speak for
+herself."
+
+"Then she is safe; she has escaped every danger?"
+
+"She has."
+
+"And was not injured?"
+
+"No; she was taken, it seems, from the wreck by a villain. Thank God,
+she has escaped his wiles!"
+
+Henry's indignation could scarcely be controlled, even by the reflection
+that Maxwell's wicked intentions had been turned, by an overruling
+Providence, into the means of her safety.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier related to his patient the incident of the wood-yard; not,
+however, without the necessity of frequently reproving his auditor,
+whose exasperation threatened serious consequences. When, at the
+conclusion of the narration, he told Henry that the loved one was at
+that moment beneath his roof, he could scarcely restrain his immoderate
+joy within the bounds of that quiet which his physician demanded.
+
+"May I not see her?" said he.
+
+"That must depend entirely upon your own behavior. You have not shown
+yourself a very tractable patient thus far."
+
+"I will be perfectly docile," pleaded Henry.
+
+"I fear I cannot trust you. You are so excitable, that you explode like
+a magazine of gunpowder."
+
+"No, no; I solemnly promise to keep perfectly quiet. She will, I know,
+be glad to see me, wounded and stricken though I am."
+
+"She has already seen you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and not content with _seeing_ you merely, your lips are not yet
+cold from the kiss she imprinted upon them;" and a smile, not altogether
+stoical, lit up the doctor's cold expression. "You shall see her, but
+the instant I perceive that the interview is prejudicial to your nerves,
+I shall remove her."
+
+"Thank you, doctor!" said Henry, fervently.
+
+"O, it is part of my treatment. It may do you more good than all my
+physic. I have known such cases."
+
+"I am sure it will," returned the patient.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier retired, and after a serious charge to Emily, he
+reëntered, leading the Hygeia who was to restore the sick man.
+
+"Be careful," was the doctor's monition, as he elevated his fore-finger,
+in the attitude of caution; "be careful."
+
+"O, Emily!" exclaimed Henry, more gently than the nature of the
+interview would seem to allow, as he extended his hand to her.
+
+Emily silently took the hand, and while a tell-tale tear started from
+her eye, she pressed it gently; but the pressure startled the sick man's
+blood, and sent it thrilling with joy through its lazy channels. The
+invalid, as much as the pressure of the hand warmed his heart, seemed
+not to be satisfied with the hand alone; for he continued to draw her
+towards himself, until her form bent over him, and their lips met. It
+was the first time when both were conscious of the act. We will not go
+into ecstasies over the unutterable bliss of that moment. We will not
+deck our page with any unseemly extravagances. If the experience of the
+reader has led him through the hallowed mystery of the first kiss of
+love, he needs not another's fancy to revive the beatific vision. If
+not, why, thousands of coy and blushing damsels, equally in the dark,
+are waiting, from whom he may select one to assist him in solving the
+mystery. Besides, it is not always wise to penetrate the secrets of the
+heart, even in a novel; for there is a sacredness about them, a kind of
+natural free-masonry, which must not be made too common.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, when he saw that the patient was disposed to behave
+himself in a reasonable manner, withdrew from the room, and left them to
+the undisturbed enjoyment of their happy reunion. In an hour he
+returned, and peremptorily forbade all further conversation. He
+permitted Emily to remain in the room, however, on the promise to allow
+the invalid to use no further exertion in talking.
+
+All day, like a ministering angel, she moved about his couch, and laved
+his fevered brow. All his art could not lure her into any conversation
+beyond the necessary replies to his questions concerning his physical
+condition. Henry was too thankful for being permitted to enjoy her
+presence to forfeit the boon by any untractableness, and, for one of his
+excitable temperament, he was exceedingly docile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "_Appius_. Well, Claudius, are the forces
+     At hand?
+
+     "_Claudius_. They are, and timely, too; the people
+     Are in unwonted ferment."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+It was midnight at Cottage Island,--the third night after the events of
+the preceding chapter. Henry Carroll, by the skilful treatment of his
+host, was in a great degree relieved from his severe pain, and had now
+sunk into a natural and quiet slumber. By his bedside sat Dr. Vaudelier.
+Emily had, an hour before, retired to the rest which her exhausted frame
+demanded. For the past three days she had watched patiently and lovingly
+by the invalid. And now she had only been induced to retire by the
+promise of the doctor to call her, if any unfavorable symptom appeared.
+
+The threatened assault upon the island had been thoroughly considered,
+and for the past two nights the island wore the appearance of a
+garrisoned fortress, rather than the secluded abode of a hermit. Emily
+knew of the peril which now menaced her, but the ample means at hand for
+protection rendered it insignificant. All thought, even of her own
+security, was merged in her generous interest in the comfort of the
+sufferer.
+
+The good physician was uneasy and disturbed, as he sat by the bedside of
+his patient. The circumstances which surrounded him were novel in the
+extreme. Accustomed as he had been to the quiet which always reigned in
+his domain, to find himself, as it were, the inmate of a fortress, in
+momentary expectation of an attack, was so singularly odd, that his
+natural indifference deserted him. He had collected quite a large force
+of his humble neighbors to assist him in his present emergency, and they
+were now making their final arrangements to meet the assault.
+
+The doctor was restless; but it was not on account of any fear of his
+personal safety,--he was above that. The lonely and innocent being whom
+he had undertaken to protect had filled his mind with a sense of
+responsibility. A single day had been long enough for Emily to win a way
+to his affections, and he had grown to regard her with the tender care
+of a father. Occasionally he left his place at the bedside, and went to
+the window, as if to assure himself that the attack had not already
+commenced.
+
+In front of the cottage a different sentiment prevailed among the motley
+group there assembled. There were twenty men, including Hatchie, all
+armed with rifle and bowie-knife, and every one anxious for the fight to
+commence. Besides their arms, each man was provided with a small cord,
+and a torch of pitch-wood, the end of which had been plentifully
+besprinkled with turpentine.
+
+The party was composed mostly of woodmen and boatmen, who had promptly
+and willingly obeyed the doctor's summons. Like most men of their class
+in that locality, they were hardy and reckless; they had not that
+healthy horror of a mortal combat which the moralist would gladly see.
+Dr. Vaudelier had always been their friend; had always promptly and
+kindly aided them in their necessities, whether moral, physical, or
+pecuniary. As he had laved the fevered brows of their wives and
+children, so had he said prayers over their dead, in the absence of a
+clergyman. He had exhorted the intemperate and the dishonest, and with
+his purse relieved the needy in their distress. They were not
+ungrateful; they appreciated his many kindnesses, and rejoiced in an
+opportunity to serve him. These men, notwithstanding their rude speech,
+their rough exteriors, and their reckless dispositions, were
+true-hearted men. They reciprocated the offering of a true friendship,
+not by smooth speeches and unmeaning smiles, but by actions of manly
+kindness. The philosopher in ethics may say what he pleases of the
+refinements of sympathy; we would not give a single such heart as those
+gathered on Cottage Island for a whole army of puling, sentimental,
+hair-splitting moralizers. They were men of action, not of words; and,
+though they hesitated not, in what they deemed a good cause, to close
+with their man in deadly combat, they were true as steel to a friend in
+the hour of his need.
+
+With these men the exploits of Hatchie, which had been related, and
+perhaps exaggerated, by Jerry Swinger, who was a leading spirit of the
+party, had been much applauded, and he had, in spite of the odium of his
+social position, obtained a powerful influence over them. They heard him
+with attention, and deferred to his skill and judgment. By his advice,
+and to remove the confusion of the affray from the vicinity of the
+cottage, it was determined to receive the invaders near the beach where
+he had overheard Vernon propose to land. Jerry Swinger, whom natural
+talent and the wish of the party seemed to indicate as leader, marched
+the expedition towards the avenue which had been made in the bushes by
+the ruffians.
+
+For so many men, excited as they were by the anticipation of a conflict,
+they were remarkably quiet and orderly. Dr. Vaudelier had cautioned them
+to avoid all noise, and not to fire a rifle unless absolutely necessary.
+He had also instructed them to make prisoners of the assailants, if
+possible, without injuring them.
+
+Jerry Swinger stationed his party near the avenue, ready to spring upon
+and overpower the foe, when the favorable moment should arrive.
+
+An hour passed by, and the impatience of the ambushed woodmen seemed
+likely to give their faithful leader some trouble, when the careful dip
+of oars near the shore saluted their ears. In a whisper Jerry gave the
+oft-repeated caution for silence, and charged them to be prompt when the
+moment came.
+
+The assaulting party approached the shore. There were two boats, the
+foremost of which contained eight men, under the direction of Maxwell,
+and the other six, led by Vernon. The latter had reconnoitred the island
+several times, and had somewhat modified the plan of the attack, on
+discovering that the cottage, for the past two nights, had been occupied
+by more than its usual occupants. Several men had been seen to land
+there; but, as his preparations on the lower part of the island were
+undisturbed, it never occurred to him that his purpose would be
+anticipated.
+
+Vernon had procured the services of fourteen men, chicken-thieves, and
+others of desperate fortunes, to engage in the enterprise, by holding
+out to them the hope of plunder, of which the cottage, he assured them,
+would afford an abundant harvest. The real purpose of the expedition
+was, therefore, unknown to any of the party, except the leaders. The
+prospect of a sharp fight had not in the least dampened the ardor of
+their hopes. With men of their craft it was a dull season, and the
+prospect of "cracking a crib" plentifully stored with valuables was
+quite a pleasant anticipation.
+
+It was arranged that Maxwell, with the larger portion of the
+desperadoes, should land at the lower part of the island, and, if any
+defenders appeared, commence hostilities, and draw them away from the
+house, while Vernon, with the most experienced of the "cracks-men,"
+should assault the house, and effect the purpose of the enterprise. In
+the person of one of the chicken-thieves a pilot for the creek was
+discovered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, it was decided that
+Vernon should approach the cottage by the usual channel.
+
+Maxwell's boat was beached, while that of Vernon proceeded up the river
+to the little stream. The skill of his pilot, of whom Vernon had felt
+many doubts, soon brought him to the creek. The current, he found, was
+quite rapid, and he feared it would carry him into the midst of the
+"enemy's camp" before Maxwell should have made his demonstration. As the
+boat was whirled along towards the centre of the island, for the oars
+could not be used, on account of their noise, his position seemed to
+grow desperate. Vernon was on the point of risking the noise, and taking
+to the oars, when he discovered an overhanging branch, which he seized
+as the boat passed under it. Fortunately for him, a bend in the stream
+turned the current from the middle of the creek, or its violence would
+have drawn him into the water. By the aid of his companions, he
+succeeded in making the boat fast to the branch. He listened; but all
+was still. There were no indications of the approach of the other party.
+
+Seating himself in the stern-sheets of the boat, he again considered the
+operations in which he was soon to engage; but, as these were
+necessarily to be directed by the circumstances of the moment, his
+deliberations soon gave way to that impatience which the perpetrator of
+crime experiences at an unexpected delay. His eager spirit was, however,
+soon gratified by sounds of conflict, which proceeded from the part of
+the island where Maxwell had landed. Awhile he listened, and the sounds
+grew more and more distinct. Loosing the boat from its aërial moorings,
+it was again driven by the current towards the landing in front of the
+cottage. Preparations were now made to effect the grand object, and,
+landing by the side of the doctor's yacht, Vernon found no one to oppose
+his progress, though the sounds from the lower extremity of the island
+indicated that the affray was growing hotter and more violent. At the
+head of his party, Vernon was about to enter the house, when the
+approach of a body of men from the scene of action caused him to pause,
+and await their approach.
+
+Maxwell had landed on the beach, and, not suspecting the proximity of
+the ambush which waited to receive him, had proceeded towards the avenue
+made at his first visit to the island. Removing the loose bushes, they
+attempted to pass through; but no sooner were they fairly involved among
+the young trees than Jerry Swinger shouted his first order, to light the
+torches, and, in an instant, the woods were illuminated, and the
+position of both parties disclosed. This was, undoubtedly, a masterly
+stroke of preparation on the part of Jerry. The torches, on the
+application of the match, emitted a broad sheet of flame, which glared
+upon the invaders like a sudden flash of lightning, and utterly
+confounded them. It seemed like the bolt of Omnipotence thrown across
+their path in the hour of their great transgression.
+
+Maxwell was unprepared for an immediate attack. He had calculated on
+effecting a junction with Vernon in the vicinity of the cottage. Before
+his party had time to recover from the panic, they were surrounded by
+the resolute woodmen. The attorney, who was as brave and active as he
+was unprincipled and cunning, was not a man to be defeated without a
+stout resistance. Encouraging his party by shouts, and by his own
+example, a general engagement ensued.
+
+Hatchie no sooner saw the foe of his mistress' peace, than, stepping
+between him and Jerry Swinger, who also had an account to settle with
+him, he knocked down the pistol which was levelled at his head, and
+grasped him by the throat. In the hands of Hatchie the attorney was as
+nothing. The stalwart mulatto cast him upon the ground, and, with his
+cord, bound him hand and foot. The leader vanquished, it was the work of
+but a few moments to secure the rest of the assailants.
+
+Jerry Swinger learned, from sundry exclamations of the defeated party,
+that another portion of the expedition was to land at the creek. Leaving
+a few of his men in charge of the prisoners, he made all haste, with the
+remainder, towards the cottage.
+
+The affray had occupied but a few moments. The sturdy woodmen,
+accustomed to such scenes, and animated by a high motive, had done their
+duty promptly and efficiently, as the woful appearance of the
+disconcerted ruffians testified. Some hard blows had been dealt; some
+few upon both sides were severely wounded; but, considering the
+desperate character of the invaders, the masterly tact of Jerry Swinger
+had evidently saved much bloodshed.
+
+Hatchie, as soon as he had secured his prisoner, hastened, somewhat in
+advance of Jerry's party, towards the cottage.
+
+Vernon waited the approach of the party in front of the cottage. While
+it was yet at some distance, he discovered Hatchie, whom he recognized
+by the light of his torch, running in front of it. The appearance of the
+mulatto, alone, he interpreted as the signal of victory to the party in
+conjunction with him, who, he imagined, were pursuing him. Resolving,
+therefore, to lose no more time, he advanced towards the house, ordering
+two of his followers to secure Hatchie.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier had heard the sounds of the distant encounter, and
+occasionally sought the window to assure himself the invaders did not
+approach the cottage. The glaring torch of Hatchie, who was running
+towards the house, gave him some misgivings, and, seizing the pistols
+which lay upon the table, he went to the door, on opening which he was
+confronted by Vernon.
+
+"Come on, boys! come on!" shouted the ruffian, as he pushed by the
+doctor. "The way is clear; let us make quick work."
+
+The pistol of Dr. Vaudelier had been raised to shoot down the assailant;
+but his hand dropped at the sound of his voice, he staggered back and
+let the weapon fall from his hand, and uttered an exclamation of intense
+feeling.
+
+"This way, men! this way!" shouted Vernon, as he pressed on.
+
+Entering the room at the right of the entry, in which a bed had been
+temporarily placed for the use of Emily, he found the affrighted girl,
+who had been aroused from her transient slumber by the noise of the
+attack. Rising from the bed upon which she had merely thrown herself,
+she was confounded by the appearance of her former persecutor.
+
+"Ah, my pretty bird, you are again in my power, and I shall take care
+that no weak indulgence again deprives me of your society," said Vernon,
+as he seized her arm, and attempted to hurry her from the room.
+
+"Unhand me, villain!" exclaimed she, roused to desperation by the sudden
+and painful change which had overtaken her.
+
+"Do not pout, my pretty dove! there is no chance to escape this time.
+Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help you; so I
+advise you to come quietly with me."
+
+"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"--and she
+struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.
+
+"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.
+
+"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the hands of
+two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your bidding."
+
+The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow on the
+back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.
+
+"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted his
+mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him, examined
+the condition of the fallen man.
+
+"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."
+
+"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily, bursting into
+tears, as the terrible scene through which she had just passed was fully
+realized. "But where is Henry--Captain Carroll--is he safe?"
+
+"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room," replied
+Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been worse."
+
+"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie, seizing the
+prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him to a tree, and I
+will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till both are hung."
+
+"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that moment
+entered. "_He is my son_!"
+
+"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on the
+sofa.
+
+"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone. "I would
+that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I recognized him as
+he entered the house, and had nearly lost my consciousness, as the
+terrible reality stared me in the face, that my son, he whose childhood
+I had watched over, who once called me by the endearing name of father,
+is a common midnight assassin!
+
+"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an abundant
+shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his eyes. "Is he
+the person who has caused you so much trouble?"
+
+"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest comfort to
+the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for Maxwell."
+
+"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an interested motive
+to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be brought so low!"--and
+the doctor wrung his hands in anguish.
+
+"Perhaps, sir," said Emily, "he is not so bad as you think; let us hear
+before we condemn him."
+
+Her resentment, if her gentle nature had for a moment harbored such a
+feeling, had all given way to the abundant sympathy she felt for the
+doctor in his deep distress. Forgiving as the spirit of mercy, she now
+applied restoratives to the man who had so lately attempted to wrong
+her; and Dr. Vaudelier, with a sad heart, assisted her in her merciful
+duty.
+
+Hatchie, on his approach to the cottage, had been assailed by the men
+whom Vernon had sent to secure him. A severe encounter had ensued, and
+although Hatchie's great muscular power and skill had enabled him to
+keep his assailants at bay, he would eventually have had the worst of
+it; but Jerry Swinger came to his aid in season for him to save his
+mistress from injury. Vernon's party, like that of Maxwell, were all
+secured.
+
+The noise caused by the entrance of Vernon had awakened Henry Carroll
+from his slumbers. He listened, but could not make out the occasion of
+it; for, in consideration of his feeble condition, he had not been
+informed of the meditated attack. The cry for help uttered by Emily
+convinced him of the nature of the disturbance. His first impulse was to
+rise and rush to her assistance; but of his inability to do this he was
+painfully reminded in his attempt to rise. The heavy fall of Vernon on
+the floor, and the voice of Hatchie, assured him that, whatever the
+affair might be, it had assumed a new phase. His painful apprehensions
+were quieted by the appearance of Hatchie, who in a concise manner
+related the events of the night.
+
+The last lingering doubt of the suspicious invalid was removed by the
+entrance of Emily herself.
+
+"You are safe, dear Emily!" exclaimed he.
+
+"I am, thank God!"
+
+"And I could not assist in your defence!"
+
+"Heaven will protect me, Henry. It seems as if a veritable angel hovered
+over my path to shield me from the thousand perils that assail me."
+
+"The angels do hover around you, Emily; you are so pure, and good, and
+true, that they are ever near you, even in your own heart. Angels always
+minister to the good,--to those who resist the temptations of the
+world."
+
+"You speak too well of me. But you have been excited by this tumult,
+Henry."
+
+"I was a little disturbed; but, unable to help myself, I could do
+nothing for others,--not even for you, dearest."
+
+"I know what you would have done, if you had been able. I know your
+heart, and I feel just as grateful as though your strong arm had rescued
+me."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, who had succeeded in restoring Vernon--or, by his true
+name, Jerome Vaudelier--to consciousness, now entered the room. He
+appeared more melancholy and harassed in mind than Emily had before seen
+him. His soul seemed to be crushed by the terrible realization that _his
+son_ was a common felon--worse than felon, the persecutor of innocence.
+A soul as sensitive as his to the distinctions of right and wrong could
+hardly endure the misery of that hour.
+
+With an absent manner, he inquired into the condition of the patient,
+and took the necessary steps to soothe him to slumber again.
+
+Hatchie, having satisfied himself that the prisoners were all safe, left
+them under guard of the woodmen, and returned to the chamber of the sick
+man; and, at the doctor's urgent request, Emily left Henry to his care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     "_Friar_ Can you forgive?
+     _Elmore_. As I would be forgiven."
+
+     LOVELL.
+
+
+On the morning following the defeat of Maxwell and Vernon, it became
+necessary to make some disposition of the prisoners, so that the
+conquerors could attend to their daily duties. Their number was too
+large to be left upon the island in the absence of its defenders. A
+consultation between Dr. Vaudelier and the principals of the party took
+place. There were so many difficulties in the way of bringing the
+invaders to justice, that it was finally decided to release them all.
+The burden of the evidence was against the physician's son. The doctor,
+however much he deprecated the deed, was anxious to save his son from
+the publicity of a trial. His friends, seeing the melancholy truth,
+relieved his mind by suggesting that all of them be released, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+Vernon had entirely recovered from the effects of Hatchie's blow, and
+was seated at the window of his apartment, contemplating the means of
+escape. At his father's request, two men had sat by him during the
+night, as much to prevent his escape as to minister to his wants. The
+watchers were still in the room. Vernon was not yet informed of the
+relation he sustained to the proprietor of the mansion in which he now
+involuntarily abode. He thought that, considering the unequivocal
+circumstances under which he had been made a prisoner, he was treated
+with a great deal of gentleness; but to him the reason was not apparent.
+He had been an alien from his father's house for a long period, and was
+not acquainted with the history of the past three or four years of the
+doctor's life.
+
+His mind was now occupied in devising the means of escape; and just as
+he had struck upon a feasible project, he was interrupted by the
+entrance of Jerry Swinger, who had been sent by Dr. Vaudelier to
+ascertain the present frame of his son's mind, and broach to him the
+tidings that he was beneath his father's roof,--a circumstance of which
+his watchers were also ignorant.
+
+"Well, stranger, how do you feel yourself, this morning?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Better. That was a cursed hard rap which some one gave me, last night,"
+replied Vernon,--as, from the force of habit, we must still call him.
+
+"That are a fack, stranger; the man that gin you that blow has a moughty
+hard fist; and I advoise you to keep clear of him, or he will beat you
+into mince-meat."
+
+"I will try to do so."
+
+"You will larn to, if he mought have one more chance at that head of
+yours."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He's an oncommon fine fellow, and made your cake dough once before."
+
+"Ah, was it Miss Dumont's--that is, the quadroon's servant."
+
+"Quadroon, man!--that's all humbug. But he's the boy, and is bound to
+fotch his missus out straight, in the end."
+
+"Well, if she is his mistress, I hope he may. I wish her no harm,
+however much appearances belie me."
+
+"Is that a fack, stranger?"
+
+"Certainly; she never did me any harm."
+
+"Then what mought be the reason you were so onmerciful to her?"
+
+"I never used her hardly. My friend said she was his slave, and all I
+wished was to have him obtain his own. In short, I was paid for my
+services."
+
+"No doubt of it, stranger. But I can't see how the tenth part of a man
+could hunt down such a gal as that,--it's onnateral. Besides, you didn't
+believe she was a slave."
+
+"'Pon my honor I did, or I would not have lifted a finger. But I see you
+have released the rest of your prisoners,--I hope you will be as
+generous towards me."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself, stranger!"
+
+"I have a mortal aversion to courts of justice."
+
+"Quite likely," returned Jerry, pleased with the man's frankness.
+
+"Besides, I belong to a respectable family, who will not mind paying
+something handsome to avoid exposure."
+
+"Can't be bought, stranger; besides, respectable villains arn't any
+better nor others."
+
+"True; but, you know, their friends, who are educated, are more
+sensitive in such matters than others."
+
+"That mought be true, for's aught I know; but it's mighty strange you
+never thought of that sarcumstance before."
+
+"Never was in limbo before."
+
+"That's the go, is't? Look-a-here, stranger, is it the darbies, or the
+crime, which brings the disgrace upon the family? Accordin' to my
+notion,--and I believe I've got something besides nits and lice in my
+head,--it's the deed, and not the punishment, that fotches the disgrace.
+But whar does your family live?"
+
+"In New Orleans," replied Vernon, who knew nothing to the contrary,
+though we are not sure that, if he had, it would have made any
+difference in his reply.
+
+"And your name is Vernon?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Is that your family name, or only a borried one?"
+
+"It is my real name," replied Vernon, not a little perplexed by the
+coolness and method of the woodman's queries.
+
+"I rather guess not," suggested Jerry, mildly.
+
+"'Pon my honor--"
+
+"Think again,--maybe you mought fotch the real one to your mind."
+
+Vernon, whose temper was not particularly gentle under contradiction,
+was nettled, and disposed to be angry.
+
+"Perhaps you know best," said he, conquering his passion, and assuming
+one of those peculiarly convincing smiles, which must be an hereditary
+possession in the family of the "father of lies."
+
+"Perhaps I do," replied Jerry. "If you don't know any better than that,
+why, then, I do know best. It arn't Vernon."
+
+"It is not manly, captain, to insult a prisoner," replied Vernon, with
+an air of dignity, which came from the same source as the liar's smile.
+
+"I don't mean to insult you, stranger; but facts is facts, all over the
+world," said Jerry, untouched by the other's rebuke.
+
+"What mean you?"
+
+"Nothin', stranger, only I know you. Your mother arn't livin'."
+
+"No," returned Vernon, with a start; for, with all his vices and his
+crimes, a sense of respect for the name and honor of his family had
+outlived the good principles imbibed upon a mother's knee. Although a
+villain in almost every sense of the word, there were many redeeming
+traits in his character, which the reader will be willing to believe, on
+recalling his expressions of conscientiousness uttered to Maxwell.
+Family pride is often hereditary, and the reverses and degradations of a
+lifetime cannot extinguish it. It was so with Vernon. His real name was
+unknown, even among his most intimate associates. He had early taken the
+precaution--not in deference to the feelings of his father--to assume a
+name; it was from pride of birth, which shuddered more at the thought of
+a stain upon the family escutcheon than at all the crimes which may
+canker and corrode the heart.
+
+"My mother is not living," continued he; "but how know you this?"
+
+"It don't matter, stranger. Have you seen your father lately?"
+
+"Not for many years. I am an outcast from his presence," replied Vernon,
+with some appearance of feeling.
+
+"That's onfortunate; does he know what sort of a lark you are?"
+
+"I hope not," replied Vernon, with a sickly smile.
+
+"But he does; he knows all about this ongodly scrape you got into last
+night."
+
+"What mean you?" said the ruffian, sternly.
+
+"Mean? Why, just exactly what I say, Mr. Vaudelier! Don't start! I know
+you as well as you know yourself."
+
+Vernon bit his lips; he was confounded at hearing his name uttered,--a
+name which had not greeted his ears for many years. His passion was
+disarmed before the rude but cutting speech of the woodman, whose
+knowledge of human nature, bred in the woods as he had been, was
+remarkable. There are men in the world, supposed to be entirely
+intractable, who, when rightly approached, prove as gentle as lambs.
+There is no evil without its antidote, however deeply it may be hid from
+the knowledge of man; and there is no man so vile that he cannot be
+reformed. The image of God, marred and disfigured as it may be, exists
+in every man, as the faultless statue exists in the rough block of
+marble; from which, when the fashioning hand, aided by the magic of
+genius, touches it, the imago of beauty shall come forth. So, when man,
+in whom always exists the elements of the highest character, shall be
+approached by the true reformer,--the highest and truest genius,--the
+bright ideal shall assume the actual form.
+
+The woodman had touched a chord in the heart of the gambler which
+vibrated at his touch. It was not the words, but the genuine sympathy
+with which they were laden, that overcame the indifference of the
+vicious man. Perceiving his advantage, the woodman followed it up,
+repeatedly disarming the bolt of passion, which was poised in the mind
+of his auditor.
+
+"Your father," said Jerry, "is a good man, and you mought go round the
+world without finding a better."
+
+"Very true!" replied Vernon, moved to a degree he was unwilling to
+acknowledge.
+
+"Now, if you jest turn over a new leaf in the book of life, and try to
+fotch out right in the end, I believe the old man would cry quits on the
+old score."
+
+"Send those men away, captain! I will not attempt to escape."
+
+Jerry complied, and the watchers took their departure.
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+"Close by, stranger. May be you'd like to see him?"
+
+"On no account!"
+
+"That's a good sign, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "You will have to see him,
+I am afraid. You are under his ruff."
+
+Vernon, completely overcome, staggered to a chair, and covered his face
+with his hands.
+
+"Not so bad a boy as one mought suppose," soliloquized Jerry, as he went
+to the door, and requested the servant to summon Dr. Vaudelier. "The
+fellow has fed on husks long enough, and, as the scripter says, he is
+goin' to rise and go to his dad."
+
+"Do not let my father see me,--anything, rather than that!" exclaimed
+Vernon, rising, and grasping the woodman's arm. "I am a great villain!"
+
+"That's very true, stranger; but you have got into the scrape, and the
+best thing you can do is to get out on't."
+
+"How can I!"
+
+"Be an honest man."
+
+"I fear I never can be that."
+
+"Try it! There is something left of you."
+
+At this moment Dr. Vaudelier entered the room. His aspect was stern and
+forbidding, and the son buried his face in his hands after the first
+glance at him.
+
+"Jerome," said he, "you will bring my gray hairs with sorrow down to the
+grave."
+
+"Easy with him, doctor, easy! He is a little touched, and, if you manage
+him right, you can fotch him over. He is under conviction now. Don't let
+on yet!"
+
+"Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me," continued the doctor.
+"Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus enter my house
+with a band of ruffians behind you?"
+
+"Father," said the convicted Vernon, "I did not know it was your house,
+or I could never have done it."
+
+"Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight assassin!" and
+Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like a child.
+
+"Forgive me, father!" exclaimed the repentant son. "Forgive me!"
+
+"God and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!"
+
+"Easy with him, doctor!" interposed Jerry, fearful lest the son's
+repentance should be dissipated before the father's sternness.
+
+"I will atone for all, to the best of my ability."
+
+"Would that you might do so!"
+
+"I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!"
+
+"Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so deeply
+injured."
+
+"I would be her slave for life!"
+
+"If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the wrongs which
+have been inflicted upon her."
+
+"I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail
+anything to her. Maxwell assured me she was his slave, and showed me the
+bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my help."
+
+"You were too willing to believe him," said the doctor, sternly.
+
+"I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew (which is but
+little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will tell you all."
+
+"Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry."
+
+Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the
+position of the matter.
+
+"Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have done?"
+
+"Freely, sir; and may God enable you to persevere in the course you have
+taken!"
+
+"Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life with the
+strength your good wishes impart."
+
+Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the attorney,
+concealing no part of his own or his confederate's villany. Of the will
+he knew nothing, his operations having been confined to the attempts to
+obtain possession of her person.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole truth. It
+was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had chosen the better
+part. His fervent prayer ascended that the penitent might be faithful to
+his good resolutions.
+
+All the circumstances relating to the will were unknown to Vernon, which
+was the occasion of much congratulation both to his father and to Emily.
+It seemed to relieve him from some portion of the guilt which the
+subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and, when these circumstances
+were related to him, a burst of generous indignation testified that he,
+the blackleg, the robber, was above such villany. However depraved in
+some respects, that vice which is commonly called _meanness_ had no
+place within him. He was, or rather had been, of that class of operators
+who "rob the rich to pay the poor;" who have no innate love of vice,
+only a desire to be free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand,
+without toil or sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.
+
+"Jerome," said Dr. Vaudelier, "this Maxwell must be watched, and, if you
+are true to yourself, no one can do this duty as well as you."
+
+"Trust me, sir! I am strong in this lady's service."
+
+"I shall not doubt you, my son, until I have occasion to do so. I am
+satisfied, if Miss Dumont is."
+
+"I feel perfectly confident in the good faith of your son, and am
+indebted to him for the zeal he manifests in my cause."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Dumont," said Vernon. "You are too generous; but, be
+assured, your confidence shall not be abused."
+
+It was determined that Vernon should immediately depart for Vicksburg,
+whither Maxwell had gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     "He gives me leave to attend you,
+     And is impatient till he sees you."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+It was the afternoon of the same day, as Dr. Vaudelier was reclining
+upon a rustic seat near the landing, he was surprised by the appearance
+of a canoe coming down the creek. The canoe contained an elderly
+gentleman, and a negro, who, after several unsuccessful attempts,
+succeeded in landing the passenger upon the little pier. He was about
+fifty years of age, apparently. His hair and whiskers were a mixture of
+gray and black; his countenance was full, and his complexion florid,
+which contrasted oddly with the green spectacles that rested upon his
+nose.
+
+"Do I have the honor of addressing Dr. Vaudelier?" said, the stranger,
+in a tone so soft and silky that the doctor could hardly persuade
+himself it did not proceed from a woman.
+
+"That is my name, sir; and to whom am I indebted for this unexpected
+pleasure?"
+
+"De Guy, sir,--Antoine De Guy, at your service," squeaked the visitor,
+with whom the reader is already acquainted.
+
+"Well, sir, may I inquire the object of your visit?"
+
+"Certainly, sir. I am informed there is a lady at present residing with
+you, one of the unfortunate persons who were on board the Chalmetta at
+the time of her late disaster. A Miss Dumont."
+
+"Who informed you, sir?"
+
+De Guy hesitated a little, and then said he heard a number of gentlemen
+discuss the late disaster at the hotel in Vicksburg; that one of them
+had mentioned this fact--he really could not tell the gentleman's name.
+
+"What is your business with the lady?" asked the doctor, to whom the
+idea of a new enemy of Emily had already presented itself.
+
+"That, sir, I can best disclose to the lady in person," squeaked the
+street-lawyer, with a low bow.
+
+"This way then," and the doctor led him to the library, into which he
+soon after conducted Emily.
+
+"Miss Dumont?" said De Guy, rising and making a profound obeisance as
+she entered. "My name is De Guy."
+
+Emily bowed slightly, but made no reply.
+
+"May I beg that our interview may be private?" said the attorney,
+glancing at Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"This gentleman is my friend and confidant; it is not necessary that he
+should retire," replied Emily, as Dr. Vaudelier was moving towards the
+door.
+
+"Very well, madam; though I think, from the nature of my business, you
+would wish it to be confidential."
+
+"Perhaps I had better withdraw," suggested the physician.
+
+"By no means, my dear sir; if this gentleman's visit relates to business
+matters, I must beg the favor of your counsel."
+
+"As you please, Miss Dumont; I come charged with a message from your
+uncle, my respected client, Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Indeed, sir!" replied Emily, a slight tremor creeping through her
+frame; "pray deliver it at once."
+
+"It is simply to say your immediate presence at your late residence is
+necessary."
+
+"Where did you see my uncle?" asked she.
+
+"At Bellevue, madam, yesterday morning. I arrived at eleven o'clock
+to-day."
+
+"When did Mr. Dumont return from his journey up the river?" asked Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+De Guy reflected a moment; from the shade of displeasure on his
+countenance, it was evident he disliked the interference of the doctor.
+
+"About four days ago."
+
+"When did you last see your uncle, Miss Dumont?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I have not seen him since the second day of our journey,"--which was
+the time that Jaspar had been left at the wood-yard.
+
+"Probably, then, he has returned to Bellevue. It is singular that, under
+the instructions of the will, he should leave you in this unceremonious
+manner."
+
+"Not at all," interrupted De Guy.
+
+"You speak as though you were familiar with his motions," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, with a penetrating glance at the attorney.
+
+"To some extent, I am," replied the silky-toned lawyer, with a smile
+which was intended to declare his own innocence in any of the plots of
+Jaspar. "He has voluntarily acquainted me with some of the particulars
+of this unfortunate affair."
+
+"Indeed, sir!"
+
+"Such is the fact," continued the attorney, with professional ease; "he
+has sent for Miss Dumont in order to effect a compromise."
+
+"A compromise!" exclaimed Emily, with disdain; "there can be no
+compromise, short of restoring, absolutely, my rights!"
+
+"It is very probable he is quite ready to do so," replied the
+accommodating attorney.
+
+"May I ask what has produced this singular and sudden change in the
+purpose of my uncle?"
+
+"Well, madam, it would be difficult to explain the precise reasons. His
+mind seemed troubled; I advised him to unburden to me, which he did. The
+conclusion of the whole matter is, he has taken this step by my
+advice," said De Guy, with an air of the deepest humility.
+
+Emily was somewhat moved, by the revelation of the attorney, from the
+stern reserve she had manifested, and said,
+
+"I am grateful for your interest in my behalf."
+
+"Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's duty,
+which is superior to every other gratification."
+
+"May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?" asked Dr. Vaudelier,
+incredulously.
+
+"The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was not
+exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt obliged
+to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of justice," said the
+attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful whether he was
+perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.
+
+"Humph!" said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.
+
+"Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir," continued
+De Guy.
+
+"Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right between
+this lady and her uncle?"
+
+"The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont," replied De Guy, readily.
+
+"You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose, just as
+it was in the very act of being consummated, without a strong motive."
+
+"True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel Dumont is
+upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this time, of his
+share in the transaction."
+
+"Well."
+
+"And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the steamer."
+
+"True."
+
+"Was not the reäppearance, the rising from the dead, of this man, quite
+enough to convince him that all his plans had failed?"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"The boy had the will!"
+
+"It is all plain to me," said Emily, more disposed to trust De Guy than
+Dr. Vaudelier was.
+
+"Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should adopt
+this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save him from
+exposure."
+
+"Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power again,"
+suggested Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"I assure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even now, at the
+guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is awakened."
+
+"And well it might be," said the doctor.
+
+"True," responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of honest
+indignation; "but when we see a man disposed to repent, we should be
+ready to assist him."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents of the
+morning,--called to mind the feelings which had been awakened in the
+presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full force of De Guy's
+argument.
+
+"If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done his
+niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means, advise her to
+follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature suggests. 'To err
+is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a Christian, and will act in
+the true spirit of Christianity."
+
+"I trust she will," responded De Guy, meekly; "I trust she will, and,
+with all convenient haste, try to mitigate his distress."
+
+"I will! I will!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Perhaps you will accompany me, as your uncle suggests," insinuated De
+Guy.
+
+"There is certainly no need of such haste as this," said the doctor.
+
+"Her uncle may change his mind."
+
+"Then his penitence is not sincere, and he cannot be trusted."
+
+"I should scarcely call it penitence, sir, since it is only the fear of
+discovery which has driven him to this step," said the attorney,
+branching off in to a new school of ethics.
+
+"I can go in a few days," said Emily. "Captain Carroll, you think, is
+out of danger now?"
+
+De Guy started, and a scowl of the deepest malignity overshadowed his
+countenance, which had before been that of a meek and truthful man. The
+change was so sudden that he seemed to be a man within a man, and the
+two creatures of an opposite character. Neither the doctor nor Emily
+noticed the start, or the sudden change of expression; and the attorney,
+seemingly aware of the danger of wearing two faces, restored the former
+aspect.
+
+"I think he is entirely out of danger," replied Dr. Vaudelier, in reply
+to Emily's question. "Perhaps he will be able to accompany you in a few
+days."
+
+Emily blushed, but made no reply, other than a sweet smile, betokening
+the happiness such an event would give her.
+
+"I fear, madam, the delay will be dangerous," suggested De Guy, who did
+not relish the proposition of the doctor.
+
+"Why dangerous? If Mr. Dumont changes his mind, we have the means of
+proving that that miserable will is false."
+
+"You forget, sir, that Mr. Benson may be lost, and with him the will,"
+interposed Emily, whose love of truth did not enable her to conceal the
+weakness of her case.
+
+"Indeed! Is the will in the hands of a third party?" said the attorney,
+with apparent indifference, while, in reality, he was inwardly chuckling
+with delight.
+
+"It matters not," replied the doctor; "the lady's case is safe. You can
+inform Mr. Dumont that his niece will present herself in a week or ten
+days."
+
+"But, my dear sir, the delay will be fatal, both to the lady and her
+uncle," said the attorney, with alarm.
+
+"It cannot be helped," said the doctor.
+
+"Mr. Dumont's health, I fear, will render it unsafe to wait so long.
+Miss Dumont does not wish her uncle to die unforgiven."
+
+"I will go, sir; I will go at once," exclaimed Emily, shocked at the
+condition of Jaspar, and anxious, as was her nature, to relieve the
+sufferings he must endure in her absence. She forgot how basely he had
+wronged her--how he had attempted her life; the divine sentiment, "Love
+your enemies," prevailed over every other consideration.
+
+"Die unforgiven," muttered the doctor. "Is he sick?"
+
+"He is, sir, and near his end."
+
+"Why have you not mentioned this circumstance before? It seems of
+sufficient importance to merit a passing word."
+
+"I wished not to distress the lady. I think I hinted that he was in
+great distress."
+
+"I fear some evil, Miss Dumont."
+
+"Be assured, sir, if Mr. Dumont meditates any further wrong, he has not
+the power of putting it into effect. He is prostrate upon his bed, and
+if his niece does not see him soon, it will be too late, if it is not so
+already. The stricken man must soon stand for judgment in another
+world," said De Guy, solemnly.
+
+"This alters the case," said the doctor, musing.
+
+"But, sir," continued the attorney, "I was aware that, after what has
+happened, my mission would be attended with many difficulties, and I
+have not come unprepared to overcome them. I do not wonder that you have
+no confidence,--I confess I should not have, under like circumstances.
+You know Dr. Le Verier?" and the attorney drew from his pocket a bundle
+of papers, and opening one, he glanced at the signature upon it, as he
+pronounced the name.
+
+"I do, very well," replied the doctor.
+
+"Our family physician!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle's physical condition,"
+said De Guy, handing her the paper.
+
+Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.
+
+"Very satisfactory," said he; "you will pardon me for doubting your
+word--"
+
+"Don't mention it, sir," replied De Guy, blandly. "I fully appreciate
+your motive, and honor you for it. And you know Mr. Faxon?"
+
+"O, yes--what of him," said Emily, eagerly.
+
+"A letter from him," replied De Guy, giving her the missive.
+
+Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents, the
+attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude such as
+attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if the pockets of
+the latter be empty.
+
+"I will go immediately!" exclaimed Emily, as she finished reading the
+letter. "Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a different man, and is
+ready to restore all my rights."
+
+"Finally," said De Guy, "here is your uncle's own signature. This letter
+I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty, signed his
+name."
+
+Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would restore
+all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to return to Bellevue
+with all possible haste. Emily recognized the signature, though it was
+apparently written by the trembling hand of a dying man.
+
+"The papers are quite satisfactory," said Dr. Vaudelier, as he completed
+the reading of the note from Jaspar. "If you had presented them at
+first, I should have been spared my uncourteous suspicions. But you will
+pardon them, and consider that the lady's case requires the utmost
+caution."
+
+"It was only in deference to the lady's nerves that I broke the
+intelligence gradually. I was quite willing to sacrifice myself, for the
+moment, in your good opinion, for her sake. I trust you will appreciate
+and regard my motives, as I do yours."
+
+Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of Emily's
+returning to Bellevue with De Guy. But a death-bed scene was a difficult
+thing to reason against, and he was obliged to yield the point before
+the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more calm persuasions of Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the party
+should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.
+
+Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in relation to
+their departure.
+
+At the mention of Hatchie's name, the attorney grew marvellously uneasy,
+and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed him to the
+island was waiting for him. He therefore proposed that Dr. Vaudelier
+should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning, which was readily
+agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat, without confronting
+the mulatto.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     "_Jaffier_. O, Belvidera!
+     _Belvidera_. Why was I last night delivered to a villain?
+     _Jaffier_. Ha! a villain?
+     _Belvidera_. Yes, to a villain!"
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+Agreeably to the arrangement of the previous night, Emily was on board
+of the "Montezuma," prepared to commence her journey to Bellevue. While
+De Guy conducted Emily to the ladies' cabin, Hatchie was getting her few
+articles of baggage on board, and the boat was fairly under weigh
+without the faithful mulatto's having had a sight of the new protector
+of Emily. The attorney congratulated himself on this circumstance; his
+mind had thus been released from the pressure of a most painful anxiety.
+His plan was now accomplished.
+
+But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy, however, now
+that they were free from the friends of Emily, no longer dreaded it.
+
+The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of his
+mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced the fact.
+His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking tone he had heard
+at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned to look upon the
+speaker, and was confounded to behold the very person who had plotted
+with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a presence of mind which never
+deserted him, he held his peace, resolved not to frighten his mistress
+by exposing the fact.
+
+Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy had
+conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in a
+quandary,--a worse quandary than the congressional hero of Kentucky has
+described in any of his thousand relations of hair-breadth escapes. His
+mistress was fairly committed to her new destiny, and how could he
+extricate her?
+
+He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,--to watch
+unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case of
+necessity. The papers which De Guy had brought from Bellevue, and which
+he heard described by the doctor, did much to assure him that no evil
+was intended towards her; but the man who had been a villain once was,
+in his opinion, exceedingly apt to be so again.
+
+Emily was ill at ease during the passage; not that she felt unsafe, or
+dreaded treachery, but something seemed to whisper that evil _might_ be
+near her. An undefined sensation of doubt seemed to beset her path, and
+urge upon her the unpleasant necessity of extreme caution. She was
+conscious of being engaged in a good work. She had forgiven her great
+enemy, and was now on her way to smooth his dying pillow. There was
+something lofty and beautiful in the thought, and she derived much
+consolation from it.
+
+De Guy rarely intruded himself upon her notice during the passage. At
+meal-hours he was scrupulously polite and attentive, but he was as cold
+and formal as she could desire. She never ventured upon the promenade
+deck, unless her faithful Hatchie was near.
+
+The mulatto, with all his watchfulness, was unable to discover any
+indications of treachery on the part of De Guy, though an apparently
+confidential conversation with the captain of the steamer, on the night
+before their arrival at New Orleans, had rather an unfavorable
+appearance.
+
+It was late at night when the Montezuma arrived at New Orleans. The
+steamer quietly took her berth at the levee, so that few of the
+passengers took any notice of their arrival, and contentedly turned
+over in their berths to wait the advent of the coming day.
+
+Hatchie, who occupied a room near the boiler deck, had been awakened by
+the confusion of making fast the steamer. His watchful vigil over the
+safety of his mistress did not permit him to slumber while the
+possibility of danger existed. He had, therefore, risen; but scarcely
+had he completed his dress, when the door of his room was suddenly
+opened, and himself violently seized by two stout men. The attack had
+been so sudden, and the movements of the assailants so well directed,
+that resistance was hopeless. Before he fully realized the presence of
+his foes, his hands were pinioned behind him. In this condition, without
+knowing why or by whom he was assailed, he was hurried away to the
+calaboose.
+
+At an early hour in the morning carriages and drays began to assemble on
+the levee, and all the noise and bustle of landing passengers, baggage
+and freight, commenced.
+
+Emily Dumont, as soon as it was fairly light, rose from her couch, and
+made her preparations to leave the steamer. Fully equipped for her
+journey to Bellevue, she entered the cabin, where De Guy soon presented
+himself.
+
+"Where is Hatchie?" was the first question she asked; for Hatchie had
+always been on the spot whenever and wherever she needed his services.
+
+"I have taken the liberty to send him up to the St. Charles with your
+luggage. You will, of course, breakfast there," said the attorney,
+blandly.
+
+"Such was not my intention," replied she, as a cold tremor--she knew not
+why--agitated her.
+
+"I am sorry to have mistaken your purpose; the ride to Bellevue is a
+long one to take without any refreshment."
+
+"I mind it not; my haste is too great to admit of any delay."
+
+"I sent by your servant to order an early breakfast, and a carriage at
+seven o'clock."
+
+"Very well, I will conform to the arrangement you have made," replied
+Emily, with a dissatisfied air.
+
+A carriage was called from the mass which had congregated, whose drivers
+were not a whit behind those of the metropolitan city in earnest
+perseverance; and De Guy assisted her into it, seating himself at a
+respectful distance on the forward seat.
+
+Now, the act of engaging a cab or a carriage is of itself quite an easy
+matter; but we question whether passengers are generally as well suited
+as in the present instance. Without troubling the worthy Mr. De Guy with
+any foolish queries as to where he should drive them, the Jehu mounted
+his box, and conducted his team apparently to the entire satisfaction of
+his fare. It may be that the intelligent driver had a way of divining
+the wishes of his customers; or it may be that De Guy, in deference to
+any supposed repugnance to business matters on the part of his
+companion, had previously discussed this topic. Without any design of
+prejudicing the reader's mind in favor of the latter supposition, we
+confess our inclination to accept it as correct.
+
+Emily vainly attempted to assure herself that her companion was
+conducting her in good faith to the home of her early years. An
+undefined feeling of insecurity was painfully besetting her, whichever
+way she turned. She considered and reconsidered the evidences he had
+brought to Cottage Island of the truth of his own statements, and of his
+own trustworthiness. It was all in vain. Could those papers have been
+forgeries? It was a terrible thought to her.
+
+The carriage stopped, and the attorney invited her to alight.
+Change--anything, was a relief to the painful sensations which had
+almost overpowered her, and without reflection she did so. Her faculties
+were so confused she did not notice that it was not the private entrance
+of the St. Charles. She took everything for granted, and accepted the
+offered arm of De Guy. She crossed the broad side-walk, and, raising her
+eyes, was overwhelmed by seeing at the side of the door she was about
+to enter the sign of "_Anthony Marwell, Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law_."
+
+"Please to walk up stairs," squeaked the attorney, drawing her after him
+to the inside of the door, which he immediately closed and bolted.
+
+"Not a step further, sir!" said she, with as much firmness as she could
+command. "What means this? Am I again betrayed?"
+
+"Nay, nay, madam, walk up quietly," said De Guy, in a soothing tone, as
+he applied a little gentle force to the arm he held.
+
+"Unhand me, sir!" screamed Emily, as loud as her agitated condition
+would permit.
+
+But De Guy heeded her not; and, without condescending to utter another
+word, he took her up like a child, and bore her up the stairs to
+Maxwell's office. Turning the key to prevent interruption, he opened the
+lawyer's private apartment in the rear, and placed the fainting girl
+upon the bed, and retired.
+
+Unlocking the office door, he was confronted by an old negress, who had
+charge of the sweeping and cleaning department of the building.
+
+"Sar! what's all dis about?" screamed she, in no gentle tone; for the
+colored lady had witnessed De Guy's achievement from the stair-case
+above.
+
+"Hush, Dido--"
+
+"Sar! who are you dat come inter Massa Maxwell's room widout no leave?"
+
+"Never mind who I am, Dido. There is a lady in the bedroom, by whom Mr.
+Maxwell sets his life--do you hear?--sets his life. She has fainted, and
+you must take care of her,"--and De Guy slipped a half-eagle into the
+negress' hands.
+
+"Dat alters de case," said the black lady, eying the money with much
+satisfaction. "Massa Maxwell's a sly dog. I take good care ob de
+lady--not de fus time, nuder."
+
+"Don't let her get away; take good care of her, and you shall have half
+a dozen just such pieces."
+
+"Never fear, Massa, I's use to de business."
+
+De Guy left the building, satisfied, it would seem, of the negress'
+fidelity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "_Lieut_. Forgive me, sir, what I'm compelled t' obey: An order for
+     your close confinement.
+
+     "_King H_. Whence comes it, good lieutenant?
+
+     "_Lieut_. Sir, from the Duke of Gloster.
+
+     "_King H_. Good-night to all, then!"
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Connected with the estate at Bellevue, of which Jaspar Dumont was now in
+actual possession, was a small slave jail. It had been constructed under
+the immediate direction of Jaspar, to afford a place of confinement for
+the runaway or refractory negroes of the plantation. It was located at
+some distance from the proprietary mansion, and from the quarters of the
+negroes. Jaspar's taste in matters of this kind was of the most refined
+character, and he had caused it to be constructed on a plan and in a
+manner that would seem to bid defiance to the skill of a Baron Trenck,
+or a Stephen Burroughs. The material was granite, brought at no trifling
+expense from the North. There were no windows upon the sides, and only
+one entrance, which was secured by double iron doors. Light and air were
+supplied, in meagre quantities, by means of a skylight in the roof,
+which was regulated by a cord passing down upon the outside.
+
+This jail, either by accident or design, was so constructed that any
+noise inside was not transmitted to the outside. Whether this was
+because of the reflecting properties of the walls, which might have sent
+the sound echoing out at the skylight on the apex of the four-sided
+roof, or because of some other natural causes, we shall not take up the
+reader's time in discussing. Its inmates might startle Heaven with their
+cries, but certainly every ear on earth below must be deaf to their
+wail. This circumstance seemed typical of the actual fact of oppression;
+but we are sure that Jaspar never meant to typify the groans, by man
+unheeded, of the victims of tyranny ascending to be heard above.
+
+It was the day after the events related in the last chapter, and the
+negro jail was tenanted; but not by a refractory or a runaway slave. It
+was now devoted to a more dignified purpose, being occupied by a white
+man and his wife, the victims of Jaspar Dumont's hatred and fears. They
+had already been prisoners for the past forty-eight hours. No sound from
+the wide, wide world without had reached them; and, though the man had
+shouted himself hoarse in endeavors to arrest the attention of any
+casual passer-by, the sound of his voice had risen to Heaven, but had
+not been heard by any mortal ear.
+
+On a heap of dirty straw, in one corner, lay a female. She was feeble
+and helpless. By her side, gazing sadly upon her, was her companion,
+pale and haggard, and apparently conquered in spirit. The sufferings of
+the frail being by his side seemed to pierce him to the soul. He felt
+not for himself; his thoughts, his feelings, all were devoted to her,
+whom he had loved and respected through many vicissitudes, whose kindly
+sympathy had cheered his heart in many of the severest of earth's
+trials. They had passed through peril and poverty together, and now the
+cup of tribulation seemed full to the brim. They were doomed to
+death,--not to the death of the malefactor, but as victims of private
+interest. No friendly jailer had been near, to bring them even a cup of
+cold water to assuage their consuming thirst. Not a morsel of food had
+they tasted since their incarceration! The terrible doom to which they
+were consigned was too apparent; there was nothing to foreshadow even
+the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with their
+inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was equal to any
+crime which his own safety demanded.
+
+The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her companion
+bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his sunken eyes, he
+imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.
+
+"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.
+
+"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a single drop
+of cold water!"
+
+"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?" exclaimed
+Dalhousie,--for it was he,--striking his hands violently upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!--I am ready to die,"
+said she, faintly.
+
+Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to permit
+his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible situation of
+his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail with long strides,
+gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate remedy for his woes.
+Escape had scarcely presented itself to his mind. He had not the energy
+of character which rises superior to every ill, and had bent himself
+supinely to the fate which awaited him. To work through the solid walls
+of the jail seemed to him an impossibility, even if provided with the
+necessary implements. The scheme was too vast for his mind,
+unaccustomed, as it was, to contend with great difficulties.
+
+Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him, armed
+with energy to break through every obstacle which might oppose him. His
+feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for her relief, and such
+a demand even his supine nature could not resist.
+
+Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had, apparently, been
+quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel with which the earth had
+been thrown out.
+
+Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated him. "_I_
+began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it for water," muttered
+he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced digging. Awhile he labored
+with the energy of desperation; but, enfeebled by long fasting, and
+unused to such severe toil, he soon felt his strength give way. It
+appeared to be his only hope, the only ministration of comfort to the
+loved one beside him, and he strove manfully against the weakness which
+beset him. An hour he labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his
+toil. Overcome by his exertions, he seated himself upon the brink of the
+pit, and gave way to the agonizing emotions which filled his soul. A
+sigh from his wife roused him to a new effort, and, partially
+invigorated by the few moments' rest, he again applied himself to his
+task. The ground was of a moist character, and he had every
+encouragement of soon finding the coveted treasure. Animated by this
+hope, he redoubled his efforts, and for another hour despair nerved his
+arm, and strengthened his sinking frame. Still the buried treasure
+eluded his search. Exhausted by his exertions, he sunk heavily upon the
+side of the pit, and the big tears coursed down his hollow cheeks.
+Deserted by man, he felt that there was no God in heaven; and no
+divinely-born sentiment came to cheer him in the hour of his
+despondency. He felt that the hand of death must soon take him and his
+loved wife into its cold embrace. With much effort he drew himself to
+her side, and endeavored to compose his mind for the struggle with the
+destroyer.
+
+Two hours he lay by her side; but his time had not yet come. Rested from
+the severe fatigue he had undergone, he felt a new vigor stealing
+through his frame. Something like hope again flitted before his
+desponding mind, and, partially raising himself from his recumbent
+posture, he gazed about the apartment. The pit he had dug was yawning
+near him. A shudder convulsed his frame, as it reminded him of the open
+grave that gaped to receive him. Had he not dug this grave for himself?
+
+The instinct of self-preservation drew him to his feet. Seizing the
+shovel, he advanced to the pit, when, to his unspeakable delight, he
+perceived that the bottom of it was covered with black, dirty water. The
+sight roused his dormant energies, and he saw before him years of life
+and happiness. Leaping into the pit, he drank from the putrid pool,
+using the palms of his hands for a drinking vessel.
+
+Tearing off the top of his glazed cap, he succeeded in making a very
+tolerable cup of it, with which he conveyed some of the precious liquid
+to the parched lips of his sinking wife. The act roused her from the
+absent mood to which she had abandoned herself. She took a long draught
+of the discolored beverage, and, had it been the pure mountain spring,
+its effect could scarcely have been more magical. It not only refreshed
+the body, but inspired the mind. With this dawning hope the poor
+prisoners built the flimsy fabric of future joy and safety.
+
+Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement. Experience,
+the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him, and imparted the
+strength and resolution which often require years to mature. Thoughts,
+and feelings, and energies, to which he had before been a stranger, came
+bounding through his mind, as the mighty river, which, having broken
+away the feeble barrier man had set in its course, roars and thunders
+down its before forsaken path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated
+by this successful act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding
+to the awful fate which awaited him. His best hours--his hours of
+unimpaired strength--had now passed away; there was no fountain at which
+he could renew it. But energy now burned within him, and, like an
+invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some great act. The impulse
+was irresistible; hopeless as his case had before appeared, he
+determined to escape. But how? This question had not yet presented
+itself. Escape from the jail!--from death!--himself,--more than himself,
+his wife! Stone walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more
+than downy masses, which his breath could blow away.
+
+Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and sounded
+upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid beneath his
+blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and he was about to
+abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when a new thought
+suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the new idea, he
+impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By the side of the
+wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging, with the intention of
+undermining it. Without a thought of his enfeebled body, he plied the
+shovel with the energy of desperation. Instead of making a calm
+calculation, and proceeding with such an economy of strength as would
+enable him to complete the work, he labored as though the task before
+him could be easily and quickly accomplished.
+
+His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken, penetrated the
+purpose of her husband; but she saw that his strength must entirely fail
+him ere the work could be accomplished.
+
+"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a little."
+
+"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice another
+moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing from his labors.
+
+"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so hard."
+
+"That would be an honorable death, at least."
+
+"And leave me to linger here?--No, let us die together, if die we must.
+Perhaps I can help you,"--and she strove to rise.
+
+"Do not rise, Delia,--keep quiet; I am strong, and will yet deliver you
+from this dungeon. Lay quiet, dear; do not add to my distress."
+
+"I fear I must lay still,--I cannot rise," said she, sinking back with
+the exhaustion of the effort.
+
+Dalhousie threw down his shovel, and hastened to her side.
+
+"Do not attempt to rise again, dear," said he. "Let me get you some more
+water."
+
+He again filled the rude cup at the pit, and, after she had taken a long
+draught of it, he laved her head, an operation which appeared to refresh
+her.
+
+"Do you feel better?"
+
+"Much better."
+
+"Now keep perfectly quiet, and I will resume my task."
+
+"I will; but pray, Francois, do not work so hard; temper your enthusiasm
+with reason. You cannot succeed, unless you are careful."
+
+"I will, dear; I will rest every little while."
+
+Dalhousie resumed his labor, and, convinced by his wife's reasoning, he
+labored more moderately. While he toils at this apparently hopelessly
+task, we will return to the night when we left him in the library, after
+having obtained possession of the secret packet.
+
+The overseer, after leaving the library, was perplexed to determine his
+future course. He was in possession of a mighty secret, a secret which
+involved his employer's very existence. The realization of a thousand
+golden dreams was at hand, and he was resolved, without an over-nice
+balancing of conscientious scruples, to make the most of the information
+he had obtained. There were two methods of procedure open to him, and
+his perplexity was occasioned by this fact. In this instance his
+resolution was not at fault, for the reins were in his own hands. It was
+not like hewing a path through the granite barriers of difficulty,
+against the very frown of destiny. He imagined that some overruling
+power had made the path, and invited him to walk in it.
+
+Should he make his fortune by means of the uncle or the niece? The
+question of his existence had narrowed itself down to this point. It
+was sure, he felt, from one or the other.
+
+Being of a naturally generous disposition, with strong affections, and
+having not a little of the natural sense of justice in his composition,
+he was decidedly in favor of permitting the niece to enrich him. This
+was his personal preference; but he was sensible of the truth of the
+axiom, that individual preferences must sometimes be sacrificed to the
+success of the main object; and, if the circumstances demanded it, he
+felt able to make the sacrifice.
+
+If he forwarded the packet to its proper destination, the lady would,
+without doubt, be soon restored to her possessions. This was the course
+he preferred, as well as the course which justice and morality demanded.
+But, alas! his moral sentiment was not sufficiently developed to make
+him pause before taking the opposite course, if his present and
+temporary interest should seem to demand it. A departure from the strict
+injunction of conscience is sure to bring misery; and this was doubly
+true in his case.
+
+The uncle was in actual possession, and he called to mind the old maxim,
+that "possession is nine points in the law." He was unwilling to risk
+the bright prospects, which had so suddenly opened upon him, on the
+tenth point. Fearing that Jaspar's unscrupulous character would enable
+him to defeat the heiress, he had not the courage to do his duty and
+trust Heaven for the reward.
+
+With this view of his position, he reluctantly--we will do him the
+justice to say reluctantly--abandoned the project of restoring the niece
+to her birthright. Thus was the great purpose of his life narrowed down
+to one point, and he retired to his pillow to consider in what manner he
+should approach Jaspar.
+
+Simple as this single point had before appeared, he found, on
+reflection, that it was environed with difficulties and dangers. Jaspar
+was intrenched in his own castle, and it would require some address even
+to approach near enough to hold a parley. Conclusive as were the
+evidences in his possession of Jaspar's perfidy, they might, by the aid
+of cunning and gold, be made to appear as forgeries, gotten up for the
+purpose of extorting money. The stake was a great one, and he determined
+with a bold hand to play the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     "_Cassius_. At such a time as this, it is not meet
+     That every nice offence should bear its comment.
+     --You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus!"
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont, on the morning after the abstraction of the papers by
+Dalhousie, rose from his inebriated slumbers; but his rest was a
+misnomer. The strong excitement, which a few weeks before had served to
+keep his mind occupied, had now passed away. His villany was
+accomplished; but it had not purchased the satisfaction he coveted--it
+had cost too much sacrifice of soul. Brandy was his only solace; and
+even this only conjured up demons of torture in his fevered imagination.
+
+He was conscious that on the previous night he had drank too much. There
+seemed to be a chasm in his recollection which all his efforts could not
+fill. He might, while in a measure unconscious of his actions, have
+betrayed some of his momentous secrets. The overseer, of whose presence
+he had an indistinct remembrance, might have obtained some further clue
+to the great mystery. These were annoying reflections, and while he
+resolved to be more temperate in future, how fervently he adjured his
+patron demon to ward off any danger he might have courted in his
+inebriation!
+
+After his accustomed ride through the cane-fields, he retired to the
+library. The decanter had been replenished with brandy, and his late
+resolutions did not deter him from freely imbibing of its contents. The
+equilibrium was restored. His mind, stimulated by the fumes of the
+liquor, resumed its usual buoyancy. He paced the room, and drank
+frequent draughts of the fiery beverage.
+
+Suddenly he stopped in his perambulation, as a faint recollection of the
+lost key came to his mind. He searched his pockets; but it could not be
+found. The drawer was locked. Suspicious as he was fearful, he trembled
+lest in his oblivious moments he had compromised his secret. He sent for
+the overseer, determined to know and provide for the worst.
+
+After the messenger left, his reflections assumed a new direction. He
+tried to laugh away his suspicions, applied epithets to himself which it
+would not have been safe for another to have applied, and in good round
+oaths cursed his own stupidity. In his privacy he was a pattern of
+candor, and bestowed upon himself such a rating as, to another, would
+have given fair promise of good results.
+
+He satisfied himself that the drawer could contain nothing to implicate
+him; and, even if it did, why, he was safe enough in the hands of
+Dalhousie. The overseer he regarded as a kind of _thing_, who, while he
+retained him in his service, would never injure him. Jaspar, for some
+reason or other, had formed no very elevated opinion of Dalhousie's
+acuteness. He had bought him off cheaply once, and could do so again. If
+he refused to be bought off cheaply,--and Jaspar grated his teeth at the
+reflection,--why, a method could be devised to get rid of him.
+
+While engaged in these musings, a knock at the door startled him to his
+feet. It was not the overseer's knock.
+
+A servant announced a strange gentleman, who declined to give his name.
+
+"Show him in," said Jaspar, re-seating himself, and striving to assume a
+tranquillity which did not pervade his mind. Since the consummation of
+his base scheme he had been a prey to nervous starts, and the
+announcement of a stranger stirred the blood in its channels, and sent
+his heart into his throat. This nervous excitement had been increasing
+upon him every day, and his devotion to the bottle by no means tended
+to allay it. Such are the consequences of guilt. If the victim, before
+he yields to temptation, could anticipate the terrible state of suspense
+into which his guilt would plunge him,--if he could see only a faint
+reflection of himself, starting at every sound in nervous terror, as
+before the appearance of some grim spirit of darkness,--he would never
+have the courage to commit a crime.
+
+The stranger entered the library. It was De Guy. At his appearance
+Jaspar's fears gave way to a most uncontrollable fit of passion.
+
+"Villain!" exclaimed he, "how dare you enter my house, after what has
+passed?"
+
+"Gently, my dear sir! You forget that we have been friends, and that our
+mutual safety requires us to remain so still," said De Guy, in his silky
+tone and compromising manner.
+
+Jaspar compressed his lips, and grated his teeth, while a smothered oath
+escaped him. But his rage soon found a more audible expression.
+
+"Friends!" By ----, I should think we had been _friends!_" said he,
+fiercely.
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir,--_friends_."
+
+"Then save me from my friends!"
+
+"Better say your enemies! I fear you have a great many."
+
+"Save me from both! May I ask to what fortunate circumstance I am
+indebted for the honor of this visit?" said Jaspar, sarcastically
+mimicking the silky tones, of the attorney.
+
+"I came to forward our mutual interest."
+
+"Then, by ----, you can take yourself off! You and I will part company."
+
+"Indeed, sir, this is ungenerous, after I have assisted you into your
+present position, to treat me in this manner," replied the attorney,
+smilingly shaking his head.
+
+"I am _not_ indebted to you for my life, or my position! You have been
+a traitor, sir!--a traitor! and, tear out my heart, but I will swing,
+before I have anything further to do with you!" roared Jaspar, with
+compound emphasis, as he rose from his chair, and advanced to the
+brandy-bottle.
+
+"Gently, Mr. Dumont, gently! Do not get into a passion! May I ask what
+you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?" interrogated the
+attorney, with a smile of assurance.
+
+"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed shabby
+trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."
+
+"My _dear_ sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily, I trust?"
+
+"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit," returned
+the attorney, complacently.
+
+"Do you take me for an idiot?"
+
+"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit such a
+supposition."
+
+"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in spite of
+himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.
+
+"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the time,
+then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will pardon the
+little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own views."
+
+Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
+companion.
+
+"Explain yourself," said he.
+
+"Everything has come out right,--has it not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are in quiet possession?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
+wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey, all
+your hopes would have been blasted."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of anxiety
+beclouded his brow.
+
+"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness with
+which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.
+
+The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
+ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's belief,
+and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was not, however,
+so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on the subject.
+
+"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of doubt or
+anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her boiler."
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were lost,--were they not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have shared
+their fate."
+
+"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked Jaspar,
+with a sneer.
+
+"Exactly so!"
+
+"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as this?"
+
+"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the attorney,
+convincingly.
+
+Jaspar looked incredulous, and resorted to the brandy-bottle, which
+seemed to bear the same relation to him that the oracle of Delphi did to
+the ancient Greeks.
+
+"You do not think me capable of _inventing_ such a story, I trust," said
+De Guy, seriously.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! you have joined the church, haven't you, since we met
+last?"
+
+"I see, sir, you think, because I assisted you in your plans, that I
+have no honor, no conscience, no humanity. Why, sir, what I have done
+for you was only a duty which my religion demanded of me."
+
+"Your creed must be an original one!" replied Jaspar, with a sickly
+laugh.
+
+"It _is_ an original one. You thought yourself better entitled to your
+brother's property than this giddy girl. So did I; and it was my duty to
+see justice done. A matter of conscience with me, upon my honor."
+
+"Enough of this!" said Jaspar, sternly, for a joke soon grew stale with
+him.
+
+"Be it so; but remember the story is true."
+
+"And you did me the favor to blow up the steamer!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"At the risk of my own life, I did. I bribed the firemen to crowd on the
+steam, and the engineers to keep down the safety-valve,--all under the
+excitement of a race, though with special reference to your interest."
+
+"Was this part of your creed, too?"
+
+"Certainly," and the attorney launched out into a dissertation of
+theology and kindred topics, with which we will not trouble the reader.
+
+Jaspar heard it not, for he was busy in considerations of a less
+metaphysical character. He was thinking of his present position, and of
+the overseer, whose step he heard on the veranda.
+
+"I see," said he, interrupting De Guy, "you have been my friend."
+
+This remark was the result of his deliberations. He might need the
+services of the attorney.
+
+"I expect my overseer on business in a moment," continued he, "and I
+should like to see you again, after he has gone. May I trouble you to
+step into this room for a few moments?"
+
+"Certainly," replied De Guy, who was congratulating himself on his
+success in conciliating the "bear of Bellevue," as he styled him among
+his boon companions.
+
+Jaspar closed the door upon the attorney, and was in the act of lighting
+a cigar, when Dalhousie entered. The overseer endeavored to discover in
+the countenance of his employer some indications of his motive in
+sending for him; but Jaspar maintained a perfect indifference, which
+defeated his object, Neither spoke for several moments; but at last the
+overseer, embarrassed by the silence, said,
+
+"You sent for me, Mr. Dumont?"
+
+"I did," said Jaspar, suddenly, as though the words had roused him from
+his profound abstraction; "I did; one of my keys is missing, so that I
+cannot open the drawer. You arranged its contents, I believe."
+
+"Yes," said Dalhousie, flustered, for he was not so deeply skilled in
+the arts of deception as to carry them on without some compunction; "but
+I left the key in the drawer."
+
+"You see It is not there," said Jaspar, fixing his sharp gray eye upon
+the overseer.
+
+"It is not," said Dalhousie, advancing to the secretary. "Probably it
+has fallen upon the floor--" and he stooped down to look for it.
+
+Jaspar watched him in silence, as he felt about the floor. The overseer
+was in no haste to find it, though his eyes were fixed on it all the
+time.
+
+"Didn't you put it into your pocket, by mistake?" suggested Jaspar.
+
+"Certainly not," replied Dalhousie; "here it is;" and, picking up the
+key, he handed it to Jaspar. "I was certain I left it here."
+
+Jaspar felt much relieved.
+
+"Sorry to have troubled you," said he, "but I wanted a paper--" and he
+rose and opened the drawer, as if in quest of it.
+
+"No trouble at all," returned the overseer. "Now that I am here, a few
+words with you would be particularly agreeable to me."
+
+Jaspar's curiosity was instantly excited, and, forgetting the paper and
+De Guy, he requested him to proceed immediately with his business.
+
+"It is a matter of much interest to both of us," continued Dalhousie,
+embarrassed by the difficulties of his position.
+
+"Well, sir, go on," said Jaspar, impatiently, for the overseer's
+hesitation had rather a bad odor.
+
+"I may as well speak bluntly and to the point," stammered Dalhousie,
+still reluctant to state his business.
+
+"Why don't you? I am not a sentimental girl, that you need make a long
+preface to your oration."
+
+"I will, sir. Every man is in duty bound to consider his own interest--"
+
+"Certainly, by all means. Go on."
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece--" and Dalhousie paused
+again.
+
+Jaspar's reddening face and the curl upon his lip indicated the volcano
+of passion which would soon burst within him.
+
+"Proceed, sir," said he, struggling to be calm.
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece, you are aware that I am
+somewhat acquainted with them."
+
+"I am; I hope you do not know too much for your own good. You know I am
+not to be trifled with."
+
+"I am not concerned for my own safety," replied Dalhousie, a little
+stung by the implied threat of Jaspar; "but I wish to provide for your
+safety. I intend to go to France."
+
+"I do not prevent you."
+
+"I lack the means."
+
+"And you wish me to furnish them?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And how large a sum do you need?"
+
+"A pretty round sum. I will keep entirely away from this part of the
+country, so that you need not fear me."
+
+"Fear you!" sneered Jaspar, rising and draining a glass of brandy. "I
+fear no man, no devil, no angel!"
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware that your reputation is in my hands."
+
+"Not at all, sir," said Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"Know, then, that I have a copy of the genuine will, and the means of
+attesting it!"
+
+Jaspar was prepared for almost anything, but this was too much. He paced
+the room with redoubled energy. His bravado had vanished, and he was as
+near pale as his bloated visage could approach to that hue. He strode up
+and down the room in silence, while his heart beat the reveille of fear.
+For a time his wonted firmness forsook him, and he felt as weak as a
+child, and sunk back into a chair.
+
+By degrees he grew calmer. The case was a desperate one. Again he
+swallowed a long draught of brandy, which seemed to reduce his nerves to
+a state of subjection. Gradually he rallied the dissipated powers of his
+mind, and was ready to meet the emergency before him.
+
+Dalhousie, after making his appalling announcement, had thrown himself
+into a chair, to await the effect of his words. He seemed in no hurry to
+continue the subject. Thus far the effect warranted his most sanguine
+hopes of the realization of his great schemes.
+
+Jaspar, after recovering some portion of his former calmness, said,
+
+"May I ask how you obtained possession of the document?"
+
+"That question, sir, I must decline answering."
+
+"You will, at least, show me the paper?"
+
+"That also I must decline."
+
+Jaspar bit his lip.
+
+"How shall I know, then, that you are not deceiving me?"
+
+"I assure you that I have the document, and you must trust to my honor
+for the rest."
+
+"Honor!" exclaimed Jaspar, giving way to his passion. "No one but a
+scoundrel ever talks of his honor! By ----, I only want to hear that
+word, to know that the man is a ---- rascal!"
+
+"Very well, sir, I shall be under the necessity of seeking out your
+niece."
+
+"My niece!" roared Jaspar, terror-stricken. "Did you not see her buried
+at Vicksburg?"
+
+"It might have been she, but it is scarcely possible."
+
+"Hell!" shouted Jaspar, unable to govern his fury. With long strides he
+paced the room, his teeth grating like a madman's, and his eyes
+bloodshot and glaring like those of a demon. His fears seemed to arm him
+with desperate fury.
+
+"Where is the ring?--the ring!" said he, stopping in front of the
+overseer. "Didn't you give me her ring?"
+
+"I gave you a ring," said Dalhousie, calmly.
+
+"Was it not _her_ ring? Did it not have her initial, and her father's
+hair in it?" and Jaspar flew to the secretary, where he had deposited
+the evidence of his niece's supposed death.
+
+"There is no longer any need of continuing the deception--"
+
+"Deception! Here is the ring, and here is the letter D. Doesn't it stand
+for Dumont?"
+
+"Not at all. It stands for Delia, my wife's name, in this instance."
+
+"Your wife's name!" exclaimed Jaspar, striking his forehead furiously.
+
+"It does, sir, and for her mother's name also, whose memory it was
+intended to commemorate."
+
+Jaspar's emotions were so violent, that the overseer began to fear some
+fatal consequences might ensue.
+
+"Calm yourself, Mr. Dumont. Do not let your passions overcome you. I
+have no intention of making an evil use of this information," said he,
+in a soothing tone.
+
+This seemed to calm the violence of Jaspar's feelings, and with a strong
+effort he recovered his command of himself.
+
+"My niece Is yet alive, is she?" said Jaspar, looking anxiously at the
+overseer.
+
+"Perhaps not; but probably she is."
+
+"And it was not she that was buried?"
+
+"As to that, I cannot say; I never saw the lady alive."
+
+"And what are your plans?" asked Jaspar, with a glance of doubt at the
+overseer.
+
+"I will go to France, if you provide the means."
+
+"Suppose I will not?"
+
+"Perhaps your niece will."
+
+"What if she is dead?"
+
+"I can better tell when I know that she is dead."
+
+"How much money do you require?"
+
+"Twenty thousand."
+
+"A large sum."
+
+"From millions your niece would gladly give more."
+
+"I will think of your proposition. Come in again in two hours, and you
+shall have my answer."
+
+"Better give me an answer now."
+
+"I wish to consider."
+
+"You have only to choose between twenty thousand dollars and the whole
+fortune. With your means at command, much reflection is not needed."
+
+"Show me the papers, and I will decide at once."
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I must consider whether your pretensions are well founded."
+
+"I will not be over nice; but any attempt to play me false shall rest
+heavily on your own head."
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, with something like a smile, but more like a
+sneer.
+
+With compressed lips, and the scowl of a demon, Jaspar witnessed the
+departure of the overseer. His case looked desperate, and he felt
+something like the gloominess of despair. Dalhousie could be disposed
+of, but the niece!--the niece, if she yet lived, would be the
+destruction of all his avaricious schemes.
+
+As usual when agitated, he paced the room; and, as he reflected upon the
+danger, and the desperate remedies which suggested themselves, his
+manner grew more and more demoniacal. He resolved to trust no man. This
+was a dark thought, and could proceed only from the darkest mind.
+
+The twenty thousand dollars he could pay; but the man who had such a
+hold upon him would never be satisfied while a dollar remained. And
+revenge was sweet! No! Dalhousie must not be _bought_ off! It was a
+feast to his mind to anticipate the torture of the overseer!
+
+An exclamation of satisfaction escaped him, as he suddenly decided upon
+the means of torture. In imagination he could see before him _the
+thing_, who had dared to threaten him, lingering out the moments of a
+hated life in slow agony. The vision was one of pleasure, and he rubbed
+his hands with delight.
+
+The means of accomplishing his dark purpose then came up for
+consideration, and in this connection he happened to think of De Guy. He
+must be the minister of his vengeance, and the herald of his future
+safety; and he summoned him again to his presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     "Thou hast stepped in between me and my hopes,
+     And ravished from me all my soul held dear."  ROWE.
+
+
+De Guy returned to the library at Jaspar's summons. The shrewd attorney
+at once perceived the conflict which agitated the mind of his patron. He
+had come to Bellevue with a purpose, and, as Jaspar's disturbed mind
+seemed to favor that purpose, he hailed it as an omen of success. But
+what had so agitated him? Jaspar was not a man to be depressed by any
+trivial circumstance.
+
+The attorney did not have to wait long in suspense, for Jaspar related
+the particulars of his interview with Dalhousie, and mentioned the price
+he had named to insure his silence. It was now De Guy's turn to be
+disturbed. The purpose for which he had come was likely to be thwarted
+by this new aspirant for a share in the Dumont estates.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed his deep
+anxiety.
+
+"Get rid of him! His story is a fabrication," returned De Guy.
+
+"Not entirely. He knows too much for our safety."
+
+"So much the worse for him!"
+
+"Why? What would you do?"
+
+"Shut his mouth! It matters not how. You do not want to--" and the
+attorney drew his under lip beneath his upper teeth, and produced an
+explosive sound, very much like the crack of a pistol, or a
+champagne-cork, but which Jaspar did not mistake for the latter. "You
+do not want to--_f-h-t_--him, if you can help it."
+
+"It would be the safest way," returned the other, not at all embarrassed
+by the attorney's ambiguous method of expressing himself.
+
+"Perhaps not; though 'dead men tell no tales,' it is also true that
+'murder will out.' Besides, I have conscientious scruples."
+
+Jaspar sneered at this last remark; but the attorney was too useful an
+adviser at that moment to be lightly provoked, and he suppressed the
+angry exclamation which rose to his lips.
+
+"How would the slave jail do?" said he, with a fiendish smile.
+
+"Too public. Our object is to save the man's life,--an act of humanity;
+but we must not endanger our own safety."
+
+"No mortal man can ever know that he is confined there. The jail was
+built under my own direction, and, owing to its peculiar construction,
+not even the hands on the estate will know that it is occupied. I always
+keep the keys myself."
+
+"If you are satisfied, it is enough. But how can you get him in?"
+
+"I can manage that, with your assistance," said Jaspar, who had already
+arranged every particular. "But his wife?"
+
+"His wife! Has he a wife?"
+
+"Ay; and one who, if I mistake not, will give us more trouble than the
+fellow himself."
+
+"She must be caged with him."
+
+"You say well, Mr. De Guy. But can you reconcile this advice with your
+dainty humanity?" said Jaspar, with a sneer.
+
+"Certainly, I can! It were cruelty to separate man and wife, even in
+death. If I had a wife, I should be sorry to part with her under any
+circumstances."
+
+Jaspar grinned a sickly smile.
+
+"But the plan!" continued the attorney. "This loving couple will not
+willingly occupy your fancy apartment."
+
+"Leave that to me. Go to the jail. Here are the keys. I will send them
+to you. When they are in, lock the doors!"
+
+De Guy smiled.
+
+"You do not understand me?"
+
+The attorney confessed that he did not.
+
+"Nevertheless, go to the jail, and wait their coming. Unlock the doors,
+and get out of sight. They will enter, like lambs."
+
+Jaspar explained a little further, and the attorney took his departure
+to obey his instructions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the time appointed, Dalhousie returned to receive Jaspar's reply.
+
+"You are punctual," said the latter.
+
+"I am," replied Dalhousie, cavalierly. "This business admits of no
+delay. Are you prepared to give me an answer?"
+
+"Yes," returned Jaspar, endeavoring to assume a crestfallen air.
+
+"Well, sir, do you accept my terms?"
+
+"I do, on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"It is, that you sign this bond never again to land in America, and to
+preserve entire silence in regard to the information you have obtained;"
+and Jaspar read an instrument he had drawn up, to blind the eyes of the
+overseer.
+
+"I agree to it."
+
+"It is well. But a further difficulty presents itself. I have not so
+much money in the world. The estate, perhaps you know, consists mostly
+of real estate, stocks, negroes, &c. I have not five thousand dollars by
+me."
+
+The overseer looked at Jaspar with a keen, contemptuous glance, as if to
+read any attempt on his part to dupe him; but the wily planter moved not
+a muscle.
+
+"Then you cannot, if you would, consummate the bargain?" said he.
+
+"I said not so," returned Jaspar. "I only remarked that a difficulty had
+presented itself."
+
+"Pray explain yourself."
+
+"The difficulty can be removed."
+
+"Well, how? What new risk must I run?"
+
+"No risk. To tell you all in a few words, I have the money in gold
+buried on the estate."
+
+"That will suit me better. I prefer gold."
+
+"It is buried three feet under ground, in the slave jail. I selected
+that place to bury it, because I could dig without attracting
+attention."
+
+"It can easily be brought to light. An hour's work with the spade will
+unearth it."
+
+"True; but I have not the strength to dig. Besides, I am engaged with a
+friend in the nest room."
+
+Dalhousie accepted the excuse, for he had seen De Guy, as he was walking
+in the garden, half an hour before.
+
+"I can dig it up myself. Show me the spot."
+
+"Very well; but sign the bond first."
+
+"Of course, if you keep not your faith with me, the bond is nothing,"
+said Dalhousie, as he affixed his signature to the paper, which Jaspar
+folded carefully, and put in his pocket.
+
+"Here are directions which will enable you to find it without the
+necessity of my attending you;" and he handed him a slip of paper, upon
+which were written minute directions to the supposed locality of the
+treasure.
+
+"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the directions, "while
+I am digging, you should close the doors upon me?"
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the heart
+belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial muscles.
+
+"I have not the highest confidence in _your_ honor."
+
+"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you any person
+at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"
+
+"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the mortifying
+fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.
+
+"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door, and, if
+she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside when I close
+the door."
+
+Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the fitness of
+the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt it.
+
+Briefly he narrated to his wife--though with some variations and
+concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all his operations--the
+history of the affair, and the good fortune that awaited him; and
+requested her attendance at the jail, to stand sentry over the gloomy
+den, while he dug up the treasure.
+
+De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his wife
+made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in a
+cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie walked
+twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building. Stationing his
+wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the locality of the
+supposed treasure.
+
+De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when the
+vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the exercise of
+extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, the rear of the
+jail. Cat-like, he crept to the corner, and listened. He could hear
+their conversation. Carefully he stole round to the corner nearest to
+the door. For an instant the wife had left her station, to observe the
+progress of her husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was
+not the man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
+which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he flew
+to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the midst of
+their vision of wealth and happiness.
+
+Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to the
+mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his neighbor's cow.
+Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently waiting his return.
+
+"Are they safe?" said he.
+
+"As safe as your jail-walls can make them. Your plan was a clumsy one,
+but I _forced_ it to succeed."
+
+"Did they not enter without scruple?"
+
+"Yes, but the sentinel."
+
+"Pshaw! did you not know she would desert her post? If she saw not
+danger, she would fear none in the day-time,--it is woman-like."
+
+"Not always; but it matters not; they are safe. Now to business."
+
+"Business!" exclaimed Jaspar, with a start, and a wild stare at the
+attorney. "The business is done."
+
+"Not all of it. There are other enemies in the field."
+
+"What mean you?" said Jaspar, alarmed. "Are we not safe yet?"
+
+"Not quite," replied the smooth attorney, with a quiet smile. "The game
+you played was a deep one, and you must needs persevere to the end."
+
+"Explain yourself, man; don't trifle with me," said Jaspar, roused by
+the smooth smile of the attorney; for that smile seemed to him full of
+meaning.
+
+"All in good time, my dear sir. Let me beg of you not to be discomposed
+by anything I may say to you."
+
+Jaspar sneered, but ventured no reply.
+
+"I have served you faithfully, you must acknowledge."
+
+"I will acknowledge nothing," said Jaspar, testily.
+
+"The steamer exploded, you remember," returned De Guy, with an
+expression of sly humor, which Jaspar did not appreciate.
+
+"I do remember it, by Heaven! But this villanous Dalhousie says my niece
+was not known to have been killed."
+
+"Exactly so."
+
+"Sir! Do you mean to say that you _know_ she was not lost?"
+
+"Precisely so."
+
+"By ----! Sir, you have been making a merit of this very thing."
+
+"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a
+particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself this
+morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan succeeded
+admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the intention of
+serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good intentions!"
+
+"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"
+
+"Did the best that could be done, under the circumstances."
+
+"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."
+
+"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of happiness
+and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my advice."
+
+"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will be the
+best that could possibly be given to a man in your condition."
+
+"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the smooth
+words of his companion.
+
+"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."
+
+"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day without
+opening your mouth."
+
+"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."
+
+"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when the girl
+herself is at hand?"
+
+"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin, always
+advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to other
+matters."
+
+"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and paying his
+devoir to the brandy-bottle.
+
+"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair and
+coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing himself
+lazily upon the sofa--"I will tell you. The case is not desperate yet.
+How much is the amount of the old colonel's property?"
+
+"How, sir! What mean you?"
+
+"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable
+_sang-froid_, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and, taking
+therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent vesuvian.
+Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely declined the courtesy,
+he continued, "It is necessary to our further progress that I have this
+information."
+
+"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What then?"
+replied Jaspar, doggedly.
+
+"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more than
+double that sum."
+
+"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.
+
+"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."
+
+"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.
+
+"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy, calmly.
+
+"He might possibly have left more."
+
+"Haven't you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the
+attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one
+perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened the
+drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.
+
+"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"
+
+"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is worth
+more,"--and he commenced fumbling over the contents of the drawer.
+
+"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains out!"
+said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the table.
+
+"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you shall have
+it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"--and he prepared to depart.
+
+"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can satisfy you,
+though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the subject."
+
+"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney, not at all
+disconcerted by what had happened.
+
+"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."
+
+"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at least. Is it
+not a million and a half?"
+
+"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.
+
+"Perhaps two millions."
+
+"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.
+
+"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a million and
+a half."
+
+"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.
+
+"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De Guy,
+loud enough to be heard by his companion.
+
+"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which betrayed
+but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as he heard these
+words.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and one-third of
+it would be very handsome for you."
+
+"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very grateful to
+you for allowing me so much."
+
+"Exactly so. Gratitude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The fact is,
+Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my expensive habits,
+one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a single man, and not
+likely to change your condition at present, so that you can have no
+possible use, either for yourself or for your heirs, for any more than
+one-third."
+
+"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering sneer.
+"But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion's share?"
+
+"O, but, my dear sir, you will not grumble! Your sense of justice will
+enable you to perceive the equity of this division."
+
+"Enough of this! I am in no humor for jesting," said Jaspar, with a
+frown.
+
+"Jesting!" exclaimed the attorney, with a well-made gesture of
+astonishment; "I was never more in earnest in my life."
+
+"May I be allowed to inquire the name of your intended bride?" sneered
+Jaspar.
+
+"A very proper question; and, considering our intimate friendship, a
+very natural one. Although my intention is a profound secret, and one I
+should not like to have go abroad at present, especially as her nearest
+of kin might possibly object, still I shall venture to inform _you_,
+since you are to have the honor of providing the means of carrying my
+matrimonial designs into effect."
+
+"I am certainly under obligations for your favorable consideration. But
+the lady's name?"
+
+"Miss Emily Dumont! a beautiful creature--high-spirited--every way
+worthy--"
+
+"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized
+the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy. "You cursed
+villain! You and I must cry quits!"
+
+"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing from his
+pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is _all_ mine."
+
+Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing down the
+pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the violence of his
+emotions.
+
+"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me. There is
+no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear all,"--and Jaspar
+felt that he was sold to the fiend before him.
+
+"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney, resuming
+his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the moment of peril.
+"I offer you the means of safety. You will escape all the dangers that
+lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to see, you perfectly
+understand."
+
+"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his forty
+pieces of silver--the more fool he, to throw them away! I could not do
+this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my money."
+
+"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice too mean
+for your noble nature."
+
+Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform their
+office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous master.
+
+"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."
+
+Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion towards
+which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the command was
+imperative. He could not resist--his will was gone.
+
+"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.
+
+"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied the
+attorney, promptly.
+
+"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you will."
+
+"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the honored
+inmate of our dwelling,--the affectionate uncle of your Emily, as of
+old," said the attorney, with infinite good humor.
+
+Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the stroke of
+this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no time.
+
+"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing a pen,
+and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have already been
+somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is your consent to my
+union with your niece. Call some one to witness it."
+
+Jaspar signed the certificate, without reading it. A witness was called,
+and the paper in due form was deposited in De Guy's pocket.
+
+"Now, sir, the lady is not altogether willing to consent to this
+arrangement; but you must persuade her, and, if need be, compel her, to
+consent. She will be here in a few days. After the marriage, it will
+only remain for me to make over to you one-third of the property, which,
+as her husband, I can then legally do. Be firm, and behave like a man,
+and your troubles are ended. Everything will be hushed up, and you can
+spend the evening of your days in peace and quiet. I bid you good-day."
+
+The attorney formally and politely ushered himself out of the library,
+and took his departure for New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     "Jaffier, you're free; but these must wait for judgment."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+We left Dalhousie engaged in the seemingly hopeless task of undermining
+the wall of the slave jail, at which he labored for several hours,
+resting at intervals, as his exhausted frame demanded. The prospect of
+realizing his hope encouraged him, and lent an artificial strength to
+his arm. He had already excavated a pit several feet in depth, but had
+not reached the bottom of the foundation wall. The quantity of earth
+piled upon the brink of the pit required extra exertion to remove it,
+but he toiled on with the energy of despair.
+
+After laboring several hours more, he discovered, to his great joy, the
+bottom of the foundation. Again he plied the spade, and, by almost
+superhuman exertions, he succeeded in excavating a hole under the
+stones, which, below the surface of the ground, were not laid in mortar.
+After loosening all the small stones around a larger one, he found that
+he could pry it out, which, with much labor, he accomplished. The
+removal of the other stones was comparatively an easy task, and a little
+time sufficed to clear a space up to the solid masonry.
+
+But here a new difficulty presented itself. The hole he had dug was
+already half filled with the stones he had tumbled from their positions.
+His strength was not sufficient to remove them, and he was compelled to
+dig again, in order to prosecute his labors.
+
+The wall removed, he commenced digging outside of the foundation wall.
+Patiently he dug down to obtain sufficient room for the deposit of earth
+from the outside. Slowly and laboriously he undermined the ground, till
+the surface above him caved in, and--joy to his panting soul!--the air,
+the pure air of heaven, rushed in through the aperture! Hastily
+enlarging the cavity, and removing the earth to the inside, he ascended
+to the surface of the ground. A feeling of gratitude thrilled through
+his frame, as he once more inhaled the free air of heaven, that he had
+escaped the terrible fate which a few hours before had seemed
+inevitable.
+
+With faltering step,--for now that his Herculean task was accomplished,
+the reality of his weakened physical condition was painfully
+apparent,--he walked round the jail, to satisfy himself that no one was
+in the vicinity. The sun was set, and the shades of night were gathering
+upon the earth. The time was favorable for his escape. Having satisfied
+himself that he was unobserved, he hastened to the garden, which was
+close at hand, to procure the means of invigorating his own body, and
+restoring to life and animation the partner of his captivity. Fruit of
+various kinds--melons, figs--rewarded his anxious search. Filling his
+handkerchief with cantelopes and figs, he hastened back to the jail,
+with all the speed his weary limbs would permit. His thoughts were fixed
+upon his wife, whose suffering had pierced his soul more deeply than all
+the anxiety and doubt he had experienced on his own account. As he
+tottered along, he asked himself if he should eat of the fruit he
+carried ere she had tasted of the banquet. He drew one of the
+rosy-cheeked, juicy figs from the handkerchief. It was no loss of
+time--no deferring of the succor she needed--to eat as he walked; run he
+could not, though he fain would have quickened his tardy pace. It would
+restore his strength, and enable him the better to protect and rescue
+her. It was not wrong, though, from the deep well of his affection, came
+up something like a reproach for his selfishness. He ate the fruit. The
+effect was, or seemed to be, magical. He thought he could feel it
+imparting strength to his exhausted form. Again he ate, and in the
+pleasant sensation to his unsated palate, his imagination, as much as
+the fruit, nerved his muscles, and he walked with a firmer step.
+
+He had not completed one-half the distance back, when he discovered two
+men in the vicinity of the jail. A cold shudder nearly paralyzed him.
+Was his labor all in vain? Had he with so much trial and suffering
+effected his escape, only to be incarcerated again? The thought was
+maddening, and he resolved to die rather than be returned to the
+dungeon.
+
+Drawing a revolver from his pocket, with which he had prudently prepared
+himself before his interview with Jaspar, he proceeded on his way.
+
+On a nearer approach, the men appeared to be strangers to him. They
+might, however, be in the employ of Jaspar. They might be engaged in
+watching over his captivity.
+
+He approached nearer. He had never seen either of them before. They did
+not look like men whom Jaspar would have been likely to select for such
+a purpose as he apprehended. Still, he took the precaution to examine
+the caps upon his pistol, and have his bowie-knife in a convenient place
+for immediate use.
+
+Dalhousie was the first to speak.
+
+"Your business here?" demanded he, regardless of the courtesy to which
+he had been all his life accustomed.
+
+"The fact on 'tis," replied one of the strangers, a little startled by
+the rude manner of Dalhousie, "the fact on 'tis, we are lookin' arter
+the mansion of a Mr. Dumont. Perhaps you will oblige us by tellin' us
+which way to go."
+
+"He lives in yonder house," replied Dalhousie, pointing it out.
+
+The simplicity of the speaker dissipated his apprehensions, and his
+curiosity was excited.
+
+"You know him, do you?" continued he.
+
+"Well, no--I can't say I do."
+
+"But you have business with him?"
+
+"Not particularly with him,--the Lord forbid!" replied the stranger,
+devoutly.
+
+"Devil a bit with him, at all," added his companion.
+
+"Since no one else resides under the same roof with him, may I ask the
+reason of your visit there, if I am not too bold?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Sure, it's only to see the counthry, about here, we've come," replied
+the Irish stranger.
+
+"No, Partrick, you know that is not the truth. Never tell a lie for
+anything, Partrick. Our business an't with him, but it consarns him. We
+don't care about mentioning it to everybody."
+
+"I do not mean to be impertinent," said Dalhousie; "but perhaps I may be
+able to serve you. The man you seek is a villain!"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan,--for we presume it is
+unnecessary to _tell_ the reader that it was he,--"I know _that_."
+
+"Indeed, then you have some knowledge of him?"
+
+"Sartain! but do you know a minister in these parts by the name of
+Faxon?"
+
+"I do; he lives close by."
+
+"Do you belong in this part of this country, Mister?" asked Uncle
+Nathan, who seemed to make the question a prelude to other inquiries.
+
+"I do. But I must leave you now. I am the bearer of life to one whom I
+love dearer than myself. I have been foully wronged by the man you
+visit."
+
+"Heavens and airth! you don't say so?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Doomed to a death by starvation, with my wife, in yonder jail, by his
+malice, I have just effected my escape. My wife is nearly dead, but I
+hope to restore her with these fruits."
+
+"Good Heavens! who would have thought there was such a monster upon the
+airth?"
+
+"By the powers!" ejaculated Pat Fegan.
+
+"Can't we help you?" asked Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Perhaps you can. I thank you, and, if it is not too late, she also will
+thank you. My strength is nearly gone."
+
+Dalhousie, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, proceeded towards the
+jail, the former relating, as they went, the terrible incidents of their
+captivity, and the means by which he had effected their happy
+deliverance.
+
+On the night of the explosion of the Chalmetta's boiler, Uncle Nathan
+and Pat Fegan had saved their lives by jumping overboard, and had been
+picked up by the Flatfoot. The true-hearted New Englander had made a
+diligent search for the parties who had intrusted the will in his
+keeping, but without success. He had been enabled to gain no tidings of
+any of them, and was now continuing his search to the mansion of the
+Dumont family.
+
+The party reached the jail, and Dalhousie leaped into the pit, followed
+by his companions. The poor wife seemed to have no realization of the
+event which had set them free, and gazed with a wild stare upon her
+husband and those who accompanied him.
+
+"We are safe, Delia! we are safe!" said Dalhousie, as he proceeded to
+untie the bundle of fruit.
+
+"Safe! no, it cannot be--only a dream! But who are these persons?"
+
+"They are friends, Delia--friends who have come to help me in saving
+you. Take one of these figs, dear. They will restore you."
+
+"Figs!" replied Delia, with a vacant look.
+
+"Yes, dearest; taste it,"--and he placed the fruit, which he had
+divested of its rind, to her lips.
+
+The act seemed to restore her wandering mind to its equilibrium, and she
+painfully lifted herself on the pallet of straw, and took the fruit in
+her hand. She gazed upon it with a kind of silent rapture, while a
+faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.
+
+"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"--and she tasted the fig.
+
+"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."
+
+"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to eat
+myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place? Are not
+these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the pit you have
+dug?"
+
+"No, dearest, they are _our_ friends," said Dalhousie, pained by the
+wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that it might end in
+insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you have eaten some of
+these figs and melons. I am almost restored by the joy of this moment,
+dearest; and you must strive to be of good cheer."
+
+Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle Nathan and
+Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not so easily
+restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to have given her
+constitution a shock from which it would take time to recover.
+
+A conference took place between the parties, to decide upon the best
+means of removing the lady, who was utterly incapable of moving a step,
+and scarcely of lifting her form on her rude couch. Uncle Nathan was not
+long in devising a method; and, directing Pat to enlarge the aperture
+through which the captives were to escape, he went in search of some
+canes, with which to construct a litter. Pat applied himself vigorously
+to his task, tumbling over the huge stones like playthings, and handling
+the shovel with all that dexterity for which the Celtic race is so
+distinguished.
+
+A rude litter was constructed, on which were laid the coats of the
+party, so as to render it as comfortable as possible to the sufferer.
+Uncle Nathan and Dalhousie, with much tenderness, though not without
+pain to the invalid, succeeded in getting her through the aperture into
+the open air, where she was placed upon the litter.
+
+It was decided to carry her to the house of Mr. Faxon, upon whose active
+sympathies they relied for shelter and assistance; and they went with
+the more confidence, because Uncle Nathan had heard from Emily the
+interest he took in her affairs. The litter was borne by Uncle Nathan
+and Pat, while Dalhousie walked by its side, to cheer the heart of his
+wife by promises of future joy, which the uncertain future might never
+redeem.
+
+Mr. Faxon received the party with scarcely an inquiry as to the nature
+of the misfortune which brought them to his door. There was a person in
+distress, and this was all his great, sympathetic heart needed to bid
+him open wide his doors.
+
+Delia Dalhousie was placed upon a bed, a negro was despatched for a
+physician, and every effort used to alleviate her physical and mental
+sufferings.
+
+After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon listened
+with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's confinement, and
+the causes which led to it; for the overseer was so candid as to relate
+all, not even omitting the bribe he had agreed to take of Jaspar.
+
+"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when they are
+unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the future. Never
+do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever befalls you in this
+changing world, you will have an approving conscience to smile upon you,
+and lighten the darkest hour of adversity. But your tale brings me
+consolation. There is yet hope that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel
+story of her death has darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in
+spite of the reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and
+I pray that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
+unfortunate."
+
+Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and acknowledged
+the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle Nathan heard with
+astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of Emily had been guilty,
+and his simple New England heart was sorely perplexed by it. He had no
+"idea" of such depravity, and he was tempted, even in spite of the
+Scripture injunction to the contrary, to "thank God that he was not like
+other men."
+
+In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the evening
+had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to broach the
+subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until a late hour, in
+discussing the means of doing justice to the injured, in restoring to
+Bellevue its rightful mistress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "To do a great right, do a little wrong."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
+Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant during
+her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with every luxury
+the most pampered appetite could desire, her confinement deserved no
+better name. She recognized the place, and doubted not she should be
+again subjected to the infamous persecution of her old enemy. She
+wondered that he had not already presented himself, and concluded he
+could not yet have returned from his up-river journey, or he would have
+done so. No one visited her but the negress, whose conversation, in her
+eagerness to serve the liberal proprietor of the office, was disgusting
+to her refined sensibilities. Not oven De Guy came, to give her any
+intimation of the nature of the fate which awaited her.
+
+Maxwell's mind, she was satisfied, was fixed upon the possession of her
+estates. She could not now entertain the belief which once, in her weak
+pity, she had countenanced, that the attorney could _love_ her. O, no!
+God forbid that even the human heart can love, and, at the same time,
+persecute the object of its affections! It was her estates; and she half
+resolved to compromise with her tormentor by yielding him one-half of
+her property, on the condition of his restoring the other half, for she
+doubted not that he was able to do so. But there was something so
+debasing to her sentiment of truth and justice in the fact of
+bargaining with so base a man, that she could not conquer her prejudice,
+and finally determined to suffer everything rather than succumb to the
+villain.
+
+Hope had not yet abandoned her. She had too much confidence in the
+omnipresent justice of an overruling Providence to doubt that all would
+yet end well.
+
+Dido was her jailer, and she scarcely left the office, through which
+alone egress was had from the apartment of Emily. There she dozed away
+the day and night, freely indulging in the fashionable habit of
+"imbibing," to chase away the _ennui_ of the heavy hours. Her liberal
+perquisites enabled her to gratify her appetite without stint or
+measure, though a sort of demi-consciousness of her responsibility
+deterred her from an entire abandonment to the pleasures of the cup.
+
+The apartment in which Emily was confined was lighted by windows of
+stained glass, opening into the main office, so that there was no
+immediate connection with the open air. This fact rendered the room so
+secure that Dido rested perfectly easy from the fear of interruption,
+save from the front of the building.
+
+The colored guardian, having imbibed rather inordinately one day, was
+disposed to court the favor of the sleepy god, and stretched herself at
+full length upon one of the easy lounges of the office. Her eyelids
+opened and closed languidly, as though she was about to sink away into
+dreamy unconsciousness, when she was startled by a loud knocking at the
+door.
+
+"Who's dar?" shouted Dido, springing to her feet; for a visit to the
+office, at this season of the year, was of rare occurrence.
+
+"Open the door, Max," responded a voice from the outside.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell not here, sar," said the colored lady, partly opening the
+door.
+
+"Not here!" returned the visitor, pushing into the office in spite of
+the negress, who was disposed to prevent his entrance. "Isn't Max in
+town?"
+
+"No sar; he went away to de Norf about a monf ago."
+
+"Look here, you black imp," said the stranger, in a severe tone, "do you
+mean to say that Max is _not_ in town?"
+
+"I do, for sartin, sar."
+
+"And he has left you to practise law for him in his absence?" returned
+the visitor, with a grin.
+
+"No sar, I takes care ob de buildin."
+
+"Fudge! Maxwell always shuts up his room when he leaves town;" and the
+stranger walked round the room towards the private apartment, much to
+the consternation of Dido.
+
+"No, Massa, he tell me, monf ago, to keep de room in order."
+
+"No doubt he did," returned the stranger, placing his hand on the handle
+of the door, and attempting to open it, which, by Dido's precaution, was
+ineffectual.
+
+"Is there no one in this room?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"No sar, de room is locked, and Massa Maxwell hab carry off de key."
+
+The stranger walked several times round the room, and thoroughly
+scrutinized everything; after which, to the entire satisfaction of the
+colored lady, he took his departure. Passing out of the building, he
+crossed the street and entered a coffee-room, at the front window of
+which he seated himself, as if with the intention of watching Maxwell's
+office.
+
+This person was the reader's old acquaintance, Vernon,--or, more
+properly, Jerome Vaudelier, whose intervening history we are now called
+upon to relate. It will be remembered that, at the request of his
+father, and at the earnest desire of Henry Carroll, as well as by the
+promptings of his own wish to do justice to the heiress, he had gone to
+Vicksburg, for the purpose of keeping an eye on the movements of
+Maxwell. On his arrival at the hotel, he found the attorney, and dined
+With him; but after dinner he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
+All Vernon's inquiries were of no avail. The landlord said he had paid
+his bill, and that was the last he had seen of him. Vernon was
+perplexed, and on learning that no boat had left since dinner, he was at
+a loss which way to proceed. Late in the afternoon he obtained, as he
+thought, some clue to him; and he departed, without loss of time, to
+Jackson, whither the attorney was supposed to have gone. His search,
+however, was futile, and he returned to Vicksburg by the morning train.
+Much disheartened, he was compelled to go to Cottage Island with the
+intelligence that his efforts had been foiled. On his arrival, he
+learned, to his astonishment, that Emily had just gone to Bellevue in
+company with De Guy--a person of whom he had no knowledge.
+
+Though Dr. Vaudelier and Henry Carroll had been satisfied with the
+evidences brought by De Guy, Vernon was not. He knew better than they
+the character of Maxwell, and it was determined that he should proceed
+immediately to New Orleans, to guard against the possibility of any evil
+to which Emily might be subjected.
+
+On the morning after De Guy's departure, he proceeded down the river,
+and landed in the vicinity of Bellevue, to which he immediately made his
+way. Without a direct application to any one, he learned that Emily had
+not yet arrived. He waited in the vicinity another day, but obtained no
+tidings of her. His worst fears were now confirmed. De Guy had deceived
+them.
+
+This De Guy, then, was an emissary of Maxwell. To his mind, now animated
+by a high purpose, the reflection was annoying. To the fate of Emily his
+new destiny seemed to be attached. His greatest error--at least, the one
+most troublesome to his awakened conscience--was the act of oppressing
+Emily. He felt that the washing of the stains from his character
+depended upon securing her rights.
+
+The _ci devant_ desperado, as we have before indicated, was radically
+changed at heart, and he now felt more interest in the welfare of Emily
+than he had ever before harbored for any human being.
+
+His position was full of embarrassments. He learned, while at Bellevue,
+that Jaspar was not, and had not been, sick. This information decided
+his future course. The mission of De Guy had only been a decoy, to lure
+her into the hands of Maxwell.
+
+Hatchie was with her; but, alas! what could a slave do against the
+powerful machinations of such a villain as Maxwell?
+
+After obtaining the information which satisfied him of the imposture, he
+proceeded to New Orleans. Knowing the name of the steamer in which De
+Guy had taken passage from Vicksburg, he hastened to the levee, to gain
+what tidings he might from the officers of the Montezuma. He found that
+a lady and gentleman answering to his description had taken a carriage
+on the morning of their arrival, and this was all they knew. In answer
+to his inquiries for Hatchie, he learned that a servant had been handed
+over to the police, to be imprisoned in the calaboose till called for.
+
+This was scanty information upon which to continue his search. His first
+step was to go to the calaboose, where he managed to obtain an interview
+with Hatchie. The poor fellow was in an agony of grief,--not on his own
+account, but on that of his mistress, for he well understood the reason
+of this imprisonment.
+
+Hatchie, of course, could give him no information of the whereabouts of
+Emily, nor offer any suggestion; and Vernon was compelled to leave the
+disheartened mulatto, with only a promise of speedily effecting his
+deliverance.
+
+Vernon's next step was to ascertain the present abiding place of
+Maxwell, if, indeed, he was in the city; and for this purpose he had
+gone to his office. The open room did not verify the statements of the
+negress. He knew that Maxwell always closed up his rooms when he left
+the city, and the fact of their being open now tended to fix suspicion
+upon him, or rather to confirm the suspicions before entertained. He
+had made the visit to the attorney's rooms to gain information; and,
+being partly convinced, by the manner of the negress, that the rear
+chamber was occupied, he retired to the coffee-room to digest the
+knowledge, and, if possible, arrive at some conclusion through it, as
+well as at the same time to keep watch of the movements at the office.
+
+Who was this De Guy, who had been the agent of Maxwell?--for such he
+determined to believe him, until convinced to the contrary. He canvassed
+their mutual acquaintances, but could remember no such person. Intimate
+as he had been with all the associates of Maxwell, he could not identify
+this bold and cunning confederate.
+
+He had not long deliberated, when, to his surprise,--albeit it was not
+an event at all remarkable,--Maxwell entered the coffee-room.
+
+Before Vernon had time to decide whether or not he should charge the
+lawyer with the abduction of Emily, that worthy approached his chair,
+and, with much cordiality,--more than he had formerly bestowed upon
+him,--extended his hand, and expressed his happiness at again meeting
+him in the city.
+
+Undecided as yet how to proceed, Vernon returned his salutations with an
+appearance of equal cordiality.
+
+"My dear fellow," said Maxwell, "I am rejoiced to see you in town again.
+I was afraid you would quite desert us."
+
+This language was new and strange to Vernon. It sounded like the days in
+which he had been respectable--before his vices had found him out.
+
+"Indeed! why did you think so?" replied Vernon.
+
+"Why, Vernon, there was some kind of a ridiculous story current at
+Vicksburg, to the effect that you had joined the church, or something of
+that sort."
+
+"Ha, ha! funny!" said Vernon, adopting the free and easy style, which
+had formerly distinguished his colloquial efforts. "Where did you pick
+up the story?"
+
+"O, it was quite current when I left Vicksburg."
+
+"A good joke, hey?" said Vernon, musing.
+
+When Maxwell left Vicksburg, it was impossible that any such story could
+have been extant. Of his reformation no one but the people of Cottage
+Island could have known anything. It seemed a little mysterious that
+Maxwell should know of it; but the fact of De Guy's visit to the house
+of his father came to his assistance, and the mystery was solved. De Guy
+had communicated this information to Maxwell, and thus he was enabled to
+establish conclusively the connection between them.
+
+Vernon's plan for the future was adopted; and manifesting no surprise,
+he denied the fact of his reformation, however strong the circumstances
+might be against him. He had often been implicated in fouler deceptions
+than this in a worse cause, and, in spite of his great resolves, he did
+not hesitate in this instance.
+
+"Quite a sell, wasn't it, this reformation? The old gentleman has a fine
+place up there,--money in the bank,--hey, boy? I saw through the whole
+of it, as soon as I heard the absurd story," said Maxwell, who, to do
+him justice, did not believe the tale. It was too much for his
+credulity, that a thing like Vernon could be animated by a good
+motive,--could, by any possibility, abandon the error of his ways.
+
+"Just so, Max. The fact is, I found the old fellow had plenty of money,
+and no one but me to leave it to; so I thought it would be a devilish
+pity to have it all go to found a hospital, an orthodox college, or some
+such absurdity, and I could not resist the temptation to become a little
+saintly, just for a few days."
+
+"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The old
+fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"
+
+"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip to from
+Vicksburg?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence, and
+thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I gave you
+the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and then taking
+the boat."
+
+"But you didn't know I had reformed then,--ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the island,--I overheard
+that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy speaking of it. But I own,
+Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you unheard."
+
+"Max, who is this De Guy?"
+
+"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know him."
+
+"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot _wool_ me? By the way, that
+was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after the girl. When he
+had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I had not come and
+assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not possibly be concerned
+in the affair."
+
+"Indeed! did you do me this essential service?" said Maxwell, forgetting
+that he had denied his connection with De Guy.
+
+"I did. If you had left the matter with me, I could have done it
+better."
+
+"Well, Vernon, I see you are all right yet; but the thing worked to a
+charm. De Guy is the cleverest fellow out. The girl is safe."
+
+"So I suppose," said Vernon, with an assumption of indifference.
+
+"But all the sport is yet to come."
+
+"Indeed," said Vernon, burning with anxiety, but striving to maintain
+his accustomed easy and reckless air.
+
+"Yes, Vernon, all the hard work we did up the river shall not be in
+vain. I shall win the prize!" and Maxwell rubbed his hands at the
+pleasant anticipation.
+
+"Wish you joy, Max! But you don't mean to marry the girl?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What! a quadroon?"
+
+"Pshaw! that story is all blown through. Her old uncle, up the river,
+got up that abstraction, so as to finger her property," said Maxwell,
+forgetting, in his candor, the scruples which his companion had
+expressed on a former occasion with relation to persecuting a white
+woman,--scruples which Vernon did not seem disposed to press upon the
+attorney's memory.
+
+"You helped him through with his scheme?" answered Vernon, with a bold,
+careless air.
+
+"'Pon honor, I had nothing to do with it. Old Jaspar did it all
+himself," replied Maxwell, with an oath.
+
+"Looks a little like you, though," said Vernon, with a nonchalance which
+provoked Maxwell, whose temper was not of the mildest tone.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is none of mine, though the plan was a creditable one.
+But it has brought old Jaspar into a wasp's nest."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I had my eye on the girl, ever since the colonel died. I saw through
+Jaspar's plot, and a little bravado made him tell me all about it."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Just so; and, as they are old clients of mine, why, I could not do less
+than get them out of the scrape, and remove the stain from the name of
+the fair heiress."
+
+"How can you do it?"
+
+"That's the point."
+
+"Looks rather complicated."
+
+"Exactly so; but energy and skill will accomplish wonders."
+
+"Very true," replied Vernon, in his usual quiet manner, well knowing
+that Maxwell would take the alarm if he appeared in the least
+inquisitive,--so he contented himself with this simple ejaculation.
+
+"Can I trust you still?" said Maxwell, in a low tone, and with an
+anxious look, after a pause of several minutes.
+
+"I care not whether you trust me or not," replied Vernon, with
+characteristic indifference.
+
+"Are you the man you were two months ago? If you are, I need ask no more
+questions."
+
+"I am. And now let me tell you, if you have work for me, the pay must be
+liberal. I have reformed in one respect, and that is from low prices to
+high ones. I have done too many of your little chores for nothing. Good
+pay is my motto now."
+
+"Be it so," replied Maxwell, whose suspicions, as Vernon had intended,
+were diverted by this by-talk. "I will pay you well. If my plan
+succeeds, three thousand."
+
+"Good! that sounds liberal. But suppose it fail?"
+
+"It cannot fail."
+
+"What is the plan? You mean to help old Jaspar out of the scrape, and
+save the girl too. How can you do it?"
+
+"There is only one way--marry the girl!"
+
+"Just so," replied Vernon, with an indifference it was hard to assume.
+
+"Here are the whole details of the plan. I have Jaspar's consent to my
+marriage with the girl, but I dare not attempt to consummate the scheme
+in the city. She is so cursed obstinate, that it is a hard matter to
+manage her. I saw Jaspar last night, and we concluded to have the
+ceremony performed at Bellevue, as soon as possible, or that fiery son
+of Mars and your worthy patriarch will be down upon us, and spoil the
+whole."
+
+"Never fear them," said Vernon. "You will not proceed for a week or
+two?"
+
+"A week or so will make no difference. But I am afraid it will take more
+time than that to induce her to consent. The difficulty which has
+troubled me more than any other is to get her to Bellevue. She tells
+Dido that she will not go alive. She fears Jaspar more than she does me,
+and rightly suspects that if she yields she will have to encounter
+both. She has not seen me since the row at the wood-yard, and I intend
+to transact all business with her through De Guy."
+
+"She is a difficult case," suggested Vernon, to fill up a pause in
+Maxwell's speech.
+
+"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that _you_ could
+manage her like a young lamb."
+
+"I!" exclaimed Vernon.
+
+"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"
+
+"Like a saint."
+
+"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you know."
+
+"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.
+
+"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."
+
+"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I _will_ pretend to effect her
+escape. But there is one difficulty--" and he suddenly checked his
+apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful air.
+
+"A difficulty?"
+
+"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes up the
+river are lost."
+
+"And you will return--"
+
+Vernon reflected, and then replied,
+
+"In four days."
+
+"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."
+
+"No."
+
+"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that the lady
+is doing well--that Jaspar's health is improving, &c. They won't hurry
+down, then."
+
+"A good thought. I _will_ write to him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Here is my hand for my true constancy."
+
+     "There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
+     I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
+     With this thy fair and outward character."
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room, "your work
+of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my seared heart can
+come up one single good impulse to guide me, I will bring the guilty and
+the innocent to their just desert."
+
+He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and prudence
+required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a boat would leave
+in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to Captain Carroll. This
+letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell had bargained for, inasmuch
+as the object of it was to request the immediate presence of his father
+and Henry at Bellevue, which promised soon to be the theatre of war.
+With this letter in his pocket, he made his way to the levee, and
+departed for Baton Rouge.
+
+It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly inconsistent
+step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the object to which he
+had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to gain time, even at the
+sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short season, so that his father
+and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue as soon as Emily. He had written
+them all the details of the plan. His own purpose was to have Emily's
+strongest friends at hand on her arrival at Bellevue, so as effectually
+to foil the machinations of Jaspar and Maxwell. His own visit to Baton
+Rouge was only a feint to avoid a meeting with Maxwell in the interim,
+thus keeping the appearance in unison with the pretension.
+
+The river had risen some three or four feet, and the large and rapid
+steamers had commenced running. The "Raven," to the clerk of which he
+had intrusted the letter for Cottage Island, was a remarkably fast boat,
+and he had every reason to hope that his plan would be successful.
+
+Three days he remained at Baton Rouge, in a state of impatience and
+inactivity, rendered doubly uncomfortable by the fear that Maxwell might
+change his plan in his absence.
+
+A downward steamer was approaching the city, and he hastened on board.
+His letter had been faithfully delivered, for almost the first person he
+discovered on board the boat was Henry Carroll, and Dr. Vaudelier was
+close at hand. This was excellent, and he congratulated himself on the
+bright prospect before him.
+
+It was arranged that the doctor and his late patient should remain in
+the vicinity of Bellevue until the following day, when Vernon would
+convey Emily to her home. They were accordingly landed at the Red
+Church, and Vernon proceeded to New Orleans.
+
+Maxwell greeted him with a cordiality which showed the interest he felt
+in the scheme, the consummation of which would realize his dreams of
+luxurious indulgence. They wended their way, without loss of time, up
+the street, deciding that Vernon should at once broach the proposition
+to Emily of going up to Bellevue. The attorney, when they had arrived
+within a short distance of the office, directed Vernon to proceed alone,
+agreeing to meet him at a coffee-room in the neighborhood.
+
+On reaching the office, a new difficulty was presented. The inflexible
+guardian of Emily refused to allow Vernon to see her, stoutly persisting
+that De Guy would not permit it. Vernon was obliged to resort to Maxwell
+in this dilemma, who, affirming that he did not wish Emily to know of
+his presence in town, had kept the secret from the negress. So what
+could he do? But, bidding Vernon wait, he left the coffee-room, and soon
+returned with an order signed by De Guy, whom, Maxwell affirmed, he had
+been so fortunate as to meet at the Exchange.
+
+"But of what use is this paper? The girl cannot read. Shall I take the
+keys from her?" asked Vernon.
+
+"The note will be sufficient. Show it to her; she will pretend to read
+it, and would, if it were in Hebrew or Sanscrit," said Maxwell, who then
+repeated the caution he had before given, not to betray the fact of his
+presence in the city.
+
+Vernon presented the note to the negress, who, with a business-like air,
+opened it; and, though he could perceive that she held it up-side down,
+she examined it long and attentively, sputtering with her thick lips, as
+though actually engaged in the to her impossible operation of reading
+it.
+
+"Dis alters de case, Massa. Why you no show dis paper before?" said
+Dido, with an air of huge importance, which would have done credit to
+the captain of a country company of militia.
+
+"Open the door, and don't stop to chatter!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Yes, Massa, I have read de letter, and now I knows dat Massa Guy wants
+you to see de leddy. Dat alters de case. I has nussin furder to say,"
+muttered Dido, as she unlocked the chamber door.
+
+Emily was seated on a sofa, reading a book she had taken with her to
+while away the time on board of the steamer.
+
+"Missus, a gemman, who hab brought a letter from Massa Guy," said Dido,
+as she opened the door.
+
+"Bring the letter, then," replied Emily, scarcely raising her eyes from
+the book.
+
+"No, Missus, de letter am for me, and I hab read it. It orders me to
+'mit dis gemman."
+
+"That is sufficient," said Vernon, pushing the attendant back, and
+closing the door.
+
+Emily rose; and great was her surprise at perceiving the son of her late
+benefactor. An avalanche of doubt rushed through her mind, and she could
+not conjecture the occasion of this visit. She had left him at his
+father's house. Had he forsaken his new-born repentance? Was he again
+the minister of Maxwell's evil purposes? She had been a prey to the most
+distressing anticipations, and had now settled down into the calmness of
+resignation. Resolved to die rather than become the bride of Maxwell,
+she had spent the hours and days of her imprisonment in nerving herself
+to meet whatever bitter fate might await her, in maintaining her purity
+and her principle.
+
+The appearance of Jerome Vaudelier caused her a thrill of apprehension,
+but it was quickly supplanted by a feeling of interest in the individual
+himself. Her own gloomy position seemed divested of its sombreness, as
+she felt that the penitence of the erring soul had not been a reality.
+
+"Jerome Vaudelier, are you, too, the minister of a villain's wishes?"
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont--"
+
+"Say that you are yet true to yourself; that you have not forgotten
+those solemn vows you made in the home of your father; say that you are
+not the tool of the vile Maxwell--say it before you speak your business
+with me!"
+
+"Miss Dumont, I acknowledge that the present appearance is against me;
+but I assure you I have come only as the minister of good to you."
+
+"Bless you for the words! I feared you had again been tempted."
+
+"So I have, lady, and apparently have yielded; but it was only to save
+you. Listen to me, and I will disclose all the details of the plots
+which are even now ripening to ensnare you,"--and Vernon, in a low tone,
+briefly narrated everything, and the means which were in operation to
+secure her safety.
+
+"You must go to Bellevue to-morrow, there to meet my father and Captain
+Carroll," said he.
+
+The color came to her pale cheek, at the mention of her lover's name.
+She felt that Vernon meant to be true to her, and true to himself. And
+it required no persuasion to induce her to acquiesce in the
+arrangements.
+
+"But, Hatchie--must I leave him in prison? It is not a meet reward for
+his fidelity."
+
+"It cannot be avoided, Miss Dumont. I will see him to-day, and when his
+honest heart knows that you are in safety, he will be just as happy in a
+prison as in a palace. He shall be set at liberty in a few days."
+
+"I hope he may. Does this De Guy accompany you?"
+
+"No; but Maxwell says he will reach Bellevue as soon as we do."
+
+"Why is this? Why does not Maxwell present himself, and urge his
+infamous proposals?"
+
+"I know not, unless it be that De Guy is the more artful of the two."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us change the scene to the next day, at the abode of Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, by the kind attentions of their host, were
+restored to a comparatively healthy state. The lady had suffered much in
+her physical and mental constitution, and a shade of deep melancholy
+rested upon her handsome features. She could not forget the horrors of
+the dungeon in which she had been confined. It seemed a great epoch in
+her life; all before it was strange and undefined, while every trivial
+incident since was a great paragraph in her history.
+
+Mr. Faxon was seated in his library, surrounded by his guests. The
+affairs of the Dumont family had again been discussed, for to them they
+were full of interest.
+
+The good minister feelingly expatiated upon the bitterness of the
+heiress' lot, brought up as she had been amid all the refinements of
+polished society, whose sensibilities were rendered doubly acute by
+nature and the circumstances which environed her, to be thus degraded
+into the condition of a base-born, despised being,--to be so suddenly
+hurled from honor and opulence,--it was a dreadful blow! So feelingly
+did he narrate the particulars, so tenderly did he describe the
+loneliness of her position, that his hearers were deeply affected, and
+Delia shed a flood of tears.
+
+"I too have been a wanderer, though a voluntary one, from the home of my
+father," said she.
+
+"Nay, Delia," said Dalhousie, tenderly; "do not revert to your own
+experience. Remember you are not strong enough to bear much excitement."
+
+"I did not intend to speak of my own experience; but the sufferings of
+poor Miss Dumont call to my mind the remembrance of similar feelings."
+
+"I presume the company are not desirous of hearing the story of an
+elopement," said Dalhousie, with a smile.
+
+"Nor I to relate one. The pure devotion of Miss Dumont to the memory of
+her father recalls the affection, the fond indulgence, of my own father.
+I have not, as she has, the consciousness of having never wilfully
+abused his confidence."
+
+"If you have erred, madam," said Mr. Faxon, "your father still lives,
+does he not? Perhaps it is not yet too late to atone for the fault."
+
+"Alas! I know not whether he is living or not. I wrote to him several
+times, but never received an answer."
+
+"Who was your father, madam?" said Mr. Faxon, with much sympathy in the
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I dread even to mention the name I bore in the innocent days of
+childhood."
+
+"Fie, Delia!" said Dalhousie, with a pleasant laugh, "what have you done
+to sink yourself so far in your own estimation? You and your father
+differed as to the propriety of our marriage; to you, as a true woman,
+your course was plain. This is the height and depth of your monstrous
+sin."
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by the announcement that a
+gentleman waited to see Mr. Faxon.
+
+The good clergyman had a habit of promptness in answering all calls upon
+him. This custom had been acquired by the reflection that a poor dying
+mortal might wait his blessing, ere he departed on his endless journey;
+that, sometimes, a moment's delay could never be atoned for; therefore
+he rose on the instant, and hastened to the parlor, where the visitor
+waited.
+
+"Ah! is it possible--Captain Carroll!" said he, as he grasped Henry's
+hand; "I am glad to see you. But how pale and thin you look!"
+
+"Good reason for it, my dear sir. I was on board of the Chalmetta."
+
+"Were you, indeed! Thank God, you escaped with life! Were you much
+injured?"
+
+"I was, but, thanks to the care of a good physician, I am nearly
+restored again."
+
+"But our poor lady--Miss Dumont--have you any tidings of her? Report
+said she was lost in the catastrophe."
+
+"She is safe, though, unfortunately, at present in bad hands;" and Henry
+related to the astonished minister the events of Emily's history since
+her departure from Bellevue, not concealing even the details of his
+present relations with her.
+
+"And now, my dear sir," said he, rising to depart, "the crisis has come.
+Dr. Vaudelier waits close by, and we are ready to witness the denouement
+of this climax of plots. It is already time for Jerome and Emily to
+arrive, and we desire your immediate presence at the mansion-house."
+
+"I will attend you. But I have in the house several friends of Miss
+Dumont--"
+
+"Bring them all with you," interrupted Henry, looking at his watch.
+"The more witnesses the better, especially if they be friends."
+
+"But wait till I tell you who they are."
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Faxon, I must not tarry longer. I will meet them at the
+mansion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     "What devil's here, dragging the dead to life,
+     To overthrow me?"
+
+     "Who art thou?
+     Speak! speak!"
+
+     "The features all are changed,
+     But the voice grows familiar on my ears."
+
+           LOVELL
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont was seated in the library. The ravages of care and vice
+were growing more plainly visible on his face. His countenance was
+haggard, and his complexion seemed to be a struggle between the wanness
+of care and the redness of intemperance.
+
+Near him sat De Guy, who had but just arrived.
+
+"The lady has come," said the attorney, adjusting his green spectacles;
+"and I am here to claim the fulfilment of our contract."
+
+Jaspar looked up from the floor, upon which his eyes had been fastened,
+and gazed with a fixed stare upon his companion.
+
+"You do not understand me," insinuated De Guy.
+
+"I do," said Jaspar, sternly; "I do; you have come to plunder me."
+
+"You do me injustice, my kind friend; I come to save you from the doom
+of a felon."
+
+"To put your foot upon my neck, and leap out of the pit your villany has
+dug!"
+
+"Very well, my dear sir, if you are of this mind, my course is plain.
+Did you not agree to this arrangement?" said De Guy, with a smile, which
+was meant to soften the hard question.
+
+"True, I did," replied Jaspar, with a whining sullenness. "What would
+you have of me now?"
+
+"Only that you fulfil the stipulations of the bargain."
+
+"Can I fulfil them? Can I marry you, even if the girl were willing?"
+
+"You can give your commands. Will she not obey them?"
+
+"Fool if she does!" muttered Jaspar, in a low tone.
+
+"She will be so glad to be restored to her home, I fancy she will not
+think the terms are hard."
+
+"I don't know," said Jaspar, eying the attorney from head to foot. "I
+consent to the marriage. I can do no more."
+
+"Perhaps you will be willing to use a little gentle force, to save your
+own neck," said the attorney, with something like a sneer.
+
+"Anything, anything, that will silence your damning tongue, and rid me
+of your teasing!"
+
+"Now, sir, you are reasonable."
+
+"Summon the girl," said Jaspar, impatiently. "I will say all I have to
+say in a few words. But, if she foils you, it is not my fault."
+
+"True sir; but Miss Dumont, at this critical juncture of her affairs,
+will have respect for your counsels;" and the attorney withdrew to call
+her.
+
+Emily entered the abode of her early years, and the memories of the past
+came crowding thick upon her. She seemed to realize that her sorrows
+were near an end, but the hope which such a pleasant thought inspired
+could not entirely overcome the gloom which the scene around her was
+calculated to produce. It was here she had often rambled with her
+father, and a thousand trivial incidents presented themselves to remind
+her of him.
+
+As she entered the house, she clung to the arm of Vernon, as though she
+was entering the abode of evil spirits; for, with all the memories of
+the past, she could not forget that the home of her childhood was
+inhabited by her inhuman uncle.
+
+She had been but a short time seated in the old, familiar drawing-room,
+like a stranger now, when De Guy entered, to request her presence in the
+library. She rose, and looked at Vernon, who, understanding the glance,
+approached, as if to bear her company.
+
+"This gentleman had better remain here," suggested De Guy.
+
+"I prefer that he should attend me," said Emily, firmly, even while her
+heart rose to her throat, at the thought of meeting her uncle.
+
+"But really, madam, his presence would embarrass the business of the
+interview."
+
+"He is a friend," stammered Emily, "and is acquainted with all the
+circumstances of this affair."
+
+"I will attend her, sir," said Vernon, who had before remained silent.
+
+"Pardon me," said the attorney, looking sharply at Vernon, "but it will
+be impossible to transact any business in presence of others."
+
+"Lead on," said Vernon, sternly; "I will attend the lady, in spite of
+all objections."
+
+"Sir, you are insolent!" said the attorney, tartly, though without the
+loss of his self-possession.
+
+"The gentleman will not in the least retard the business. Pray pass on,"
+interposed Emily, fearful of a collision between the parties.
+
+"It is impossible, madam. I must insist that he remain here. Such is Mr.
+Dumont's express order."
+
+"Will you say to Mr. Dumont that the lady demands my attendance? Perhaps
+he will yield the point," answered Vernon.
+
+"I will see him, but it is useless. I know his views;" and De Guy left
+the room.
+
+"Do not hesitate to go with him, Miss Dumont; I will be close at hand;
+but no violence will be offered you. I see my father and Captain Carroll
+coming up the road," said Vernon, looking out the window. "Yield, if
+necessary, and fear nothing."
+
+"Mr. Dumont persists in his purpose of meeting the lady alone," said De
+Guy, as he reëntered the drawing-room.
+
+"The lady, in your absence, has concluded to dispense with my
+attendance," replied Vernon.
+
+"This way, madam,"--and the attorney, with punctilious politeness, led
+the way.
+
+Vernon threw himself upon a sofa, as they were leaving; but no sooner
+had the door closed, than he rose in haste, and left the apartment.
+Reaching the veranda of the house, he met Dr. Vaudelier and Henry
+Carroll, who followed him back to the drawing-room.
+
+"This way, silently, if you please," said he, and then closed the door.
+A moment sufficed to inform the new comers of the position of affairs;
+then Vernon left the room, and went to the library door, which he found,
+by Henry's direction. Stationing himself in a recess behind some coats,
+he waited till his presence should be needed.
+
+The meeting between Emily and her uncle was not embarrassed by any
+formal greetings. Jaspar did not even raise his eyes from the floor, as
+she entered. He heard the door close, and being aware by the silence of
+the parties--for De Guy had judged an announcement unnecessary--that
+they were ready to hear him, he said, in a gentle tone,
+
+"Emily, I have sent for you to receive a proposition, which will finally
+terminate the unfortunate circumstances that have shrouded our family in
+hostility and misery."
+
+"Indeed, uncle, I have no feeling of hostility towards you. God forbid!"
+replied Emily, upon whose agitated senses Jaspar's mild words had fallen
+like promises of peace.
+
+Jaspar was astonished. He had lost much of the severity of his
+disposition in the miseries which had overtaken him. He was humiliated,
+his spirit broken, and he could not understand why his victim did not
+upbraid him, as he expected, for the wrongs he had inflicted. A
+momentary hope of reconciliation on better terms crossed his mind; but
+there stood the attorney, who would permit no other compromise.
+
+"I restore your fortune," said Jaspar, with a shudder, as he raised his
+head for the first time from the floor to look upon his niece,--"I
+restore it, on one condition."
+
+"Name not the fortune, uncle; your peace and happiness are far dearer to
+me than all the wealth of the world. You have wronged me, but I freely
+forgive you; and Heaven will also forgive you, if you sin no more. O,
+uncle, I beseech you dismiss this evil man, and let me be to you as a
+daughter!"
+
+"Let us attend to business, if you please, Mr. Dumont," said the
+attorney, in a whining tone; for, it must be confessed, the conversation
+had assumed a different turn from what he had anticipated.
+
+"I must state the business for which I requested your presence," said
+Jaspar, not a little moved by the words of Emily. Human nature is a
+strange compound of inconsistencies. This man, whose life had been
+stained with crime, was now disposed to regard the past with contrition.
+We have seen him scorning even an allusion to the higher life of the
+soul,--but success was then within the reach of his crime-stained hand!
+Now, failure on every hand awaited him, and all those bravadoes with
+which he had kept down his better nature deserted him. Not one scornful
+thought came to banish the good angel from his presence. But the feeling
+was of short duration. It was but a momentary contrition, which a
+selfish hope or a burst of passion could dissipate.
+
+"I will restore your fortune, on one condition," said he. "You can
+accept or reject it, at your option."
+
+"I beg your pardon," suggested the attorney, "these were not exactly the
+terms of our contract."
+
+"Name the condition, uncle," added Emily, indifferently; for she was
+anxious to have the business, whatever it might be, finished, so that
+she could again plead with Jaspar for his personal reformation, for she
+was a little encouraged by the appearance of humiliation he had
+manifested.
+
+"I restore your fortune, on condition that you give your hand to this
+gentleman in marriage;"--and Jaspar again fixed his eyes on the floor,
+as if he dreaded the outbreak of a storm.
+
+"This gentleman!" exclaimed Emily, indignantly. "This gentleman!"--and
+she gazed upon him with a proud look of contempt, from which the
+attorney would fain have hid his head. Her surprise was equal to her
+indignation. Vernon had told her that _Maxwell_ was to be the suppliant
+for her hand, and she could not see why his menial had the presumption
+to claim her.
+
+"This gentleman!" repeated Emily. "I had rather die a thousand deaths!"
+
+"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step," replied
+De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the energy of
+Jaspar.
+
+"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can
+administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.
+
+"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly. "Fate has
+so decreed. Your good uncle's circumstances imperatively demand it."
+
+"Is this so, uncle?"
+
+"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though it may
+be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.
+
+"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a fate. What
+circumstances do you refer to?"
+
+"I am in this man's power."
+
+"God be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my fortune,
+not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than become such a
+_thing_ as to marry that man!"
+
+"Nay, lady, _you_ are of more worth to me than your fortune, large as it
+is. I have contracted with your uncle for your hand, and he must pay the
+price," said De Guy.
+
+"He speaks truly, Emily. I have _sold_ you to him," replied Jaspar,
+vacantly.
+
+Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in allusion
+to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes, while the
+indignant blood mounted to her cheek.
+
+"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said, quickly.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of passion.
+
+"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely tried.
+
+"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but now I
+feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on which his
+brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he reseated himself.
+
+"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table with his
+fist.
+
+"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar's violence, but firm
+in her purpose.
+
+"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar, passionately.
+
+"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for--"
+
+"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy, laying
+his hand upon her arm.
+
+"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your touch!"
+exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been
+contamination.
+
+The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a scowl of
+malignity, as he said,
+
+"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let it end.
+Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day to be
+consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your whims."
+
+"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend upon your
+acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose passion had moderated a
+little.
+
+"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied Emily,
+and she again moved towards the door.
+
+"You leave not the room till you consent to this union," interposed De
+Guy.
+
+"Stand from my path, or I will summon assistance!"
+
+"Your summons would be in vain."
+
+With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance; but De
+Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled to free
+herself from the villain's grasp, without success. Knowing that Vernon
+was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the top of her voice.
+
+"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend of mine,"
+said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary of mine. Haven't
+you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture of sarcasm and
+triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.
+
+The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The door was
+wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had taken the
+precaution to lock it.
+
+"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the intrusion.
+
+"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"
+
+"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet spectator
+to the violence offered his niece.
+
+"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him, towards
+a large closet on the other side of the room.
+
+"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second time
+uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door splintered, and
+Vernon stood in the room.
+
+"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from his pocket
+a revolver.
+
+"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time,
+he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he approached the
+lawyer.
+
+"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which suddenly lost
+its silky tone, and was firm and round.
+
+"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.
+
+Jaspar's ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the prospect of a
+fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve his arm. He advanced
+behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had clasped both hands around him.
+Vernon tried to free himself from the bearish hug, and they both fell to
+the floor. Jaspar still held tight, and the struggle promised to be a
+severe one.
+
+De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the combatants
+had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his pocket, so that,
+unembarrassed, he might convey Emily to a place of security, until this
+unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was the pistol in his pocket,
+when the window behind him flew open, and the attorney was in the iron
+grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed from her assailant, retreated to
+the other side of the room, where, glancing in terror upon the new
+assault, she saw De Guy thrown violently upon the floor by her
+ever-present and ever-faithful slave, Hatchie!
+
+The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early in the
+evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the calaboose,
+and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.
+
+Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and judged that
+the conflict had begun with something more than the war of words.
+Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the library, and
+rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.
+
+The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood
+contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who had
+followed Henry into the room, assisted Jaspar to rise, and conducted him
+to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed entirely to have oozed
+out, and they remained doggedly considering the new state of things.
+
+Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket the
+revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable person, he
+loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an acknowledgment of weakness
+to hold him longer a close prisoner. Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the
+hair, he bade him rise, at the same time giving a sharp twist to the
+ornamental appendage of his cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion
+of his hand, and the entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge
+parti-colored whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly
+hair, where the mixed color had before predominated!
+
+"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair before,"
+said Henry Carroll.
+
+"The face is not of the natural color," added Dr. Vaudelier, remarking
+that the skin of the forehead, which the wig had concealed, was very
+white, and almost transparent, while the face was besmeared with the
+color that composed the florid complexion of the attorney.
+
+"Take off his spectacles, Hatchie," said Henry.
+
+The glasses were removed, and a pair of piercing black eyes glared upon
+them.
+
+"It is Maxwell, by ----," shouted Jaspar, who had in some measure
+recovered from the exhaustion of his struggle with Vernon, and had
+watched with much anxiety the "unearthing" of his confederate.
+
+"It is Maxwell," responded Hatchie, tearing open the vest which
+encircled the attorney's portly form, and displaying the cushion that
+had been used to extend his corporation.
+
+"Merciful Heaven! how narrowly have I escaped!" exclaimed Emily, laying
+her head in giddy faintness upon the shoulder of Henry, who, at the
+moment he was at liberty, had flown to her side.
+
+At this moment Mr. Faxon entered, and saw, with astonishment, the
+evidence of the recent fray.
+
+"Justice is triumphant, I see," said he, taking Emily by the hand, and
+affectionately congratulating her upon her return to Bellevue.
+
+"Heaven has been more indulgent to me than I deserve,--has preserved me
+from a thousand perils I knew not of; and has, at last, placed me again
+in this haven of repose!" replied Emily.
+
+"Bless His holy name, my child; for, though we forget Him, He can never
+forget us!" said the minister, devoutly.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," interrupted Jaspar, with a bitter scowl, "I trust,
+when you have finished your cant, you will depart, and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"We will, at this lady's pleasure," said Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Hell! would you trifle with me?" roared Jaspar, rising in a passion.
+"Would you turn me out of my house?"
+
+"Never yours, Mr. Dumont! Heaven has restored the innocent and oppressed
+to her rights," answered Mr. Faxon, calmly.
+
+"Uncle," said Emily, earnestly, "let me entreat you to lay aside the
+terrible aspect you have worn, and be again even as you once were. The
+past shall be forgotten, and I will strive to make the future happy."
+
+Jaspar gazed at her with a vacant stare, and, muttering some
+unintelligible words, sunk back into his chair, and buried his face
+beneath his hands. The consciousness of the utter failure of the plan he
+had cherished for years, and the terrible obloquy to which his crime
+subjected him, rushed like an earthquake into his mind. He was
+completely subdued in spirit, and groaned in his anguish.
+
+"The way of the transgressor is hard," remarked Mr. Faxon, in pitying
+tones.
+
+These words were heard by Jaspar. They touched his pride. He could not
+endure the notes of pity. He raised his head, and his eyes glared with
+the fury of a demon.
+
+"Leave the house, sir!" gasped he, choking with passion. "Leave my
+house, or I will tear you limb from limb! I can do it, and I _dare_ do
+it!" and he started suddenly to the floor. "Yes, I _dare_ do it, if you
+mock me with your canting words!"
+
+His eyes rolled like a maniac's, and he gasped for breath, as he
+continued,
+
+"I am a murderer already!--a double murderer! Dalhousie and his wife
+have felt my vengeance. They have starved like dogs! Their prison is
+their tomb!"
+
+"Compose yourself, Mr. Dumont," said Mr. Faxon; "your soul is still free
+from the heavy burden of such a guilt. Dalhousie and his wife live."
+
+"You lie, canting hypocrite! No mortal arm can save them. They have been
+eight days in my slave jail. Here are the keys," gasped Jaspar, drawing
+them from his pocket.
+
+"You shall see; I will call them," said Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, entered
+the room.
+
+Jaspar fixed his glaring eyes upon those whom he supposed were rotting
+within the precincts of his Inquisition. His power of speech seemed to
+have deserted him, and he shook all over like an aspen-leaf.
+
+To Jaspar alone on the estate was the secret of Dalhousie's imprisonment
+known. He had not approached the jail, and if any other person was aware
+that it had been undermined, they had not communicated the fact to him.
+
+As the last party entered, Dr. Vaudelier turned to look upon the new
+comers. Starting suddenly from his chair, he approached them, and gazed
+with earnestness into the face of Delia.
+
+"Is it possible!" said he.
+
+"My God,--my father!" and father and daughter were locked in each
+other's embrace.
+
+Maxwell, stripped of his disguise, and ruined in his own opinion, and in
+the opinion of everybody else, had watched all the proceedings we have
+narrated in silence. Ashamed of the awkward appearance he made in his
+undress, and confused by the sudden change in his affairs, he was at a
+loss to know which way to turn.
+
+Henry Carroll realized the sense of embarrassment that pervaded all
+parties, and was desirous of putting an end to the state of things which
+promised nothing but strife and confusion. So he directed Hatchie to
+fasten Maxwell's hands together, and keep him secure. This step the
+attorney seemed not inclined to permit, and a struggle ensued.
+
+"Mr. Dumont," said he, "is this by your order?"
+
+"No," replied Jaspar, anxious to secure at least one friend. "No! I am
+still in my own house, and the law will protect me."
+
+"Certainly," returned Maxwell; "this is all a farce. There is not a
+single particle of evidence to disprove the will."
+
+"Well, now, I reckon there is a leetle grain," said Uncle Nathan,
+stepping forward and producing the will, which had been intrusted to him
+on board the Chalmetta. "This will set matters about right, I rayther
+guess."
+
+"What mean you, fellow?" said Jaspar. "What is it?"
+
+"The genuine will," replied Hatchie, still holding Maxwell. "I gave it
+into his hands. To explain how I came by it, I need only call your
+attention to a certain night, when I surprised you and this honorable
+gentleman in this very apartment."
+
+"It is all over!" groaned Jaspar.
+
+"This is a forgery!" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Ay, a forgery!" repeated Jaspar, catching the attorney's idea. "Who can
+prove that this is a correct will, and the other false?"
+
+"I can," said Dalhousie. "Here is a duplicate copy, with letters
+explaining the reason for making it, in the testator's own
+hand-writing."
+
+Dalhousie candidly stated the means by which he had obtained possession
+of the papers, and trusted his indiscretion would be overlooked. Dr.
+Vaudelier frowned, as his son-in-law related the unworthy part he had
+performed, and perhaps felt a consciousness of the good intentions which
+had years before induced him to refuse his consent to the marriage of
+his daughter.
+
+Jaspar yielded the point; but Maxwell, in the hope of gaining time,
+boldly proclaimed all the papers forgeries.
+
+"It matters not; we will not stop to discuss the matter now. Tie his
+hands, Hatchie," said Henry Carroll, and, with the assistance of others,
+he was bound, and handed over to a constable, upon the warrant of Mr.
+Faxon, who was a justice.
+
+The party separated,--Henry and Emily seeking the grove in front of the
+house, to congratulate each other on the happy termination of their
+season of difficulty. The meeting between Dr. Vaudelier and his son and
+daughter was extremely interesting, and the hours passed rapidly away,
+in listening to the experience of each other. The meeting concluded with
+the making of new resolves, on the part of Dalhousie, to seek "the great
+purpose of his life" by higher and nobler means.
+
+As the dinner-hour approached, the happy parties were summoned by Mr.
+Faxon to visit his house, and partake of his hospitality. The good man
+was never happier in his life than when he said grace over the noon-day
+meal, surrounded by the restored heiress of Bellevue, and her happy
+friends.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     "From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss,
+     They lived together long, without debate;
+     Nor private jars nor spite of enemies
+     Could shake the safe assurance of their states."
+
+     SPENSER.
+
+
+Our story is told. It only remains to condense the subsequent lives of
+our characters into a few lines.
+
+Jaspar Dumont lingered along a few weeks after the return of Emily; but
+his life had lost its vitality. Continued devotion to the demon of the
+bottle laid him low,--he was found dead in the library, having been
+stricken with an apoplectic fit.
+
+After the death of Jaspar, Maxwell was tried for a variety of crimes,
+and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, accompanied by Dalhousie and his wife, removed to New
+Orleans, where they spent many happy years, devoted to those pure
+principles of truth and justice which the events of our history
+contributed not a little to create and strengthen.
+
+Vernon,--or, as he has changed his character, we may venture to change
+his name,--Jerome Vaudelier, went to California in the first of the
+excitement; where, amid the temptations of that new and dissolute land,
+he yet maintains the integrity he vowed to cherish on the night of the
+attack upon Cottage Island.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan spent a few days at Bellevue, and then
+started for the North. The honest yeoman, either on account of the many
+adventures they had passed through together, or because Pat was a true
+convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the Hibernian, and insisted
+that he should accompany him home. Pat became a very worthy man, after
+abandoning the "critter," which had been his greatest bane. For three
+years he served our New Englander faithfully on the farm, at the end of
+which period his desire to get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish
+girl to his bosom, and go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry
+and Emily, about this time, to the worthy farmer, contributed to forward
+this end; for Pat, with Celtic candor and boldness, stated to them his
+views and purposes. Before the heiress left, Pat's farm was bought and
+paid for, besides being well stocked, by her princely liberality.
+
+Jerry Swinger and his wife, who had rendered such important services to
+Emily, were not forgotten. The honest woodman disdained to receive
+compensation for any service he or his good wife had rendered, but Emily
+found a way to render them comfortable for life, without any sacrifice
+of pride on their part.
+
+One year after the events which close our history the great mansion at
+Bellevue was the scene of gay festivities. Dr. Vaudelier and his
+daughter, and Dalhousie, and Jerry Swinger and all his family, were
+there, because, in the hour of its owner's greatest happiness, she could
+not be without those who had been her friends in the season of
+adversity. All the country round was there,--New Orleans was
+there,--everybody was there, to witness the nuptials of the fair heiress
+and the gallant Captain Carroll.
+
+The great drawing-room was brilliantly illuminated. The happy couple
+entered the room, and stood up before Mr. Faxon. A step behind Emily,
+watching the proceedings with as much interest as a fond father would
+witness the espousal of a beloved daughter, stood Hatchie. Race and
+condition did not exclude him from the proud and brilliant assemblage
+that had gathered to honor the nuptials of his mistress.
+
+They were married, and, ere the good minister had concluded his
+congratulations, the huge yellow palm of the faithful slave was extended
+to receive the white-gloved hand of the bride. Nor did she shrink from
+him. With a sweet smile, and a look which told how deep were her respect
+and admiration, she gave him her hand, heedless of the proud circle
+which had gathered around her to be first in their offering of good
+wishes.
+
+"God bless you, Miss Emily! Bless you!" said he, and the tear stole into
+his eye, as he withdrew from the crowd.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR, THE
+HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress
+of Bellevue, by Warren T. Ashton</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue</p>
+<p>Author: Warren T. Ashton</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 19, 2005  [eBook #14731]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR, THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Charlie Kirschner,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>HATCHIE</h1>
+<h1>THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;</h1>
+<h4>OR</h4>
+<h2>THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.</h2>
+<h3><i>A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west</i></h3>
+<h4>BY WARREN T. ASHTON.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="center">"Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of
+comely virtues."<br />
+<br />
+SHAKSPEARE<br />
+<br />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+"Is this the daughter of a slave?"<br />
+<br />
+KNOWLES.</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>Boston:<br />
+B. B. Mussey and Company,<br />
+and<br />
+R. B. Fitts and Company.</h6>
+
+<h4>1853</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="center"><table>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#INTRODUCTION"><b>INTRODUCTION.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX.</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CONCLUSION"><b>CONCLUSION.</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the<br />
+Fisk University Library Negro Collection<br />
+<br />
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.<br />
+Hallandale, Florida 33009</h6>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<p>In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a
+passenger on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati.
+During the passage&mdash;one of the most prolonged and
+uncomfortable in the annals of western river navigation&mdash;the
+plot of this story was arranged. Many of its incidents, and all its
+descriptions of steamboat life, will be recognized by the voyager
+of the Mississippi.</p>
+<p>The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin,"&mdash;before negro literature had become a mania in the
+community. It was not designed to illustrate the evils or the
+blessings of slavery. It is, as its title-page imports, a
+<i>tale</i>; and the author has not stepped out of his path to
+moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other extraneous topic.
+But, as its <i>locale</i> is the South, and its principal character
+a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
+slavery.</p>
+<p>With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the
+public, hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure
+from its perusal which he experienced in its preparation.</p>
+<p>BOSTON, <i>November</i> 18, 1852.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>HATCHIE:</h1>
+<h1>THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.</h1>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Antony</i>. You grow
+presumptuous.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Ventidius</i>. I take the
+privilege of plain love to speak.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Antony</i>. Plain
+love!&mdash;Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">DRYDEN.</span></p>
+<p>On the second floor of a lofty building in &mdash;&mdash;
+street, New Orleans, was situated the office of Anthony Maxwell,
+Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at Law, Commissioner for Georgia,
+Alabama, and a dozen other states. His office had not the usual
+dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but presented more the
+appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but for the
+ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
+with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the
+visitor would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the
+walls not occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings,
+whose artistic beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined
+taste. The floor of the room was covered by a magnificent tapestry
+carpet. The chairs, lounges and tables, were of the most costly and
+elegant description. The windows were hung with graceful and
+brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of the office betokened
+luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil and privation to
+which the aspirant for legal honors must so often submit. The
+costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate that the
+young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked with
+beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
+over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have
+trodden.</p>
+<p>The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon
+one of the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a
+fragrant regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty
+years of age, and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly
+handsome. His face was pale, with a certain haggard appearance,
+which indicates the earlier stages of dissipation. His complexion
+was of a delicate white, unbrowned by the southern sun, and the
+skin was so transparent that the roots of his black beard were
+visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair hung in rich, wavy
+curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some renowned
+tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they arranged.
+His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was excited in
+manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,&mdash;disposed to
+droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
+agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there
+was something about them which the moralist would not like&mdash;a
+sort of lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual
+expression, that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he
+admired the Apollo.</p>
+<p>The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not
+yet become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and
+festered beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual
+grandeur.</p>
+<p>The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in
+good taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not
+court ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
+over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined
+taste, in his external appearance.</p>
+<p>Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A
+year before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his
+father's office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed
+devotion to business, he had effectually deceived his father and
+his clients into the belief that he was a steady, industrious young
+man. His talents were of a very respectable order, which,
+superadded to a native eloquence and an engaging demeanor, had
+enabled him to acquit himself with much credit in the cases
+intrusted to his management. A few months after his professional
+<i>d&eacute;but</i>, his father's decease had placed him in
+possession of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune,
+thus enabling him in some degree to follow the bent of his own
+inclinations. To those whose habits and desires were similar to his
+own, he was not long in unfolding his true character, though not to
+a sufficient extent to destroy at once his professional prospects.
+The irresponsible life of the man of leisure had more charms to him
+than an honorable distinction in his profession. To labor in any
+form he had an intolerable repugnance. His fortune was not
+sufficient to allow an entire neglect of business; therefore he
+determined to practise law in an easy manner, until a rich wife, or
+the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire devotion to the
+pleasures of affluence.</p>
+<p>In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of
+his father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent
+apartments we have described. He gave up the house in which his
+father had dwelt, and, fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of
+the office with oriental splendor, his life and habits were free
+from the scrutinizing gaze of friend and foe, and he found himself
+situated as nearly to his mind as his income would permit. These
+indications of a dissolute life were viewed with distrust by the
+more respectable of his clients. His subsequent actions were not
+calculated to increase their confidence; yet, for the respect they
+bore to the father's memory, they were slow in casting off the
+son.</p>
+<p>Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an
+impatient exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his
+mind refused to accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently
+engaged in the consideration of some complicated affair; and the
+more he thought, the more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar,
+and lit another; still the knotty point was not conquered. His
+haggard countenance at one moment was lighted up, as though success
+had dawned upon his mental contest; but at the next moment it
+darkened into disappointment, which he vented in an audible
+oath.</p>
+<p>While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating
+with the ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very
+formally announced "Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which
+had environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as
+if by magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the
+lady for the smoky atmosphere of the room.</p>
+<p>"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing
+of the usual commonplace introductions of conversation.</p>
+<p>"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this
+visit," replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have
+called to request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father
+has some business matters upon which he requires your professional
+advice."</p>
+<p>"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell,
+with an appearance of sympathy.</p>
+<p>"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When
+shall I say you will come?" said the lady.</p>
+<p>"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you
+go direct."</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.</p>
+<p>This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
+approbation of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner;
+"pray, honor me with a moment's conversation."</p>
+<p>"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and
+cannot accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified
+manner, while a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful
+countenance.</p>
+<p>"Be not so unkind,&mdash;a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell,
+with pleading earnestness.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
+returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not
+changed," replied she, moving to the door.</p>
+<p>The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had
+received, and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great
+purpose in view,&mdash;a purpose which, accomplished, would enable
+him to realize the cherished object of his life,&mdash;would enable
+him to revel in the ease and affluence he so much coveted.
+Something must be done. Here was an opportunity afforded by the
+providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never occur again,
+and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he adopted
+the first expedient which presented itself.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was
+not aware that you intended to return it."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
+relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table
+by the side of which the attorney stood.</p>
+<p>"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from
+further annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with
+which I have awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents
+of humility, which were too well feigned to permit the lady to
+suspect them. "The bitterness of a blighted hope were better than
+the agony of suspense."</p>
+<p>A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the
+lady, as she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table.
+There lay Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had
+returned it! She only pointed to it, and looked into his face to
+read the shame and confusion her discovery must create.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit
+was exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and
+said,</p>
+<p>"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to
+it, that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the
+heart which is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you
+cannot, know the misery I have endured in possessing the love upon
+which you so cruelly frown."</p>
+<p>The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart
+less firm than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression
+of contempt left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with
+favor to his suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed
+misery. Under any other circumstances, the lie he had a moment
+before uttered would have forever condemned him in her sight. But
+her charitable disposition compelled her to believe that it was the
+last resort of a mind on the verge of despair.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should
+have suffered any unhappiness on my account."</p>
+<p>"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell,
+hastily, feeling that he had gained the first point.</p>
+<p>"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned
+the lady.</p>
+<p>"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the
+coldness of indifference again!"</p>
+<p>"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an
+index of your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous
+means, to discountenance them."</p>
+<p>"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a
+flickering hope."</p>
+<p>"If you have, I regret it all the more."</p>
+<p>"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I
+have dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging
+fire, and beyond my control."</p>
+<p>"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied
+the lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I
+trust this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope
+you have cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now
+feel it must be for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on
+that account, to declare it, I repeat&mdash;I can never reciprocate
+the affection you profess. And now let this interview terminate. It
+is too painful to be prolonged;"&mdash;and she again moved towards
+the door.</p>
+<p>"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he
+followed her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove
+myself worthy,&mdash;anything, but do not forever extinguish the
+little star I have permitted to blaze in the firmament of my
+heart&mdash;the star I have dared to worship. Do not veil me in
+utter darkness!"</p>
+<p>"I can offer no hope&mdash;not the slightest, even to rid myself
+of an annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some
+portion of her former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney
+perplexed and troubled her exceedingly.</p>
+<p>"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell,
+heedless of the lady's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.</p>
+<p>"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till
+you examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from
+hopeless misery."</p>
+<p>"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a
+gentleman to save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont,
+with spirit, for her patience was fast ebbing out.</p>
+<p>"I will not <i>annoy</i> you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis,
+as he assumed an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading
+for exemption from the direst of human miseries. But I will not
+<i>annoy</i> you, even to save myself from endless woe."</p>
+<p>"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments
+will continue unchanged."</p>
+<p>"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
+resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
+that you will yet relent."</p>
+<p>"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
+Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time
+to add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however
+well acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the
+unsuspecting object of it to believe. That he really loved her was
+to some extent true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as
+the blight of coldness and inconstancy would render painful, was
+not true,&mdash;far from it. He had sought her hand, not to lay at
+her feet the offering of a hallowed affection, but to realize the
+object we have before mentioned,&mdash;to enable him, by the
+possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease and
+pleasure.</p>
+<p>He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some
+prospect of success. To the occasional professional visit he paid
+her father he had added frequent social calls, in which he had used
+all his eloquence to enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter.
+She had regarded him as an agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his
+natural abilities, the unceasing wit and liveliness of his
+conversation, had well earned him this distinction. Flattering
+himself that he should be able to win her affections, he had
+gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere formalist to
+the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These overtures were
+not well received, and, if she had before treated him with the
+favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now extended
+to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
+visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his
+eyes, and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his
+disposition was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow
+him to despair.</p>
+<p>Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented
+itself, in the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his
+ambitious wishes appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual
+was a young officer in the army, a sort of <i>proteg&eacute;</i> of
+the lady's father, who had been spending a furlough at Bellevue. In
+the matter of fortune Maxwell's rival was not to be dreaded, for he
+knew the lady was not mercenary in her views. The young captain was
+penniless; but his family was good, and he had the advantage of
+being a favorite with the father. He had won for himself a name on
+the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a lady's favor. He
+was a universal favorite both with the public and in the private
+circle.</p>
+<p>Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
+resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions
+he relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
+unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had
+manifested, he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her,
+eloquently and tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt
+that he could in this manner gain her attention to his
+suit,&mdash;a point which his vanity assured him was equivalent to
+a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were both sorely tried
+by the return of the letter unopened. His point was lost, and he
+was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to suggest any
+scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,&mdash;which the
+circumstances seemed to interdict,&mdash;when the visit of the lady
+herself rendered further efforts useless.</p>
+<p>His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
+heiress,&mdash;a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future
+prospects to be resigned,&mdash;was now a desperate one. Through
+the long vista of struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and
+the fact that he had to some extent compromised his heart
+stimulated him still more to meet and overcome the barriers that
+environed him.</p>
+<p>For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered
+the obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather
+than a disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and
+irregular strides. He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is
+absolute, and he must bend in submission. He blamed his own
+tardiness one moment, and his precipitancy the next; then he cursed
+his ill luck, and vented his anger and disappointment in a volley
+of oaths.</p>
+<p>His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's
+announcement of "Mr. Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to
+Bellevue. Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell,
+laying aside, with no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and
+assuming his usual bland demeanor.</p>
+<p>"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.</p>
+<p>"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell.
+"She requested me immediately to visit your brother."</p>
+<p>"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will
+style Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel
+Dumont.</p>
+<p>"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having
+detained me longer than I supposed it would."</p>
+<p>"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother
+wished to see you was concerning his will."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell,
+in apparent alarm.</p>
+<p>"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he
+thinks otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in
+order," replied Jaspar, with a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to
+be prepared for the final event."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught
+of the will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all
+possible haste. Will it take you long?"</p>
+<p>"An hour or two."</p>
+<p>"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on
+my return."</p>
+<p>"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and
+the morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."</p>
+<p>Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging
+his host's courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task
+before him. The first part of the will was speedily written; but
+those parts which alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing
+the opulence that awaited her, he could not so easily pass over.
+They were so strongly suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who
+should wed her, that he could scarcely proceed with the work. An
+hour before, she had veiled <i>his</i> prospects in darkness; now
+he was preparing a will which would, at no distant day, place her
+in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was so firmly fixed
+upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to bend itself
+to the task before him.</p>
+<p>Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little
+impatient. Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the
+lawyer's shoulder.</p>
+<p>"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
+impatience, "and must be executed with great care."</p>
+<p>"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done,"
+observed Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not
+unnoticed by the attorney.</p>
+<p>"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype
+of Jaspar's smile.</p>
+<p>A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single
+smile! It is the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts
+convey their untold and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious
+lover it is the bearer of the first tidings of joy. Long before the
+heart dare resort to coarse, material words, the smile carries the
+messages of affection. To the villain it reveals the sympathetic
+purposes of his according fiend. What the lead and line are to the
+pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling smile, is to the base
+mind. By means of it he feels his way into the heart and soul of
+his supposed prototype.</p>
+<p>Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the
+meaning of Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that
+he was cold and unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly
+lacking in common integrity; but that he was capable of bold and
+daring villany he had had no occasion to suspect. As he turned to
+the document again, the base character of the uncle came up for
+consideration in connection with his suit to the niece. Might not
+this circumstance open the way to the attainment of his grand
+purpose?</p>
+<p>But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the
+development of the history and circumstances of the Dumont
+family.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Lorenzo</i>. You loved,
+and he did love!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Mariana</i>. To say he
+did</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Were to affirm what oft his eyes
+avouched,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What many an action
+testified&mdash;and yet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What wanted confirmation of his
+tongue."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">KNOWLES.</span></p>
+<p>On the right bank of the Mississippi river, a few miles above
+New Orleans, was situated the plantation of Colonel Dumont, which
+he had chosen to designate by the expressive appellation of
+"Bellevue;" though, it would seem, from the level nature of the
+country, it could not have been chosen on account of any fitness in
+the term.</p>
+<p>In territorial extent, in the number of slaves employed, and in
+the quantity of sugar annually produced, the plantation of Colonel
+Dumont was one of the most important on the river. This fact, added
+to the possession of immense estates in the city, rendered its
+owner a man of no small consequence in the vicinity. But, more than
+this, Colonel Dumont was beloved and respected for his many good
+qualities of mind and heart. In the late war with England he had
+served in the army, and as an officer had won an enviable
+distinction by his courage and his talents. Coming unexpectedly
+into the possession of this estate by the death of an uncle, he
+retired, at the close of the war, from a profession to which a
+genuine patriotism alone had invited him, and devoted himself
+entirely to the improvement of his lands.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont had been married; but, after a single year of
+happiness in the conjugal state, his wife died, leaving him an only
+daughter in remembrance of her. This child, at the opening of the
+tale, was within a few years of maturity,&mdash;the image of her
+father's only love,&mdash;not less fair, not less pure and
+good.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont was a beautiful girl, fair as the lily, gentle as
+the dove. She was of a medium height, and of slender and graceful
+form. Her step was light and elastic, and, if there was any poetry
+in her light, elegant form, there was more in her easy, fairy-like
+motion. Her features were as daintily moulded as her form. Her eye
+was light blue, soft, and beautifully expressive of a pure heart.
+She was a little paler than the connoisseur in female loveliness
+would demand in his ideal, and her expression was a little inclined
+to sadness; but it was a sadness&mdash;or rather a sweet
+dignity&mdash;more winning than repulsive to the gazer.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, highly as fortune had favored her in the bestowal
+of worldly goods and personal beauty, was still more blessed in the
+gifts of an expansive mind and a gentle heart; and mind and heart
+had both been faithfully cultivated by the assiduous care of her
+devoted father. She was a true woman,&mdash;not a mere plaything to
+while away a dandy's idle hours, not a piece of tinsel to adorn the
+parlor of a nabob, but a true woman,&mdash;one fitted by nature and
+education to adorn all the varied scenes of life. Although brought
+up in unclouded prosperity, amid luxury and affluence, she was
+still prepared for the day of adversity, if it should ever
+come.</p>
+<p>As the heiress of immense wealth, her hand was eagerly sought in
+the aristocratic circle around her; but thus far she had resisted
+all these attacks upon her heart, and upon her prospective riches.
+In the crowd of suitors who gathered around her was Anthony
+Maxwell. In the item of wealth his fortune was comparatively small;
+and in that of a noble character, smaller still. Emily could have
+forgiven him the want of the former, but the latter was
+imperatively demanded. At the young lawyer's return from the North,
+and on his first appearance at the bar, Emily had regarded him with
+more than ordinary attention. But, after the death of his father,
+the reports which reached her ears of his dissolute habits and
+inclinations caused her to regard him with distrust. His wit,
+accomplishments and native suavity, had procured him admission into
+the circle of her more favored friends. But the report of his vices
+had as promptly produced his expulsion.</p>
+<p>The return of the army from Mexico brought with it the young
+officer whom we have before mentioned. The father of this young man
+had been a companion-in-arms of Colonel Dumont, and a strong
+friendship had grown up between the veterans. The tie was severed
+only by the death of the former, after a life of mercantile
+misfortunes, and finally of utter ruin. At the period of the
+father's insolvency and death, Henry Carroll, the son, was a cadet
+at West Point, and was about abandoning his chosen profession, for
+the want of means, when Colonel Dumont wrote him an affectionate
+letter, offering all that he required to complete his studies. This
+offer, coming from one who had been a heavy loser by his father's
+bankruptcy, was highly appreciated, and the young student had
+allowed no false delicacy to prevent his acceptance of the generous
+proposal, though with a stipulation to repay all sums, with
+interest. Colonel Dumont, in his regular summer tour to the North,
+never failed to visit his young friend, whose noble bearing and
+lofty principle entirely won his heart, and he charged himself with
+a father's duty towards him. A regular correspondence was kept up
+between the self-constituted guardian and his
+<i>proteg&eacute;</i>; and the more the former read the heart of
+the young man, the more did he rejoice that he had befriended him.
+He read with mingled pride and affection the repeated instances of
+his daring courage and matchless skill which found their way into
+the newspapers; while the record of his humanity to a fallen foe
+contributed to swell the tide of the old gentleman's affection.</p>
+<p>On his return from Mexico, Henry's first care was to see his
+devoted friend and guardian, and he accepted his pressing
+invitation to spend a month at Bellevue.</p>
+<p>As an inmate of her father's family, he was, of course, a
+constant companion of Emily. Her radiant beauty had captivated his
+heart long ere the month had expired; and he saw, or thought he
+saw, in the heart of the fair girl, indications of a sympathetic
+sentiment. In the rashness of his warm blood he had allowed himself
+to cherish a lively hope that his dawning love was not entirely
+unrequited. He had seen that <i>his</i> bouquet was more fondly
+cherished than the offerings of others; that <i>his</i> hand, as
+she alighted from the carriage, was more gladly received than any
+other; that <i>his</i> conversation never wearied her; in short,
+there was in all their intercourse an unmistakable exponent of
+feelings deeper than those of common friendship.</p>
+<p>In the midst of this delighted existence,&mdash;while yet he
+revelled in the pleasure of loving and being loved,&mdash;there
+came to him, like a dark cloud over a clear sky, the unwelcome
+thought that it was wrong for him to entangle the affections of his
+benefactor's daughter. He was a beggar,&mdash;the object of her
+father's charity. Her prospects were brilliant and certain, and he
+felt that he had no right to mar or destroy them. He knew that she
+would love him none the less for his poverty; but, probably, her
+father had already anticipated something better than a beggar for
+his future son-in-law.</p>
+<p>Poor Captain Carroll! The modesty of true greatness of soul had
+left unconsidered the genuine nobility of the man. He thought not
+of the name he had won on the field of battle,&mdash;of the
+honorable wounds he bore as testimonials of his devotion to his
+country. He was poor, and, in the despondency which his position
+induced, he attributed to wealth a value which to the truly good it
+never possesses.</p>
+<p>He loved Emily, and his poverty seemed to shut him out from the
+hallowed field to which his heart fondly sought admission.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll was a high-minded man; he felt that to love the
+daughter while the father's views were unknown to him would be rank
+ingratitude; and ingratitude towards so good a man, so kind a
+benefactor, was repugnant to every principle of his nature. There
+was but one path open to him. If he could not help loving her, he
+could strive to prevent the loved one from squandering her
+affections where pain and sorrow might ensue. They had often met;
+but he strove to believe, in his unwilling zeal, that their
+intimacy had not yet resulted in an incurable passion. She had as
+yet shown nothing that could not have resulted from simple
+friendship. And yet she had,&mdash;the warm glow that adorned her
+cheek when she received his flower, the expressive glance of her
+soft eye as he assisted her to the carriage, the sweet smile with
+which she had always greeted him,&mdash;ah, no, these were not
+friendship! I He could not believe that his affection was
+unreturned; it was too precious to remain unacknowledged. The will
+and the heart would not conform to each other. But his duty seemed
+plain, and he did not hesitate to obey its call, though it demanded
+a great sacrifice.</p>
+<p>The month to which he had limited his visit at Bellevue expired
+about the period at which our tale begins. Inclination prompted him
+to accept the pressing invitation of Colonel Dumont to prolong his
+stay; but, bitter as was the thought of parting from her he loved,
+his nice sense of honor compelled him to be firm in his
+purpose.</p>
+<p>The announcement of his intended departure to Emily, as they
+were seated in the drawing-room on the designated day, afforded him
+another evidence that her heart was not untouched. Her pale cheek
+grew paler, and the playful smile was instantly dismissed.</p>
+<p>"So soon?" said she, scarcely able to conceal the tremulous
+emotion which agitated her.</p>
+<p>"So soon! I have finished the month allotted to me," replied
+Henry Carroll, with a weak effort to appear gayer than he felt.</p>
+<p>"Allotted to you! And pray are you stinted in the length of your
+visit?"</p>
+<p>"My orders will not permit a longer stay, happy as I should be
+to remain; and I have already trespassed long on your
+hospitality."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Henry, you have grown sensitive! You were not wont to
+consider your visits a trespass. Pray, have you not been regarded
+as one of the family?"</p>
+<p>"True, I have. I can never repay the debt of gratitude for the
+many kindnesses I have received at your good father's hands."</p>
+<p>"He has been a thousand times repaid by the honorable life you
+have led,&mdash;by feeling that the talents he has encouraged you
+to foster are now blessing the world," replied Emily, warmly; "so
+no more of your gratitude, if you please."</p>
+<p>"However lightly you, or your father, may regard my obligations
+to him, I cannot view them coldly."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, your presence here will give him more pleasure than
+any other token of respect you can bestow; and, I am sure, I should
+be rejoiced&mdash;that is to say&mdash;that is&mdash;I should be
+glad to have you stay longer, if you can be contented," stammered
+Emily, as her mantling blushes betrayed her confusion. Deception
+was not in her nature, and, strive as hard as she might, she must
+reveal her feelings.</p>
+<p>"I should be happier than it is possible for me to express in
+remaining at Bellevue. My month has passed away like a dream of
+pleasure,&mdash;so short it seemed that time had staid his
+wheels,&mdash;so joyous that earth seemed shorn of sorrow. You know
+not how much I have enjoyed the society of your father, and, pardon
+me, of yourself," returned Henry, scarcely less confused than
+Emily.</p>
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," she replied, with some
+hesitation, and fearful of exposing the sentiment she was conscious
+of cherishing. "I have thought that, accustomed as you are to the
+stirring life of the camp, you had grown tired of our quiet
+home."</p>
+<p>"You wrong me, Emily, I should never weary here; but I was
+fearful that I had already staid too long," said Henry, in a sad
+tone, for he felt it most deeply, though not in the sense that
+Emily understood him.</p>
+<p>"Too long! Then you are weary of us, and I will not chide you
+forbidding us adieu," said Emily, with a glance of anxiety at
+Henry.</p>
+<p>"Nay, Miss Dumont, do not misinterpret my words. I am not weary,
+I cannot be weary, of Bellevue and its fair and good inmates."</p>
+<p>"Then what mean you by saying you have staid too long?"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me, I cannot tell why I said it; but I feel that I
+should do wrong to prolong my stay, however congenial to my
+feelings to do so," replied Henry, with the most evident
+embarrassment.</p>
+<p>"How strange you talk, Henry! What mystery is this?" said Emily,
+to whom prudential motives were unknown.</p>
+<p>"If it be a mystery, pray do not press me to unravel it, for I
+cannot."</p>
+<p>His resolution was fast giving way before the strength of his
+love. He was sorely tempted to throw himself at her feet and pour
+forth the acknowledgment of his affection, which, he felt, would be
+kindly received. It was a difficult position for a man of sensitive
+feelings to be placed in, and he felt it keenly. But the duty he
+owed to his benefactor seemed imperative.</p>
+<p>Emily, on her part, was sadly bewildered by the strangeness of
+Henry's words; but she had no suspicion of the truth. If she had,
+perhaps, with a woman's ingenuity, she had devised some plan to
+extricate him from the dilemma. She was conscious of the strong
+interest she felt in the man before her; but the fact that she
+loved him was yet unrecognized. How should it be? She was unskilled
+in the subtleties even of her own heart. She know not the meaning
+of love yet. She was conscious of a grateful sensation in her
+heart; but she had yet to learn that this sensation was that called
+love in the great world. She began to fear, in her inability to
+account for Henry's strangeness in any other way, that some secret
+sorrow weighed heavily upon him.</p>
+<p>"I will not press you," said she, in a tone of affectionate
+sympathy; "but, if you have any sorrow which oppresses you, reveal
+it to my father, and take counsel against it. My father's house is
+your home,&mdash;at least, we have always endeavored to make it so.
+Father has always regarded you with the affection of a parent, and
+taught me to consider you as a brother&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"A brother!" interrupted Henry, feeling that the relation of
+brother and sister was too cold for the warmth of his affection;
+but, instantly banishing the unworthy thought, he continued,</p>
+<p>"And so, my pretty sister, you are for the first time entering
+upon your sisterly relations?"</p>
+<p>"The first time! Have I not always given you evidence of a
+sister's esteem?"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me. I only jested," said Henry, as the playful smile
+left his countenance.</p>
+<p>"Do not jest upon serious things, Henry," replied Emily. "But,
+brother, something troubles you. You cannot deny it. You look so
+gloomy and sad, and must leave us so suddenly."</p>
+<p>"Nay, my sweet sister,&mdash;since sister I am permitted to call
+you,&mdash;you must forgive me if I am obstinate just this
+once."</p>
+<p>"I will forgive your obstinacy because you desire it, and not
+because I am satisfied. Do you know, brother," said she, with a
+playful smile, "that I suspect you are in love?"</p>
+<p>This raillery was intended to have been uttered with a pert
+archness; but the crimson cheek and tremulous lips entirely
+defeated the intention.</p>
+<p>"Fie, sister! You are jesting now, yourself," replied Henry,
+with what was intended for a smile, but which, like his assailant's
+archness, was a signal failure.</p>
+<p>Both parties were now in the most unfortunate position
+imaginable. Neither dared to speak, for fear of disclosing their
+emotions. Both felt the awkwardness of the silence, and both felt
+the danger of breaking it. Henry twirled the tassel of the window
+drapery, and Emily twisted her pocket-handkerchief into every
+conceivable shape. Henry was the first to gather fortitude enough
+to venture a remark.</p>
+<p>"I must leave you, sister, now that, for the first time, the
+relation is acknowledged. I assure you, however, that I appreciate
+the sisterly kindness you have always lavished upon me. And I shall
+always remember this visit as the happiest period of my life."</p>
+<p>"Then I may hope you will often repeat it," replied Emily,
+sadly.</p>
+<p>"However pleasant it would be for me to do so, I fear my duty
+will be a barrier to my inclination. My future post, you are aware,
+is Newport."</p>
+<p>"And you depart so suddenly, and then seem inclined to make your
+absence perpetual! But we shall see you where-ever you are. We go
+to Newport this season, if father's health will permit," returned
+Emily, with a playful pout.</p>
+<p>"I would stay by you,&mdash;that is, I would stay at Bellevue
+forever,&mdash;if my duty to your father&mdash;I mean to my
+country&mdash;would permit," stammered Henry, much agitated, as he
+rose to depart.</p>
+<p>"I must go and bid farewell to your father," continued he,
+taking her hand, which he perceived trembled violently, in his own;
+"and I trust you will remember your absent brother&mdash;" kindly,
+he was about to say, but Emily, attempting to rise, was overpowered
+by the emotions which she had vainly striven to suppress, and sunk
+back in a swoon.</p>
+<p>Henry summoned assistance, and applied the usual restoratives,
+but he did not again venture to address her; and, as her pale
+features exhibited signs of returning consciousness, he hurried
+from the room.</p>
+<p>As the hour of his departure drew near, he bade an affectionate
+farewell to Colonel Dumont, who was confined to his room by
+illness. His kind friend used many entreaties for him to prolong
+his stay, but Henry pleaded his duty, and that the dying request of
+a brother officer required him to take a journey into Georgia,
+which would consume some three or four weeks' time. He intended to
+go to his future station by the way of the Mississippi, and
+promised that, if any time were left him on his return, he would
+again visit Bellevue. This, however, he thought was improbable.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont gave his <i>proteg&eacute;</i> much good advice,
+and, as his failing health had infected his usually cheerful
+spirits, he said that they would probably meet no more in this
+world. He frankly told him that he should remember him in his will,
+and wished him ever to regard Emily in the relation of a
+<i>sister</i>.</p>
+<p>This last wish seemed like a positive prohibition of the fond
+hope he had cherished, of regarding her in a nearer and more tender
+relation. He congratulated himself on the decision with which he
+had resisted the temptation to avow his love.</p>
+<p>This injunction of Emily's father could be interpreted in two
+ways,&mdash;as a requirement to preserve the present friendly
+relations, or as a prohibition against his ever making her his
+wife. The latter method of rendering his meaning seemed to him the
+most in accordance with their relative positions, and he was
+compelled to adopt it.</p>
+<p>After renewing his thanks to his benefactor, he took his leave
+with a sad heart, and departed from the mansion which contained his
+newly-found yet now rejected love.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Macbeth</i>.&mdash;What is
+'t ye do?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Witches</i>.&mdash;A deed
+without a name."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Shakespeare.</span></p>
+<p>In the management of his estates, Colonel Dumont had, for many
+years, been assisted by an only brother. This brother was directly
+the opposite of himself in character, in aims, in everything. Even
+in his childhood this brother had displayed a waywardness of
+disposition which gave the promise of much evil in his future
+years. As the seed sown so was the harvest. Parental instruction,
+counsel and rebuke, were alike unavailing, and he attained the
+years of manhood morose and unsympathizing in his disposition,
+avaricious and hard with his equals, and cruel and unjust towards
+his inferiors. His selfish mind, his low aims, and his tyrannical
+character, had long been preparing him for deeds of villany and
+injustice.</p>
+<p>In the earlier years of his life he had been a merchant in New
+Orleans; but, being universally detested for his meanness and
+duplicity, in a season of general panic in the financial world he
+was completely ruined, by the want of those kind offices which are
+so freely interchanged in the mercantile community. In this
+dilemma, he asked his brother's assistance. Colonel Dumont examined
+his affairs, and, considering his position in the community, with
+the almost hopeless embarrassment of his concerns, concluded that
+success under these circumstances was impossible. He frankly and
+kindly informed his brother of his conclusion, and offered him a
+share in his planting operations. His
+brother&mdash;Jaspar&mdash;was sorely wounded in his pride by this
+reply. It generated in him a sentiment, if not of malignity, at
+least of hatred, and from that day he was his brother's enemy.
+Jaspar's business was gone, and he never allowed his spirit of
+revenge even to interfere with his interest; so he availed himself
+of his brother's offer.</p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont trusted much to the gentle influence of his
+family circle to soften Jaspar's moroseness, and infuse some
+principle of charity and love. But these anticipations proved vain.
+He was cold and taciturn. Business alone could call forth the
+display of his energy, of which he was possessed of a liberal
+share. The society of Emily and other ladies he seemed to shun. The
+gentle influence of domestic life seemed entirely wasted upon him.
+Colonel Dumont was forced to believe his brother a misanthrope, and
+no longer strove to soften his character. Emily regarded his
+coldness as his natural manner, and left him to the full enjoyment
+of his eccentricity. Between persons of such opposite dispositions
+there could be, of course, but little sympathy, and that little was
+entirely upon one side.</p>
+<p>The demon of Jaspar's nature displayed itself in the cane-field
+and in the sugar-house, which Colonel Dumont rarely visited, having
+intrusted the entire management of the estate to him, his own
+attention being occupied by the exterior business of the
+plantation, and by his city possessions. The poor negro, who was
+compelled to submit to cruel usage and short fare, knew Jaspar's
+nature better than uncle or niece. His advent among them had been
+the era from which they dated the life of misery they led&mdash;a
+life so different from that they had been accustomed to under the
+superintendence of the more Christian brother.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont managed the "negro stock" in the true spirit of a
+demon, and as such the "hands" learned to regard him. Runaways,
+which, under the mild management of his brother, were rarely known,
+were common now; and almost the only amusement Jaspar knew was to
+hunt them down with rifle and bloodhound.</p>
+<p>This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not
+appreciate the reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he
+wished not to interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his
+heart. His failing health had latterly withdrawn his attention
+still more from the plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the
+tighter when he saw that the humane eye was removed from him.</p>
+<p>Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the
+close of our first chapter.</p>
+<p>On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel
+Dumont felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed
+with the conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon
+him. To Emily he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and
+she had discovered no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no
+suspicion of the nature of her father's business with Maxwell, and
+had borne his message to the attorney, as she had often done
+before, in her frequent visits to New Orleans, though on this
+occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much delicacy in doing
+so.</p>
+<p>In her absence Colonel Dumont had become more and more impressed
+with the omens of a speedy dissolution, and in his uneasiness had
+despatched Jaspar with a draft of his intentions, wishing the
+attorney to write the will in his office (where he could have his
+authorities at hand), and return with his brother.</p>
+<p>Maxwell considered the will and his own position, while Jaspar
+lit another cigar. Each was striving to penetrate the thoughts of
+the other, but neither had the boldness to enter upon the subject
+which occupied his mind. The lawyer wanted the lady and the
+fortune, and he had an undefined purpose of obtaining them through
+the agency of Jaspar, who wanted only the fortune, and had a
+decided anticipation of being able to retain the attorney in his
+service. Neither knew the purposes of the other; but each wanted
+the assistance of the other.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, with an absent mind, perused and reperused the first
+page of Colonel Dumont's instructions. Without a purpose he turned
+the leaf, and his attention was attracted by the name of his
+formidable rival, Henry Carroll. He read, with astonishment, a
+bequest to him of fifty thousand dollars. If it needed anything to
+complete his discomfiture, this was sufficient. He began to think
+Colonel Dumont was in his dotage. He had scarcely heard of Captain
+Carroll until his return from Mexico, and now he was a legatee in
+the will of a millionaire. With much anxiety he completed the
+reading of the instructions, fearful that he should find the young
+officer's name in connection with Emily's. To his great relief he
+found no such allusion, and again he applied himself to the task of
+writing out the will.</p>
+<p>Jaspar smoked his cigar, glanced occasionally at the newspaper,
+and stared out of the window. He was evidently lost to all around
+him, in the workings of his own mind. Now his thoughts seemed to
+excite him, for his eye glared with an unusual lustre, and his thin
+lips moved, as if they would disclose the operations of his mind.
+"Will he do it?" muttered he. "He shall do it, or by &mdash;&mdash;
+he shall suffer! I have the means of compelling him. I will use
+them."</p>
+<p>Apparently satisfied with his conclusion, he rose hastily and
+approached the attorney. A smooth smile&mdash;an unwonted
+expression on his features&mdash;seemed to come on demand. Again he
+looked over the lawyer's shoulder. He saw the name of Henry
+Carroll, and his former severe expression returned, and his frame
+was stirred by angry emotions. A half-suppressed oath did not
+escape the quick ear of the attorney, and he turned to observe the
+face of his companion. He read at a glance the dissatisfaction
+which the will occasioned. The reason was plain; and, with the
+intention of drawing out Jaspar's views, he addressed him.</p>
+<p>"This Carroll is a lucky fellow," said he.</p>
+<p>"The devil is always the luckiest fellow in the crowd," growled
+Jaspar, with an oath.</p>
+<p>"You are right, sir," returned Maxwell, pleased to see no better
+feeling between his rival and the uncle.</p>
+<p>"But who is this Carroll?" said he.</p>
+<p>"A hungry cub, whom the colonel has helped along in the
+world."</p>
+<p>"Well, he has proved himself a brave and skilful officer, and
+reflects credit on your brother's judgment in the selection of a
+<i>proteg&eacute;</i>," returned Maxwell, adroitly.</p>
+<p>"The fellow is all well enough, for aught I know, but he has
+wheedled the colonel out of fifty thousand dollars, and I can never
+forgive him for that," said Jaspar, in what was intended for a
+playful tone, but which was designed as a "feeler" of the
+attorney's conscience.</p>
+<p>"But there is still an immense property left, even after
+deducting the liberal charitable donations," said Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"There is, but where does it go to? That whining young cub has
+divided a hundred thousand with me, and the silly girl has the
+rest."</p>
+<p>"Which will eventually go into the hands of Captain
+Carroll,&mdash;lucky dog, he!" returned Maxwell, striving to
+provoke Jaspar still more.</p>
+<p>"What! what mean you, man?" said Jaspar, with a scowl, as he
+caught a glimpse of the attorney's meaning.</p>
+<p>"Is it possible, my dear sir," said Maxwell, laying down his
+pen, and turning half round, "is it possible you have not observed
+the intimacy which has grown up between this Carroll and your
+niece?"</p>
+<p>"Intimacy! what do you mean? Speak out! no equivocation!" said
+Jaspar, almost fiercely.</p>
+<p>"Do you not see that she will yet be the wife of Captain
+Carroll?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar scowled, but said nothing. He had seen nothing from which
+he could draw such an inference, but he doubted not the information
+was correct.</p>
+<p>"Well, well, it matters not. He may as well have it as she,"
+muttered he. "This will suits me not, and must be broken or
+altered."</p>
+<p>"It <i>is</i> hard upon you," said Maxwell, who had overheard
+Jaspar's mutterings.</p>
+<p>"It is rather hard to be placed upon the same level with a
+comparative stranger," replied Jaspar, thoughtfully, after a long
+pause. He had not intended the lawyer should hear his previous
+remarks, and had reflected whether he should disown them, or pursue
+the subject as thus opened.</p>
+<p>"Of course you will not mention the idle remark I made,"
+continued Jaspar, in a vein of prudence. "My brother has an
+undoubted right to dispose of his property as he pleases."</p>
+<p>"O, certainly. What transpires in my office is always regarded
+with the strictest confidence, whatever its nature, and however it
+affects any individual," replied Maxwell, laying peculiar emphasis
+on the latter clause.</p>
+<p>"That's right, always be secret," said Jaspar, without any of
+the appearance of obligation for the favor which the attorney
+expected to see.</p>
+<p>"I have secrets in my possession which would ruin some of the
+best families in the State of Louisiana."</p>
+<p>"Without doubt," replied Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>The attorney resumed his writing, and pronounced in an audible
+tone each sentence as he committed it to the paper.</p>
+<p>"To my beloved brother&mdash;Jaspar Dumont&mdash;I give and
+bequeath the sum of fifty thousand dollars."</p>
+<p>These words, as intended, again fired Jaspar's passions.</p>
+<p>"Is there no remedy for this?" asked he, hastily.</p>
+<p>"No legal remedy," replied Maxwell, indifferently, as he
+continued his task.</p>
+<p>"Is there any, legal or illegal?"</p>
+<p>"None that an honest man would be willing to resort to."</p>
+<p>"That any man would resort to?" and Jaspar was not a little
+provoked at the attorney's moral inferences.</p>
+<p>"I know of none."</p>
+<p>"I do."</p>
+<p>"Then why do you not put it into operation before it is too
+late? The will is now nearly written."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! man; you do not understand me. A bolder step than you
+are thinking of."</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you wait for?"</p>
+<p>"I need assistance."</p>
+<p>"If I can afford you any aid, <i>honorably</i>, I shall be most
+happy."</p>
+<p>"<i>Honorably</i>! What the devil do you mean by
+<i>honorably</i>?" said Jaspar, exasperated by this unexpected
+display of morality.</p>
+<p>"What do I mean by honorably? Why, anything which does not
+affect the legal or moral rights of others," replied Maxwell, a
+little touched by the seeming reflection of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Fudge! how long have you been so conscientious?" sneered
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"When a man has a reputation to make or break, it becomes him to
+handle it with care."</p>
+<p>"Out upon you, man! <i>Your</i> reputation is not so fair, that
+you need be so tender of it," replied Jaspar, with some
+severity.</p>
+<p>"Sir!"</p>
+<p>"O, you needn't '<i>sir</i>' me! You have led me to commit
+myself, and now assume a virtue you possess not."</p>
+<p>"Sir, I value my reputation, and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Of course you do, but you would not sacrifice a fortune for
+it," interrupted Jaspar, easily changing the tenor of the
+conversation.</p>
+<p>"I certainly would not stain it unnecessarily," replied Maxwell,
+with a meaning smile, for he saw the folly of attempting the "high
+flight" with Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Now you talk sensibly," said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont, it is useless to beat about the bush any longer; if
+you have any proposition to make, out with it at once; and if I
+cannot aid you, I will, at least, keep your secret."</p>
+<p>"Will you swear never to reveal what I shall propose?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, if paid for it," said Maxwell, frankly.</p>
+<p>"It is well. Now, I will put you in the way of making ten
+thousand dollars, if you so will," said Jaspar, slapping the
+attorney on the back with a familiarity which was likely to breed
+contempt.</p>
+<p>This was a tempting offer, and Maxwell prepared to listen to the
+proposition. He was aware that it was some design upon the estate
+of Colonel Dumont, and he inwardly resolved to be a gainer by the
+operation, whether he joined in it or not.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont laid aside his sternness, and disclosed his plot
+to Maxwell. It was, as may be supposed, a nefarious scheme, and not
+only intended to deprive Henry Carroll of his legacy, but also to
+disinherit the heiress, and cast a stigma upon the character of his
+brother.</p>
+<p>The plot we will not here disclose.</p>
+<p>Maxwell listened attentively, occasionally interrupting the
+speaker, by asking for details, or pointing out dangers But the
+foul wrong intended towards her for whom he entertained warmer
+sentiments than those of friendship shocked even his hardened
+sensibilities, and he strongly objected to its consummation. It
+would also, by stripping her of her broad lands, and stigmatizing
+her birth, render her undesirable as a wife. But Jaspar was firm in
+his purpose, and refused to listen to any other scheme. This one,
+he contended, was the safest and surest.</p>
+<p>"But it is a diabolical transaction," suggested Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Call it what you will, it is the only one that will work
+well."</p>
+<p>Maxwell remained silent. He was studying to make this scheme
+subservient to his own purpose. He was obliged to confess to
+himself that his hopes with the heiress were worse than folly, and
+he judged that the execution of Jaspar's scheme would remove his
+rival. He looked forward years, and saw his own purpose gained by
+means of Jaspar's plan. It was true that he and Jaspar both could
+not have her estates; but then Jaspar was a villain, and it would
+be a good service, at a convenient season, to be a traitor to him.
+His plans were arranged, and he determined to encourage his
+companion to proceed, though, at the same time, to seem unwilling,
+and to keep his own hands clean from all participation in it.</p>
+<p>After this long interval of silence, which Jaspar had endured
+with patience, for he recognized the truth of the saying, that "He
+who deliberates is damned," Maxwell said,</p>
+<p>"I cannot consent to stain my hands with such gross
+injustice."</p>
+<p>"You cannot!" sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"It would ruin me."</p>
+<p>"It was part of my intention to keep the transaction a secret,"
+said Jaspar, sarcastically.</p>
+<p>"Of course, and your confidence in me shall not be
+misplaced."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's fists were clenched, and a demoniacal expression rested
+on his countenance, as he said, savagely,</p>
+<p>"You know your own interest too well to do otherwise."</p>
+<p>"I am not to be intimidated," replied Maxwell, who despised his
+companion most heartily, and did not relish his tyrannical manner.
+"Your confidence, I repeat, is safe. <i>Honor</i> will keep your
+secret,&mdash;threats will not compel me to do so."</p>
+<p>"<i>Honor</i>! ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Jaspar. "Do you know,
+Maxwell, that you are a &mdash;&mdash; fool, to talk to me of your
+honor?"</p>
+<p>"Would you insult me, sir?" said, Maxwell, with vehemence.</p>
+<p>"O, no, my fine fellow! <i>Your</i> honor!&mdash;ha, ha!"
+returned Jaspar, taking from his pocket a little slip of paper.
+"Look here, my <i>honorable</i> worthy, do you know this
+check?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell's face assumed a livid hue, and a convulsive tremor
+passed through his frame, as he read the check.</p>
+<p>In a moment of temporary embarrassment he had been tempted to
+forge the name of Colonel Dumont to this check, for five hundred
+dollars, to liquidate a debt of honor, not doubting that he should
+be able to obtain it again before the day of settlement at the
+bank, by means of a dissolute teller, a boon companion at the
+gaming-table. But Colonel Dumont, in arranging his affairs for
+their final settlement, had sent Jaspar for a statement of his bank
+account at an unusual time. Jaspar, who, in the illness of his
+brother, had managed all his business, immediately discovered the
+forgery. Without disputing its genuineness, he ascertained who had
+presented it, and traced the deed to the attorney, and thus
+obtained a hold upon him which was peculiarly favorable to the
+execution of his great purpose.</p>
+<p>"You see I have not laid myself open to your fire without
+fortifying my position," said Jaspar, enjoying, with hearty relish,
+the discomfiture of the lawyer. "Now, no more of <i>honor</i> to
+me. I have kept your secret for my own interest, and now you will
+keep mine from the same motive."</p>
+<p>"But I <i>dare</i> not do this thing," replied Maxwell, keenly
+sensitive to the weakness of his position; "I lack the
+ability."</p>
+<p>"You have signed the colonel's name once very well; perhaps you
+can do it again," sneered Jaspar, who had no mercy for an unwilling
+servant.</p>
+<p>"It will not be for your interest or mine that I should do it,"
+returned Maxwell, determined, if possible, to avoid committing
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Why not?" said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"My frequent visits to Bellevue would subject me to suspicion. I
+am known. Another would not be suspected. If I clear myself, I
+shall clear you at the same time. I can procure a person who will
+accomplish all in safety."</p>
+<p>"Think you I will trust another man with the possession of the
+secret?"</p>
+<p>"I shall compromise my own safety by writing the will, as you
+propose."</p>
+<p>"True,&mdash;who is this person?"</p>
+<p>"His name is&mdash;" and Maxwell hesitated; then a severe fit of
+coughing apparently prevented his uttering the name&mdash;"his name
+is Antoine De Guy."</p>
+<p>"Do I know him?"</p>
+<p>"You do, I think,&mdash;a kind of <i>street</i>
+lawyer,&mdash;you must have met him at the Exchange."</p>
+<p>"What looking man is he?"</p>
+<p>"About fifty years of age," replied Maxwell, more thoughtful
+than the simple description of a person would seem to
+require,&mdash;"rather corpulent, black hair and whiskers,
+intermixed with gray,&mdash;dresses old-fashioned, and always looks
+rusty."</p>
+<p>"I do not remember him,&mdash;De Guy&mdash;De Guy," said Jaspar,
+musing; "no, I do not know him. Are you confident he can be
+trusted?"</p>
+<p>"Perfectly confident. I pledge my own safety on his fidelity,"
+replied Maxwell, not a little satisfied at gaining his
+point,&mdash;for he had a point, and a strong one, as the reader
+may yet have occasion to know.</p>
+<p>"Very good,&mdash;I will inquire about him."</p>
+<p>"And expose us both!" replied Maxwell, in much alarm.</p>
+<p>"True,&mdash;on reflection, it would not be wise, and it would
+be best for you and I not to be seen together. But finish the will;
+the colonel will not relish my long absence. A word more: do not
+say anything about <i>this</i> will. The colonel has a fancy to
+keep it secret, and this fancy will be the salvation of our
+scheme."</p>
+<p>But we will not follow the conversation any further. The reader
+has obtained a sufficient knowledge of these worthies from their
+own mouths, to believe them capable of any villany they may be
+called upon to perpetrate.</p>
+<p>The plot was further arranged in all its details. A meeting with
+De Guy was fixed for the next day, when all parties were to be
+prepared to act their parts.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He is a man, setting his fate
+aside,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of comely virtues;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nor did he soil the fact with
+cowardice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But with a noble fury and a fair
+spirit</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He did oppose his
+foe."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Shakespeare.</span></p>
+<p>Colonel Dumont's melancholy forebodings proved to be too well
+grounded, for in ten days after the departure of Henry Carroll he
+breathed his last, not fully ripe in years, but mature in the
+stature of a good man. His worldly affairs had all been arranged,
+and with his mind at peace with God and man he bade a final adieu
+to his weeping daughter and dissembling brother, and calmly
+resigned his spirit to its Author.</p>
+<p>The mansion of Colonel Dumont had been the abode of happiness.
+Cheerfulness and contentment&mdash;rare visitors at the home of
+opulence&mdash;dwelt gracefully amid the luxurious splendor of this
+house. But now a heavy stroke of affliction had come upon the
+devoted Emily. The ruthless hand of death had struck down her
+father in the midst of prosperity and happiness. She felt that she
+was alone in the world. Her unsympathizing uncle seemed not to feel
+the loss, but appeared even more cold and churlish than ever. She
+could not expect from him the offices of kindness and sympathy. She
+was an orphan, but not till she was prepared to combat with the
+trials of life. Recognizing the hand of Providence in this
+visitation of the Angel of Death, she bowed meekly and submissively
+to the Master Will, and was even cheerful and happy in her
+tears.</p>
+<p>It was about ten o'clock on the night succeeding the funeral of
+Colonel Dumont that a small canoe, containing a single individual,
+touched at the bank of the river near the now gloomy mansion.
+Leaping from the canoe, which was nearly swamped by the act, the
+person it had contained drew the frail bark beyond the reach of the
+rapid current, and ascended the steep bank. Following the smooth
+shell road through the long vista of negro huts, he reached the
+little grove of tropical trees which surrounded the proprietary
+mansion. Casting an anxious glance around him, to satisfy himself
+that he was not watched, he cautiously approached the only
+illuminated window on that side of the house, upon which, after a
+close scrutiny of the interior of the room, he gave several light
+taps. This signal was answered by Jaspar Dumont, who, with a word
+of caution, opened the window. The stranger, with a light spring
+which belied his apparent years, gained the interior of the room,
+which was the library of the late owner.</p>
+<p>The person who had thus obtained admission was the lawyer,
+Antoine De Guy, whom Maxwell had suggested as a fit agent for the
+execution of Jaspar's scheme. He was certainly an odd-looking man.
+His face was of a very dark red color, much like that which is
+produced by the united effects of exposure and intemperance, and
+was encircled by a pair of black whiskers, intermixed with gray.
+His cranium was ornamented with a huge mass of the same
+parti-colored hair. His fiery red nose was placed in strange
+contrast with a pair of green spectacles, which entirely concealed
+the color and expression of his eyes. His clothes were of a most
+primitive cut, and had probably been black once, but were now rusty
+and white from long service. His form was portly, a little inclined
+to corpulency. His hands were most unprofessionally dirty; but this
+might have been occasioned by contact with the canoe in his
+passage. On one of his fingers glittered a diamond ring, which,
+considering the lack of ornaments in other respects, but ill
+accorded with the apparent parsimony of the man. It might, however,
+have been obtained in the way of trade, for Maxwell had hinted that
+he did business under the sign of the "three golden balls." He was
+apparently in the neighborhood of five-and-forty, and looked like
+the debauchee in the face, while his dress indicated the penurious
+man of business.</p>
+<p>"Did any one see you?" asked Jaspar, whose teeth were chattering
+with apprehension, notwithstanding his natural boldness.</p>
+<p>"Not that I am aware of," replied De Guy, in a silky tone,
+which, proceeding from such a form, would have astonished the
+listener.</p>
+<p>"You met no one?" interrogated the anxious Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Not a soul! Everything was still."</p>
+<p>"Let us be sure of it. Step into this room for a moment. I will
+see that all the servants have retired," said Jaspar, pushing his
+confederate into an adjoining apartment.</p>
+<p>A light pull at the bell-rope brought to the library the
+body-servant of the late planter.</p>
+<p>This "boy," who was known by the name of <i>Hatchie</i>, was a
+mulatto. He was about forty years of age, and, having never been
+reduced to labor in the cane-fields, bore his age remarkably well.
+He was about six feet in height, very stout built, and was endowed
+with immense physical strength. His brow was a little wrinkled, and
+his head was a little bald upon the top,&mdash;and these were the
+only evidences of his years. His expression was that of great
+intelligence. In his countenance there was a kind of humility, to
+which his demeanor corresponded, that might have resulted from his
+condition, or have been inherent in his nature. He was a man who,
+even in a land of slavery, would be instinctively respected.</p>
+<p>He had been a great favorite with his late master, in whose
+family he had spent the greater part of his life. By being
+constantly in attendance upon him and his guests, he had acquired a
+much greater amount of information than is often found in those of
+his condition. He could read and write, and by his intelligence and
+singular fidelity had proved a valuable addition to his master's
+household. Possessing his confidence, and regarded more as a friend
+than a slave by Emily, he was a privileged person in the
+house,&mdash;a confidence which in no instance did he abuse, and
+which in no degree abated his affection or his fidelity.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was not a phrenologist, but he had long ago acquired a
+perfect knowledge of Jaspar's character,&mdash;a knowledge which
+his master or Emily had never obtained.</p>
+<p>Hatchie considered Emily, now that her father was dead, as his
+own especial charge, and he watched over her, in the disparity of
+their stations, very much as a faithful dog watches over a child
+intrusted to its keeping. Towards her he entertained a sentiment of
+the profoundest respect as his mistress, and of parental affection
+as one who had grown up under his eye.</p>
+<p>"Hatchie," said Jaspar, as the mulatto entered the library, "are
+the hands all in?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, whose penetrating mind detected the
+tremulous quiver of Jaspar's lip; "all in two hours ago, according
+to regulations."</p>
+<p>"All right, then. You can go to bed now."</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, with his customary obeisance, as he
+turned to depart.</p>
+<p>"Stay a moment. Go to Miss Emily, and get the keys of the
+secretary," said Jaspar, with assumed carelessness.</p>
+<p>Hatchie obeyed; and, suspecting something before, he was
+confirmed in the opinion now, and determined to watch. His
+suspicions of something&mdash;he knew not what&mdash;had been
+excited by seeing Maxwell in earnest consultation with Jaspar on
+the day of the funeral. He had, of course, no idea of the plots of
+the latter; but, in common with all the "boys," he hated Jaspar,
+and was willing to know more of his transactions.</p>
+<p>Giving the keys to Jaspar, he left the room, and heard the
+creaking of the bolt which fastened the door.</p>
+<p>As soon as the servant had departed, Jaspar called his
+confederate from his concealment.</p>
+<p>"Are you ready for business?" said he.</p>
+<p>"I am," replied De Guy, "as soon as you pay me the first
+instalment. I can't take a single step in the dark."</p>
+<p>"Here it is," and Jaspar took from his pocket the money. "Have
+you the document?"</p>
+<p>"I have," replied De Guy, producing the fictitious will, which
+Maxwell had drawn up in conformity with the instructions of
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"And you are ready to affix the signature?" said Jaspar, who
+appeared not to be in the possession of his usual confidence. Few
+villains ever become so hardened as never to tremble.</p>
+<p>"I am. I came for that purpose. Give me the genuine will, and I
+will soon make this one so near like it that the witnesses
+themselves shall not discover the cheat," replied De Guy, with an
+air of confidence.</p>
+<p>"You shall have it; but first read this to me. I do nothing
+blindly."</p>
+<p>The attorney, in his silky tones, read the paper through, and
+Jaspar pronounced it correct in every particular.</p>
+<p>"I see nothing in the way of entire success," said Jaspar,
+rubbing his hands with delight at his prospective fortune.</p>
+<p>"Nor I," replied De Guy, "except that these witnesses will deny
+the substance of it."</p>
+<p>"How can they, when they know it not? The colonel, for some
+reason or other, would not let them read it or know its purport.
+Maxwell and myself are pledged to secrecy. It is upon this fact
+that I based the scheme."</p>
+<p>"But the will would not be worth a tittle in the law with such
+witnesses."</p>
+<p>"Bah! the colonel knew no one would contest it. He did it at his
+own risk."</p>
+<p>"But will they not contest <i>your</i> will?"</p>
+<p>"If they do, I shall find the means of proving what the document
+affirms, and my case will then stand just as well. As a kind of
+assurance for the witnesses my brother affixed a character,&mdash;a
+kind of cabalistic design,&mdash;upon the will, assuring them it
+was placed on the will alone. You have a copy of this design?"</p>
+<p>"I have. Maxwell gave it to me, and I have practised till I can
+do it to perfection. Your brother had an odd way of doing
+business."</p>
+<p>"He had; but his oddity in this instance is a God-send."</p>
+<p>"But the <i>other</i> document, Mr. Dumont! My stay is already
+too long!"</p>
+<p>Jaspar, taking the keys from the table, opened the secretary,
+and took from a small iron safe in the lower part of it a large
+packet, on which were several large masses of wax bearing the
+impress of Colonel Dumont's seal.</p>
+<p>"Now, De Guy," said he, "do your best."</p>
+<p>"Do not fear! I never yet saw a name I could not imitate."</p>
+<p>"So much the better; but be careful, I entreat you! Think how
+much depends upon care!"</p>
+<p>"O, I can do it so nicely that your brother himself would not
+deny it, if he should step out of his grave!"</p>
+<p>"Silence, man!" said Jaspar, angrily, as a superstitious thrill
+of terror crept through his veins.</p>
+<p>Jaspar took up the packet, and was about to snap the seals,
+when, quicker than thought, the window through which De Guy had
+entered flew open, and Hatchie leaped into the room. Without giving
+Jaspar or his accomplice time to recover from the surprise of his
+sudden entrance, he levelled a blow at the lawyer, and another at
+the perfidious brother, which placed both in a rather awkward
+position on the floor. Hatchie then seized the envelope containing
+the will, and made his escape in the manner he had entered, well
+knowing that Jaspar would not hesitate to take his life rather than
+be foiled in his purpose.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/046g.jpg"><img src="images/046g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie knocking down De Guy and Jasper, and stealing the
+will.</b></div>
+<p>The mulatto's blows produced no serious effect upon the heads of
+the two villains, and, recovering from the surprise and shock the
+act had occasioned, they lost not a moment in pursuing their
+assailant. Hatchie directed his course to the river, and scarcely a
+moment had elapsed before he heard the steps of his pursuers.
+Leaping down the bank, he ran along by the edge of the water, with
+the intention of reaching a boat which he knew was moored a few
+rods further down. In his flight, however, he discovered the canoe
+in which De Guy had arrived, and, casting it off, he paddled with
+astonishing rapidity towards the opposite shore.</p>
+<p>His pursuers reached the bank, and perceiving the canoe through
+the darkness, Jaspar discharged his rifle at it. A heavy splash
+followed the discharge. The canoe appeared to float at the mercy of
+the current. Jaspar and De Guy, satisfied that the rifle-ball had
+done its work, hastened down stream to a small point of land which
+projected into the river, with the hope of securing the canoe and
+the body of the slave, upon which they expected to find the will.
+The canoe was driven ashore, as they had anticipated; but it
+contained not the objects for which they sought. The corpse of
+Hatchie was nowhere to be found, though they paddled about the
+river an hour in search of it,&mdash;not that the body of the
+mulatto was of any consequence, but in the hope of obtaining the
+precious will.</p>
+<p>Here was a contingency for which Jaspar was wholly unprepared.
+The original signature of the will was not now available, and they
+must trust to luck for accuracy in signing the false one. There was
+little difficulty in this, as the will was known to have been
+signed in the usual manner, and the private character they had in
+their possession. Still Jaspar felt that the original paper
+afforded the surer means of deceiving the witnesses. They had
+before intended to produce a fac-simile, mechanically, of the
+original,&mdash;a purpose which could not now be accomplished. The
+witnesses were all friends of Colonel Dumont, and they had various
+papers signed by them from which to copy their signatures. The
+worst, and to Jaspar's daring mind the only difficulty which now
+presented itself, was the fear that the body of Hatchie might be
+found, and the genuine will thus brought to light. After much
+reflection and consultation with De Guy, he determined to risk all,
+to watch for the body, and be prepared to overcome any obstacle
+which might be presented. With this conclusion they returned to the
+library. By the aid of old notes, checks, and other papers, the
+fictitious will was duly signed, the significant character affixed,
+and the document enveloped so as to exactly resemble the original
+packet.</p>
+<p>The whole transaction was so well performed that Jaspar retired
+to his pillow confident of success, to await the result on the
+morrow, when the will was to be read.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Is this the daughter of a
+slave? I know</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Tis not with men as shrubs and
+trees, that by</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The shoot you know the rank and
+order of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The stem. Yet who from such a
+stem would look</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For such a shoot?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Knowles.</span></p>
+<p>The morrow came. Emily was summoned to the library, to hear the
+reading of her father's will. With her no worldly consideration
+could mitigate the deep grief that pervaded her heart. She derived
+her only consolation from a purer, higher source. She was a true
+mourner, and the acquisition of the immense fortune of which she
+was the heiress was not an event which could heal the wound in her
+heart. She looked not forward to the bright scenes of triumph and
+of conquest that awaited her. She was not dazzled by the brilliancy
+of the position to which wealth and an honorable name entitled her.
+Such thoughts never occurred to her. She did think of Henry
+Carroll; but not in the proud situation to which her wealth might
+elevate him, but as a pure heart that would beat in unison with her
+own, that would sympathize with her in her hour of sorrow; as one
+who would mingle his tears with hers, over the bier of a common
+parent. She was not sentimental in her love, nor in her grief.
+Sighs and tears with her were not a sentimental commodity,&mdash;an
+offering which the boarding-school miss makes alike at the altar of
+her love, or at the shrine of a dead parent's memory. The
+desolation of heart and home was not a trial which wealth and
+honors could adorn with tinsel, and thus render it desirable, or
+even tolerable!</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont entered the library. The occasion was repugnant to
+her feelings. The unceremonious blending of dollars and cents with
+the revered name of her father was extremely painful to her
+sensibility. It seemed like a profanation of his memory.</p>
+<p>Her uncle, Maxwell, the witnesses of the will, and several
+others,&mdash;intimate friends of the family,&mdash;were already
+there. On Jaspar's countenance were no tell-tale traces of the last
+night's villany. He looked gloomy and sorrowful. So thoroughly had
+he schooled himself in hypocrisy for this occasion, that the scene
+he knew would, in a few minutes, transpire, had no prophetic
+indications in his features. Like the tragedian who is tranquil and
+unaffected in the scene in which he knows his own death or triumph
+occurs, Jaspar was calm, and his aspect even sanctimonious.</p>
+<p>As Emily entered Maxwell tendered his sympathies in his usual
+elegant manner, and so touchingly did he allude to the death of her
+father that with much difficulty she restrained a flood of tears.
+The scene in the office, and the disfavor with which she had lately
+regarded him, were forgotten in his eloquence.</p>
+<p>After this courtesy to the daughter of his former patron,
+Maxwell again seated himself, and after briefly and formally
+stating the reasons of their meeting, to which he added a short but
+apparently very feeling eulogy of the deceased, he took the packet
+from the safe, and proceeded to break the seals.</p>
+<p>In his full and musical tones the attorney read the preliminary
+parts of the instrument, and then commenced upon the principal
+items of the will. First came several legacies to charitable
+institutions and to personal friends; after which was a legacy of
+ten thousand dollars to Emily Dumont, to be paid in Cincinnati by
+his brother. The testator further declared <i>that the said Emily
+was manumitted</i>, and should proceed under the guidance of his
+brother to the place designated for the payment of the legacy.</p>
+<p>Emily, who had scarcely heeded the provisions of the will until
+the mention of her name attracted her attention, was, as may be
+supposed, somewhat astonished to hear her own name in connection
+with a legacy. She raised her sad eyes from the floor, and heard
+the other stipulations in regard to her. So utterly unexpected, so
+terribly revolting, was the clause which pronounced her a slave,
+that for a time she did not realize its awful import. But the blank
+dismay of her friends, the well-counterfeited surprise of Jaspar
+and Maxwell, brought her to a painful sense of her position. She
+attempted to rise, but in the act the color forsook her face, and
+she sunk back insensible. In this condition she was conveyed to her
+room.</p>
+<p>The attorney completed the reading of the will, though, after
+the extraordinary incident which had just occurred, but little
+attention was given him. The witnesses at once recognized the
+strange character, and acknowledged the signatures to be genuine.
+Here, then, thought they, was the reason why the provisions of the
+will had been concealed from them. So impressed were they with the
+apparent purpose of Colonel Dumont in throwing the veil of secrecy
+over the contents of his will, that the very strangeness of it
+seemed to confirm its genuineness; and they did not scrutinize it
+so closely as under other circumstances they probably would have
+done.</p>
+<p>How often may a good motive be tortured, by the appearance of
+evil, into the most despicable criminality! Colonel Dumont in this
+will had devised large sums of money to various charitable
+institutions, and in the event of his life being prolonged, did not
+wish to be pointed at and lauded for this act. True charity is
+modest, and Colonel Dumont did not desire to see his name blazoned
+forth to the world for doing that which he honestly and religiously
+deemed his duty.</p>
+<p>This modesty had favored Jaspar's plans. No one could now
+gainsay the will he had invented; and he felt strong in his
+position, especially after the witnesses had assented to their
+signatures.</p>
+<p>Among the persona who had been present in the library was Mr.
+Faxon, an aged and worthy clergyman. He had for many years been an
+intimate friend of Colonel Dumont, and was a legatee in his will to
+a liberal amount. A constant visitor in the family, its spiritual
+adviser and comforter, he had possessed the unlimited confidence of
+the late planter and his daughter. To him the whole clause relating
+to Emily seemed like a falsehood. Pure and holy in his own
+character, it was beyond his conception that a man of Colonel
+Dumont's lofty and Christian views could have lived so many years
+in the practice of this deception. He had no means of disproving
+the illegitimacy of Emily. The family had been unknown to him at
+the period of her birth. The house-servants, with the exception of
+Hatchie, were all younger than Emily. Then, the statement was made
+in the will, and was, therefore, the statement of Colonel Dumont
+himself,&mdash;for the genuineness of the will he did not call in
+question. In accordance with his general character, her father had
+manumitted her, and left her a competence. From this clause he
+inferred that her father intended to place her beyond the reach of
+harm, and beyond the possibility of ever being reduced to the
+degraded condition so often the lot of the quadroon at the South.
+He had not only given her freedom, but had provided for her
+conveyance beyond the pale of slavery. With these intentions, if
+she were in reality a slave, Mr. Faxon could find no fault. They
+were liberal in the extreme. But why had he, at this late period,
+mentioned the stain upon her birth? Why not let her live as he had
+educated her? These queries were so easily answered that the good
+clergyman could not condemn the dead on account of them. If the
+daughter, then she was the heiress; if not, legitimately, it would
+be injustice to the brother.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon reasoned in this manner. He could not believe, even
+with all the evidence before him. There was a reasonable answer,
+apparently, to every objection he could think of, and he resolved
+to apply to Jaspar and Hatchie for more information. All that
+Jaspar could say, or would say, in answer to his interrogatories,
+was that his brother's wife had died in giving birth to a dead
+child; and that Emily, who was the child of a house-servant by him,
+had so engaged his attention by her singular beauty that he had
+substituted her for his own child. This story, Jaspar said, his
+brother had told him in the strictest confidence, many years
+before. Mr. Faxon, appreciating the disappointment of a father with
+such a sensitive nature as Colonel Dumont, was willing to believe
+that Emily had been substituted to supply in his affections the
+place of the lost child; but that he should educate her as his own
+child, and then cast her out from the pale of society, was
+incredible!</p>
+<p>The evidence was so strong, he could see no escape from the
+terrible conclusion that the gentle being, to whom he had
+ministered in joy and in sorrow, was a slave! It required a hard
+struggle in his mind before he could reconcile himself to the
+revolting truth. Her beautiful character, built up mostly under his
+own supervision, he regarded with peculiar pride. He was not so
+bigoted, however, as to believe his labors lost, or even less
+worthy, because bestowed, as it now appeared, upon a slave. In
+heaven his labors would be just as apparent in the quadroon as in
+the noble-born lady.</p>
+<p>After the departure of the friends who had been summoned to the
+reading of the will, and whose stay had been prolonged by the
+melancholy interest they felt in the unfortunate Emily, Mr. Faxon
+requested to see her, and was shown to her room. She had just been
+restored to consciousness, by the assiduous efforts of her maids,
+as the good man entered.</p>
+<p>"O, Mr. Faxon!" sobbed Emily, but she could articulate no more.
+The terrible reality of her situation had entirely overcome
+her.</p>
+<p>"Be comforted, my dear child," said Mr. Faxon, affectionately,
+taking her hand. "The ways of Providence are mysterious, and we
+must bend humbly to our lot."</p>
+<p>"I will try to be resigned to my fate, terrible as it is,"
+replied Emily, looking at the minister with a subdued expression,
+while hot tears poured down her cheeks. "You will not forsake me,
+if all others do!"</p>
+<p>"No, no, my dear child; it is my duty to wrestle with sorrow. I
+have come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
+distinctions of caste do not exist."</p>
+<p>"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair
+crept to her mind.</p>
+<p>"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's
+own good time He will call you hence."</p>
+<p>"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"</p>
+<p>"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of
+the Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in
+store for you."</p>
+<p>"But I am an outcast now,&mdash;one whom all my former friends
+will despise,&mdash;a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with
+her hands, and sobbing convulsively.</p>
+<p>"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may
+be a deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason
+to think so."</p>
+<p>Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
+brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.</p>
+<p>"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot
+believe that he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of
+father; who watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my
+youthful heart so faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called
+me daughter, and blessed me with his dying breath,&mdash;I cannot
+believe he has been so cruel to me!"</p>
+<p>"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of
+Providence are inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are
+ordered for our good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet
+be well."</p>
+<p>"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall
+not be lost upon me, slave though I am. <i>Dear</i> father," said
+she, and the tears blinded her,&mdash;"I love his memory still,
+though every word of this hated will were true. I ought not to
+repine, whatever be my future lot. That he loved me as a daughter,
+I can never doubt; that he never told me I am a slave, I will
+forgive, for he meant it well."</p>
+<p>"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this
+painful event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of
+this trial before?"</p>
+<p>"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the
+tears which had gathered on her cheeks.</p>
+<p>"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which
+you can now recognize as such."</p>
+<p>Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could
+not.</p>
+<p>"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long
+ago as your birth?"</p>
+<p>"All but Hatchie."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you had better send for him, and I will question
+him.</p>
+<p>"I will, and I pray that his knowledge may favor me."</p>
+<p>Emily sent one of the maids for Hatchie; but she returned in a
+few moments, accompanied by Jaspar, who, hearing her inquiries for
+the man his rifle-ball had sent to the other world, had come to
+prevent any injurious surmises.</p>
+<p>This man, Hatchie, had not escaped Jaspar's attention, in the
+maturing of his plot; but, as in some other of the particulars, he
+had trusted to the facilities of the moment for the means of
+silencing him. Being a man, it was not probable he could know much
+of the events attending the birth of Emily to his prejudice. If it
+should prove that he did, why, it was an easy thing to get rid of
+him. His rifle-ball or the slave-market were always available. But
+Jaspar's good fortune had smiled upon him, and he felt peculiarly
+happy, at this moment, in the reflection that he was out of the
+way, for he doubted not the object of Emily in sending for him.</p>
+<p>"Miss Emily," said Jaspar, in a tone of unwonted softness, "I am
+sorry to say that your father's favorite servant met with a sad
+mishap last night, of which I intended to have informed you before,
+but have not had an opportunity."</p>
+<p>Emily's cheek again blanched, as she saw all hope in this
+quarter cut off.</p>
+<p>"Poor Hatchie!" said she, as calmly as her excited feelings
+would permit. "What was it, Uncle Jaspar?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar's lip curled a little at the weakness which could feel
+for a slave, and he commenced the narrative he had concocted to
+account for the disappearance of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to
+retire, I heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the
+library. Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at
+once suspected that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of
+late, had broken into the house. I seized my rifle, and when I
+opened the door the thief sprung out at the open window. I pursued
+him down the shell-road to the river; upon reaching which I
+perceived him paddling a canoe towards the opposite shore. I fired.
+A splash in the water followed the discharge. The canoe came ashore
+a short distance below, but the man was either killed by the ball
+or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of valuables, which had
+been stolen from the library,&mdash;among them your father's
+watch."</p>
+<p>"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked
+Emily, with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her
+slave-friend.</p>
+<p>"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is
+missing, and the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size
+and form. I am now satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the
+time, that he was the man upon whom I fired."</p>
+<p>"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.</p>
+<p>"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr.
+Faxon.</p>
+<p>"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
+conclusive."</p>
+<p>"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into
+the eye of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question
+had roused his first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only
+servant of your household who was on the estate at the time of Miss
+Dumont's birth?"</p>
+<p>"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied
+the anxiety within him.</p>
+<p>"Were you <i>alone</i> when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the
+clergyman, sternly.</p>
+<p>"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you
+question me. I am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar,
+rather warmly, his natural testiness getting the better of his
+discretion.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock
+humility. "Do not let my curiosity affront you."</p>
+<p>"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the
+sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your
+business with this girl."</p>
+<p>"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to
+impart the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the
+church. Of course, my business could not be with <i>you</i> in that
+capacity."</p>
+<p>"You seem to have departed very widely from your object,"
+replied Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon
+religious topics.</p>
+<p>"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and
+so severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the
+validity of the will."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the
+will as her father left it."</p>
+<p>"Uncle, you said my father's watch was stolen? Was it not in the
+iron safe, with the other articles?" asked Emily, timidly.</p>
+<p>"It was," replied Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>"How did he open it?" interrogated Mr. Faxon, taking up the
+suggestion of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Did Hatchie return the keys to you last night?" asked Jaspar of
+Emily, promptly.</p>
+<p>"He did not," replied she.</p>
+<p>"I sent for them to put a note in its place, and sent them back
+by him immediately. The fellow stood by when I opened the safe, and
+must have witnessed its contents. You can judge how he opened it
+now," returned Jaspar, with a sneer, well pleased that he had
+foiled their inquiries.</p>
+<p>"You say that the canoe in which he was making his escape came
+ashore. Where is it now? No canoe belongs to the estate."</p>
+<p>"There is not," said Jaspar, uneasily.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps an examination of it will disclose something of the
+robber, if not of the will."</p>
+<p>"So I thought this morning, and for this purpose went to the
+river, but the canoe was not to be found. I did not secure it last
+night, and probably it broke adrift and went down," replied Jaspar,
+whose ingenuity never deserted him.</p>
+<p>"Very likely," said the minister, with a kind of solemn sarcasm.
+"This whole affair seems more like romance than reality."</p>
+<p>"I cannot believe my father was so cruel," cried Emily, the
+tears again coming to the relief of her full heart.</p>
+<p>"Do you doubt the word of the witnesses, and the mark and
+signature of your father?" said Jaspar, fiercely, with the
+intention of intimidating her.</p>
+<p>"No, no! but, Uncle&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Call me not uncle again! I am no longer the uncle of the
+progeny of my brother's slaves. This cheat has already been
+continued too long."</p>
+<p>"I will not call you uncle, but hear me," replied Emily,
+frightened at Jaspar's violence.</p>
+<p>"I will hear nothing more. You will prepare to leave for
+Cincinnati next week. I will no longer endure the presence of one
+upon whom my brother's bounty has been wasted. Have you no
+gratitude, girl? Remember what you are!"</p>
+<p>With these cruel words Jaspar hurried out of the room, satisfied
+that he had established his position, and, at least, silenced
+Emily. The minister he regarded, as he did all of his profession,
+with contempt.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon and Emily had a long consultation upon the
+embarrassing position of her who had so lately been the envied
+heiress. The murder of the mulatto, the conduct of Jaspar, and some
+other circumstances, afforded ground to believe that the will was a
+forgery. If such was the fact, the minister was compelled to
+acknowledge that it was a deep-laid plot. Everything seemed to aid
+the conspirators; for he was satisfied, both from the wording and
+the chirography of the will, that Jaspar, whatever part he played,
+was assisted by others. There was not the slightest clue by which
+the mystery could be unravelled. If there was hope that the will
+was a forgery, there was no immediate prospect of proving it
+such.</p>
+<p>Under these circumstances, Mr. Faxon felt compelled to advise
+obedience to the instructions of the will. The journey to the North
+could do no harm, and was, perhaps, advisable, under the state of
+feeling which would follow the publicity of the will. Emily,
+painful as it was to leave the home of her childhood at such a
+time, acquiesced in the decision of her clerical friend. But there
+was a feeling in her heart that she was wronged,&mdash;that she
+should go forth an exile from her <i>own</i> Bellevue.</p>
+<p>On the following week, Jaspar and Emily proceeded to New
+Orleans, in the family carriage, to take a steamer for
+Cincinnati.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Day after day, day after
+day,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">We stuck,&mdash;nor breath, nor
+motion,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">As idle as a painted
+ship</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Upon a painted
+ocean."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">ANCIENT MARINER.</span></p>
+<p>It was about the time of the events related in the preceding
+chapters, at the close of a variable day, in which the storm and
+sunshine seemed to struggle for the ascendency, that a
+plain-looking, home-made sort of man might have been seen
+attempting to effect a safe transit of the steamboat levee at New
+Orleans. This personage was no other than Mr. Nathan Benson,
+commonly called at home "Uncle Nathan." He was one of the better
+class of New England farmers, an old bachelor, well to do in the
+world, and was now engaged in the laudable enterprise of seeing the
+country.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan, though he laid no claims to gentility in the
+popular signification of the term, was, nevertheless, a
+gentleman,&mdash;one of Nature's noblemen. He was dressed
+scrupulously neat in every particular, though a little too rustic
+to suit the meridian of fashionable society. He presented a very
+respectable figure, in spite of the fact that the prevailing "mode"
+had not been consulted in the fashioning of his garments. His coat
+was, without doubt, made by some village tailoress, for many of the
+graces with which the masculine artist adorns his garments were
+entirely wanting in those of our worthy farmer. His hat was two
+inches too low in the crown, and two inches too broad in the brim,
+for the style; still it was a good-looking and a well-meaning hat,
+for it preserved the owner's phiz from the burning rays of the sun
+much better than the "mode" would have done. His boots, though
+round-toed and very wide, were nicely polished when he commenced
+the passage of the levee, but were now encased in a thick coating
+of yellow clay.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan was a medium-sized man, and preserved as much of
+nature's grace as a man can who has labored for five-and-thirty
+years at the stubborn soil of New England. His hair was sandy, and
+his full, good-natured physiognomy was surrounded by a huge pair of
+reddish whiskers.</p>
+<p>The superficial, worldly-minded man would have deemed Uncle
+Nathan's <i>principles</i> rather too ultra for common, everyday
+use; but he, good soul, found no difficulty in applying them to
+every action he performed. He was, to use a common phrase, a
+"professor of religion;" but, less technically, he was more than a
+professor, and strove to live out the spirit of truth and
+righteousness.</p>
+<p>After much difficulty, Uncle Nathan succeeded in effecting a
+safe passage to the planking which formed the landing for the
+boats. After a glance of vexation at the soiled condition of his
+boots (Uncle Nathan was a bachelor!), he commenced his search for
+an upward-bound steamer, for he was about to begin his homeward
+tour. Two columns of dense black smoke, the hissing noise of
+escaping steam, and the splashing paddles of a boat a short
+distance down the stream, attracted his attention, and towards her
+he directed his steps. Approaching near enough to read her name, he
+was not a little surprised to find the boat he had seen advertised
+to start a week before. Concluding, in his innocence, that some
+accident had detained her, he hastened on board. Entering the
+cabin, the scene which was there presented did not exactly coincide
+with his ideas of neatness or morality. Uncle Nathan had read
+descriptions of the magnificence of Mississippi steamers; but the
+Chalmetta (for this was the name of the boat) fell far below them.
+Even the best boats on the river he considered vastly inferior to
+the North River and Sound steamers.</p>
+<p>After a hasty survey of the Chalmetta's capability of making him
+comfortable for a week or more, he concluded to take passage in her
+for Cincinnati, and accordingly he sought for the captain. To his
+inquiries for that personage a thin, cadaverous-looking man
+presented himself, and drawled out a civil salutation.</p>
+<p>"How long afore you start, cap'n?" inquired Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"We shall get off in about ten minutes," replied Captain
+Brawler. "John," continued he, turning to a waiter near him, with a
+wink, "tell the pilot to be all ready, and ring the bell."</p>
+<p>"Why, gracious!" said Uncle Nathan, hastily, as the waiter
+dodged into the pantry, "I shan't have time to get my trunk
+down."</p>
+<p>"How far up do you go?" inquired Captain Drawler.</p>
+<p>"To Cincinnati, if you can carry me about right," replied Uncle
+Nathan, with an eye to business.</p>
+<p>"Well, as you are going clear through, I will wait a few minutes
+for you," suggested the captain.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan thought him very obliging, and after some little
+"dickering" (for he had heard that Western steamboats were not
+particularly uniform in their charges), he engaged a passage,
+applying to the bargain the trite principle that "no berth is
+secured till paid for," which had been reduced to writing, and
+occupied a conspicuous place in the cabin. Without waiting to see
+the berth he had paid for, he hastened to the hotel for the large
+hair trunk, which contained his travelling wardrobe.</p>
+<p>Our worthy farmer made it a point never to cause any one an
+unnecessary inconvenience; never to read the morning paper more
+than half an hour when an impatient crowd was waiting to see it;
+and never in his life stopped his five-cattle team in the middle of
+a narrow, much-frequented road, to the annoyance of others. So the
+captain did not have to wait more than five minutes beyond the
+stated time. Depositing his trunk upon a heap of baggage in the
+cabin, and turning with pious horror from the gaming-tables there,
+Uncle Nathan seated himself in an arm-chair on the boiler deck, to
+await the departure of the boat, and, in anticipation, to feast his
+vision with the wonders of the Father of Waters. He waited very
+long and very patiently, for Uncle Nathan considered patience a
+cardinal virtue, and strove manfully against every feeling of
+uneasiness. The tongue of the hugs bell over him at intervals
+banged forth its stunning cadence, the hissing steam let loose from
+its pent-up cells, the water which the wheels sent surging far up
+upon the levee, all were indications, to his unsophisticated mind,
+of a speedy departure.</p>
+<p>Two hours he waited, with the same exemplary patience; but still
+the Chalmetta was a fixture.</p>
+<p>Night came, and the music of the bell, and the steam, and the
+surging water, ceased. Uncle Nathan, thinking patience no longer a
+virtue, cardinal or secondary, hastened to the captain, with some
+appearance of indignation on his honest features. The worthy
+officer very coolly informed him that, owing to the non-arrival of
+the mail, he should be unable to get off till the next morning.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan uttered a very peculiar "O!" and, seemingly
+perfectly satisfied with this explanation, asked to be shown his
+berth. The captain consulted the clerk, and the clerk consulted the
+berth-book, which conveyed the astounding intelligence that the
+berths were all taken!</p>
+<p>"All taken!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, aghast. "Haven't I paid for
+one?"</p>
+<p>The gentlemanly clerk acknowledged that he <i>had</i> paid for
+one, and kindly offered him a mattress on the floor, assuring him
+that there would be plenty of berths after the boat got off.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan did not see how this could be, and was informed
+that many berths taken were not claimed.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id=
+"FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class=
+"fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Western steamers
+seldom start at the time they advertise, but wait until they are
+full of freight and passengers. The latter are boarded on them from
+the time they take passage, if they wish,&mdash;often a week or ten
+days. Berths are often engaged by "loafers," who eat and sleep on
+board, and grumble at the detention, but who suddenly decamp when
+the boat starts.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Contenting himself with this explanation, Uncle Nathan sought
+the boiler deck again, to obtain the only possible oblivion for his
+uneasiness in the society of mongrel gentlemen and monstrous
+mosquitos. Those who have been subjected to these steamboat
+impositions will readily perceive that Uncle Nathan was in no very
+agreeable state of mind. He was, to a certain extent, home-sick.
+There was something in his expectant state, and something in the
+gloomy aspect of the low city with its cheerless lights, in the
+damp atmosphere and the clouds of mosquitos, to produce a sigh for
+home and its joys. If any one had hummed "Sweet Home" in his ears,
+it would have brought the tears to his eyes. He thought of
+everything connected with his hallowed home: of the good-natured
+spinster who was his housekeeper, and of the ten-acre lots upon his
+farm; of the red steers and the gray mare; of the shaggy watch-dog
+and the tabby-cat; of home in all its minuti&aelig;. Its familiar
+scenes visited him with a vividness which added ten-fold to their
+influence. He was as far abstracted as the mosquitos, which
+gathered in swarms upon every tenable spot of his flesh, would
+permit, when his meditations were disturbed by the gentleman who
+occupied the next chair. He wore the uniform of the army, and was
+battling the mosquitos with the smoke of a plantation cigar, which
+bore a very striking resemblance to those rolls of the weed
+vulgarly denominated "long nines."</p>
+<p>This gentleman was Henry Carroll, who had been in waiting three
+days for the sailing of the Chalmetta. On his return from Georgia
+he had not deemed it prudent to visit Bellevue. Of the startling
+events which had transpired there since his departure he was in
+entire ignorance.</p>
+<p>"No prospect of getting off to-night, is there?" said he to
+Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Not the least," replied the latter. "The cap'n just told me the
+mail hadn't come, so he should have to wait till mornin'."</p>
+<p>Henry turned to Uncle Nathan rather sharply, to discover any
+mischief which might lurk in his expression. Perceiving that he
+looked perfectly sincere, and was innocent of any intention to quiz
+him, he merely uttered, in the most contemptuous tone, the single
+word "Humbug!"</p>
+<p>"You seem a leetle out o' sorts," returned Uncle Nathan, piqued
+at the coldness with which his intelligence was received.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, I think I have very good reason to be so," returned
+Henry; "for I have lain about this boat, like a dead dragoon, for
+three days, in suspense."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so!" responded Uncle Nathan, with interest. "When
+did they tell you they should start?"</p>
+<p>"The captain said in about ten minutes," answered Henry, with a
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! he told me the same thing!" said Uncle Nathan,
+astonished at the coincidence.</p>
+<p>"But I knew he lied, when he said so; yet the boat seemed full
+of passengers, and I did not expect to wait so long."</p>
+<p>"Don't you think they will get started to-morrow?"</p>
+<p>"I cannot venture an opinion, having been so often deceived. The
+captain is trying to get a freight of soldiers on deck. The city is
+full of them now, returning to their respective states."</p>
+<p>"Then he has taken me in most outrageously," said the New
+Englander, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>"A very common occurrence, sir," replied Henry, who now
+explained to his companion some of the tricks of Western steamboat
+captains.</p>
+<p>"Is there no remedy?" asked Uncle Nathan, anxiously.</p>
+<p>"Certainly; you can go in the next boat, if you choose. I shall
+take the 'Belle of the West,' which I am pretty well assured will
+sail to-morrow, if this one does not. But I prefer this, as many of
+my friends go in her."</p>
+<p>"But will they give you back your passage-money again?" asked
+the economical Yankee.</p>
+<p>"I have not paid it yet," replied Henry, now understanding the
+position of his fellow-traveller.</p>
+<p>"Then how did you secure a berth? The sign in the cabin says 'No
+berth secured till paid for.'"</p>
+<p>"I see how it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as
+though they were honest men." He then explained that there is no
+security against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in
+advance, in case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to
+detain them an unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show
+their money till the trip is up; and much more useful information
+for the voyager on the Western rivers.</p>
+<p>"And I have no berth yet! The fellow promised me one when we got
+off," said Uncle Nathan, chopfallen; for, if any one is keenly
+sensitive to an imposition, the Yankee is the man.</p>
+<p>"There you are lame again," replied Henry. "You may get one, and
+you may not. As you have paid your fare, you had better keep quiet,
+and to-morrow I will assist you in securing your rights."</p>
+<p>"Thank ye," replied Uncle Nathan, truly grateful for the kind
+sympathy of the officer. "I had no sort of idee that they played
+<i>such</i> tricks upon travellers."</p>
+<p>"Fact, sir; this New Orleans is said to be a very naughty
+place," returned Henry, amused at the simplicity of his
+companion.</p>
+<p>"True as gospel!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan, fervently.</p>
+<p>"Have you been here long?"</p>
+<p>"Only about ten days; but I have seen more iniquity in that time
+than I supposed the whole airth contained."</p>
+<p>Henry smiled at the fervid utterance of his companion.</p>
+<p>"You are from the North, I perceive," said he.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir, I am from Brookville, State of Massachusetts, which,
+thank the Lord, is a long way from New Orleans!"</p>
+<p>"Still, there are some excellent people here," suggested Henry,
+who had known and appreciated Southern kindness and
+hospitality.</p>
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes&mdash;I suppose there is; but their morals and
+religion are shockin'. It made my blood run cold, and my hair stand
+on eend, to see a company of soldiers marchin' through the streets
+last Sabba' day, to the tune of 'Hail Columby;' and then to think
+of balls and theatres on the Lord's day night, really it's
+terrible. I wouldn't live in sich a place for all the world!"</p>
+<p>"Very different from New England, certainly," replied Henry,
+good-naturedly, for it must be confessed he was not so much shocked
+at these desecrations.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan discoursed long and eloquently on Sabbath-breaking,
+gambling and intemperance, which prevail to such an extent in the
+luxurious metropolis of the South,&mdash;as long, at least, as the
+patience of his new-found military friend would permit. At his
+suggestion they retired to a hotel for the night, for the mosquitos
+were in undisturbed possession of the Chalmetta.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"&mdash;And deep the waves
+beneath them bending glide.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The youth, who seemed to watch a
+time to sin,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Approached the careless guide,
+and thrust him in."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">PARNELL.</span></p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Accoutred as I was, I
+plung&eacute;d in."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Early on the following morning, Henry Carroll and Uncle Nathan
+were on board the Chalmetta, ready and eager for a start. But they
+were doomed to more disappointment. Nearly all day the bell banged
+and the steam hissed; the captain told a hundred lies, but the boat
+did not budge an inch from her berth. Still there were certain
+signs that the hour of departure could not be far distant. Fresh
+provisions and ice in unusually large quantities were received on
+board about noon, and these are unfailing prognostics of "a good
+time coming."</p>
+<p>At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the captain's ten
+minutes, with which he had secured an occasional fresh passenger,
+seemed actually to have expired. Our two friends on board, however,
+had been so often disappointed that they did not allow a single
+bright anticipation to enliven their hearts, till they actually
+heard the order given "to cast off the fasts and haul in the
+planks." And even then their hopes were instantly dampened by the
+sudden reversion of the order.</p>
+<p>This unexpected change had been produced in the mind of the
+captain by seeing a splendid equipage dashing at a furious pace
+across the levee, the driver of which had, by his gestures, made it
+appear that his vehicle contained passengers.</p>
+<p>The carriage drew up opposite the boat, and Emily Dumont and
+Jaspar alighted from it. Picking their way through the crowd of
+dealers in cigars, shells, and obscene books, who had just been
+ejected from the boat, they were soon on board. A few moments'
+delay in getting up the baggage of the new comers, and the welcome
+"cast off the fasts and haul in the plank" was again heard. The
+rapid jingling of the engineer's bell succeeded, and, to the joy of
+some three hundred souls on board, she backed out into the stream
+and commenced her voyage. Uncle Nathan breathed freely; the load of
+anxiety which had oppressed him was removed. But his joy was
+short-lived, for Henry Carroll informed him that the boat was
+headed <i>down</i> river!</p>
+<p>"What in all natur' can be the meanin' of this?" exclaimed our
+Northerner, wofully perplexed.</p>
+<p>"I cannot tell," replied Henry; "but I am much afraid we shall
+yet have to stay over Sunday in New Orleans."</p>
+<p>"The Lord deliver me!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan. "I will go into
+the swamp back of the city, afore I will look upon the iniquities
+of that Sodom again."</p>
+<p>"Rather a hard penance; but let us first see what this movement
+will amount to."</p>
+<p>At this moment Captain Drawler descended from the wheel-house,
+and was immediately besieged by a dozen angry passengers, who had
+resolved to lynch him, or leave the boat,&mdash;which he dreaded
+more,&mdash;if satisfaction was not given.</p>
+<p>The stoical captain, with perfect coolness, heard their
+complaints and their threats. He waited with commendable patience
+till they had vented their indignation, and then informed them that
+he only intended to receive a little freight at the lower city,
+which would not detain him "ten minutes."</p>
+<p>The captain's assertion, with the exception of the ten minutes,
+was soon verified by the boat touching at a sort of
+d&eacute;p&ocirc;t for naval and military stores. The
+"<i>freight</i>" which the Chalmetta was to take consisted of
+several long boxes, which lay near the landing. These boxes
+contained coffins, in which were the remains of some sixteen
+officers, who had paid the debt of nature in the discharge of their
+duties in Mexico.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, with a melancholy heart, witnessed the process of
+conveying these boxes to the deck of the steamer. In them was all
+that remained of many stout hearts, with whom, side by side, he had
+marched to glory and victory. There were the forms with whom he had
+triumphantly mounted the battlements at Vera Cruz, and raised the
+stars and stripes over the city of Mexico. There, before him,
+forever silent, were the dead heroes of Chepultepec and Perote.
+Those with whom he had endured toils and hardships of no common
+nature,&mdash;with whom he had contended against a treacherous foe,
+and a more treacherous climate,&mdash;were there encoffined before
+him. They died in defence of their country's honor; and he almost
+envied them the death which wrote their names, subject to no future
+stain, upon the roll of fame.</p>
+<p>The sight of these boxes, and a knowledge of their contents,
+also awakened sad reflections in the mind of Uncle Nathan. But his
+reflections were of a different character from those of the
+soldier. War he regarded as an unnecessary evil,&mdash;one which
+men had no more right to countenance than they had the deeds of the
+midnight assassin. The honor of a nation were better sacrificed
+than that the blood of innocent men should flow in its support. He
+was a thorough disciple of the peace movement. With such views as
+these, his sympathies naturally reverted to the dwelling of the
+departed hero; to the home rendered desolate by the untimely death
+of a father; to the circle which gathered in tears around the
+fire-side, to deplore the loss of an affectionate brother and son;
+to the widow and the orphan, whom war's desolating hand cast into
+the world to tread alone its dreary path. To Uncle Nathan victory
+and defeat were alike the messengers of woe. Both were the
+death-knell of human beings; both carried weeping and wailing to
+women and children.</p>
+<p>After the last box of the pile had been conveyed on board, and
+preparations were making to cast off, the reflections of hero and
+moralist were disturbed by several long, loud vociferations, in a
+strong Hibernian accent. They proceeded from a man, dressed in the
+tattered remnants of the blue army uniform, who was industriously
+propelling a wheel-barrow towards the landing, on which was a box
+of similar description to those just embarked.</p>
+<p>"Hould on!" shouted he; "hould on, will yous, and take on this
+bit of a box?"</p>
+<p>"Does it belong with the others?" asked the captain.</p>
+<p>"To be sure it does," replied Pat. "What the divil else does it
+belong to? Arn't it the body of Captain Farrell, long life to his
+honor! going home to see his frinds?"</p>
+<p>"Take it aboard," said Captain Brawler to the deck hands, after
+examining the direction.</p>
+<p>The men lifted the box rather rudely, in a manner which seemed
+to hurt poor Pat's feelings.</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to yous! where were you born, to handle the body of a
+dead man the like o' that?" said he. "Have yous no rispict for the
+mim'ry of a haro, that yous trate his ramains so ongintlemanly?
+Hould up your ind, darlint, and walk aisy wid it!"</p>
+<p>"Lively there," cried Captain Drawler, "lively, men!"</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to your soul for a blackguard, as ye are!" shouted
+Pat. "Where did you lave your pathriotism?"</p>
+<p>The box was by this time on deck, and the captain, to do him
+justice, made all haste to proceed on his voyage.</p>
+<p>The cases containing the remains of the officers were deposited
+in the after part of the hold, to which access was had by means of
+a hatch near the stern. Pat's peculiar charge was placed on top of
+the others, and he maintained a most vigilant watch over it.</p>
+<p>There was now a fair prospect of commencing the voyage, and our
+two passengers were in high spirits. Henry was not a little fearful
+that the boat would resume her long-occupied position at the levee;
+the very thought of such a calamity was painful in the extreme. But
+this fear was not realized; the Chalmetta gave the levee a wide
+berth. The Rubicon was passed; the shades of doubt and anxiety were
+supplanted by the clear sunshine of a bright prospect.</p>
+<p>"We are at last fairly started," said Henry, seating himself by
+the side of Uncle Nathan, on the boiler deck.</p>
+<p>"Thank fortin, we are!" responded the farmer, heartily. "We are
+fast getting away from that den of sin."</p>
+<p>"And you may preserve your morals yet," said Henry, with a
+pleasant laugh.</p>
+<p>"My morals are safe enough, thank the Lord!" answered Uncle
+Nathan, a little touched at this reflection upon his firmness; "but
+I don't like the place, to say nothing of its morals."</p>
+<p>"Very likely. But see that Irishman&mdash;the fellow who had
+charge of the box. He looks poorly enough, as far as this world's
+goods are concerned, but happy and full of mirth, for all
+that."</p>
+<p>"He looks as though he had seen hard times," added Uncle Nathan,
+indifferently.</p>
+<p>"He does, indeed, like many other of the poor soldiers; but, I
+warrant me, he has a stout will, and an honest heart. I say, my
+fine fellow," said Henry, addressing Pat, "come up here."</p>
+<p>"Troth I will, then, for I see yous wear the colors of Uncle
+Sam," replied the Irishman, making his way to the boiler deck.</p>
+<p>"Long life to your honor!" continued Pat, as he reached the
+deck, and making a low bow, as he doffed his slouched
+hat,&mdash;"but I wish I had the money to trate your honor."</p>
+<p>"Which means," replied Henry, "as you have not, I should treat
+you?"</p>
+<p>"That's jist it, your honor. I persave your honor is
+college-larnt by the way yous see into my heart."</p>
+<p>Henry laughed heartily, and so did Uncle Nathan; though, to tell
+the truth, our moralist of the North was sorry to see his companion
+hand the man a "bit" to drink with, for he was a member of the
+temperance society.</p>
+<p>Pat got the "smile," and with a grateful heart returned to his
+patron.</p>
+<p>"Thank your honor, kindly," said Pat.</p>
+<p>"Now tell me, Pat, what regiment you served in," said Henry.</p>
+<p>"In the first Pennsylvanians,&mdash;Captain Farrell's
+company."</p>
+<p>"Captain Farrell's! I knew him well,&mdash;a fine fellow and a
+gallant officer! Many were the tears shed when the vomito carried
+him off," said Henry, with much feeling. "And you were one of his
+company?"</p>
+<p>"Troth, I was, thin. He was every inch a sodger and a
+gintleman."</p>
+<p>"And the box you brought on board contains his remains?"</p>
+<p>"Upon me sowl it contains the body of as good a man as iver
+breathed the breath o' life," replied Pat, very emphatically.</p>
+<p>"Very true. You speak well of your captain, and he deserved all
+he will ever get of praise. Here, Pat, is a dollar for you; and if
+you want anything, come to me."</p>
+<p>"Thank your honor," replied Pat, uncovering, with a bow and a
+scrape of the foot. "You are as near like poor Captain Farrell as
+one pay is like another. Long life to your honor,&mdash;may you
+live forever, and then die like a haro!"</p>
+<p>"A genuine Irishman!" said Henry, as Pat descended to the main
+deck; "one in whom gratitude and faithfulness are as strong as life
+itself!"</p>
+<p>"He seems a good sort of man," returned Uncle Nathan, who had
+but little appreciation of the Irish heart.</p>
+<p>The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the
+supper-bell. An eager multitude rushed to the cabin; but every seat
+was already occupied. On a crowded boat on the Mississippi there is
+often much selfishness displayed. On the Chalmetta half an hour
+before tea-time the most knowing of the passengers had stationed
+themselves in a line around the table, ready to charge upon the
+plates, like a file of soldiers, the moment the bell rang. Those
+who did not understand the necessity of this precaution, on
+entering the cabin were much surprised to find every place
+occupied, and were comforted with the assurance of a second
+table.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for
+ladies who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated
+Emily and her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her
+countenance was saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were
+reddened by weeping, in which she had indulged freely in the quiet
+of her state-room. By intense effort she had subdued her violent
+agitation, and a sad calmness rested upon her face, that belied her
+feelings.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence,
+was, as may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable
+dress and melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had
+befallen her in the death of her father. Their eyes met, and
+exchanged warmer greetings than their words could have done. A sad
+smile&mdash;the smile of pleasure&mdash;rested upon her beautiful
+features, as they interchanged salutations. Her pale cheek was
+slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale blush. Her fluttering heart
+refused to retain its secret.</p>
+<p>Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had
+shrouded her in the weeds of mourning,&mdash;not in words alone,
+but his sorrow for the death of a kind friend was more eloquently
+told in his countenance.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts
+to be civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for
+which he was not prepared,&mdash;the consequences of which filled
+him with anxiety. He knew that in Henry his wronged niece would
+have a zealous advocate;&mdash;not a superannuated priest, but a
+young man whose blood was warm, and whose soul was full of energy.
+True, he reasoned, the young officer was powerless as a
+diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the will, or of Emily's
+degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and character of his
+brother, and would be the last one to believe the infamous
+statement of the will. What the father might have said to him in
+regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
+thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones
+besides.</p>
+<p>At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the
+ordinary courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.</p>
+<p>The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of
+ill-gotten wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his
+victim. The cries of the widow and the orphan continually ring in
+the ear of the avaricious. The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar.
+Although he saw no probability of his villany being exposed, the
+fear of discovery troubled him day and night. Revengeful and cruel,
+dauntless and bold, as he had ever been, the present seemed a
+crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax of villany, and
+as he had racked his powers of invention for the means of attaining
+his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing it. The
+insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as the
+tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that
+he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which assailed him.
+Vain hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran
+through his mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only
+one event which promised the least mitigation of his mental
+sufferings, and this was the death of his niece. Black as he was at
+heart, he shrank from her murder,&mdash;not at the deed, but at the
+terrible consequences to him which might follow it.</p>
+<p>Emily was conducted to the ladies' cabin by Jaspar, who, by a
+dogged adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any
+further conversation between her and Henry. But the black
+chambermaid, with an official dignity which is oftentimes necessary
+in her position, politely requested him to retire. Jaspar left,
+satisfied she would be safe from intrusion for the present.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's disposition to prevent further conversation between
+Emily and Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied
+that her uncle's close attendance at her side&mdash;so foreign to
+his former manner&mdash;was not without its purpose. Love, which he
+had in vain attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his
+heart. In her recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in
+her heart was not abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had
+awakened a new interest in him. Disappointed in obtaining the
+interview he desired, he sought the hurricane deck to think of her,
+and to cherish the warm feeling in his heart. But what was his
+surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily there, and alone!</p>
+<p>After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery
+which surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening
+air. The gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and
+gentleman, she had ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions,
+more gay and happy than she, soon left her to the gloom and
+comparative silence which usually reigns on the upper deck. There
+were no other passengers there, and, fearing not the darkness or
+the loneliness, she was there venting the sadness which pervaded
+her heart. She was about to descend, when she recognized Henry.</p>
+<p>Emily related to him the circumstances of her father's death,
+and of the reading of the will.</p>
+<p>"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.</p>
+<p>"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it,
+except that my father's character assures me it is not so."</p>
+<p>"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you
+are now on your way to Cincinnati?"</p>
+<p>"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted.
+But I ought to be thankful for all that comes,&mdash;if I am a
+slave, for the freedom that awaits me."</p>
+<p>"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my
+veins!"</p>
+<p>"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now,
+for it little matters what I really am, since the will&mdash;true
+or false&mdash;condemns me to the odium of having been a slave. You
+will not wish now to own your sister!" said Emily, with a sad
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the
+mark of the omniscient God! It could not alter the beauty of the
+features or the character. I should be proud of such a sister, even
+did she wear the shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon
+your birth!"</p>
+<p>"And can you regard me as you once did? A&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month
+since. You are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.</p>
+<p>"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied
+Henry.</p>
+<p>The fear of ingratitude to a father no longer chained his heart
+to the narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden
+down by misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a
+child of misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her.
+He loved her more tenderly than before.</p>
+<p>"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant
+to your sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of
+emotion within it.</p>
+<p>"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I
+feared to&mdash;to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word
+Henry was stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your
+sister?"</p>
+<p>"I did have confidence in the <i>sister</i>. But I fear it was
+not a sister's confidence I sought."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of
+surprise the word was intended to convey.</p>
+<p>"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which
+have torn my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her
+willing hand. "When I bade you farewell,&mdash;alas! what
+misfortunes have come since!&mdash;when I left you for I dared not
+think how long, you know not what violence I did to the warmest
+feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the struggle between
+that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to conquer it;
+but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me resist no
+more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have tried,
+for your sake and your father's, to conquer my love. Say, Emily,
+may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"</p>
+<p>A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he
+received&mdash;was, indeed, all he asked.</p>
+<p>"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.</p>
+<p>"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But
+Heaven will not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain
+unpunished. A month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of
+a millionaire!"</p>
+<p>"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my
+heart?"</p>
+<p>"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win
+your love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have
+cherished."</p>
+<p>"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily,
+warmly.</p>
+<p>"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his
+daughter, with which I might have interfered."</p>
+<p>"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said
+Emily, with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed
+from Henry.</p>
+<p>"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but
+now, Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm
+pressure of the hand.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/079g.jpg"><img src="images/079g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.</b></div>
+<p>"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the
+knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as
+the guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in
+future, from her society."</p>
+<p>"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely
+disregard."</p>
+<p>"Then, by&mdash;you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!"
+said Jaspar, in a passion.</p>
+<p>"I am not to be intimidated by threats."</p>
+<p>"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety
+of him whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont, <i>her</i> request I will obey," and Carroll walked
+forward.</p>
+<p>He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of
+the leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to
+the command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy
+bell. Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the
+matter he listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three,"
+&amp;c. He was about to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill
+shriek startled him from his revery. There was no mistaking the
+sound of that voice! Without an instant's hesitation, he called to
+the pilot to stop the boat, and, with a few bounds, was by the side
+of Jaspar, who was calling lustily for help. Henry, careless of his
+own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft the ladies' cabin, and
+then sprang to the single pole upon which was suspended the small
+boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower himself down,
+he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot where
+Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of the
+boat, and reached the place in season to take in the noble fellow
+who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he
+rose. The steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party
+was safely on board again.</p>
+<p>"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar,
+after assisting Emily to her state-room.</p>
+<p>Emily's fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once
+infer. Jaspar's passion, and the danger which he thought the young
+officer's presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was
+not attended with his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to
+place him in a more uncomfortable position than his former one.
+With the instinct of deception, he immediately offered a liberal
+reward to the man who had rescued her.</p>
+<p>"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"<i>Here</i>!" cried a voice from the crowd.</p>
+<p>Jaspar started and turned pale, for the voice was a familiar
+one.</p>
+<p>"Where is he?" called Jaspar again, concluding that he must have
+mistaken the voice.</p>
+<p>"Here!" again came forth from the crowd, and Hatchie stepped
+forward.</p>
+<p>"Hell!" exclaimed Jaspar, staggering back as he recognized the
+man whom he supposed his rifle-ball had sent to furnish food for
+the fishes. But he recovered his courage instantly, feeling the
+danger of betraying himself.</p>
+<p>"Here is the reward," stammered he, holding out the money.</p>
+<p>"Never!" said Hatchie; and, before the crowd could clearly
+understand the nature of the case, he had vanished behind a heap of
+freight.</p>
+<p>At Jaspar's suggestion, a diligent search was made in every part
+of the boat, but the mulatto was nowhere to be found. Jaspar, as
+usual, invented a story to account for the strangeness of the
+incident which had occurred. A liberal reward offered by him failed
+to produce the preserver of Emily.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">"'Tis much he
+dares;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And to that dauntless temper of
+his mind</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He hath a wisdom that doth guide
+his valor</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To act in safety."&nbsp;
+SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Although the general condition of the negro slaves at the South
+is the most degraded in which humanity can exist, there are some
+exceptions to the rule; and among them may well be placed the
+body-servant of Colonel Dumont, Hatchie, whose sudden and
+mysterious re&auml;ppearance upon the deck of the Chalmetta must be
+accounted for.</p>
+<p>With an intelligence far superior to his condition, Hatchie
+discovered the villany that lurked in the eye of Jaspar, on the
+night of the forgery of the will. As we have before said, no one
+better than he knew the character of Jaspar; no one better than he
+knew of what villany he was capable. When he had been sent for the
+keys, an undefined sense of duty prompted him to watch, and, if
+possible, to prevent the mischief which he foresaw was gathering.
+When ordered to retire, he had pretended to obey; but he placed
+himself beneath the window through which De Guy had entered, a
+small crack of which had been accidentally left open. In this
+position he saw Jaspar take out the packet which he knew contained
+the will. He heard De Guy read the fictitious will, and at once
+discerned enough of the plot to comprehend the danger that hovered
+over his mistress. He understood that the real will was to be
+destroyed; and his first impulse was to save it, which he had
+adroitly accomplished as before related.</p>
+<p>When Hatchie reached the open air, he was sensible of the
+dangerous position in which his bold act had placed him. So sudden
+and unpremeditated had been his action that no thought of future
+consequences had accompanied it. But, undismayed, he ran at his
+fleetest speed towards the river. He heard the footsteps of his
+pursuers, and every step he advanced he expected to receive the
+bullet of Jaspar. Trusting for safety to the darkness of the night,
+he quickened his speed, till he gained the steep bank of the river.
+Leaping into the canoe which he discovered in his flight, he pushed
+out into the stream, and was several rods advanced towards the
+opposite shore when his pursuers reached the bank.</p>
+<p>Plying the canoe with all the strength and skill of which he was
+master, his progress was suddenly interrupted by a log, upon which
+his frail bark struck with much violence. The collision checked his
+progress, and swung the canoe round by the side of the log.
+Satisfied that Jaspar would fire as soon as he saw the canoe, his
+ready ingenuity supplied him with the means of avoiding the ball,
+and of escaping further pursuit. Taking the will in his mouth, he
+grasped the canoe with one hand, and paddled silently with the
+other and with his feet. He had turned the canoe adrift, and
+Jaspar, without waiting to examine it, had fired. Hatchie then
+jumped up in the water, and produced the splash which had deceived
+his pursuers.</p>
+<p>With much difficulty the mulatto had propelled the log beyond
+the reach of the current into comparatively still water. Here he
+remained quietly on the log, using only sufficient exertion to
+avoid the current, until he was satisfied that Jaspar and his
+companion had departed from the bank. He then returned to the
+shore, using the greatest precaution to avoid his enemies; but all
+was still.</p>
+<p>Immediate danger being at an end, he bethought him of securing
+his future safety,&mdash;a matter of extreme difficulty for one in
+his position. He was satisfied that Jaspar would invent some story
+to account for his disappearance; and just as well satisfied that
+he would shoot him, if he again showed himself on the plantation.
+He congratulated himself on the happy scheme he had adopted to
+deceive Jaspar; for he had now a reasonable security from being
+advertised and pursued as a runaway slave.</p>
+<p>After much reflection, he concluded his wisest plan would be to
+seek safety in New Orleans, where, in the crowd, he might escape
+recognition. The cane-brake and the cotton-grove would not protect
+him. He might be seen, and the blood-hound and the rifle bring him
+in a prisoner, and even Miss Emily would now be unable to save him
+from the penalty. How could he live in New Orleans, or how escape
+from there? He was without money, and he had sense enough to know
+that money is a desideratum, especially to the traveller.</p>
+<p>Of this useful commodity, however, he had a supply in the
+mansion house, which he had saved from the presents made him by
+Colonel Dumont and his guests. Recognizing the necessity of
+obtaining it, as well as some more clothing, he resolved to enter
+the house and procure them, after the light he saw in the
+library-window was removed.</p>
+<p>While waiting, he pondered more fully his position. What should
+be his future conduct in regard to the will? He carried with him,
+he felt, the future destiny of his gentle, much-loved mistress. He
+felt that on his action during the next hour depended the happiness
+for a lifetime of one whom he had been taught to revere, and whose
+gentleness and beauty had almost lured him to worship. If the
+morrow's sun found him in the vicinity of the estate, he would
+probably fall a victim to Jaspar's policy. What should he do with
+the will? Should he show himself at the hour appointed for the
+reading of it? He might fall into Jaspar's hands in the attempt,
+the precious document be wrested from him, and thus all his
+exertions be in vain. Without the will itself he could do
+nothing,&mdash;his word or his evidence in court would be of no
+avail. No one would believe the former against Jaspar, and the
+latter was inadmissible.</p>
+<p>Should he carry it to Mr. Faxon, or even to Miss Emily herself,
+Jaspar might obtain possession of it by some means.</p>
+<p>His deliberations could suggest no method by which immediate
+justice could be done his mistress; and the conclusion of his
+reflections was, that he must place himself in a safe position
+before he attempted to expose the villany of others. His mistress,
+he knew by the will which he had heard De Guy read, was to be
+conveyed to Cincinnati. He must go to Cincinnati&mdash;but how?
+This was a hard question for the faithful Hatchie to answer; but
+answer it he must. He would go to New Orleans, and there form his
+plan.</p>
+<p>After waiting till the lights were extinguished in the library,
+he entered the house, and obtained his money and clothing.</p>
+<p>By the exercise of much caution, he reached New Orleans in
+safety, where, by the disbursement of a small sum of money, he
+obtained a secure retreat in the house of a free man, with whom he
+had formerly been acquainted. His object was now to obtain a
+passage to Cincinnati,&mdash;a matter not easy to accomplish, as
+the law against conveying blacks, unprovided with the necessary
+permit, was very stringent. He could not hope, with his limited
+means, to offer an acceptable bribe for this service. To attain his
+object, therefore, he must resort to stratagem, for the chances of
+obtaining a passage by direct means were too remote and too
+perilous to be hoped for. But accident soon afforded him the means
+of attaining his end.</p>
+<p>The negro with whom he had obtained a shelter kept a small shop,
+and by the grace of the authorities and his neighbors was permitted
+to sell liquor, tobacco and cigars, to the steamboat cooks,
+stewards, sailors, and the soldiers who thronged the city on their
+return from Mexico. In the rear of this shop, and connected with
+it, was a small room in which the negro lived. This room afforded a
+safe retreat, and in it Hatchie had his hiding-place.</p>
+<p>One day a little knot of men, in the faded, dilapidated garments
+of the army, entered the tap-room of Hatchie's protector. They
+drank deeply, and, as was their constant practice, they seated
+themselves at the broken table, and commenced gambling with the
+negro's dirty cards for the few dollars which remained in their
+possession. This amusement terminated, as such amusements
+frequently do, in a fight, in which one of the number seemed to be
+singled out as an object of vengeance for the others. This
+individual was an Irishman; and, for a time, he held way manfully
+against his assailants. But, at last, in spite of the exertions of
+the "proprietor" to protect him, he was likely to get the worst of
+it, when Hatchie, no longer able to control his indignation at the
+unfairness displayed in the encounter, suddenly interfered in favor
+of the now fallen man. His enormous strength and skill soon cleared
+the room of the rioters. Hatchie drew the defeated Irishman into
+his hiding-place, and locked the door. This man was Pat Fegan, who
+has been introduced to the reader.</p>
+<p>Pat was filled with gratitude to his protector, and swore he
+would stick by him till his dying day, if he was a "naiger." A
+mutual friendship was thus established, which resulted in the
+disclosure of their future prospects. The fact that both were
+seeking the same destination seemed to strengthen the bond thus
+formed. Hatchie, shrewd by nature, read the true heart of the
+Irishman. He felt that he could trust him with his life; but his
+ability was quite another thing.</p>
+<p>Pat Fegan was without means, and readily accepted the
+hospitality which Hatchie offered to pay for. In the course of the
+long conversations with which the two friends beguiled the weary
+day, Pat related his adventures in Mexico, at the close of which he
+casually mentioned that the remains of several officers, who died
+there, were to be conveyed up the river. Hatchie's curiosity
+prompted many inquiries, which drew from the talkative Hibernian a
+full description of the boxes that contained the coffins, and many
+particulars relative to the transportation of them.</p>
+<p>Pat's description of the boxes suggested to Hatchie the means of
+getting to Cincinnati.</p>
+<p>"Could you get me a box like those which contain these coffins?"
+asked he.</p>
+<p>"Faix, I can, thin, if I only had the matther of two or three
+dollars. But what the divil makes yous ax sich a question?"</p>
+<p>"I will give you ten dollars, and pay your passage to Cincinnati
+besides, if you will get me the box," said Hatchie, disregarding
+Pat's query.</p>
+<p>"By me sowl, I'll get yous the box, and ax yous only the price
+meself pays for 't," replied Pat, touched at the idea of a reward,
+which between friends seemed base even to his rude mind.</p>
+<p>"And I shall want your help, too."</p>
+<p>"Yous may well count on that, for whin did a Fegan desart his
+frind? But tell me, honey, what yous mane to do wid it."</p>
+<p>"I intend to get to Cincinnati in it."</p>
+<p>"Is it in the box?" exclaimed Pat, astonished beyond measure.
+"Sure you will smodther!"</p>
+<p>"But, my friend, I want you to look out for that, and give me
+something to eat and drink. You can pretend that the box contains
+the body of your captain, who, you said, died in Mexico."</p>
+<p>"Arrah, me darlint, I see it all!" and Pat shook his sides with
+laughter at the idea of the mulatto's "travelling-carriage," as he
+styled it.</p>
+<p>Pat had procured the box, and conveyed it to Hatchie's asylum.
+It was sufficiently large to furnish quite a roomy apartment. The
+covering consisted of short boards, matched, and screwed on
+crossways. To facilitate the introduction of food and air, and to
+afford the means of a speedy exit in case of need, he had taken off
+half these boards, and fastened them together with cleats on the
+inner side. The ends of the screws were then filed off, so that
+this portion of the lid exactly corresponded with the other
+portion. A number of hooks were then procured, so as to fasten it
+upon the inner side. By this arrangement, the occupant of the box
+would not be dependent upon exterior aid for egress. When once on
+board the steamer, he expected he should be able to leave his
+hiding-place in the night, and perhaps at other times.</p>
+<p>Upon the outside the box was similar to the others, and was duly
+marked and consigned.</p>
+<p>Hatchie's quarters were near the d&eacute;p&ocirc;t from which
+the coffins were to be shipped, and Pat, watching his time, had
+wheeled his own charge down in season to be shipped with the
+others. In the haste of embarking, the clerk had not noticed that
+one box more had been brought on board than his manifest
+indicated.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was not aware that Emily and her uncle were passengers
+on the same boat till the moment of the accident. He had before
+released himself from his prison-box, and was enjoying the fresh
+air, which the closeness of his box rendered particularly
+desirable, when he heard the scream of his mistress. Her voice was
+familiar, and even in the scream of terror he recognized it. It
+needed not a second thought to convince him of his duty. He had
+saved her life, and, forgetful of the danger of thus exposing his
+person, he stood by and saw her conveyed to her state-room. He
+heard Jaspar call for her deliverer, and offer a reward. This he
+knew, if no one else did, was gross hypocrisy, and in the
+indignation of his honest heart he had stepped forward to confront
+him. The sight of Jaspar, and the thought of his own
+responsibility, recalled his prudence; and he hastened to retrieve
+his error by escaping to his hiding-place in the box, in which no
+one thought of searching for a living man.</p>
+<p>In the excitement and exertion attendant upon the incident,
+Henry Carroll had not recognized Hatchie; and, while Jaspar
+inquired for her deliverer, he had been seeking the surgeon. Henry
+thought of nothing but her safety.</p>
+<p>Hatchie at once knew the voice of Henry, but, knowing nothing of
+the relation between him and his mistress, he feared to trust him
+with his secret.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 9em;">"But as thou art a
+man</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Whom I have picked and chosen
+from the world,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Swept that thou wilt be true to
+what I utter;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And when I've told thee that
+which only gods,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And men like gods, are privy to,
+then swear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">No chance, or change, shall wrest
+it from thy bosom."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 23em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, while yet insensible, was conveyed to her
+state-room, where, by the assiduous attention of the stewardess and
+the lady passengers, she was soon restored to consciousness. An
+army surgeon, who was fortunately on board, prescribed a course of
+treatment which prevented all evil consequences, so that on the
+following morning she appeared at breakfast as well as usual
+bodily, though the terrible fact that her uncle had attempted her
+life so agitated her that sleep had been a stranger to her eyelids.
+By whom she had been rescued was yet unknown to her.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll again took his place opposite her at the morning
+meal,&mdash;a place he had secured by the exercise of a full hour's
+patience in occupying it. At the first convenient opportunity, he
+congratulated her upon her safe recovery, and for the first time
+she heard the particulars of her rescue. Jaspar, with an ill grace,
+expressed his obligations to him, though at the same time he wished
+him at the bottom of the river.</p>
+<p>Henry failed not to notice the blush which came to her cheek, as
+she modestly but fervently expressed her gratitude for the noble
+service he had rendered her. Although her accepted lover, there had
+been but little intercourse of a tender nature between
+them,&mdash;not enough to prevent her heart from fluttering when he
+spoke, and sending its warm blood to her cheek.</p>
+<p>With what indescribable pleasure does the lover recognize the
+blush which a word or an act of his own calls to the face of his
+new-found love! Like the breaking clouds which disclose to the worn
+mariner the faint outline of the distant land, he hails it as the
+omen of future bliss! It is part of the mystical language of the
+heart. It is part of the mechanism of the affections, which the
+will cannot conceal. The gentle look, the warm pressure of the
+hand, the eloquent language of love, which modesty at first
+forbids, are supplied by the timid, uncalled, beautiful blush!
+Prudence and delicacy cannot chain it in the veins.</p>
+<p>Henry read in her blush the warm current of pure love which
+flowed from her heart. It told him how willingly her gratitude
+coalesced with her love. Their position at table did not afford the
+opportunity of interchanging those feelings of the heart which each
+felt swelling within. The present, so full of joy and hope, it
+seemed cruel to surround with circumstances which forbade them to
+enjoy it. A crowded steamer is the most uncomfortable place in the
+world for a pair of lovers, and Henry and Emily felt the
+inconvenience of it.</p>
+<p>But, if the position of the lovers was uncomfortable, Jaspar's
+was painful. They had the consolation of loving and being loved;
+but he was now writhing under the weight of an additional torture.
+The appearance of Hatchie was the knell of all his hopes, the
+precursor of ruin. To him it was a mystery, and all his endeavors
+to solve it were unavailing.</p>
+<p>About noon the Chalmetta arrived at Baton Rouge, where,
+according to previous arrangement, and much to the joy of the
+perplexed uncle, De Guy came on board. Jaspar greeted him with more
+than usual courtesy, and felt, to as great a degree as guilt can
+feel it, a relief from the embarrassments which surrounded him. The
+first step of the red-faced attorney, on finding no state-room
+unoccupied, was to dispossess two flat-boatmen of theirs, by the
+payment of a round bonus. Jaspar thought this a rather extravagant
+move for one apparently so parsimonious; but his mind was too
+deeply engrossed with the difficulties which environed him to
+comment on extraneous subjects.</p>
+<p>To this state-room Jaspar and his confidant retired, to consider
+the condition of their operations; and while they deliberate we
+will return to another character.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan was in the full enjoyment of all the satisfaction
+which seeing the world affords to the observing man. He gazed with
+unceasing wonder upon the Father of Waters, on whose mighty bosom
+he was borne towards the loved scenes of home. He was edified and
+amused with the ever-varying succession of objects which presented
+themselves, as the Chalmetta progressed. Flat-boats and steamers,
+plantations and cotton-wood groves, islands and cut-offs, were all
+objects of interest. And, when he was tired of these, "Bunyan's
+Pilgrim's Progress," which was his constant travelling companion,
+afforded him all the excitement his contented disposition required.
+The time promised to be easily disposed of, even if the passage
+should be unusually prolonged. Besides, the number and variety of
+dispositions on board afforded him some study, and some
+instruction. There were men of all grades of society, and all
+degrees of moral worth,&mdash;beginning, of course, at a very
+moderate standard, and descending to the vilest of the vile, which
+last were in a large majority. There were tipplers, and gamblers,
+and profane swearers, in abundance; and Uncle Nathan felt, at the
+bottom of his philanthropic heart, a desire to lead them from their
+sins. Not that he was officious and meddlesome, for he believed in
+"a time for everything." In his modest, inoffensive way, no doubt,
+he sowed the seeds of future reformation in some wayward heart.</p>
+<p>Pat Fegan proved an apt disciple, and already had Uncle Nathan
+given him the first lesson in the form of a temperance lecture,
+which probably had its effect, as he left the boiler deck without
+the dram for which he was supposed to have come up.</p>
+<p>"Now, Partrick," said Uncle Nathan, on the evening after Emily's
+rescue, "rum never did any one any good."</p>
+<p>"'Pon my soul it did, thin,&mdash;it makes me happy whin sorra
+thing else in the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.</p>
+<p>"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of
+doin' good to your feller-creturs."</p>
+<p>"It sinds throuble away&mdash;what else is happiness?"</p>
+<p>"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."</p>
+<p>"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me
+there."</p>
+<p>"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing
+the pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are
+safe."</p>
+<p>But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory
+lucubrations. Pat signed the pledge; but whether he had an
+appreciating sense of the restraint he imposed upon his appetite we
+cannot say. Uncle Nathan thought him saved from his cups, and
+rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if he had looked a little closer, he
+might have suspected an interested motive on the part of Pat. He
+saw none, and, feeling secure in the present victory, he admonished
+his disciple "to stick to it as long as he lived."</p>
+<p>"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat. "I see yous are a
+gintleman, if yous don't look jist like one. Now, do you see, Mr.
+Binson, you are jist the man I am looking for, this last six
+hours."</p>
+<p>"Why so, Partrick&mdash;what do you mean?" said Uncle Nathan,
+mystified by the sudden change of manner in the new convert.</p>
+<p>"Hould aisy a bit, for I'd like to hould a private
+correspondence wid yous. Will ye jist come to the hurricane deck,
+till I tells yous all about it?"</p>
+<p>"Sartain," replied Uncle Nathan, his curiosity fully
+excited.</p>
+<p>As soon as they reached a deserted portion of the promenade
+deck, Pat, after satisfying himself there were no listeners near,
+commenced, with an air of grave importance, his story.</p>
+<p>"Whisht now, and draw near," said he. "Can yous keep a
+sacret?"</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I could, if it was an honest one."</p>
+<p>"Faix, thin, it <i>is</i> an honest one. Sure yous come from the
+North, and don't belave in keeping the naigers in bondage?"</p>
+<p>"To be sure not."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, would yous help a naiger out of throuble, if yous
+could as well as not?"</p>
+<p>"I sartainly wish 'em well; but the Scripture says 'Honor the
+king,' which means nothin' more nor less than 'obey the laws.'
+Arter all, though, perhaps we ought not to mind wicked laws."</p>
+<p>"Musha bad luck to your raysoning! Sure I'm no docthor, to
+blarney over the matther. Will yous kape the sacret?" asked Pat, a
+little excited, and somewhat disappointed to find his auditor
+lukewarm in "the cause."</p>
+<p>"Sartain; tell your story, and, if I can't do you any good, I
+won't do you any harm."</p>
+<p>"That's the mon for me!" replied Pat, slapping Uncle Nathan
+familiarly on the back. "Now, do you see, there's a naiger on this
+boat, that wants a frind."</p>
+<p>"A friend!" said Uncle Nathan, with some doubt, as he reflected
+on the conflict between the claims of humanity and the stringent
+laws of the slave states.</p>
+<p>"To be sure, a <i>frind</i>!" replied Pat, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>"I <i>will</i> befriend him," replied Uncle Nathan, his natural
+inclination triumphing over his fear of the law.</p>
+<p>"Spoken like a Christian! Sure, that's jist what St. Patrick
+would say, if the saint&mdash;long life to him!&mdash;were here,"
+replied Pat, rejoicing that the difficulty was overcome.</p>
+<p>"Now, dhraw near till I tells yous all about it; and, if iver
+you mintion a word of it, may your sowl never lave purgatory till
+it is burnt to a cindther! Now, do you mind, there's a naiger
+concayled in the hould of the boat, that wants to correspond with a
+faymale in the cabin."</p>
+<p>"But he will expose himself, and she may deliver him up."</p>
+<p>"Divil a bit! Didn't he save her from dhrowning, last night?"
+exclaimed Pat, warmly, for this act of Hatchie excited all his
+admiration.</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! you don't say so!" and Uncle Nathan understood
+the mystery of the previous night.</p>
+<p>"Sorra a word o' lie in it."</p>
+<p>"But where in natur is the feller?" asked the wonder-struck
+Yankee, his curiosity getting the better of every other
+consideration.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," whispered Pat; "he is in one of those boxes, with
+the dead men! Do yous mind?"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! how you talk! In a coffin?"</p>
+<p>"Divil a coffin at all. Sure as nate a bit of a box as iver held
+a Christian."</p>
+<p>"But why does he wish to speak with the lady?"</p>
+<p>"Sorra know I know," replied Pat, to whom Hatchie had
+communicated no more than was necessary.</p>
+<p>"Does he wish to see her in person?"</p>
+<p>"Not a bit of it. Now, do you mind, I saw you speaking to the
+lady, and I tould him of it. Then the naiger axed me could he trust
+yous. I tould him yes; and he tould me to bring yous down to him,
+and that's the whole of it. Now, will yous go down the night and
+spake to him?"</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan reflected a little; for, though no craven, he was
+very prudent, and had no romance in his composition. After
+deliberating some time, much to the detriment of Pat's patience, he
+replied in the affirmative.</p>
+<p>Pat then instructed him in relation to certain precautions to be
+observed in order to avoid notice, and left him to ponder the
+strangeness of the adventure. He had well considered his course,
+and, having decided upon it, he was earnest in pursuing it. He had
+chosen, he felt, a dangerous, but his conscience assured him a
+right path, and nothing could now deter him from proceeding in it.
+He was not fickle, and invoked many a blessing on the effort he
+might make for the salvation of the poor negro. True, his prudence
+had magnified the undertaking, which was a trivial affair, into a
+great adventure. Imagination often makes bold men.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"<i>Duke</i>.&mdash;How's
+this?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The treason's</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Already at the doors."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">VENICE PRESERVED.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Amelia</i>.&mdash;I thought I
+heard a step.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Charles</i>.&mdash;'T is your
+tyrant coming."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">PROCTOR.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar and De Guy were for a long time closeted in the
+state-room. On their re&auml;ppearance Jaspar felt much easier. The
+silky-toned attorney had used a variety of arguments to convince
+him that their schemes were working excellently well, and that
+everything, notwithstanding the resurrection of the negro, would
+terminate to his entire satisfaction.</p>
+<p>The process of "wooding-up" on a Mississippi steamer, inasmuch
+as it affords the passengers an opportunity to exercise their
+locomotive powers on shore, is regarded as an interesting incident.
+This was particularly true on board the Chalmetta, for she was
+crowded to nearly double her complement of cabin-passengers, and
+the space usually devoted to exercise was too much crowded to
+render it very pleasant.</p>
+<p>When, therefore, the Chalmetta touched at a wood-yard, after
+leaving Baton Rouge, the passengers hurried on shore, to enjoy the
+novelty of an unconfined promenade. De Guy, on pretence of further
+private conversation, induced Jaspar to forsake his post as
+sentinel over Emily, and join him in a walk. For half an hour the
+attorney in his silky tones regaled the ears of Jaspar with various
+strange schemes, until the bell of the steamer announced her near
+departure. Even then De Guy seemed in no haste, and assured his
+companion the boat would not start without them. But the second
+bell admonished them that the steamer was already getting under
+way. The passengers were all on board, and, as they heard in the
+distance the tinkling of the engineer's bell, they started at a run
+to reach her. By some accident, De Guy's foot got between Jaspar's
+legs, and he fell. The attorney stooped, as if to assist him up,
+but, in reality, struck the fallen man a blow, which rendered him
+insensible. De Guy hurried towards the boat, leaving the watchful
+uncle to shift for himself. He reached the landing in season to
+jump upon the stern of the boat as it swung in shore. Pushing
+through the crowd which had gathered to witness his exploit of
+getting on board, he retreated to his state-room, and locked the
+door.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was not immediately missed by Emily, and his absence was
+too desirable to be the cause of any solicitude. As the tea-hour
+approached, and the ladies were requested to take their places at
+table, she was very much surprised to see <i>Mr. Maxwell</i>
+present himself as her escort to the table. Since the unhappy
+disclosure of his love in the office, she had regarded him with
+pity, rather than with the contempt he merited. She could not but
+feel that he loved her. His eloquent language and forlorn aspect
+had not been in vain, for they had saved him from her <i>utter</i>
+contempt. A true woman cannot be conscious of possessing a portion
+of the love, even of a dissolute man, without feeling some respect
+for him. To love truly and devotedly is an element of the angelic
+character; and such love will purify and ennoble even the grossest
+of human beings. Emily unconsciously arrived at this conclusion;
+and, discerning some indications of pure love towards her in his
+gross and earthly mind, she felt that he was entitled to her
+sympathy. She cherished no affection for him; all that her gentle
+heart could contain was bestowed upon another. A suspicion had more
+than once entered her mind that Maxwell was, in some manner,
+connected with the foul plot which had drawn her into its toils.
+But, she reasoned, if he loved her, he would not injure
+her,&mdash;no, not even in revenge for her refusal. <i>She</i>
+could not, and her beautiful nature would not allow her to believe
+it, even of a man as gross as her better judgment told her Maxwell
+was.</p>
+<p>To her inquiry for her uncle, Maxwell informed her that he had
+some conversation with him since he came on board at Baton Rouge,
+and that he had requested him to attend her at tea. He had not seen
+him since, but supposed he was forward, or in his state-room.</p>
+<p>Emily readily accepted his arm, for anything was a relief from
+the hateful presence of Jaspar. Maxwell used all the art which
+politeness could lend to render himself agreeable. His ready wit,
+and the adaptation of his conversation to the unhappy circumstances
+of her position, in some measure dispelled the misery of the hour.
+Besides, it was plain the attorney did not believe the statement of
+the will; for a high-born Southern gentleman would never associate
+in public with a slave girl. She had, too, a presentiment that he
+came on some errand to her. Perhaps the good minister, Mr. Faxon,
+had sent him with good news to her. Perhaps through him the will
+had been proved false. Such reflections as these imparted more
+interest to his society than she would otherwise have felt.</p>
+<p>During the tea-hour his assiduous courtesy left scarcely a
+particular in which Henry Carroll, who, as before, occupied a seat
+opposite to him, could render himself of use. He could hardly
+address a word to her without interrupting her companion. An
+introduction, which had before placed the young captain and the
+attorney on speaking terms, did not prevent the latter from mixing
+excessively good with excessively bad breeding. He was apparently
+unwilling that Henry should be heard by Emily. Maxwell had some
+idea of the relation which subsisted between his two companions;
+but, of course, knew nothing of the previous night's interview,
+which had indissolubly bound their hearts together. He seemed
+determined to keep their sympathies as far apart as possible.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll wondered at the absence of Jaspar and at the
+sudden appearance of Maxwell, for he had not before seen him. His
+attentions to her he loved created no jealousy. Emily had
+satisfactorily acknowledged her affection for him, and to believe
+her pure nature, especially under the present circumstances,
+susceptible of coquetry, were infidelity. A single look beaming
+with love had assured him that his star was still in the
+ascendant.</p>
+<p>At the conclusion, Maxwell, with the same elegant courtesy,
+conducted her back to the ladies' cabin. Emily repeated her
+acknowledgments for the attentions, and was about to enter her
+state-room, when he addressed her.</p>
+<p>"May I beg the favor of a few moments' private conversation,
+Miss Dumont?" said he, in a more business-like manner than that he
+had assumed at the tea-table.</p>
+<p>Emily hesitated. Her supposition concerning his mission was
+partly verified in this request; but the remembrance of her last
+interview with him at his office in New Orleans came like a cloud
+over the bright sky of her hopes. Curiosity and a painful interest
+prompted her to risk the interview. If this interview was likely to
+be of an unpleasant nature, she could retire; and, if the worst she
+apprehended was likely to be realized, she knew that Henry Carroll
+hovered near her, at all times, like a guardian angel.</p>
+<p>"In your legal capacity, I presume?" said she, with a smile and
+a crimson face.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," replied Maxwell, not a little
+disconcerted to discover this troublesome caution.</p>
+<p>"Will you take a seat, then? I think no one will feel an
+interest in our conversation beside ourselves."</p>
+<p>"Excuse me," replied Maxwell, in his blandest tones, "a few
+words of our conversation overheard might expose persons we wish
+not to injure."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it had better be deferred to a more convenient
+opportunity."</p>
+<p>"Delays are dangerous, Miss Dumont. Justice to yourself requires
+that my communication be made at once. Allow me to attend you to
+the promenade deck, where we shall be secure from
+interruption."</p>
+<p>Emily, with many doubts, accepted his arm, and they proceeded to
+the promenade deck.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, in a very serious tone, for she
+wished to awe the profligate into the most business-like reserve,
+"be as speedy as possible, for I am fearful of the effects of the
+night-air upon my health."</p>
+<p>Maxwell was disconcerted at this change in the manner of his
+companion, and vexed to account for it. The remembrance of past
+events came to his aid, but afforded no satisfactory solution. He
+could not see why Emily should studiously reject his overtures. His
+experience of female society had been of the most flattering
+character. He was perfectly aware of his popularity. His personal
+attractions always had been a strong recommendation, and he could
+not see why they should not be in this instance. His family was
+good, his fortune supposed to be respectable,&mdash;everybody did
+not know the inroads he had made upon it; his business was a
+pastime&mdash;the gate of honor and fame. It was true his character
+was dissolute, but she did not know this.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately for him and his prospects, she did know it, and
+the fact had all the weight which a virtuous mind attaches to such
+a circumstance.</p>
+<p>"I have been fortunate enough to obtain some information which
+may be of great value to you, or I should not thus have intruded
+upon you," said Maxwell, with the air of a man upon whom suspicion
+rested unjustly.</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Mr. Maxwell!" replied Emily, forgetting both the
+night-air and the character of the man who stood beside her; "pray,
+tell me all at once!"</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," replied he, coldly, "as the story is somewhat
+lengthy, perhaps it might be deferred till to-morrow, if your
+health is likely to suffer from exposure at this hour."</p>
+<p>Emily was confused; but she could not stoop to the weakness of
+deception to smooth over her former coldness. She was burning with
+impatience to be restored, even in imagination, to the position
+from which she had been degraded by the cruel will. Her companion's
+language was not calculated to remove her doubts of his intentions.
+If the communication was of a business character, why should he be
+offended at her haste to terminate the interview? This reflection
+strengthened her resolution not to conciliate him. She would trust
+to Providence and the justice of her cause, rather than make an
+intimate of a man whom she despised.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, growing desperate at the lady's
+silence, "perhaps I have offended in some manner. If I have, it was
+unintentional, and I trust you will forgive me."</p>
+<p>"O, no, sir, not at all!" exclaimed Emily, mollified, in spite
+of herself, by the humility of the attorney. "There is no offence,
+and no apology is necessary."</p>
+<p>"I am greatly relieved by this assurance, and, with your leave,
+will proceed with my narrative."</p>
+<p>Maxwell now entered into a relation of the history of the will,
+but studiously avoided imparting a single fact with which she was
+not already acquainted. All this he had related with a lawyer's
+skill, to awaken her curiosity and interest, and to remove by
+distance any unpleasant suspicions which might have been awakened
+in her mind in regard to his motives.</p>
+<p>To all he said Emily listened with profound attention,
+momentarily expecting the development of the foul plot. But thus
+far Jaspar Dumont is as pure as an angel,&mdash;nothing is
+disclosed. In this manner half an hour passed away, and Emily was
+no wiser than at first.</p>
+<p>Maxwell has now, with an adroitness peculiar to the successful
+lawyer, made <i>himself</i> the subject of his remarks. He is
+careful that she shall know how sagacious he has been in
+discovering the facts he has not yet revealed. He tells her how
+many weary days and nights he has spent in searching out the truth;
+what wonderful intelligence of his had converted the shadow of a
+suspicion into the reality of an incontrovertible conviction; how a
+single word he casually overheard has been followed through weary
+days and dismal nights, till he has arrived, with all the evidence
+in his hands, at the truth!</p>
+<p>Emily was certainly grateful for the deep interest he had
+manifested in her behalf, and she expressed her gratitude with
+modest earnestness.</p>
+<p>"But, Miss Dumont," continued Maxwell, "I could not thus have
+sacrificed myself for every client. My health and strength, under
+ordinary circumstances, would have given way, and the case have
+been lost."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, you may rely on the fullest and most substantial
+acknowledgment for the service you have rendered. My purse shall be
+entirely at your disposal," responded Emily, warmly and
+innocently.</p>
+<p>"Money, Miss Dumont, would not have tempted me to make the
+sacrifice of health and comfort which this exertion has required of
+me. I have done all my humble talents would permit from a higher
+motive. I look for my reward in the consciousness of having done my
+duty."</p>
+<p>"I trust, Mr. Maxwell, you will receive the great reward which
+is sure to follow every noble and true action."</p>
+<p>Emily was sadly perplexed to understand this new and singular
+phenomenon.</p>
+<p>"The act itself is its own reward," said Maxwell, with an
+attempt to counterfeit humility, which was very awkward, but which
+deceived Emily, agitated as she was by hopes and fears.</p>
+<p>"But, as I said," continued he, "I would not have done this for
+every client, and I trust you will pardon me when I say the only
+reward I look forward to is your smile of approval."</p>
+<p>"I certainly cannot but approve of the motives which have
+actuated you, and your actions perhaps I could better appreciate if
+my knowledge of them was more extensive," responded Emily,
+disappointed and displeased, as her suspicions were reawakened.</p>
+<p>But a faint smile rested upon her beautiful features, as if to
+soften, the reproof she had administered, and to conceal her rising
+emotions. She felt that Maxwell could assist her, but she feared
+every moment that some allusion to the prohibited subject would
+compel her to banish him from her presence.</p>
+<p>"A smile from you were an ample reward for all my trouble and
+exertion," said Maxwell, deceived by the smile of Emily. "To be as
+sincere as your generous nature demands, I cannot conquer the love
+I have before expressed. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Excuse me, sir," indignantly interrupted Emily, "I must
+retire."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, Miss Dumont! I meant no offence. Hear me but for a
+moment!"</p>
+<p>"Not another instant, sir! You have deceived me."</p>
+<p>"Upon my honor, I have not. I possess the evidence by which your
+birthright and possessions may be restored."</p>
+<p>"No more! I had rather die in poverty, with the stain clinging
+to me, than owe the restoration of my rights to you. You have taken
+advantage of my unprotected condition to impose upon me."</p>
+<p>"You wrong me, Miss Dumont; as, if you will remain but a moment,
+I will prove to you," said Maxwell, pleading like an injured
+man.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's peculiar tone and penitent air made Emily pause, and
+perhaps think she had spoken too hastily. All the wrong of which
+she could accuse him was, that he loved her. She felt that this was
+not a crime. The remembrance of wrongs she knew he had inflicted
+upon others, perhaps weak and unprotected like herself, nerved her
+resolution, and to a word of love from him she could not listen.
+She wished to conciliate him, if possible, but not at the expense
+of her self-respect.</p>
+<p>"Why have you detained me all this time to listen to a story
+with which I was before as familiar as yourself? Why have you used
+the language of love, which a refusal to hear now renders
+insolent?"</p>
+<p>"I have offended you, Miss Dumont," said he, in the humblest
+tones; "can I hope to be forgiven?"</p>
+<p>"Your future conduct alone can secure my forgiveness."</p>
+<p>"Then I solemnly promise never again to allude to the admiration
+with which I have regarded your matchless beauty, or to mention the
+love which now consumes my heart."</p>
+<p>"I trust you are sincere," said Emily, not knowing whether to
+smile or frown upon this making and breaking the promise in the
+same breath. The deep anxiety she felt for her future fate made her
+disposed to forget the past, and in a gentler tone she expressed
+her forgiveness.</p>
+<p>Maxwell imagined that, at last, his star was in the ascendant.
+His experience of woman-kind only indicated that he had been too
+precipitate, and that the reserve, even the refusal he had
+received, were only the accidents of the moment, not the natural
+expression of an indifferent heart. His assurance increased as he
+reflected. He was led to believe that he might, now that the
+ice-barrier was removed, be more unreserved in his wooing. His
+perseverance had now overcome all obstacles, and the prize was in
+his grasp.</p>
+<p>"I have a plan to propose," said he, "which will immediately
+secure to you all your rights."</p>
+<p>"Pray what is it?" asked Emily, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"As you have forbidden me to speak of love, I am placed in a
+very unfortunate position. In short, you can obtain possession of
+your estate by returning as my wife."</p>
+<p>This last sentence was said in a whisper, and in a tone of
+assurance, as though he felt she would gladly accept the
+alternative.</p>
+<p>"Sir!" exclaimed Emily, aghast with astonishment and
+indignation, for the abruptness of the degrading proposition nearly
+deprived her of the power of speech.</p>
+<p>"Even so, Emily. I have the power to restore your rights, and
+will do so on this condition. The ceremony may be performed at
+Natchez, where we shall arrive to-night; or, if you fear I promise
+more than I can perform, I will draw up an agreement, which you
+shall sign, to the effect that you will accept my hand on the
+restoration of your rights. I will give you two hours to think of
+it; and if, at the end of that time, you accept the proposal, I
+will at once take the necessary steps to regain your fortune, and
+remove the stigma which rests on your name."</p>
+<p>"Never, sir, never! I will die a beggar before I will owe my
+prosperity to such a contract!" exclaimed Emily, whose indignation
+now found utterance.</p>
+<p>"I beg madam will reflect before she decides," said Maxwell, in
+a satirical tone.</p>
+<p>"Sir, I will die upon the rack, before the hand of a villain
+shall lead me to the altar!" answered Emily, unable to control her
+feelings.</p>
+<p>"Softly, lady, softly!"</p>
+<p>"Leave me, sir! leave me, or I will call upon my uncle to
+protect me from further insult!"</p>
+<p>"Your <i>uncle</i>, I fear, was left at the last wood-yard; so I
+heard my friend De Guy say."</p>
+<p>Emily felt herself the victim of a plot, and, rousing all her
+energies, she said,</p>
+<p>"I see it all. The machinations of a villain&mdash;for such you
+are&mdash;shall be foiled."</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, his passions roused by the severity
+of her epithet, "do you forget your condition? You are a
+<i>slave</i>! Your supposed uncle is not here. You have no free
+papers, and are liable to be committed to the next jail."</p>
+<p>"But I am not without a friend who is able to protect me," said
+Emily, with spirit, as she saw Henry Carroll ascend to the deck
+upon which they stood.</p>
+<p>"Your friend is helpless. Another word, and I will proclaim your
+condition," and he rudely seized her by the arm. "Your friend
+cannot help you. He has not your free papers."</p>
+<p>"But he has a strong arm!" shouted Henry Carroll, as with a
+single blow he struck the attorney to the deck.</p>
+<p>"This way, Emily," said he to the weeping girl, who clung
+tremblingly to him; "you are safe now."</p>
+<p>Emily was conducted by the gallant arm which had protected her
+from we know not what indignity. She felt secure in his presence
+from further molestation, and his soothing words and hopeful
+promises did much to restore her.</p>
+<p>Maxwell soon recovered from the effects of the blow he had
+received, and, boiling with passion, swore vengeance upon the man
+who had interrupted him. But his passion was of short duration, and
+was succeeded by sober reflections upon the "position of his case."
+Emily Dumont was not of that class of women with whom he was
+accustomed to deal. He had found in her an element with which he
+had not before been conversant,&mdash;of which, indeed, he had read
+in books of poetry, but did not believe it existed in the material
+world.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 14em;">"Caught, caught</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In thine own trap! Thou hast
+confessed it all,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The means, the end, the
+motive,&mdash;laid all Bare!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">O, thou poor knave!&mdash;and
+that convenient friend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who swears or unswears, speaks or
+holds his peace,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">At thy command,&mdash;you have
+conspired together!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 22em;">LOVELL.</span></p>
+<p>On board the Chalmetta, Harwell discovered an old acquaintance
+in the person of a notorious gambler,&mdash;a class of persons who
+congregate on Mississippi steamers, and practise their arts upon
+the unwary traveller. This person, who went by the name of Vernon,
+was well known at the faro and roulette boards in New Orleans. He
+was an accomplished swindler. In the winter season, when the city
+is crowded with the &eacute;lite of the state, and with strangers
+from all parts of the Union, Vernon found abundant exercise for his
+professional ability at the hells of the city, in the employment of
+their proprietors, acting the part of banker, or anything else that
+offered him the means of gratifying his luxurious habits. A twinge
+of conscience never prevented him from adopting any means of
+emptying the pockets of his victims, even without the formality of
+dice or cards.</p>
+<p>In the summer season he beguiled his time on the river, or
+migrated with the fashionables to Pascagoula, or a more northern
+watering-place,&mdash;in fine, to any sphere which afforded him a
+theatre for the exercise of his talents as a blackleg. Wherever he
+was, he never passed by an opportunity to obtain possession of his
+neighbor's valuables. If the monied man would accept a hand at
+euchre or poker, why, he was so much the easier cleaned out; if
+not, false keys, pick-locks, or sleight-of-hand, soon relieved the
+unfortunate victim of his superfluous possessions.</p>
+<p>Early in his career of fashionable dissipation, Maxwell had made
+the acquaintance of this notorious individual. Indeed, he had
+sufficient cause to remember him, for he had made a deep inroad
+into his patrimony. Maxwell was too great a rascal himself to be
+long duped by a greater one. A kind of business intimacy had grown
+up between them, and continued to exist at the time of our story.
+This connection was not, however, publicly acknowledged by Maxwell;
+it would have been the ruin of his fine prospects: but he used him
+whenever a scheme of profit or revenge required an unscrupulous
+confederate. Yet this Vernon was by no means a dependent creature
+of Maxwell's, for he was bold, reckless, and independent to the
+last degree. Whether acting as the paid devil of another, or on his
+own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own will. His
+physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
+character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon,
+for a hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the
+luckless individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his
+trade; but latterly his claims to the distinction of
+<i>gentleman</i> and <i>man of honor</i> had been of such a
+questionable character, that the man who refused to meet him did
+not lose caste among the bloods of the city.</p>
+<p>Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New
+Orleans, with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As
+usual, he practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which,
+however, afforded him but a narrow field, the passengers being
+mostly officers, who had left their pay in the <i>cabarets</i> of
+Mexico.</p>
+<p>By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in
+possession of a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his
+power he had endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which
+was constantly spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate
+victims, vainly striving against the coolness and trickery of
+professional blacklegs, to recruit their exhausted finances, or
+retrieve the ruin to which an unlucky hour had enticed them. Henry
+obstinately refused to take a hand; but Vernon's heart was set upon
+the bag of gold he knew was in Henry's trunk, and he resolved to
+possess it,&mdash;a feat not easy to accomplish on board a crowded
+steamer.</p>
+<p>After Maxwell had recovered from the blow which had felled him
+to the deck, and while Henry was soothing the distress of Emily, he
+met Vernon, who was in the act of reconnoitring the young officer's
+state-room. Vernon was just the person to serve him in this
+extremity. The protector of Emily must be removed from his charge,
+as her uncle had been by De Guy. He resolved upon a consultation
+with the blackleg. Accordingly he expressed his desire, to which
+the gambler replied by requesting him to give notice of the
+approach of any one, while he did a little business in the
+state-room.</p>
+<p>Maxwell vainly remonstrated, but was obliged to comply with the
+wishes of the robber, or lose his services.</p>
+<p>Vernon, thus protected from intrusion, entered the room, and by
+the aid of a pick-lock soon succeeded in obtaining possession of
+all poor Henry's earthly wealth. Beckoning Maxwell to follow, he
+descended to the main deck, where, procuring a lantern, they
+proceeded aft.</p>
+<p>We must return to Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, whom we left on
+their way to the fugitive in the hold of the steamer.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a whisper, as they prepared to jump
+down the hatchway; "whisht, now, and don't spake a loud word, for
+the life of yous."</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan promised obedience, and followed Pat into the hold.
+All was total darkness, and it was not without a feeling of
+superstitious dread that Uncle Nathan heard his companion tap on
+the box which contained the mulatto. He heard the whispered
+recognition of its inmate, and stood like a statue while Hatchie
+freed himself from his confinement.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a low voice; "give me your hand, Mr.
+Binson. Now, there yous are," and he placed Uncle Nathan's hand in
+that of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan found the hand was warm, and felt completely
+relieved of the sensation of fear which had come over him.</p>
+<p>"Glad to see you," said he, though an instant afterwards his
+conscience asked him if he had not told a lie, inasmuch as it was
+so dark he could not see anything.</p>
+<p>"You are a <i>friend</i>, I trust," replied Hatchie, who,
+although he implicitly relied on the <i>faith</i> of the Irish
+ally, had not the fullest confidence in his judgment. Nothing but
+what he deemed a stern necessity would have compelled him to trust
+the secret with any one. So many dangers encompassed him, that the
+duty he owed to his injured mistress obliged him to look around for
+the means of preserving the valuable document he possessed. An
+accident to the steamer, the continuous danger of being restored to
+Jaspar, and a hundred other painful reflections, brought him to the
+resolution of depositing the will in the hands of the most
+trustworthy person he could find. In this extremity, he canvassed
+the characters of all he knew on board. Henry Carroll, he feared,
+was too impetuous, if not actually devoted to Jaspar. He knew
+nothing of the interesting relation which the hearts of the lovers
+had recognized,&mdash;pity he did not! Uncle Nathan, whom Pat had
+described in glowing colors,&mdash;none are more highly esteemed
+than those who confer the most solid benefits,&mdash;seemed to him
+the proper person, especially as Pat had seen <i>her</i> speak to
+him after the accident. An honest man is so easily known, that the
+poor Irishman's instinctive knowledge of human nature imparted the
+most correct information.</p>
+<p>"I <i>am</i> your friend, and I trust the Lord will always put
+it into my heart to befriend the unfortunate," said Uncle Nathan,
+in answer to Hatchie's remark.</p>
+<p>"It is not on my own account that I need a friend," said
+Hatchie, in a melancholy tone, for the responsibility which rested
+upon him had solemnized his mind, and banished all reflections of
+self. "It matters little what becomes of <i>me</i>. But, sir, you
+are a stranger to me, and I know not that I may trust you."</p>
+<p>"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an
+honest sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience,
+why, I am ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."</p>
+<p>"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts
+in a great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his
+auditor, "can be done honestly; and, if your conscience approves
+any act, it will approve this one."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and
+use all the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by
+the way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady
+whose life you saved last night."</p>
+<p>"Not exactly to talk <i>with</i> her, but about her. I feel that
+I can trust you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress.
+She is an angel of goodness. I am perfectly willing to be
+<i>her</i> slave, so that it was not to gain my freedom I escaped
+in this box. It was to save her from a cruel wrong which her uncle
+would inflict upon her."</p>
+<p>"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle
+Nathan.</p>
+<p>"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the
+world,&mdash;so different from my poor master, who was a good man,
+and loved even his slaves! This man would make it appear that my
+mistress is not the legitimate child of her father, but the
+daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned. He has forged
+a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor mistress of
+her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was
+perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my
+escape,&mdash;and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at
+and obliged to jump into the river to save my life. They think the
+shot killed me; but I shall yet expose their villany&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose
+sympathies wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.</p>
+<p>"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this
+will. I may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor
+mistress would never be restored."</p>
+<p>"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's
+reasoning, and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.</p>
+<p>"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person,
+who will guard it as his own life,&mdash;who will deem no sacrifice
+too great to relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said
+Hatchie, earnestly.</p>
+<p>"I will do the best I can."</p>
+<p>"Before I intrust it to you, I must feel that you will not only
+be discreet, but that you will labor to foil this wicked plot."</p>
+<p>"I will do everything I can," replied Uncle Nathan, warmly, for
+his heart was touched at the wrongs of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Then here is the will," said Hatchie, handing him the packet,
+which he had taken the precaution to envelop in oil-cloth.
+"Remember how much depends upon your caution and fidelity. God
+forgive me, if I have done wrong in giving it to you."</p>
+<p>"You may depend upon me. I will take good care of the document.
+But shan't I say anything to the lady about it?"</p>
+<p>"Assure her, if you can without exposing yourself, that the will
+is safe. It will give joy to her heart to know that she has the
+means of restoration to her home and name."</p>
+<p>"I will see everything done about right; and I hope soon to meet
+you in the land of liberty."</p>
+<p>"I shall never leave my mistress. I have been near her from her
+birth, and, though only a slave, I feel that I was sent into the
+world for no other purpose than to protect and serve her. Liberty
+away from her has no charms for me."</p>
+<p>"Goodness!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan; "I never should have
+thought it!"</p>
+<p>Hatchie's devotion to his mistress, so eloquently expressed,
+jostled rather rudely the Northerner's prejudices concerning the
+treatment of slaves.</p>
+<p>The conversation was here interrupted by three taps on the deck
+above them, produced by the brogan of Pat Fegan.</p>
+<p>Hatchie recognized the preconcerted signal, and, abruptly
+terminating his remarks, he leaped into the box, drew on the lid,
+and left Uncle Nathan to find his way out as best he could.</p>
+<p>"Whisht, now," said Pat, whispering down the hatch. "Jump up,
+Mr. Binson!"</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan approached the hatchway, and endeavored to leap
+out, an effort which was assisted by Pat, who, rudely seizing him
+by the collar, jerked him out with a violence that threatened his
+bones with dissolution.</p>
+<p>"How the divil did yous tumble in there?" screamed Pat, as two
+persons approached. "Are yous hurted?"</p>
+<p>"A little," replied Uncle Nathan, perceiving the ruse of his
+coadjutor.</p>
+<p>"I fear yous are. Thry are your legs broke?" continued Pat,
+whose energy of utterance gave a fair appearance to the deceit.</p>
+<p>"Are you much hurt?" asked one of the persons who had by their
+presence disturbed the conference.</p>
+<p>"Very little," replied Uncle Nathan, who really felt the
+uncomfortable effects of a knock on the knee he had received in his
+involuntary ascent from the hold.</p>
+<p>"Bad luck to 't, but 'twas a wicked fall!" said Pat, fearful
+that his conscientious companion would expose the deceit.</p>
+<p>"Can I render you any assistance?" asked one of the intruders,
+who were none other than Maxwell and Vernon, whom we left on their
+way to the main deck.</p>
+<p>"Thank ye, I don't need any," replied Uncle Nathan, hobbling
+off, accompanied by Pat.</p>
+<p>"Now, is the coast clear?" said Vernon, who carried a lantern he
+had borrowed from the mate.</p>
+<p>"All clear; but put out that light,&mdash;the engineers will
+notice us," replied Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"But I can't find my way into the hold without it. There is no
+danger of the engineers. They are all asleep on the forward
+deck."</p>
+<p>"What do you want in the hold?" asked Maxwell, in an irritable
+tone.</p>
+<p>"I want to hide this bag of money," replied Vernon, in a
+whisper. "As soon as the covey finds he has been picked, they will
+search the boat; and my character is not likely to save me from the
+indignity of being obliged to open my trunk, and turn out my
+pockets."</p>
+<p>"It is bad business, and I wish you had not done this thing. As
+I told you before, <i>I</i> have nothing to do with it. I feel
+myself rather above common robbery."</p>
+<p>"Self-esteem! But you came down on your own business, not on
+mine. You can return, and not trouble yourself any further,"
+growled Vernon.</p>
+<p>"I need your help, and will pay you for it."</p>
+<p>"Very well, then, wait till <i>this</i> job is finished."</p>
+<p>"Go on! I will follow," replied Maxwell, finding remonstrance
+vain.</p>
+<p>After a careful scrutiny of the premises, Vernon concealed his
+lantern under his coat, and leaped into the hold, followed by
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Now," said Vernon, "I must put this bag into one of these
+boxes, to be guarded by the spirits of the brave men whose bones
+repose in them."</p>
+<p>"Are you mad, man? Would you open the coffins of the dead to
+hide your ill-gotten gold?" exclaimed Maxwell, alarmed at the
+purpose of his confederate.</p>
+<p>"Why not? We need not disturb the bodies,&mdash;only open the
+outside box."</p>
+<p>"Very well," said Maxwell, who felt how useless it was to oppose
+his companion. "But remember, I have nothing to do with the
+robbery."</p>
+<p>"Of course not, and nothing to do with sharing the proceeds; but
+sit down, if you have anything to say to me. We are perfectly safe
+from interruption here;" and Vernon seated himself on the box which
+was occupied by the mulatto.</p>
+<p>"My words need not be many. In the first place, I have been
+insulted, and must have satisfaction; and, in the second, there is
+a girl in the cabin to whom I am much attached, and she will not
+give me the smallest sign of encouragement. Have her I must, by
+fair means or foul. I would marry her. You understand?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly; but what's the plan?" asked Vernon,
+indifferently.</p>
+<p>"Rather a difficult one, and may require some nerve to execute
+it," replied Maxwell, who proceeded to develop his schemes, both in
+respect to Henry Carroll and to Emily.</p>
+<p>Although the conspirators spoke in a low tone, Hatchie heard and
+understood the whole plot. The voice of Maxwell he recognized, and,
+although the name of the lady against whom his designs were
+meditated was not mentioned, he comprehended who she was.</p>
+<p>The confederated scoundrels having finished their conference,
+Vernon drew from his pocket a small screw-driver, and proceeded to
+remove the screws from one of the boxes, which, to Hatchie's great
+relief, was not the one occupied by himself. After much labor, for
+the boxes were carefully constructed, to bear the rough usage of
+transportation, he succeeded in removing the lid, and deposited the
+bag of money between the coffin and the case which enclosed it.</p>
+<p>Having effected the object which brought them to the hold, the
+two ascended again, and made their way to the cabin.</p>
+<p>In addition to the knowledge of the plot, Hatchie was made
+acquainted with a fact which afforded him much pleasure&mdash;that
+Henry Carroll, in defence of his mistress, had knocked Maxwell
+down. This was evidence in his favor. He also heard something of
+the preference she had bestowed upon him, and that on this account,
+more than for the blow, he was to be the victim of Maxwell's
+vengeance. But he resolved to foil both schemes.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He must be taught to know he
+has presumed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To stand in competition with
+me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;You will not kill
+him?"&nbsp; SHIRLEY.</span></p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">&mdash;"Wherefore com'st
+thou?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;To comfort you, and bring
+you joyful news."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">MARLOW.</span></p>
+<p>On the second night of the Chalmetta's voyage, as Henry was
+about to retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he
+had struck a "fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at
+once that it had called forth this note. On opening the billet, his
+supposition proved to be correct. It was a challenge from
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret
+that faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that
+Captain Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough
+to resist the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which
+encourages duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"&mdash;a lady
+whom he fondly loved. He felt that the insult which she had
+received was not sufficiently punished. Besides, there was an
+audacity about the man which deserved to be punished, and he
+resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry never reflected
+that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of innocence
+escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in defence
+of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that he
+should fall, <i>he</i> who had espoused the cause of innocence, why
+it was simply impossible!</p>
+<p>He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to
+act as his "friend." The two seconds&mdash;Major Brunn on the part
+of Henry, and Vernon on the part of Maxwell&mdash;arranged the
+preliminaries.</p>
+<p>The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would
+remain there long enough to allow the meeting to take place.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
+opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at
+ease. To meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell
+to be) was not a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of
+honor. He had a hundred times braved death on the field of battle,
+but to die in a duel with such a man seemed to his now
+tranquillized mind anything but honorable. Emily had retired, and
+he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had seen her for the last
+time on earth, for the possibility of being killed himself tardily
+came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and another to
+Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression
+upon his mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the
+letter was to interest him in her favor,&mdash;to induce him to
+conduct her to his Northern home.</p>
+<p>Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the
+morality, and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling
+of honor&mdash;of false honor&mdash;comforted him, and, animated by
+its spirit, he even looked forward with pleasure upon his
+revenge,&mdash;upon the death of his opponent. This would be in
+accordance with the justice of the case, and he flattered himself
+that justice, if it did not always prevail, would triumph in this
+instance. With such reflections he closed his eyes, and sunk to his
+slumbers.</p>
+<p>The Chalmetta moved lazily on her course. Her lights had all
+been extinguished, and the idlers, who a few hours before had paced
+the decks, were now slumbering in their berths, or on the cabin
+floor. The clock over the clerk's office indicated the hour of
+twelve. On the main deck forward the sleepy firemen were languidly
+supplying the furnaces; the engineers, less actively employed, had
+fallen asleep by the cylinders.</p>
+<p>On the after quarter, laying flat upon the deck, were two men
+earnestly engaged in conversation, in which the whispered brogue of
+Pat Fegan might have been detected. After the conversation had
+continued some time, one of them cautiously raised his head, as if
+to penetrate the gloom that enshrouded them. Satisfied that they
+were alone, the two rose, and, without noise, climbed up one of the
+posts to the gallery which surrounded the cabin. Then, with a light
+step, they passed on, and stopped before the state-room occupied by
+Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Are you sure this is his room?" asked Hatchie, in a smothered
+whisper.</p>
+<p>"Troth, I am, thin," responded his companion; "but be aisy, or
+you'll wake him."</p>
+<p>"The worse for him," replied Hatchie, as his teeth ground
+together.</p>
+<p>Hatchie placed his hand upon the door, and softly opened it. The
+sleeper heard him not. The negro groped about the room until his
+hand rested upon some pistols which lay on a trunk by the side of
+the berth. These he took, and, handing two of them to Pat, retained
+the third in his hand. Closing the door, they proceeded, as they
+had come, to the main deck.</p>
+<p>Seating himself behind a heap of merchandise, Hatchie proceeded
+to examine the pistols by the light of a lantern which Pat had
+<i>borrowed</i> from the sleeping engineers. The pistols were of
+the common pattern used in duelling. Two of the three were mates;
+and Hatchie discovered, on examination, that neither of them were
+loaded with ball. The third pistol, which contained two balls, was
+very similar in form and size to the pair. Hatchie extracted the
+balls from this one, and loaded the pair with one ball each,
+leaving the unmatched one blank. They then carefully conveyed them
+to Vernon's state-room, and placed them on the trunk precisely as
+they had found them.</p>
+<p>As had been premised, the Chalmetta arrived at Natchez about
+daylight. Vernon, well acquainted with all its localities, led the
+parties of the duel to a retired place in the vicinity. The
+distance was measured off, and the principals took the stations
+assigned them.</p>
+<p>"Now be careful they do not see you do it," said Vernon, in a
+low, careless tone.</p>
+<p>The pistols were handed to the principals, the signal was given,
+and both fired nearly at the same instant.</p>
+<p>"Confound it!" exclaimed Maxwell, dropping his pistol, and
+grasping the left arm, which had been hit by Henry's ball. "How
+does this happen?"</p>
+<p>But Vernon was as much confounded by this unexpected result of
+the duel as his principal. He had only time to protest that he had
+prepared the pistols as agreed upon, when Major Brunn arrived at
+the spot.</p>
+<p>On examining the wounded man, it was found that the ball had
+struck the fleshy part of the arm. The injury was very trifling.
+Maxwell was much astonished at receiving a ball from his opponent's
+pistol,&mdash;a circumstance which was owing entirely to Hatchie's
+precaution on the previous night. He had overheard the plan by
+which Maxwell was to fire a ball at Henry, with no danger of
+receiving one in return. Vernon had loaded the pair without ball,
+and the single pistol with two balls. Henry was to select from the
+pair; the third was to be concealed upon the person of Maxwell, who
+was to use it instead of the blank. Major Brunn, supposing Vernon
+to be a man of honor, had not insisted upon examining the charge in
+presence of both seconds, and thus everything had worked to the
+satisfaction of the confederates up to the time of the firing. By
+Hatchie's precaution, Henry held one of the two which were loaded
+with ball, while Maxwell had fired the blank.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was, as may be supposed, vexed and disconcerted at the
+result of the duel; and, with an ill grace, he resolved to postpone
+his revenge to another time, inasmuch as he could not hope again to
+shoot at his foe in perfect safety.</p>
+<p>The party returned to the steamer just in season for her
+departure. Maxwell's wound was examined by the surgeon, and
+pronounced very slight. Henry was rejoiced at this intelligence,
+for the cold-blooded thoughts which had found a place in his heart
+had departed, and his naturally kind disposition resumed its sway.
+He was glad that the affair had terminated without the loss of
+life; glad that his conscience was not burdened with the blood of a
+fellow-creature; glad, too, that he had escaped unhurt. This last
+consideration was not a selfish one. He felt that all the energy he
+possessed he should require in the restoration of her he so
+tenderly loved.</p>
+<p>His first step, on returning to the steamer, was to destroy the
+letters he had written to meet the worst calamity which might
+befall him. Having occasion to open his trunk, he discovered, to
+his surprise, that it was unlocked. Further examination showed that
+he had been robbed of all his earthly possessions. This was a
+severe blow. The money was the accumulation of two years' service,
+and he was now penniless,&mdash;without even a sufficient sum to
+pay his passage. He immediately informed the captain of his loss,
+who gave him the comfortable assurance that the robber had probably
+gone ashore at Natchez. However, he caused a thorough search of the
+boat to be made; but, as may be supposed, the search was vain.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan sympathized with him in his loss,&mdash;not with
+words alone, but voluntarily proposed to lend him any amount he
+required; an offer which Henry accepted with gratitude.</p>
+<p>"I see you are acquainted with that lady you saved from
+drowning," said the worthy farmer, after he had passed the loan to
+Henry. The duel had before been discussed and roundly condemned.
+The cause of the quarrel had introduced the fact to which the
+farmer had alluded.</p>
+<p>"I am. Her father was my best friend. I spent a few weeks with
+him a short time before his death."</p>
+<p>"O, ho!" thought Uncle Nathan, "I guess the black feller didn't
+know that, or he would have given the papers to him;" and he
+resolved to inform Hatchie of Henry's presence.</p>
+<p>Descending, he soon discovered Pat Fegan, and, by his help, was
+enabled to hold a conference with Hatchie, who, now that it was
+daylight, talked through a crevice in his box.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was anxious to know the result of the duel, which Uncle
+Nathan imparted, to whom, in return, the mulatto related the means
+he had used to foil the attorney's purpose, which was nothing less
+than murder. He also disclosed the particulars of the second plot,
+which was to be put in execution that night.</p>
+<p>The information the faithful slave had gained in relation to the
+character of Henry's efforts for his mistress made him quite
+willing to have him admitted into the confidence of her secret
+protectors.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan returned to the cabin, delighted with the idea of
+sharing his responsibility with Henry. But his first wish was to
+relieve the distress of Emily, who, he rightly judged, was in
+continued suffering, on account of the painful uncertainty which
+shrouded her destiny.</p>
+<p>Emily rose on the morning of the duel in blissful ignorance of
+the danger which Henry had incurred on her account. She had passed
+a sleepless night, in the most intense agony. Her eyes were red and
+swollen with weeping, and her heart yet beat with the violence of
+her emotions. She felt in the most intense degree the misery of her
+situation, to which she failed not to give all its weight. She had
+a friend&mdash;a brother&mdash;more than brother&mdash;near, in the
+person of Henry. That love which she allowed her fond heart to
+cherish was like an oasis in the desert of her misery. She loved
+him, and in this thought&mdash;in the delightful sensation which
+accompanied it&mdash;she found her only solace.</p>
+<p>At breakfast she saw him again; again his speaking eyes told how
+fondly his heart clung to her; again his smile fanned her fevered
+brain, like the zephyr of summer, into a dream of bliss. Her heart
+led her back to the days when they had wandered together over her
+father's plantation. Then, restrained by the coyness of unrevealed
+love, each enjoyed a happiness to which the other was supposed to
+be a stranger.</p>
+<p>But the anguish of her painful position <i>would</i> come to
+destroy the dream of bliss, and dissipate the bright halo her
+imagination had cast before her. She retired to her state-room, to
+ponder again her unhappy lot. "Thy will be done," murmured she, as,
+throwing herself into a chair, she resigned herself to the terrible
+reflection that she was a slave and an outcast. The bright dream of
+love was only a chimera, to make her feel more deeply the terrible
+reality.</p>
+<p>Whilst she was thus venting her anguish, she was roused from her
+lethargy of grief by the chambermaid, who had entered by the inner
+door.</p>
+<p>"Please, ma'am, a gentleman out in the cabin says he wants to
+speak to you."</p>
+<p>"A gentleman wishes to speak to me? Did he send his name?"</p>
+<p>"No, ma'am. He said you wouldn't know him, if he did; so it was
+no use to send it."</p>
+<p>"Pray, what looking gentleman is he?"&mdash;her mind reverting
+to Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Well, ma'am, he's a very respectable looking gentleman,"
+answered the girl, to whom Uncle Nathan (for he was the person
+alluded to) had given half a dollar. "I think he is a Yankee, by
+his talk."</p>
+<p>"Pray, ask him to send his name."</p>
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said the chambermaid, retiring.</p>
+<p>Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's
+description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread a new
+enemy.</p>
+<p>The chambermaid presently returned, and said the gentleman's
+name was Benson.</p>
+<p>Emily's perplexity was not diminished, but she resolved to see
+the applicant at the door of the room, so that, if his errand was
+from Maxwell, she could easily retire from his presence.
+Accordingly she instructed the girl to show him to the door on the
+gallery.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, as soon as he
+reached the position assigned him; "you are Miss Dumont, I
+believe?"</p>
+<p>"The same," said she, as calmly as her fluttering heart would
+permit. "May I beg to know your business with me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, bluntly; "but don't be scart. I
+know something of your trials; and I trust the Lord will give you
+strength to endure them with patience."</p>
+<p>"Really, sir, you astonish me! May I be allowed to ask how you
+became acquainted with my affairs?"</p>
+<p>"All in good time, ma'am; I have in my possession a document,
+which, I'm told, will set matters all right with you."</p>
+<p>"What is it, sir?"&mdash;and Emily was still more astonished at
+the singularity of the adventure.</p>
+<p>"<i>It is your father's will</i>, ma'am," replied Uncle Nathan,
+disdaining all preface and preliminary to this important
+remark.</p>
+<p>"My father's will, sir! Impossible!"</p>
+<p>"Fact, ma'am. I will tell you all about it," and Uncle Nathan
+proceeded, in his own blunt way, to relate his adventures in the
+hold.</p>
+<p>Emily listened with surprise and joy to the honest farmer's
+story. When he had concluded, although she did not give way to the
+joy of her heart, a change from the depth of despair to the
+pinnacle of happiness took place in her silent heart. How devoutly
+she thanked the great Father who had watched over her in her
+anguish, and now shed a halo of joy across her darkened path! How
+earnest was the silent prayer which arose from the depths of her
+heart, for the safety of the faithful slave, who had perilled his
+life for her happiness! How deeply laden with the incense of
+gratitude was the song of thanksgiving which rose from her soul to
+the Giver of all good!</p>
+<p>And when Uncle Nathan told the story of the duel, a new song of
+thanksgiving arose for Henry's safety. The joy she felt in his
+preservation would not be entirely confined to her heart, and Uncle
+Nathan&mdash;unromantic bachelor as he was&mdash;could not but
+discern the deep interest she felt in him.</p>
+<p>The interview was concluded, and the worthy farmer left the
+gallery more rejoiced than if he had himself been declared heir of
+Colonel Dumont's millions; and he looked around, as excited as a
+school-boy on the first day of vacation, to find Henry, and relate
+the good news.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Louder than the loud ocean,
+like a crash</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of echoing thunder."&nbsp;
+BYRON.</span></p>
+<p>The day of the duel was a day of happiness to Emily Dumont. The
+restraint which Jaspar's presence imposed was removed. Maxwell,
+from prudence or some other motive, did not intrude upon her. Her
+heart was rejoiced by the glad tidings which Uncle Nathan had
+conveyed to her. Henry Carroll was permitted to enjoy her society.
+It was a day of bliss to both; and, though a crowded steamer could
+ill afford the privacy which new-born love ever seeks, yet
+opportunities of giving expression to their feelings were not
+wanting. All day long they revelled in the delightful emotions
+which warmed their hearts. Their intercourse was now burdened by no
+painful reflections on the misery which had so lately environed
+Emily. The means of her restoration to home and society were at
+hand. The only difficulty now was to discover the best method of
+establishing her rights. Against Jaspar and Maxwell they cherished
+no ill-will,&mdash;they had no desire to punish them for their
+wicked designs.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan, too, was in the "full enjoyment of his mind." The
+relief he had "providentially" been able to afford to Emily's mind
+was the medium of an abundant satisfaction. As the darkness began
+to gather, he found an opportunity of conversing with Henry, whose
+entire devotion to Emily during the day had rendered him a stranger
+in the gentlemen's cabin. The plot which Hatchie had revealed to
+him had caused him but little anxiety. Maxwell's wounded arm, he
+concluded, would delay its execution. But he gave the particulars
+to Henry, who was not at all satisfied that it would not be
+undertaken.</p>
+<p>"We must watch to-night," said he.</p>
+<p>"Sartain, we'll keep a good look-out; but the scamp can't do
+anything while he is wounded."</p>
+<p>"But he had confederates."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps he has. But here is another friend," said Uncle Nathan,
+as he perceived Pat Fegan, who had for some time been watching an
+opportunity to speak to him.</p>
+<p>"Sure, the naiger would like to spake wid yous," said Pat, in a
+whisper.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Pat?" asked Henry.</p>
+<p>"Nothin', your honor," replied Pat, promptly; "I was only
+tellin' this gintleman that a poor divil was dhrunk on the lower
+deck, and he'd betther go and praych timperance to him."</p>
+<p>"No, no, Partrick, that's too bad," interrupted Uncle Nathan,
+reprovingly; "I must teach you to tell the truth."</p>
+<p>Pat opened his eyes with astonishment when he heard Uncle Nathan
+explain to Henry the part he had borne in the drama, and was about
+to utter in plain Irish his opinion of a man who would thus betray
+a confidence, when Henry explained that he was an old friend of
+Hatchie and the lady.</p>
+<p>"Long life to your honor, if that be true!" exclaimed Pat; "and
+you won't blow on the naiger?"</p>
+<p>"I have too strong an interest in him to do anything to his
+injury," replied Henry. "But show me the way to him, Pat."</p>
+<p>"One at a time, if yous plaze," said Pat, as he perceived Uncle
+Nathan about to follow them.</p>
+<p>Pat led the way to the after part of the lower deck, to which
+Hatchie had ascended, as on the night of the rescue, to inhale the
+fresh air. This step was a safe one in the night, as, if any one
+approached (which was seldom), he could easily and speedily regain
+his hiding-place.</p>
+<p>"Hould aisy," said Pat, as they approached the fugitive; "don't
+be afraid,&mdash;I have brought yous a frind."</p>
+<p>"I hope you will not bring me too many friends," replied
+Hatchie, a little disconcerted.</p>
+<p>"Don't you know me?" said Henry, as he grasped the hand of
+Hatchie; "I have just come from your mistress, and know your whole
+story."</p>
+<p>"Not all," replied Hatchie; "you cannot know how much anxiety I
+have endured. Miss Emily is not yet safe."</p>
+<p>"But we can easily foil the villain's future designs."</p>
+<p>"We will, at least, endeavor to do so."</p>
+<p>"I believe I have seen you before; we were companions in the
+rescue."</p>
+<p>"We were, and God bless you for the noble service you rendered
+my mistress!"</p>
+<p>"That service was all your own, my gallant fellow."</p>
+<p>"You undervalue your own efforts. He who gets into the
+Mississippi seldom gets out alive. Without your timely assistance,
+I tremble to think of what might have been the end. My experience
+of the river enabled me to bring her up; but without your aid at
+the moment it came I do not think I could have saved her. But this
+is all past. Thank God, she is yet safe, though another danger
+hovers over her."</p>
+<p>"This foul conspiracy,&mdash;will they put it in execution
+to-night?"</p>
+<p>"I heard the villain they call Vernon, an hour ago, engage a
+deck hand to help him row the boat."</p>
+<p>"Then there is indeed danger. I had thought Maxwell's wound
+would have prevented it for a season."</p>
+<p>"A mere scratch. I would your ball had found the villain's
+heart, if he has one. But Vernon is the most dangerous man&mdash;a
+more accomplished villain."</p>
+<p>"Vernon," said Henry, musing; "he was Maxwell's second."</p>
+<p>"Yes. That duel was a plot to murder you."</p>
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie explained the plan of Vernon, which had been rendered
+futile by his precaution.</p>
+<p>"The scoundrel! but how knew you this, and how happens it that I
+escaped while he is wounded?" said Henry.</p>
+<p>"I overheard the plot when I did the other. Vernon is a common
+robber. He came into the hold to conceal a bag of money he had
+stolen."</p>
+<p>"A bag of money!" interrupted Henry, his thoughts diverted from
+the subject.</p>
+<p>"Ay, a bag of money."</p>
+<p>"Do you know where they hid it?"</p>
+<p>"I do; but why do you ask?" and Hatchie was much pained to
+discover in Henry what he mistook for a feeling of rapacity. He
+wanted and expected the perfection of an angel in the man who
+sustained the relation of lover and protector to his mistress.</p>
+<p>"Because I have been robbed of all I had in the world," replied
+Henry, seeing the shade upon Hatchie's brow.</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed the mulatto, his doubts removed, and pleased
+in being able to restore his money.</p>
+<p>"The money is undoubtedly mine. Your noble devotion to your
+mistress has thus proved a fortunate thing for me. But about the
+pistols?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie related the means he had used to derange Maxwell's
+plan.</p>
+<p>"I shall never be able to repay the debt I owe you," said Henry,
+warmly, as the mulatto finished his story.</p>
+<p>"I did it for my mistress' sake. I learned that you were her
+friend."</p>
+<p>"And she will bless you for the act."</p>
+<p>"Now, what shall be done to insure her safety to night? for they
+will attempt her abduction, I doubt not."</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Henry should watch in the vicinity of
+Emily's state-room, while Uncle Nathan, Hatchie and Pat Fegan,
+should occupy the lower deck. Emily was not to be informed of the
+danger; it would distress her to no purpose.</p>
+<p>They had no doubt of their ability to protect her. Accustomed as
+Henry was to danger, perhaps he did not fully appreciate that which
+was now gathering around Emily. He felt that, in knowing the
+particulars of the nefarious scheme, he was abundantly able, even
+single-handed, to prevent its success.</p>
+<p>Obtaining a screw-driver and a lantern from one of the
+engineers, he succeeded in obtaining possession of his stolen bag
+of gold. On his return to the cabin, he observed Vernon standing at
+the bar, and the temptation to give his moral faculties a start
+could not be resisted. Purchasing a dozen cigars, he remarked that
+he had no change, and coolly pulled the bag of gold from his
+pocket. Vernon's astonishment and consternation could not be
+entirely concealed, as he recognized the bag he had securely
+deposited in the box with the dead. Henry took no notice of him,
+though he heard him say, in a suppressed tone, "The devil is in
+this boat!"</p>
+<p>Henry sought his state-room, where he found Uncle Nathan
+impatiently waiting to hear the result of the interview.</p>
+<p>"There is danger," said Henry, "and we must be ready to do our
+duty manfully."</p>
+<p>"Good gracious! you don't say so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"We must watch to-night, and, if need be, fight!"</p>
+<p>"How you talk! You don't think the feller with the sore arm will
+try to do anything to-night?"</p>
+<p>"I fear he will;" and Henry opened his trunk, and took therefrom
+a pair of revolvers.</p>
+<p>"Gracious! will there be any need of pistols? Couldn't you
+reason with them?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, who, as before hinted,
+had a great repugnance to the use of deadly weapons.</p>
+<p>"I am afraid they will not listen to reason," said Henry,
+smiling, in spite of his anxiety. "If action is necessary, it must
+be prompt. I know your heart, my good friend, and I trust your
+non-resistant notions will not interfere with your duty. I must
+rely on your aid in this affair."</p>
+<p>"Sartain. I will do all I can, if I die for it. But I think I
+can get along very well without one of them 'ere things," said
+Uncle Nathan, eying the pistols with distrust.</p>
+<p>"Very well, I shall not urge you, though I think it would be
+prudent for you to have one. As you go to your station, you will
+oblige me by giving this one to the mulatto boy."</p>
+<p>"Sartain, cap'n," replied Uncle Nathan, taking the pistol; "I
+an't exactly a non-resistance man, only I hate to use
+pistols;&mdash;not that I'm afeered on 'em; but to take a
+feller-cretur's life is a dreadful thing. You know the New
+Testament says, 'Resist not evil,' and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I remember; but now is the time to act, and not to preach.
+I shall place myself near Miss Dumont's state-room, and your party
+will see that the stern-boat is not disturbed."</p>
+<p>"All right, cap'n, but do be careful about spilling blood!" said
+Uncle Nathan, who did not like the cool, determined air with which
+Henry handled his pistols.</p>
+<p>"Be assured I will not wantonly take the life of even the most
+hardened villain; but in defence of Miss Dumont I shall consider
+that the end will justify the means."</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan went to his post, and Henry, muffling himself in a
+large camp-cloak, seated himself near Emily's door. Accustomed as
+he was to the perils and privations of the camp, the duty before
+him did not seem difficult or irksome. To his chivalrous spirit
+there was a pleasure in thus watching over an innocent being, while
+she slept, unconscious of the danger that menaced her. Lighting his
+cigar, he resigned himself to the dream of blissful anticipations,
+which relieved the monotony of the scene.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, in the seclusion of his state-room, had thoroughly
+digested the plan for the abduction of Emily. Vernon had arranged
+the details, and the lawyer's reflections suggested no material
+alteration. His wounded arm was a hindrance, but time was too
+precious to admit of delay. The Chalmetta was so tardy in her
+movements that Jaspar must soon overtake them, and then the
+opportunity would be lost.</p>
+<p>If he could get Emily into his power, and away from the
+influences which now surrounded her, he doubted not he could induce
+her, by threats or persuasion, to become his wife; then he would
+spring the trap upon Jaspar, and the coveted object of his
+existence would be gained. He had already forged a bill of sale of
+her person, and, thus provided with an implement of coercion, he
+doubted not that success would crown his efforts.</p>
+<p>As the evening advanced, and the passengers had mostly retired
+for the night, Maxwell and Vernon left the state-room, and went aft
+to examine more particularly the means of descent to the lower
+deck. As they approached Emily's state-room, they perceived Henry
+puffing away at his second cigar. Had it been any other person,
+Maxwell would not have devoted a thought to him. It was he with
+whom he had fought the duel,&mdash;whom a mysterious providence
+seemed to protect. Was he there by accident or design?</p>
+<p>The two confederates passed round the gallery, and returned to
+the cabin. A long hour they waited, and the cabin clock pointed to
+the hour of twelve; still Henry had not changed his position. His
+cigar was consumed, but there he sat like a statue, obstinately
+obstructing the completion of Maxwell's designs. The confederates
+began to fear he had some knowledge of their contemplated project.
+Yet how could this be? The plan had been arranged in the hold of
+the steamer. It was impossible that any one, even the men they had
+hired to row the boat, could know their intentions. Vernon, who had
+seen the stolen bag of money miraculously restored to its owner,
+who had seen two balls pass harmlessly through him, was perfectly
+willing to believe that Henry Carroll was the devil! But, devil or
+not, it was all the same to him.</p>
+<p>It was already time to commence operations. Vernon was impatient
+to begin; for, as he averred, he did not like to lose a whole
+night's sleep in so small an affair. But nothing could be done
+while Henry retained his present position, unless they silenced him
+by force; and he seemed an ugly customer.</p>
+<p>The Chalmetta pursued her way, stemming with difficulty, as it
+would seem by her lazy pace, the current of the mighty river. She
+had just passed Vicksburg. The night was dark and gloomy. Those
+bright, beautiful moons, with which the panorama-mongers are wont
+to gild the eddying current, and solemnize the scenery with a pale
+loveliness, were not in the ascendant. Even the bright stars were
+hid by the thick clouds. The darkness cast a sad gloom over the
+scene, which a few hours before had been "leaping in light, and
+alive with its own beauty." The yellow bank rose high on either
+side of the river, and formed a sombre wall, which seemed to keep
+the sojourner on the tide a prisoner from the world above.</p>
+<p>Yet, deep as was the darkness, and perilous as was the
+navigation of the river, the Chalmetta sluggishly pursued her
+upward course, shunning sand-bars and snags which the eye could not
+see, and which the stranger knew not of. Now she crept, like a
+thief at night, so closely beneath the high bank that her tall
+chimneys almost swept the overhanging branches; then, stealing from
+the treacherous shoal, she sped her way through the middle of the
+vast waters, as if ashamed of her former timidity. Here she shot
+through the narrow cut-off, and there left her foaming surge in the
+centre of the broad expanse.</p>
+<p>On board all was still, save the puffing blasts of steam, which,
+at each stroke of the pistons, echoed through the woods and over
+the plains. The cabin lights had long been extinguished, and, from
+a distance, nothing could be seen of her but the huge blazing
+furnaces, and the red signal lantern, which was suspended over the
+boiler deck. The firemen, just roused from their dream of comfort,
+no more passed round the coarse jest, no more whistled "Boatman,
+dance," but, like automata, threw the fuel into the roaring
+furnaces. Occasionally, the startling note of the great bell roused
+the deck-watch from his slumber, and he sang over again the
+monotonous song that told the pilot how far his keel was from the
+sands below. Again the bell pealed a heavy stroke, which indicated
+that the steamer was in free water, and the leadsman settled
+himself for another nap.</p>
+<p>The passengers, save those whom we have before noted, were deep
+in the arms of Morpheus, rejoicing, no doubt, in their dreams, over
+the many tedious hours they thus annihilated.</p>
+<p>Wakeful and watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever
+present to his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil
+was kept. Her image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the
+love-sick brain conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart,
+and the melody of her voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the
+dignity of the man, he built childish air-castles, wherein he
+throned his idol, and in a few fleeting moments squandered years of
+happiness by her side. The perils of the past, the sternness of the
+present, the responsibilities of the future, all faded away, and
+from their ashes rose the bright empress of his soul.</p>
+<p>This, we know, was all very foolish of him; but then it must be
+remembered he was in love, and men in love can scarcely be called
+accountable beings.</p>
+<p>Thus he dreamed, and thus he trod the fairy ground of
+imagination, nor heeded the creaking timbers and the increasing
+rapidity of the puffs from the escape-pipe. To a man not
+intoxicated by the dream of young love these facts would have
+indicated a great increase in the speed of the boat; but he noticed
+them not.</p>
+<p>By the motions of the Chalmetta it was plain that, though
+incapable of accomplishing any wonderful feat in the attainment of
+speed, she had a considerable amount of that commodity somewhat
+vulgarly termed "spunk." As she passed the mouth of the Yazoo
+river, another steamer, apparently of her own calibre, rounded
+gracefully into the channel, from a wood-yard. This boat&mdash;the
+Flatfoot, No. 3&mdash;seemed, by her straining and puffing, to
+throw the gauntlet to the Chalmetta; a challenge, real or
+imaginary, which the latter made haste to accept,&mdash;or, rather,
+her sleepy firemen did, for, without leave or license, they crammed
+her furnaces to their utmost capacity. The effects of this movement
+were soon perceptible in every part of the boat, for she creaked
+and groaned like a ship in a gale. But the Flatfoot, No. 3, had the
+lead, and seemed to gain upon her rival,&mdash;a circumstance which
+seemed to rouse the lethargic firemen of the Chalmetta to the
+highest pitch of excitement, for they packed the furnaces more
+closely still.</p>
+<p>Maxwell saw, with much satisfaction, the prospect of a race; not
+that he expected in this instance to enjoy the excitement which,
+with "fast men," is consequent upon such an occasion. He hoped it
+might distract the attention of the person who, by accident or
+design, opposed the execution of his purpose. He had sent Vernon to
+the cabin to watch the movements of Henry, while he remained upon
+the main deck, forward of the furnaces, to encourage the firemen in
+their ambitious project of passing the other boat. Several barrels
+of hams which lay upon the deck the apparently excited attorney
+ordered the firemen to throw into the furnaces, promising to screen
+them from blame by paying the owner double their value. The
+firemen, not blessed with an undue amount of caution, willingly
+obeyed the order, and soon the boilers hissed and groaned under the
+extraordinary pressure. The engineers, roused from their slumbers,
+and entering at once into the sport, secured the safety-valve in
+its place by attaching to the lever double the usual weight.</p>
+<p>Still the person whom Maxwell wished to lure from his post
+remained immovable. A few pitch-barrels were now split up, and cast
+into the furnaces, which so increased the pressure that the
+faithful safety-valve refused longer to endure the curb placed upon
+the discharge of its function. It was again secured, and the
+reckless firemen, urged on by Maxwell and the engineers, still
+pressed the boat to its destruction.</p>
+<p>The boilers, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure to which
+they were subjected, still realized the expectations of the
+confident engineers, and refused to be the agents of an "awful
+calamity." But all exertion was of no avail; the Flatfoot, No. 3,
+whose tall chimneys vomited forth a long trail of flame, showing
+that she, too, was hard pressed, was rapidly increasing her
+distance. Still the firemen plied the furnaces, and again the
+engineers added more weight to the lever of the safety-valve. The
+boilers were evidently pressed to their utmost, the, decks were
+hot, and her timbers creaked and snapped as though they would drop
+out of her.</p>
+<p>Hatchie had placed his party in the hold, one of which was on
+the look-out at the hatchway. He saw the danger of the steamer; but
+all his friends were in the safest places the boat afforded. It was
+an anxious hour for him; but everybody was in peril, and there was
+no remedy.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, whose excitement in the race was feigned, perceived
+that the boat was in imminent danger. He had not intended to carry
+the excitement quite so far. An explosion was not exactly the thing
+he desired. It would not be sufficiently discriminating in its
+choice of victims. But the firemen were too much excited to listen
+to reason; therefore he proceeded, with Vernon, towards the extreme
+after part of the boat. Passing round the gallery of the ladies'
+cabin, they perceived that Henry had, at last, left his post. Such
+was indeed the case. Roused from his abstraction by the terrible
+anticipation of an explosion, he had gone forward to reason with
+the pilots on the recklessness of their course in allowing the boat
+to be so hard pressed.</p>
+<p>"Now is our time," said Maxwell, in a whisper.</p>
+<p>"Here goes, then!" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Be careful that you do not injure her,&mdash;and bring her
+clothes."</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay! Have the boat ready quick, for, if I mistake not, the
+sooner we are out of this boat the better."</p>
+<p>The ruffian approached the door of Emily's state-room, and was
+about to open it, when, with a noise louder than the crashing of
+the thunderbolt, the starboard boiler exploded, and the Chalmetta
+lay a shapeless wreck upon the waters!</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"False world, thou ly'st; thou
+canst not lend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">The least delight;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thy favors cannot gain a
+friend,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">They are so slight."&nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; FRANCIS QUARLES.</span></p>
+<p>The traveller on the Mississippi observes with interest the
+innumerable islands which dot the river, and relieve the monotony
+of the scenery. These islands are, for the most part, covered with
+a luxurious growth of cotton-wood trees. They have generally been
+formed by what are technically called cut-offs, or new channels,
+from the main land. The mighty torrent, scorning its own
+well-beaten track, ploughs a way through the country, and returns
+to its channel miles below, opening at once a new path for the
+voyager upon its tide. The portion of land thus separated from the
+main shore is often subdivided by the action of the waters into
+several smaller islands. These islets are, however, oftener seen in
+isolated positions, varying in area from a few square rods to
+several acres. A remarkable feature of these islands is their
+<i>locomotive</i> powers,&mdash;for, strange as it may seem, they
+annually take a step down stream! Observation has shown a change of
+position almost incredible.</p>
+<p>The river, continually wearing upon the up-river side of the
+island, washes the sands and soil to the lower side. Thus, the
+situation of the island is actually changed. The fact is clearly
+shown by the singular configuration of the mass of trees growing
+upon them. The wood on the upstream side of the island is of the
+largest size; while that on the down-stream side begins at the mere
+shrub, and, by a regular gradation in height, like a pair of
+stairs, increases to the altitude of the full-grown tree. Each
+successive year places a new layer of soil upon the lower side, in
+which the young tree takes root; and the growth of each year is
+distinctly visible to the traveller as he ascends the river.</p>
+<p>On one of these islands, above Vicksburg, was located a neat
+cottage. The island differed in many respects from others. Its area
+might have been eight or ten acres. On one side of it was a narrow,
+but deep stream, which, entering from the broad river, described a
+semi circle, and returned its waters on the same side. On three
+sides, except at the mouths of the little stream, the island was
+rendered inaccessible by the high banks, while on the fourth side
+the shrubs grew so luxuriantly as to be impervious, save to the
+most resolute visitor. From the high banks which walled it in the
+surface of the island sloped gradually towards a common centre,
+through which rushed the little stream.</p>
+<p>This little island had probably been a part of the main land;
+the river had forced its way through a valley, and, by degrees, had
+worn down the high land on either side, till they formed the
+precipices which now frowned on the visitor. The little stream had,
+perhaps, once been a meandering rivulet,&mdash;part of one which
+emptied into the river on the opposite side.</p>
+<p>On one of the sloping sides of the interior was situated the
+cottage. It was small in size, containing but four rooms and an
+attic, and was neatly painted white. Its location in the valley
+concealed it from the main land, and from the traveller upon the
+river. It was accessible only by means of the stream, which rolled
+by within a few rods of the door. A cow grazed in the woods, which
+had been partly cleared of under-brush, and had the appearance of a
+park grove. Near the house a plot of land had been reduced to a
+state of cultivation, upon which an old negro servant managed to
+raise vegetables sufficient for the use of the family.</p>
+<p>The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with
+none of the gaudy trappings of fashion. Everything was plain and
+useful. On the side fronting the stream, which served the inmates
+as a highway, were two rooms,&mdash;a library, which was also the
+sitting-room, and a sleeping apartment. The library was far the
+most substantial and comfortable-looking room in the house,
+inasmuch as it was abundantly supplied with modern and classical
+lore. In the middle was a large writing-desk, upon which lay sundry
+manuscripts, apparently the last labor of the occupant. The books
+and papers were all arranged with scrupulous neatness and
+method.</p>
+<p>The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another
+sleeping apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro
+and his wife,&mdash;the property of the proprietor, and his only
+attendants upon the island. Back of the house, as is the custom of
+the South, was a small building used as a kitchen. Near it was
+another building, appropriated to the use of the cow aforesaid.</p>
+<p>In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the
+bank, was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to
+rank with the miniature yachts of our large cities. She was
+schooner-rigged, with a small cabin forward. Her masts, by an
+ingenious contrivance, could be lowered down aft, and, by means of
+a rope attached to the fore-top, and running through a block on the
+bowsprit, could be instantly restored to their original upright
+position. This arrangement the owner found necessary, on account of
+the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed the two openings of
+the stream into the river.</p>
+<p>On the night of the Chalmetta's terrible disaster, a man wrapped
+in a camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the
+landing-place. In one hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the
+other a double-barrelled gun. Descending the steps to the rude pier
+of logs, he drew the boat in-shore and seated himself in the
+stern-sheets. Unloosing the stern-line, which alone held her, the
+boat was borne on by the rapid stream. The helm the occupant
+handled with a masterly skill, and in a moment the little bark
+swept through the half-hid opening into the broad river. Placing
+the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling the proper
+line, brought the masts to their upright position. He then inserted
+the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the
+sails. By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of
+the island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the
+river. Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed
+close in shore, he laid the boat's course up the stream. The wind
+was blowing fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the
+current, the boat careened to her task, and made very good progress
+through the water. While the gallant little bark pursues her way,
+we will introduce her skipper to the reader.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was about fifty years of age. He was descended
+from one of the old French families of Louisiana; and had been, for
+nearly thirty years, a practising physician in the city of New
+Orleans, during which time he had accumulated a very handsome
+fortune. At the age of twenty-five he had been married to a lady,
+whose only recommendations were her personal beauty and her
+fashionable accomplishments. Her vanity had disgusted him, and her
+uncontrollable temper had embittered to its very dregs the cup of
+his existence. Being naturally of a gloomy and melancholy
+temperament, this unfortunate union had rendered his life almost
+insupportable. Domestic happiness, to which he had looked forward
+with high-wrought anticipations, proved, in his case, to have no
+foundation.</p>
+<p>He was disappointed. His dream of home and its blessings faded
+away, and was supplanted by a terrible reality. He grew more and
+more melancholy. But there was a solace, which saved him from
+absolute misery. Two children&mdash;a boy and a girl&mdash;blessed
+his otherwise unhallowed union. The education of these children was
+the only joy his home afforded; but even this to his misanthropic
+mind could not compensate for his matrimonial disappointment.</p>
+<p>Years passed away; the son was sent to college, from which, to
+the anguish of his father, he was expelled for gross misconduct.
+The young man returned to New Orleans, and became one of the most
+dissolute and abandoned characters of the city. Dr. Vaudelier
+disowned him, and sunk the deeper in his melancholy.</p>
+<p>The death of his wife left him alone with his daughter; and if
+the fatal influence of past years could have been removed, perhaps
+he might have been a happy man. The daughter was a beautiful girl,
+and promised to realize all the fond expectations of her father.
+Her daily education and method of life, as directed by her father,
+were better calculated to fit her for the occupancy of a nun's cell
+than for rational society.</p>
+<p>About five years previous to the time of our story, the solemn
+quiet of Dr. Vaudelier's dwelling was disturbed by the arrival of a
+young French gentleman, bearing letters of introduction to the
+misanthropic physician. This gentleman was delighted with the
+daughter of his host, and she experienced a before unknown pleasure
+in his society. The doctor was, to some extent, obliged to abandon
+the "pleasures of melancholy," and accompany the young couple into
+the world.</p>
+<p>This intimacy between the young persons rapidly ripened into
+love. Dr. Vaudelier's inquiries into the character and
+circumstances of the young gentleman were not satisfactory, and he
+refused to sanction the union. Perhaps he was influenced more in
+this decision by the dread of parting with his daughter than by any
+other motive. The father's refusal was followed by the elopement of
+the young couple,&mdash;an act which blasted the only remaining
+hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to endure the
+shock.</p>
+<p>Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as
+the only effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to
+whose rites and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence,
+doomed the suicide to eternal woe!</p>
+<p>Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to
+be enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He
+could not endure even that which the practice of his profession
+demanded. The great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to
+escape from its hated scenes.</p>
+<p>He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and
+accidentally had noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed
+his residence.</p>
+<p>His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the
+inhabitants of his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with
+their presence. Steamers and flat-boats continually passed his
+little domain; yet the traveller knew not that it was occupied by
+human beings.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier's pursuits were of the most simple nature. He read
+and wrote nearly the whole day, and in the evening,&mdash;often at
+the dead of night,&mdash;he would unmoor his yacht, and stem the
+tide of the mighty river. His chief happiness was in communion with
+nature. His solitary habits had completely estranged him from
+society; and he chose the night for his lonely excursions on the
+river, to avoid the presence of man.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was a benevolent man; and his benevolence was
+still his friend. It kept his heart from corroding, or becoming
+entirely cold. His professional services he freely gave to the poor
+"squatter," woodman and boatman, whenever he could learn that they
+were needed. The old negro made frequent visits to the shore to
+procure provisions and other necessaries, and informed his master
+if any of his indigent neighbors needed his aid. Dr. Vaudelier, as
+far as he was known, was regarded with profound respect and
+affection, and none were disposed to disturb his privacy when it
+was understood that entire seclusion was his desire.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier reclined on the cushions in the stern-sheets of
+his boat. With an abstracted mind he gazed upon the gloomy outlines
+of the shore. Nature in this sombre dress seemed in unison with the
+gloom of his own soul. Scarcely conscious of his actions, he
+managed the boat with the most consummate skill, avoiding the
+unseen shoal and the unfavorable current, but still never allowing
+the sails to shiver. Far ahead of him he descried the blazing
+chimneys of a steamer. It was night, and he was secure from the
+prying gaze or the rude hail of the voyagers.</p>
+<p>His reflections were gloomy. He reviewed his earlier years. He
+thought of his affectionate daughter, who had promised to be the
+stay of his declining years, perhaps at that moment a wanderer and
+an outcast. He had heard nothing of her since her departure. He had
+made no effort to ascertain her fate. He considered his whole
+course of conduct to her, the nature of the education he had
+imparted to her, the example he had set for her imitation. His
+reflections were not altogether satisfactory, and kindled a few
+compunctious thoughts. The blame had not been all on the side of
+the daughter. His misanthropic character was the origin of some
+part of it.</p>
+<p>Thus he mused, and thus dawned upon his mind the first gleams of
+repentance. His melancholy temperament had caused the loss of his
+daughter; and, for the time, it grew repugnant. He felt that he was
+not living the life his Maker intended he should live.</p>
+<p>His meditations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous
+explosion, and he was at once satisfied that it proceeded from the
+steamer he had before observed. His supposition was soon verified
+by the flames he saw rising from the spot where he had last seen
+her. She was, he judged, at least three miles distant. His
+benevolent disposition, stimulated by the reflection, and, perhaps,
+by some unconscious resolution of the previous hour, prompted him
+to hasten to her relief. Leaving the helm, he took from the little
+cabin a stay-sail, and by the light of the lantern attached it to
+the lines and hoisted it. The lively little craft, feeling the
+additional impulse, careened till her gunnel was nearly submerged,
+and cut her way with increased velocity through the unfavorable
+current. Half an hour elapsed before he approached near enough to
+make out the condition of the shattered steamer. Another steamer
+lay as near to her as the flames, which had apparently been partly
+subdued, would permit. Men were busily engaged in throwing on
+water, and their efforts promised to be crowned with success, for
+the volume of flame was rapidly decreasing. A line was passed from
+the bow of the Chalmetta to the Flatfoot, No. 3 (for these were the
+steamers), which enabled the latter to control the drift of the
+former. Dr. Vaudelier was too far off, however, to form a very
+correct idea of the casualty.</p>
+<p>Portions of the wreck were floating by him, and occasionally his
+boat struck against a timber or cask. While anxiously straining his
+vision, to ascertain further particulars of the disaster, he heard
+a faint cry close ahead of him. By the light of his lantern, which
+he had hung up by the foremast, to attract the eye of any sufferer
+who might need aid, he saw a man clinging to a barrel floating by
+him. Hastily letting go the halyards, the fore and main sails came
+down, the boat was put about, and Dr. Vaudelier, with much
+exertion, succeeded in saving the almost dying sufferer. Conveying
+him to the cabin, which was of sufficient size to contain two
+berths, he placed him upon one of them, and proceeded to ascertain
+his ailments. These, as far as he could discover them, consisted of
+a broken arm, a severe contusion of the head, and several severe
+scalds. The wounded man's endeavors to aid in his own rescue had
+been too violent, and on being placed in the berth he had fainted.
+After administering such relief as he was able, he returned to the
+stern-sheets, hoisted the sails, and the boat, which had been
+drifting down-stream, again approached the wreck.</p>
+<p>The flames of the Chalmetta were now extinguished. Before the
+benevolent physician could reach her, the Flatfoot had taken her in
+tow, and both were rapidly leaving him. Further pursuit was
+useless; so, taking in the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and
+again turned his attention to the sufferer.</p>
+<p>The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid,
+and she soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager
+discerned through the darkness the narrow opening of the little
+stream. Taking in the sails and lowering the masts, the little
+craft glided through the rivulet, and in less time than is taken to
+relate it was securely moored in front of the cottage. The old
+negro, bewildered by the unseasonable summons, assisted in
+conveying the wounded stranger to the cottage.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, after a more thorough examination of his patient
+than he had been able to make before, was pleased to find that his
+wounds, though serious, were not of a dangerous character. He set
+the broken arm, and, by the exercise of the great skill for which
+he had been distinguished, restored him to consciousness, and made
+sure his future recovery.</p>
+<p>"Where is she? Is she safe?" murmured the sufferer, as his
+returning consciousness afforded a partial knowledge of his
+condition. "Where am I?"</p>
+<p>"You are among friends, sir,&mdash;among friends. Do not
+distress yourself," replied the doctor, in a soothing tone.</p>
+<p>"Where is she? Great God! what has become of her?" exclaimed the
+wounded man, with startling energy.</p>
+<p>"You must be quiet, sir, or you will injure your arm," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, mildly restraining the excited man.</p>
+<p>"O, Emily, Emily!" groaned the sufferer. "Why did I leave you?
+Why did we not perish together?"</p>
+<p>"Be calm, sir,&mdash;be calm! You have lost a friend in this
+terrible disaster?"</p>
+<p>"I have. O that I could have died with her!"</p>
+<p>"Are you sure she has perished?"</p>
+<p>"She could scarcely have survived the explosion."</p>
+<p>"Was she not in the ladies' cabin?"</p>
+<p>"She was."</p>
+<p>"Then probably she is safe. The ladies' cabin was thrown from
+its position; but it appeared to be comparatively but little
+shattered. The forward cabin was blown entirely in pieces."</p>
+<p>"Thank God for this intelligence!" ejaculated Henry
+Carroll,&mdash;for the reader has already discovered that it was he
+whom the doctor had rescued.</p>
+<p>"Another steamer was close at hand, so that probably most of the
+ladies were saved, unless, as is often the case, they jumped
+overboard in their fright."</p>
+<p>"Heaven protect her!" exclaimed Henry.</p>
+<p>"But, sir, I must insist on perfect quiet. Your condition
+imperatively demands it. To-morrow everything shall be done to
+relieve your anxiety. We shall then receive Vicksburg papers, which
+will contain the names of all who are lost."</p>
+<p>"I will try to be quiet, but I cannot but be anxious till I know
+the whole truth."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier again applied a soothing balm to the scalded
+portions of his body, and gave him a powerful narcotic, the effects
+of which were soon visible in a deep, troubled slumber.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"But thou, a wretched, base,
+false, worthless coward!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">All eyes must shun thee, and all
+hearts detest thee.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Prythee avoid, nor longer cling
+thus round me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Like something baneful, that my
+nature's chilled at."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>In a small log-cabin, a few miles above "Cottage Island,"
+reposing upon a rude bed, on the morning of the Chalmetta's
+disaster, was a young and beautiful female. She was pale and in
+tears, evidently suffering the most excruciating mental agony. An
+old woman, from whose bosom her half-civilized mode of life had not
+entirely banished those refined sympathies which belong by
+intuition to her sex, was vainly striving to impart comfort.</p>
+<p>"You ought to be thankful, ma'am, that you wan't blowed up, with
+the rest of the poor people," said she, kindly, attempting to turn
+the lady's attention from her absorbing misery.</p>
+<p>"I had rather a thousand times have perished than fallen into
+the hands of the villain who rescued me," replied Emily,&mdash;it
+was she,&mdash;with a shudder.</p>
+<p>"O, ma'am, they shan't hurt a hair of your head. My old man
+wouldn't see such a good cretur as you hurt, for all the
+world."</p>
+<p>"Alas! I fear his power will not avail against this hardened
+villain."</p>
+<p>"Never you fear, ma'am! Two sich popinjays as them couldn't
+skeer my Jerry, nohow. Besides, my son, Jim, will be back in an
+hour or two."</p>
+<p>"I fear they cannot aid me."</p>
+<p>"Yes, they can. My Jerry alone would turn 'em inside out, if
+they are sarcy."</p>
+<p>"I can scarcely hope the villains&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Softly, lady, softly! do not be harsh!" said Harwell, entering
+the apartment in which Emily was, and which was the only one the
+cabin contained.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, rising, "if you have any mercy, or
+pity for my misfortunes, let me be left alone."</p>
+<p>"I would not injure you, Miss Dumont," replied Maxwell, in a
+gentle tone. "I would see you in safety at your destination. Mr.
+Vernon has been two hours absent, in search of a carriage."</p>
+<p>"A carriage! For what?"</p>
+<p>"To convey you to a steamboat-landing."</p>
+<p>"Bless your heart, sir! you needn't go a step for that. My Jerry
+will hail the very next one that passes the wood-yard," suggested
+the old lady.</p>
+<p>"Silence, old woman!" said Maxwell, sternly, for he feared the
+dame would increase Emily's distrust of him.</p>
+<p>"Don't old-woman me, you puppy! I know what's what!" responded
+the dame, sharply, for her temper was not exactly angelic; "it's my
+opinion you don't mean this lady any good. Let me tell you,
+aforehand, you can't cut any of your didoes here!"</p>
+<p>"Silence, woman! when I need your help I will ask it. I propose,
+Miss Dumont, to convey you to Vicksburg, where you can be
+comfortably accommodated until a steamer arrives which will take
+you to Cincinnati. It may be several days, you are aware."</p>
+<p>"Several days!" exclaimed the mistress of the cabin; "who ever
+heerd of such a thing! There'll be one along afore the day is
+out."</p>
+<p>"For Cincinnati?" sneered Maxwell, who found the old woman's
+tongue a very formidable weapon.</p>
+<p>"I dare say there will," responded the dame.</p>
+<p>"It is extremely uncertain, Miss Dumont. We came in the last
+one, and it is scarcely possible, at this season, another followed
+immediately. But here is the carriage."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, I shall positively refuse to accompany you," said
+Emily, in a most decided tone. "This good woman, I doubt not, will
+accommodate me."</p>
+<p>"That I will," promptly responded the dame.</p>
+<p>"I am sorry, Miss Dumont, I cannot, in this instance, yield to
+your wishes. I must insist on your company to Vicksburg," said
+Maxwell, striving, by a supercilious manner, to keep down his angry
+passions.</p>
+<p>"By what right, sir, do you <i>insist</i> upon it? I was not
+aware that you were invested with any legal control over me."</p>
+<p>"Then you are mistaken. I act upon undoubted authority."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, are you my guardian?" said Emily, shuddering at
+the thought of the will.</p>
+<p>"Not technically a guardian. My authority is a little more
+definite."</p>
+<p>"I do not understand you, sir."</p>
+<p>"It is immaterial. Perhaps you had better go with me peaceably,
+however," said Maxwell, with a carelessness foreign to his
+feelings.</p>
+<p>"That, sir, I never will do alive!" replied Emily, surmising the
+nature of the attorney's assumed authority. "Mr. Maxwell, you have
+taught me to believe that you are a hardened villain, and I
+<i>command</i> you, leave my presence!"</p>
+<p>The indignation of Emily was roused, and she spoke with a
+flashing eye, and with an imperativeness which her wrongs alone
+could have called to her aid.</p>
+<p>"That was very prettily done, lady; but I cannot obey. It is
+useless to multiply words. You <i>must</i> go with me;" and Maxwell
+extended his hand.</p>
+<p>Emily recoiled from the proffered hand; her brow lowered, and
+her lips compressed. She regarded him with a look of ineffable
+scorn,&mdash;a look before which even Maxwell, penetrated, as he
+was, with evil purposes, quailed.</p>
+<p>"Go along, now, about your business, and don't bother the lady
+any more!" said the old woman, taking advantage of the momentary
+silence.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont, I once more ask you to go with me peaceably," said
+Maxwell, not heeding the dame's remark.</p>
+<p>"And once more I answer, <i>I will not</i>!"</p>
+<p>"I should be sorry to use compulsion. Do you forget your
+condition?"</p>
+<p>"I do not," replied Emily, with a tremor, but without the loss
+of her self-possession. "I am of the best blood of Louisiana."</p>
+<p>"But still a <i>slave!</i>"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed the hostess.</p>
+<p>"I am <i>not</i> a slave! You know this is the plot of a villain
+like yourself. The true will has been found."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! Is it here?" said Maxwell, with a sneer, for while he
+had Emily in his power he feared nothing.</p>
+<p>"No; but it shall be brought forth in due season."</p>
+<p>"Until which time you are a slave; and not only a slave, but
+<i>my</i> slave," replied Maxwell, with perfect coolness, as he
+drew from his pocket-book the forged bill of sale.</p>
+<p>"Great God, desert me not in this hour of my afflictions!"
+groaned Emily. This last revelation entirely unnerved her, and
+exposed in a more terrible light her appalling position. She
+doubted not the paper she saw in Maxwell's hands was a bill of sale
+of her person, and that it would establish his claim; for his
+present purposes seemed too flagrant to be pursued without good
+authority. Her features, dress and language, she felt, would be no
+safeguards. She had seen slave-girls as fair and white as herself.
+She had heard of those who, with scarcely a drop of negro blood in
+their veins, were educated to pander to the appetite of depravity.
+She had seen them in the streets of New Orleans, in no manner
+differing in appearance from, the best-born ladies. Her situation,
+then, was an awful one.</p>
+<p>"Will you read this paper?" continued Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"No; like the will, it is a forgery!" replied Emily, determined
+to die rather than yield herself to the guidance of the
+attorney.</p>
+<p>"It gives me an undeniable right to your person, and you must
+obey me. The carriage waits in the road."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, if you have a particle of honor left, or if even a
+shadow of pity rests in your heart, leave me, and finish your
+despicable persecution!" said Emily, in a pleading tone.</p>
+<p>"I have both honor and pity; but I cannot abandon my purpose.
+You refused to trust to my honor, refused to receive the offered
+hand, which would lead you back to the home you have left. I would
+fain have averted the calamity you are madly courting; but you
+would not. I humbly prayed to be allowed to step between you and
+your uncle's avarice; but you would not. I would willingly have
+prevented the accomplishment of your uncle's plans; but&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Then you own that it is a plot?"</p>
+<p>"I acknowledge nothing."</p>
+<p>"But you know it is a base trick?"</p>
+<p>"It is not for me to say. The law will be satisfied. I have
+offered to do all I could for you, and you have refused. You appeal
+to my pity. Pity! did you pity me when I would have been your
+willing slave,&mdash;when I pleaded for the hope you have
+ruthlessly crushed?"</p>
+<p>"I did pity you; but I could not help you. I could not then, and
+I cannot now, give my hand where my heart is uninterested. I feared
+you then, as I despise you now. Report said your character was not
+entirely free from stain, and you are now striving to demonstrate
+the truth of the rumors," said Emily, whose contempt would not be
+concealed.</p>
+<p>"Report may have belied me," replied Maxwell, struggling with
+his violent passions. "But we are wasting time. Proceed with me to
+Vicksburg, and I pledge you my honor you shall not be injured or
+insulted."</p>
+<p>"Your honor!" said Emily, bitterly. "It is but a poor dependence
+for an unprotected female."</p>
+<p>"Gently, Miss Dumont! Do not rouse the demon within me by such
+taunts."</p>
+<p>"I fear the worst demon of your nature is already in the
+ascendency."</p>
+<p>"Enough! Will you go, or will you not?" said Maxwell,
+impatiently.</p>
+<p>"I will not!"</p>
+<p>"Then I must claim you as my slave,&mdash;do not
+start!&mdash;and <i>compel</i> you."</p>
+<p>"Bond or free, I will not stir from beneath this roof with you,"
+replied Emily, with calm resolution. All hope, if she had cherished
+any, was gone. Silently she breathed a prayer for strength and
+meekness to endure all; for fortitude to enable her to struggle
+till death with the oppression of her enemy; and for courage to
+meet any emergency in which her lot might be cast.</p>
+<p>"It must be done! I will hesitate no longer!" said Maxwell,
+seizing Emily by the arm.</p>
+<p>"Look here, you varmint, that won't do here!" exclaimed the
+mistress of the house, who, much against her inclination, had
+remained silent during the past fifteen minutes. "It shan't be said
+that Jerry Swinger's ruff couldn't protect a stranger."</p>
+<p>"But, woman, she is my property," answered Maxwell, not a little
+intimidated by the ferocious aspect of the matron.</p>
+<p>"Do not believe him, good woman, do not believe him!" exclaimed
+Emily, as she saw the woman was a little staggered by the
+attorney's claim.</p>
+<p>"No, ma'am, I won't believe him," responded Mrs. Swinger, as her
+heart triumphed over the argument of the lawyer.</p>
+<p>"It matters little whether you believe me or not. Here is the
+bill of sale, and, in the name of the law, I take what is
+mine."</p>
+<p>The hostess was not a little perplexed by the document, and
+Emily observed, with terror, that she wavered in her purpose.</p>
+<p>"It is a gross forgery!" exclaimed Emily, with a glance of
+earnest pleading, which the rough but kind-hearted woman could not
+resist.</p>
+<p>"I don't care nothin' about your bill of sale! The gal is safe,"
+said Mrs. Swinger, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, resolving to execute his design, again seized Emily by
+the arm, and was on the point of hurrying her out of the cabin.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger was a stout, masculine woman, brought up in the
+woods, and never fainted in her life, even in presence of an
+alligator or a panther. So she had no scruples in seizing Mr.
+Maxwell by the nape of the neck, and giving him a kind of double
+twist, which sent him reeling into the corner of the cabin.</p>
+<p>"I'll teach you to put your hands upon an onprotected female,
+you varmint, you!" said she, and, going to the door, she screamed
+"Jerry" three times, with a voice that would have done honor to a
+Stentor.</p>
+<p>"Now, stranger," said she, elevating her tall form to its full
+height, and, with a gesture like a queen of the Amazons, pointing
+to the door, "take yourself off, or my Jerry will tote you down to
+the river, and drown you like a kitten!"</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger's arm fell like a tragic heroine's, and she stood
+proudly contemplating the object of her wrath, perhaps hoping the
+attorney would await the arrival of "her Jerry," in whose prowess
+she seemed to place unlimited confidence.</p>
+<p>Vernon, who was waiting near the vehicle he had procured, heard
+the loud and angry words of the excited dame, and now approached
+the house to ascertain the cause of the confusion. This redoubtable
+worthy had received the reward of his villany, and considered the
+deed accomplished; but he had no objection to a little excitement.
+A fight was his element, and he never let slip an opportunity to
+join in one.</p>
+<p>The worthy Jerry Swinger; the good woman's beau ideal of a man,
+reached the cabin at the moment Vernon entered.</p>
+<p>Maxwell had now the alternative of abandoning his coveted prize,
+or of fighting for it. The first he would not do; and the second,
+with the wound he had received in the duel, was not an easy matter.
+The latter, however, he determined upon. Drawing from his pocket a
+revolver, he again approached Emily.</p>
+<p>"What's all this about?" said Jerry, as he entered the
+cabin.</p>
+<p>"Save me, sir,&mdash;save me from these villains!" exclaimed
+Emily, whose piteous accents penetrated the heart of the honest
+woodman.</p>
+<p>"That I will, ma'am. Why, you infarnal, sneakin' whelp of an
+alligator, whar's your conscience? But you've run agin a snag, and
+you shan't make another bend, this trip; so sheer off! Suke, jest
+fotch out my rifle, thar."</p>
+<p>Mrs. Swinger, before the assailants could prevent it, unhung the
+rifle, and was about to present it to her husband, when Maxwell
+pointed his pistol at her, and said, "Move another inch, woman, and
+I will fire!"</p>
+<p>"Look here, stranger," said Jerry, approaching the attorney, "if
+you touch that trigger, I'll pull your heart out!"</p>
+<p>Vernon saw that his time had come, and, grappling with the
+woodman, they both fell upon the mud floor of the cabin.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, his pistol still pointed at the woman, advanced a step,
+with the intention of taking the rifle from her. Mrs. Swinger,
+perceiving his purpose, elevated the rifle to her shoulder as
+gracefully as the most accomplished Kentuckian would have done, and
+fired. But her aim was bad; the ball passed through the attorney's
+hat. It came near enough, however, to rouse his passion, and,
+without a moment's deliberation, which might have saved him the
+reproach of shooting a woman, he fired. His aim, better than his
+feminine opponent's had been, sent the ball through her side, and
+she fell. Emily, filled with horror by the sanguinary scene, sprung
+to Mrs. Swinger's aid, as she fell.</p>
+<p>"Look here, you cussed villain," said Jerry Swinger, who, in the
+struggle, had got his antagonist under him, and had drawn from his
+pocket a long clasp-knife, "if you stir an inch, I'll put this
+blood-sucker through your shrivelled-up gizzard!"</p>
+<p>Vernon attempted to rise, bowie-knife in hand, to the conflict.
+Jerry Swinger was about to put his threat in execution, when
+Maxwell, released, by the fall of the woman, from danger in that
+quarter, struck him a heavy blow upon the head with the pistol in
+his hand. The woodman sunk back, with a groan, and Vernon, rising
+from his fallen posture, was about to plunge the knife to his
+heart, when a new actor appeared upon the stage. The blade of
+Vernon was arrested in its deadly descent, and a single blow from
+the fist of the new-comer laid the black-leg prostrate by the side
+of the woodman. Maxwell was thrown off his guard by the suddenness
+of the new assailant's movements, and, before he could raise his
+pistol,&mdash;his only dependence,&mdash;it was wrested from him.
+The new-comer threw the pistol down, and, seizing the attorney by
+the neck, and applying a smart blow with the knee upon his back, he
+brought him to the floor. Taking a cord which hung on the cabin
+wall, he bound the fallen man hand and foot, and dragged him out of
+the cabin. Placing his back against a tree, he lashed him firmly to
+its trunk. Leaving the chop-fallen attorney to mature his plans,
+the conqueror returned to the hut.</p>
+<p>"O, Hatchie, Hatchie! you have again saved me!" exclaimed Emily,
+as she saw her deliverer re&euml;nter. "Thank God! I am safe,
+though at what a terrible sacrifice!"</p>
+<p>She had, in her terror, obtained but a very imperfect idea of
+the exciting scene which had transpired before her. When she saw
+Vernon fall, and then Maxwell, she realized that she was safe. With
+an effort,&mdash;for her excited nerves had taken away her
+strength,&mdash;she rose from her position on the floor, by the
+side of her lifeless hostess. At this moment Hatchie entered, and,
+with a heart full of gratitude, she grasped his hand.</p>
+<p>"O, Hatchie! what do I not owe you for this service!"</p>
+<p>"I am so happy to serve you, Miss Emily!" replied Hatchie,
+rejoiced to hear again his mistress' voice.</p>
+<p>"You have been my best friend in this season of adversity.
+Without you, I had been lost forever. But let us do what we may for
+these poor people, who have, I fear, sacrificed their lives in my
+defence."</p>
+<p>The inanimate form of Mrs. Swinger was placed upon the bed by
+Hatchie, and, while Emily endeavored to ascertain the nature of her
+wound, the mulatto examined into Jerry's condition. The worthy
+woodman had only been stunned by the blow, and Hatchie's vigorous
+application soon restored him to consciousness. With the assistance
+of the mulatto, he rose. Looking wildly around him, he discovered
+the form of Vernon upon the floor. This seemed to recall his
+recollection of the events of the hour.</p>
+<p>"Whar's Suke?" said he.</p>
+<p>Then perceiving her outstretched form upon the bed, he calmly,
+but very sorrowfully, asked, "Is she dead?"</p>
+<p>"No, thank God! she is not dead; but I fear she is badly
+injured," replied Emily, who was still bending over the
+sufferer.</p>
+<p>The woodman approached the bed-side, and, observing the faint
+breathing which gently heaved her chest, he seemed comforted.</p>
+<p>"Whar's the wound?" asked he, in a melancholy tone.</p>
+<p>"In her side," replied Emily; "the bullet seems to have
+penetrated the region below the heart."</p>
+<p>"Poor gal! I'm feered it's all up with her. She has been a good
+woman to me."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid my visit to your house will prove a sad day to you,
+even if she recovers," said Emily, in a sad tone.</p>
+<p>"No, stranger, no! Suke would have died any day to save a
+neighbor from misery;" and the woodman's eyes filled with tears at
+the remembrance of his humble companion's virtues.</p>
+<p>"But let us hope for the best. Is there a physician in the
+vicinity?"</p>
+<p>"Ay, stranger, there is one that sometimes helps the poor folks
+about here."</p>
+<p>"Then, Hatchie, you can go for him."</p>
+<p>"Stop a little! The doctor is an oncommon strange man, and lives
+on an island down the bend."</p>
+<p>"I will go for him," said Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"I dar say; but whar you gwine? that's the pint. Nobody can find
+the way that warn't there before. My son, Jim, will soon be
+here."</p>
+<p>"But we must be as speedy as possible," suggested Emily.</p>
+<p>The arrival of the woodman's son terminated the difficulty. It
+was arranged that Hatchie should go with him, to assist in rowing
+back.</p>
+<p>As they were about to depart, Vernon showed signs of returning
+life, and Hatchie conveyed him to an out-building till a more
+convenient season, and then dismissed the negro and his vehicle,
+which had been brought to convey Emily to Vicksburg.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Then rose from sea to sky the
+wild farewell;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Then shrieked the timid, and
+stood still the brave;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Then some leaped overboard with
+dreadful yell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">As eager to anticipate their
+grave."&nbsp; BYRON.</span></p>
+<p>We left the Chalmetta in a situation which demands
+explanation.</p>
+<p>Emily retired to her state-room on that dreadful night entirely
+relieved from the distressing anticipations which had before
+oppressed her. Her name and her home were virtually restored to
+her. The foul stain upon the honor of her father had been removed.
+Doubt and fear scarcely disturbed her; the battle yet to be fought
+seemed but a trifle. Maxwell had said her uncle was left at a
+wood-yard. This was strange. It looked not like an accident, but
+the doing of the wily attorney; and perhaps Jaspar had voluntarily
+withdrawn; perhaps her uncle had made <i>her</i> the reward of
+Maxwell's silence. But these reflections were now robbed of their
+bitterness. She felt that in Henry Carroll she had a sufficient
+protection.</p>
+<p>She retired to her state-room with a light heart, and even
+Maxwell's villanous designs were forgotten as she revelled in the
+bright hopes before her. She knew nothing of the foul plot which
+had been concocted for her abduction. She knew not that Henry
+Carroll was then watching over her. In blissful ignorance of the
+danger that hovered near her, she sunk into the quiet sleep of
+innocence.</p>
+<p>After midnight her slumbers were disturbed by the unusual
+creaking of the boat, and the hasty puffs of steam from the
+escape-pipes. She awoke, and was at once sensible of the immense
+pressure to which the boilers were subjected. Awhile she lay and
+listened to the ominous sounds which indicated the danger of the
+boat; then, much alarmed, she rose and dressed herself. For nearly
+an hour she sat in the darkness of the room, during which time the
+danger seemed momentarily to increase, until, no longer able to
+endure such agonizing suspense, she was about to leave the room. At
+this moment Vernon was about to enter, when the explosion took
+place.</p>
+<p>The forward part of the Chalmetta was completely torn in pieces.
+The gentlemen's cabin was lifted from its supports, and torn into
+fragments. The unfortunate occupants of berths in this part of the
+boat were either instantly killed or severely wounded. The ladies'
+cabin, being at a greater distance from the immediate scene of the
+explosion, had not suffered so severely. Although torn from its
+position, and shattered by the shock, it had proved fatal to but a
+few of its occupants, who had been crushed by falling timbers. The
+hull of the boat was not injured by the explosion, but before those
+who had escaped a sudden death could recover their disordered
+faculties, the flames began to ascend from the wreck of the cabin,
+which had been precipitated upon the furnaces.</p>
+<p>The scene surpassed description. The groans of the wounded and
+scalded, the shrieks of those who were on the boat, expecting every
+moment to be carried down in her, mingled in wild confusion on the
+midnight air. Fortunately the passengers were mostly soldiers,
+accustomed to scenes of horror, who immediately turned their
+attention to the extinguishing of the flames. The Flatfoot, No. 3,
+approached within a short distance of the wreck, and a line was
+passed from her to the bow of the Chalmetta. Her passengers and
+crew were humanely assisting in rescuing those who had jumped or
+been thrown overboard in the disaster.</p>
+<p>By the aid of a fire-engine on board of the Flatfoot, which had
+approached near enough to render it available, the flames were
+extinguished. It was ascertained that the Chalmetta had received no
+serious damage in her hull; and as all the survivors had been
+picked up, the Flatfoot took her in tow, and proceeded up the
+river.</p>
+<p>Emily had been stunned by the explosion, and ere she could
+recover, Vernon, with a strong arm, bore her to the main deck. The
+boat was lowered into the water, and, before the passengers, or the
+petrified watch in the hold, could regain their self-possession, it
+was impelled by the strong arm of Vernon, and the ruffian who had
+been hired for the purpose, far astern of the wreck.</p>
+<p>The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when
+Vernon had handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by
+Hatchie and his friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck
+of the cabins came tumbling down.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made
+his way, as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the
+stern, where he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from
+the forward part of the boat now enabled him to discover the
+abductors of Emily rowing down the river. Leaping into the water,
+he seized a door, which was floating near him, and thus enabled to
+sustain himself with tolerable ease, he swam after them.</p>
+<p>Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on
+the shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her
+pious heart was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she
+had been rescued from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to
+her deliverer, for such she supposed was the person in the boat
+with her. Who was he? Was it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was. She
+raised her head from the position in which Maxwell had placed it,
+and endeavored to distinguish his features; but the darkness
+defeated her wish.</p>
+<p>"Fear nothing, lady; you are safe," said Maxwell.</p>
+<p>The voice was like the knell of doom. It grated harshly upon her
+ears, and gave rise to a thousand fears in her timid heart.</p>
+<p>"Thank God, I am safe!" said she, after a pause.</p>
+<p>"And I thank God I have been the means of preserving you,"
+replied Maxwell, willing to render the terrible calamity an
+accessory to his crime.</p>
+<p>"But why do you go this way?" asked Emily, as she saw the
+Flatfoot approach the wreck.</p>
+<p>"I only wish to convey you from the scene of danger."</p>
+<p>"Then why not go to that steamer?"</p>
+<p>"Probably she is by this time converted into a hospital for the
+sufferers. I would not shock your delicate nerves with such a scene
+of woe and misery as will be on board of her."</p>
+<p>"May we not render some assistance?"</p>
+<p>"No doubt there are more assistants than can labor to advantage
+now."</p>
+<p>Emily was silent, but not satisfied. Her fears in some measure
+subsided, when, about two miles below the scene of the disaster,
+Maxwell ordered the boat to be put in at a wood-yard. The attorney
+was all gentleness, and assisted her to the cabin of Jerry Swinger,
+the owner of the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>Hatchie had been able, by severe exertion, to keep within
+hearing of the splashing oars. The current fortunately carried him
+near the wood-yard, and, aided by the sounds he heard at the cabin,
+and by the boat which he saw, he concluded the party had landed
+there. Letting go the door, a few vigorous strokes brought him to
+the shore. Approaching the cabin, he satisfied himself that his
+mistress had taken shelter there. Concealing himself in the woods,
+he awaited with much anxiety the next movement of the attorney. In
+the morning he heard the noise at the cabin, and had been the means
+of saving his mistress from a calamity far more dreadful than death
+itself.</p>
+<p>On the evening of the day of the explosion, an elderly gentleman
+sat in a private apartment of one of the principal hotels in
+Vicksburg, attentively reading an "Extra," in which the particulars
+of the disaster were detailed. He read, with little apparent
+interest, the account, until he came to the names of "Saved,
+Killed, Wounded and Missing." An expression of the deepest anxiety
+settled upon his countenance. He finished reading the list of
+survivors, and a transient feeling of satisfaction was visible on
+his face. When in the list of the "missing" he read the name of
+"Miss Dumont, Antoine De Guy and Henry Carroll," a smile as of
+glutted revenge and malignant hatred dispelled the cloud of anxiety
+which had before brooded over his features. Throwing down the
+sheet, he drank off a glass of brandy, which had been waiting his
+pleasure on the table. The potion was not insignificant in quantity
+or strength, and the wry face he made did not add to the amiability
+of his expression. As the dose permeated his brain, and produced
+that agreeable lightness which is the first phase of intoxication,
+he rubbed his hands with childish delight, and half muttered an
+expression of pleasure.</p>
+<p>Suddenly his countenance assumed its former lowering aspect, his
+brows knit, and his lips compressed.</p>
+<p>"Missing!" muttered he. "What the devil does <i>missing</i>
+mean? What can it mean but dead, defunct, gone to a better world,
+as the canting hypocrites say?"</p>
+<p>But we will not attempt to record the muttered soliloquy of the
+gentleman,&mdash;Jaspar Dumont, who had reached Vicksburg that day,
+from the wood-yard where we left him. It was too profane, too
+sacrilegious, to stain our page.</p>
+<p>Grasping the bell-rope with a sudden energy, as though a new
+thought had struck him, he gave it a violent pull, which brought to
+his presence a black waiter.</p>
+<p>"Has the Dragon returned?" asked Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar, jus got in, Massa."</p>
+<p>"Is there any person in the house who went up in her?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, massa, one gemman in de office."</p>
+<p>"Who is he?"</p>
+<p>"Massa&mdash;massa&mdash;" and the darkey scratched his head, to
+stimulate his memory, which act instantly brought the name to his
+mind.</p>
+<p>"Massa <i>Lousey</i>."</p>
+<p>"Mister what, you black scoundrel!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar,&mdash;Massa Lousey; dat's de name."</p>
+<p>"Lousey?" repeated Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Stop bit," said the waiter, a new idea penetrating his cranium.
+"Dar Lousey, dat's de name, for sartin."</p>
+<p>"Dalhousie," responded Jaspar. "Give my compliments to Mr.
+Dalhousie, and ask him to oblige me with a few moments'
+conversation in this room."</p>
+<p>"Yes, sar;" and the waiter retired, muttering, "Dar Lousey."</p>
+<p>The Dragon was a small steamer, which had been sent, on the
+intelligence of a "blow up," to obtain the particulars for the
+press, and render assistance to the survivors. Dalhousie was a
+transient visitor at the hotel, and, with many others, had gone in
+the Dragon to gratify his curiosity.</p>
+<p>"Sorry to trouble you, sir," said Jaspar, as the gentleman
+entered the apartment; "but I am much interested in the fate of
+several persons who were passengers on board the Chalmetta."</p>
+<p>"No trouble, Mr. Dumont, I am extremely happy to serve you,"
+replied Dalhousie, whose obsequious manners were ample evidence of
+his sincerity.</p>
+<p>"My niece was on board of her," continued Jaspar, "and I see her
+name in the list of missing."</p>
+<p>"Your <i>niece</i>!" replied Dalhousie, emphasizing the latter
+word. He had a few days before come from New Orleans, and had there
+heard of the startling developments in the Dumont family.</p>
+<p>"No matter," returned Jaspar, sharply; "she went by the name of
+Dumont. Did you find any bodies?"</p>
+<p>"We picked up the remains of six men and two females."</p>
+<p>"Can you describe the females? How were they dressed?" asked
+Jaspar, in an excited manner.</p>
+<p>"One was dressed in black. The other had on a common
+calico."</p>
+<p>"But the one in black,&mdash;describe her,&mdash;her
+hair,&mdash;was she tall or short?" interrupted Jaspar,
+hurriedly.</p>
+<p>"Her hair was in curls. She was apparently about twenty-six or
+seven, and rather short in stature."</p>
+<p>"Curls," muttered Jaspar; "she has not worn curls since the
+colonel died. She may have put them on again to please that
+infernal Captain Carroll. Twenty-six years old, you think?"</p>
+<p>"She may have been younger. Her features were terribly mangled,"
+and Mr. Dalhousie cast a penetrating glance at Jaspar, as though he
+would read out the beatings of his black heart.</p>
+<p>Jaspar considered again the description, and, though it did not
+correspond to his niece's, his anxiety had contributed to warp his
+judgment. He was very willing to believe the Chalmetta's fatal
+disaster had forever removed the only obstacle to the gratification
+of his ambition, and the only source of future insecurity. He paced
+the room, muttering, in his abstraction, sundry broken phrases.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie watched him, and endeavored to obtain the purport of
+his disjointed soliloquy. A stranger, without some strong motive,
+could scarcely have had so much interest in him as he appeared to
+have.</p>
+<p>"Had she any jewels&mdash;ornaments of any kind?" asked
+Dalhousie, after the silence had grown disagreeable to him.</p>
+<p>"She had," replied Jaspar, stopping suddenly in his
+perambulation of the room, and speaking with an eagerness which
+betrayed his anxiety to obtain more evidence. "Were any found upon
+her person?"</p>
+<p>"You are a man of honor, Mr. Dumont, and, if I disclose to you a
+thoughtless indiscretion of my own, you will not, of course, expose
+me?" said Dalhousie, with, hesitation, and apparent want of
+confidence.</p>
+<p>"Of course not," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "What has this to
+do with the matter?"</p>
+<p>"Did your niece wear a ring?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, a mourning ring."</p>
+<p>"Do you know the ring? Could you identify it?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," replied Jaspar, who remembered having seen an
+ornament of this description on the finger of Emily.</p>
+<p>"Will you describe it to me, if you please?"</p>
+<p>But Jaspar had reckoned without his host. The details of a piece
+of jewelry were matters entirely foreign to his taste. However, he
+succeeded in giving a description, which, from its general terms,
+might have applied to one mourning ring as well as another.</p>
+<p>"Is this the one?" asked Dalhousie, with an anxiety which he
+could scarcely conceal, as he produced a ring.</p>
+<p>"That <i>is</i> it," replied Jaspar, confidently; and the jewel
+did bear some resemblance to that worn by Emily.</p>
+<p>"But where did you obtain this?"</p>
+<p>"I must insist on the most inviolable secrecy."</p>
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," said Jaspar, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"I will disclose the particulars only on the condition that you
+pledge yourself never to reveal my agency in the matter; for it
+would compromise my character."</p>
+<p>"Very well. I pledge you my honor," replied Jaspar, impatiently.
+"You took it from the corpse of the lady in black."</p>
+<p>"I did, and you must be aware that such an act would subject me
+to inconvenience, if known."</p>
+<p>"Don't be alarmed; your secret is safe."</p>
+<p>"But are you sure this is the ring worn by your niece?"</p>
+<p>"It looks like it;" but Jaspar was perplexed with a doubt. He
+bethought himself that it was only in a casual glance he had
+observed Emily's ring. He had never examined it, and, after all,
+this might not be the one. There was certainly nothing strange in
+any lady dressed in black wearing a mourning ring. Again he turned
+the ring over and over, and scrutinized it closely. His finger
+touched a spring, and the plate flew up, disclosing a small lock of
+gray hair, twined around the single letter D.</p>
+<p>"I will swear to it now," exclaimed Jaspar, in a tone which
+betrayed the malicious joy he felt at the discovery. He was
+perfectly satisfied now of the identity of the ring. It never
+occurred to him that D stood for any other name than Dumont.</p>
+<p>"This appears to be decisive evidence," replied Dalhousie. "Your
+<i>niece</i>, then, must be the person brought down by the
+Dragon."</p>
+<p>"Without doubt."</p>
+<p>"As this matter, then, is settled to your
+satisfaction&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sir!" exclaimed Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," resumed Dalhousie, with a supercilious air;
+"I only meant that your mind was satisfied&mdash;relieved from a
+painful anxiety."</p>
+<p>"A very painful anxiety," replied Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I understand, sir, you own a large plantation."</p>
+<p>"Well."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you need an overseer?"</p>
+<p>Jaspar acknowledged that he did need an overseer.</p>
+<p>"I should be happy to make an engagement with you," said the
+other, in complaisant tones.</p>
+<p>"I don't think you would suit me. You are too genteel, by half,"
+returned Jaspar, bluntly.</p>
+<p>"I have been in a better position, it is true. I was born in
+France, but I understand the business."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever manage a gang of niggers?"</p>
+<p>After a little hesitation, Dalhousie replied that he had.</p>
+<p>"We will talk of it some other time," said Jaspar, satisfied,
+from the air and manner of the other, that his statement was
+false.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie put on his hat, and, taking the mourning ring from the
+table, was about to enfold it in a bit of paper.</p>
+<p>"What are you about, sir?" exclaimed Jaspar, as he witnessed the
+act.</p>
+<p>"The ring is my property, is it not?" said Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>"Put it down, or, by heavens, I will expose your rascality in
+taking it!"</p>
+<p>"Do not be hasty, sir. I have not studied your looks, the last
+hour, without profiting by them."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" said Jaspar, a little startled.</p>
+<p>"I mean that the death of your niece does not seem to be
+received with that degree of sorrow which an uncle would naturally
+feel."</p>
+<p>"<i>Fool</i>! she was not my niece!"</p>
+<p>"Why are you so anxious to establish her decease?"</p>
+<p>"Was I anxious?" said Jaspar, not knowing how far he might have
+betrayed himself.</p>
+<p>"Quite enough so to convince even the most indifferent observer
+that you were extremely rejoiced at the event," replied Dalhousie,
+willing to make out a strong case.</p>
+<p>Jaspar did not reply, and it was plain Dalhousie's remarks had
+had their effect.</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Dumont, I flatter myself I am a man of discretion. As
+you were saying, you need an overseer," said Dalhousie, with a
+glance at Jaspar, which conveyed more meaning than his words.</p>
+<p>The glance was irresistible, and Jaspar engaged him at a liberal
+salary, as well as his wife, who was to be the housekeeper at
+Bellevue. Dalhousie was a needy man. His fortunes were on the
+descending scale. Born in France, he had emigrated to this country,
+with the chimerical hope of speedily making a fortune. He could not
+build up the coveted temple stone by stone, but wished it to rise
+like a fairy castle. With such views, he had wandered about the
+country with his wife (whom he had married since his arrival), in
+search of the philosopher's stone. He had several times engaged in
+subordinate capacities, but his impatient hopes would not brook the
+distance between him and the goal. He had been to New Orleans, but
+the city was almost deserted. On his arrival at Vicksburg, Jaspar
+had been pointed out to him as a person who could probably favor
+his wishes, and he had obtained an introduction to him.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's thoughts and feelings he read. He discovered the nature
+of the relations between the uncle and niece,&mdash;which required
+but little sagacity, under the circumstances. Determined to profit
+by the knowledge he had obtained, his first step was to satisfy
+Jaspar of the death of Emily, of whom, in reality, he knew nothing.
+The initial letter of his wife's name in the ring had suggested the
+means, and he had convinced Jaspar as related. How Dalhousie's
+sense of moral rectitude would allow him to use the deception, we
+will not say; but he seemed to tolerate the idea that the great
+purpose he had in view would justify any little peccadilloes he
+might commit in obtaining it.</p>
+<p>He had gained his end, and taken the first step in the great
+road to fortune; and he doubted not his future relations with
+Jaspar would suggest a second.</p>
+<p>The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in
+behalf of Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg.</p>
+<p>In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned
+the next day to Bellevue.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Say quick! quoth he; I bid
+thee say,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What manner of man art
+thou?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Forthwith, this frame of mine
+was wrenched</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With a woful agony,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Which forced me to begin my
+tale;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And then it left me free."&nbsp;
+ANCIENT MARINER.</span></p>
+<p>The morning advanced, and Henry Carroll, under the influence of
+the powerful opiate, still slept. By his side sat the misanthropic
+physician, who seemed to have learned a lesson of the dealing of
+the Creator with the creature such as he had never before acquired.
+He had rescued a fellow-creature from sure death, and the act
+seemed a part of the great duties of life which he had so long
+neglected. He reflected upon the numerous opportunities of doing
+good to his fellow-men from which his hermit-life debarred him.
+Again he thought of his daughter. Her image rose before him in the
+darkened chamber of the sick man, and seemed to reproach him for
+his want of faithfulness to her. The incident and reflections of
+the previous night had strangely influenced his mind, and changed
+the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of his
+lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
+vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.</p>
+<p>The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs.
+Swinger. Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in
+case the patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical
+instruments, he proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat,
+he took the two messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The
+wind was still fresh, and the yacht, with all her sails spread,
+bore the doctor rapidly on his errand of mercy. A strange impulse
+seemed to animate him,&mdash;an impulse of genuine, heart-felt
+sympathy towards the whole human family,&mdash;a feeling to which
+he had before been a stranger. His profession seemed to him now a
+boon of mercy to the suffering, and he saw how poorly he had
+performed his mission to the world. He felt a pleasure he had never
+before experienced, in being able to relieve the distressed, to
+heal the wounded heart, as well as the bruised limb.</p>
+<p>Under the skilful pilotage of Dr. Vaudelier the more rapid
+currents were avoided, the boat pressed to her utmost speed; and in
+a short time the party landed at the wood-yard of Jerry
+Swinger.</p>
+<p>During the absence of the messengers Emily, by the most
+assiduous attentions, had succeeded in restoring the wounded woman
+to a state of partial consciousness. The arrival of the doctor
+increased her hopes of a speedy restoration. The rough woodman, who
+had patiently watched Emily as she labored over his beloved
+partner, was melted into tears of joy when he heard her faintly
+articulate his name.</p>
+<p>After a thorough examination of the wound, the doctor announced
+the gratifying intelligence that the woman was not dangerously
+wounded. The severe operation of extracting the ball was performed,
+and the patient left to the quiet her situation demanded.</p>
+<p>On the passage from Cottage Island Hatchie had related the
+particulars of the affray, so that on his arrival Dr. Vaudelier was
+in possession of all the facts.</p>
+<p>"You have had a severe fight here, madam," said he to Emily, who
+had followed him out to inquire more particularly into the
+situation of her hostess.</p>
+<p>"We have, indeed; but I trust no lives will be lost," replied
+Emily.</p>
+<p>"No; the woman will do very well. The wound is a severe one, but
+not dangerous. Her strong constitution will resist all fatal
+consequences."</p>
+<p>"I trust it may, for this has been a day of disaster, without
+the loss of more life."</p>
+<p>"You were a passenger in the Chalmetta?"</p>
+<p>"I was."</p>
+<p>"Then you have had a narrow escape."</p>
+<p>"But a more narrow one since the explosion. Thank Heaven, I have
+been preserved from both calamities!"</p>
+<p>"Had you no friends on board?"</p>
+<p>"I had&mdash;one friend;" and she hesitated. "I fear he has
+perished."</p>
+<p>"Hope for the best!" replied the doctor, kindly.</p>
+<p>The blush, and then the change to the paleness of death, as
+Emily thought of Henry, first as the lover, and then as a mangled
+corpse had not escaped the notice of Dr. Vaudelier. He read in her
+varying color the relation they had sustained to each other.</p>
+<p>"I have no alternative but hope," said Emily; "but it seems like
+hoping against the certainty of evil."</p>
+<p>"I saved the life of a gentleman this morning who must shortly
+have perished without aid. He, too, had lost a dear friend."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Emily, with interest.</p>
+<p>"Yes; but he was much injured, and will require the most
+diligent care."</p>
+<p>"I trust your merciful endeavors will be crowned with success.
+Do you know the gentleman?"</p>
+<p>"I do not. He has not yet been able to converse much. He was
+dressed in the uniform of an officer."</p>
+<p>"An officer! Perhaps it is he!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was much interested in the adventure, and the
+pale, anxious features of Emily excited his sympathy for her.</p>
+<p>"As I dressed his wounds," said he, "I noticed the initials upon
+his linen. Perhaps these may afford some clue."</p>
+<p>"What were they?" exclaimed Emily, scarcely able to articulate,
+in the intensity of her feelings.</p>
+<p>"H.C."</p>
+<p>"It is he! It is he! And you say he is wounded?"</p>
+<p>"I am sorry to say he is."</p>
+<p>"Can I go to him?" said Emily, grasping the doctor's arm.</p>
+<p>"I fear your presence will excite him. Are you a relative?"</p>
+<p>"No, not a relative," replied Emily, blushing; "but I know he
+would like to see me."</p>
+<p>"I do not doubt it," said the doctor, with a smile,&mdash;a
+luxury in which he rarely indulged. "I am afraid your presence will
+agitate him."</p>
+<p>"Let me watch over him while he sleeps. He need not know I am
+near."</p>
+<p>"Rather difficult to manage, but you shall see him. Will you
+return with me?"</p>
+<p>"Thank you, I will. But poor Mrs. Swinger!" and a shade of
+anxiety crossed her features, as she thought of leaving her kind
+hostess in affliction.</p>
+<p>"Her husband is a good nurse, and understands her case better
+than you do. If I mistake not, your services will be full as
+acceptable at my cottage."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier tried to smile at this sally; but the effort was
+too much for him, and he sank under it.</p>
+<p>Emily, though sorry to leave her protectress, was drawn by the
+irresistible magnetism of affection to Cottage Island. She
+compromised between the opposing demands of duty by promising
+herself that she would again visit the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>She embarked with Dr. Vaudelier, and they were soon gliding down
+the mighty river on their way to Cottage Island. Emily had wished
+Hatchie to accompany her, as much for his safety as for her own;
+but the faithful fellow desired to stay at the wood-yard. They had
+before had an interview in relation to the will. Uncle Nathan, who
+had been made the custodian of it, had not been seen or heard from,
+and her case again seemed to be desperate. Hatchie assured her of
+his safety, and of his good faith. He had left him in the hold,
+and, with common prudence, the worthy farmer might have made his
+escape unharmed. Emily, who now regarded her devoted servant in the
+light of a guardian angel, had entire confidence in his reasoning
+and conclusions. Of Hatchie's motive in remaining at the wood-yard
+she had no conception. If she had had, she would probably have
+insisted on his attendance.</p>
+<p>After the departure of Dr. Vaudelier and Emily, Hatchie went to
+the cabin, and took therefrom a carpet-bag belonging to
+Maxwell,&mdash;an article which, even in the hurry of his exit from
+the steamer, he had not omitted to take. With this in his hand, he
+proceeded to the out-building, to satisfy himself of the security
+of his prisoners; but Vernon had fled,&mdash;the wooden door of the
+shed had not been proof against his art. Hatchie was not
+disconcerted by this incident. Vernon, he was aware, was only a
+subordinate, who did his evil deeds for hire, and against him he
+bore no ill will. But it immediately occurred to him that the
+ruffian might have liberated Maxwell, and this would have utterly
+deranged his present plans. Taking from the shed a long rope, he
+proceeded to the other side of the cabin, where he had secured the
+attorney to the tree. To his great satisfaction he found the
+prisoner secure. Vernon did not see him, or was too intent on his
+own safety to bestow a thought upon his late employer.</p>
+<p>Hatchie reached the scene of Maxwell's humiliation. Coolly
+seating himself on a log near the discomfited lawyer, and regarding
+him with a look of contempt, he proceeded to examine the fastenings
+of the carpet-bag. Maxwell spoke not; his pride was still "above
+par," and he returned Hatchie's contemptuous glances with a scowl
+of scorn and hatred. The attorney was in sore tribulation at the
+unexpected turn affairs had taken, and the future did not present a
+very encouraging aspect. Of the mulatto'a present intentions he
+could gain no idea. The long rope he had brought with him looked
+ominous, and a shudder passed through his frame as he considered
+the uses to which it might be applied. As he regarded the cool
+proceedings of his jailer, the worst anticipations crowded upon
+him. The mulatto looked like a demon of the inquisition to his
+guilty soul. But, tortured as he was by the most terrible
+forebodings, he still preserved his dignified scowl, and watched
+the operations of Hatchie with apparent coolness.</p>
+<p>Hatchie examined the lock upon the carpet-bag, and found that it
+entirely secured the contents from observation.</p>
+<p>"I will trouble you for the key of this bag," said he, politely,
+as he rose and approached the attorney.</p>
+<p>"What mean you, fellow? Would you rob me?" exclaimed
+Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir; do not alarm yourself. The key, if you please.
+In which pocket is it?"</p>
+<p>Hatchie approached, with the intention of searching his
+prisoner.</p>
+<p>"Stand off, villain!" cried Maxwell, as he gave the mulatto a
+hearty kick in the neighborhood of the knee.</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir," said Hatchie, not at all disconcerted by the
+blow.</p>
+<p>Taking the rope he had brought, he dexterously passed it round
+the legs of the attorney, and made it fast to the tree.</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, if you will tell which pocket contains the key, you
+will save yourself the indignity of being searched."</p>
+<p>"Miserable villain! if you wish to commit violence upon me, you
+must do it without my consent."</p>
+<p>"Sorry to disoblige you, sir," said Hatchie, with an affectation
+of civility; "but I must have the key."</p>
+<p>"I have not the key; it is lost. If I had, you should struggle
+for it."</p>
+<p>"You will pardon me for doubting your word. I must satisfy
+myself."</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" shouted the attorney, as his tormentor proceeded
+to put his threat in execution.</p>
+<p>This was a contingency for which Hatchie was not prepared. To
+the little operation he was about to perform he desired no
+witnesses at present, and a slight rustling in the bushes near him
+not a little disconcerted him. Stuffing a handkerchief into the
+attorney's mouth, he waited for the intruder upon his pastime; but
+no one came, and he proceeded to search the pockets of the lawyer.
+To his great disappointment, the key could not be found.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was persuaded that this carpet-bag must contain some
+evidence which would be of service to his mistress, in case Uncle
+Nathan and the will should not come to light. There were two acts
+to the drama he intended to perform on the present occasion; the
+first, alone with the attorney,&mdash;and the last, in the presence
+of witnesses. Deferring, therefore, the opening of the bag to the
+second act, he proceeded with the first.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said he, "as you have given me encouragement
+that you <i>can</i> tell the truth, I have a few questions to put
+to you."</p>
+<p>"I will answer no questions," replied Maxwell, sullenly.</p>
+<p>He saw that the mulatto would have it all his own way; and he
+felt a desire to conciliate him, but his pride forbade. He felt
+very much as a lion would feel in the power of a mouse, if such a
+thing could be.</p>
+<p>"Please to consider, sir. You are entirely in my power."</p>
+<p>"No matter; do with me as you please,&mdash;I will answer no
+questions."</p>
+<p>"Think of it; and be assured I will do my best to <i>compel</i>
+an answer. If I do not succeed, you will be food for the buzzards
+before yonder sun sets."</p>
+<p>"What, fellow! would you murder me?" exclaimed Maxwell, in
+alarm.</p>
+<p>"I would not; if you compel me to use violence, the consequences
+be upon your own head. Will you answer me?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell hesitated. The dreadful thought of being murdered in
+cold blood presented itself on the one hand, and the scarcely less
+disagreeable thought of exposing his crimes, on the other. The loss
+of reputation, his prospective fall in society, were not less
+terrible than death itself. Resolving to trust in his good fortune
+for the result, he firmly refused to answer.</p>
+<p>Hatchie now took the rope, and having cut off a portion from one
+end, with which he fastened together the legs of his prisoner, he
+ascended the tree with an end in his hand. Passing the rope over a
+smooth branch about fifteen feet from the ground, he descended and
+made a slip-noose in one end. Heedless of the remonstrances of the
+victim, he fastened it securely to his neck.</p>
+<p>Seating himself again on the log, with the other end of the rope
+in his hand, he looked sternly upon the attorney, and said,</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, I put the question again. Will you answer me?"</p>
+<p>"Never!" said Maxwell, in desperation.</p>
+<p>"Very well, then; if you have any prayers to say, say them now;
+your time is short."</p>
+<p>"Fool! villain! murderer! I have no prayers to say. I am not a
+drivelling idiot, or fanatic; I can die like a man."</p>
+<p>"You had better reconsider your determination."</p>
+<p>"No, craven! woolly-headed coward! I will not flinch. Do you
+think to <i>drive</i> a gentleman into submission?"</p>
+<p>"Be calm, Mr. Maxwell; do not waste your last moments in idle
+invectives. The time were better spent in penitence and
+prayer."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! go on, if you dare, with your murderous work!"</p>
+<p>Hatchie now unloosed the cords which secured the attorney to the
+tree, and he stood bound hand and foot beneath the branch over
+which the line was passed. Seizing the end of the rope, the mulatto
+pulled it gently at first, but gradually increasing the pressure
+upon the prisoner's throat, as if to give him a satisfactory
+foretaste of the hanging sensation. This slow torture was too much
+for the attorney's fortitude; and, as his respiration grew painful,
+he called to his executioner to stop. Hatchie promptly loosened the
+rope.</p>
+<p>After giving the victim time to recover from the choking
+sensation, the mulatto repeated his question.</p>
+<p>The fear of an ignominious death, of dying under such revolting
+circumstances, had a cooling effect upon the bravado spirit of the
+lawyer. His pride had received a most salutary shock, and he felt
+disposed to treat for his life, even with the despised slave of
+Miss Dumont. Had his tormentor been any other than one of that
+detested race, he could easily have regarded him as a man and
+conceded something for the boon of life. Reduced to the last
+extremity by the relentless energy of his victor, he had no choice
+but to yield the point or die.</p>
+<p>"Will you answer my questions?" repeated Hatchie, sternly.</p>
+<p>"What would you have me answer?" replied Maxwell, doggedly.</p>
+<p>"Did you forge the will by which my mistress is deprived of her
+rights?"</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Do you know who did?"</p>
+<p>Maxwell hesitated, and Hatchie again pulled the rope till his
+face was crimson.</p>
+<p>"Who forged the will?" repeated Hatchie, slackening the
+rope.</p>
+<p>"I did not," replied Maxwell, as soon as he could regain breath
+enough to speak.</p>
+<p>"Who did?"</p>
+<p>"I know not."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a href="images/178g.jpg"><img src="images/178g.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Hatchie forcing secrets from Maxwell.</b></div>
+<p>Hatchie pulled the rope again.</p>
+<p>"Your master&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I have no master. Miss Emily is my mistress."</p>
+<p>"I have been told his name was De Guy."</p>
+<p>"Who is De Guy?"</p>
+<p>"A lawyer of New Orleans."</p>
+<p>"And what agency had you in the affair?"</p>
+<p>"None whatever."</p>
+<p>"Then Mr. Dumont and De Guy are the only persons concerned in
+the transaction?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"You are positive?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Then, how comes it, Mr. Maxwell, that they have intrusted you
+with their secret? How came you by this knowledge?" said Hatchie,
+fiercely, as he prepared, apparently, to swing up the attorney.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was staggered by this question, and Hatchie perceived
+his discomfiture. That Maxwell had any agency in the transaction he
+only suspected; certainly it was not he whom he had seen with
+Jaspar on the night of his escape from Bellevue. There was much
+evidence for and much against him.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, unwilling to criminate himself, was in a sad dilemma;
+his ready wits alone could save him. But his hesitation procured
+him another instant of suffocation.</p>
+<p>"I obtained the knowledge from De Guy," said he, at last.</p>
+<p>"How! did he voluntarily betray the confidence of his
+employer?"</p>
+<p>"No, from his inquiries concerning the affairs of the family, I
+suspected something; when the will was read my impressions were
+confirmed. I charged him with the crime."</p>
+<p>"Did he acknowledge it?"</p>
+<p>"He did."</p>
+<p>"Then why did you not expose the plot?"</p>
+<p>"It did not suit my purpose."</p>
+<p>"What was your purpose?"</p>
+<p>"To marry Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>The attorney's answers seemed plausible. His actions were in
+conformity with his avowed purpose. If he wished to marry his
+mistress, he would not have joined in the plot. But the bill of
+sale, which Emily had mentioned to him, was against him. Poor
+Hatchie was no lawyer, and was sadly perplexed by the conflicting
+testimony.</p>
+<p>"Where did you get that bill of sale?" said he.</p>
+<p>Again the attorney hesitated, and again Hatchie pulled the rope
+till he was ready to answer.</p>
+<p>"Is it a forgery?" said Hatchie, slackening the rope.</p>
+<p>"Probably it is," replied Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Who wrote it?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy."</p>
+<p>"This De Guy is a most consummate villain, and shall yet be
+brought to justice. But how came it in your possession?"</p>
+<p>"I received it from De Guy, as the agent of Mr. Dumont. In fine,
+I <i>bought</i> the girl," said Maxwell, maliciously.</p>
+<p>Hatchie's temper had nearly got the better of him, for he made a
+spring on the rope, which threatened death to the attorney. But his
+judgment overcame his passion, and he again turned his attention to
+the great object before him.</p>
+<p>"Now, Mr. Maxwell, as you are a lawyer," said Hatchie, "you are
+aware of the disadvantages I shall labor under in making the
+evidence you have furnished me available."</p>
+<p>"I am," replied the attorney. "Do you think I would have yielded
+to you, if I had not known it?"</p>
+<p>"Have you told me the truth in these statements?" asked
+Hatchie.</p>
+<p>The attorney hesitated; but a sharp twinge at the neck compelled
+him to say that he had.</p>
+<p>"Then I shall be obliged to trouble you to repeat some of your
+revelations. Now, mark me, Mr. Maxwell; I am going to procure the
+woodman and his son, to witness your statements."</p>
+<p>"Fool! what avail will they be, extorted with a rope about my
+neck?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps we may be able to show you some law such as you never
+read in your books. If, as I suspect, this carpet-bag contains
+papers, I doubt not we shall find something to confirm your
+evidence."</p>
+<p>The face of the lawyer grew a shade paler; but he spoke not.</p>
+<p>"Before I go, let me charge you, at your peril, not to be
+obstinate; for here I solemnly assure you that you shall swing by
+the branch above you, if you refuse to answer," said Hatchie, going
+towards the cabin.</p>
+<p>The scene of this exploit was at some distance from the
+log-cabin of the woodman, and the mulatto had scarcely got out of
+sight before Vernon appeared. He had been at a little distance from
+the parties during the whole scene, but he had too much respect for
+the prowess of his late conqueror to venture on a rescue. He had
+once been tempted to do so, and had made the noise which had
+disturbed Hatchie. The blackleg, without much sympathy for his
+confederate, had rather regarded the whole scene as a good joke
+than as a serious affair; and, as he approached the lawyer, his
+merriment and keen satire were not relished by the victim.</p>
+<p>"But how is it, Maxwell, about this will? You have never told me
+about it," said Vernon, who, ruffian as he was, believed in fair
+play.</p>
+<p>"I will tell you another time; cut these ropes, and let us be
+off."</p>
+<p>"But let me tell you, my fine fellow, that though I can rob a
+man who has enough, I would not be concerned in such a dirty game
+as this," said Vernon, as he severed the ropes which bound the
+attorney. "If you have been helping old Dumont to wrong his niece,
+may I be hanged, as that nigger would have served you, if I don't
+blow the whole affair!"</p>
+<p>"You know nothing about it; but, let me tell you, I am not
+concerned in the affair. The girl, I have no doubt, is a
+slave."</p>
+<p>The confederates now made all haste to depart from their
+proximity to such dangers as both had incurred, and, by a
+circuitous way, reached the river, where, taking a boat, they rowed
+under the banks down stream.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was disappointed, on his return, to find his prisoner
+had escaped. A diligent search, by the precaution of the
+confederates, was rendered fruitless.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XVIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Why should my curiosity
+excite me</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To search and pry into the
+affairs of others,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who have to employ my thoughts so
+many cares</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And sorrows of my own?"&nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; LILLO.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont sat in the library at Bellevue. It was the evening
+after his return from Vicksburg. Near him, engaged in examining a
+heap of papers, was his new overseer, Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was musing over the late turn his affairs had taken; and,
+while he congratulated himself on his present triumphant position,
+he could but regard with apprehension the future, which seemed to
+smile only to lure him on to certain destruction. The trite saying,
+"There is no peace for the wicked," is literally and universally
+true. The lowering brow, the threatening scowl, the suspicious
+glance, of the wicked uncle, were as reliable evidences of his
+misery as his naked soul, torn with doubt and anguish, could have
+been. Every new paper the overseer turned over produced a start of
+apprehension, lest it might contain evidence of his villany. His
+nerves had suffered terribly beneath the vision of guilt and
+punishment that constantly haunted him. His new overseer, whom he
+had partially admitted to his bosom as a confidant, had secured a
+strong hold upon his fears. His presence seemed necessary to cheer
+him in his lonely hours, to chase away the phantoms of vengeance
+that pursued him. Harassed by doubts and fears, his constitution
+was, in some degree, impaired, and his mind, losing the pillar upon
+which it rested, was prone to yield also.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie examined with minuteness the papers to which his
+attention had been directed. Before him was a heap of documents of
+various kinds, all in confusion,&mdash;bills and bonds, letters and
+deeds, were thrown promiscuously together. His purpose was to sort
+and file them away for future reference. This confusion among the
+papers was not the work of Colonel Dumont; he had been strictly
+methodical and accurate in all his business affairs. This fact was
+attested by the occasional strips of pasteboard, on which were
+marked various descriptions of papers, as well as by bits of red
+tape that had secured the bundles.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie perceived that the labyrinth he was engaged in
+exploring had not been the labor of the former owner of Bellevue,
+and he was perplexed to understand why Jaspar had taken such
+apparent pains to disarrange them. But Jaspar did have a motive; he
+had produced the disorder in his careless search for any paper
+which might be evidence against him. So heedlessly, however, had he
+ransacked the drawers, that, if any such were there, they must have
+escaped his notice. He was too much excited to do the work with the
+attention his own safety demanded.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie continued to examine the papers, and Jaspar still
+trembled lest something might turn up which would give the overseer
+a confirmation of the opinions he had expressed at Vicksburg. Still
+Jaspar had not the courage to undertake the task himself. He
+allowed the overseer to perform it, in the very face of the danger
+he wished to escape.</p>
+<p>The overseer seemed to Jaspar's troubled vision perfectly
+indifferent. He could discover no anxiety in his features, to
+indicate that he had any other purpose than to do his employer's
+bidding. A more close inspection would have developed a slight
+twinkle, as of anticipation, in the marble face of Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>As he turned paper after paper, his eye rested upon a packet
+enclosed in a blank envelope. His curiosity was aroused, and,
+glancing indifferently at Jaspar, he saw that his piercing eye
+regarded him with intense scrutiny. Continuing his labor without
+disturbing the mysterious packet, he waited until the sharp eye of
+his companion was removed from him.</p>
+<p>On the table by the side of Jaspar was a bottle of brandy, at
+which, at short intervals, the miserable man paid his devoir.
+Dalhousie did not, therefore, have to wait long before the keen
+watcher left his chair, and, with his back to him, took a long
+draught of the exciting beverage. The overseer, seizing the
+favorable opportunity, slipped the packet into his pocket. As
+indifferently as before, he completed the task, and Jaspar was
+relieved when he saw the papers again filed away.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie sought his room, and, scarcely heeding the salutation
+of his wife, he seated himself, and drew forth the packet. Removing
+the blank envelope, he found it was a letter, directed to "Emily
+Dumont," with a request to Mr. Faxon that it might be delivered to
+her after the writer's decease. This seemed to imply that the
+writer had intended the clergyman as the keeper of the letter; but
+with this surmise the overseer did not trouble himself. He turned
+the letter over and over, examined the seal of Colonel Dumont,
+which was upon it, and, at last, as though he had satisfied the
+warning voice of conscience, he snapped the wax, and opened it. The
+letter was quite a lengthy one, yet, without raising his eyes, he
+completed the reading of it. A faint smile of satisfaction played
+upon his lips, as he re-folded the paper, and returned it to the
+envelope.</p>
+<p>"You have a letter, Francois?" said his wife, who had watched
+him in silence as he read, and who noticed the complacent smile its
+contents had produced.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Delia, and our fortune is at last come," replied
+Dalhousie, rising, and bestowing a kiss upon the fair cheek of the
+lady.</p>
+<p>"Is it from France?"</p>
+<p>"No, dear; it is from the land of spirits!" answered Dalhousie,
+with a good-natured laugh.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! I was not aware that you had a correspondent
+there."</p>
+<p>"But I have; and I am exceedingly obliged to him for putting me
+in possession of such useful information as this letter
+contains."</p>
+<p>"Pray, who is your ghostly correspondent?"</p>
+<p>"Colonel Dumont,&mdash;a deceased brother of the worthy Jaspar,
+in whose employ we now are."</p>
+<p>"Do not jest, Francois!" said the lady, as a feeling akin to
+superstition rose in her mind.</p>
+<p>"Jest or not, the letter was written by him," continued her
+husband, still retaining his playful smile.</p>
+<p>"To you?"</p>
+<p>"Not exactly; but I presume he meant it for me, or it would not
+have slipped so easily through Mr. Dumont's fingers into mine."</p>
+<p>"To whom is it directed, Francois?"</p>
+<p>"You grow inquisitive, Delia. I will tell you all about it in a
+few days. I must go now and see that the hands are all in their
+quarters;" and Dalhousie, to avoid unpleasant interrogatories, left
+the room.</p>
+<p>The overseer went the rounds of the quarters, more as a matter
+of form than of any interest he felt in his occupation. A gentleman
+by birth and education, these duties were extremely distasteful to
+him,&mdash;embraced because necessity compelled him. His mind
+seemed far away from his business, for a party of negroes passed
+him on his return, upon whom he did not bestow the usual
+benediction the boys receive when found out after hours.</p>
+<p>"Strike while the iron is hot," muttered he, as he entered the
+house, and gave his lantern to a servant. "If I don't do it
+to-night, it may be too late another time. The letter is in safe
+hands; and, as to the other traps, I must get them if I can. At any
+rate, I will try."</p>
+<p>Approaching the door of the library, he knocked, and was
+requested to enter. Under pretence of receiving directions for his
+next day's operations upon the plantation, he entered, and opened a
+conversation with Jaspar. Walking carelessly up and down the room
+while his employer issued his commands, he occasionally cast a
+furtive glance at the secretary. Then, narrowing down his walk, he
+approached nearer and nearer to it, until his swinging arm could
+touch it as he passed. Finally he stopped, and leaned against the
+secretary, with his hands behind him. He appeared very thoughtful
+and attentive, while Jaspar, glad to find a theme he could converse
+upon, expatiated upon his favorite methods of managing stock and
+crops. The overseer listened patiently to all he said, occasionally
+interrupting with a word of approbation. The enthusiastic planter,
+suspecting nothing of the overseer, labored diligently in his
+argument, and did not notice that, when the attentive listener
+carelessly put his hands into his pockets, he conveyed with them
+the key of one of the drawers.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, having effected the object which brought him to the
+library, soon grew tired of the planter's arguments, and edged
+towards the door, through which he rather rudely made his exit.</p>
+<p>Jaspar again relapsed into the moody melancholy from which the
+presence of the overseer had roused him. Sinking back into his
+chair, he again was a prey to the armed fears that continually
+goaded him. Occasionally he roused from his stupor, and, driven by
+the startling apparition of future retribution, paced the room in
+the most intense nervous excitement. Frequent were the stops he
+made at the brandy-bottle on the table; but, for a time, even the
+brandy-fiend refused to comfort him,&mdash;refused to excite his
+brain, or pour a healing balm upon his consuming misery. Again he
+sunk into his chair, overcome by the torture of his emotions, and
+again the gnawing worm forced him to the bottle, until, at last,
+nearly stupefied by the liquor, he slumbered uneasily in his chair.
+But the terrible apparition, which seldom left him when awake, was
+constant in his dreams; and, just as he was about to plunge into
+the awful abyss that always yawned before him, he awoke, and
+staggered to the bottle again. A gleam of consciousness now visited
+his inebriated mind, and he bethought himself of retiring. With a
+dim sense of his usual precaution, he reeled to the secretary, and
+attempted to lock the drawers. He discovered that one key was
+missing; but, too much intoxicated to reason upon the circumstance,
+he took another draught of brandy, and ambled towards his
+sleeping-room. He was too far gone to effect a landing at the head
+of the stairs, and fell full-length upon the floor when he released
+his hold of the banister.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was still up, and his knowledge of Jaspar's habits
+enabled him to judge the occasion of the noise he heard, and he
+immediately hastened to the rescue. "Lucky!" muttered he, as he
+lifted the fallen man. "He must have been intoxicated when he
+examined those papers, or he would have seen that letter."</p>
+<p>Jaspar, who had not entirely lost his senses, muttered something
+about an accident, and clung closely to his companion, who soon
+deposited him on his bed.</p>
+<p>The overseer, instead of returning to his room, descended to the
+library, where the light was still burning. Locking the door, he
+seated himself in the large stuffed chair, and drew from his pocket
+the letter he had purloined from the secretary. Opening it, he
+proceeded to a re-perusal of it. The letter was as follows:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"MY DEAR CHILD:&mdash;When you read this letter, your father
+will be no more. The last act of affection will have been
+performed, and the ground closed over your only earthly protector.
+I am aware that you will be exposed to many trials and temptations.
+The latter you are, I trust, prepared to resist; the former must
+come to all. I feel that I have done my duty to you, not only in
+bestowing an abundance of this world's goods, but that I have not
+entirely failed to implant in your mind the treasure 'which neither
+moth nor rust can corrupt.' I have done all that I could do, and in
+a short time I must lay my body in the grave, and leave you an
+orphan. But you are in the hands, and under the protection, of a
+Father who is infinitely more able to take care of you than I have
+been. Into His hands, with my ransomed spirit, I undoubtingly
+commit you.</p>
+<p>"As I write this letter, I feel the hand of death upon me. In a
+few short days, it may be only hours, I must go. I am the less
+ready to bid you the everlasting adieu when I think of the dangers
+that may surround you. In my last hours I am doomed to the torments
+of suspicion. I pray God they may be groundless. Perhaps they are
+only idle fancies, the dotings of an over-anxious father. I feel,
+as the sands of life are fast ebbing out, that some great calamity
+is lowering over you. I know not that a remark I accidentally
+overheard should thus haunt me; but it has roused my suspicions,
+and the presage of calamity will not depart from me. I cannot, with
+the warning voice ever ringing in my mind, help taking steps to
+guard you against the worst that may befall you.</p>
+<p>"My dear child, if I should disclose my suspicions, and they
+should prove unreasonable, I shall have done a grievous wrong to
+him I suspect. Although you cannot save me from the misery of
+doubting in my last hour, you can save me from injuring another in
+your good opinion. If I have wronged him, let the injury die with
+me. If my suspicions are not groundless, I offer you the means of
+saving yourself from the calamity that impends.</p>
+<p>"Should any event occur after my death which deprives you of any
+of your inheritance, follow the directions I now give you.</p>
+<p>"In the back of the lower drawer of the secretary you will find
+a secret aperture. The back of the drawer is a thick board, upon
+which is screwed, on the lower side, a thin slat. Take out the
+screws and remove the piece they secure, and the aperture will be
+seen. It contains a sealed packet, the contents of which require no
+explanation.</p>
+<p>"If nothing happens after my decease, and you peaceably obtain
+all your rights, burn the packet without opening it. My unjust
+suspicions, then, cannot influence you, or injure the person to
+whom they refer.</p>
+<p>"This letter you will receive from Mr. Faxon, to whom I
+recommend you for counsel and consolation in every trial.</p>
+<p>"And now, my child, I must bid you farewell. I feel my end
+approaching. May God forever bless and preserve you!</p>
+<p>"Your dying father,</p>
+<p>"EDGAR DUMONT."</p>
+</div>
+<p>Dalhousie perused and re-perused this letter, until its contents
+were fixed in his mind. He had many doubts and scruples, both
+prudential and conscientious, in regard to the step he was about to
+take: but the chimera of fortune prompted him to risk all in the
+great project he had matured. Taking from his pocket a small
+screw-driver, with which he had prepared himself, he opened the
+drawer designated in the letter, the key of which he had secured.
+Emptying the drawer of its contents, he turned it over, and, to his
+great delight, perceived the slat as described in the letter.
+Removing the screws, he soon had the satisfaction of holding in his
+hand the packet which, he doubted not, would restore the heiress of
+Bellevue to her home and her estates, if she were still alive; or
+which would give him a hold upon Jaspar, by means of which he could
+make his fortune.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was not a natural-born villain. It was the pressure of
+necessity, the almost unconscious yielding of a weak resolution,
+which had led him thus far in his present illegal and dishonorable
+course. Of the heiress he knew nothing; and the thought of
+restoring her had never entered his head, much more his heart. The
+great purpose of his life was to make his fortune, and it was this
+idea alone which influenced him in the present instance. He had
+entered upon his duties at Bellevue only the day before; but so
+impatient was he to realize the hope which had brought him there,
+that every hour seemed burdened with the weight of weeks.</p>
+<p>Carefully depositing its contents as he had found them, he
+locked the drawer, and put the key upon the floor.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"The accursed plot he
+overheard,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Its every point
+portrayed;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Yet ere the villain's words were
+cold.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The counter-plot was
+made."</span></p>
+<p>Hatchie was chagrined at the loss of his prisoner. His diligent
+search was of no avail. The Chalmetta's boat, which lay at the
+wood-yard in the morning, was gone; so he had no doubt Maxwell had
+made his escape in it. Having no further motive in remaining at the
+wood-yard, he procured a small canoe, with the intention of joining
+his mistress at Cottage Island.</p>
+<p>Seated in the stern of the canoe, Hatchie propelled it with only
+sufficient force to avoid the eddies which would have whirled his
+frail bark in every direction. His thoughts wandered over the
+events of the past few days. He moralized upon the conduct of the
+attorney and the uncle, and nursed his indignation over them.
+Hatchie was a moralist in his own way, but not a moralist only. The
+great virtue of his philosophy, unlike much of a more scholastic
+origin, was its practical utility. From the past, with its
+conquered trials, he turned to the future, to inquire for its
+dangers, to ask what snares it had spread to entangle the fair
+being whom he worshipped with all a lover's fondness, without the
+lover's sentiment.</p>
+<p>We will not follow him in his peregrinations through the mazes
+of the misty future, for they were interrupted by the appearance on
+the water of a distant object, which excited his attention. A
+searching and anxious scrutiny convinced him that it was the boat
+in which Maxwell had made his escape. Though at a great distance
+from him, he could see that it contained two men. Guardian as he
+was of his mistress' honor and safety, the sight awakened all his
+fears and called up all his energy. Did they know that his mistress
+had gone to Cottage Island? It was possible that Vernon had
+obtained a knowledge of her movements. The faithful fellow was
+almost maddened at the thought.</p>
+<p>The boat approached Cottage Island, and Hatchie observed them
+pull in under the high bank. This movement was ominous of evil, and
+all the mulatto's fears were confirmed, when, as they passed the
+mouth of the little stream, he saw one of them rise in the boat and
+point it out. Satisfied that his canoe was yet unnoticed by his
+enemies, and dreading no immediate danger, he paddled across the
+river so as to bring the island between them. When he had gained a
+position which hid him from their view, he used all his immense
+strength in propelling the canoe towards the island. A few minutes
+sufficed to bring him up with the western shore of the islet, his
+enemies being upon the opposite side. Keeping close to the high
+bank, he paddled down-stream to the lower extremity of the island,
+where the sound of voices caused him suddenly to check his
+progress, and gain a landing. Drawing the canoe out of reach of the
+current, he climbed up the bank, which, being near the down-stream
+end of the island, sloped gradually down, till it terminated in the
+low, sandy beach.</p>
+<p>He reached the high bank without attracting the attention of the
+party of whose motions he wished to obtain a knowledge. He could
+now distinctly hear their conversation, though they were still at a
+considerable distance from him. Cautiously he climbed a thick
+cotton-wood tree, whose foliage completely screened him from
+observation, and there awaited the nearer approach of Maxwell and
+his confederate.</p>
+<p>"Are you sure this is the island?" said Maxwell, when they had
+come within hearing of Hatchie.</p>
+<p>"This must be the one," replied Vernon. "We shall soon see
+whether it is inhabited or not."</p>
+<p>"With whom did the girl leave the wood-yard?"</p>
+<p>"With a doctor who lives like a hermit on this island. I saw
+them from a distance get into the sail-boat, and I asked a boatman
+for the particulars."</p>
+<p>"Who is the doctor?"</p>
+<p>"Don't know. The boatman said it was an outlandish name, and he
+had forgotten it. You mean to have the girl, do you?"</p>
+<p>"I do, if possible."</p>
+<p>"O, it's quite possible&mdash;nothing easier. You say the girl
+belongs to you?"</p>
+<p>"I do; did I not show you the bill of sale?"</p>
+<p>"That might be a trick of your own, you know. It's a devilish
+queer story."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! man, are you crazy? This thing has startled your
+conscience more than all the crimes of a lifetime. What has gotten
+into you, Vernon? I never knew you to moralize before."</p>
+<p>"Look here, my boy, I can do almost anything; but I would not
+wrong a woman,&mdash;no, not a <i>woman</i>,&mdash;I am above
+that," said Vernon, with much emphasis.</p>
+<p>"But, man, she is my slave&mdash;a quadroon."</p>
+<p>"Property's property; but since I met the girl in the boat, I am
+half inclined to believe she is no quadroon. Maxwell, I had a
+sister once, and may my body be rent into a thousand pieces but I
+would tear out the heart of the man who would serve her as you do
+this girl. If she is your <i>property</i>, why, that alters the
+case."</p>
+<p>"Certainly it does; so, end your sermon, and tell me how to gain
+possession of my <i>property</i>."</p>
+<p>"We can storm the island."</p>
+<p>"What! two of us?"</p>
+<p>"I can get plenty of soldiers, if you will pay them."</p>
+<p>"I will give a thousand dollars for her; and, if I get her
+again, by heavens, she shall not escape me! I will put a pair of
+ruffles on her wrists such as the dainty girl never got of her
+milliner. How many persons are on the island?"</p>
+<p>"That I don't know&mdash;perhaps half a dozen. Your hangman will
+be there," and Vernon chuckled at the thought of the scene he had
+witnessed near the wood-yard.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's teeth grated, and Hatchie distinctly heard the
+malediction he bestowed upon him. Fears for his personal safety did
+not, for a moment, disturb him. Prudence alone prevented him from
+rushing upon the villains, and thwarting in its embryo stage their
+design upon his mistress.</p>
+<p>"You mean," said Maxwell, "to take the girl from the house by
+force?"</p>
+<p>"There is no other way."</p>
+<p>"Then we had better examine the island, or it will not be an
+easy matter to land in a dark night."</p>
+<p>"How does the owner land?"</p>
+<p>"Probably by the little stream we saw above."</p>
+<p>"Rather difficult navigation for a stranger. We had better land
+in this part of the island. Let us walk through the thicket and
+find the house."</p>
+<p>Hatchie saw them attempt to pass through the thick brush; but
+the task was not an easy one. By the aid of a bowie-knife, with
+which they cut away some of the bushes, they penetrated to the
+larger growth of trees, where the under-brush no longer impeded
+their progress. They passed beyond the hearing of the mulatto,
+though from his elevated position he occasionally obtained a view
+of them, as they approached the cottage. Anxiously he waited their
+return, in the hope of getting more definite ideas of the time and
+method of the proposed attack upon the island.</p>
+<p>After a careful survey of the premises, Maxwell and Vernon
+returned to their former position.</p>
+<p>"Quite an easy job," said Vernon; "the only difficulty is this
+thick brush, which can be easily removed. I will cut away a part
+now."</p>
+<p>"Very well," responded Maxwell, as his associate proceeded to
+cut away the bushes, and form a pathway through, the thicket. "When
+shall the thing be done?"</p>
+<p>"As to that I can hardly say. When we get to Vicksburg we can
+decide. Better let the girl rest a week or so; for it may take that
+time to get things ready. You can't hire men to do such work as
+easily as you can to cut wood and dig ditches. It takes skill and
+caution."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I am in no haste."</p>
+<p>For nearly an hour Vernon labored at his task, and completed a
+path through which the party could easily pass to the cottage.</p>
+<p>The object of their visit accomplished, Hatchie saw them return
+to their boat, and row down the river. After they had disappeared
+round a bend, he descended from the tree, and examined the labors
+of Vernon. He found the bushes which had been cut down were nicely
+placed at each end of the path in an upright position, so as to
+conceal it from the eyes of the passer. For a long time the mulatto
+reflected upon the conversation he had heard, and considered the
+means of defeating the diabolical plot. Against a band of ruffians,
+such as Vernon would enlist for the service, he could not contend
+single-handed. To remove his mistress from the island, while Henry
+Carroll lay helpless there, would not be an acceptable proposition
+to her. Resolving to lay the information he had gained before Dr.
+Vaudelier, he returned to his canoe, and, having rounded the
+island, reached the cottage by the usual passage.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>Henry Carroll still slept. For six hours he had lain under the
+influence of the powerful opiate. Emily entered his chamber in
+company with the doctor, on their return from the wood-yard. The
+sight of Henry, pale and worn as he appeared, excited all her
+sympathy. His right arm, which was uninjured, lay extended on the
+bed; she gently grasped it, and, bending over him, imprinted upon
+his pallid lips a kiss, that was unknown and unappreciated by its
+recipient. Only a few days before she had listened to the eloquent
+confession of him who now lay insensible of her presence. She was a
+true woman, and the presence of Dr. Vaudelier did not restrain the
+expression of her woman's heart. It was visible in her pale cheek,
+in her heaving breast, and in her sparkling eye, from which oozed
+the gentle tear of affectionate sympathy.</p>
+<p>She held his hand; unconsciously, at the silent bidding of her
+warm heart, she gently pressed it. As though the magnetism of love
+had communicated itself to the sleeper, he sighed heavily, and
+uttered a groan of half-subdued anguish. His eyelids fluttered; he
+was apparently shaking off the heaviness of slumber. His lips
+quivered, and Emily heard them faintly articulate her name.</p>
+<p>At the request of the good physician, she reluctantly withdrew
+from the apartment.</p>
+<p>The sufferer endeavored to turn in the bed; the effort drew from
+him a groan of agony, which, in a more wakeful state, a proud
+superiority over every weakness would not have permitted him to
+utter. His eyes opened, and he stared vacantly about the darkened
+chamber. The doctor took his hand, and examined his pulse.</p>
+<p>"How do you feel, captain? Does your head ache?" asked he.</p>
+<p>"Slightly; I am better, I think," replied the invalid,
+faintly.</p>
+<p>"And you are better," said the doctor, with evident
+satisfaction. "The scalds are doing very well, and the wound on
+your head is not at all serious."</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, will you tell me where I am?"</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier imparted the information.</p>
+<p>"Emily! Emily! Won but lost again!" murmured Henry. "Would that
+we had sunk together beneath the dark tide!"</p>
+<p>"Do not distress yourself, my dear captain. We must be careful
+of this fever."</p>
+<p>"Distress myself!" returned Henry, not a little provoked at the
+coolness of the doctor. "You know not the loss I have
+sustained."</p>
+<p>"But you must keep calm."</p>
+<p>"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed
+rather wildly at his host.</p>
+<p>This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience
+was of such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before
+marriage,&mdash;the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary
+hour,&mdash;and he sympathized with the unhappy man.</p>
+<p>"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it
+chilled the ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can
+understand your present state of feeling."</p>
+<p>"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had
+better die now than endure the misery before me."</p>
+<p>The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express
+the thought.</p>
+<p>"You will regain her," said he.</p>
+<p>"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw
+scores of dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."</p>
+<p>"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be
+restored to your arms again."</p>
+<p>"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an
+infallible prophet."</p>
+<p>"In this instance, I am."</p>
+<p>Henry looked at the doctor, and saw the smile of satisfaction
+that played upon his usually stern features. It augured
+hope&mdash;more than hope; and, as the wrecked mariner clings to
+the disjointed spar, his mind fastened upon that smile as the
+forerunner of a blissful reunion with her his soul cherished.</p>
+<p>"Be calm, sir, be calm; she is safe," continued Dr.
+Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"Do you know it?" almost shouted Henry, attempting to rise.</p>
+<p>"Be quiet, sir," said the doctor, in a voice approaching to
+sternness; "be quiet, or I shall regret that I gave you reason to
+hope."</p>
+<p>"Where is she?" asked Henry, sinking back at the doctor's
+reproof, and heeding not the darting pain his attempt to rise had
+produced.</p>
+<p>"She is safe; let this suffice. I see you cannot bear more
+now."</p>
+<p>"I can bear anything, sir, anything. I will be as gentle as a
+lamb, if you will tell me all you know of her."</p>
+<p>"If you keep entirely quiet, we will, in a few days, let her
+speak for herself."</p>
+<p>"Then she is safe; she has escaped every danger?"</p>
+<p>"She has."</p>
+<p>"And was not injured?"</p>
+<p>"No; she was taken, it seems, from the wreck by a villain. Thank
+God, she has escaped his wiles!"</p>
+<p>Henry's indignation could scarcely be controlled, even by the
+reflection that Maxwell's wicked intentions had been turned, by an
+overruling Providence, into the means of her safety.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier related to his patient the incident of the
+wood-yard; not, however, without the necessity of frequently
+reproving his auditor, whose exasperation threatened serious
+consequences. When, at the conclusion of the narration, he told
+Henry that the loved one was at that moment beneath his roof, he
+could scarcely restrain his immoderate joy within the bounds of
+that quiet which his physician demanded.</p>
+<p>"May I not see her?" said he.</p>
+<p>"That must depend entirely upon your own behavior. You have not
+shown yourself a very tractable patient thus far."</p>
+<p>"I will be perfectly docile," pleaded Henry.</p>
+<p>"I fear I cannot trust you. You are so excitable, that you
+explode like a magazine of gunpowder."</p>
+<p>"No, no; I solemnly promise to keep perfectly quiet. She will, I
+know, be glad to see me, wounded and stricken though I am."</p>
+<p>"She has already seen you."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!"</p>
+<p>"Yes; and not content with <i>seeing</i> you merely, your lips
+are not yet cold from the kiss she imprinted upon them;" and a
+smile, not altogether stoical, lit up the doctor's cold expression.
+"You shall see her, but the instant I perceive that the interview
+is prejudicial to your nerves, I shall remove her."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, doctor!" said Henry, fervently.</p>
+<p>"O, it is part of my treatment. It may do you more good than all
+my physic. I have known such cases."</p>
+<p>"I am sure it will," returned the patient.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier retired, and after a serious charge to Emily, he
+re&euml;ntered, leading the Hygeia who was to restore the sick
+man.</p>
+<p>"Be careful," was the doctor's monition, as he elevated his
+fore-finger, in the attitude of caution; "be careful."</p>
+<p>"O, Emily!" exclaimed Henry, more gently than the nature of the
+interview would seem to allow, as he extended his hand to her.</p>
+<p>Emily silently took the hand, and while a tell-tale tear started
+from her eye, she pressed it gently; but the pressure startled the
+sick man's blood, and sent it thrilling with joy through its lazy
+channels. The invalid, as much as the pressure of the hand warmed
+his heart, seemed not to be satisfied with the hand alone; for he
+continued to draw her towards himself, until her form bent over
+him, and their lips met. It was the first time when both were
+conscious of the act. We will not go into ecstasies over the
+unutterable bliss of that moment. We will not deck our page with
+any unseemly extravagances. If the experience of the reader has led
+him through the hallowed mystery of the first kiss of love, he
+needs not another's fancy to revive the beatific vision. If not,
+why, thousands of coy and blushing damsels, equally in the dark,
+are waiting, from whom he may select one to assist him in solving
+the mystery. Besides, it is not always wise to penetrate the
+secrets of the heart, even in a novel; for there is a sacredness
+about them, a kind of natural free-masonry, which must not be made
+too common.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, when he saw that the patient was disposed to
+behave himself in a reasonable manner, withdrew from the room, and
+left them to the undisturbed enjoyment of their happy reunion. In
+an hour he returned, and peremptorily forbade all further
+conversation. He permitted Emily to remain in the room, however, on
+the promise to allow the invalid to use no further exertion in
+talking.</p>
+<p>All day, like a ministering angel, she moved about his couch,
+and laved his fevered brow. All his art could not lure her into any
+conversation beyond the necessary replies to his questions
+concerning his physical condition. Henry was too thankful for being
+permitted to enjoy her presence to forfeit the boon by any
+untractableness, and, for one of his excitable temperament, he was
+exceedingly docile.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Appius</i>. Well,
+Claudius, are the forces</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">At hand?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Claudius</i>. They are, and
+timely, too; the people</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Are in unwonted
+ferment."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">KNOWLES.</span></p>
+<p>It was midnight at Cottage Island,&mdash;the third night after
+the events of the preceding chapter. Henry Carroll, by the skilful
+treatment of his host, was in a great degree relieved from his
+severe pain, and had now sunk into a natural and quiet slumber. By
+his bedside sat Dr. Vaudelier. Emily had, an hour before, retired
+to the rest which her exhausted frame demanded. For the past three
+days she had watched patiently and lovingly by the invalid. And now
+she had only been induced to retire by the promise of the doctor to
+call her, if any unfavorable symptom appeared.</p>
+<p>The threatened assault upon the island had been thoroughly
+considered, and for the past two nights the island wore the
+appearance of a garrisoned fortress, rather than the secluded abode
+of a hermit. Emily knew of the peril which now menaced her, but the
+ample means at hand for protection rendered it insignificant. All
+thought, even of her own security, was merged in her generous
+interest in the comfort of the sufferer.</p>
+<p>The good physician was uneasy and disturbed, as he sat by the
+bedside of his patient. The circumstances which surrounded him were
+novel in the extreme. Accustomed as he had been to the quiet which
+always reigned in his domain, to find himself, as it were, the
+inmate of a fortress, in momentary expectation of an attack, was so
+singularly odd, that his natural indifference deserted him. He had
+collected quite a large force of his humble neighbors to assist him
+in his present emergency, and they were now making their final
+arrangements to meet the assault.</p>
+<p>The doctor was restless; but it was not on account of any fear
+of his personal safety,&mdash;he was above that. The lonely and
+innocent being whom he had undertaken to protect had filled his
+mind with a sense of responsibility. A single day had been long
+enough for Emily to win a way to his affections, and he had grown
+to regard her with the tender care of a father. Occasionally he
+left his place at the bedside, and went to the window, as if to
+assure himself that the attack had not already commenced.</p>
+<p>In front of the cottage a different sentiment prevailed among
+the motley group there assembled. There were twenty men, including
+Hatchie, all armed with rifle and bowie-knife, and every one
+anxious for the fight to commence. Besides their arms, each man was
+provided with a small cord, and a torch of pitch-wood, the end of
+which had been plentifully besprinkled with turpentine.</p>
+<p>The party was composed mostly of woodmen and boatmen, who had
+promptly and willingly obeyed the doctor's summons. Like most men
+of their class in that locality, they were hardy and reckless; they
+had not that healthy horror of a mortal combat which the moralist
+would gladly see. Dr. Vaudelier had always been their friend; had
+always promptly and kindly aided them in their necessities, whether
+moral, physical, or pecuniary. As he had laved the fevered brows of
+their wives and children, so had he said prayers over their dead,
+in the absence of a clergyman. He had exhorted the intemperate and
+the dishonest, and with his purse relieved the needy in their
+distress. They were not ungrateful; they appreciated his many
+kindnesses, and rejoiced in an opportunity to serve him. These men,
+notwithstanding their rude speech, their rough exteriors, and their
+reckless dispositions, were true-hearted men. They reciprocated the
+offering of a true friendship, not by smooth speeches and unmeaning
+smiles, but by actions of manly kindness. The philosopher in ethics
+may say what he pleases of the refinements of sympathy; we would
+not give a single such heart as those gathered on Cottage Island
+for a whole army of puling, sentimental, hair-splitting moralizers.
+They were men of action, not of words; and, though they hesitated
+not, in what they deemed a good cause, to close with their man in
+deadly combat, they were true as steel to a friend in the hour of
+his need.</p>
+<p>With these men the exploits of Hatchie, which had been related,
+and perhaps exaggerated, by Jerry Swinger, who was a leading spirit
+of the party, had been much applauded, and he had, in spite of the
+odium of his social position, obtained a powerful influence over
+them. They heard him with attention, and deferred to his skill and
+judgment. By his advice, and to remove the confusion of the affray
+from the vicinity of the cottage, it was determined to receive the
+invaders near the beach where he had overheard Vernon propose to
+land. Jerry Swinger, whom natural talent and the wish of the party
+seemed to indicate as leader, marched the expedition towards the
+avenue which had been made in the bushes by the ruffians.</p>
+<p>For so many men, excited as they were by the anticipation of a
+conflict, they were remarkably quiet and orderly. Dr. Vaudelier had
+cautioned them to avoid all noise, and not to fire a rifle unless
+absolutely necessary. He had also instructed them to make prisoners
+of the assailants, if possible, without injuring them.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger stationed his party near the avenue, ready to
+spring upon and overpower the foe, when the favorable moment should
+arrive.</p>
+<p>An hour passed by, and the impatience of the ambushed woodmen
+seemed likely to give their faithful leader some trouble, when the
+careful dip of oars near the shore saluted their ears. In a whisper
+Jerry gave the oft-repeated caution for silence, and charged them
+to be prompt when the moment came.</p>
+<p>The assaulting party approached the shore. There were two boats,
+the foremost of which contained eight men, under the direction of
+Maxwell, and the other six, led by Vernon. The latter had
+reconnoitred the island several times, and had somewhat modified
+the plan of the attack, on discovering that the cottage, for the
+past two nights, had been occupied by more than its usual
+occupants. Several men had been seen to land there; but, as his
+preparations on the lower part of the island were undisturbed, it
+never occurred to him that his purpose would be anticipated.</p>
+<p>Vernon had procured the services of fourteen men,
+chicken-thieves, and others of desperate fortunes, to engage in the
+enterprise, by holding out to them the hope of plunder, of which
+the cottage, he assured them, would afford an abundant harvest. The
+real purpose of the expedition was, therefore, unknown to any of
+the party, except the leaders. The prospect of a sharp fight had
+not in the least dampened the ardor of their hopes. With men of
+their craft it was a dull season, and the prospect of "cracking a
+crib" plentifully stored with valuables was quite a pleasant
+anticipation.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Maxwell, with the larger portion of the
+desperadoes, should land at the lower part of the island, and, if
+any defenders appeared, commence hostilities, and draw them away
+from the house, while Vernon, with the most experienced of the
+"cracks-men," should assault the house, and effect the purpose of
+the enterprise. In the person of one of the chicken-thieves a pilot
+for the creek was discovered; and, to make assurance doubly sure,
+it was decided that Vernon should approach the cottage by the usual
+channel.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's boat was beached, while that of Vernon proceeded up
+the river to the little stream. The skill of his pilot, of whom
+Vernon had felt many doubts, soon brought him to the creek. The
+current, he found, was quite rapid, and he feared it would carry
+him into the midst of the "enemy's camp" before Maxwell should have
+made his demonstration. As the boat was whirled along towards the
+centre of the island, for the oars could not be used, on account of
+their noise, his position seemed to grow desperate. Vernon was on
+the point of risking the noise, and taking to the oars, when he
+discovered an overhanging branch, which he seized as the boat
+passed under it. Fortunately for him, a bend in the stream turned
+the current from the middle of the creek, or its violence would
+have drawn him into the water. By the aid of his companions, he
+succeeded in making the boat fast to the branch. He listened; but
+all was still. There were no indications of the approach of the
+other party.</p>
+<p>Seating himself in the stern-sheets of the boat, he again
+considered the operations in which he was soon to engage; but, as
+these were necessarily to be directed by the circumstances of the
+moment, his deliberations soon gave way to that impatience which
+the perpetrator of crime experiences at an unexpected delay. His
+eager spirit was, however, soon gratified by sounds of conflict,
+which proceeded from the part of the island where Maxwell had
+landed. Awhile he listened, and the sounds grew more and more
+distinct. Loosing the boat from its a&euml;rial moorings, it was
+again driven by the current towards the landing in front of the
+cottage. Preparations were now made to effect the grand object,
+and, landing by the side of the doctor's yacht, Vernon found no one
+to oppose his progress, though the sounds from the lower extremity
+of the island indicated that the affray was growing hotter and more
+violent. At the head of his party, Vernon was about to enter the
+house, when the approach of a body of men from the scene of action
+caused him to pause, and await their approach.</p>
+<p>Maxwell had landed on the beach, and, not suspecting the
+proximity of the ambush which waited to receive him, had proceeded
+towards the avenue made at his first visit to the island. Removing
+the loose bushes, they attempted to pass through; but no sooner
+were they fairly involved among the young trees than Jerry Swinger
+shouted his first order, to light the torches, and, in an instant,
+the woods were illuminated, and the position of both parties
+disclosed. This was, undoubtedly, a masterly stroke of preparation
+on the part of Jerry. The torches, on the application of the match,
+emitted a broad sheet of flame, which glared upon the invaders like
+a sudden flash of lightning, and utterly confounded them. It seemed
+like the bolt of Omnipotence thrown across their path in the hour
+of their great transgression.</p>
+<p>Maxwell was unprepared for an immediate attack. He had
+calculated on effecting a junction with Vernon in the vicinity of
+the cottage. Before his party had time to recover from the panic,
+they were surrounded by the resolute woodmen. The attorney, who was
+as brave and active as he was unprincipled and cunning, was not a
+man to be defeated without a stout resistance. Encouraging his
+party by shouts, and by his own example, a general engagement
+ensued.</p>
+<p>Hatchie no sooner saw the foe of his mistress' peace, than,
+stepping between him and Jerry Swinger, who also had an account to
+settle with him, he knocked down the pistol which was levelled at
+his head, and grasped him by the throat. In the hands of Hatchie
+the attorney was as nothing. The stalwart mulatto cast him upon the
+ground, and, with his cord, bound him hand and foot. The leader
+vanquished, it was the work of but a few moments to secure the rest
+of the assailants.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger learned, from sundry exclamations of the defeated
+party, that another portion of the expedition was to land at the
+creek. Leaving a few of his men in charge of the prisoners, he made
+all haste, with the remainder, towards the cottage.</p>
+<p>The affray had occupied but a few moments. The sturdy woodmen,
+accustomed to such scenes, and animated by a high motive, had done
+their duty promptly and efficiently, as the woful appearance of the
+disconcerted ruffians testified. Some hard blows had been dealt;
+some few upon both sides were severely wounded; but, considering
+the desperate character of the invaders, the masterly tact of Jerry
+Swinger had evidently saved much bloodshed.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, as soon as he had secured his prisoner, hastened,
+somewhat in advance of Jerry's party, towards the cottage.</p>
+<p>Vernon waited the approach of the party in front of the cottage.
+While it was yet at some distance, he discovered Hatchie, whom he
+recognized by the light of his torch, running in front of it. The
+appearance of the mulatto, alone, he interpreted as the signal of
+victory to the party in conjunction with him, who, he imagined,
+were pursuing him. Resolving, therefore, to lose no more time, he
+advanced towards the house, ordering two of his followers to secure
+Hatchie.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier had heard the sounds of the distant encounter, and
+occasionally sought the window to assure himself the invaders did
+not approach the cottage. The glaring torch of Hatchie, who was
+running towards the house, gave him some misgivings, and, seizing
+the pistols which lay upon the table, he went to the door, on
+opening which he was confronted by Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Come on, boys! come on!" shouted the ruffian, as he pushed by
+the doctor. "The way is clear; let us make quick work."</p>
+<p>The pistol of Dr. Vaudelier had been raised to shoot down the
+assailant; but his hand dropped at the sound of his voice, he
+staggered back and let the weapon fall from his hand, and uttered
+an exclamation of intense feeling.</p>
+<p>"This way, men! this way!" shouted Vernon, as he pressed on.</p>
+<p>Entering the room at the right of the entry, in which a bed had
+been temporarily placed for the use of Emily, he found the
+affrighted girl, who had been aroused from her transient slumber by
+the noise of the attack. Rising from the bed upon which she had
+merely thrown herself, she was confounded by the appearance of her
+former persecutor.</p>
+<p>"Ah, my pretty bird, you are again in my power, and I shall take
+care that no weak indulgence again deprives me of your society,"
+said Vernon, as he seized her arm, and attempted to hurry her from
+the room.</p>
+<p>"Unhand me, villain!" exclaimed she, roused to desperation by
+the sudden and painful change which had overtaken her.</p>
+<p>"Do not pout, my pretty dove! there is no chance to escape this
+time. Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help
+you; so I advise you to come quietly with me."</p>
+<p>"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"&mdash;and
+she struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.</p>
+<p>"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the
+hands of two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your
+bidding."</p>
+<p>The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow
+on the back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.</p>
+<p>"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted
+his mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him,
+examined the condition of the fallen man.</p>
+<p>"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."</p>
+<p>"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily,
+bursting into tears, as the terrible scene through which she had
+just passed was fully realized. "But where is Henry&mdash;Captain
+Carroll&mdash;is he safe?"</p>
+<p>"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room,"
+replied Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been
+worse."</p>
+<p>"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie,
+seizing the prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him
+to a tree, and I will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till
+both are hung."</p>
+<p>"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that
+moment entered. "<i>He is my son</i>!"</p>
+<p>"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on
+the sofa.</p>
+<p>"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone.
+"I would that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I
+recognized him as he entered the house, and had nearly lost my
+consciousness, as the terrible reality stared me in the face, that
+my son, he whose childhood I had watched over, who once called me
+by the endearing name of father, is a common midnight assassin!</p>
+<p>"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an
+abundant shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his
+eyes. "Is he the person who has caused you so much trouble?"</p>
+<p>"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest
+comfort to the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for
+Maxwell."</p>
+<p>"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an
+interested motive to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be
+brought so low!"&mdash;and the doctor wrung his hands in
+anguish.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps, sir," said Emily, "he is not so bad as you think; let
+us hear before we condemn him."</p>
+<p>Her resentment, if her gentle nature had for a moment harbored
+such a feeling, had all given way to the abundant sympathy she felt
+for the doctor in his deep distress. Forgiving as the spirit of
+mercy, she now applied restoratives to the man who had so lately
+attempted to wrong her; and Dr. Vaudelier, with a sad heart,
+assisted her in her merciful duty.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, on his approach to the cottage, had been assailed by
+the men whom Vernon had sent to secure him. A severe encounter had
+ensued, and although Hatchie's great muscular power and skill had
+enabled him to keep his assailants at bay, he would eventually have
+had the worst of it; but Jerry Swinger came to his aid in season
+for him to save his mistress from injury. Vernon's party, like that
+of Maxwell, were all secured.</p>
+<p>The noise caused by the entrance of Vernon had awakened Henry
+Carroll from his slumbers. He listened, but could not make out the
+occasion of it; for, in consideration of his feeble condition, he
+had not been informed of the meditated attack. The cry for help
+uttered by Emily convinced him of the nature of the disturbance.
+His first impulse was to rise and rush to her assistance; but of
+his inability to do this he was painfully reminded in his attempt
+to rise. The heavy fall of Vernon on the floor, and the voice of
+Hatchie, assured him that, whatever the affair might be, it had
+assumed a new phase. His painful apprehensions were quieted by the
+appearance of Hatchie, who in a concise manner related the events
+of the night.</p>
+<p>The last lingering doubt of the suspicious invalid was removed
+by the entrance of Emily herself.</p>
+<p>"You are safe, dear Emily!" exclaimed he.</p>
+<p>"I am, thank God!"</p>
+<p>"And I could not assist in your defence!"</p>
+<p>"Heaven will protect me, Henry. It seems as if a veritable angel
+hovered over my path to shield me from the thousand perils that
+assail me."</p>
+<p>"The angels do hover around you, Emily; you are so pure, and
+good, and true, that they are ever near you, even in your own
+heart. Angels always minister to the good,&mdash;to those who
+resist the temptations of the world."</p>
+<p>"You speak too well of me. But you have been excited by this
+tumult, Henry."</p>
+<p>"I was a little disturbed; but, unable to help myself, I could
+do nothing for others,&mdash;not even for you, dearest."</p>
+<p>"I know what you would have done, if you had been able. I know
+your heart, and I feel just as grateful as though your strong arm
+had rescued me."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, who had succeeded in restoring Vernon&mdash;or,
+by his true name, Jerome Vaudelier&mdash;to consciousness, now
+entered the room. He appeared more melancholy and harassed in mind
+than Emily had before seen him. His soul seemed to be crushed by
+the terrible realization that <i>his son</i> was a common
+felon&mdash;worse than felon, the persecutor of innocence. A soul
+as sensitive as his to the distinctions of right and wrong could
+hardly endure the misery of that hour.</p>
+<p>With an absent manner, he inquired into the condition of the
+patient, and took the necessary steps to soothe him to slumber
+again.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, having satisfied himself that the prisoners were all
+safe, left them under guard of the woodmen, and returned to the
+chamber of the sick man; and, at the doctor's urgent request, Emily
+left Henry to his care.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Friar</i> Can you
+forgive?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Elmore</i>. As I would be
+forgiven."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">LOVELL.</span></p>
+<p>On the morning following the defeat of Maxwell and Vernon, it
+became necessary to make some disposition of the prisoners, so that
+the conquerors could attend to their daily duties. Their number was
+too large to be left upon the island in the absence of its
+defenders. A consultation between Dr. Vaudelier and the principals
+of the party took place. There were so many difficulties in the way
+of bringing the invaders to justice, that it was finally decided to
+release them all. The burden of the evidence was against the
+physician's son. The doctor, however much he deprecated the deed,
+was anxious to save his son from the publicity of a trial. His
+friends, seeing the melancholy truth, relieved his mind by
+suggesting that all of them be released, which was accordingly
+done.</p>
+<p>Vernon had entirely recovered from the effects of Hatchie's
+blow, and was seated at the window of his apartment, contemplating
+the means of escape. At his father's request, two men had sat by
+him during the night, as much to prevent his escape as to minister
+to his wants. The watchers were still in the room. Vernon was not
+yet informed of the relation he sustained to the proprietor of the
+mansion in which he now involuntarily abode. He thought that,
+considering the unequivocal circumstances under which he had been
+made a prisoner, he was treated with a great deal of gentleness;
+but to him the reason was not apparent. He had been an alien from
+his father's house for a long period, and was not acquainted with
+the history of the past three or four years of the doctor's
+life.</p>
+<p>His mind was now occupied in devising the means of escape; and
+just as he had struck upon a feasible project, he was interrupted
+by the entrance of Jerry Swinger, who had been sent by Dr.
+Vaudelier to ascertain the present frame of his son's mind, and
+broach to him the tidings that he was beneath his father's
+roof,&mdash;a circumstance of which his watchers were also
+ignorant.</p>
+<p>"Well, stranger, how do you feel yourself, this morning?" asked
+Jerry.</p>
+<p>"Better. That was a cursed hard rap which some one gave me, last
+night," replied Vernon,&mdash;as, from the force of habit, we must
+still call him.</p>
+<p>"That are a fack, stranger; the man that gin you that blow has a
+moughty hard fist; and I advoise you to keep clear of him, or he
+will beat you into mince-meat."</p>
+<p>"I will try to do so."</p>
+<p>"You will larn to, if he mought have one more chance at that
+head of yours."</p>
+<p>"Who is he?"</p>
+<p>"He's an oncommon fine fellow, and made your cake dough once
+before."</p>
+<p>"Ah, was it Miss Dumont's&mdash;that is, the quadroon's
+servant."</p>
+<p>"Quadroon, man!&mdash;that's all humbug. But he's the boy, and
+is bound to fotch his missus out straight, in the end."</p>
+<p>"Well, if she is his mistress, I hope he may. I wish her no
+harm, however much appearances belie me."</p>
+<p>"Is that a fack, stranger?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly; she never did me any harm."</p>
+<p>"Then what mought be the reason you were so onmerciful to
+her?"</p>
+<p>"I never used her hardly. My friend said she was his slave, and
+all I wished was to have him obtain his own. In short, I was paid
+for my services."</p>
+<p>"No doubt of it, stranger. But I can't see how the tenth part of
+a man could hunt down such a gal as that,&mdash;it's onnateral.
+Besides, you didn't believe she was a slave."</p>
+<p>"'Pon my honor I did, or I would not have lifted a finger. But I
+see you have released the rest of your prisoners,&mdash;I hope you
+will be as generous towards me."</p>
+<p>"Don't flatter yourself, stranger!"</p>
+<p>"I have a mortal aversion to courts of justice."</p>
+<p>"Quite likely," returned Jerry, pleased with the man's
+frankness.</p>
+<p>"Besides, I belong to a respectable family, who will not mind
+paying something handsome to avoid exposure."</p>
+<p>"Can't be bought, stranger; besides, respectable villains arn't
+any better nor others."</p>
+<p>"True; but, you know, their friends, who are educated, are more
+sensitive in such matters than others."</p>
+<p>"That mought be true, for's aught I know; but it's mighty
+strange you never thought of that sarcumstance before."</p>
+<p>"Never was in limbo before."</p>
+<p>"That's the go, is't? Look-a-here, stranger, is it the darbies,
+or the crime, which brings the disgrace upon the family? Accordin'
+to my notion,&mdash;and I believe I've got something besides nits
+and lice in my head,&mdash;it's the deed, and not the punishment,
+that fotches the disgrace. But whar does your family live?"</p>
+<p>"In New Orleans," replied Vernon, who knew nothing to the
+contrary, though we are not sure that, if he had, it would have
+made any difference in his reply.</p>
+<p>"And your name is Vernon?"</p>
+<p>"It is."</p>
+<p>"Is that your family name, or only a borried one?"</p>
+<p>"It is my real name," replied Vernon, not a little perplexed by
+the coolness and method of the woodman's queries.</p>
+<p>"I rather guess not," suggested Jerry, mildly.</p>
+<p>"'Pon my honor&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Think again,&mdash;maybe you mought fotch the real one to your
+mind."</p>
+<p>Vernon, whose temper was not particularly gentle under
+contradiction, was nettled, and disposed to be angry.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you know best," said he, conquering his passion, and
+assuming one of those peculiarly convincing smiles, which must be
+an hereditary possession in the family of the "father of lies."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I do," replied Jerry. "If you don't know any better
+than that, why, then, I do know best. It arn't Vernon."</p>
+<p>"It is not manly, captain, to insult a prisoner," replied
+Vernon, with an air of dignity, which came from the same source as
+the liar's smile.</p>
+<p>"I don't mean to insult you, stranger; but facts is facts, all
+over the world," said Jerry, untouched by the other's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"What mean you?"</p>
+<p>"Nothin', stranger, only I know you. Your mother arn't
+livin'."</p>
+<p>"No," returned Vernon, with a start; for, with all his vices and
+his crimes, a sense of respect for the name and honor of his family
+had outlived the good principles imbibed upon a mother's knee.
+Although a villain in almost every sense of the word, there were
+many redeeming traits in his character, which the reader will be
+willing to believe, on recalling his expressions of
+conscientiousness uttered to Maxwell. Family pride is often
+hereditary, and the reverses and degradations of a lifetime cannot
+extinguish it. It was so with Vernon. His real name was unknown,
+even among his most intimate associates. He had early taken the
+precaution&mdash;not in deference to the feelings of his
+father&mdash;to assume a name; it was from pride of birth, which
+shuddered more at the thought of a stain upon the family escutcheon
+than at all the crimes which may canker and corrode the heart.</p>
+<p>"My mother is not living," continued he; "but how know you
+this?"</p>
+<p>"It don't matter, stranger. Have you seen your father
+lately?"</p>
+<p>"Not for many years. I am an outcast from his presence," replied
+Vernon, with some appearance of feeling.</p>
+<p>"That's onfortunate; does he know what sort of a lark you
+are?"</p>
+<p>"I hope not," replied Vernon, with a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"But he does; he knows all about this ongodly scrape you got
+into last night."</p>
+<p>"What mean you?" said the ruffian, sternly.</p>
+<p>"Mean? Why, just exactly what I say, Mr. Vaudelier! Don't start!
+I know you as well as you know yourself."</p>
+<p>Vernon bit his lips; he was confounded at hearing his name
+uttered,&mdash;a name which had not greeted his ears for many
+years. His passion was disarmed before the rude but cutting speech
+of the woodman, whose knowledge of human nature, bred in the woods
+as he had been, was remarkable. There are men in the world,
+supposed to be entirely intractable, who, when rightly approached,
+prove as gentle as lambs. There is no evil without its antidote,
+however deeply it may be hid from the knowledge of man; and there
+is no man so vile that he cannot be reformed. The image of God,
+marred and disfigured as it may be, exists in every man, as the
+faultless statue exists in the rough block of marble; from which,
+when the fashioning hand, aided by the magic of genius, touches it,
+the imago of beauty shall come forth. So, when man, in whom always
+exists the elements of the highest character, shall be approached
+by the true reformer,&mdash;the highest and truest
+genius,&mdash;the bright ideal shall assume the actual form.</p>
+<p>The woodman had touched a chord in the heart of the gambler
+which vibrated at his touch. It was not the words, but the genuine
+sympathy with which they were laden, that overcame the indifference
+of the vicious man. Perceiving his advantage, the woodman followed
+it up, repeatedly disarming the bolt of passion, which was poised
+in the mind of his auditor.</p>
+<p>"Your father," said Jerry, "is a good man, and you mought go
+round the world without finding a better."</p>
+<p>"Very true!" replied Vernon, moved to a degree he was unwilling
+to acknowledge.</p>
+<p>"Now, if you jest turn over a new leaf in the book of life, and
+try to fotch out right in the end, I believe the old man would cry
+quits on the old score."</p>
+<p>"Send those men away, captain! I will not attempt to
+escape."</p>
+<p>Jerry complied, and the watchers took their departure.</p>
+<p>"Where is my father?"</p>
+<p>"Close by, stranger. May be you'd like to see him?"</p>
+<p>"On no account!"</p>
+<p>"That's a good sign, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "You will have to
+see him, I am afraid. You are under his ruff."</p>
+<p>Vernon, completely overcome, staggered to a chair, and covered
+his face with his hands.</p>
+<p>"Not so bad a boy as one mought suppose," soliloquized Jerry, as
+he went to the door, and requested the servant to summon Dr.
+Vaudelier. "The fellow has fed on husks long enough, and, as the
+scripter says, he is goin' to rise and go to his dad."</p>
+<p>"Do not let my father see me,&mdash;anything, rather than that!"
+exclaimed Vernon, rising, and grasping the woodman's arm. "I am a
+great villain!"</p>
+<p>"That's very true, stranger; but you have got into the scrape,
+and the best thing you can do is to get out on't."</p>
+<p>"How can I!"</p>
+<p>"Be an honest man."</p>
+<p>"I fear I never can be that."</p>
+<p>"Try it! There is something left of you."</p>
+<p>At this moment Dr. Vaudelier entered the room. His aspect was
+stern and forbidding, and the son buried his face in his hands
+after the first glance at him.</p>
+<p>"Jerome," said he, "you will bring my gray hairs with sorrow
+down to the grave."</p>
+<p>"Easy with him, doctor, easy! He is a little touched, and, if
+you manage him right, you can fotch him over. He is under
+conviction now. Don't let on yet!"</p>
+<p>"Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me," continued the
+doctor. "Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus
+enter my house with a band of ruffians behind you?"</p>
+<p>"Father," said the convicted Vernon, "I did not know it was your
+house, or I could never have done it."</p>
+<p>"Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight
+assassin!" and Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and
+sobbed like a child.</p>
+<p>"Forgive me, father!" exclaimed the repentant son. "Forgive
+me!"</p>
+<p>"God and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!"</p>
+<p>"Easy with him, doctor!" interposed Jerry, fearful lest the
+son's repentance should be dissipated before the father's
+sternness.</p>
+<p>"I will atone for all, to the best of my ability."</p>
+<p>"Would that you might do so!"</p>
+<p>"I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!"</p>
+<p>"Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so
+deeply injured."</p>
+<p>"I would be her slave for life!"</p>
+<p>"If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the
+wrongs which have been inflicted upon her."</p>
+<p>"I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail
+anything to her. Maxwell assured me she was his slave, and showed
+me the bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my
+help."</p>
+<p>"You were too willing to believe him," said the doctor,
+sternly.</p>
+<p>"I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew
+(which is but little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will
+tell you all."</p>
+<p>"Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry."</p>
+<p>Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the
+position of the matter.</p>
+<p>"Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have
+done?"</p>
+<p>"Freely, sir; and may God enable you to persevere in the course
+you have taken!"</p>
+<p>"Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life
+with the strength your good wishes impart."</p>
+<p>Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the
+attorney, concealing no part of his own or his confederate's
+villany. Of the will he knew nothing, his operations having been
+confined to the attempts to obtain possession of her person.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole
+truth. It was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had
+chosen the better part. His fervent prayer ascended that the
+penitent might be faithful to his good resolutions.</p>
+<p>All the circumstances relating to the will were unknown to
+Vernon, which was the occasion of much congratulation both to his
+father and to Emily. It seemed to relieve him from some portion of
+the guilt which the subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and,
+when these circumstances were related to him, a burst of generous
+indignation testified that he, the blackleg, the robber, was above
+such villany. However depraved in some respects, that vice which is
+commonly called <i>meanness</i> had no place within him. He was, or
+rather had been, of that class of operators who "rob the rich to
+pay the poor;" who have no innate love of vice, only a desire to be
+free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand, without toil or
+sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.</p>
+<p>"Jerome," said Dr. Vaudelier, "this Maxwell must be watched,
+and, if you are true to yourself, no one can do this duty as well
+as you."</p>
+<p>"Trust me, sir! I am strong in this lady's service."</p>
+<p>"I shall not doubt you, my son, until I have occasion to do so.
+I am satisfied, if Miss Dumont is."</p>
+<p>"I feel perfectly confident in the good faith of your son, and
+am indebted to him for the zeal he manifests in my cause."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Miss Dumont," said Vernon. "You are too generous;
+but, be assured, your confidence shall not be abused."</p>
+<p>It was determined that Vernon should immediately depart for
+Vicksburg, whither Maxwell had gone.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"He gives me leave to attend
+you,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And is impatient till he sees
+you."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>It was the afternoon of the same day, as Dr. Vaudelier was
+reclining upon a rustic seat near the landing, he was surprised by
+the appearance of a canoe coming down the creek. The canoe
+contained an elderly gentleman, and a negro, who, after several
+unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in landing the passenger upon the
+little pier. He was about fifty years of age, apparently. His hair
+and whiskers were a mixture of gray and black; his countenance was
+full, and his complexion florid, which contrasted oddly with the
+green spectacles that rested upon his nose.</p>
+<p>"Do I have the honor of addressing Dr. Vaudelier?" said, the
+stranger, in a tone so soft and silky that the doctor could hardly
+persuade himself it did not proceed from a woman.</p>
+<p>"That is my name, sir; and to whom am I indebted for this
+unexpected pleasure?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy, sir,&mdash;Antoine De Guy, at your service," squeaked
+the visitor, with whom the reader is already acquainted.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, may I inquire the object of your visit?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, sir. I am informed there is a lady at present
+residing with you, one of the unfortunate persons who were on board
+the Chalmetta at the time of her late disaster. A Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Who informed you, sir?"</p>
+<p>De Guy hesitated a little, and then said he heard a number of
+gentlemen discuss the late disaster at the hotel in Vicksburg; that
+one of them had mentioned this fact&mdash;he really could not tell
+the gentleman's name.</p>
+<p>"What is your business with the lady?" asked the doctor, to whom
+the idea of a new enemy of Emily had already presented itself.</p>
+<p>"That, sir, I can best disclose to the lady in person," squeaked
+the street-lawyer, with a low bow.</p>
+<p>"This way then," and the doctor led him to the library, into
+which he soon after conducted Emily.</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont?" said De Guy, rising and making a profound
+obeisance as she entered. "My name is De Guy."</p>
+<p>Emily bowed slightly, but made no reply.</p>
+<p>"May I beg that our interview may be private?" said the
+attorney, glancing at Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman is my friend and confidant; it is not necessary
+that he should retire," replied Emily, as Dr. Vaudelier was moving
+towards the door.</p>
+<p>"Very well, madam; though I think, from the nature of my
+business, you would wish it to be confidential."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I had better withdraw," suggested the physician.</p>
+<p>"By no means, my dear sir; if this gentleman's visit relates to
+business matters, I must beg the favor of your counsel."</p>
+<p>"As you please, Miss Dumont; I come charged with a message from
+your uncle, my respected client, Mr. Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir!" replied Emily, a slight tremor creeping through
+her frame; "pray deliver it at once."</p>
+<p>"It is simply to say your immediate presence at your late
+residence is necessary."</p>
+<p>"Where did you see my uncle?" asked she.</p>
+<p>"At Bellevue, madam, yesterday morning. I arrived at eleven
+o'clock to-day."</p>
+<p>"When did Mr. Dumont return from his journey up the river?"
+asked Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>De Guy reflected a moment; from the shade of displeasure on his
+countenance, it was evident he disliked the interference of the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"About four days ago."</p>
+<p>"When did you last see your uncle, Miss Dumont?" asked the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"I have not seen him since the second day of our
+journey,"&mdash;which was the time that Jaspar had been left at the
+wood-yard.</p>
+<p>"Probably, then, he has returned to Bellevue. It is singular
+that, under the instructions of the will, he should leave you in
+this unceremonious manner."</p>
+<p>"Not at all," interrupted De Guy.</p>
+<p>"You speak as though you were familiar with his motions," said
+Dr. Vaudelier, with a penetrating glance at the attorney.</p>
+<p>"To some extent, I am," replied the silky-toned lawyer, with a
+smile which was intended to declare his own innocence in any of the
+plots of Jaspar. "He has voluntarily acquainted me with some of the
+particulars of this unfortunate affair."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir!"</p>
+<p>"Such is the fact," continued the attorney, with professional
+ease; "he has sent for Miss Dumont in order to effect a
+compromise."</p>
+<p>"A compromise!" exclaimed Emily, with disdain; "there can be no
+compromise, short of restoring, absolutely, my rights!"</p>
+<p>"It is very probable he is quite ready to do so," replied the
+accommodating attorney.</p>
+<p>"May I ask what has produced this singular and sudden change in
+the purpose of my uncle?"</p>
+<p>"Well, madam, it would be difficult to explain the precise
+reasons. His mind seemed troubled; I advised him to unburden to me,
+which he did. The conclusion of the whole matter is, he has taken
+this step by my advice," said De Guy, with an air of the deepest
+humility.</p>
+<p>Emily was somewhat moved, by the revelation of the attorney,
+from the stern reserve she had manifested, and said,</p>
+<p>"I am grateful for your interest in my behalf."</p>
+<p>"Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's
+duty, which is superior to every other gratification."</p>
+<p>"May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?" asked Dr.
+Vaudelier, incredulously.</p>
+<p>"The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was
+not exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt
+obliged to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of
+justice," said the attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful
+whether he was perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.</p>
+<p>"Humph!" said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.</p>
+<p>"Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir,"
+continued De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right
+between this lady and her uncle?"</p>
+<p>"The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont," replied De Guy,
+readily.</p>
+<p>"You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose,
+just as it was in the very act of being consummated, without a
+strong motive."</p>
+<p>"True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel
+Dumont is upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this
+time, of his share in the transaction."</p>
+<p>"Well."</p>
+<p>"And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the
+steamer."</p>
+<p>"True."</p>
+<p>"Was not the re&auml;ppearance, the rising from the dead, of
+this man, quite enough to convince him that all his plans had
+failed?"</p>
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+<p>"The boy had the will!"</p>
+<p>"It is all plain to me," said Emily, more disposed to trust De
+Guy than Dr. Vaudelier was.</p>
+<p>"Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should
+adopt this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save
+him from exposure."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power
+again," suggested Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"I assure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even
+now, at the guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is
+awakened."</p>
+<p>"And well it might be," said the doctor.</p>
+<p>"True," responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of
+honest indignation; "but when we see a man disposed to repent, we
+should be ready to assist him."</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents
+of the morning,&mdash;called to mind the feelings which had been
+awakened in the presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full
+force of De Guy's argument.</p>
+<p>"If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done
+his niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means,
+advise her to follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature
+suggests. 'To err is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a
+Christian, and will act in the true spirit of Christianity."</p>
+<p>"I trust she will," responded De Guy, meekly; "I trust she will,
+and, with all convenient haste, try to mitigate his distress."</p>
+<p>"I will! I will!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you will accompany me, as your uncle suggests,"
+insinuated De Guy.</p>
+<p>"There is certainly no need of such haste as this," said the
+doctor.</p>
+<p>"Her uncle may change his mind."</p>
+<p>"Then his penitence is not sincere, and he cannot be
+trusted."</p>
+<p>"I should scarcely call it penitence, sir, since it is only the
+fear of discovery which has driven him to this step," said the
+attorney, branching off in to a new school of ethics.</p>
+<p>"I can go in a few days," said Emily. "Captain Carroll, you
+think, is out of danger now?"</p>
+<p>De Guy started, and a scowl of the deepest malignity
+overshadowed his countenance, which had before been that of a meek
+and truthful man. The change was so sudden that he seemed to be a
+man within a man, and the two creatures of an opposite character.
+Neither the doctor nor Emily noticed the start, or the sudden
+change of expression; and the attorney, seemingly aware of the
+danger of wearing two faces, restored the former aspect.</p>
+<p>"I think he is entirely out of danger," replied Dr. Vaudelier,
+in reply to Emily's question. "Perhaps he will be able to accompany
+you in a few days."</p>
+<p>Emily blushed, but made no reply, other than a sweet smile,
+betokening the happiness such an event would give her.</p>
+<p>"I fear, madam, the delay will be dangerous," suggested De Guy,
+who did not relish the proposition of the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Why dangerous? If Mr. Dumont changes his mind, we have the
+means of proving that that miserable will is false."</p>
+<p>"You forget, sir, that Mr. Benson may be lost, and with him the
+will," interposed Emily, whose love of truth did not enable her to
+conceal the weakness of her case.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! Is the will in the hands of a third party?" said the
+attorney, with apparent indifference, while, in reality, he was
+inwardly chuckling with delight.</p>
+<p>"It matters not," replied the doctor; "the lady's case is safe.
+You can inform Mr. Dumont that his niece will present herself in a
+week or ten days."</p>
+<p>"But, my dear sir, the delay will be fatal, both to the lady and
+her uncle," said the attorney, with alarm.</p>
+<p>"It cannot be helped," said the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont's health, I fear, will render it unsafe to wait so
+long. Miss Dumont does not wish her uncle to die unforgiven."</p>
+<p>"I will go, sir; I will go at once," exclaimed Emily, shocked at
+the condition of Jaspar, and anxious, as was her nature, to relieve
+the sufferings he must endure in her absence. She forgot how basely
+he had wronged her&mdash;how he had attempted her life; the divine
+sentiment, "Love your enemies," prevailed over every other
+consideration.</p>
+<p>"Die unforgiven," muttered the doctor. "Is he sick?"</p>
+<p>"He is, sir, and near his end."</p>
+<p>"Why have you not mentioned this circumstance before? It seems
+of sufficient importance to merit a passing word."</p>
+<p>"I wished not to distress the lady. I think I hinted that he was
+in great distress."</p>
+<p>"I fear some evil, Miss Dumont."</p>
+<p>"Be assured, sir, if Mr. Dumont meditates any further wrong, he
+has not the power of putting it into effect. He is prostrate upon
+his bed, and if his niece does not see him soon, it will be too
+late, if it is not so already. The stricken man must soon stand for
+judgment in another world," said De Guy, solemnly.</p>
+<p>"This alters the case," said the doctor, musing.</p>
+<p>"But, sir," continued the attorney, "I was aware that, after
+what has happened, my mission would be attended with many
+difficulties, and I have not come unprepared to overcome them. I do
+not wonder that you have no confidence,&mdash;I confess I should
+not have, under like circumstances. You know Dr. Le Verier?" and
+the attorney drew from his pocket a bundle of papers, and opening
+one, he glanced at the signature upon it, as he pronounced the
+name.</p>
+<p>"I do, very well," replied the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Our family physician!" exclaimed Emily.</p>
+<p>"Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle's physical
+condition," said De Guy, handing her the paper.</p>
+<p>Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Very satisfactory," said he; "you will pardon me for doubting
+your word&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't mention it, sir," replied De Guy, blandly. "I fully
+appreciate your motive, and honor you for it. And you know Mr.
+Faxon?"</p>
+<p>"O, yes&mdash;what of him," said Emily, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"A letter from him," replied De Guy, giving her the missive.</p>
+<p>Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents,
+the attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude
+such as attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if
+the pockets of the latter be empty.</p>
+<p>"I will go immediately!" exclaimed Emily, as she finished
+reading the letter. "Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a
+different man, and is ready to restore all my rights."</p>
+<p>"Finally," said De Guy, "here is your uncle's own signature.
+This letter I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty,
+signed his name."</p>
+<p>Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would
+restore all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to
+return to Bellevue with all possible haste. Emily recognized the
+signature, though it was apparently written by the trembling hand
+of a dying man.</p>
+<p>"The papers are quite satisfactory," said Dr. Vaudelier, as he
+completed the reading of the note from Jaspar. "If you had
+presented them at first, I should have been spared my uncourteous
+suspicions. But you will pardon them, and consider that the lady's
+case requires the utmost caution."</p>
+<p>"It was only in deference to the lady's nerves that I broke the
+intelligence gradually. I was quite willing to sacrifice myself,
+for the moment, in your good opinion, for her sake. I trust you
+will appreciate and regard my motives, as I do yours."</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of
+Emily's returning to Bellevue with De Guy. But a death-bed scene
+was a difficult thing to reason against, and he was obliged to
+yield the point before the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more
+calm persuasions of Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the
+party should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in
+relation to their departure.</p>
+<p>At the mention of Hatchie's name, the attorney grew marvellously
+uneasy, and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed
+him to the island was waiting for him. He therefore proposed that
+Dr. Vaudelier should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning,
+which was readily agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat,
+without confronting the mulatto.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Jaffier</i>. O,
+Belvidera!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Belvidera</i>. Why was I last
+night delivered to a villain?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Jaffier</i>. Ha! a
+villain?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Belvidera</i>. Yes, to a
+villain!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">OTWAY.</span></p>
+<p>Agreeably to the arrangement of the previous night, Emily was on
+board of the "Montezuma," prepared to commence her journey to
+Bellevue. While De Guy conducted Emily to the ladies' cabin,
+Hatchie was getting her few articles of baggage on board, and the
+boat was fairly under weigh without the faithful mulatto's having
+had a sight of the new protector of Emily. The attorney
+congratulated himself on this circumstance; his mind had thus been
+released from the pressure of a most painful anxiety. His plan was
+now accomplished.</p>
+<p>But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy,
+however, now that they were free from the friends of Emily, no
+longer dreaded it.</p>
+<p>The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of
+his mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced
+the fact. His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking
+tone he had heard at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned
+to look upon the speaker, and was confounded to behold the very
+person who had plotted with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a
+presence of mind which never deserted him, he held his peace,
+resolved not to frighten his mistress by exposing the fact.</p>
+<p>Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy
+had conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in
+a quandary,&mdash;a worse quandary than the congressional hero of
+Kentucky has described in any of his thousand relations of
+hair-breadth escapes. His mistress was fairly committed to her new
+destiny, and how could he extricate her?</p>
+<p>He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,&mdash;to
+watch unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case
+of necessity. The papers which De Guy had brought from Bellevue,
+and which he heard described by the doctor, did much to assure him
+that no evil was intended towards her; but the man who had been a
+villain once was, in his opinion, exceedingly apt to be so
+again.</p>
+<p>Emily was ill at ease during the passage; not that she felt
+unsafe, or dreaded treachery, but something seemed to whisper that
+evil <i>might</i> be near her. An undefined sensation of doubt
+seemed to beset her path, and urge upon her the unpleasant
+necessity of extreme caution. She was conscious of being engaged in
+a good work. She had forgiven her great enemy, and was now on her
+way to smooth his dying pillow. There was something lofty and
+beautiful in the thought, and she derived much consolation from
+it.</p>
+<p>De Guy rarely intruded himself upon her notice during the
+passage. At meal-hours he was scrupulously polite and attentive,
+but he was as cold and formal as she could desire. She never
+ventured upon the promenade deck, unless her faithful Hatchie was
+near.</p>
+<p>The mulatto, with all his watchfulness, was unable to discover
+any indications of treachery on the part of De Guy, though an
+apparently confidential conversation with the captain of the
+steamer, on the night before their arrival at New Orleans, had
+rather an unfavorable appearance.</p>
+<p>It was late at night when the Montezuma arrived at New Orleans.
+The steamer quietly took her berth at the levee, so that few of the
+passengers took any notice of their arrival, and contentedly turned
+over in their berths to wait the advent of the coming day.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, who occupied a room near the boiler deck, had been
+awakened by the confusion of making fast the steamer. His watchful
+vigil over the safety of his mistress did not permit him to slumber
+while the possibility of danger existed. He had, therefore, risen;
+but scarcely had he completed his dress, when the door of his room
+was suddenly opened, and himself violently seized by two stout men.
+The attack had been so sudden, and the movements of the assailants
+so well directed, that resistance was hopeless. Before he fully
+realized the presence of his foes, his hands were pinioned behind
+him. In this condition, without knowing why or by whom he was
+assailed, he was hurried away to the calaboose.</p>
+<p>At an early hour in the morning carriages and drays began to
+assemble on the levee, and all the noise and bustle of landing
+passengers, baggage and freight, commenced.</p>
+<p>Emily Dumont, as soon as it was fairly light, rose from her
+couch, and made her preparations to leave the steamer. Fully
+equipped for her journey to Bellevue, she entered the cabin, where
+De Guy soon presented himself.</p>
+<p>"Where is Hatchie?" was the first question she asked; for
+Hatchie had always been on the spot whenever and wherever she
+needed his services.</p>
+<p>"I have taken the liberty to send him up to the St. Charles with
+your luggage. You will, of course, breakfast there," said the
+attorney, blandly.</p>
+<p>"Such was not my intention," replied she, as a cold
+tremor&mdash;she knew not why&mdash;agitated her.</p>
+<p>"I am sorry to have mistaken your purpose; the ride to Bellevue
+is a long one to take without any refreshment."</p>
+<p>"I mind it not; my haste is too great to admit of any
+delay."</p>
+<p>"I sent by your servant to order an early breakfast, and a
+carriage at seven o'clock."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I will conform to the arrangement you have made,"
+replied Emily, with a dissatisfied air.</p>
+<p>A carriage was called from the mass which had congregated, whose
+drivers were not a whit behind those of the metropolitan city in
+earnest perseverance; and De Guy assisted her into it, seating
+himself at a respectful distance on the forward seat.</p>
+<p>Now, the act of engaging a cab or a carriage is of itself quite
+an easy matter; but we question whether passengers are generally as
+well suited as in the present instance. Without troubling the
+worthy Mr. De Guy with any foolish queries as to where he should
+drive them, the Jehu mounted his box, and conducted his team
+apparently to the entire satisfaction of his fare. It may be that
+the intelligent driver had a way of divining the wishes of his
+customers; or it may be that De Guy, in deference to any supposed
+repugnance to business matters on the part of his companion, had
+previously discussed this topic. Without any design of prejudicing
+the reader's mind in favor of the latter supposition, we confess
+our inclination to accept it as correct.</p>
+<p>Emily vainly attempted to assure herself that her companion was
+conducting her in good faith to the home of her early years. An
+undefined feeling of insecurity was painfully besetting her,
+whichever way she turned. She considered and reconsidered the
+evidences he had brought to Cottage Island of the truth of his own
+statements, and of his own trustworthiness. It was all in vain.
+Could those papers have been forgeries? It was a terrible thought
+to her.</p>
+<p>The carriage stopped, and the attorney invited her to alight.
+Change&mdash;anything, was a relief to the painful sensations which
+had almost overpowered her, and without reflection she did so. Her
+faculties were so confused she did not notice that it was not the
+private entrance of the St. Charles. She took everything for
+granted, and accepted the offered arm of De Guy. She crossed the
+broad side-walk, and, raising her eyes, was overwhelmed by seeing
+at the side of the door she was about to enter the sign of
+"<i>Anthony Marwell, Attorney and Counsellor at Law</i>."</p>
+<p>"Please to walk up stairs," squeaked the attorney, drawing her
+after him to the inside of the door, which he immediately closed
+and bolted.</p>
+<p>"Not a step further, sir!" said she, with as much firmness as
+she could command. "What means this? Am I again betrayed?"</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, madam, walk up quietly," said De Guy, in a soothing
+tone, as he applied a little gentle force to the arm he held.</p>
+<p>"Unhand me, sir!" screamed Emily, as loud as her agitated
+condition would permit.</p>
+<p>But De Guy heeded her not; and, without condescending to utter
+another word, he took her up like a child, and bore her up the
+stairs to Maxwell's office. Turning the key to prevent
+interruption, he opened the lawyer's private apartment in the rear,
+and placed the fainting girl upon the bed, and retired.</p>
+<p>Unlocking the office door, he was confronted by an old negress,
+who had charge of the sweeping and cleaning department of the
+building.</p>
+<p>"Sar! what's all dis about?" screamed she, in no gentle tone;
+for the colored lady had witnessed De Guy's achievement from the
+stair-case above.</p>
+<p>"Hush, Dido&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sar! who are you dat come inter Massa Maxwell's room widout no
+leave?"</p>
+<p>"Never mind who I am, Dido. There is a lady in the bedroom, by
+whom Mr. Maxwell sets his life&mdash;do you hear?&mdash;sets his
+life. She has fainted, and you must take care of her,"&mdash;and De
+Guy slipped a half-eagle into the negress' hands.</p>
+<p>"Dat alters de case," said the black lady, eying the money with
+much satisfaction. "Massa Maxwell's a sly dog. I take good care ob
+de lady&mdash;not de fus time, nuder."</p>
+<p>"Don't let her get away; take good care of her, and you shall
+have half a dozen just such pieces."</p>
+<p>"Never fear, Massa, I's use to de business."</p>
+<p>De Guy left the building, satisfied, it would seem, of the
+negress' fidelity.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"<i>Lieut</i>. Forgive me, sir, what I'm compelled t' obey: An
+order for your close confinement.</p>
+<p>"<i>King H</i>. Whence comes it, good lieutenant?</p>
+<p>"<i>Lieut</i>. Sir, from the Duke of Gloster.</p>
+<p>"<i>King H</i>. Good-night to all, then!" SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Connected with the estate at Bellevue, of which Jaspar Dumont
+was now in actual possession, was a small slave jail. It had been
+constructed under the immediate direction of Jaspar, to afford a
+place of confinement for the runaway or refractory negroes of the
+plantation. It was located at some distance from the proprietary
+mansion, and from the quarters of the negroes. Jaspar's taste in
+matters of this kind was of the most refined character, and he had
+caused it to be constructed on a plan and in a manner that would
+seem to bid defiance to the skill of a Baron Trenck, or a Stephen
+Burroughs. The material was granite, brought at no trifling expense
+from the North. There were no windows upon the sides, and only one
+entrance, which was secured by double iron doors. Light and air
+were supplied, in meagre quantities, by means of a skylight in the
+roof, which was regulated by a cord passing down upon the
+outside.</p>
+<p>This jail, either by accident or design, was so constructed that
+any noise inside was not transmitted to the outside. Whether this
+was because of the reflecting properties of the walls, which might
+have sent the sound echoing out at the skylight on the apex of the
+four-sided roof, or because of some other natural causes, we shall
+not take up the reader's time in discussing. Its inmates might
+startle Heaven with their cries, but certainly every ear on earth
+below must be deaf to their wail. This circumstance seemed typical
+of the actual fact of oppression; but we are sure that Jaspar never
+meant to typify the groans, by man unheeded, of the victims of
+tyranny ascending to be heard above.</p>
+<p>It was the day after the events related in the last chapter, and
+the negro jail was tenanted; but not by a refractory or a runaway
+slave. It was now devoted to a more dignified purpose, being
+occupied by a white man and his wife, the victims of Jaspar
+Dumont's hatred and fears. They had already been prisoners for the
+past forty-eight hours. No sound from the wide, wide world without
+had reached them; and, though the man had shouted himself hoarse in
+endeavors to arrest the attention of any casual passer-by, the
+sound of his voice had risen to Heaven, but had not been heard by
+any mortal ear.</p>
+<p>On a heap of dirty straw, in one corner, lay a female. She was
+feeble and helpless. By her side, gazing sadly upon her, was her
+companion, pale and haggard, and apparently conquered in spirit.
+The sufferings of the frail being by his side seemed to pierce him
+to the soul. He felt not for himself; his thoughts, his feelings,
+all were devoted to her, whom he had loved and respected through
+many vicissitudes, whose kindly sympathy had cheered his heart in
+many of the severest of earth's trials. They had passed through
+peril and poverty together, and now the cup of tribulation seemed
+full to the brim. They were doomed to death,&mdash;not to the death
+of the malefactor, but as victims of private interest. No friendly
+jailer had been near, to bring them even a cup of cold water to
+assuage their consuming thirst. Not a morsel of food had they
+tasted since their incarceration! The terrible doom to which they
+were consigned was too apparent; there was nothing to foreshadow
+even the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with
+their inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was
+equal to any crime which his own safety demanded.</p>
+<p>The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her
+companion bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his
+sunken eyes, he imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.</p>
+<p>"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.</p>
+<p>"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a
+single drop of cold water!"</p>
+<p>"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?"
+exclaimed Dalhousie,&mdash;for it was he,&mdash;striking his hands
+violently upon his forehead.</p>
+<p>"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!&mdash;I am
+ready to die," said she, faintly.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to
+permit his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible
+situation of his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail
+with long strides, gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate
+remedy for his woes. Escape had scarcely presented itself to his
+mind. He had not the energy of character which rises superior to
+every ill, and had bent himself supinely to the fate which awaited
+him. To work through the solid walls of the jail seemed to him an
+impossibility, even if provided with the necessary implements. The
+scheme was too vast for his mind, unaccustomed, as it was, to
+contend with great difficulties.</p>
+<p>Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him,
+armed with energy to break through every obstacle which might
+oppose him. His feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for
+her relief, and such a demand even his supine nature could not
+resist.</p>
+<p>Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had,
+apparently, been quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel
+with which the earth had been thrown out.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated
+him. "<i>I</i> began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it
+for water," muttered he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced
+digging. Awhile he labored with the energy of desperation; but,
+enfeebled by long fasting, and unused to such severe toil, he soon
+felt his strength give way. It appeared to be his only hope, the
+only ministration of comfort to the loved one beside him, and he
+strove manfully against the weakness which beset him. An hour he
+labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his toil. Overcome by
+his exertions, he seated himself upon the brink of the pit, and
+gave way to the agonizing emotions which filled his soul. A sigh
+from his wife roused him to a new effort, and, partially
+invigorated by the few moments' rest, he again applied himself to
+his task. The ground was of a moist character, and he had every
+encouragement of soon finding the coveted treasure. Animated by
+this hope, he redoubled his efforts, and for another hour despair
+nerved his arm, and strengthened his sinking frame. Still the
+buried treasure eluded his search. Exhausted by his exertions, he
+sunk heavily upon the side of the pit, and the big tears coursed
+down his hollow cheeks. Deserted by man, he felt that there was no
+God in heaven; and no divinely-born sentiment came to cheer him in
+the hour of his despondency. He felt that the hand of death must
+soon take him and his loved wife into its cold embrace. With much
+effort he drew himself to her side, and endeavored to compose his
+mind for the struggle with the destroyer.</p>
+<p>Two hours he lay by her side; but his time had not yet come.
+Rested from the severe fatigue he had undergone, he felt a new
+vigor stealing through his frame. Something like hope again flitted
+before his desponding mind, and, partially raising himself from his
+recumbent posture, he gazed about the apartment. The pit he had dug
+was yawning near him. A shudder convulsed his frame, as it reminded
+him of the open grave that gaped to receive him. Had he not dug
+this grave for himself?</p>
+<p>The instinct of self-preservation drew him to his feet. Seizing
+the shovel, he advanced to the pit, when, to his unspeakable
+delight, he perceived that the bottom of it was covered with black,
+dirty water. The sight roused his dormant energies, and he saw
+before him years of life and happiness. Leaping into the pit, he
+drank from the putrid pool, using the palms of his hands for a
+drinking vessel.</p>
+<p>Tearing off the top of his glazed cap, he succeeded in making a
+very tolerable cup of it, with which he conveyed some of the
+precious liquid to the parched lips of his sinking wife. The act
+roused her from the absent mood to which she had abandoned herself.
+She took a long draught of the discolored beverage, and, had it
+been the pure mountain spring, its effect could scarcely have been
+more magical. It not only refreshed the body, but inspired the
+mind. With this dawning hope the poor prisoners built the flimsy
+fabric of future joy and safety.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement.
+Experience, the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him,
+and imparted the strength and resolution which often require years
+to mature. Thoughts, and feelings, and energies, to which he had
+before been a stranger, came bounding through his mind, as the
+mighty river, which, having broken away the feeble barrier man had
+set in its course, roars and thunders down its before forsaken
+path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated by this successful
+act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding to the awful
+fate which awaited him. His best hours&mdash;his hours of
+unimpaired strength&mdash;had now passed away; there was no
+fountain at which he could renew it. But energy now burned within
+him, and, like an invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some
+great act. The impulse was irresistible; hopeless as his case had
+before appeared, he determined to escape. But how? This question
+had not yet presented itself. Escape from the jail!&mdash;from
+death!&mdash;himself,&mdash;more than himself, his wife! Stone
+walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more than downy
+masses, which his breath could blow away.</p>
+<p>Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and
+sounded upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid
+beneath his blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and
+he was about to abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when
+a new thought suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the
+new idea, he impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By
+the side of the wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging,
+with the intention of undermining it. Without a thought of his
+enfeebled body, he plied the shovel with the energy of desperation.
+Instead of making a calm calculation, and proceeding with such an
+economy of strength as would enable him to complete the work, he
+labored as though the task before him could be easily and quickly
+accomplished.</p>
+<p>His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken,
+penetrated the purpose of her husband; but she saw that his
+strength must entirely fail him ere the work could be
+accomplished.</p>
+<p>"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a
+little."</p>
+<p>"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice
+another moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing
+from his labors.</p>
+<p>"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so
+hard."</p>
+<p>"That would be an honorable death, at least."</p>
+<p>"And leave me to linger here?&mdash;No, let us die together, if
+die we must. Perhaps I can help you,"&mdash;and she strove to
+rise.</p>
+<p>"Do not rise, Delia,&mdash;keep quiet; I am strong, and will yet
+deliver you from this dungeon. Lay quiet, dear; do not add to my
+distress."</p>
+<p>"I fear I must lay still,&mdash;I cannot rise," said she,
+sinking back with the exhaustion of the effort.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie threw down his shovel, and hastened to her side.</p>
+<p>"Do not attempt to rise again, dear," said he. "Let me get you
+some more water."</p>
+<p>He again filled the rude cup at the pit, and, after she had
+taken a long draught of it, he laved her head, an operation which
+appeared to refresh her.</p>
+<p>"Do you feel better?"</p>
+<p>"Much better."</p>
+<p>"Now keep perfectly quiet, and I will resume my task."</p>
+<p>"I will; but pray, Francois, do not work so hard; temper your
+enthusiasm with reason. You cannot succeed, unless you are
+careful."</p>
+<p>"I will, dear; I will rest every little while."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie resumed his labor, and, convinced by his wife's
+reasoning, he labored more moderately. While he toils at this
+apparently hopelessly task, we will return to the night when we
+left him in the library, after having obtained possession of the
+secret packet.</p>
+<p>The overseer, after leaving the library, was perplexed to
+determine his future course. He was in possession of a mighty
+secret, a secret which involved his employer's very existence. The
+realization of a thousand golden dreams was at hand, and he was
+resolved, without an over-nice balancing of conscientious scruples,
+to make the most of the information he had obtained. There were two
+methods of procedure open to him, and his perplexity was occasioned
+by this fact. In this instance his resolution was not at fault, for
+the reins were in his own hands. It was not like hewing a path
+through the granite barriers of difficulty, against the very frown
+of destiny. He imagined that some overruling power had made the
+path, and invited him to walk in it.</p>
+<p>Should he make his fortune by means of the uncle or the niece?
+The question of his existence had narrowed itself down to this
+point. It was sure, he felt, from one or the other.</p>
+<p>Being of a naturally generous disposition, with strong
+affections, and having not a little of the natural sense of justice
+in his composition, he was decidedly in favor of permitting the
+niece to enrich him. This was his personal preference; but he was
+sensible of the truth of the axiom, that individual preferences
+must sometimes be sacrificed to the success of the main object;
+and, if the circumstances demanded it, he felt able to make the
+sacrifice.</p>
+<p>If he forwarded the packet to its proper destination, the lady
+would, without doubt, be soon restored to her possessions. This was
+the course he preferred, as well as the course which justice and
+morality demanded. But, alas! his moral sentiment was not
+sufficiently developed to make him pause before taking the opposite
+course, if his present and temporary interest should seem to demand
+it. A departure from the strict injunction of conscience is sure to
+bring misery; and this was doubly true in his case.</p>
+<p>The uncle was in actual possession, and he called to mind the
+old maxim, that "possession is nine points in the law." He was
+unwilling to risk the bright prospects, which had so suddenly
+opened upon him, on the tenth point. Fearing that Jaspar's
+unscrupulous character would enable him to defeat the heiress, he
+had not the courage to do his duty and trust Heaven for the
+reward.</p>
+<p>With this view of his position, he reluctantly&mdash;we will do
+him the justice to say reluctantly&mdash;abandoned the project of
+restoring the niece to her birthright. Thus was the great purpose
+of his life narrowed down to one point, and he retired to his
+pillow to consider in what manner he should approach Jaspar.</p>
+<p>Simple as this single point had before appeared, he found, on
+reflection, that it was environed with difficulties and dangers.
+Jaspar was intrenched in his own castle, and it would require some
+address even to approach near enough to hold a parley. Conclusive
+as were the evidences in his possession of Jaspar's perfidy, they
+might, by the aid of cunning and gold, be made to appear as
+forgeries, gotten up for the purpose of extorting money. The stake
+was a great one, and he determined with a bold hand to play the
+game.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"<i>Cassius</i>. At such a
+time as this, it is not meet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">That every nice offence should
+bear its comment.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">&mdash;You wrong me every way;
+you wrong me, Brutus!"</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont, on the morning after the abstraction of the
+papers by Dalhousie, rose from his inebriated slumbers; but his
+rest was a misnomer. The strong excitement, which a few weeks
+before had served to keep his mind occupied, had now passed away.
+His villany was accomplished; but it had not purchased the
+satisfaction he coveted&mdash;it had cost too much sacrifice of
+soul. Brandy was his only solace; and even this only conjured up
+demons of torture in his fevered imagination.</p>
+<p>He was conscious that on the previous night he had drank too
+much. There seemed to be a chasm in his recollection which all his
+efforts could not fill. He might, while in a measure unconscious of
+his actions, have betrayed some of his momentous secrets. The
+overseer, of whose presence he had an indistinct remembrance, might
+have obtained some further clue to the great mystery. These were
+annoying reflections, and while he resolved to be more temperate in
+future, how fervently he adjured his patron demon to ward off any
+danger he might have courted in his inebriation!</p>
+<p>After his accustomed ride through the cane-fields, he retired to
+the library. The decanter had been replenished with brandy, and his
+late resolutions did not deter him from freely imbibing of its
+contents. The equilibrium was restored. His mind, stimulated by the
+fumes of the liquor, resumed its usual buoyancy. He paced the room,
+and drank frequent draughts of the fiery beverage.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he stopped in his perambulation, as a faint
+recollection of the lost key came to his mind. He searched his
+pockets; but it could not be found. The drawer was locked.
+Suspicious as he was fearful, he trembled lest in his oblivious
+moments he had compromised his secret. He sent for the overseer,
+determined to know and provide for the worst.</p>
+<p>After the messenger left, his reflections assumed a new
+direction. He tried to laugh away his suspicions, applied epithets
+to himself which it would not have been safe for another to have
+applied, and in good round oaths cursed his own stupidity. In his
+privacy he was a pattern of candor, and bestowed upon himself such
+a rating as, to another, would have given fair promise of good
+results.</p>
+<p>He satisfied himself that the drawer could contain nothing to
+implicate him; and, even if it did, why, he was safe enough in the
+hands of Dalhousie. The overseer he regarded as a kind of
+<i>thing</i>, who, while he retained him in his service, would
+never injure him. Jaspar, for some reason or other, had formed no
+very elevated opinion of Dalhousie's acuteness. He had bought him
+off cheaply once, and could do so again. If he refused to be bought
+off cheaply,&mdash;and Jaspar grated his teeth at the
+reflection,&mdash;why, a method could be devised to get rid of
+him.</p>
+<p>While engaged in these musings, a knock at the door startled him
+to his feet. It was not the overseer's knock.</p>
+<p>A servant announced a strange gentleman, who declined to give
+his name.</p>
+<p>"Show him in," said Jaspar, re-seating himself, and striving to
+assume a tranquillity which did not pervade his mind. Since the
+consummation of his base scheme he had been a prey to nervous
+starts, and the announcement of a stranger stirred the blood in its
+channels, and sent his heart into his throat. This nervous
+excitement had been increasing upon him every day, and his devotion
+to the bottle by no means tended to allay it. Such are the
+consequences of guilt. If the victim, before he yields to
+temptation, could anticipate the terrible state of suspense into
+which his guilt would plunge him,&mdash;if he could see only a
+faint reflection of himself, starting at every sound in nervous
+terror, as before the appearance of some grim spirit of
+darkness,&mdash;he would never have the courage to commit a
+crime.</p>
+<p>The stranger entered the library. It was De Guy. At his
+appearance Jaspar's fears gave way to a most uncontrollable fit of
+passion.</p>
+<p>"Villain!" exclaimed he, "how dare you enter my house, after
+what has passed?"</p>
+<p>"Gently, my dear sir! You forget that we have been friends, and
+that our mutual safety requires us to remain so still," said De
+Guy, in his silky tone and compromising manner.</p>
+<p>Jaspar compressed his lips, and grated his teeth, while a
+smothered oath escaped him. But his rage soon found a more audible
+expression.</p>
+<p>"Friends!" By &mdash;&mdash;, I should think we had been
+<i>friends!</i>" said he, fiercely.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, my dear sir,&mdash;<i>friends</i>."</p>
+<p>"Then save me from my friends!"</p>
+<p>"Better say your enemies! I fear you have a great many."</p>
+<p>"Save me from both! May I ask to what fortunate circumstance I
+am indebted for the honor of this visit?" said Jaspar,
+sarcastically mimicking the silky tones, of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"I came to forward our mutual interest."</p>
+<p>"Then, by &mdash;&mdash;, you can take yourself off! You and I
+will part company."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, sir, this is ungenerous, after I have assisted you into
+your present position, to treat me in this manner," replied the
+attorney, smilingly shaking his head.</p>
+<p>"I am <i>not</i> indebted to you for my life, or my position!
+You have been a traitor, sir!&mdash;a traitor! and, tear out my
+heart, but I will swing, before I have anything further to do with
+you!" roared Jaspar, with compound emphasis, as he rose from his
+chair, and advanced to the brandy-bottle.</p>
+<p>"Gently, Mr. Dumont, gently! Do not get into a passion! May I
+ask what you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?"
+interrogated the attorney, with a smile of assurance.</p>
+<p>"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed
+shabby trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."</p>
+<p>"My <i>dear</i> sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily,
+I trust?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."</p>
+<p>"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit,"
+returned the attorney, complacently.</p>
+<p>"Do you take me for an idiot?"</p>
+<p>"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit
+such a supposition."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in
+spite of himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the
+time, then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will
+pardon the little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own
+views."</p>
+<p>Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
+companion.</p>
+<p>"Explain yourself," said he.</p>
+<p>"Everything has come out right,&mdash;has it not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"You are in quiet possession?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
+wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey,
+all your hopes would have been blasted."</p>
+<p>"I do not understand you."</p>
+<p>"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of
+anxiety beclouded his brow.</p>
+<p>"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness
+with which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.</p>
+<p>The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
+ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's
+belief, and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was
+not, however, so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on
+the subject.</p>
+<p>"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of
+doubt or anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her
+boiler."</p>
+<p>"Well!"</p>
+<p>"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were
+lost,&mdash;were they not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have
+shared their fate."</p>
+<p>"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked
+Jaspar, with a sneer.</p>
+<p>"Exactly so!"</p>
+<p>"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as
+this?"</p>
+<p>"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the
+attorney, convincingly.</p>
+<p>Jaspar looked incredulous, and resorted to the brandy-bottle,
+which seemed to bear the same relation to him that the oracle of
+Delphi did to the ancient Greeks.</p>
+<p>"You do not think me capable of <i>inventing</i> such a story, I
+trust," said De Guy, seriously.</p>
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! you have joined the church, haven't you, since we
+met last?"</p>
+<p>"I see, sir, you think, because I assisted you in your plans,
+that I have no honor, no conscience, no humanity. Why, sir, what I
+have done for you was only a duty which my religion demanded of
+me."</p>
+<p>"Your creed must be an original one!" replied Jaspar, with a
+sickly laugh.</p>
+<p>"It <i>is</i> an original one. You thought yourself better
+entitled to your brother's property than this giddy girl. So did I;
+and it was my duty to see justice done. A matter of conscience with
+me, upon my honor."</p>
+<p>"Enough of this!" said Jaspar, sternly, for a joke soon grew
+stale with him.</p>
+<p>"Be it so; but remember the story is true."</p>
+<p>"And you did me the favor to blow up the steamer!" sneered
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"At the risk of my own life, I did. I bribed the firemen to
+crowd on the steam, and the engineers to keep down the
+safety-valve,&mdash;all under the excitement of a race, though with
+special reference to your interest."</p>
+<p>"Was this part of your creed, too?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," and the attorney launched out into a dissertation
+of theology and kindred topics, with which we will not trouble the
+reader.</p>
+<p>Jaspar heard it not, for he was busy in considerations of a less
+metaphysical character. He was thinking of his present position,
+and of the overseer, whose step he heard on the veranda.</p>
+<p>"I see," said he, interrupting De Guy, "you have been my
+friend."</p>
+<p>This remark was the result of his deliberations. He might need
+the services of the attorney.</p>
+<p>"I expect my overseer on business in a moment," continued he,
+"and I should like to see you again, after he has gone. May I
+trouble you to step into this room for a few moments?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly," replied De Guy, who was congratulating himself on
+his success in conciliating the "bear of Bellevue," as he styled
+him among his boon companions.</p>
+<p>Jaspar closed the door upon the attorney, and was in the act of
+lighting a cigar, when Dalhousie entered. The overseer endeavored
+to discover in the countenance of his employer some indications of
+his motive in sending for him; but Jaspar maintained a perfect
+indifference, which defeated his object, Neither spoke for several
+moments; but at last the overseer, embarrassed by the silence,
+said,</p>
+<p>"You sent for me, Mr. Dumont?"</p>
+<p>"I did," said Jaspar, suddenly, as though the words had roused
+him from his profound abstraction; "I did; one of my keys is
+missing, so that I cannot open the drawer. You arranged its
+contents, I believe."</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Dalhousie, flustered, for he was not so deeply
+skilled in the arts of deception as to carry them on without some
+compunction; "but I left the key in the drawer."</p>
+<p>"You see It is not there," said Jaspar, fixing his sharp gray
+eye upon the overseer.</p>
+<p>"It is not," said Dalhousie, advancing to the secretary.
+"Probably it has fallen upon the floor&mdash;" and he stooped down
+to look for it.</p>
+<p>Jaspar watched him in silence, as he felt about the floor. The
+overseer was in no haste to find it, though his eyes were fixed on
+it all the time.</p>
+<p>"Didn't you put it into your pocket, by mistake?" suggested
+Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Certainly not," replied Dalhousie; "here it is;" and, picking
+up the key, he handed it to Jaspar. "I was certain I left it
+here."</p>
+<p>Jaspar felt much relieved.</p>
+<p>"Sorry to have troubled you," said he, "but I wanted a
+paper&mdash;" and he rose and opened the drawer, as if in quest of
+it.</p>
+<p>"No trouble at all," returned the overseer. "Now that I am here,
+a few words with you would be particularly agreeable to me."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's curiosity was instantly excited, and, forgetting the
+paper and De Guy, he requested him to proceed immediately with his
+business.</p>
+<p>"It is a matter of much interest to both of us," continued
+Dalhousie, embarrassed by the difficulties of his position.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, go on," said Jaspar, impatiently, for the overseer's
+hesitation had rather a bad odor.</p>
+<p>"I may as well speak bluntly and to the point," stammered
+Dalhousie, still reluctant to state his business.</p>
+<p>"Why don't you? I am not a sentimental girl, that you need make
+a long preface to your oration."</p>
+<p>"I will, sir. Every man is in duty bound to consider his own
+interest&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, by all means. Go on."</p>
+<p>"In regard to your relations with your niece&mdash;" and
+Dalhousie paused again.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's reddening face and the curl upon his lip indicated the
+volcano of passion which would soon burst within him.</p>
+<p>"Proceed, sir," said he, struggling to be calm.</p>
+<p>"In regard to your relations with your niece, you are aware that
+I am somewhat acquainted with them."</p>
+<p>"I am; I hope you do not know too much for your own good. You
+know I am not to be trifled with."</p>
+<p>"I am not concerned for my own safety," replied Dalhousie, a
+little stung by the implied threat of Jaspar; "but I wish to
+provide for your safety. I intend to go to France."</p>
+<p>"I do not prevent you."</p>
+<p>"I lack the means."</p>
+<p>"And you wish me to furnish them?"</p>
+<p>"I do."</p>
+<p>"And how large a sum do you need?"</p>
+<p>"A pretty round sum. I will keep entirely away from this part of
+the country, so that you need not fear me."</p>
+<p>"Fear you!" sneered Jaspar, rising and draining a glass of
+brandy. "I fear no man, no devil, no angel!"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you are not aware that your reputation is in my
+hands."</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir," said Jaspar, coldly.</p>
+<p>"Know, then, that I have a copy of the genuine will, and the
+means of attesting it!"</p>
+<p>Jaspar was prepared for almost anything, but this was too much.
+He paced the room with redoubled energy. His bravado had vanished,
+and he was as near pale as his bloated visage could approach to
+that hue. He strode up and down the room in silence, while his
+heart beat the reveille of fear. For a time his wonted firmness
+forsook him, and he felt as weak as a child, and sunk back into a
+chair.</p>
+<p>By degrees he grew calmer. The case was a desperate one. Again
+he swallowed a long draught of brandy, which seemed to reduce his
+nerves to a state of subjection. Gradually he rallied the
+dissipated powers of his mind, and was ready to meet the emergency
+before him.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, after making his appalling announcement, had thrown
+himself into a chair, to await the effect of his words. He seemed
+in no hurry to continue the subject. Thus far the effect warranted
+his most sanguine hopes of the realization of his great
+schemes.</p>
+<p>Jaspar, after recovering some portion of his former calmness,
+said,</p>
+<p>"May I ask how you obtained possession of the document?"</p>
+<p>"That question, sir, I must decline answering."</p>
+<p>"You will, at least, show me the paper?"</p>
+<p>"That also I must decline."</p>
+<p>Jaspar bit his lip.</p>
+<p>"How shall I know, then, that you are not deceiving me?"</p>
+<p>"I assure you that I have the document, and you must trust to my
+honor for the rest."</p>
+<p>"Honor!" exclaimed Jaspar, giving way to his passion. "No one
+but a scoundrel ever talks of his honor! By &mdash;&mdash;, I only
+want to hear that word, to know that the man is a &mdash;&mdash;
+rascal!"</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir, I shall be under the necessity of seeking out
+your niece."</p>
+<p>"My niece!" roared Jaspar, terror-stricken. "Did you not see her
+buried at Vicksburg?"</p>
+<p>"It might have been she, but it is scarcely possible."</p>
+<p>"Hell!" shouted Jaspar, unable to govern his fury. With long
+strides he paced the room, his teeth grating like a madman's, and
+his eyes bloodshot and glaring like those of a demon. His fears
+seemed to arm him with desperate fury.</p>
+<p>"Where is the ring?&mdash;the ring!" said he, stopping in front
+of the overseer. "Didn't you give me her ring?"</p>
+<p>"I gave you a ring," said Dalhousie, calmly.</p>
+<p>"Was it not <i>her</i> ring? Did it not have her initial, and
+her father's hair in it?" and Jaspar flew to the secretary, where
+he had deposited the evidence of his niece's supposed death.</p>
+<p>"There is no longer any need of continuing the
+deception&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Deception! Here is the ring, and here is the letter D. Doesn't
+it stand for Dumont?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all. It stands for Delia, my wife's name, in this
+instance."</p>
+<p>"Your wife's name!" exclaimed Jaspar, striking his forehead
+furiously.</p>
+<p>"It does, sir, and for her mother's name also, whose memory it
+was intended to commemorate."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's emotions were so violent, that the overseer began to
+fear some fatal consequences might ensue.</p>
+<p>"Calm yourself, Mr. Dumont. Do not let your passions overcome
+you. I have no intention of making an evil use of this
+information," said he, in a soothing tone.</p>
+<p>This seemed to calm the violence of Jaspar's feelings, and with
+a strong effort he recovered his command of himself.</p>
+<p>"My niece Is yet alive, is she?" said Jaspar, looking anxiously
+at the overseer.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; but probably she is."</p>
+<p>"And it was not she that was buried?"</p>
+<p>"As to that, I cannot say; I never saw the lady alive."</p>
+<p>"And what are your plans?" asked Jaspar, with a glance of doubt
+at the overseer.</p>
+<p>"I will go to France, if you provide the means."</p>
+<p>"Suppose I will not?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps your niece will."</p>
+<p>"What if she is dead?"</p>
+<p>"I can better tell when I know that she is dead."</p>
+<p>"How much money do you require?"</p>
+<p>"Twenty thousand."</p>
+<p>"A large sum."</p>
+<p>"From millions your niece would gladly give more."</p>
+<p>"I will think of your proposition. Come in again in two hours,
+and you shall have my answer."</p>
+<p>"Better give me an answer now."</p>
+<p>"I wish to consider."</p>
+<p>"You have only to choose between twenty thousand dollars and the
+whole fortune. With your means at command, much reflection is not
+needed."</p>
+<p>"Show me the papers, and I will decide at once."</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Then I must consider whether your pretensions are well
+founded."</p>
+<p>"I will not be over nice; but any attempt to play me false shall
+rest heavily on your own head."</p>
+<p>"Honor!" said Jaspar, with something like a smile, but more like
+a sneer.</p>
+<p>With compressed lips, and the scowl of a demon, Jaspar witnessed
+the departure of the overseer. His case looked desperate, and he
+felt something like the gloominess of despair. Dalhousie could be
+disposed of, but the niece!&mdash;the niece, if she yet lived,
+would be the destruction of all his avaricious schemes.</p>
+<p>As usual when agitated, he paced the room; and, as he reflected
+upon the danger, and the desperate remedies which suggested
+themselves, his manner grew more and more demoniacal. He resolved
+to trust no man. This was a dark thought, and could proceed only
+from the darkest mind.</p>
+<p>The twenty thousand dollars he could pay; but the man who had
+such a hold upon him would never be satisfied while a dollar
+remained. And revenge was sweet! No! Dalhousie must not be
+<i>bought</i> off! It was a feast to his mind to anticipate the
+torture of the overseer!</p>
+<p>An exclamation of satisfaction escaped him, as he suddenly
+decided upon the means of torture. In imagination he could see
+before him <i>the thing</i>, who had dared to threaten him,
+lingering out the moments of a hated life in slow agony. The vision
+was one of pleasure, and he rubbed his hands with delight.</p>
+<p>The means of accomplishing his dark purpose then came up for
+consideration, and in this connection he happened to think of De
+Guy. He must be the minister of his vengeance, and the herald of
+his future safety; and he summoned him again to his presence.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Thou hast stepped in between
+me and my hopes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And ravished from me all my soul
+held dear."&nbsp; ROWE.</span></p>
+<p>De Guy returned to the library at Jaspar's summons. The shrewd
+attorney at once perceived the conflict which agitated the mind of
+his patron. He had come to Bellevue with a purpose, and, as
+Jaspar's disturbed mind seemed to favor that purpose, he hailed it
+as an omen of success. But what had so agitated him? Jaspar was not
+a man to be depressed by any trivial circumstance.</p>
+<p>The attorney did not have to wait long in suspense, for Jaspar
+related the particulars of his interview with Dalhousie, and
+mentioned the price he had named to insure his silence. It was now
+De Guy's turn to be disturbed. The purpose for which he had come
+was likely to be thwarted by this new aspirant for a share in the
+Dumont estates.</p>
+<p>"What is to be done?" said Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed his
+deep anxiety.</p>
+<p>"Get rid of him! His story is a fabrication," returned De
+Guy.</p>
+<p>"Not entirely. He knows too much for our safety."</p>
+<p>"So much the worse for him!"</p>
+<p>"Why? What would you do?"</p>
+<p>"Shut his mouth! It matters not how. You do not want to&mdash;"
+and the attorney drew his under lip beneath his upper teeth, and
+produced an explosive sound, very much like the crack of a pistol,
+or a champagne-cork, but which Jaspar did not mistake for the
+latter. "You do not want to&mdash;<i>f-h-t</i>&mdash;him, if you
+can help it."</p>
+<p>"It would be the safest way," returned the other, not at all
+embarrassed by the attorney's ambiguous method of expressing
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; though 'dead men tell no tales,' it is also true
+that 'murder will out.' Besides, I have conscientious
+scruples."</p>
+<p>Jaspar sneered at this last remark; but the attorney was too
+useful an adviser at that moment to be lightly provoked, and he
+suppressed the angry exclamation which rose to his lips.</p>
+<p>"How would the slave jail do?" said he, with a fiendish
+smile.</p>
+<p>"Too public. Our object is to save the man's life,&mdash;an act
+of humanity; but we must not endanger our own safety."</p>
+<p>"No mortal man can ever know that he is confined there. The jail
+was built under my own direction, and, owing to its peculiar
+construction, not even the hands on the estate will know that it is
+occupied. I always keep the keys myself."</p>
+<p>"If you are satisfied, it is enough. But how can you get him
+in?"</p>
+<p>"I can manage that, with your assistance," said Jaspar, who had
+already arranged every particular. "But his wife?"</p>
+<p>"His wife! Has he a wife?"</p>
+<p>"Ay; and one who, if I mistake not, will give us more trouble
+than the fellow himself."</p>
+<p>"She must be caged with him."</p>
+<p>"You say well, Mr. De Guy. But can you reconcile this advice
+with your dainty humanity?" said Jaspar, with a sneer.</p>
+<p>"Certainly, I can! It were cruelty to separate man and wife,
+even in death. If I had a wife, I should be sorry to part with her
+under any circumstances."</p>
+<p>Jaspar grinned a sickly smile.</p>
+<p>"But the plan!" continued the attorney. "This loving couple will
+not willingly occupy your fancy apartment."</p>
+<p>"Leave that to me. Go to the jail. Here are the keys. I will
+send them to you. When they are in, lock the doors!"</p>
+<p>De Guy smiled.</p>
+<p>"You do not understand me?"</p>
+<p>The attorney confessed that he did not.</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, go to the jail, and wait their coming. Unlock the
+doors, and get out of sight. They will enter, like lambs."</p>
+<p>Jaspar explained a little further, and the attorney took his
+departure to obey his instructions.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>At the time appointed, Dalhousie returned to receive Jaspar's
+reply.</p>
+<p>"You are punctual," said the latter.</p>
+<p>"I am," replied Dalhousie, cavalierly. "This business admits of
+no delay. Are you prepared to give me an answer?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," returned Jaspar, endeavoring to assume a crestfallen
+air.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, do you accept my terms?"</p>
+<p>"I do, on one condition."</p>
+<p>"Name it."</p>
+<p>"It is, that you sign this bond never again to land in America,
+and to preserve entire silence in regard to the information you
+have obtained;" and Jaspar read an instrument he had drawn up, to
+blind the eyes of the overseer.</p>
+<p>"I agree to it."</p>
+<p>"It is well. But a further difficulty presents itself. I have
+not so much money in the world. The estate, perhaps you know,
+consists mostly of real estate, stocks, negroes, &amp;c. I have not
+five thousand dollars by me."</p>
+<p>The overseer looked at Jaspar with a keen, contemptuous glance,
+as if to read any attempt on his part to dupe him; but the wily
+planter moved not a muscle.</p>
+<p>"Then you cannot, if you would, consummate the bargain?" said
+he.</p>
+<p>"I said not so," returned Jaspar. "I only remarked that a
+difficulty had presented itself."</p>
+<p>"Pray explain yourself."</p>
+<p>"The difficulty can be removed."</p>
+<p>"Well, how? What new risk must I run?"</p>
+<p>"No risk. To tell you all in a few words, I have the money in
+gold buried on the estate."</p>
+<p>"That will suit me better. I prefer gold."</p>
+<p>"It is buried three feet under ground, in the slave jail. I
+selected that place to bury it, because I could dig without
+attracting attention."</p>
+<p>"It can easily be brought to light. An hour's work with the
+spade will unearth it."</p>
+<p>"True; but I have not the strength to dig. Besides, I am engaged
+with a friend in the nest room."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie accepted the excuse, for he had seen De Guy, as he was
+walking in the garden, half an hour before.</p>
+<p>"I can dig it up myself. Show me the spot."</p>
+<p>"Very well; but sign the bond first."</p>
+<p>"Of course, if you keep not your faith with me, the bond is
+nothing," said Dalhousie, as he affixed his signature to the paper,
+which Jaspar folded carefully, and put in his pocket.</p>
+<p>"Here are directions which will enable you to find it without
+the necessity of my attending you;" and he handed him a slip of
+paper, upon which were written minute directions to the supposed
+locality of the treasure.</p>
+<p>"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the
+directions, "while I am digging, you should close the doors upon
+me?"</p>
+<p>"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the
+heart belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial
+muscles.</p>
+<p>"I have not the highest confidence in <i>your</i> honor."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you
+any person at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"</p>
+<p>"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the
+mortifying fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.</p>
+<p>"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door,
+and, if she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside
+when I close the door."</p>
+<p>Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the
+fitness of the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt
+it.</p>
+<p>Briefly he narrated to his wife&mdash;though with some
+variations and concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all
+his operations&mdash;the history of the affair, and the good
+fortune that awaited him; and requested her attendance at the jail,
+to stand sentry over the gloomy den, while he dug up the
+treasure.</p>
+<p>De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his
+wife made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in
+a cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie
+walked twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building.
+Stationing his wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the
+locality of the supposed treasure.</p>
+<p>De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when
+the vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the
+exercise of extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching,
+undiscovered, the rear of the jail. Cat-like, he crept to the
+corner, and listened. He could hear their conversation. Carefully
+he stole round to the corner nearest to the door. For an instant
+the wife had left her station, to observe the progress of her
+husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was not the
+man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
+which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he
+flew to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the
+midst of their vision of wealth and happiness.</p>
+<p>Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to
+the mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his
+neighbor's cow. Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently
+waiting his return.</p>
+<p>"Are they safe?" said he.</p>
+<p>"As safe as your jail-walls can make them. Your plan was a
+clumsy one, but I <i>forced</i> it to succeed."</p>
+<p>"Did they not enter without scruple?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but the sentinel."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! did you not know she would desert her post? If she saw
+not danger, she would fear none in the day-time,&mdash;it is
+woman-like."</p>
+<p>"Not always; but it matters not; they are safe. Now to
+business."</p>
+<p>"Business!" exclaimed Jaspar, with a start, and a wild stare at
+the attorney. "The business is done."</p>
+<p>"Not all of it. There are other enemies in the field."</p>
+<p>"What mean you?" said Jaspar, alarmed. "Are we not safe
+yet?"</p>
+<p>"Not quite," replied the smooth attorney, with a quiet smile.
+"The game you played was a deep one, and you must needs persevere
+to the end."</p>
+<p>"Explain yourself, man; don't trifle with me," said Jaspar,
+roused by the smooth smile of the attorney; for that smile seemed
+to him full of meaning.</p>
+<p>"All in good time, my dear sir. Let me beg of you not to be
+discomposed by anything I may say to you."</p>
+<p>Jaspar sneered, but ventured no reply.</p>
+<p>"I have served you faithfully, you must acknowledge."</p>
+<p>"I will acknowledge nothing," said Jaspar, testily.</p>
+<p>"The steamer exploded, you remember," returned De Guy, with an
+expression of sly humor, which Jaspar did not appreciate.</p>
+<p>"I do remember it, by Heaven! But this villanous Dalhousie says
+my niece was not known to have been killed."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so."</p>
+<p>"Sir! Do you mean to say that you <i>know</i> she was not
+lost?"</p>
+<p>"Precisely so."</p>
+<p>"By &mdash;&mdash;! Sir, you have been making a merit of this
+very thing."</p>
+<p>"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a
+particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself
+this morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan
+succeeded admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the
+intention of serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good
+intentions!"</p>
+<p>"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"</p>
+<p>"Did the best that could be done, under the circumstances."</p>
+<p>"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."</p>
+<p>"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of
+happiness and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my
+advice."</p>
+<p>"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will
+be the best that could possibly be given to a man in your
+condition."</p>
+<p>"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the
+smooth words of his companion.</p>
+<p>"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."</p>
+<p>"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day
+without opening your mouth."</p>
+<p>"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."</p>
+<p>"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when
+the girl herself is at hand?"</p>
+<p>"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin,
+always advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to
+other matters."</p>
+<p>"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and
+paying his devoir to the brandy-bottle.</p>
+<p>"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair
+and coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing
+himself lazily upon the sofa&mdash;"I will tell you. The case is
+not desperate yet. How much is the amount of the old colonel's
+property?"</p>
+<p>"How, sir! What mean you?"</p>
+<p>"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable
+<i>sang-froid</i>, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and,
+taking therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent
+vesuvian. Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely
+declined the courtesy, he continued, "It is necessary to our
+further progress that I have this information."</p>
+<p>"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What
+then?" replied Jaspar, doggedly.</p>
+<p>"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more
+than double that sum."</p>
+<p>"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."</p>
+<p>"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.</p>
+<p>"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy,
+calmly.</p>
+<p>"He might possibly have left more."</p>
+<p>"Haven't you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the
+attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one
+perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened
+the drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.</p>
+<p>"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"</p>
+<p>"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is
+worth more,"&mdash;and he commenced fumbling over the contents of
+the drawer.</p>
+<p>"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains
+out!" said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the
+table.</p>
+<p>"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you
+shall have it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"&mdash;and
+he prepared to depart.</p>
+<p>"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can
+satisfy you, though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the
+subject."</p>
+<p>"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney,
+not at all disconcerted by what had happened.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."</p>
+<p>"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at
+least. Is it not a million and a half?"</p>
+<p>"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps two millions."</p>
+<p>"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.</p>
+<p>"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a
+million and a half."</p>
+<p>"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.</p>
+<p>"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De
+Guy, loud enough to be heard by his companion.</p>
+<p>"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which
+betrayed but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as
+he heard these words.</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and
+one-third of it would be very handsome for you."</p>
+<p>"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very
+grateful to you for allowing me so much."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so. Gratitude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The
+fact is, Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my
+expensive habits, one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a
+single man, and not likely to change your condition at present, so
+that you can have no possible use, either for yourself or for your
+heirs, for any more than one-third."</p>
+<p>"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering
+sneer. "But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion's
+share?"</p>
+<p>"O, but, my dear sir, you will not grumble! Your sense of
+justice will enable you to perceive the equity of this
+division."</p>
+<p>"Enough of this! I am in no humor for jesting," said Jaspar,
+with a frown.</p>
+<p>"Jesting!" exclaimed the attorney, with a well-made gesture of
+astonishment; "I was never more in earnest in my life."</p>
+<p>"May I be allowed to inquire the name of your intended bride?"
+sneered Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"A very proper question; and, considering our intimate
+friendship, a very natural one. Although my intention is a profound
+secret, and one I should not like to have go abroad at present,
+especially as her nearest of kin might possibly object, still I
+shall venture to inform <i>you</i>, since you are to have the honor
+of providing the means of carrying my matrimonial designs into
+effect."</p>
+<p>"I am certainly under obligations for your favorable
+consideration. But the lady's name?"</p>
+<p>"Miss Emily Dumont! a beautiful
+creature&mdash;high-spirited&mdash;every way worthy&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he
+seized the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy.
+"You cursed villain! You and I must cry quits!"</p>
+<p>"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing
+from his pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is
+<i>all</i> mine."</p>
+<p>Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing
+down the pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the
+violence of his emotions.</p>
+<p>"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me.
+There is no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear
+all,"&mdash;and Jaspar felt that he was sold to the fiend before
+him.</p>
+<p>"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney,
+resuming his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the
+moment of peril. "I offer you the means of safety. You will escape
+all the dangers that lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to
+see, you perfectly understand."</p>
+<p>"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his
+forty pieces of silver&mdash;the more fool he, to throw them away!
+I could not do this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my
+money."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice
+too mean for your noble nature."</p>
+<p>Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform
+their office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous
+master.</p>
+<p>"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."</p>
+<p>Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion
+towards which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the
+command was imperative. He could not resist&mdash;his will was
+gone.</p>
+<p>"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.</p>
+<p>"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied
+the attorney, promptly.</p>
+<p>"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you
+will."</p>
+<p>"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the
+honored inmate of our dwelling,&mdash;the affectionate uncle of
+your Emily, as of old," said the attorney, with infinite good
+humor.</p>
+<p>Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the
+stroke of this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no
+time.</p>
+<p>"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing
+a pen, and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have
+already been somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is
+your consent to my union with your niece. Call some one to witness
+it."</p>
+<p>Jaspar signed the certificate, without reading it. A witness was
+called, and the paper in due form was deposited in De Guy's
+pocket.</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, the lady is not altogether willing to consent to this
+arrangement; but you must persuade her, and, if need be, compel
+her, to consent. She will be here in a few days. After the
+marriage, it will only remain for me to make over to you one-third
+of the property, which, as her husband, I can then legally do. Be
+firm, and behave like a man, and your troubles are ended.
+Everything will be hushed up, and you can spend the evening of your
+days in peace and quiet. I bid you good-day."</p>
+<p>The attorney formally and politely ushered himself out of the
+library, and took his departure for New Orleans.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVII.</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Jaffier, you're free; but these must wait for judgment."</p>
+<p>OTWAY.</p>
+</div>
+<p>We left Dalhousie engaged in the seemingly hopeless task of
+undermining the wall of the slave jail, at which he labored for
+several hours, resting at intervals, as his exhausted frame
+demanded. The prospect of realizing his hope encouraged him, and
+lent an artificial strength to his arm. He had already excavated a
+pit several feet in depth, but had not reached the bottom of the
+foundation wall. The quantity of earth piled upon the brink of the
+pit required extra exertion to remove it, but he toiled on with the
+energy of despair.</p>
+<p>After laboring several hours more, he discovered, to his great
+joy, the bottom of the foundation. Again he plied the spade, and,
+by almost superhuman exertions, he succeeded in excavating a hole
+under the stones, which, below the surface of the ground, were not
+laid in mortar. After loosening all the small stones around a
+larger one, he found that he could pry it out, which, with much
+labor, he accomplished. The removal of the other stones was
+comparatively an easy task, and a little time sufficed to clear a
+space up to the solid masonry.</p>
+<p>But here a new difficulty presented itself. The hole he had dug
+was already half filled with the stones he had tumbled from their
+positions. His strength was not sufficient to remove them, and he
+was compelled to dig again, in order to prosecute his labors.</p>
+<p>The wall removed, he commenced digging outside of the foundation
+wall. Patiently he dug down to obtain sufficient room for the
+deposit of earth from the outside. Slowly and laboriously he
+undermined the ground, till the surface above him caved in,
+and&mdash;joy to his panting soul!&mdash;the air, the pure air of
+heaven, rushed in through the aperture! Hastily enlarging the
+cavity, and removing the earth to the inside, he ascended to the
+surface of the ground. A feeling of gratitude thrilled through his
+frame, as he once more inhaled the free air of heaven, that he had
+escaped the terrible fate which a few hours before had seemed
+inevitable.</p>
+<p>With faltering step,&mdash;for now that his Herculean task was
+accomplished, the reality of his weakened physical condition was
+painfully apparent,&mdash;he walked round the jail, to satisfy
+himself that no one was in the vicinity. The sun was set, and the
+shades of night were gathering upon the earth. The time was
+favorable for his escape. Having satisfied himself that he was
+unobserved, he hastened to the garden, which was close at hand, to
+procure the means of invigorating his own body, and restoring to
+life and animation the partner of his captivity. Fruit of various
+kinds&mdash;melons, figs&mdash;rewarded his anxious search. Filling
+his handkerchief with cantelopes and figs, he hastened back to the
+jail, with all the speed his weary limbs would permit. His thoughts
+were fixed upon his wife, whose suffering had pierced his soul more
+deeply than all the anxiety and doubt he had experienced on his own
+account. As he tottered along, he asked himself if he should eat of
+the fruit he carried ere she had tasted of the banquet. He drew one
+of the rosy-cheeked, juicy figs from the handkerchief. It was no
+loss of time&mdash;no deferring of the succor she needed&mdash;to
+eat as he walked; run he could not, though he fain would have
+quickened his tardy pace. It would restore his strength, and enable
+him the better to protect and rescue her. It was not wrong, though,
+from the deep well of his affection, came up something like a
+reproach for his selfishness. He ate the fruit. The effect was, or
+seemed to be, magical. He thought he could feel it imparting
+strength to his exhausted form. Again he ate, and in the pleasant
+sensation to his unsated palate, his imagination, as much as the
+fruit, nerved his muscles, and he walked with a firmer step.</p>
+<p>He had not completed one-half the distance back, when he
+discovered two men in the vicinity of the jail. A cold shudder
+nearly paralyzed him. Was his labor all in vain? Had he with so
+much trial and suffering effected his escape, only to be
+incarcerated again? The thought was maddening, and he resolved to
+die rather than be returned to the dungeon.</p>
+<p>Drawing a revolver from his pocket, with which he had prudently
+prepared himself before his interview with Jaspar, he proceeded on
+his way.</p>
+<p>On a nearer approach, the men appeared to be strangers to him.
+They might, however, be in the employ of Jaspar. They might be
+engaged in watching over his captivity.</p>
+<p>He approached nearer. He had never seen either of them before.
+They did not look like men whom Jaspar would have been likely to
+select for such a purpose as he apprehended. Still, he took the
+precaution to examine the caps upon his pistol, and have his
+bowie-knife in a convenient place for immediate use.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie was the first to speak.</p>
+<p>"Your business here?" demanded he, regardless of the courtesy to
+which he had been all his life accustomed.</p>
+<p>"The fact on 'tis," replied one of the strangers, a little
+startled by the rude manner of Dalhousie, "the fact on 'tis, we are
+lookin' arter the mansion of a Mr. Dumont. Perhaps you will oblige
+us by tellin' us which way to go."</p>
+<p>"He lives in yonder house," replied Dalhousie, pointing it
+out.</p>
+<p>The simplicity of the speaker dissipated his apprehensions, and
+his curiosity was excited.</p>
+<p>"You know him, do you?" continued he.</p>
+<p>"Well, no&mdash;I can't say I do."</p>
+<p>"But you have business with him?"</p>
+<p>"Not particularly with him,&mdash;the Lord forbid!" replied the
+stranger, devoutly.</p>
+<p>"Devil a bit with him, at all," added his companion.</p>
+<p>"Since no one else resides under the same roof with him, may I
+ask the reason of your visit there, if I am not too bold?" said
+Dalhousie.</p>
+<p>"Sure, it's only to see the counthry, about here, we've come,"
+replied the Irish stranger.</p>
+<p>"No, Partrick, you know that is not the truth. Never tell a lie
+for anything, Partrick. Our business an't with him, but it consarns
+him. We don't care about mentioning it to everybody."</p>
+<p>"I do not mean to be impertinent," said Dalhousie; "but perhaps
+I may be able to serve you. The man you seek is a villain!"</p>
+<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan,&mdash;for we presume it
+is unnecessary to <i>tell</i> the reader that it was he,&mdash;"I
+know <i>that</i>."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, then you have some knowledge of him?"</p>
+<p>"Sartain! but do you know a minister in these parts by the name
+of Faxon?"</p>
+<p>"I do; he lives close by."</p>
+<p>"Do you belong in this part of this country, Mister?" asked
+Uncle Nathan, who seemed to make the question a prelude to other
+inquiries.</p>
+<p>"I do. But I must leave you now. I am the bearer of life to one
+whom I love dearer than myself. I have been foully wronged by the
+man you visit."</p>
+<p>"Heavens and airth! you don't say so?" exclaimed Uncle
+Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Doomed to a death by starvation, with my wife, in yonder jail,
+by his malice, I have just effected my escape. My wife is nearly
+dead, but I hope to restore her with these fruits."</p>
+<p>"Good Heavens! who would have thought there was such a monster
+upon the airth?"</p>
+<p>"By the powers!" ejaculated Pat Fegan.</p>
+<p>"Can't we help you?" asked Uncle Nathan.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you can. I thank you, and, if it is not too late, she
+also will thank you. My strength is nearly gone."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, proceeded
+towards the jail, the former relating, as they went, the terrible
+incidents of their captivity, and the means by which he had
+effected their happy deliverance.</p>
+<p>On the night of the explosion of the Chalmetta's boiler, Uncle
+Nathan and Pat Fegan had saved their lives by jumping overboard,
+and had been picked up by the Flatfoot. The true-hearted New
+Englander had made a diligent search for the parties who had
+intrusted the will in his keeping, but without success. He had been
+enabled to gain no tidings of any of them, and was now continuing
+his search to the mansion of the Dumont family.</p>
+<p>The party reached the jail, and Dalhousie leaped into the pit,
+followed by his companions. The poor wife seemed to have no
+realization of the event which had set them free, and gazed with a
+wild stare upon her husband and those who accompanied him.</p>
+<p>"We are safe, Delia! we are safe!" said Dalhousie, as he
+proceeded to untie the bundle of fruit.</p>
+<p>"Safe! no, it cannot be&mdash;only a dream! But who are these
+persons?"</p>
+<p>"They are friends, Delia&mdash;friends who have come to help me
+in saving you. Take one of these figs, dear. They will restore
+you."</p>
+<p>"Figs!" replied Delia, with a vacant look.</p>
+<p>"Yes, dearest; taste it,"&mdash;and he placed the fruit, which
+he had divested of its rind, to her lips.</p>
+<p>The act seemed to restore her wandering mind to its equilibrium,
+and she painfully lifted herself on the pallet of straw, and took
+the fruit in her hand. She gazed upon it with a kind of silent
+rapture, while a faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.</p>
+<p>"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"&mdash;and she
+tasted the fig.</p>
+<p>"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."</p>
+<p>"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to
+eat myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place?
+Are not these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the
+pit you have dug?"</p>
+<p>"No, dearest, they are <i>our</i> friends," said Dalhousie,
+pained by the wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that
+it might end in insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you
+have eaten some of these figs and melons. I am almost restored by
+the joy of this moment, dearest; and you must strive to be of good
+cheer."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle
+Nathan and Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not
+so easily restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to
+have given her constitution a shock from which it would take time
+to recover.</p>
+<p>A conference took place between the parties, to decide upon the
+best means of removing the lady, who was utterly incapable of
+moving a step, and scarcely of lifting her form on her rude couch.
+Uncle Nathan was not long in devising a method; and, directing Pat
+to enlarge the aperture through which the captives were to escape,
+he went in search of some canes, with which to construct a litter.
+Pat applied himself vigorously to his task, tumbling over the huge
+stones like playthings, and handling the shovel with all that
+dexterity for which the Celtic race is so distinguished.</p>
+<p>A rude litter was constructed, on which were laid the coats of
+the party, so as to render it as comfortable as possible to the
+sufferer. Uncle Nathan and Dalhousie, with much tenderness, though
+not without pain to the invalid, succeeded in getting her through
+the aperture into the open air, where she was placed upon the
+litter.</p>
+<p>It was decided to carry her to the house of Mr. Faxon, upon
+whose active sympathies they relied for shelter and assistance; and
+they went with the more confidence, because Uncle Nathan had heard
+from Emily the interest he took in her affairs. The litter was
+borne by Uncle Nathan and Pat, while Dalhousie walked by its side,
+to cheer the heart of his wife by promises of future joy, which the
+uncertain future might never redeem.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon received the party with scarcely an inquiry as to the
+nature of the misfortune which brought them to his door. There was
+a person in distress, and this was all his great, sympathetic heart
+needed to bid him open wide his doors.</p>
+<p>Delia Dalhousie was placed upon a bed, a negro was despatched
+for a physician, and every effort used to alleviate her physical
+and mental sufferings.</p>
+<p>After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon
+listened with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's
+confinement, and the causes which led to it; for the overseer was
+so candid as to relate all, not even omitting the bribe he had
+agreed to take of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when
+they are unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the
+future. Never do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever
+befalls you in this changing world, you will have an approving
+conscience to smile upon you, and lighten the darkest hour of
+adversity. But your tale brings me consolation. There is yet hope
+that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel story of her death has
+darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in spite of the
+reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and I pray
+that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
+unfortunate."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and
+acknowledged the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle
+Nathan heard with astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of
+Emily had been guilty, and his simple New England heart was sorely
+perplexed by it. He had no "idea" of such depravity, and he was
+tempted, even in spite of the Scripture injunction to the contrary,
+to "thank God that he was not like other men."</p>
+<p>In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the
+evening had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to
+broach the subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until
+a late hour, in discussing the means of doing justice to the
+injured, in restoring to Bellevue its rightful mistress.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVIII.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"To do a great right, do a
+little wrong."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
+Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant
+during her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with
+every luxury the most pampered appetite could desire, her
+confinement deserved no better name. She recognized the place, and
+doubted not she should be again subjected to the infamous
+persecution of her old enemy. She wondered that he had not already
+presented himself, and concluded he could not yet have returned
+from his up-river journey, or he would have done so. No one visited
+her but the negress, whose conversation, in her eagerness to serve
+the liberal proprietor of the office, was disgusting to her refined
+sensibilities. Not oven De Guy came, to give her any intimation of
+the nature of the fate which awaited her.</p>
+<p>Maxwell's mind, she was satisfied, was fixed upon the possession
+of her estates. She could not now entertain the belief which once,
+in her weak pity, she had countenanced, that the attorney could
+<i>love</i> her. O, no! God forbid that even the human heart can
+love, and, at the same time, persecute the object of its
+affections! It was her estates; and she half resolved to compromise
+with her tormentor by yielding him one-half of her property, on the
+condition of his restoring the other half, for she doubted not that
+he was able to do so. But there was something so debasing to her
+sentiment of truth and justice in the fact of bargaining with so
+base a man, that she could not conquer her prejudice, and finally
+determined to suffer everything rather than succumb to the
+villain.</p>
+<p>Hope had not yet abandoned her. She had too much confidence in
+the omnipresent justice of an overruling Providence to doubt that
+all would yet end well.</p>
+<p>Dido was her jailer, and she scarcely left the office, through
+which alone egress was had from the apartment of Emily. There she
+dozed away the day and night, freely indulging in the fashionable
+habit of "imbibing," to chase away the <i>ennui</i> of the heavy
+hours. Her liberal perquisites enabled her to gratify her appetite
+without stint or measure, though a sort of demi-consciousness of
+her responsibility deterred her from an entire abandonment to the
+pleasures of the cup.</p>
+<p>The apartment in which Emily was confined was lighted by windows
+of stained glass, opening into the main office, so that there was
+no immediate connection with the open air. This fact rendered the
+room so secure that Dido rested perfectly easy from the fear of
+interruption, save from the front of the building.</p>
+<p>The colored guardian, having imbibed rather inordinately one
+day, was disposed to court the favor of the sleepy god, and
+stretched herself at full length upon one of the easy lounges of
+the office. Her eyelids opened and closed languidly, as though she
+was about to sink away into dreamy unconsciousness, when she was
+startled by a loud knocking at the door.</p>
+<p>"Who's dar?" shouted Dido, springing to her feet; for a visit to
+the office, at this season of the year, was of rare occurrence.</p>
+<p>"Open the door, Max," responded a voice from the outside.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell not here, sar," said the colored lady, partly
+opening the door.</p>
+<p>"Not here!" returned the visitor, pushing into the office in
+spite of the negress, who was disposed to prevent his entrance.
+"Isn't Max in town?"</p>
+<p>"No sar; he went away to de Norf about a monf ago."</p>
+<p>"Look here, you black imp," said the stranger, in a severe tone,
+"do you mean to say that Max is <i>not</i> in town?"</p>
+<p>"I do, for sartin, sar."</p>
+<p>"And he has left you to practise law for him in his absence?"
+returned the visitor, with a grin.</p>
+<p>"No sar, I takes care ob de buildin."</p>
+<p>"Fudge! Maxwell always shuts up his room when he leaves town;"
+and the stranger walked round the room towards the private
+apartment, much to the consternation of Dido.</p>
+<p>"No, Massa, he tell me, monf ago, to keep de room in order."</p>
+<p>"No doubt he did," returned the stranger, placing his hand on
+the handle of the door, and attempting to open it, which, by Dido's
+precaution, was ineffectual.</p>
+<p>"Is there no one in this room?" asked the gentleman.</p>
+<p>"No sar, de room is locked, and Massa Maxwell hab carry off de
+key."</p>
+<p>The stranger walked several times round the room, and thoroughly
+scrutinized everything; after which, to the entire satisfaction of
+the colored lady, he took his departure. Passing out of the
+building, he crossed the street and entered a coffee-room, at the
+front window of which he seated himself, as if with the intention
+of watching Maxwell's office.</p>
+<p>This person was the reader's old acquaintance, Vernon,&mdash;or,
+more properly, Jerome Vaudelier, whose intervening history we are
+now called upon to relate. It will be remembered that, at the
+request of his father, and at the earnest desire of Henry Carroll,
+as well as by the promptings of his own wish to do justice to the
+heiress, he had gone to Vicksburg, for the purpose of keeping an
+eye on the movements of Maxwell. On his arrival at the hotel, he
+found the attorney, and dined With him; but after dinner he
+suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. All Vernon's inquiries were
+of no avail. The landlord said he had paid his bill, and that was
+the last he had seen of him. Vernon was perplexed, and on learning
+that no boat had left since dinner, he was at a loss which way to
+proceed. Late in the afternoon he obtained, as he thought, some
+clue to him; and he departed, without loss of time, to Jackson,
+whither the attorney was supposed to have gone. His search,
+however, was futile, and he returned to Vicksburg by the morning
+train. Much disheartened, he was compelled to go to Cottage Island
+with the intelligence that his efforts had been foiled. On his
+arrival, he learned, to his astonishment, that Emily had just gone
+to Bellevue in company with De Guy&mdash;a person of whom he had no
+knowledge.</p>
+<p>Though Dr. Vaudelier and Henry Carroll had been satisfied with
+the evidences brought by De Guy, Vernon was not. He knew better
+than they the character of Maxwell, and it was determined that he
+should proceed immediately to New Orleans, to guard against the
+possibility of any evil to which Emily might be subjected.</p>
+<p>On the morning after De Guy's departure, he proceeded down the
+river, and landed in the vicinity of Bellevue, to which he
+immediately made his way. Without a direct application to any one,
+he learned that Emily had not yet arrived. He waited in the
+vicinity another day, but obtained no tidings of her. His worst
+fears were now confirmed. De Guy had deceived them.</p>
+<p>This De Guy, then, was an emissary of Maxwell. To his mind, now
+animated by a high purpose, the reflection was annoying. To the
+fate of Emily his new destiny seemed to be attached. His greatest
+error&mdash;at least, the one most troublesome to his awakened
+conscience&mdash;was the act of oppressing Emily. He felt that the
+washing of the stains from his character depended upon securing her
+rights.</p>
+<p>The <i>ci devant</i> desperado, as we have before indicated, was
+radically changed at heart, and he now felt more interest in the
+welfare of Emily than he had ever before harbored for any human
+being.</p>
+<p>His position was full of embarrassments. He learned, while at
+Bellevue, that Jaspar was not, and had not been, sick. This
+information decided his future course. The mission of De Guy had
+only been a decoy, to lure her into the hands of Maxwell.</p>
+<p>Hatchie was with her; but, alas! what could a slave do against
+the powerful machinations of such a villain as Maxwell?</p>
+<p>After obtaining the information which satisfied him of the
+imposture, he proceeded to New Orleans. Knowing the name of the
+steamer in which De Guy had taken passage from Vicksburg, he
+hastened to the levee, to gain what tidings he might from the
+officers of the Montezuma. He found that a lady and gentleman
+answering to his description had taken a carriage on the morning of
+their arrival, and this was all they knew. In answer to his
+inquiries for Hatchie, he learned that a servant had been handed
+over to the police, to be imprisoned in the calaboose till called
+for.</p>
+<p>This was scanty information upon which to continue his search.
+His first step was to go to the calaboose, where he managed to
+obtain an interview with Hatchie. The poor fellow was in an agony
+of grief,&mdash;not on his own account, but on that of his
+mistress, for he well understood the reason of this
+imprisonment.</p>
+<p>Hatchie, of course, could give him no information of the
+whereabouts of Emily, nor offer any suggestion; and Vernon was
+compelled to leave the disheartened mulatto, with only a promise of
+speedily effecting his deliverance.</p>
+<p>Vernon's next step was to ascertain the present abiding place of
+Maxwell, if, indeed, he was in the city; and for this purpose he
+had gone to his office. The open room did not verify the statements
+of the negress. He knew that Maxwell always closed up his rooms
+when he left the city, and the fact of their being open now tended
+to fix suspicion upon him, or rather to confirm the suspicions
+before entertained. He had made the visit to the attorney's rooms
+to gain information; and, being partly convinced, by the manner of
+the negress, that the rear chamber was occupied, he retired to the
+coffee-room to digest the knowledge, and, if possible, arrive at
+some conclusion through it, as well as at the same time to keep
+watch of the movements at the office.</p>
+<p>Who was this De Guy, who had been the agent of
+Maxwell?&mdash;for such he determined to believe him, until
+convinced to the contrary. He canvassed their mutual acquaintances,
+but could remember no such person. Intimate as he had been with all
+the associates of Maxwell, he could not identify this bold and
+cunning confederate.</p>
+<p>He had not long deliberated, when, to his surprise,&mdash;albeit
+it was not an event at all remarkable,&mdash;Maxwell entered the
+coffee-room.</p>
+<p>Before Vernon had time to decide whether or not he should charge
+the lawyer with the abduction of Emily, that worthy approached his
+chair, and, with much cordiality,&mdash;more than he had formerly
+bestowed upon him,&mdash;extended his hand, and expressed his
+happiness at again meeting him in the city.</p>
+<p>Undecided as yet how to proceed, Vernon returned his salutations
+with an appearance of equal cordiality.</p>
+<p>"My dear fellow," said Maxwell, "I am rejoiced to see you in
+town again. I was afraid you would quite desert us."</p>
+<p>This language was new and strange to Vernon. It sounded like the
+days in which he had been respectable&mdash;before his vices had
+found him out.</p>
+<p>"Indeed! why did you think so?" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Why, Vernon, there was some kind of a ridiculous story current
+at Vicksburg, to the effect that you had joined the church, or
+something of that sort."</p>
+<p>"Ha, ha! funny!" said Vernon, adopting the free and easy style,
+which had formerly distinguished his colloquial efforts. "Where did
+you pick up the story?"</p>
+<p>"O, it was quite current when I left Vicksburg."</p>
+<p>"A good joke, hey?" said Vernon, musing.</p>
+<p>When Maxwell left Vicksburg, it was impossible that any such
+story could have been extant. Of his reformation no one but the
+people of Cottage Island could have known anything. It seemed a
+little mysterious that Maxwell should know of it; but the fact of
+De Guy's visit to the house of his father came to his assistance,
+and the mystery was solved. De Guy had communicated this
+information to Maxwell, and thus he was enabled to establish
+conclusively the connection between them.</p>
+<p>Vernon's plan for the future was adopted; and manifesting no
+surprise, he denied the fact of his reformation, however strong the
+circumstances might be against him. He had often been implicated in
+fouler deceptions than this in a worse cause, and, in spite of his
+great resolves, he did not hesitate in this instance.</p>
+<p>"Quite a sell, wasn't it, this reformation? The old gentleman
+has a fine place up there,&mdash;money in the bank,&mdash;hey, boy?
+I saw through the whole of it, as soon as I heard the absurd
+story," said Maxwell, who, to do him justice, did not believe the
+tale. It was too much for his credulity, that a thing like Vernon
+could be animated by a good motive,&mdash;could, by any
+possibility, abandon the error of his ways.</p>
+<p>"Just so, Max. The fact is, I found the old fellow had plenty of
+money, and no one but me to leave it to; so I thought it would be a
+devilish pity to have it all go to found a hospital, an orthodox
+college, or some such absurdity, and I could not resist the
+temptation to become a little saintly, just for a few days."</p>
+<p>"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The
+old fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"</p>
+<p>"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip
+to from Vicksburg?"</p>
+<p>"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence,
+and thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I
+gave you the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and
+then taking the boat."</p>
+<p>"But you didn't know I had reformed then,&mdash;ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+<p>"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the
+island,&mdash;I overheard that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy
+speaking of it. But I own, Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you
+unheard."</p>
+<p>"Max, who is this De Guy?"</p>
+<p>"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know
+him."</p>
+<p>"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot <i>wool</i> me? By the
+way, that was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after
+the girl. When he had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I
+had not come and assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not
+possibly be concerned in the affair."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! did you do me this essential service?" said Maxwell,
+forgetting that he had denied his connection with De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I did. If you had left the matter with me, I could have done it
+better."</p>
+<p>"Well, Vernon, I see you are all right yet; but the thing worked
+to a charm. De Guy is the cleverest fellow out. The girl is
+safe."</p>
+<p>"So I suppose," said Vernon, with an assumption of
+indifference.</p>
+<p>"But all the sport is yet to come."</p>
+<p>"Indeed," said Vernon, burning with anxiety, but striving to
+maintain his accustomed easy and reckless air.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Vernon, all the hard work we did up the river shall not be
+in vain. I shall win the prize!" and Maxwell rubbed his hands at
+the pleasant anticipation.</p>
+<p>"Wish you joy, Max! But you don't mean to marry the girl?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+<p>"What! a quadroon?"</p>
+<p>"Pshaw! that story is all blown through. Her old uncle, up the
+river, got up that abstraction, so as to finger her property," said
+Maxwell, forgetting, in his candor, the scruples which his
+companion had expressed on a former occasion with relation to
+persecuting a white woman,&mdash;scruples which Vernon did not seem
+disposed to press upon the attorney's memory.</p>
+<p>"You helped him through with his scheme?" answered Vernon, with
+a bold, careless air.</p>
+<p>"'Pon honor, I had nothing to do with it. Old Jaspar did it all
+himself," replied Maxwell, with an oath.</p>
+<p>"Looks a little like you, though," said Vernon, with a
+nonchalance which provoked Maxwell, whose temper was not of the
+mildest tone.</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, it is none of mine, though the plan was a
+creditable one. But it has brought old Jaspar into a wasp's
+nest."</p>
+<p>"How's that?"</p>
+<p>"I had my eye on the girl, ever since the colonel died. I saw
+through Jaspar's plot, and a little bravado made him tell me all
+about it."</p>
+<p>"Good!"</p>
+<p>"Just so; and, as they are old clients of mine, why, I could not
+do less than get them out of the scrape, and remove the stain from
+the name of the fair heiress."</p>
+<p>"How can you do it?"</p>
+<p>"That's the point."</p>
+<p>"Looks rather complicated."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so; but energy and skill will accomplish wonders."</p>
+<p>"Very true," replied Vernon, in his usual quiet manner, well
+knowing that Maxwell would take the alarm if he appeared in the
+least inquisitive,&mdash;so he contented himself with this simple
+ejaculation.</p>
+<p>"Can I trust you still?" said Maxwell, in a low tone, and with
+an anxious look, after a pause of several minutes.</p>
+<p>"I care not whether you trust me or not," replied Vernon, with
+characteristic indifference.</p>
+<p>"Are you the man you were two months ago? If you are, I need ask
+no more questions."</p>
+<p>"I am. And now let me tell you, if you have work for me, the pay
+must be liberal. I have reformed in one respect, and that is from
+low prices to high ones. I have done too many of your little chores
+for nothing. Good pay is my motto now."</p>
+<p>"Be it so," replied Maxwell, whose suspicions, as Vernon had
+intended, were diverted by this by-talk. "I will pay you well. If
+my plan succeeds, three thousand."</p>
+<p>"Good! that sounds liberal. But suppose it fail?"</p>
+<p>"It cannot fail."</p>
+<p>"What is the plan? You mean to help old Jaspar out of the
+scrape, and save the girl too. How can you do it?"</p>
+<p>"There is only one way&mdash;marry the girl!"</p>
+<p>"Just so," replied Vernon, with an indifference it was hard to
+assume.</p>
+<p>"Here are the whole details of the plan. I have Jaspar's consent
+to my marriage with the girl, but I dare not attempt to consummate
+the scheme in the city. She is so cursed obstinate, that it is a
+hard matter to manage her. I saw Jaspar last night, and we
+concluded to have the ceremony performed at Bellevue, as soon as
+possible, or that fiery son of Mars and your worthy patriarch will
+be down upon us, and spoil the whole."</p>
+<p>"Never fear them," said Vernon. "You will not proceed for a week
+or two?"</p>
+<p>"A week or so will make no difference. But I am afraid it will
+take more time than that to induce her to consent. The difficulty
+which has troubled me more than any other is to get her to
+Bellevue. She tells Dido that she will not go alive. She fears
+Jaspar more than she does me, and rightly suspects that if she
+yields she will have to encounter both. She has not seen me since
+the row at the wood-yard, and I intend to transact all business
+with her through De Guy."</p>
+<p>"She is a difficult case," suggested Vernon, to fill up a pause
+in Maxwell's speech.</p>
+<p>"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that
+<i>you</i> could manage her like a young lamb."</p>
+<p>"I!" exclaimed Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"</p>
+<p>"Like a saint."</p>
+<p>"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you
+know."</p>
+<p>"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."</p>
+<p>"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I <i>will</i> pretend to
+effect her escape. But there is one difficulty&mdash;" and he
+suddenly checked his apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful
+air.</p>
+<p>"A difficulty?"</p>
+<p>"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes
+up the river are lost."</p>
+<p>"And you will return&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Vernon reflected, and then replied,</p>
+<p>"In four days."</p>
+<p>"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that
+the lady is doing well&mdash;that Jaspar's health is improving,
+&amp;c. They won't hurry down, then."</p>
+<p>"A good thought. I <i>will</i> write to him."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Here is my hand for my true
+constancy."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"There is a fair behavior in
+thee, captain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">I will believe thou hast a mind
+that suits</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With this thy fair and outward
+character."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SHAKSPEARE.</span></p>
+<p>"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room,
+"your work of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my
+seared heart can come up one single good impulse to guide me, I
+will bring the guilty and the innocent to their just desert."</p>
+<p>He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and
+prudence required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a
+boat would leave in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to
+Captain Carroll. This letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell
+had bargained for, inasmuch as the object of it was to request the
+immediate presence of his father and Henry at Bellevue, which
+promised soon to be the theatre of war. With this letter in his
+pocket, he made his way to the levee, and departed for Baton
+Rouge.</p>
+<p>It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly
+inconsistent step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the
+object to which he had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to
+gain time, even at the sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short
+season, so that his father and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue
+as soon as Emily. He had written them all the details of the plan.
+His own purpose was to have Emily's strongest friends at hand on
+her arrival at Bellevue, so as effectually to foil the machinations
+of Jaspar and Maxwell. His own visit to Baton Rouge was only a
+feint to avoid a meeting with Maxwell in the interim, thus keeping
+the appearance in unison with the pretension.</p>
+<p>The river had risen some three or four feet, and the large and
+rapid steamers had commenced running. The "Raven," to the clerk of
+which he had intrusted the letter for Cottage Island, was a
+remarkably fast boat, and he had every reason to hope that his plan
+would be successful.</p>
+<p>Three days he remained at Baton Rouge, in a state of impatience
+and inactivity, rendered doubly uncomfortable by the fear that
+Maxwell might change his plan in his absence.</p>
+<p>A downward steamer was approaching the city, and he hastened on
+board. His letter had been faithfully delivered, for almost the
+first person he discovered on board the boat was Henry Carroll, and
+Dr. Vaudelier was close at hand. This was excellent, and he
+congratulated himself on the bright prospect before him.</p>
+<p>It was arranged that the doctor and his late patient should
+remain in the vicinity of Bellevue until the following day, when
+Vernon would convey Emily to her home. They were accordingly landed
+at the Red Church, and Vernon proceeded to New Orleans.</p>
+<p>Maxwell greeted him with a cordiality which showed the interest
+he felt in the scheme, the consummation of which would realize his
+dreams of luxurious indulgence. They wended their way, without loss
+of time, up the street, deciding that Vernon should at once broach
+the proposition to Emily of going up to Bellevue. The attorney,
+when they had arrived within a short distance of the office,
+directed Vernon to proceed alone, agreeing to meet him at a
+coffee-room in the neighborhood.</p>
+<p>On reaching the office, a new difficulty was presented. The
+inflexible guardian of Emily refused to allow Vernon to see her,
+stoutly persisting that De Guy would not permit it. Vernon was
+obliged to resort to Maxwell in this dilemma, who, affirming that
+he did not wish Emily to know of his presence in town, had kept the
+secret from the negress. So what could he do? But, bidding Vernon
+wait, he left the coffee-room, and soon returned with an order
+signed by De Guy, whom, Maxwell affirmed, he had been so fortunate
+as to meet at the Exchange.</p>
+<p>"But of what use is this paper? The girl cannot read. Shall I
+take the keys from her?" asked Vernon.</p>
+<p>"The note will be sufficient. Show it to her; she will pretend
+to read it, and would, if it were in Hebrew or Sanscrit," said
+Maxwell, who then repeated the caution he had before given, not to
+betray the fact of his presence in the city.</p>
+<p>Vernon presented the note to the negress, who, with a
+business-like air, opened it; and, though he could perceive that
+she held it up-side down, she examined it long and attentively,
+sputtering with her thick lips, as though actually engaged in the
+to her impossible operation of reading it.</p>
+<p>"Dis alters de case, Massa. Why you no show dis paper before?"
+said Dido, with an air of huge importance, which would have done
+credit to the captain of a country company of militia.</p>
+<p>"Open the door, and don't stop to chatter!" replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Massa, I have read de letter, and now I knows dat Massa
+Guy wants you to see de leddy. Dat alters de case. I has nussin
+furder to say," muttered Dido, as she unlocked the chamber
+door.</p>
+<p>Emily was seated on a sofa, reading a book she had taken with
+her to while away the time on board of the steamer.</p>
+<p>"Missus, a gemman, who hab brought a letter from Massa Guy,"
+said Dido, as she opened the door.</p>
+<p>"Bring the letter, then," replied Emily, scarcely raising her
+eyes from the book.</p>
+<p>"No, Missus, de letter am for me, and I hab read it. It orders
+me to 'mit dis gemman."</p>
+<p>"That is sufficient," said Vernon, pushing the attendant back,
+and closing the door.</p>
+<p>Emily rose; and great was her surprise at perceiving the son of
+her late benefactor. An avalanche of doubt rushed through her mind,
+and she could not conjecture the occasion of this visit. She had
+left him at his father's house. Had he forsaken his new-born
+repentance? Was he again the minister of Maxwell's evil purposes?
+She had been a prey to the most distressing anticipations, and had
+now settled down into the calmness of resignation. Resolved to die
+rather than become the bride of Maxwell, she had spent the hours
+and days of her imprisonment in nerving herself to meet whatever
+bitter fate might await her, in maintaining her purity and her
+principle.</p>
+<p>The appearance of Jerome Vaudelier caused her a thrill of
+apprehension, but it was quickly supplanted by a feeling of
+interest in the individual himself. Her own gloomy position seemed
+divested of its sombreness, as she felt that the penitence of the
+erring soul had not been a reality.</p>
+<p>"Jerome Vaudelier, are you, too, the minister of a villain's
+wishes?"</p>
+<p>"Nay, Miss Dumont&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Say that you are yet true to yourself; that you have not
+forgotten those solemn vows you made in the home of your father;
+say that you are not the tool of the vile Maxwell&mdash;say it
+before you speak your business with me!"</p>
+<p>"Miss Dumont, I acknowledge that the present appearance is
+against me; but I assure you I have come only as the minister of
+good to you."</p>
+<p>"Bless you for the words! I feared you had again been
+tempted."</p>
+<p>"So I have, lady, and apparently have yielded; but it was only
+to save you. Listen to me, and I will disclose all the details of
+the plots which are even now ripening to ensnare you,"&mdash;and
+Vernon, in a low tone, briefly narrated everything, and the means
+which were in operation to secure her safety.</p>
+<p>"You must go to Bellevue to-morrow, there to meet my father and
+Captain Carroll," said he.</p>
+<p>The color came to her pale cheek, at the mention of her lover's
+name. She felt that Vernon meant to be true to her, and true to
+himself. And it required no persuasion to induce her to acquiesce
+in the arrangements.</p>
+<p>"But, Hatchie&mdash;must I leave him in prison? It is not a meet
+reward for his fidelity."</p>
+<p>"It cannot be avoided, Miss Dumont. I will see him to-day, and
+when his honest heart knows that you are in safety, he will be just
+as happy in a prison as in a palace. He shall be set at liberty in
+a few days."</p>
+<p>"I hope he may. Does this De Guy accompany you?"</p>
+<p>"No; but Maxwell says he will reach Bellevue as soon as we
+do."</p>
+<p>"Why is this? Why does not Maxwell present himself, and urge his
+infamous proposals?"</p>
+<p>"I know not, unless it be that De Guy is the more artful of the
+two."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>Let us change the scene to the next day, at the abode of Mr.
+Faxon.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife, by the kind attentions of their host,
+were restored to a comparatively healthy state. The lady had
+suffered much in her physical and mental constitution, and a shade
+of deep melancholy rested upon her handsome features. She could not
+forget the horrors of the dungeon in which she had been confined.
+It seemed a great epoch in her life; all before it was strange and
+undefined, while every trivial incident since was a great paragraph
+in her history.</p>
+<p>Mr. Faxon was seated in his library, surrounded by his guests.
+The affairs of the Dumont family had again been discussed, for to
+them they were full of interest.</p>
+<p>The good minister feelingly expatiated upon the bitterness of
+the heiress' lot, brought up as she had been amid all the
+refinements of polished society, whose sensibilities were rendered
+doubly acute by nature and the circumstances which environed her,
+to be thus degraded into the condition of a base-born, despised
+being,&mdash;to be so suddenly hurled from honor and
+opulence,&mdash;it was a dreadful blow! So feelingly did he narrate
+the particulars, so tenderly did he describe the loneliness of her
+position, that his hearers were deeply affected, and Delia shed a
+flood of tears.</p>
+<p>"I too have been a wanderer, though a voluntary one, from the
+home of my father," said she.</p>
+<p>"Nay, Delia," said Dalhousie, tenderly; "do not revert to your
+own experience. Remember you are not strong enough to bear much
+excitement."</p>
+<p>"I did not intend to speak of my own experience; but the
+sufferings of poor Miss Dumont call to my mind the remembrance of
+similar feelings."</p>
+<p>"I presume the company are not desirous of hearing the story of
+an elopement," said Dalhousie, with a smile.</p>
+<p>"Nor I to relate one. The pure devotion of Miss Dumont to the
+memory of her father recalls the affection, the fond indulgence, of
+my own father. I have not, as she has, the consciousness of having
+never wilfully abused his confidence."</p>
+<p>"If you have erred, madam," said Mr. Faxon, "your father still
+lives, does he not? Perhaps it is not yet too late to atone for the
+fault."</p>
+<p>"Alas! I know not whether he is living or not. I wrote to him
+several times, but never received an answer."</p>
+<p>"Who was your father, madam?" said Mr. Faxon, with much sympathy
+in the tones of his voice.</p>
+<p>"I dread even to mention the name I bore in the innocent days of
+childhood."</p>
+<p>"Fie, Delia!" said Dalhousie, with a pleasant laugh, "what have
+you done to sink yourself so far in your own estimation? You and
+your father differed as to the propriety of our marriage; to you,
+as a true woman, your course was plain. This is the height and
+depth of your monstrous sin."</p>
+<p>The conversation was here interrupted by the announcement that a
+gentleman waited to see Mr. Faxon.</p>
+<p>The good clergyman had a habit of promptness in answering all
+calls upon him. This custom had been acquired by the reflection
+that a poor dying mortal might wait his blessing, ere he departed
+on his endless journey; that, sometimes, a moment's delay could
+never be atoned for; therefore he rose on the instant, and hastened
+to the parlor, where the visitor waited.</p>
+<p>"Ah! is it possible&mdash;Captain Carroll!" said he, as he
+grasped Henry's hand; "I am glad to see you. But how pale and thin
+you look!"</p>
+<p>"Good reason for it, my dear sir. I was on board of the
+Chalmetta."</p>
+<p>"Were you, indeed! Thank God, you escaped with life! Were you
+much injured?"</p>
+<p>"I was, but, thanks to the care of a good physician, I am nearly
+restored again."</p>
+<p>"But our poor lady&mdash;Miss Dumont&mdash;have you any tidings
+of her? Report said she was lost in the catastrophe."</p>
+<p>"She is safe, though, unfortunately, at present in bad hands;"
+and Henry related to the astonished minister the events of Emily's
+history since her departure from Bellevue, not concealing even the
+details of his present relations with her.</p>
+<p>"And now, my dear sir," said he, rising to depart, "the crisis
+has come. Dr. Vaudelier waits close by, and we are ready to witness
+the denouement of this climax of plots. It is already time for
+Jerome and Emily to arrive, and we desire your immediate presence
+at the mansion-house."</p>
+<p>"I will attend you. But I have in the house several friends of
+Miss Dumont&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Bring them all with you," interrupted Henry, looking at his
+watch. "The more witnesses the better, especially if they be
+friends."</p>
+<p>"But wait till I tell you who they are."</p>
+<p>"Excuse me, Mr. Faxon, I must not tarry longer. I will meet them
+at the mansion."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"What devil's here, dragging
+the dead to life,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To overthrow me?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Who art thou?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Speak! speak!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"The features all are
+changed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But the voice grows familiar on
+my ears."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">LOVELL</span></p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont was seated in the library. The ravages of care and
+vice were growing more plainly visible on his face. His countenance
+was haggard, and his complexion seemed to be a struggle between the
+wanness of care and the redness of intemperance.</p>
+<p>Near him sat De Guy, who had but just arrived.</p>
+<p>"The lady has come," said the attorney, adjusting his green
+spectacles; "and I am here to claim the fulfilment of our
+contract."</p>
+<p>Jaspar looked up from the floor, upon which his eyes had been
+fastened, and gazed with a fixed stare upon his companion.</p>
+<p>"You do not understand me," insinuated De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I do," said Jaspar, sternly; "I do; you have come to plunder
+me."</p>
+<p>"You do me injustice, my kind friend; I come to save you from
+the doom of a felon."</p>
+<p>"To put your foot upon my neck, and leap out of the pit your
+villany has dug!"</p>
+<p>"Very well, my dear sir, if you are of this mind, my course is
+plain. Did you not agree to this arrangement?" said De Guy, with a
+smile, which was meant to soften the hard question.</p>
+<p>"True, I did," replied Jaspar, with a whining sullenness. "What
+would you have of me now?"</p>
+<p>"Only that you fulfil the stipulations of the bargain."</p>
+<p>"Can I fulfil them? Can I marry you, even if the girl were
+willing?"</p>
+<p>"You can give your commands. Will she not obey them?"</p>
+<p>"Fool if she does!" muttered Jaspar, in a low tone.</p>
+<p>"She will be so glad to be restored to her home, I fancy she
+will not think the terms are hard."</p>
+<p>"I don't know," said Jaspar, eying the attorney from head to
+foot. "I consent to the marriage. I can do no more."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you will be willing to use a little gentle force, to
+save your own neck," said the attorney, with something like a
+sneer.</p>
+<p>"Anything, anything, that will silence your damning tongue, and
+rid me of your teasing!"</p>
+<p>"Now, sir, you are reasonable."</p>
+<p>"Summon the girl," said Jaspar, impatiently. "I will say all I
+have to say in a few words. But, if she foils you, it is not my
+fault."</p>
+<p>"True sir; but Miss Dumont, at this critical juncture of her
+affairs, will have respect for your counsels;" and the attorney
+withdrew to call her.</p>
+<p>Emily entered the abode of her early years, and the memories of
+the past came crowding thick upon her. She seemed to realize that
+her sorrows were near an end, but the hope which such a pleasant
+thought inspired could not entirely overcome the gloom which the
+scene around her was calculated to produce. It was here she had
+often rambled with her father, and a thousand trivial incidents
+presented themselves to remind her of him.</p>
+<p>As she entered the house, she clung to the arm of Vernon, as
+though she was entering the abode of evil spirits; for, with all
+the memories of the past, she could not forget that the home of her
+childhood was inhabited by her inhuman uncle.</p>
+<p>She had been but a short time seated in the old, familiar
+drawing-room, like a stranger now, when De Guy entered, to request
+her presence in the library. She rose, and looked at Vernon, who,
+understanding the glance, approached, as if to bear her
+company.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman had better remain here," suggested De Guy.</p>
+<p>"I prefer that he should attend me," said Emily, firmly, even
+while her heart rose to her throat, at the thought of meeting her
+uncle.</p>
+<p>"But really, madam, his presence would embarrass the business of
+the interview."</p>
+<p>"He is a friend," stammered Emily, "and is acquainted with all
+the circumstances of this affair."</p>
+<p>"I will attend her, sir," said Vernon, who had before remained
+silent.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," said the attorney, looking sharply at Vernon, "but
+it will be impossible to transact any business in presence of
+others."</p>
+<p>"Lead on," said Vernon, sternly; "I will attend the lady, in
+spite of all objections."</p>
+<p>"Sir, you are insolent!" said the attorney, tartly, though
+without the loss of his self-possession.</p>
+<p>"The gentleman will not in the least retard the business. Pray
+pass on," interposed Emily, fearful of a collision between the
+parties.</p>
+<p>"It is impossible, madam. I must insist that he remain here.
+Such is Mr. Dumont's express order."</p>
+<p>"Will you say to Mr. Dumont that the lady demands my attendance?
+Perhaps he will yield the point," answered Vernon.</p>
+<p>"I will see him, but it is useless. I know his views;" and De
+Guy left the room.</p>
+<p>"Do not hesitate to go with him, Miss Dumont; I will be close at
+hand; but no violence will be offered you. I see my father and
+Captain Carroll coming up the road," said Vernon, looking out the
+window. "Yield, if necessary, and fear nothing."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont persists in his purpose of meeting the lady alone,"
+said De Guy, as he re&euml;ntered the drawing-room.</p>
+<p>"The lady, in your absence, has concluded to dispense with my
+attendance," replied Vernon.</p>
+<p>"This way, madam,"&mdash;and the attorney, with punctilious
+politeness, led the way.</p>
+<p>Vernon threw himself upon a sofa, as they were leaving; but no
+sooner had the door closed, than he rose in haste, and left the
+apartment. Reaching the veranda of the house, he met Dr. Vaudelier
+and Henry Carroll, who followed him back to the drawing-room.</p>
+<p>"This way, silently, if you please," said he, and then closed
+the door. A moment sufficed to inform the new comers of the
+position of affairs; then Vernon left the room, and went to the
+library door, which he found, by Henry's direction. Stationing
+himself in a recess behind some coats, he waited till his presence
+should be needed.</p>
+<p>The meeting between Emily and her uncle was not embarrassed by
+any formal greetings. Jaspar did not even raise his eyes from the
+floor, as she entered. He heard the door close, and being aware by
+the silence of the parties&mdash;for De Guy had judged an
+announcement unnecessary&mdash;that they were ready to hear him, he
+said, in a gentle tone,</p>
+<p>"Emily, I have sent for you to receive a proposition, which will
+finally terminate the unfortunate circumstances that have shrouded
+our family in hostility and misery."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, uncle, I have no feeling of hostility towards you. God
+forbid!" replied Emily, upon whose agitated senses Jaspar's mild
+words had fallen like promises of peace.</p>
+<p>Jaspar was astonished. He had lost much of the severity of his
+disposition in the miseries which had overtaken him. He was
+humiliated, his spirit broken, and he could not understand why his
+victim did not upbraid him, as he expected, for the wrongs he had
+inflicted. A momentary hope of reconciliation on better terms
+crossed his mind; but there stood the attorney, who would permit no
+other compromise.</p>
+<p>"I restore your fortune," said Jaspar, with a shudder, as he
+raised his head for the first time from the floor to look upon his
+niece,&mdash;"I restore it, on one condition."</p>
+<p>"Name not the fortune, uncle; your peace and happiness are far
+dearer to me than all the wealth of the world. You have wronged me,
+but I freely forgive you; and Heaven will also forgive you, if you
+sin no more. O, uncle, I beseech you dismiss this evil man, and let
+me be to you as a daughter!"</p>
+<p>"Let us attend to business, if you please, Mr. Dumont," said the
+attorney, in a whining tone; for, it must be confessed, the
+conversation had assumed a different turn from what he had
+anticipated.</p>
+<p>"I must state the business for which I requested your presence,"
+said Jaspar, not a little moved by the words of Emily. Human nature
+is a strange compound of inconsistencies. This man, whose life had
+been stained with crime, was now disposed to regard the past with
+contrition. We have seen him scorning even an allusion to the
+higher life of the soul,&mdash;but success was then within the
+reach of his crime-stained hand! Now, failure on every hand awaited
+him, and all those bravadoes with which he had kept down his better
+nature deserted him. Not one scornful thought came to banish the
+good angel from his presence. But the feeling was of short
+duration. It was but a momentary contrition, which a selfish hope
+or a burst of passion could dissipate.</p>
+<p>"I will restore your fortune, on one condition," said he. "You
+can accept or reject it, at your option."</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," suggested the attorney, "these were not
+exactly the terms of our contract."</p>
+<p>"Name the condition, uncle," added Emily, indifferently; for she
+was anxious to have the business, whatever it might be, finished,
+so that she could again plead with Jaspar for his personal
+reformation, for she was a little encouraged by the appearance of
+humiliation he had manifested.</p>
+<p>"I restore your fortune, on condition that you give your hand to
+this gentleman in marriage;"&mdash;and Jaspar again fixed his eyes
+on the floor, as if he dreaded the outbreak of a storm.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman!" exclaimed Emily, indignantly. "This
+gentleman!"&mdash;and she gazed upon him with a proud look of
+contempt, from which the attorney would fain have hid his head. Her
+surprise was equal to her indignation. Vernon had told her that
+<i>Maxwell</i> was to be the suppliant for her hand, and she could
+not see why his menial had the presumption to claim her.</p>
+<p>"This gentleman!" repeated Emily. "I had rather die a thousand
+deaths!"</p>
+<p>"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step,"
+replied De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the
+energy of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can
+administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.</p>
+<p>"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly.
+"Fate has so decreed. Your good uncle's circumstances imperatively
+demand it."</p>
+<p>"Is this so, uncle?"</p>
+<p>"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though
+it may be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.</p>
+<p>"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a
+fate. What circumstances do you refer to?"</p>
+<p>"I am in this man's power."</p>
+<p>"God be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my
+fortune, not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than
+become such a <i>thing</i> as to marry that man!"</p>
+<p>"Nay, lady, <i>you</i> are of more worth to me than your
+fortune, large as it is. I have contracted with your uncle for your
+hand, and he must pay the price," said De Guy.</p>
+<p>"He speaks truly, Emily. I have <i>sold</i> you to him," replied
+Jaspar, vacantly.</p>
+<p>Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in
+allusion to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes,
+while the indignant blood mounted to her cheek.</p>
+<p>"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said,
+quickly.</p>
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of passion.</p>
+<p>"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely
+tried.</p>
+<p>"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but
+now I feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on
+which his brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he
+reseated himself.</p>
+<p>"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table
+with his fist.</p>
+<p>"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar's violence,
+but firm in her purpose.</p>
+<p>"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar,
+passionately.</p>
+<p>"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy,
+laying his hand upon her arm.</p>
+<p>"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your
+touch!" exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been
+contamination.</p>
+<p>The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a
+scowl of malignity, as he said,</p>
+<p>"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let
+it end. Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day
+to be consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your
+whims."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend
+upon your acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose passion
+had moderated a little.</p>
+<p>"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied
+Emily, and she again moved towards the door.</p>
+<p>"You leave not the room till you consent to this union,"
+interposed De Guy.</p>
+<p>"Stand from my path, or I will summon assistance!"</p>
+<p>"Your summons would be in vain."</p>
+<p>With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance;
+but De Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled
+to free herself from the villain's grasp, without success. Knowing
+that Vernon was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the
+top of her voice.</p>
+<p>"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend
+of mine," said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary
+of mine. Haven't you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture
+of sarcasm and triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.</p>
+<p>The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The
+door was wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had
+taken the precaution to lock it.</p>
+<p>"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the
+intrusion.</p>
+<p>"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"</p>
+<p>"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet
+spectator to the violence offered his niece.</p>
+<p>"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him,
+towards a large closet on the other side of the room.</p>
+<p>"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second
+time uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door
+splintered, and Vernon stood in the room.</p>
+<p>"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from
+his pocket a revolver.</p>
+<p>"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the
+same time, he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he
+approached the lawyer.</p>
+<p>"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which
+suddenly lost its silky tone, and was firm and round.</p>
+<p>"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.</p>
+<p>Jaspar's ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the
+prospect of a fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve
+his arm. He advanced behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had
+clasped both hands around him. Vernon tried to free himself from
+the bearish hug, and they both fell to the floor. Jaspar still held
+tight, and the struggle promised to be a severe one.</p>
+<p>De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the
+combatants had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his
+pocket, so that, unembarrassed, he might convey Emily to a place of
+security, until this unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was
+the pistol in his pocket, when the window behind him flew open, and
+the attorney was in the iron grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed
+from her assailant, retreated to the other side of the room, where,
+glancing in terror upon the new assault, she saw De Guy thrown
+violently upon the floor by her ever-present and ever-faithful
+slave, Hatchie!</p>
+<p>The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early
+in the evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the
+calaboose, and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and
+judged that the conflict had begun with something more than the war
+of words. Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the
+library, and rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.</p>
+<p>The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood
+contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who
+had followed Henry into the room, assisted Jaspar to rise, and
+conducted him to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed
+entirely to have oozed out, and they remained doggedly considering
+the new state of things.</p>
+<p>Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket
+the revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable
+person, he loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an
+acknowledgment of weakness to hold him longer a close prisoner.
+Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the hair, he bade him rise, at the
+same time giving a sharp twist to the ornamental appendage of his
+cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion of his hand, and the
+entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge parti-colored
+whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly hair,
+where the mixed color had before predominated!</p>
+<p>"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair
+before," said Henry Carroll.</p>
+<p>"The face is not of the natural color," added Dr. Vaudelier,
+remarking that the skin of the forehead, which the wig had
+concealed, was very white, and almost transparent, while the face
+was besmeared with the color that composed the florid complexion of
+the attorney.</p>
+<p>"Take off his spectacles, Hatchie," said Henry.</p>
+<p>The glasses were removed, and a pair of piercing black eyes
+glared upon them.</p>
+<p>"It is Maxwell, by &mdash;&mdash;," shouted Jaspar, who had in
+some measure recovered from the exhaustion of his struggle with
+Vernon, and had watched with much anxiety the "unearthing" of his
+confederate.</p>
+<p>"It is Maxwell," responded Hatchie, tearing open the vest which
+encircled the attorney's portly form, and displaying the cushion
+that had been used to extend his corporation.</p>
+<p>"Merciful Heaven! how narrowly have I escaped!" exclaimed Emily,
+laying her head in giddy faintness upon the shoulder of Henry, who,
+at the moment he was at liberty, had flown to her side.</p>
+<p>At this moment Mr. Faxon entered, and saw, with astonishment,
+the evidence of the recent fray.</p>
+<p>"Justice is triumphant, I see," said he, taking Emily by the
+hand, and affectionately congratulating her upon her return to
+Bellevue.</p>
+<p>"Heaven has been more indulgent to me than I deserve,&mdash;has
+preserved me from a thousand perils I knew not of; and has, at
+last, placed me again in this haven of repose!" replied Emily.</p>
+<p>"Bless His holy name, my child; for, though we forget Him, He
+can never forget us!" said the minister, devoutly.</p>
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," interrupted Jaspar, with a bitter scowl, "I
+trust, when you have finished your cant, you will depart, and leave
+me in peace."</p>
+<p>"We will, at this lady's pleasure," said Dr. Vaudelier.</p>
+<p>"Hell! would you trifle with me?" roared Jaspar, rising in a
+passion. "Would you turn me out of my house?"</p>
+<p>"Never yours, Mr. Dumont! Heaven has restored the innocent and
+oppressed to her rights," answered Mr. Faxon, calmly.</p>
+<p>"Uncle," said Emily, earnestly, "let me entreat you to lay aside
+the terrible aspect you have worn, and be again even as you once
+were. The past shall be forgotten, and I will strive to make the
+future happy."</p>
+<p>Jaspar gazed at her with a vacant stare, and, muttering some
+unintelligible words, sunk back into his chair, and buried his face
+beneath his hands. The consciousness of the utter failure of the
+plan he had cherished for years, and the terrible obloquy to which
+his crime subjected him, rushed like an earthquake into his mind.
+He was completely subdued in spirit, and groaned in his
+anguish.</p>
+<p>"The way of the transgressor is hard," remarked Mr. Faxon, in
+pitying tones.</p>
+<p>These words were heard by Jaspar. They touched his pride. He
+could not endure the notes of pity. He raised his head, and his
+eyes glared with the fury of a demon.</p>
+<p>"Leave the house, sir!" gasped he, choking with passion. "Leave
+my house, or I will tear you limb from limb! I can do it, and I
+<i>dare</i> do it!" and he started suddenly to the floor. "Yes, I
+<i>dare</i> do it, if you mock me with your canting words!"</p>
+<p>His eyes rolled like a maniac's, and he gasped for breath, as he
+continued,</p>
+<p>"I am a murderer already!&mdash;a double murderer! Dalhousie and
+his wife have felt my vengeance. They have starved like dogs! Their
+prison is their tomb!"</p>
+<p>"Compose yourself, Mr. Dumont," said Mr. Faxon; "your soul is
+still free from the heavy burden of such a guilt. Dalhousie and his
+wife live."</p>
+<p>"You lie, canting hypocrite! No mortal arm can save them. They
+have been eight days in my slave jail. Here are the keys," gasped
+Jaspar, drawing them from his pocket.</p>
+<p>"You shall see; I will call them," said Mr. Faxon.</p>
+<p>Dalhousie and his wife, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan,
+entered the room.</p>
+<p>Jaspar fixed his glaring eyes upon those whom he supposed were
+rotting within the precincts of his Inquisition. His power of
+speech seemed to have deserted him, and he shook all over like an
+aspen-leaf.</p>
+<p>To Jaspar alone on the estate was the secret of Dalhousie's
+imprisonment known. He had not approached the jail, and if any
+other person was aware that it had been undermined, they had not
+communicated the fact to him.</p>
+<p>As the last party entered, Dr. Vaudelier turned to look upon the
+new comers. Starting suddenly from his chair, he approached them,
+and gazed with earnestness into the face of Delia.</p>
+<p>"Is it possible!" said he.</p>
+<p>"My God,&mdash;my father!" and father and daughter were locked
+in each other's embrace.</p>
+<p>Maxwell, stripped of his disguise, and ruined in his own
+opinion, and in the opinion of everybody else, had watched all the
+proceedings we have narrated in silence. Ashamed of the awkward
+appearance he made in his undress, and confused by the sudden
+change in his affairs, he was at a loss to know which way to
+turn.</p>
+<p>Henry Carroll realized the sense of embarrassment that pervaded
+all parties, and was desirous of putting an end to the state of
+things which promised nothing but strife and confusion. So he
+directed Hatchie to fasten Maxwell's hands together, and keep him
+secure. This step the attorney seemed not inclined to permit, and a
+struggle ensued.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Dumont," said he, "is this by your order?"</p>
+<p>"No," replied Jaspar, anxious to secure at least one friend.
+"No! I am still in my own house, and the law will protect me."</p>
+<p>"Certainly," returned Maxwell; "this is all a farce. There is
+not a single particle of evidence to disprove the will."</p>
+<p>"Well, now, I reckon there is a leetle grain," said Uncle
+Nathan, stepping forward and producing the will, which had been
+intrusted to him on board the Chalmetta. "This will set matters
+about right, I rayther guess."</p>
+<p>"What mean you, fellow?" said Jaspar. "What is it?"</p>
+<p>"The genuine will," replied Hatchie, still holding Maxwell. "I
+gave it into his hands. To explain how I came by it, I need only
+call your attention to a certain night, when I surprised you and
+this honorable gentleman in this very apartment."</p>
+<p>"It is all over!" groaned Jaspar.</p>
+<p>"This is a forgery!" exclaimed Maxwell.</p>
+<p>"Ay, a forgery!" repeated Jaspar, catching the attorney's idea.
+"Who can prove that this is a correct will, and the other
+false?"</p>
+<p>"I can," said Dalhousie. "Here is a duplicate copy, with letters
+explaining the reason for making it, in the testator's own
+hand-writing."</p>
+<p>Dalhousie candidly stated the means by which he had obtained
+possession of the papers, and trusted his indiscretion would be
+overlooked. Dr. Vaudelier frowned, as his son-in-law related the
+unworthy part he had performed, and perhaps felt a consciousness of
+the good intentions which had years before induced him to refuse
+his consent to the marriage of his daughter.</p>
+<p>Jaspar yielded the point; but Maxwell, in the hope of gaining
+time, boldly proclaimed all the papers forgeries.</p>
+<p>"It matters not; we will not stop to discuss the matter now. Tie
+his hands, Hatchie," said Henry Carroll, and, with the assistance
+of others, he was bound, and handed over to a constable, upon the
+warrant of Mr. Faxon, who was a justice.</p>
+<p>The party separated,&mdash;Henry and Emily seeking the grove in
+front of the house, to congratulate each other on the happy
+termination of their season of difficulty. The meeting between Dr.
+Vaudelier and his son and daughter was extremely interesting, and
+the hours passed rapidly away, in listening to the experience of
+each other. The meeting concluded with the making of new resolves,
+on the part of Dalhousie, to seek "the great purpose of his life"
+by higher and nobler means.</p>
+<p>As the dinner-hour approached, the happy parties were summoned
+by Mr. Faxon to visit his house, and partake of his hospitality.
+The good man was never happier in his life than when he said grace
+over the noon-day meal, surrounded by the restored heiress of
+Bellevue, and her happy friends.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONCLUSION" id="CONCLUSION"></a>CONCLUSION.</h2>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"From that day forth, in peace
+and joyous bliss,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">They lived together long, without
+debate;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nor private jars nor spite of
+enemies</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Could shake the safe assurance of
+their states."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">SPENSER.</span></p>
+<p>Our story is told. It only remains to condense the subsequent
+lives of our characters into a few lines.</p>
+<p>Jaspar Dumont lingered along a few weeks after the return of
+Emily; but his life had lost its vitality. Continued devotion to
+the demon of the bottle laid him low,&mdash;he was found dead in
+the library, having been stricken with an apoplectic fit.</p>
+<p>After the death of Jaspar, Maxwell was tried for a variety of
+crimes, and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.</p>
+<p>Dr. Vaudelier, accompanied by Dalhousie and his wife, removed to
+New Orleans, where they spent many happy years, devoted to those
+pure principles of truth and justice which the events of our
+history contributed not a little to create and strengthen.</p>
+<p>Vernon,&mdash;or, as he has changed his character, we may
+venture to change his name,&mdash;Jerome Vaudelier, went to
+California in the first of the excitement; where, amid the
+temptations of that new and dissolute land, he yet maintains the
+integrity he vowed to cherish on the night of the attack upon
+Cottage Island.</p>
+<p>Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan spent a few days at Bellevue, and
+then started for the North. The honest yeoman, either on account of
+the many adventures they had passed through together, or because
+Pat was a true convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the
+Hibernian, and insisted that he should accompany him home. Pat
+became a very worthy man, after abandoning the "critter," which had
+been his greatest bane. For three years he served our New Englander
+faithfully on the farm, at the end of which period his desire to
+get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish girl to his bosom, and
+go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry and Emily, about
+this time, to the worthy farmer, contributed to forward this end;
+for Pat, with Celtic candor and boldness, stated to them his views
+and purposes. Before the heiress left, Pat's farm was bought and
+paid for, besides being well stocked, by her princely
+liberality.</p>
+<p>Jerry Swinger and his wife, who had rendered such important
+services to Emily, were not forgotten. The honest woodman disdained
+to receive compensation for any service he or his good wife had
+rendered, but Emily found a way to render them comfortable for
+life, without any sacrifice of pride on their part.</p>
+<p>One year after the events which close our history the great
+mansion at Bellevue was the scene of gay festivities. Dr. Vaudelier
+and his daughter, and Dalhousie, and Jerry Swinger and all his
+family, were there, because, in the hour of its owner's greatest
+happiness, she could not be without those who had been her friends
+in the season of adversity. All the country round was
+there,&mdash;New Orleans was there,&mdash;everybody was there, to
+witness the nuptials of the fair heiress and the gallant Captain
+Carroll.</p>
+<p>The great drawing-room was brilliantly illuminated. The happy
+couple entered the room, and stood up before Mr. Faxon. A step
+behind Emily, watching the proceedings with as much interest as a
+fond father would witness the espousal of a beloved daughter, stood
+Hatchie. Race and condition did not exclude him from the proud and
+brilliant assemblage that had gathered to honor the nuptials of his
+mistress.</p>
+<p>They were married, and, ere the good minister had concluded his
+congratulations, the huge yellow palm of the faithful slave was
+extended to receive the white-gloved hand of the bride. Nor did she
+shrink from him. With a sweet smile, and a look which told how deep
+were her respect and admiration, she gave him her hand, heedless of
+the proud circle which had gathered around her to be first in their
+offering of good wishes.</p>
+<p>"God bless you, Miss Emily! Bless you!" said he, and the tear
+stole into his eye, as he withdrew from the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR, THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress
+of Bellevue, by Warren T. Ashton
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue
+
+Author: Warren T. Ashton
+
+Release Date: January 19, 2005  [eBook #14731]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR,
+THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14731-h.htm or 14731-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h/14731-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/7/3/14731/14731-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;
+
+OR
+
+THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.
+
+A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west
+
+by
+
+WARREN T. ASHTON.
+
+Boston:
+B. B. Mussey and Company,
+and
+R. B. Fitts and Company
+
+1853.
+
+Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the
+Fisk University Library Negro Collection
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
+Hallandale, Florida 33009
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     "Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of comely virtues."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave?"
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a passenger
+on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the
+passage--one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of
+western river navigation--the plot of this story was arranged. Many of
+its incidents, and all its descriptions of steamboat life, will be
+recognized by the voyager of the Mississippi.
+
+The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin,"--before negro literature had become a mania in the community. It
+was not designed to illustrate the evils or the blessings of slavery. It
+is, as its title-page imports, a _tale_; and the author has not stepped
+out of his path to moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other
+extraneous topic. But, as its _locale_ is the South, and its principal
+character a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
+slavery.
+
+With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the public,
+hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure from its
+perusal which he experienced in its preparation.
+
+BOSTON, November 18, 1852.
+
+
+
+
+HATCHIE:
+
+THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+     "_Antony_. You grow presumptuous.
+     _Ventidius_. I take the privilege of plain love to speak.
+     _Antony_. Plain love!--Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"
+
+     DRYDEN.
+
+
+On the second floor of a lofty building in ---- street, New Orleans, was
+situated the office of Anthony Maxwell, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law, Commissioner for Georgia, Alabama, and a dozen other states. His
+office had not the usual dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but
+presented more the appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but
+for the ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
+with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the visitor
+would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the walls not
+occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings, whose artistic
+beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined taste. The floor of the
+room was covered by a magnificent tapestry carpet. The chairs, lounges
+and tables, were of the most costly and elegant description. The windows
+were hung with graceful and brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of
+the office betokened luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil
+and privation to which the aspirant for legal honors must so often
+submit. The costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate
+that the young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked
+with beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
+over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have trodden.
+
+The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon one of
+the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a fragrant
+regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty years of age,
+and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly handsome. His face
+was pale, with a certain haggard appearance, which indicates the earlier
+stages of dissipation. His complexion was of a delicate white, unbrowned
+by the southern sun, and the skin was so transparent that the roots of
+his black beard were visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair
+hung in rich, wavy curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some
+renowned tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they
+arranged. His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was
+excited in manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,--disposed to
+droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
+agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there was
+something about them which the moralist would not like--a sort of
+lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual expression,
+that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he admired the Apollo.
+
+The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not yet
+become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and festered
+beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual grandeur.
+
+The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in good
+taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not court
+ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
+over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined taste, in
+his external appearance.
+
+Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A year
+before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his father's
+office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed devotion to
+business, he had effectually deceived his father and his clients into
+the belief that he was a steady, industrious young man. His talents were
+of a very respectable order, which, superadded to a native eloquence and
+an engaging demeanor, had enabled him to acquit himself with much credit
+in the cases intrusted to his management. A few months after his
+professional _debut_, his father's decease had placed him in possession
+of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune, thus enabling him
+in some degree to follow the bent of his own inclinations. To those
+whose habits and desires were similar to his own, he was not long in
+unfolding his true character, though not to a sufficient extent to
+destroy at once his professional prospects. The irresponsible life of
+the man of leisure had more charms to him than an honorable distinction
+in his profession. To labor in any form he had an intolerable
+repugnance. His fortune was not sufficient to allow an entire neglect of
+business; therefore he determined to practise law in an easy manner,
+until a rich wife, or the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire
+devotion to the pleasures of affluence.
+
+In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of his
+father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent apartments we have
+described. He gave up the house in which his father had dwelt, and,
+fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of the office with oriental
+splendor, his life and habits were free from the scrutinizing gaze of
+friend and foe, and he found himself situated as nearly to his mind as
+his income would permit. These indications of a dissolute life were
+viewed with distrust by the more respectable of his clients. His
+subsequent actions were not calculated to increase their confidence;
+yet, for the respect they bore to the father's memory, they were slow in
+casting off the son.
+
+Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an impatient
+exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his mind refused to
+accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently engaged in the
+consideration of some complicated affair; and the more he thought, the
+more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar, and lit another; still
+the knotty point was not conquered. His haggard countenance at one
+moment was lighted up, as though success had dawned upon his mental
+contest; but at the next moment it darkened into disappointment, which
+he vented in an audible oath.
+
+While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating with the
+ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very formally
+announced "Miss Dumont."
+
+This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which had
+environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as if by
+magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the lady for the
+smoky atmosphere of the room.
+
+"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing of the
+usual commonplace introductions of conversation.
+
+"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this visit,"
+replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have called to
+request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father has some
+business matters upon which he requires your professional advice."
+
+"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell, with an
+appearance of sympathy.
+
+"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When shall I
+say you will come?" said the lady.
+
+"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you go
+direct."
+
+"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.
+
+This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
+approbation of the attorney.
+
+"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner; "pray,
+honor me with a moment's conversation."
+
+"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and cannot
+accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified manner, while
+a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful countenance.
+
+"Be not so unkind,--a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell, with pleading
+earnestness.
+
+"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
+returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not changed,"
+replied she, moving to the door.
+
+The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had received,
+and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great purpose in view,--a
+purpose which, accomplished, would enable him to realize the cherished
+object of his life,--would enable him to revel in the ease and affluence
+he so much coveted. Something must be done. Here was an opportunity
+afforded by the providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never
+occur again, and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he
+adopted the first expedient which presented itself.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was not aware
+that you intended to return it."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
+relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table by
+the side of which the attorney stood.
+
+"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from further
+annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with which I have
+awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents of humility, which
+were too well feigned to permit the lady to suspect them. "The
+bitterness of a blighted hope were better than the agony of suspense."
+
+A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the lady, as
+she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table. There lay
+Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had returned it! She
+only pointed to it, and looked into his face to read the shame and
+confusion her discovery must create.
+
+Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit was
+exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and said,
+
+"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to it,
+that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the heart which
+is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you cannot, know the
+misery I have endured in possessing the love upon which you so cruelly
+frown."
+
+The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart less firm
+than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression of contempt
+left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with favor to his
+suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed misery. Under any other
+circumstances, the lie he had a moment before uttered would have forever
+condemned him in her sight. But her charitable disposition compelled her
+to believe that it was the last resort of a mind on the verge of
+despair.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should have
+suffered any unhappiness on my account."
+
+"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell, hastily,
+feeling that he had gained the first point.
+
+"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned the
+lady.
+
+"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the coldness of
+indifference again!"
+
+"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an index of
+your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous means, to
+discountenance them."
+
+"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a flickering
+hope."
+
+"If you have, I regret it all the more."
+
+"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I have
+dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging fire, and
+beyond my control."
+
+"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied the
+lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I trust
+this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope you have
+cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now feel it must be
+for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on that account, to declare
+it, I repeat--I can never reciprocate the affection you profess. And now
+let this interview terminate. It is too painful to be prolonged;"--and
+she again moved towards the door.
+
+"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he followed
+her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove myself
+worthy,--anything, but do not forever extinguish the little star I have
+permitted to blaze in the firmament of my heart--the star I have dared
+to worship. Do not veil me in utter darkness!"
+
+"I can offer no hope--not the slightest, even to rid myself of an
+annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some portion of her
+former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney perplexed and
+troubled her exceedingly.
+
+"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell, heedless of the
+lady's rebuke.
+
+"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.
+
+"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till you
+examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from hopeless
+misery."
+
+"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a gentleman to
+save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont, with spirit, for her
+patience was fast ebbing out.
+
+"I will not _annoy_ you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis, as he assumed
+an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading for exemption from
+the direst of human miseries. But I will not _annoy_ you, even to save
+myself from endless woe."
+
+"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments will
+continue unchanged."
+
+"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
+resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
+that you will yet relent."
+
+"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
+Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time to
+add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however well
+acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the unsuspecting
+object of it to believe. That he really loved her was to some extent
+true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as the blight of coldness
+and inconstancy would render painful, was not true,--far from it. He had
+sought her hand, not to lay at her feet the offering of a hallowed
+affection, but to realize the object we have before mentioned,--to
+enable him, by the possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease
+and pleasure.
+
+He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some prospect of
+success. To the occasional professional visit he paid her father he had
+added frequent social calls, in which he had used all his eloquence to
+enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter. She had regarded him as an
+agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his natural abilities, the unceasing wit
+and liveliness of his conversation, had well earned him this
+distinction. Flattering himself that he should be able to win her
+affections, he had gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere
+formalist to the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These
+overtures were not well received, and, if she had before treated him
+with the favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now
+extended to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
+visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his eyes,
+and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his disposition
+was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow him to despair.
+
+Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented itself, in
+the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his ambitious wishes
+appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual was a young officer
+in the army, a sort of _protege_ of the lady's father, who had been
+spending a furlough at Bellevue. In the matter of fortune Maxwell's
+rival was not to be dreaded, for he knew the lady was not mercenary in
+her views. The young captain was penniless; but his family was good, and
+he had the advantage of being a favorite with the father. He had won for
+himself a name on the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a
+lady's favor. He was a universal favorite both with the public and in
+the private circle.
+
+Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
+resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions he
+relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
+unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had manifested,
+he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her, eloquently and
+tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt that he could in this
+manner gain her attention to his suit,--a point which his vanity assured
+him was equivalent to a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were
+both sorely tried by the return of the letter unopened. His point was
+lost, and he was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to
+suggest any scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,--which the
+circumstances seemed to interdict,--when the visit of the lady herself
+rendered further efforts useless.
+
+His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
+heiress,--a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future prospects to
+be resigned,--was now a desperate one. Through the long vista of
+struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and the fact that he had to
+some extent compromised his heart stimulated him still more to meet and
+overcome the barriers that environed him.
+
+For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered the
+obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather than a
+disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
+He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
+bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
+precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
+and disappointment in a volley of oaths.
+
+His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's announcement
+of "Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
+Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
+no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
+demeanor.
+
+"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.
+
+"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
+requested me immediately to visit your brother."
+
+"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style
+Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.
+
+"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
+longer than I supposed it would."
+
+"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother wished
+to see you was concerning his will."
+
+"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
+apparent alarm.
+
+"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
+otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
+Jaspar, with a sickly smile.
+
+"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be
+prepared for the final event."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the
+will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste.
+Will it take you long?"
+
+"An hour or two."
+
+"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
+return."
+
+"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
+morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."
+
+Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
+courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
+first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which
+alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that
+awaited her, he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly
+suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could
+scarcely proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled _his_
+prospects in darkness; now he was preparing a will which would, at no
+distant day, place her in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was
+so firmly fixed upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to
+bend itself to the task before him.
+
+Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little impatient.
+Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the lawyer's shoulder.
+
+"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
+impatience, "and must be executed with great care."
+
+"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done," observed
+Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not unnoticed by
+the attorney.
+
+"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype of
+Jaspar's smile.
+
+A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single smile! It is
+the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts convey their untold
+and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious lover it is the bearer of the
+first tidings of joy. Long before the heart dare resort to coarse,
+material words, the smile carries the messages of affection. To the
+villain it reveals the sympathetic purposes of his according fiend. What
+the lead and line are to the pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling
+smile, is to the base mind. By means of it he feels his way into the
+heart and soul of his supposed prototype.
+
+Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the meaning of
+Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that he was cold and
+unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly lacking in common
+integrity; but that he was capable of bold and daring villany he had had
+no occasion to suspect. As he turned to the document again, the base
+character of the uncle came up for consideration in connection with his
+suit to the niece. Might not this circumstance open the way to the
+attainment of his grand purpose?
+
+But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the development of
+the history and circumstances of the Dumont family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "_Lorenzo_. You loved, and he did love!
+       _Mariana_. To say he did
+     Were to affirm what oft his eyes avouched,
+     What many an action testified--and yet,
+     What wanted confirmation of his tongue."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+On the right bank of the Mississippi river, a few miles above New
+Orleans, was situated the plantation of Colonel Dumont, which he had
+chosen to designate by the expressive appellation of "Bellevue;" though,
+it would seem, from the level nature of the country, it could not have
+been chosen on account of any fitness in the term.
+
+In territorial extent, in the number of slaves employed, and in the
+quantity of sugar annually produced, the plantation of Colonel Dumont
+was one of the most important on the river. This fact, added to the
+possession of immense estates in the city, rendered its owner a man of
+no small consequence in the vicinity. But, more than this, Colonel
+Dumont was beloved and respected for his many good qualities of mind and
+heart. In the late war with England he had served in the army, and as an
+officer had won an enviable distinction by his courage and his talents.
+Coming unexpectedly into the possession of this estate by the death of
+an uncle, he retired, at the close of the war, from a profession to
+which a genuine patriotism alone had invited him, and devoted himself
+entirely to the improvement of his lands.
+
+Colonel Dumont had been married; but, after a single year of happiness
+in the conjugal state, his wife died, leaving him an only daughter in
+remembrance of her. This child, at the opening of the tale, was within
+a few years of maturity,--the image of her father's only love,--not less
+fair, not less pure and good.
+
+Emily Dumont was a beautiful girl, fair as the lily, gentle as the dove.
+She was of a medium height, and of slender and graceful form. Her step
+was light and elastic, and, if there was any poetry in her light,
+elegant form, there was more in her easy, fairy-like motion. Her
+features were as daintily moulded as her form. Her eye was light blue,
+soft, and beautifully expressive of a pure heart. She was a little paler
+than the connoisseur in female loveliness would demand in his ideal, and
+her expression was a little inclined to sadness; but it was a
+sadness--or rather a sweet dignity--more winning than repulsive to the
+gazer.
+
+Emily Dumont, highly as fortune had favored her in the bestowal of
+worldly goods and personal beauty, was still more blessed in the gifts
+of an expansive mind and a gentle heart; and mind and heart had both
+been faithfully cultivated by the assiduous care of her devoted father.
+She was a true woman,--not a mere plaything to while away a dandy's idle
+hours, not a piece of tinsel to adorn the parlor of a nabob, but a true
+woman,--one fitted by nature and education to adorn all the varied
+scenes of life. Although brought up in unclouded prosperity, amid luxury
+and affluence, she was still prepared for the day of adversity, if it
+should ever come.
+
+As the heiress of immense wealth, her hand was eagerly sought in the
+aristocratic circle around her; but thus far she had resisted all these
+attacks upon her heart, and upon her prospective riches. In the crowd of
+suitors who gathered around her was Anthony Maxwell. In the item of
+wealth his fortune was comparatively small; and in that of a noble
+character, smaller still. Emily could have forgiven him the want of the
+former, but the latter was imperatively demanded. At the young lawyer's
+return from the North, and on his first appearance at the bar, Emily had
+regarded him with more than ordinary attention. But, after the death of
+his father, the reports which reached her ears of his dissolute habits
+and inclinations caused her to regard him with distrust. His wit,
+accomplishments and native suavity, had procured him admission into the
+circle of her more favored friends. But the report of his vices had as
+promptly produced his expulsion.
+
+The return of the army from Mexico brought with it the young officer
+whom we have before mentioned. The father of this young man had been a
+companion-in-arms of Colonel Dumont, and a strong friendship had grown
+up between the veterans. The tie was severed only by the death of the
+former, after a life of mercantile misfortunes, and finally of utter
+ruin. At the period of the father's insolvency and death, Henry Carroll,
+the son, was a cadet at West Point, and was about abandoning his chosen
+profession, for the want of means, when Colonel Dumont wrote him an
+affectionate letter, offering all that he required to complete his
+studies. This offer, coming from one who had been a heavy loser by his
+father's bankruptcy, was highly appreciated, and the young student had
+allowed no false delicacy to prevent his acceptance of the generous
+proposal, though with a stipulation to repay all sums, with interest.
+Colonel Dumont, in his regular summer tour to the North, never failed to
+visit his young friend, whose noble bearing and lofty principle entirely
+won his heart, and he charged himself with a father's duty towards him.
+A regular correspondence was kept up between the self-constituted
+guardian and his _protege_; and the more the former read the heart of
+the young man, the more did he rejoice that he had befriended him. He
+read with mingled pride and affection the repeated instances of his
+daring courage and matchless skill which found their way into the
+newspapers; while the record of his humanity to a fallen foe contributed
+to swell the tide of the old gentleman's affection.
+
+On his return from Mexico, Henry's first care was to see his devoted
+friend and guardian, and he accepted his pressing invitation to spend a
+month at Bellevue.
+
+As an inmate of her father's family, he was, of course, a constant
+companion of Emily. Her radiant beauty had captivated his heart long ere
+the month had expired; and he saw, or thought he saw, in the heart of
+the fair girl, indications of a sympathetic sentiment. In the rashness
+of his warm blood he had allowed himself to cherish a lively hope that
+his dawning love was not entirely unrequited. He had seen that _his_
+bouquet was more fondly cherished than the offerings of others; that
+_his_ hand, as she alighted from the carriage, was more gladly received
+than any other; that _his_ conversation never wearied her; in short,
+there was in all their intercourse an unmistakable exponent of feelings
+deeper than those of common friendship.
+
+In the midst of this delighted existence,--while yet he revelled in the
+pleasure of loving and being loved,--there came to him, like a dark
+cloud over a clear sky, the unwelcome thought that it was wrong for him
+to entangle the affections of his benefactor's daughter. He was a
+beggar,--the object of her father's charity. Her prospects were
+brilliant and certain, and he felt that he had no right to mar or
+destroy them. He knew that she would love him none the less for his
+poverty; but, probably, her father had already anticipated something
+better than a beggar for his future son-in-law.
+
+Poor Captain Carroll! The modesty of true greatness of soul had left
+unconsidered the genuine nobility of the man. He thought not of the name
+he had won on the field of battle,--of the honorable wounds he bore as
+testimonials of his devotion to his country. He was poor, and, in the
+despondency which his position induced, he attributed to wealth a value
+which to the truly good it never possesses.
+
+He loved Emily, and his poverty seemed to shut him out from the hallowed
+field to which his heart fondly sought admission.
+
+Henry Carroll was a high-minded man; he felt that to love the daughter
+while the father's views were unknown to him would be rank ingratitude;
+and ingratitude towards so good a man, so kind a benefactor, was
+repugnant to every principle of his nature. There was but one path open
+to him. If he could not help loving her, he could strive to prevent the
+loved one from squandering her affections where pain and sorrow might
+ensue. They had often met; but he strove to believe, in his unwilling
+zeal, that their intimacy had not yet resulted in an incurable passion.
+She had as yet shown nothing that could not have resulted from simple
+friendship. And yet she had,--the warm glow that adorned her cheek when
+she received his flower, the expressive glance of her soft eye as he
+assisted her to the carriage, the sweet smile with which she had always
+greeted him,--ah, no, these were not friendship! I He could not believe
+that his affection was unreturned; it was too precious to remain
+unacknowledged. The will and the heart would not conform to each other.
+But his duty seemed plain, and he did not hesitate to obey its call,
+though it demanded a great sacrifice.
+
+The month to which he had limited his visit at Bellevue expired about
+the period at which our tale begins. Inclination prompted him to accept
+the pressing invitation of Colonel Dumont to prolong his stay; but,
+bitter as was the thought of parting from her he loved, his nice sense
+of honor compelled him to be firm in his purpose.
+
+The announcement of his intended departure to Emily, as they were seated
+in the drawing-room on the designated day, afforded him another evidence
+that her heart was not untouched. Her pale cheek grew paler, and the
+playful smile was instantly dismissed.
+
+"So soon?" said she, scarcely able to conceal the tremulous emotion
+which agitated her.
+
+"So soon! I have finished the month allotted to me," replied Henry
+Carroll, with a weak effort to appear gayer than he felt.
+
+"Allotted to you! And pray are you stinted in the length of your visit?"
+
+"My orders will not permit a longer stay, happy as I should be to
+remain; and I have already trespassed long on your hospitality."
+
+"Indeed, Henry, you have grown sensitive! You were not wont to consider
+your visits a trespass. Pray, have you not been regarded as one of the
+family?"
+
+"True, I have. I can never repay the debt of gratitude for the many
+kindnesses I have received at your good father's hands."
+
+"He has been a thousand times repaid by the honorable life you have
+led,--by feeling that the talents he has encouraged you to foster are
+now blessing the world," replied Emily, warmly; "so no more of your
+gratitude, if you please."
+
+"However lightly you, or your father, may regard my obligations to him,
+I cannot view them coldly."
+
+"Well, then, your presence here will give him more pleasure than any
+other token of respect you can bestow; and, I am sure, I should be
+rejoiced--that is to say--that is--I should be glad to have you stay
+longer, if you can be contented," stammered Emily, as her mantling
+blushes betrayed her confusion. Deception was not in her nature, and,
+strive as hard as she might, she must reveal her feelings.
+
+"I should be happier than it is possible for me to express in remaining
+at Bellevue. My month has passed away like a dream of pleasure,--so
+short it seemed that time had staid his wheels,--so joyous that earth
+seemed shorn of sorrow. You know not how much I have enjoyed the society
+of your father, and, pardon me, of yourself," returned Henry, scarcely
+less confused than Emily.
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so," she replied, with some hesitation, and
+fearful of exposing the sentiment she was conscious of cherishing. "I
+have thought that, accustomed as you are to the stirring life of the
+camp, you had grown tired of our quiet home."
+
+"You wrong me, Emily, I should never weary here; but I was fearful that
+I had already staid too long," said Henry, in a sad tone, for he felt it
+most deeply, though not in the sense that Emily understood him.
+
+"Too long! Then you are weary of us, and I will not chide you forbidding
+us adieu," said Emily, with a glance of anxiety at Henry.
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont, do not misinterpret my words. I am not weary, I
+cannot be weary, of Bellevue and its fair and good inmates."
+
+"Then what mean you by saying you have staid too long?"
+
+"Pardon me, I cannot tell why I said it; but I feel that I should do
+wrong to prolong my stay, however congenial to my feelings to do so,"
+replied Henry, with the most evident embarrassment.
+
+"How strange you talk, Henry! What mystery is this?" said Emily, to whom
+prudential motives were unknown.
+
+"If it be a mystery, pray do not press me to unravel it, for I cannot."
+
+His resolution was fast giving way before the strength of his love. He
+was sorely tempted to throw himself at her feet and pour forth the
+acknowledgment of his affection, which, he felt, would be kindly
+received. It was a difficult position for a man of sensitive feelings to
+be placed in, and he felt it keenly. But the duty he owed to his
+benefactor seemed imperative.
+
+Emily, on her part, was sadly bewildered by the strangeness of Henry's
+words; but she had no suspicion of the truth. If she had, perhaps, with
+a woman's ingenuity, she had devised some plan to extricate him from the
+dilemma. She was conscious of the strong interest she felt in the man
+before her; but the fact that she loved him was yet unrecognized. How
+should it be? She was unskilled in the subtleties even of her own
+heart. She know not the meaning of love yet. She was conscious of a
+grateful sensation in her heart; but she had yet to learn that this
+sensation was that called love in the great world. She began to fear, in
+her inability to account for Henry's strangeness in any other way, that
+some secret sorrow weighed heavily upon him.
+
+"I will not press you," said she, in a tone of affectionate sympathy;
+"but, if you have any sorrow which oppresses you, reveal it to my
+father, and take counsel against it. My father's house is your home,--at
+least, we have always endeavored to make it so. Father has always
+regarded you with the affection of a parent, and taught me to consider
+you as a brother--"
+
+"A brother!" interrupted Henry, feeling that the relation of brother and
+sister was too cold for the warmth of his affection; but, instantly
+banishing the unworthy thought, he continued,
+
+"And so, my pretty sister, you are for the first time entering upon your
+sisterly relations?"
+
+"The first time! Have I not always given you evidence of a sister's
+esteem?"
+
+"Pardon me. I only jested," said Henry, as the playful smile left his
+countenance.
+
+"Do not jest upon serious things, Henry," replied Emily. "But, brother,
+something troubles you. You cannot deny it. You look so gloomy and sad,
+and must leave us so suddenly."
+
+"Nay, my sweet sister,--since sister I am permitted to call you,--you
+must forgive me if I am obstinate just this once."
+
+"I will forgive your obstinacy because you desire it, and not because I
+am satisfied. Do you know, brother," said she, with a playful smile,
+"that I suspect you are in love?"
+
+This raillery was intended to have been uttered with a pert archness;
+but the crimson cheek and tremulous lips entirely defeated the
+intention.
+
+"Fie, sister! You are jesting now, yourself," replied Henry, with what
+was intended for a smile, but which, like his assailant's archness, was
+a signal failure.
+
+Both parties were now in the most unfortunate position imaginable.
+Neither dared to speak, for fear of disclosing their emotions. Both felt
+the awkwardness of the silence, and both felt the danger of breaking it.
+Henry twirled the tassel of the window drapery, and Emily twisted her
+pocket-handkerchief into every conceivable shape. Henry was the first to
+gather fortitude enough to venture a remark.
+
+"I must leave you, sister, now that, for the first time, the relation is
+acknowledged. I assure you, however, that I appreciate the sisterly
+kindness you have always lavished upon me. And I shall always remember
+this visit as the happiest period of my life."
+
+"Then I may hope you will often repeat it," replied Emily, sadly.
+
+"However pleasant it would be for me to do so, I fear my duty will be a
+barrier to my inclination. My future post, you are aware, is Newport."
+
+"And you depart so suddenly, and then seem inclined to make your absence
+perpetual! But we shall see you where-ever you are. We go to Newport
+this season, if father's health will permit," returned Emily, with a
+playful pout.
+
+"I would stay by you,--that is, I would stay at Bellevue forever,--if my
+duty to your father--I mean to my country--would permit," stammered
+Henry, much agitated, as he rose to depart.
+
+"I must go and bid farewell to your father," continued he, taking her
+hand, which he perceived trembled violently, in his own; "and I trust
+you will remember your absent brother--" kindly, he was about to say,
+but Emily, attempting to rise, was overpowered by the emotions which she
+had vainly striven to suppress, and sunk back in a swoon.
+
+Henry summoned assistance, and applied the usual restoratives, but he
+did not again venture to address her; and, as her pale features
+exhibited signs of returning consciousness, he hurried from the room.
+
+As the hour of his departure drew near, he bade an affectionate farewell
+to Colonel Dumont, who was confined to his room by illness. His kind
+friend used many entreaties for him to prolong his stay, but Henry
+pleaded his duty, and that the dying request of a brother officer
+required him to take a journey into Georgia, which would consume some
+three or four weeks' time. He intended to go to his future station by
+the way of the Mississippi, and promised that, if any time were left him
+on his return, he would again visit Bellevue. This, however, he thought
+was improbable.
+
+Colonel Dumont gave his _protege_ much good advice, and, as his failing
+health had infected his usually cheerful spirits, he said that they
+would probably meet no more in this world. He frankly told him that he
+should remember him in his will, and wished him ever to regard Emily in
+the relation of a _sister_.
+
+This last wish seemed like a positive prohibition of the fond hope he
+had cherished, of regarding her in a nearer and more tender relation. He
+congratulated himself on the decision with which he had resisted the
+temptation to avow his love.
+
+This injunction of Emily's father could be interpreted in two ways,--as
+a requirement to preserve the present friendly relations, or as a
+prohibition against his ever making her his wife. The latter method of
+rendering his meaning seemed to him the most in accordance with their
+relative positions, and he was compelled to adopt it.
+
+After renewing his thanks to his benefactor, he took his leave with a
+sad heart, and departed from the mansion which contained his newly-found
+yet now rejected love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "_Macbeth_.--What is 't ye do?
+     _Witches_.--A deed without a name."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+In the management of his estates, Colonel Dumont had, for many years,
+been assisted by an only brother. This brother was directly the opposite
+of himself in character, in aims, in everything. Even in his childhood
+this brother had displayed a waywardness of disposition which gave the
+promise of much evil in his future years. As the seed sown so was the
+harvest. Parental instruction, counsel and rebuke, were alike
+unavailing, and he attained the years of manhood morose and
+unsympathizing in his disposition, avaricious and hard with his equals,
+and cruel and unjust towards his inferiors. His selfish mind, his low
+aims, and his tyrannical character, had long been preparing him for
+deeds of villany and injustice.
+
+In the earlier years of his life he had been a merchant in New Orleans;
+but, being universally detested for his meanness and duplicity, in a
+season of general panic in the financial world he was completely ruined,
+by the want of those kind offices which are so freely interchanged in
+the mercantile community. In this dilemma, he asked his brother's
+assistance. Colonel Dumont examined his affairs, and, considering his
+position in the community, with the almost hopeless embarrassment of his
+concerns, concluded that success under these circumstances was
+impossible. He frankly and kindly informed his brother of his
+conclusion, and offered him a share in his planting operations. His
+brother--Jaspar--was sorely wounded in his pride by this reply. It
+generated in him a sentiment, if not of malignity, at least of hatred,
+and from that day he was his brother's enemy. Jaspar's business was
+gone, and he never allowed his spirit of revenge even to interfere with
+his interest; so he availed himself of his brother's offer.
+
+Colonel Dumont trusted much to the gentle influence of his family circle
+to soften Jaspar's moroseness, and infuse some principle of charity and
+love. But these anticipations proved vain. He was cold and taciturn.
+Business alone could call forth the display of his energy, of which he
+was possessed of a liberal share. The society of Emily and other ladies
+he seemed to shun. The gentle influence of domestic life seemed entirely
+wasted upon him. Colonel Dumont was forced to believe his brother a
+misanthrope, and no longer strove to soften his character. Emily
+regarded his coldness as his natural manner, and left him to the full
+enjoyment of his eccentricity. Between persons of such opposite
+dispositions there could be, of course, but little sympathy, and that
+little was entirely upon one side.
+
+The demon of Jaspar's nature displayed itself in the cane-field and in
+the sugar-house, which Colonel Dumont rarely visited, having intrusted
+the entire management of the estate to him, his own attention being
+occupied by the exterior business of the plantation, and by his city
+possessions. The poor negro, who was compelled to submit to cruel usage
+and short fare, knew Jaspar's nature better than uncle or niece. His
+advent among them had been the era from which they dated the life of
+misery they led--a life so different from that they had been accustomed
+to under the superintendence of the more Christian brother.
+
+Jaspar Dumont managed the "negro stock" in the true spirit of a demon,
+and as such the "hands" learned to regard him. Runaways, which, under
+the mild management of his brother, were rarely known, were common now;
+and almost the only amusement Jaspar knew was to hunt them down with
+rifle and bloodhound.
+
+This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not appreciate the
+reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he wished not to
+interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his heart. His failing
+health had latterly withdrawn his attention still more from the
+plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the tighter when he saw that the
+humane eye was removed from him.
+
+Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the close of
+our first chapter.
+
+On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel Dumont
+felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed with the
+conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon him. To Emily
+he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and she had discovered
+no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no suspicion of the nature
+of her father's business with Maxwell, and had borne his message to the
+attorney, as she had often done before, in her frequent visits to New
+Orleans, though on this occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much
+delicacy in doing so.
+
+In her absence Colonel Dumont had become more and more impressed with
+the omens of a speedy dissolution, and in his uneasiness had despatched
+Jaspar with a draft of his intentions, wishing the attorney to write the
+will in his office (where he could have his authorities at hand), and
+return with his brother.
+
+Maxwell considered the will and his own position, while Jaspar lit
+another cigar. Each was striving to penetrate the thoughts of the other,
+but neither had the boldness to enter upon the subject which occupied
+his mind. The lawyer wanted the lady and the fortune, and he had an
+undefined purpose of obtaining them through the agency of Jaspar, who
+wanted only the fortune, and had a decided anticipation of being able to
+retain the attorney in his service. Neither knew the purposes of the
+other; but each wanted the assistance of the other.
+
+Maxwell, with an absent mind, perused and reperused the first page of
+Colonel Dumont's instructions. Without a purpose he turned the leaf, and
+his attention was attracted by the name of his formidable rival, Henry
+Carroll. He read, with astonishment, a bequest to him of fifty thousand
+dollars. If it needed anything to complete his discomfiture, this was
+sufficient. He began to think Colonel Dumont was in his dotage. He had
+scarcely heard of Captain Carroll until his return from Mexico, and now
+he was a legatee in the will of a millionaire. With much anxiety he
+completed the reading of the instructions, fearful that he should find
+the young officer's name in connection with Emily's. To his great relief
+he found no such allusion, and again he applied himself to the task of
+writing out the will.
+
+Jaspar smoked his cigar, glanced occasionally at the newspaper, and
+stared out of the window. He was evidently lost to all around him, in
+the workings of his own mind. Now his thoughts seemed to excite him, for
+his eye glared with an unusual lustre, and his thin lips moved, as if
+they would disclose the operations of his mind. "Will he do it?"
+muttered he. "He shall do it, or by ---- he shall suffer! I have the
+means of compelling him. I will use them."
+
+Apparently satisfied with his conclusion, he rose hastily and approached
+the attorney. A smooth smile--an unwonted expression on his
+features--seemed to come on demand. Again he looked over the lawyer's
+shoulder. He saw the name of Henry Carroll, and his former severe
+expression returned, and his frame was stirred by angry emotions. A
+half-suppressed oath did not escape the quick ear of the attorney, and
+he turned to observe the face of his companion. He read at a glance the
+dissatisfaction which the will occasioned. The reason was plain; and,
+with the intention of drawing out Jaspar's views, he addressed him.
+
+"This Carroll is a lucky fellow," said he.
+
+"The devil is always the luckiest fellow in the crowd," growled Jaspar,
+with an oath.
+
+"You are right, sir," returned Maxwell, pleased to see no better feeling
+between his rival and the uncle.
+
+"But who is this Carroll?" said he.
+
+"A hungry cub, whom the colonel has helped along in the world."
+
+"Well, he has proved himself a brave and skilful officer, and reflects
+credit on your brother's judgment in the selection of a _protege_,"
+returned Maxwell, adroitly.
+
+"The fellow is all well enough, for aught I know, but he has wheedled
+the colonel out of fifty thousand dollars, and I can never forgive him
+for that," said Jaspar, in what was intended for a playful tone, but
+which was designed as a "feeler" of the attorney's conscience.
+
+"But there is still an immense property left, even after deducting the
+liberal charitable donations," said Maxwell.
+
+"There is, but where does it go to? That whining young cub has divided a
+hundred thousand with me, and the silly girl has the rest."
+
+"Which will eventually go into the hands of Captain Carroll,--lucky dog,
+he!" returned Maxwell, striving to provoke Jaspar still more.
+
+"What! what mean you, man?" said Jaspar, with a scowl, as he caught a
+glimpse of the attorney's meaning.
+
+"Is it possible, my dear sir," said Maxwell, laying down his pen, and
+turning half round, "is it possible you have not observed the intimacy
+which has grown up between this Carroll and your niece?"
+
+"Intimacy! what do you mean? Speak out! no equivocation!" said Jaspar,
+almost fiercely.
+
+"Do you not see that she will yet be the wife of Captain Carroll?"
+
+Jaspar scowled, but said nothing. He had seen nothing from which he
+could draw such an inference, but he doubted not the information was
+correct.
+
+"Well, well, it matters not. He may as well have it as she," muttered
+he. "This will suits me not, and must be broken or altered."
+
+"It _is_ hard upon you," said Maxwell, who had overheard Jaspar's
+mutterings.
+
+"It is rather hard to be placed upon the same level with a comparative
+stranger," replied Jaspar, thoughtfully, after a long pause. He had not
+intended the lawyer should hear his previous remarks, and had reflected
+whether he should disown them, or pursue the subject as thus opened.
+
+"Of course you will not mention the idle remark I made," continued
+Jaspar, in a vein of prudence. "My brother has an undoubted right to
+dispose of his property as he pleases."
+
+"O, certainly. What transpires in my office is always regarded with the
+strictest confidence, whatever its nature, and however it affects any
+individual," replied Maxwell, laying peculiar emphasis on the latter
+clause.
+
+"That's right, always be secret," said Jaspar, without any of the
+appearance of obligation for the favor which the attorney expected to
+see.
+
+"I have secrets in my possession which would ruin some of the best
+families in the State of Louisiana."
+
+"Without doubt," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+The attorney resumed his writing, and pronounced in an audible tone each
+sentence as he committed it to the paper.
+
+"To my beloved brother--Jaspar Dumont--I give and bequeath the sum of
+fifty thousand dollars."
+
+These words, as intended, again fired Jaspar's passions.
+
+"Is there no remedy for this?" asked he, hastily.
+
+"No legal remedy," replied Maxwell, indifferently, as he continued his
+task.
+
+"Is there any, legal or illegal?"
+
+"None that an honest man would be willing to resort to."
+
+"That any man would resort to?" and Jaspar was not a little provoked at
+the attorney's moral inferences.
+
+"I know of none."
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then why do you not put it into operation before it is too late? The
+will is now nearly written."
+
+"Pshaw! man; you do not understand me. A bolder step than you are
+thinking of."
+
+"Well, what do you wait for?"
+
+"I need assistance."
+
+"If I can afford you any aid, _honorably_, I shall be most happy."
+
+"_Honorably_! What the devil do you mean by _honorably_?" said Jaspar,
+exasperated by this unexpected display of morality.
+
+"What do I mean by honorably? Why, anything which does not affect the
+legal or moral rights of others," replied Maxwell, a little touched by
+the seeming reflection of Jaspar.
+
+"Fudge! how long have you been so conscientious?" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"When a man has a reputation to make or break, it becomes him to handle
+it with care."
+
+"Out upon you, man! _Your_ reputation is not so fair, that you need be
+so tender of it," replied Jaspar, with some severity.
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"O, you needn't '_sir_' me! You have led me to commit myself, and now
+assume a virtue you possess not."
+
+"Sir, I value my reputation, and--"
+
+"Of course you do, but you would not sacrifice a fortune for it,"
+interrupted Jaspar, easily changing the tenor of the conversation.
+
+"I certainly would not stain it unnecessarily," replied Maxwell, with a
+meaning smile, for he saw the folly of attempting the "high flight" with
+Jaspar.
+
+"Now you talk sensibly," said Jaspar.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, it is useless to beat about the bush any longer; if you
+have any proposition to make, out with it at once; and if I cannot aid
+you, I will, at least, keep your secret."
+
+"Will you swear never to reveal what I shall propose?"
+
+"Yes, if paid for it," said Maxwell, frankly.
+
+"It is well. Now, I will put you in the way of making ten thousand
+dollars, if you so will," said Jaspar, slapping the attorney on the back
+with a familiarity which was likely to breed contempt.
+
+This was a tempting offer, and Maxwell prepared to listen to the
+proposition. He was aware that it was some design upon the estate of
+Colonel Dumont, and he inwardly resolved to be a gainer by the
+operation, whether he joined in it or not.
+
+Jaspar Dumont laid aside his sternness, and disclosed his plot to
+Maxwell. It was, as may be supposed, a nefarious scheme, and not only
+intended to deprive Henry Carroll of his legacy, but also to disinherit
+the heiress, and cast a stigma upon the character of his brother.
+
+The plot we will not here disclose.
+
+Maxwell listened attentively, occasionally interrupting the speaker, by
+asking for details, or pointing out dangers But the foul wrong intended
+towards her for whom he entertained warmer sentiments than those of
+friendship shocked even his hardened sensibilities, and he strongly
+objected to its consummation. It would also, by stripping her of her
+broad lands, and stigmatizing her birth, render her undesirable as a
+wife. But Jaspar was firm in his purpose, and refused to listen to any
+other scheme. This one, he contended, was the safest and surest.
+
+"But it is a diabolical transaction," suggested Maxwell.
+
+"Call it what you will, it is the only one that will work well."
+
+Maxwell remained silent. He was studying to make this scheme subservient
+to his own purpose. He was obliged to confess to himself that his hopes
+with the heiress were worse than folly, and he judged that the execution
+of Jaspar's scheme would remove his rival. He looked forward years, and
+saw his own purpose gained by means of Jaspar's plan. It was true that
+he and Jaspar both could not have her estates; but then Jaspar was a
+villain, and it would be a good service, at a convenient season, to be a
+traitor to him. His plans were arranged, and he determined to encourage
+his companion to proceed, though, at the same time, to seem unwilling,
+and to keep his own hands clean from all participation in it.
+
+After this long interval of silence, which Jaspar had endured with
+patience, for he recognized the truth of the saying, that "He who
+deliberates is damned," Maxwell said,
+
+"I cannot consent to stain my hands with such gross injustice."
+
+"You cannot!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"It would ruin me."
+
+"It was part of my intention to keep the transaction a secret," said
+Jaspar, sarcastically.
+
+"Of course, and your confidence in me shall not be misplaced."
+
+Jaspar's fists were clenched, and a demoniacal expression rested on his
+countenance, as he said, savagely,
+
+"You know your own interest too well to do otherwise."
+
+"I am not to be intimidated," replied Maxwell, who despised his
+companion most heartily, and did not relish his tyrannical manner. "Your
+confidence, I repeat, is safe. _Honor_ will keep your secret,--threats
+will not compel me to do so."
+
+"_Honor_! ha, ha, ha!" chuckled Jaspar. "Do you know, Maxwell, that you
+are a ---- fool, to talk to me of your honor?"
+
+"Would you insult me, sir?" said, Maxwell, with vehemence.
+
+"O, no, my fine fellow! _Your_ honor!--ha, ha!" returned Jaspar, taking
+from his pocket a little slip of paper. "Look here, my _honorable_
+worthy, do you know this check?"
+
+Maxwell's face assumed a livid hue, and a convulsive tremor passed
+through his frame, as he read the check.
+
+In a moment of temporary embarrassment he had been tempted to forge the
+name of Colonel Dumont to this check, for five hundred dollars, to
+liquidate a debt of honor, not doubting that he should be able to obtain
+it again before the day of settlement at the bank, by means of a
+dissolute teller, a boon companion at the gaming-table. But Colonel
+Dumont, in arranging his affairs for their final settlement, had sent
+Jaspar for a statement of his bank account at an unusual time. Jaspar,
+who, in the illness of his brother, had managed all his business,
+immediately discovered the forgery. Without disputing its genuineness,
+he ascertained who had presented it, and traced the deed to the
+attorney, and thus obtained a hold upon him which was peculiarly
+favorable to the execution of his great purpose.
+
+"You see I have not laid myself open to your fire without fortifying my
+position," said Jaspar, enjoying, with hearty relish, the discomfiture
+of the lawyer. "Now, no more of _honor_ to me. I have kept your secret
+for my own interest, and now you will keep mine from the same motive."
+
+"But I _dare_ not do this thing," replied Maxwell, keenly sensitive to
+the weakness of his position; "I lack the ability."
+
+"You have signed the colonel's name once very well; perhaps you can do
+it again," sneered Jaspar, who had no mercy for an unwilling servant.
+
+"It will not be for your interest or mine that I should do it," returned
+Maxwell, determined, if possible, to avoid committing himself.
+
+"Why not?" said Jaspar.
+
+"My frequent visits to Bellevue would subject me to suspicion. I am
+known. Another would not be suspected. If I clear myself, I shall clear
+you at the same time. I can procure a person who will accomplish all in
+safety."
+
+"Think you I will trust another man with the possession of the secret?"
+
+"I shall compromise my own safety by writing the will, as you propose."
+
+"True,--who is this person?"
+
+"His name is--" and Maxwell hesitated; then a severe fit of coughing
+apparently prevented his uttering the name--"his name is Antoine De
+Guy."
+
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"You do, I think,--a kind of _street_ lawyer,--you must have met him at
+the Exchange."
+
+"What looking man is he?"
+
+"About fifty years of age," replied Maxwell, more thoughtful than the
+simple description of a person would seem to require,--"rather
+corpulent, black hair and whiskers, intermixed with gray,--dresses
+old-fashioned, and always looks rusty."
+
+"I do not remember him,--De Guy--De Guy," said Jaspar, musing; "no, I do
+not know him. Are you confident he can be trusted?"
+
+"Perfectly confident. I pledge my own safety on his fidelity," replied
+Maxwell, not a little satisfied at gaining his point,--for he had a
+point, and a strong one, as the reader may yet have occasion to know.
+
+"Very good,--I will inquire about him."
+
+"And expose us both!" replied Maxwell, in much alarm.
+
+"True,--on reflection, it would not be wise, and it would be best for
+you and I not to be seen together. But finish the will; the colonel will
+not relish my long absence. A word more: do not say anything about
+_this_ will. The colonel has a fancy to keep it secret, and this fancy
+will be the salvation of our scheme."
+
+But we will not follow the conversation any further. The reader has
+obtained a sufficient knowledge of these worthies from their own mouths,
+to believe them capable of any villany they may be called upon to
+perpetrate.
+
+The plot was further arranged in all its details. A meeting with De Guy
+was fixed for the next day, when all parties were to be prepared to act
+their parts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     "He is a man, setting his fate aside,
+     Of comely virtues;
+     Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice,
+     But with a noble fury and a fair spirit
+     He did oppose his foe."
+
+     Shakespeare.
+
+
+Colonel Dumont's melancholy forebodings proved to be too well grounded,
+for in ten days after the departure of Henry Carroll he breathed his
+last, not fully ripe in years, but mature in the stature of a good man.
+His worldly affairs had all been arranged, and with his mind at peace
+with God and man he bade a final adieu to his weeping daughter and
+dissembling brother, and calmly resigned his spirit to its Author.
+
+The mansion of Colonel Dumont had been the abode of happiness.
+Cheerfulness and contentment--rare visitors at the home of
+opulence--dwelt gracefully amid the luxurious splendor of this house.
+But now a heavy stroke of affliction had come upon the devoted Emily.
+The ruthless hand of death had struck down her father in the midst of
+prosperity and happiness. She felt that she was alone in the world. Her
+unsympathizing uncle seemed not to feel the loss, but appeared even more
+cold and churlish than ever. She could not expect from him the offices
+of kindness and sympathy. She was an orphan, but not till she was
+prepared to combat with the trials of life. Recognizing the hand of
+Providence in this visitation of the Angel of Death, she bowed meekly
+and submissively to the Master Will, and was even cheerful and happy in
+her tears.
+
+It was about ten o'clock on the night succeeding the funeral of Colonel
+Dumont that a small canoe, containing a single individual, touched at
+the bank of the river near the now gloomy mansion. Leaping from the
+canoe, which was nearly swamped by the act, the person it had contained
+drew the frail bark beyond the reach of the rapid current, and ascended
+the steep bank. Following the smooth shell road through the long vista
+of negro huts, he reached the little grove of tropical trees which
+surrounded the proprietary mansion. Casting an anxious glance around
+him, to satisfy himself that he was not watched, he cautiously
+approached the only illuminated window on that side of the house, upon
+which, after a close scrutiny of the interior of the room, he gave
+several light taps. This signal was answered by Jaspar Dumont, who, with
+a word of caution, opened the window. The stranger, with a light spring
+which belied his apparent years, gained the interior of the room, which
+was the library of the late owner.
+
+The person who had thus obtained admission was the lawyer, Antoine De
+Guy, whom Maxwell had suggested as a fit agent for the execution of
+Jaspar's scheme. He was certainly an odd-looking man. His face was of a
+very dark red color, much like that which is produced by the united
+effects of exposure and intemperance, and was encircled by a pair of
+black whiskers, intermixed with gray. His cranium was ornamented with a
+huge mass of the same parti-colored hair. His fiery red nose was placed
+in strange contrast with a pair of green spectacles, which entirely
+concealed the color and expression of his eyes. His clothes were of a
+most primitive cut, and had probably been black once, but were now rusty
+and white from long service. His form was portly, a little inclined to
+corpulency. His hands were most unprofessionally dirty; but this might
+have been occasioned by contact with the canoe in his passage. On one of
+his fingers glittered a diamond ring, which, considering the lack of
+ornaments in other respects, but ill accorded with the apparent
+parsimony of the man. It might, however, have been obtained in the way
+of trade, for Maxwell had hinted that he did business under the sign of
+the "three golden balls." He was apparently in the neighborhood of
+five-and-forty, and looked like the debauchee in the face, while his
+dress indicated the penurious man of business.
+
+"Did any one see you?" asked Jaspar, whose teeth were chattering with
+apprehension, notwithstanding his natural boldness.
+
+"Not that I am aware of," replied De Guy, in a silky tone, which,
+proceeding from such a form, would have astonished the listener.
+
+"You met no one?" interrogated the anxious Jaspar.
+
+"Not a soul! Everything was still."
+
+"Let us be sure of it. Step into this room for a moment. I will see that
+all the servants have retired," said Jaspar, pushing his confederate
+into an adjoining apartment.
+
+A light pull at the bell-rope brought to the library the body-servant of
+the late planter.
+
+This "boy," who was known by the name of _Hatchie_, was a mulatto. He
+was about forty years of age, and, having never been reduced to labor in
+the cane-fields, bore his age remarkably well. He was about six feet in
+height, very stout built, and was endowed with immense physical
+strength. His brow was a little wrinkled, and his head was a little bald
+upon the top,--and these were the only evidences of his years. His
+expression was that of great intelligence. In his countenance there was
+a kind of humility, to which his demeanor corresponded, that might have
+resulted from his condition, or have been inherent in his nature. He was
+a man who, even in a land of slavery, would be instinctively respected.
+
+He had been a great favorite with his late master, in whose family he
+had spent the greater part of his life. By being constantly in
+attendance upon him and his guests, he had acquired a much greater
+amount of information than is often found in those of his condition. He
+could read and write, and by his intelligence and singular fidelity had
+proved a valuable addition to his master's household. Possessing his
+confidence, and regarded more as a friend than a slave by Emily, he was
+a privileged person in the house,--a confidence which in no instance did
+he abuse, and which in no degree abated his affection or his fidelity.
+
+Hatchie was not a phrenologist, but he had long ago acquired a perfect
+knowledge of Jaspar's character,--a knowledge which his master or Emily
+had never obtained.
+
+Hatchie considered Emily, now that her father was dead, as his own
+especial charge, and he watched over her, in the disparity of their
+stations, very much as a faithful dog watches over a child intrusted to
+its keeping. Towards her he entertained a sentiment of the profoundest
+respect as his mistress, and of parental affection as one who had grown
+up under his eye.
+
+"Hatchie," said Jaspar, as the mulatto entered the library, "are the
+hands all in?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, whose penetrating mind detected the
+tremulous quiver of Jaspar's lip; "all in two hours ago, according to
+regulations."
+
+"All right, then. You can go to bed now."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Hatchie, with his customary obeisance, as he turned
+to depart.
+
+"Stay a moment. Go to Miss Emily, and get the keys of the secretary,"
+said Jaspar, with assumed carelessness.
+
+Hatchie obeyed; and, suspecting something before, he was confirmed in
+the opinion now, and determined to watch. His suspicions of
+something--he knew not what--had been excited by seeing Maxwell in
+earnest consultation with Jaspar on the day of the funeral. He had, of
+course, no idea of the plots of the latter; but, in common with all the
+"boys," he hated Jaspar, and was willing to know more of his
+transactions.
+
+Giving the keys to Jaspar, he left the room, and heard the creaking of
+the bolt which fastened the door.
+
+As soon as the servant had departed, Jaspar called his confederate from
+his concealment.
+
+"Are you ready for business?" said he.
+
+"I am," replied De Guy, "as soon as you pay me the first instalment. I
+can't take a single step in the dark."
+
+"Here it is," and Jaspar took from his pocket the money. "Have you the
+document?"
+
+"I have," replied De Guy, producing the fictitious will, which Maxwell
+had drawn up in conformity with the instructions of Jaspar.
+
+"And you are ready to affix the signature?" said Jaspar, who appeared
+not to be in the possession of his usual confidence. Few villains ever
+become so hardened as never to tremble.
+
+"I am. I came for that purpose. Give me the genuine will, and I will
+soon make this one so near like it that the witnesses themselves shall
+not discover the cheat," replied De Guy, with an air of confidence.
+
+"You shall have it; but first read this to me. I do nothing blindly."
+
+The attorney, in his silky tones, read the paper through, and Jaspar
+pronounced it correct in every particular.
+
+"I see nothing in the way of entire success," said Jaspar, rubbing his
+hands with delight at his prospective fortune.
+
+"Nor I," replied De Guy, "except that these witnesses will deny the
+substance of it."
+
+"How can they, when they know it not? The colonel, for some reason or
+other, would not let them read it or know its purport. Maxwell and
+myself are pledged to secrecy. It is upon this fact that I based the
+scheme."
+
+"But the will would not be worth a tittle in the law with such
+witnesses."
+
+"Bah! the colonel knew no one would contest it. He did it at his own
+risk."
+
+"But will they not contest _your_ will?"
+
+"If they do, I shall find the means of proving what the document
+affirms, and my case will then stand just as well. As a kind of
+assurance for the witnesses my brother affixed a character,--a kind of
+cabalistic design,--upon the will, assuring them it was placed on the
+will alone. You have a copy of this design?"
+
+"I have. Maxwell gave it to me, and I have practised till I can do it to
+perfection. Your brother had an odd way of doing business."
+
+"He had; but his oddity in this instance is a God-send."
+
+"But the _other_ document, Mr. Dumont! My stay is already too long!"
+
+Jaspar, taking the keys from the table, opened the secretary, and took
+from a small iron safe in the lower part of it a large packet, on which
+were several large masses of wax bearing the impress of Colonel Dumont's
+seal.
+
+"Now, De Guy," said he, "do your best."
+
+"Do not fear! I never yet saw a name I could not imitate."
+
+"So much the better; but be careful, I entreat you! Think how much
+depends upon care!"
+
+"O, I can do it so nicely that your brother himself would not deny it,
+if he should step out of his grave!"
+
+"Silence, man!" said Jaspar, angrily, as a superstitious thrill of
+terror crept through his veins.
+
+Jaspar took up the packet, and was about to snap the seals, when,
+quicker than thought, the window through which De Guy had entered flew
+open, and Hatchie leaped into the room. Without giving Jaspar or his
+accomplice time to recover from the surprise of his sudden entrance, he
+levelled a blow at the lawyer, and another at the perfidious brother,
+which placed both in a rather awkward position on the floor. Hatchie
+then seized the envelope containing the will, and made his escape in the
+manner he had entered, well knowing that Jaspar would not hesitate to
+take his life rather than be foiled in his purpose.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie knocking down De Guy and Jasper, and stealing the
+will. Page 46.]
+
+The mulatto's blows produced no serious effect upon the heads of the
+two villains, and, recovering from the surprise and shock the act had
+occasioned, they lost not a moment in pursuing their assailant. Hatchie
+directed his course to the river, and scarcely a moment had elapsed
+before he heard the steps of his pursuers. Leaping down the bank, he ran
+along by the edge of the water, with the intention of reaching a boat
+which he knew was moored a few rods further down. In his flight,
+however, he discovered the canoe in which De Guy had arrived, and,
+casting it off, he paddled with astonishing rapidity towards the
+opposite shore.
+
+His pursuers reached the bank, and perceiving the canoe through the
+darkness, Jaspar discharged his rifle at it. A heavy splash followed the
+discharge. The canoe appeared to float at the mercy of the current.
+Jaspar and De Guy, satisfied that the rifle-ball had done its work,
+hastened down stream to a small point of land which projected into the
+river, with the hope of securing the canoe and the body of the slave,
+upon which they expected to find the will. The canoe was driven ashore,
+as they had anticipated; but it contained not the objects for which they
+sought. The corpse of Hatchie was nowhere to be found, though they
+paddled about the river an hour in search of it,--not that the body of
+the mulatto was of any consequence, but in the hope of obtaining the
+precious will.
+
+Here was a contingency for which Jaspar was wholly unprepared. The
+original signature of the will was not now available, and they must
+trust to luck for accuracy in signing the false one. There was little
+difficulty in this, as the will was known to have been signed in the
+usual manner, and the private character they had in their possession.
+Still Jaspar felt that the original paper afforded the surer means of
+deceiving the witnesses. They had before intended to produce a
+fac-simile, mechanically, of the original,--a purpose which could not
+now be accomplished. The witnesses were all friends of Colonel Dumont,
+and they had various papers signed by them from which to copy their
+signatures. The worst, and to Jaspar's daring mind the only difficulty
+which now presented itself, was the fear that the body of Hatchie might
+be found, and the genuine will thus brought to light. After much
+reflection and consultation with De Guy, he determined to risk all, to
+watch for the body, and be prepared to overcome any obstacle which might
+be presented. With this conclusion they returned to the library. By the
+aid of old notes, checks, and other papers, the fictitious will was duly
+signed, the significant character affixed, and the document enveloped so
+as to exactly resemble the original packet.
+
+The whole transaction was so well performed that Jaspar retired to his
+pillow confident of success, to await the result on the morrow, when the
+will was to be read.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     "Is this the daughter of a slave? I know
+     'Tis not with men as shrubs and trees, that by
+     The shoot you know the rank and order of
+     The stem. Yet who from such a stem would look
+     For such a shoot?"
+
+     Knowles.
+
+
+The morrow came. Emily was summoned to the library, to hear the reading
+of her father's will. With her no worldly consideration could mitigate
+the deep grief that pervaded her heart. She derived her only consolation
+from a purer, higher source. She was a true mourner, and the acquisition
+of the immense fortune of which she was the heiress was not an event
+which could heal the wound in her heart. She looked not forward to the
+bright scenes of triumph and of conquest that awaited her. She was not
+dazzled by the brilliancy of the position to which wealth and an
+honorable name entitled her. Such thoughts never occurred to her. She
+did think of Henry Carroll; but not in the proud situation to which her
+wealth might elevate him, but as a pure heart that would beat in unison
+with her own, that would sympathize with her in her hour of sorrow; as
+one who would mingle his tears with hers, over the bier of a common
+parent. She was not sentimental in her love, nor in her grief. Sighs and
+tears with her were not a sentimental commodity,--an offering which the
+boarding-school miss makes alike at the altar of her love, or at the
+shrine of a dead parent's memory. The desolation of heart and home was
+not a trial which wealth and honors could adorn with tinsel, and thus
+render it desirable, or even tolerable!
+
+Emily Dumont entered the library. The occasion was repugnant to her
+feelings. The unceremonious blending of dollars and cents with the
+revered name of her father was extremely painful to her sensibility. It
+seemed like a profanation of his memory.
+
+Her uncle, Maxwell, the witnesses of the will, and several
+others,--intimate friends of the family,--were already there. On
+Jaspar's countenance were no tell-tale traces of the last night's
+villany. He looked gloomy and sorrowful. So thoroughly had he schooled
+himself in hypocrisy for this occasion, that the scene he knew would, in
+a few minutes, transpire, had no prophetic indications in his features.
+Like the tragedian who is tranquil and unaffected in the scene in which
+he knows his own death or triumph occurs, Jaspar was calm, and his
+aspect even sanctimonious.
+
+As Emily entered Maxwell tendered his sympathies in his usual elegant
+manner, and so touchingly did he allude to the death of her father that
+with much difficulty she restrained a flood of tears. The scene in the
+office, and the disfavor with which she had lately regarded him, were
+forgotten in his eloquence.
+
+After this courtesy to the daughter of his former patron, Maxwell again
+seated himself, and after briefly and formally stating the reasons of
+their meeting, to which he added a short but apparently very feeling
+eulogy of the deceased, he took the packet from the safe, and proceeded
+to break the seals.
+
+In his full and musical tones the attorney read the preliminary parts of
+the instrument, and then commenced upon the principal items of the will.
+First came several legacies to charitable institutions and to personal
+friends; after which was a legacy of ten thousand dollars to Emily
+Dumont, to be paid in Cincinnati by his brother. The testator further
+declared _that the said Emily was manumitted_, and should proceed under
+the guidance of his brother to the place designated for the payment of
+the legacy.
+
+Emily, who had scarcely heeded the provisions of the will until the
+mention of her name attracted her attention, was, as may be supposed,
+somewhat astonished to hear her own name in connection with a legacy.
+She raised her sad eyes from the floor, and heard the other stipulations
+in regard to her. So utterly unexpected, so terribly revolting, was the
+clause which pronounced her a slave, that for a time she did not realize
+its awful import. But the blank dismay of her friends, the
+well-counterfeited surprise of Jaspar and Maxwell, brought her to a
+painful sense of her position. She attempted to rise, but in the act the
+color forsook her face, and she sunk back insensible. In this condition
+she was conveyed to her room.
+
+The attorney completed the reading of the will, though, after the
+extraordinary incident which had just occurred, but little attention was
+given him. The witnesses at once recognized the strange character, and
+acknowledged the signatures to be genuine. Here, then, thought they, was
+the reason why the provisions of the will had been concealed from them.
+So impressed were they with the apparent purpose of Colonel Dumont in
+throwing the veil of secrecy over the contents of his will, that the
+very strangeness of it seemed to confirm its genuineness; and they did
+not scrutinize it so closely as under other circumstances they probably
+would have done.
+
+How often may a good motive be tortured, by the appearance of evil, into
+the most despicable criminality! Colonel Dumont in this will had devised
+large sums of money to various charitable institutions, and in the event
+of his life being prolonged, did not wish to be pointed at and lauded
+for this act. True charity is modest, and Colonel Dumont did not desire
+to see his name blazoned forth to the world for doing that which he
+honestly and religiously deemed his duty.
+
+This modesty had favored Jaspar's plans. No one could now gainsay the
+will he had invented; and he felt strong in his position, especially
+after the witnesses had assented to their signatures.
+
+Among the persona who had been present in the library was Mr. Faxon, an
+aged and worthy clergyman. He had for many years been an intimate friend
+of Colonel Dumont, and was a legatee in his will to a liberal amount. A
+constant visitor in the family, its spiritual adviser and comforter, he
+had possessed the unlimited confidence of the late planter and his
+daughter. To him the whole clause relating to Emily seemed like a
+falsehood. Pure and holy in his own character, it was beyond his
+conception that a man of Colonel Dumont's lofty and Christian views
+could have lived so many years in the practice of this deception. He had
+no means of disproving the illegitimacy of Emily. The family had been
+unknown to him at the period of her birth. The house-servants, with the
+exception of Hatchie, were all younger than Emily. Then, the statement
+was made in the will, and was, therefore, the statement of Colonel
+Dumont himself,--for the genuineness of the will he did not call in
+question. In accordance with his general character, her father had
+manumitted her, and left her a competence. From this clause he inferred
+that her father intended to place her beyond the reach of harm, and
+beyond the possibility of ever being reduced to the degraded condition
+so often the lot of the quadroon at the South. He had not only given her
+freedom, but had provided for her conveyance beyond the pale of slavery.
+With these intentions, if she were in reality a slave, Mr. Faxon could
+find no fault. They were liberal in the extreme. But why had he, at this
+late period, mentioned the stain upon her birth? Why not let her live as
+he had educated her? These queries were so easily answered that the good
+clergyman could not condemn the dead on account of them. If the
+daughter, then she was the heiress; if not, legitimately, it would be
+injustice to the brother.
+
+Mr. Faxon reasoned in this manner. He could not believe, even with all
+the evidence before him. There was a reasonable answer, apparently, to
+every objection he could think of, and he resolved to apply to Jaspar
+and Hatchie for more information. All that Jaspar could say, or would
+say, in answer to his interrogatories, was that his brother's wife had
+died in giving birth to a dead child; and that Emily, who was the child
+of a house-servant by him, had so engaged his attention by her singular
+beauty that he had substituted her for his own child. This story, Jaspar
+said, his brother had told him in the strictest confidence, many years
+before. Mr. Faxon, appreciating the disappointment of a father with such
+a sensitive nature as Colonel Dumont, was willing to believe that Emily
+had been substituted to supply in his affections the place of the lost
+child; but that he should educate her as his own child, and then cast
+her out from the pale of society, was incredible!
+
+The evidence was so strong, he could see no escape from the terrible
+conclusion that the gentle being, to whom he had ministered in joy and
+in sorrow, was a slave! It required a hard struggle in his mind before
+he could reconcile himself to the revolting truth. Her beautiful
+character, built up mostly under his own supervision, he regarded with
+peculiar pride. He was not so bigoted, however, as to believe his labors
+lost, or even less worthy, because bestowed, as it now appeared, upon a
+slave. In heaven his labors would be just as apparent in the quadroon as
+in the noble-born lady.
+
+After the departure of the friends who had been summoned to the reading
+of the will, and whose stay had been prolonged by the melancholy
+interest they felt in the unfortunate Emily, Mr. Faxon requested to see
+her, and was shown to her room. She had just been restored to
+consciousness, by the assiduous efforts of her maids, as the good man
+entered.
+
+"O, Mr. Faxon!" sobbed Emily, but she could articulate no more. The
+terrible reality of her situation had entirely overcome her.
+
+"Be comforted, my dear child," said Mr. Faxon, affectionately, taking
+her hand. "The ways of Providence are mysterious, and we must bend
+humbly to our lot."
+
+"I will try to be resigned to my fate, terrible as it is," replied
+Emily, looking at the minister with a subdued expression, while hot
+tears poured down her cheeks. "You will not forsake me, if all others
+do!"
+
+"No, no, my dear child; it is my duty to wrestle with sorrow. I have
+come to direct your thoughts to that better world, where the
+distinctions of caste do not exist."
+
+"O, that I could die!" murmured Emily, as a feeling of despair crept to
+her mind.
+
+"Nay, child, you must not repine at the will of Heaven. In God's own
+good time He will call you hence."
+
+"I will not repine; but what a terrible life is before me!"
+
+"The future is wisely concealed from us. It is in the keeping of the
+Almighty. He may have many years of happiness and usefulness in store
+for you."
+
+"But I am an outcast now,--one whom all my former friends will
+despise,--a slave!" replied Emily, covering her face with her hands, and
+sobbing convulsively.
+
+"Nay, be calm; do not give way to such bitter thoughts. This may be a
+deception, though, to be candid, I can scarcely see any reason to think
+so."
+
+Emily caught at the slight hope thus extended to her; her eyes
+brightened, and a little color returned to her pallid cheek.
+
+"Heaven send that it may prove so!" said she; "for I cannot believe that
+he who taught me to call him by the endearing name of father; who
+watched so tenderly over my infancy, and guided my youthful heart so
+faithfully; who, an hour before he died, called me daughter, and blessed
+me with his dying breath,--I cannot believe he has been so cruel to me!"
+
+"It seems scarcely possible; but, my child, the ways of Providence are
+inscrutable. Whatever afflictions visit us, they are ordered for our
+good. Trust in God, my dear one, and all will yet be well."
+
+"I will, I will! My father's and your good instructions shall not be
+lost upon me, slave though I am. _Dear_ father," said she, and the tears
+blinded her,--"I love his memory still, though every word of this hated
+will were true. I ought not to repine, whatever be my future lot. That
+he loved me as a daughter, I can never doubt; that he never told me I am
+a slave, I will forgive, for he meant it well."
+
+"I am glad to witness your Christian faith and patience in this painful
+event. But, Emily, had you no intimation or suspicion of this trial
+before?"
+
+"No, never, not the slightest," said Emily, wiping away the tears which
+had gathered on her cheeks.
+
+"See if you cannot call to mind some slight circumstance, which you can
+now recognize as such."
+
+Emily reflected a few moments, and then replied that she could not.
+
+"And your house-servants are all too young to remember as long ago as
+your birth?"
+
+"All but Hatchie."
+
+"Perhaps you had better send for him, and I will question him.
+
+"I will, and I pray that his knowledge may favor me."
+
+Emily sent one of the maids for Hatchie; but she returned in a few
+moments, accompanied by Jaspar, who, hearing her inquiries for the man
+his rifle-ball had sent to the other world, had come to prevent any
+injurious surmises.
+
+This man, Hatchie, had not escaped Jaspar's attention, in the maturing
+of his plot; but, as in some other of the particulars, he had trusted to
+the facilities of the moment for the means of silencing him. Being a
+man, it was not probable he could know much of the events attending the
+birth of Emily to his prejudice. If it should prove that he did, why, it
+was an easy thing to get rid of him. His rifle-ball or the slave-market
+were always available. But Jaspar's good fortune had smiled upon him,
+and he felt peculiarly happy, at this moment, in the reflection that he
+was out of the way, for he doubted not the object of Emily in sending
+for him.
+
+"Miss Emily," said Jaspar, in a tone of unwonted softness, "I am sorry
+to say that your father's favorite servant met with a sad mishap last
+night, of which I intended to have informed you before, but have not had
+an opportunity."
+
+Emily's cheek again blanched, as she saw all hope in this quarter cut
+off.
+
+"Poor Hatchie!" said she, as calmly as her excited feelings would
+permit. "What was it, Uncle Jaspar?"
+
+Jaspar's lip curled a little at the weakness which could feel for a
+slave, and he commenced the narrative he had concocted to account for
+the disappearance of Hatchie.
+
+"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to retire, I
+heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the library.
+Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at once suspected
+that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of late, had broken into
+the house. I seized my rifle, and when I opened the door the thief
+sprung out at the open window. I pursued him down the shell-road to the
+river; upon reaching which I perceived him paddling a canoe towards the
+opposite shore. I fired. A splash in the water followed the discharge.
+The canoe came ashore a short distance below, but the man was either
+killed by the ball or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of
+valuables, which had been stolen from the library,--among them your
+father's watch."
+
+"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked Emily,
+with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her slave-friend.
+
+"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is missing, and
+the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size and form. I am now
+satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the time, that he was the man
+upon whom I fired."
+
+"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.
+
+"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned Jaspar.
+
+"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr. Faxon.
+
+"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
+conclusive."
+
+"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye
+of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his
+first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your
+household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?"
+
+"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the
+anxiety within him.
+
+"Were you _alone_ when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the clergyman,
+sternly.
+
+"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you question me. I
+am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar, rather warmly, his
+natural testiness getting the better of his discretion.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock humility. "Do
+not let my curiosity affront you."
+
+"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the
+sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your business
+with this girl."
+
+"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to impart
+the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the church. Of
+course, my business could not be with _you_ in that capacity."
+
+"You seem to have departed very widely from your object," replied
+Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon religious topics.
+
+"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and so
+severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the validity of
+the will."
+
+"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the will as
+her father left it."
+
+"Uncle, you said my father's watch was stolen? Was it not in the iron
+safe, with the other articles?" asked Emily, timidly.
+
+"It was," replied Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"How did he open it?" interrogated Mr. Faxon, taking up the suggestion
+of Emily.
+
+"Did Hatchie return the keys to you last night?" asked Jaspar of Emily,
+promptly.
+
+"He did not," replied she.
+
+"I sent for them to put a note in its place, and sent them back by him
+immediately. The fellow stood by when I opened the safe, and must have
+witnessed its contents. You can judge how he opened it now," returned
+Jaspar, with a sneer, well pleased that he had foiled their inquiries.
+
+"You say that the canoe in which he was making his escape came ashore.
+Where is it now? No canoe belongs to the estate."
+
+"There is not," said Jaspar, uneasily.
+
+"Perhaps an examination of it will disclose something of the robber, if
+not of the will."
+
+"So I thought this morning, and for this purpose went to the river, but
+the canoe was not to be found. I did not secure it last night, and
+probably it broke adrift and went down," replied Jaspar, whose ingenuity
+never deserted him.
+
+"Very likely," said the minister, with a kind of solemn sarcasm. "This
+whole affair seems more like romance than reality."
+
+"I cannot believe my father was so cruel," cried Emily, the tears again
+coming to the relief of her full heart.
+
+"Do you doubt the word of the witnesses, and the mark and signature of
+your father?" said Jaspar, fiercely, with the intention of intimidating
+her.
+
+"No, no! but, Uncle--"
+
+"Call me not uncle again! I am no longer the uncle of the progeny of my
+brother's slaves. This cheat has already been continued too long."
+
+"I will not call you uncle, but hear me," replied Emily, frightened at
+Jaspar's violence.
+
+"I will hear nothing more. You will prepare to leave for Cincinnati next
+week. I will no longer endure the presence of one upon whom my
+brother's bounty has been wasted. Have you no gratitude, girl? Remember
+what you are!"
+
+With these cruel words Jaspar hurried out of the room, satisfied that he
+had established his position, and, at least, silenced Emily. The
+minister he regarded, as he did all of his profession, with contempt.
+
+Mr. Faxon and Emily had a long consultation upon the embarrassing
+position of her who had so lately been the envied heiress. The murder of
+the mulatto, the conduct of Jaspar, and some other circumstances,
+afforded ground to believe that the will was a forgery. If such was the
+fact, the minister was compelled to acknowledge that it was a deep-laid
+plot. Everything seemed to aid the conspirators; for he was satisfied,
+both from the wording and the chirography of the will, that Jaspar,
+whatever part he played, was assisted by others. There was not the
+slightest clue by which the mystery could be unravelled. If there was
+hope that the will was a forgery, there was no immediate prospect of
+proving it such.
+
+Under these circumstances, Mr. Faxon felt compelled to advise obedience
+to the instructions of the will. The journey to the North could do no
+harm, and was, perhaps, advisable, under the state of feeling which
+would follow the publicity of the will. Emily, painful as it was to
+leave the home of her childhood at such a time, acquiesced in the
+decision of her clerical friend. But there was a feeling in her heart
+that she was wronged,--that she should go forth an exile from her _own_
+Bellevue.
+
+On the following week, Jaspar and Emily proceeded to New Orleans, in the
+family carriage, to take a steamer for Cincinnati.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     "Day after day, day after day,
+     We stuck,--nor breath, nor motion,--
+     As idle as a painted ship
+     Upon a painted ocean."
+
+     ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+It was about the time of the events related in the preceding chapters,
+at the close of a variable day, in which the storm and sunshine seemed
+to struggle for the ascendency, that a plain-looking, home-made sort of
+man might have been seen attempting to effect a safe transit of the
+steamboat levee at New Orleans. This personage was no other than Mr.
+Nathan Benson, commonly called at home "Uncle Nathan." He was one of the
+better class of New England farmers, an old bachelor, well to do in the
+world, and was now engaged in the laudable enterprise of seeing the
+country.
+
+Uncle Nathan, though he laid no claims to gentility in the popular
+signification of the term, was, nevertheless, a gentleman,--one of
+Nature's noblemen. He was dressed scrupulously neat in every particular,
+though a little too rustic to suit the meridian of fashionable society.
+He presented a very respectable figure, in spite of the fact that the
+prevailing "mode" had not been consulted in the fashioning of his
+garments. His coat was, without doubt, made by some village tailoress,
+for many of the graces with which the masculine artist adorns his
+garments were entirely wanting in those of our worthy farmer. His hat
+was two inches too low in the crown, and two inches too broad in the
+brim, for the style; still it was a good-looking and a well-meaning hat,
+for it preserved the owner's phiz from the burning rays of the sun much
+better than the "mode" would have done. His boots, though round-toed and
+very wide, were nicely polished when he commenced the passage of the
+levee, but were now encased in a thick coating of yellow clay.
+
+Uncle Nathan was a medium-sized man, and preserved as much of nature's
+grace as a man can who has labored for five-and-thirty years at the
+stubborn soil of New England. His hair was sandy, and his full,
+good-natured physiognomy was surrounded by a huge pair of reddish
+whiskers.
+
+The superficial, worldly-minded man would have deemed Uncle Nathan's
+_principles_ rather too ultra for common, everyday use; but he, good
+soul, found no difficulty in applying them to every action he performed.
+He was, to use a common phrase, a "professor of religion;" but, less
+technically, he was more than a professor, and strove to live out the
+spirit of truth and righteousness.
+
+After much difficulty, Uncle Nathan succeeded in effecting a safe
+passage to the planking which formed the landing for the boats. After a
+glance of vexation at the soiled condition of his boots (Uncle Nathan
+was a bachelor!), he commenced his search for an upward-bound steamer,
+for he was about to begin his homeward tour. Two columns of dense black
+smoke, the hissing noise of escaping steam, and the splashing paddles of
+a boat a short distance down the stream, attracted his attention, and
+towards her he directed his steps. Approaching near enough to read her
+name, he was not a little surprised to find the boat he had seen
+advertised to start a week before. Concluding, in his innocence, that
+some accident had detained her, he hastened on board. Entering the
+cabin, the scene which was there presented did not exactly coincide with
+his ideas of neatness or morality. Uncle Nathan had read descriptions of
+the magnificence of Mississippi steamers; but the Chalmetta (for this
+was the name of the boat) fell far below them. Even the best boats on
+the river he considered vastly inferior to the North River and Sound
+steamers.
+
+After a hasty survey of the Chalmetta's capability of making him
+comfortable for a week or more, he concluded to take passage in her for
+Cincinnati, and accordingly he sought for the captain. To his inquiries
+for that personage a thin, cadaverous-looking man presented himself, and
+drawled out a civil salutation.
+
+"How long afore you start, cap'n?" inquired Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We shall get off in about ten minutes," replied Captain Brawler.
+"John," continued he, turning to a waiter near him, with a wink, "tell
+the pilot to be all ready, and ring the bell."
+
+"Why, gracious!" said Uncle Nathan, hastily, as the waiter dodged into
+the pantry, "I shan't have time to get my trunk down."
+
+"How far up do you go?" inquired Captain Drawler.
+
+"To Cincinnati, if you can carry me about right," replied Uncle Nathan,
+with an eye to business.
+
+"Well, as you are going clear through, I will wait a few minutes for
+you," suggested the captain.
+
+Uncle Nathan thought him very obliging, and after some little
+"dickering" (for he had heard that Western steamboats were not
+particularly uniform in their charges), he engaged a passage, applying
+to the bargain the trite principle that "no berth is secured till paid
+for," which had been reduced to writing, and occupied a conspicuous
+place in the cabin. Without waiting to see the berth he had paid for, he
+hastened to the hotel for the large hair trunk, which contained his
+travelling wardrobe.
+
+Our worthy farmer made it a point never to cause any one an unnecessary
+inconvenience; never to read the morning paper more than half an hour
+when an impatient crowd was waiting to see it; and never in his life
+stopped his five-cattle team in the middle of a narrow, much-frequented
+road, to the annoyance of others. So the captain did not have to wait
+more than five minutes beyond the stated time. Depositing his trunk upon
+a heap of baggage in the cabin, and turning with pious horror from the
+gaming-tables there, Uncle Nathan seated himself in an arm-chair on the
+boiler deck, to await the departure of the boat, and, in anticipation,
+to feast his vision with the wonders of the Father of Waters. He waited
+very long and very patiently, for Uncle Nathan considered patience a
+cardinal virtue, and strove manfully against every feeling of
+uneasiness. The tongue of the hugs bell over him at intervals banged
+forth its stunning cadence, the hissing steam let loose from its pent-up
+cells, the water which the wheels sent surging far up upon the levee,
+all were indications, to his unsophisticated mind, of a speedy
+departure.
+
+Two hours he waited, with the same exemplary patience; but still the
+Chalmetta was a fixture.
+
+Night came, and the music of the bell, and the steam, and the surging
+water, ceased. Uncle Nathan, thinking patience no longer a virtue,
+cardinal or secondary, hastened to the captain, with some appearance of
+indignation on his honest features. The worthy officer very coolly
+informed him that, owing to the non-arrival of the mail, he should be
+unable to get off till the next morning.
+
+Uncle Nathan uttered a very peculiar "O!" and, seemingly perfectly
+satisfied with this explanation, asked to be shown his berth. The
+captain consulted the clerk, and the clerk consulted the berth-book,
+which conveyed the astounding intelligence that the berths were all
+taken!
+
+"All taken!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, aghast. "Haven't I paid for one?"
+
+The gentlemanly clerk acknowledged that he _had_ paid for one, and
+kindly offered him a mattress on the floor, assuring him that there
+would be plenty of berths after the boat got off.
+
+Uncle Nathan did not see how this could be, and was informed that many
+berths taken were not claimed.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Western steamers seldom start at the time they advertise,
+but wait until they are full of freight and passengers. The latter are
+boarded on them from the time they take passage, if they wish,--often a
+week or ten days. Berths are often engaged by "loafers," who eat and
+sleep on board, and grumble at the detention, but who suddenly decamp
+when the boat starts.]
+
+Contenting himself with this explanation, Uncle Nathan sought the boiler
+deck again, to obtain the only possible oblivion for his uneasiness in
+the society of mongrel gentlemen and monstrous mosquitos. Those who have
+been subjected to these steamboat impositions will readily perceive that
+Uncle Nathan was in no very agreeable state of mind. He was, to a
+certain extent, home-sick. There was something in his expectant state,
+and something in the gloomy aspect of the low city with its cheerless
+lights, in the damp atmosphere and the clouds of mosquitos, to produce a
+sigh for home and its joys. If any one had hummed "Sweet Home" in his
+ears, it would have brought the tears to his eyes. He thought of
+everything connected with his hallowed home: of the good-natured
+spinster who was his housekeeper, and of the ten-acre lots upon his
+farm; of the red steers and the gray mare; of the shaggy watch-dog and
+the tabby-cat; of home in all its minutiae. Its familiar scenes visited
+him with a vividness which added ten-fold to their influence. He was as
+far abstracted as the mosquitos, which gathered in swarms upon every
+tenable spot of his flesh, would permit, when his meditations were
+disturbed by the gentleman who occupied the next chair. He wore the
+uniform of the army, and was battling the mosquitos with the smoke of a
+plantation cigar, which bore a very striking resemblance to those rolls
+of the weed vulgarly denominated "long nines."
+
+This gentleman was Henry Carroll, who had been in waiting three days for
+the sailing of the Chalmetta. On his return from Georgia he had not
+deemed it prudent to visit Bellevue. Of the startling events which had
+transpired there since his departure he was in entire ignorance.
+
+"No prospect of getting off to-night, is there?" said he to Uncle
+Nathan.
+
+"Not the least," replied the latter. "The cap'n just told me the mail
+hadn't come, so he should have to wait till mornin'."
+
+Henry turned to Uncle Nathan rather sharply, to discover any mischief
+which might lurk in his expression. Perceiving that he looked perfectly
+sincere, and was innocent of any intention to quiz him, he merely
+uttered, in the most contemptuous tone, the single word "Humbug!"
+
+"You seem a leetle out o' sorts," returned Uncle Nathan, piqued at the
+coldness with which his intelligence was received.
+
+"Well, sir, I think I have very good reason to be so," returned Henry;
+"for I have lain about this boat, like a dead dragoon, for three days,
+in suspense."
+
+"You don't say so!" responded Uncle Nathan, with interest. "When did
+they tell you they should start?"
+
+"The captain said in about ten minutes," answered Henry, with a smile.
+
+"Good gracious! he told me the same thing!" said Uncle Nathan,
+astonished at the coincidence.
+
+"But I knew he lied, when he said so; yet the boat seemed full of
+passengers, and I did not expect to wait so long."
+
+"Don't you think they will get started to-morrow?"
+
+"I cannot venture an opinion, having been so often deceived. The captain
+is trying to get a freight of soldiers on deck. The city is full of them
+now, returning to their respective states."
+
+"Then he has taken me in most outrageously," said the New Englander,
+with emphasis.
+
+"A very common occurrence, sir," replied Henry, who now explained to his
+companion some of the tricks of Western steamboat captains.
+
+"Is there no remedy?" asked Uncle Nathan, anxiously.
+
+"Certainly; you can go in the next boat, if you choose. I shall take the
+'Belle of the West,' which I am pretty well assured will sail
+to-morrow, if this one does not. But I prefer this, as many of my
+friends go in her."
+
+"But will they give you back your passage-money again?" asked the
+economical Yankee.
+
+"I have not paid it yet," replied Henry, now understanding the position
+of his fellow-traveller.
+
+"Then how did you secure a berth? The sign in the cabin says 'No berth
+secured till paid for.'"
+
+"I see how it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as though
+they were honest men." He then explained that there is no security
+against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in advance, in
+case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to detain them an
+unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show their money till
+the trip is up; and much more useful information for the voyager on the
+Western rivers.
+
+"And I have no berth yet! The fellow promised me one when we got off,"
+said Uncle Nathan, chopfallen; for, if any one is keenly sensitive to an
+imposition, the Yankee is the man.
+
+"There you are lame again," replied Henry. "You may get one, and you may
+not. As you have paid your fare, you had better keep quiet, and
+to-morrow I will assist you in securing your rights."
+
+"Thank ye," replied Uncle Nathan, truly grateful for the kind sympathy
+of the officer. "I had no sort of idee that they played _such_ tricks
+upon travellers."
+
+"Fact, sir; this New Orleans is said to be a very naughty place,"
+returned Henry, amused at the simplicity of his companion.
+
+"True as gospel!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan, fervently.
+
+"Have you been here long?"
+
+"Only about ten days; but I have seen more iniquity in that time than I
+supposed the whole airth contained."
+
+Henry smiled at the fervid utterance of his companion.
+
+"You are from the North, I perceive," said he.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am from Brookville, State of Massachusetts, which, thank
+the Lord, is a long way from New Orleans!"
+
+"Still, there are some excellent people here," suggested Henry, who had
+known and appreciated Southern kindness and hospitality.
+
+"Well--yes--I suppose there is; but their morals and religion are
+shockin'. It made my blood run cold, and my hair stand on eend, to see a
+company of soldiers marchin' through the streets last Sabba' day, to the
+tune of 'Hail Columby;' and then to think of balls and theatres on the
+Lord's day night, really it's terrible. I wouldn't live in sich a place
+for all the world!"
+
+"Very different from New England, certainly," replied Henry,
+good-naturedly, for it must be confessed he was not so much shocked at
+these desecrations.
+
+Uncle Nathan discoursed long and eloquently on Sabbath-breaking,
+gambling and intemperance, which prevail to such an extent in the
+luxurious metropolis of the South,--as long, at least, as the patience
+of his new-found military friend would permit. At his suggestion they
+retired to a hotel for the night, for the mosquitos were in undisturbed
+possession of the Chalmetta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     "--And deep the waves beneath them bending glide.
+     The youth, who seemed to watch a time to sin,
+     Approached the careless guide, and thrust him in."
+
+     PARNELL.
+
+     "Accoutred as I was, I plunged in."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Early on the following morning, Henry Carroll and Uncle Nathan were on
+board the Chalmetta, ready and eager for a start. But they were doomed
+to more disappointment. Nearly all day the bell banged and the steam
+hissed; the captain told a hundred lies, but the boat did not budge an
+inch from her berth. Still there were certain signs that the hour of
+departure could not be far distant. Fresh provisions and ice in
+unusually large quantities were received on board about noon, and these
+are unfailing prognostics of "a good time coming."
+
+At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the captain's ten minutes, with
+which he had secured an occasional fresh passenger, seemed actually to
+have expired. Our two friends on board, however, had been so often
+disappointed that they did not allow a single bright anticipation to
+enliven their hearts, till they actually heard the order given "to cast
+off the fasts and haul in the planks." And even then their hopes were
+instantly dampened by the sudden reversion of the order.
+
+This unexpected change had been produced in the mind of the captain by
+seeing a splendid equipage dashing at a furious pace across the levee,
+the driver of which had, by his gestures, made it appear that his
+vehicle contained passengers.
+
+The carriage drew up opposite the boat, and Emily Dumont and Jaspar
+alighted from it. Picking their way through the crowd of dealers in
+cigars, shells, and obscene books, who had just been ejected from the
+boat, they were soon on board. A few moments' delay in getting up the
+baggage of the new comers, and the welcome "cast off the fasts and haul
+in the plank" was again heard. The rapid jingling of the engineer's bell
+succeeded, and, to the joy of some three hundred souls on board, she
+backed out into the stream and commenced her voyage. Uncle Nathan
+breathed freely; the load of anxiety which had oppressed him was
+removed. But his joy was short-lived, for Henry Carroll informed him
+that the boat was headed _down_ river!
+
+"What in all natur' can be the meanin' of this?" exclaimed our
+Northerner, wofully perplexed.
+
+"I cannot tell," replied Henry; "but I am much afraid we shall yet have
+to stay over Sunday in New Orleans."
+
+"The Lord deliver me!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan. "I will go into the
+swamp back of the city, afore I will look upon the iniquities of that
+Sodom again."
+
+"Rather a hard penance; but let us first see what this movement will
+amount to."
+
+At this moment Captain Drawler descended from the wheel-house, and was
+immediately besieged by a dozen angry passengers, who had resolved to
+lynch him, or leave the boat,--which he dreaded more,--if satisfaction
+was not given.
+
+The stoical captain, with perfect coolness, heard their complaints and
+their threats. He waited with commendable patience till they had vented
+their indignation, and then informed them that he only intended to
+receive a little freight at the lower city, which would not detain him
+"ten minutes."
+
+The captain's assertion, with the exception of the ten minutes, was soon
+verified by the boat touching at a sort of depot for naval and military
+stores. The "_freight_" which the Chalmetta was to take consisted of
+several long boxes, which lay near the landing. These boxes contained
+coffins, in which were the remains of some sixteen officers, who had
+paid the debt of nature in the discharge of their duties in Mexico.
+
+Henry Carroll, with a melancholy heart, witnessed the process of
+conveying these boxes to the deck of the steamer. In them was all that
+remained of many stout hearts, with whom, side by side, he had marched
+to glory and victory. There were the forms with whom he had triumphantly
+mounted the battlements at Vera Cruz, and raised the stars and stripes
+over the city of Mexico. There, before him, forever silent, were the
+dead heroes of Chepultepec and Perote. Those with whom he had endured
+toils and hardships of no common nature,--with whom he had contended
+against a treacherous foe, and a more treacherous climate,--were there
+encoffined before him. They died in defence of their country's honor;
+and he almost envied them the death which wrote their names, subject to
+no future stain, upon the roll of fame.
+
+The sight of these boxes, and a knowledge of their contents, also
+awakened sad reflections in the mind of Uncle Nathan. But his
+reflections were of a different character from those of the soldier. War
+he regarded as an unnecessary evil,--one which men had no more right to
+countenance than they had the deeds of the midnight assassin. The honor
+of a nation were better sacrificed than that the blood of innocent men
+should flow in its support. He was a thorough disciple of the peace
+movement. With such views as these, his sympathies naturally reverted to
+the dwelling of the departed hero; to the home rendered desolate by the
+untimely death of a father; to the circle which gathered in tears around
+the fire-side, to deplore the loss of an affectionate brother and son;
+to the widow and the orphan, whom war's desolating hand cast into the
+world to tread alone its dreary path. To Uncle Nathan victory and defeat
+were alike the messengers of woe. Both were the death-knell of human
+beings; both carried weeping and wailing to women and children.
+
+After the last box of the pile had been conveyed on board, and
+preparations were making to cast off, the reflections of hero and
+moralist were disturbed by several long, loud vociferations, in a strong
+Hibernian accent. They proceeded from a man, dressed in the tattered
+remnants of the blue army uniform, who was industriously propelling a
+wheel-barrow towards the landing, on which was a box of similar
+description to those just embarked.
+
+"Hould on!" shouted he; "hould on, will yous, and take on this bit of a
+box?"
+
+"Does it belong with the others?" asked the captain.
+
+"To be sure it does," replied Pat. "What the divil else does it belong
+to? Arn't it the body of Captain Farrell, long life to his honor! going
+home to see his frinds?"
+
+"Take it aboard," said Captain Brawler to the deck hands, after
+examining the direction.
+
+The men lifted the box rather rudely, in a manner which seemed to hurt
+poor Pat's feelings.
+
+"Bad luck to yous! where were you born, to handle the body of a dead man
+the like o' that?" said he. "Have yous no rispict for the mim'ry of a
+haro, that yous trate his ramains so ongintlemanly? Hould up your ind,
+darlint, and walk aisy wid it!"
+
+"Lively there," cried Captain Drawler, "lively, men!"
+
+"Bad luck to your soul for a blackguard, as ye are!" shouted Pat. "Where
+did you lave your pathriotism?"
+
+The box was by this time on deck, and the captain, to do him justice,
+made all haste to proceed on his voyage.
+
+The cases containing the remains of the officers were deposited in the
+after part of the hold, to which access was had by means of a hatch near
+the stern. Pat's peculiar charge was placed on top of the others, and he
+maintained a most vigilant watch over it.
+
+There was now a fair prospect of commencing the voyage, and our two
+passengers were in high spirits. Henry was not a little fearful that the
+boat would resume her long-occupied position at the levee; the very
+thought of such a calamity was painful in the extreme. But this fear was
+not realized; the Chalmetta gave the levee a wide berth. The Rubicon was
+passed; the shades of doubt and anxiety were supplanted by the clear
+sunshine of a bright prospect.
+
+"We are at last fairly started," said Henry, seating himself by the side
+of Uncle Nathan, on the boiler deck.
+
+"Thank fortin, we are!" responded the farmer, heartily. "We are fast
+getting away from that den of sin."
+
+"And you may preserve your morals yet," said Henry, with a pleasant
+laugh.
+
+"My morals are safe enough, thank the Lord!" answered Uncle Nathan, a
+little touched at this reflection upon his firmness; "but I don't like
+the place, to say nothing of its morals."
+
+"Very likely. But see that Irishman--the fellow who had charge of the
+box. He looks poorly enough, as far as this world's goods are concerned,
+but happy and full of mirth, for all that."
+
+"He looks as though he had seen hard times," added Uncle Nathan,
+indifferently.
+
+"He does, indeed, like many other of the poor soldiers; but, I warrant
+me, he has a stout will, and an honest heart. I say, my fine fellow,"
+said Henry, addressing Pat, "come up here."
+
+"Troth I will, then, for I see yous wear the colors of Uncle Sam,"
+replied the Irishman, making his way to the boiler deck.
+
+"Long life to your honor!" continued Pat, as he reached the deck, and
+making a low bow, as he doffed his slouched hat,--"but I wish I had the
+money to trate your honor."
+
+"Which means," replied Henry, "as you have not, I should treat you?"
+
+"That's jist it, your honor. I persave your honor is college-larnt by
+the way yous see into my heart."
+
+Henry laughed heartily, and so did Uncle Nathan; though, to tell the
+truth, our moralist of the North was sorry to see his companion hand the
+man a "bit" to drink with, for he was a member of the temperance
+society.
+
+Pat got the "smile," and with a grateful heart returned to his patron.
+
+"Thank your honor, kindly," said Pat.
+
+"Now tell me, Pat, what regiment you served in," said Henry.
+
+"In the first Pennsylvanians,--Captain Farrell's company."
+
+"Captain Farrell's! I knew him well,--a fine fellow and a gallant
+officer! Many were the tears shed when the vomito carried him off," said
+Henry, with much feeling. "And you were one of his company?"
+
+"Troth, I was, thin. He was every inch a sodger and a gintleman."
+
+"And the box you brought on board contains his remains?"
+
+"Upon me sowl it contains the body of as good a man as iver breathed the
+breath o' life," replied Pat, very emphatically.
+
+"Very true. You speak well of your captain, and he deserved all he will
+ever get of praise. Here, Pat, is a dollar for you; and if you want
+anything, come to me."
+
+"Thank your honor," replied Pat, uncovering, with a bow and a scrape of
+the foot. "You are as near like poor Captain Farrell as one pay is like
+another. Long life to your honor,--may you live forever, and then die
+like a haro!"
+
+"A genuine Irishman!" said Henry, as Pat descended to the main deck;
+"one in whom gratitude and faithfulness are as strong as life itself!"
+
+"He seems a good sort of man," returned Uncle Nathan, who had but little
+appreciation of the Irish heart.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the supper-bell. An
+eager multitude rushed to the cabin; but every seat was already
+occupied. On a crowded boat on the Mississippi there is often much
+selfishness displayed. On the Chalmetta half an hour before tea-time the
+most knowing of the passengers had stationed themselves in a line around
+the table, ready to charge upon the plates, like a file of soldiers, the
+moment the bell rang. Those who did not understand the necessity of this
+precaution, on entering the cabin were much surprised to find every
+place occupied, and were comforted with the assurance of a second table.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for ladies
+who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated Emily and
+her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her countenance was
+saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were reddened by weeping,
+in which she had indulged freely in the quiet of her state-room. By
+intense effort she had subdued her violent agitation, and a sad calmness
+rested upon her face, that belied her feelings.
+
+Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence, was, as
+may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable dress and
+melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had befallen her in
+the death of her father. Their eyes met, and exchanged warmer greetings
+than their words could have done. A sad smile--the smile of
+pleasure--rested upon her beautiful features, as they interchanged
+salutations. Her pale cheek was slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale
+blush. Her fluttering heart refused to retain its secret.
+
+Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had shrouded her
+in the weeds of mourning,--not in words alone, but his sorrow for the
+death of a kind friend was more eloquently told in his countenance.
+
+Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts to be
+civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for which he was
+not prepared,--the consequences of which filled him with anxiety. He
+knew that in Henry his wronged niece would have a zealous
+advocate;--not a superannuated priest, but a young man whose blood was
+warm, and whose soul was full of energy. True, he reasoned, the young
+officer was powerless as a diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the
+will, or of Emily's degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and
+character of his brother, and would be the last one to believe the
+infamous statement of the will. What the father might have said to him
+in regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
+thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones besides.
+
+At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the ordinary
+courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.
+
+The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of ill-gotten
+wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. The cries of
+the widow and the orphan continually ring in the ear of the avaricious.
+The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar. Although he saw no probability of
+his villany being exposed, the fear of discovery troubled him day and
+night. Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been,
+the present seemed a crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax
+of villany, and as he had racked his powers of invention for the means
+of attaining his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing
+it. The insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as
+the tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that
+he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which assailed him. Vain
+hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran through his
+mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only one event which
+promised the least mitigation of his mental sufferings, and this was the
+death of his niece. Black as he was at heart, he shrank from her
+murder,--not at the deed, but at the terrible consequences to him which
+might follow it.
+
+Emily was conducted to the ladies' cabin by Jaspar, who, by a dogged
+adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any further
+conversation between her and Henry. But the black chambermaid, with an
+official dignity which is oftentimes necessary in her position, politely
+requested him to retire. Jaspar left, satisfied she would be safe from
+intrusion for the present.
+
+Jaspar's disposition to prevent further conversation between Emily and
+Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied that her
+uncle's close attendance at her side--so foreign to his former
+manner--was not without its purpose. Love, which he had in vain
+attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his heart. In her
+recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in her heart was not
+abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had awakened a new interest
+in him. Disappointed in obtaining the interview he desired, he sought
+the hurricane deck to think of her, and to cherish the warm feeling in
+his heart. But what was his surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily
+there, and alone!
+
+After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery which
+surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening air. The
+gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and gentleman, she had
+ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions, more gay and happy than
+she, soon left her to the gloom and comparative silence which usually
+reigns on the upper deck. There were no other passengers there, and,
+fearing not the darkness or the loneliness, she was there venting the
+sadness which pervaded her heart. She was about to descend, when she
+recognized Henry.
+
+Emily related to him the circumstances of her father's death, and of the
+reading of the will.
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.
+
+"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it, except
+that my father's character assures me it is not so."
+
+"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you are now
+on your way to Cincinnati?"
+
+"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted. But I
+ought to be thankful for all that comes,--if I am a slave, for the
+freedom that awaits me."
+
+"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my veins!"
+
+"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now, for it
+little matters what I really am, since the will--true or false--condemns
+me to the odium of having been a slave. You will not wish now to own
+your sister!" said Emily, with a sad smile.
+
+"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the mark of
+the omniscient God! It could not alter the beauty of the features or the
+character. I should be proud of such a sister, even did she wear the
+shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon your birth!"
+
+"And can you regard me as you once did? A--"
+
+"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."
+
+"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month since. You
+are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.
+
+"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied Henry.
+
+The fear of ingratitude to a father no longer chained his heart to the
+narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden down by
+misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a child of
+misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her. He loved her
+more tenderly than before.
+
+"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant to your
+sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of emotion
+within it.
+
+"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I feared
+to--to--"
+
+"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word Henry was
+stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your sister?"
+
+"I did have confidence in the _sister_. But I fear it was not a sister's
+confidence I sought."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of surprise
+the word was intended to convey.
+
+"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which have torn
+my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her willing hand. "When
+I bade you farewell,--alas! what misfortunes have come since!--when I
+left you for I dared not think how long, you know not what violence I
+did to the warmest feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the
+struggle between that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to
+conquer it; but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me
+resist no more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have
+tried, for your sake and your father's, to conquer my love. Say, Emily,
+may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"
+
+A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he
+received--was, indeed, all he asked.
+
+"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.
+
+"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But Heaven will
+not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain unpunished. A
+month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of a millionaire!"
+
+"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my heart?"
+
+"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win your
+love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have cherished."
+
+"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily, warmly.
+
+"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his
+daughter, with which I might have interfered."
+
+"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said Emily,
+with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed from Henry.
+
+"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but now,
+Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm pressure of
+the hand.
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.
+Page 79]
+
+"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the
+knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as the
+guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in future, from
+her society."
+
+"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely disregard."
+
+"Then, by--you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!" said Jaspar,
+in a passion.
+
+"I am not to be intimidated by threats."
+
+"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety of him
+whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.
+
+"Mr. Dumont, _her_ request I will obey," and Carroll walked forward.
+
+He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of the
+leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to the
+command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy bell.
+Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the matter he
+listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three," &c. He was about
+to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill shriek startled him from
+his revery. There was no mistaking the sound of that voice! Without an
+instant's hesitation, he called to the pilot to stop the boat, and, with
+a few bounds, was by the side of Jaspar, who was calling lustily for
+help. Henry, careless of his own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft
+the ladies' cabin, and then sprang to the single pole upon which was
+suspended the small boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower
+himself down, he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot
+where Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of
+the boat, and reached the place in season to take in the noble fellow
+who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he rose. The
+steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party was safely on
+board again.
+
+"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar, after
+assisting Emily to her state-room.
+
+Emily's fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once infer.
+Jaspar's passion, and the danger which he thought the young officer's
+presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was not attended with
+his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to place him in a more
+uncomfortable position than his former one. With the instinct of
+deception, he immediately offered a liberal reward to the man who had
+rescued her.
+
+"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"_Here_!" cried a voice from the crowd.
+
+Jaspar started and turned pale, for the voice was a familiar one.
+
+"Where is he?" called Jaspar again, concluding that he must have
+mistaken the voice.
+
+"Here!" again came forth from the crowd, and Hatchie stepped forward.
+
+"Hell!" exclaimed Jaspar, staggering back as he recognized the man whom
+he supposed his rifle-ball had sent to furnish food for the fishes. But
+he recovered his courage instantly, feeling the danger of betraying
+himself.
+
+"Here is the reward," stammered he, holding out the money.
+
+"Never!" said Hatchie; and, before the crowd could clearly understand
+the nature of the case, he had vanished behind a heap of freight.
+
+At Jaspar's suggestion, a diligent search was made in every part of the
+boat, but the mulatto was nowhere to be found. Jaspar, as usual,
+invented a story to account for the strangeness of the incident which
+had occurred. A liberal reward offered by him failed to produce the
+preserver of Emily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+               "'Tis much he dares;
+     And to that dauntless temper of his mind
+     He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
+     To act in safety."   SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Although the general condition of the negro slaves at the South is the
+most degraded in which humanity can exist, there are some exceptions to
+the rule; and among them may well be placed the body-servant of Colonel
+Dumont, Hatchie, whose sudden and mysterious reaeppearance upon the deck
+of the Chalmetta must be accounted for.
+
+With an intelligence far superior to his condition, Hatchie discovered
+the villany that lurked in the eye of Jaspar, on the night of the
+forgery of the will. As we have before said, no one better than he knew
+the character of Jaspar; no one better than he knew of what villany he
+was capable. When he had been sent for the keys, an undefined sense of
+duty prompted him to watch, and, if possible, to prevent the mischief
+which he foresaw was gathering. When ordered to retire, he had pretended
+to obey; but he placed himself beneath the window through which De Guy
+had entered, a small crack of which had been accidentally left open. In
+this position he saw Jaspar take out the packet which he knew contained
+the will. He heard De Guy read the fictitious will, and at once
+discerned enough of the plot to comprehend the danger that hovered over
+his mistress. He understood that the real will was to be destroyed; and
+his first impulse was to save it, which he had adroitly accomplished as
+before related.
+
+When Hatchie reached the open air, he was sensible of the dangerous
+position in which his bold act had placed him. So sudden and
+unpremeditated had been his action that no thought of future
+consequences had accompanied it. But, undismayed, he ran at his fleetest
+speed towards the river. He heard the footsteps of his pursuers, and
+every step he advanced he expected to receive the bullet of Jaspar.
+Trusting for safety to the darkness of the night, he quickened his
+speed, till he gained the steep bank of the river. Leaping into the
+canoe which he discovered in his flight, he pushed out into the stream,
+and was several rods advanced towards the opposite shore when his
+pursuers reached the bank.
+
+Plying the canoe with all the strength and skill of which he was master,
+his progress was suddenly interrupted by a log, upon which his frail
+bark struck with much violence. The collision checked his progress, and
+swung the canoe round by the side of the log. Satisfied that Jaspar
+would fire as soon as he saw the canoe, his ready ingenuity supplied him
+with the means of avoiding the ball, and of escaping further pursuit.
+Taking the will in his mouth, he grasped the canoe with one hand, and
+paddled silently with the other and with his feet. He had turned the
+canoe adrift, and Jaspar, without waiting to examine it, had fired.
+Hatchie then jumped up in the water, and produced the splash which had
+deceived his pursuers.
+
+With much difficulty the mulatto had propelled the log beyond the reach
+of the current into comparatively still water. Here he remained quietly
+on the log, using only sufficient exertion to avoid the current, until
+he was satisfied that Jaspar and his companion had departed from the
+bank. He then returned to the shore, using the greatest precaution to
+avoid his enemies; but all was still.
+
+Immediate danger being at an end, he bethought him of securing his
+future safety,--a matter of extreme difficulty for one in his position.
+He was satisfied that Jaspar would invent some story to account for his
+disappearance; and just as well satisfied that he would shoot him, if he
+again showed himself on the plantation. He congratulated himself on the
+happy scheme he had adopted to deceive Jaspar; for he had now a
+reasonable security from being advertised and pursued as a runaway
+slave.
+
+After much reflection, he concluded his wisest plan would be to seek
+safety in New Orleans, where, in the crowd, he might escape recognition.
+The cane-brake and the cotton-grove would not protect him. He might be
+seen, and the blood-hound and the rifle bring him in a prisoner, and
+even Miss Emily would now be unable to save him from the penalty. How
+could he live in New Orleans, or how escape from there? He was without
+money, and he had sense enough to know that money is a desideratum,
+especially to the traveller.
+
+Of this useful commodity, however, he had a supply in the mansion house,
+which he had saved from the presents made him by Colonel Dumont and his
+guests. Recognizing the necessity of obtaining it, as well as some more
+clothing, he resolved to enter the house and procure them, after the
+light he saw in the library-window was removed.
+
+While waiting, he pondered more fully his position. What should be his
+future conduct in regard to the will? He carried with him, he felt, the
+future destiny of his gentle, much-loved mistress. He felt that on his
+action during the next hour depended the happiness for a lifetime of one
+whom he had been taught to revere, and whose gentleness and beauty had
+almost lured him to worship. If the morrow's sun found him in the
+vicinity of the estate, he would probably fall a victim to Jaspar's
+policy. What should he do with the will? Should he show himself at the
+hour appointed for the reading of it? He might fall into Jaspar's hands
+in the attempt, the precious document be wrested from him, and thus all
+his exertions be in vain. Without the will itself he could do
+nothing,--his word or his evidence in court would be of no avail. No
+one would believe the former against Jaspar, and the latter was
+inadmissible.
+
+Should he carry it to Mr. Faxon, or even to Miss Emily herself, Jaspar
+might obtain possession of it by some means.
+
+His deliberations could suggest no method by which immediate justice
+could be done his mistress; and the conclusion of his reflections was,
+that he must place himself in a safe position before he attempted to
+expose the villany of others. His mistress, he knew by the will which he
+had heard De Guy read, was to be conveyed to Cincinnati. He must go to
+Cincinnati--but how? This was a hard question for the faithful Hatchie
+to answer; but answer it he must. He would go to New Orleans, and there
+form his plan.
+
+After waiting till the lights were extinguished in the library, he
+entered the house, and obtained his money and clothing.
+
+By the exercise of much caution, he reached New Orleans in safety,
+where, by the disbursement of a small sum of money, he obtained a secure
+retreat in the house of a free man, with whom he had formerly been
+acquainted. His object was now to obtain a passage to Cincinnati,--a
+matter not easy to accomplish, as the law against conveying blacks,
+unprovided with the necessary permit, was very stringent. He could not
+hope, with his limited means, to offer an acceptable bribe for this
+service. To attain his object, therefore, he must resort to stratagem,
+for the chances of obtaining a passage by direct means were too remote
+and too perilous to be hoped for. But accident soon afforded him the
+means of attaining his end.
+
+The negro with whom he had obtained a shelter kept a small shop, and by
+the grace of the authorities and his neighbors was permitted to sell
+liquor, tobacco and cigars, to the steamboat cooks, stewards, sailors,
+and the soldiers who thronged the city on their return from Mexico. In
+the rear of this shop, and connected with it, was a small room in which
+the negro lived. This room afforded a safe retreat, and in it Hatchie
+had his hiding-place.
+
+One day a little knot of men, in the faded, dilapidated garments of the
+army, entered the tap-room of Hatchie's protector. They drank deeply,
+and, as was their constant practice, they seated themselves at the
+broken table, and commenced gambling with the negro's dirty cards for
+the few dollars which remained in their possession. This amusement
+terminated, as such amusements frequently do, in a fight, in which one
+of the number seemed to be singled out as an object of vengeance for the
+others. This individual was an Irishman; and, for a time, he held way
+manfully against his assailants. But, at last, in spite of the exertions
+of the "proprietor" to protect him, he was likely to get the worst of
+it, when Hatchie, no longer able to control his indignation at the
+unfairness displayed in the encounter, suddenly interfered in favor of
+the now fallen man. His enormous strength and skill soon cleared the
+room of the rioters. Hatchie drew the defeated Irishman into his
+hiding-place, and locked the door. This man was Pat Fegan, who has been
+introduced to the reader.
+
+Pat was filled with gratitude to his protector, and swore he would stick
+by him till his dying day, if he was a "naiger." A mutual friendship was
+thus established, which resulted in the disclosure of their future
+prospects. The fact that both were seeking the same destination seemed
+to strengthen the bond thus formed. Hatchie, shrewd by nature, read the
+true heart of the Irishman. He felt that he could trust him with his
+life; but his ability was quite another thing.
+
+Pat Fegan was without means, and readily accepted the hospitality which
+Hatchie offered to pay for. In the course of the long conversations with
+which the two friends beguiled the weary day, Pat related his adventures
+in Mexico, at the close of which he casually mentioned that the remains
+of several officers, who died there, were to be conveyed up the river.
+Hatchie's curiosity prompted many inquiries, which drew from the
+talkative Hibernian a full description of the boxes that contained the
+coffins, and many particulars relative to the transportation of them.
+
+Pat's description of the boxes suggested to Hatchie the means of getting
+to Cincinnati.
+
+"Could you get me a box like those which contain these coffins?" asked
+he.
+
+"Faix, I can, thin, if I only had the matther of two or three dollars.
+But what the divil makes yous ax sich a question?"
+
+"I will give you ten dollars, and pay your passage to Cincinnati
+besides, if you will get me the box," said Hatchie, disregarding Pat's
+query.
+
+"By me sowl, I'll get yous the box, and ax yous only the price meself
+pays for 't," replied Pat, touched at the idea of a reward, which
+between friends seemed base even to his rude mind.
+
+"And I shall want your help, too."
+
+"Yous may well count on that, for whin did a Fegan desart his frind? But
+tell me, honey, what yous mane to do wid it."
+
+"I intend to get to Cincinnati in it."
+
+"Is it in the box?" exclaimed Pat, astonished beyond measure. "Sure you
+will smodther!"
+
+"But, my friend, I want you to look out for that, and give me something
+to eat and drink. You can pretend that the box contains the body of your
+captain, who, you said, died in Mexico."
+
+"Arrah, me darlint, I see it all!" and Pat shook his sides with laughter
+at the idea of the mulatto's "travelling-carriage," as he styled it.
+
+Pat had procured the box, and conveyed it to Hatchie's asylum. It was
+sufficiently large to furnish quite a roomy apartment. The covering
+consisted of short boards, matched, and screwed on crossways. To
+facilitate the introduction of food and air, and to afford the means of
+a speedy exit in case of need, he had taken off half these boards, and
+fastened them together with cleats on the inner side. The ends of the
+screws were then filed off, so that this portion of the lid exactly
+corresponded with the other portion. A number of hooks were then
+procured, so as to fasten it upon the inner side. By this arrangement,
+the occupant of the box would not be dependent upon exterior aid for
+egress. When once on board the steamer, he expected he should be able to
+leave his hiding-place in the night, and perhaps at other times.
+
+Upon the outside the box was similar to the others, and was duly marked
+and consigned.
+
+Hatchie's quarters were near the depot from which the coffins were to be
+shipped, and Pat, watching his time, had wheeled his own charge down in
+season to be shipped with the others. In the haste of embarking, the
+clerk had not noticed that one box more had been brought on board than
+his manifest indicated.
+
+Hatchie was not aware that Emily and her uncle were passengers on the
+same boat till the moment of the accident. He had before released
+himself from his prison-box, and was enjoying the fresh air, which the
+closeness of his box rendered particularly desirable, when he heard the
+scream of his mistress. Her voice was familiar, and even in the scream
+of terror he recognized it. It needed not a second thought to convince
+him of his duty. He had saved her life, and, forgetful of the danger of
+thus exposing his person, he stood by and saw her conveyed to her
+state-room. He heard Jaspar call for her deliverer, and offer a reward.
+This he knew, if no one else did, was gross hypocrisy, and in the
+indignation of his honest heart he had stepped forward to confront him.
+The sight of Jaspar, and the thought of his own responsibility, recalled
+his prudence; and he hastened to retrieve his error by escaping to his
+hiding-place in the box, in which no one thought of searching for a
+living man.
+
+In the excitement and exertion attendant upon the incident, Henry
+Carroll had not recognized Hatchie; and, while Jaspar inquired for her
+deliverer, he had been seeking the surgeon. Henry thought of nothing but
+her safety.
+
+Hatchie at once knew the voice of Henry, but, knowing nothing of the
+relation between him and his mistress, he feared to trust him with his
+secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+                  "But as thou art a man
+     Whom I have picked and chosen from the world,
+     Swept that thou wilt be true to what I utter;
+     And when I've told thee that which only gods,
+     And men like gods, are privy to, then swear
+     No chance, or change, shall wrest it from thy bosom."
+
+                                              OTWAY.
+
+
+Emily Dumont, while yet insensible, was conveyed to her state-room,
+where, by the assiduous attention of the stewardess and the lady
+passengers, she was soon restored to consciousness. An army surgeon, who
+was fortunately on board, prescribed a course of treatment which
+prevented all evil consequences, so that on the following morning she
+appeared at breakfast as well as usual bodily, though the terrible fact
+that her uncle had attempted her life so agitated her that sleep had
+been a stranger to her eyelids. By whom she had been rescued was yet
+unknown to her.
+
+Henry Carroll again took his place opposite her at the morning meal,--a
+place he had secured by the exercise of a full hour's patience in
+occupying it. At the first convenient opportunity, he congratulated her
+upon her safe recovery, and for the first time she heard the particulars
+of her rescue. Jaspar, with an ill grace, expressed his obligations to
+him, though at the same time he wished him at the bottom of the river.
+
+Henry failed not to notice the blush which came to her cheek, as she
+modestly but fervently expressed her gratitude for the noble service he
+had rendered her. Although her accepted lover, there had been but little
+intercourse of a tender nature between them,--not enough to prevent her
+heart from fluttering when he spoke, and sending its warm blood to her
+cheek.
+
+With what indescribable pleasure does the lover recognize the blush
+which a word or an act of his own calls to the face of his new-found
+love! Like the breaking clouds which disclose to the worn mariner the
+faint outline of the distant land, he hails it as the omen of future
+bliss! It is part of the mystical language of the heart. It is part of
+the mechanism of the affections, which the will cannot conceal. The
+gentle look, the warm pressure of the hand, the eloquent language of
+love, which modesty at first forbids, are supplied by the timid,
+uncalled, beautiful blush! Prudence and delicacy cannot chain it in the
+veins.
+
+Henry read in her blush the warm current of pure love which flowed from
+her heart. It told him how willingly her gratitude coalesced with her
+love. Their position at table did not afford the opportunity of
+interchanging those feelings of the heart which each felt swelling
+within. The present, so full of joy and hope, it seemed cruel to
+surround with circumstances which forbade them to enjoy it. A crowded
+steamer is the most uncomfortable place in the world for a pair of
+lovers, and Henry and Emily felt the inconvenience of it.
+
+But, if the position of the lovers was uncomfortable, Jaspar's was
+painful. They had the consolation of loving and being loved; but he was
+now writhing under the weight of an additional torture. The appearance
+of Hatchie was the knell of all his hopes, the precursor of ruin. To him
+it was a mystery, and all his endeavors to solve it were unavailing.
+
+About noon the Chalmetta arrived at Baton Rouge, where, according to
+previous arrangement, and much to the joy of the perplexed uncle, De Guy
+came on board. Jaspar greeted him with more than usual courtesy, and
+felt, to as great a degree as guilt can feel it, a relief from the
+embarrassments which surrounded him. The first step of the red-faced
+attorney, on finding no state-room unoccupied, was to dispossess two
+flat-boatmen of theirs, by the payment of a round bonus. Jaspar thought
+this a rather extravagant move for one apparently so parsimonious; but
+his mind was too deeply engrossed with the difficulties which environed
+him to comment on extraneous subjects.
+
+To this state-room Jaspar and his confidant retired, to consider the
+condition of their operations; and while they deliberate we will return
+to another character.
+
+Uncle Nathan was in the full enjoyment of all the satisfaction which
+seeing the world affords to the observing man. He gazed with unceasing
+wonder upon the Father of Waters, on whose mighty bosom he was borne
+towards the loved scenes of home. He was edified and amused with the
+ever-varying succession of objects which presented themselves, as the
+Chalmetta progressed. Flat-boats and steamers, plantations and
+cotton-wood groves, islands and cut-offs, were all objects of interest.
+And, when he was tired of these, "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," which
+was his constant travelling companion, afforded him all the excitement
+his contented disposition required. The time promised to be easily
+disposed of, even if the passage should be unusually prolonged. Besides,
+the number and variety of dispositions on board afforded him some study,
+and some instruction. There were men of all grades of society, and all
+degrees of moral worth,--beginning, of course, at a very moderate
+standard, and descending to the vilest of the vile, which last were in a
+large majority. There were tipplers, and gamblers, and profane swearers,
+in abundance; and Uncle Nathan felt, at the bottom of his philanthropic
+heart, a desire to lead them from their sins. Not that he was officious
+and meddlesome, for he believed in "a time for everything." In his
+modest, inoffensive way, no doubt, he sowed the seeds of future
+reformation in some wayward heart.
+
+Pat Fegan proved an apt disciple, and already had Uncle Nathan given him
+the first lesson in the form of a temperance lecture, which probably had
+its effect, as he left the boiler deck without the dram for which he
+was supposed to have come up.
+
+"Now, Partrick," said Uncle Nathan, on the evening after Emily's rescue,
+"rum never did any one any good."
+
+"'Pon my soul it did, thin,--it makes me happy whin sorra thing else in
+the wide world will comfort me," replied Pat.
+
+"But that an't nateral happiness; it an't the sort that comes of doin'
+good to your feller-creturs."
+
+"It sinds throuble away--what else is happiness?"
+
+"But how do you feel arterwards? That's the pint."
+
+"Arrah! bad enough, sure. Yous have the betther of me there."
+
+"Then leave it off, Partrick," responded Uncle Nathan, drawing the
+pledge from his pocket. "Sign the pledge, and you are safe."
+
+But we need not follow Uncle Nathan in his reformatory lucubrations. Pat
+signed the pledge; but whether he had an appreciating sense of the
+restraint he imposed upon his appetite we cannot say. Uncle Nathan
+thought him saved from his cups, and rejoiced accordingly. Perhaps, if
+he had looked a little closer, he might have suspected an interested
+motive on the part of Pat. He saw none, and, feeling secure in the
+present victory, he admonished his disciple "to stick to it as long as
+he lived."
+
+"'Pon me word, I will, thin," replied Pat. "I see yous are a gintleman,
+if yous don't look jist like one. Now, do you see, Mr. Binson, you are
+jist the man I am looking for, this last six hours."
+
+"Why so, Partrick--what do you mean?" said Uncle Nathan, mystified by
+the sudden change of manner in the new convert.
+
+"Hould aisy a bit, for I'd like to hould a private correspondence wid
+yous. Will ye jist come to the hurricane deck, till I tells yous all
+about it?"
+
+"Sartain," replied Uncle Nathan, his curiosity fully excited.
+
+As soon as they reached a deserted portion of the promenade deck, Pat,
+after satisfying himself there were no listeners near, commenced, with
+an air of grave importance, his story.
+
+"Whisht now, and draw near," said he. "Can yous keep a sacret?"
+
+"Well, I think I could, if it was an honest one."
+
+"Faix, thin, it _is_ an honest one. Sure yous come from the North, and
+don't belave in keeping the naigers in bondage?"
+
+"To be sure not."
+
+"Well, then, would yous help a naiger out of throuble, if yous could as
+well as not?"
+
+"I sartainly wish 'em well; but the Scripture says 'Honor the king,'
+which means nothin' more nor less than 'obey the laws.' Arter all,
+though, perhaps we ought not to mind wicked laws."
+
+"Musha bad luck to your raysoning! Sure I'm no docthor, to blarney over
+the matther. Will yous kape the sacret?" asked Pat, a little excited,
+and somewhat disappointed to find his auditor lukewarm in "the cause."
+
+"Sartain; tell your story, and, if I can't do you any good, I won't do
+you any harm."
+
+"That's the mon for me!" replied Pat, slapping Uncle Nathan familiarly
+on the back. "Now, do you see, there's a naiger on this boat, that wants
+a frind."
+
+"A friend!" said Uncle Nathan, with some doubt, as he reflected on the
+conflict between the claims of humanity and the stringent laws of the
+slave states.
+
+"To be sure, a _frind_!" replied Pat, with emphasis.
+
+"I _will_ befriend him," replied Uncle Nathan, his natural inclination
+triumphing over his fear of the law.
+
+"Spoken like a Christian! Sure, that's jist what St. Patrick would say,
+if the saint--long life to him!--were here," replied Pat, rejoicing
+that the difficulty was overcome.
+
+"Now, dhraw near till I tells yous all about it; and, if iver you
+mintion a word of it, may your sowl never lave purgatory till it is
+burnt to a cindther! Now, do you mind, there's a naiger concayled in the
+hould of the boat, that wants to correspond with a faymale in the
+cabin."
+
+"But he will expose himself, and she may deliver him up."
+
+"Divil a bit! Didn't he save her from dhrowning, last night?" exclaimed
+Pat, warmly, for this act of Hatchie excited all his admiration.
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" and Uncle Nathan understood the
+mystery of the previous night.
+
+"Sorra a word o' lie in it."
+
+"But where in natur is the feller?" asked the wonder-struck Yankee, his
+curiosity getting the better of every other consideration.
+
+"Whisht, now," whispered Pat; "he is in one of those boxes, with the
+dead men! Do yous mind?"
+
+"Good gracious! how you talk! In a coffin?"
+
+"Divil a coffin at all. Sure as nate a bit of a box as iver held a
+Christian."
+
+"But why does he wish to speak with the lady?"
+
+"Sorra know I know," replied Pat, to whom Hatchie had communicated no
+more than was necessary.
+
+"Does he wish to see her in person?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Now, do you mind, I saw you speaking to the lady, and
+I tould him of it. Then the naiger axed me could he trust yous. I tould
+him yes; and he tould me to bring yous down to him, and that's the whole
+of it. Now, will yous go down the night and spake to him?"
+
+Uncle Nathan reflected a little; for, though no craven, he was very
+prudent, and had no romance in his composition. After deliberating some
+time, much to the detriment of Pat's patience, he replied in the
+affirmative.
+
+Pat then instructed him in relation to certain precautions to be
+observed in order to avoid notice, and left him to ponder the
+strangeness of the adventure. He had well considered his course, and,
+having decided upon it, he was earnest in pursuing it. He had chosen, he
+felt, a dangerous, but his conscience assured him a right path, and
+nothing could now deter him from proceeding in it. He was not fickle,
+and invoked many a blessing on the effort he might make for the
+salvation of the poor negro. True, his prudence had magnified the
+undertaking, which was a trivial affair, into a great adventure.
+Imagination often makes bold men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+             "_Duke_.--How's this?
+             The treason's
+             Already at the doors."
+
+                                    VENICE PRESERVED.
+
+     "_Amelia_.--I thought I heard a step.
+      _Charles_.--'T is your tyrant coming."
+
+                                               PROCTOR.
+
+
+Jaspar and De Guy were for a long time closeted in the state-room. On
+their reaeppearance Jaspar felt much easier. The silky-toned attorney had
+used a variety of arguments to convince him that their schemes were
+working excellently well, and that everything, notwithstanding the
+resurrection of the negro, would terminate to his entire satisfaction.
+
+The process of "wooding-up" on a Mississippi steamer, inasmuch as it
+affords the passengers an opportunity to exercise their locomotive
+powers on shore, is regarded as an interesting incident. This was
+particularly true on board the Chalmetta, for she was crowded to nearly
+double her complement of cabin-passengers, and the space usually devoted
+to exercise was too much crowded to render it very pleasant.
+
+When, therefore, the Chalmetta touched at a wood-yard, after leaving
+Baton Rouge, the passengers hurried on shore, to enjoy the novelty of an
+unconfined promenade. De Guy, on pretence of further private
+conversation, induced Jaspar to forsake his post as sentinel over Emily,
+and join him in a walk. For half an hour the attorney in his silky tones
+regaled the ears of Jaspar with various strange schemes, until the bell
+of the steamer announced her near departure. Even then De Guy seemed in
+no haste, and assured his companion the boat would not start without
+them. But the second bell admonished them that the steamer was already
+getting under way. The passengers were all on board, and, as they heard
+in the distance the tinkling of the engineer's bell, they started at a
+run to reach her. By some accident, De Guy's foot got between Jaspar's
+legs, and he fell. The attorney stooped, as if to assist him up, but, in
+reality, struck the fallen man a blow, which rendered him insensible. De
+Guy hurried towards the boat, leaving the watchful uncle to shift for
+himself. He reached the landing in season to jump upon the stern of the
+boat as it swung in shore. Pushing through the crowd which had gathered
+to witness his exploit of getting on board, he retreated to his
+state-room, and locked the door.
+
+Jaspar was not immediately missed by Emily, and his absence was too
+desirable to be the cause of any solicitude. As the tea-hour approached,
+and the ladies were requested to take their places at table, she was
+very much surprised to see _Mr. Maxwell_ present himself as her escort
+to the table. Since the unhappy disclosure of his love in the office,
+she had regarded him with pity, rather than with the contempt he
+merited. She could not but feel that he loved her. His eloquent language
+and forlorn aspect had not been in vain, for they had saved him from her
+_utter_ contempt. A true woman cannot be conscious of possessing a
+portion of the love, even of a dissolute man, without feeling some
+respect for him. To love truly and devotedly is an element of the
+angelic character; and such love will purify and ennoble even the
+grossest of human beings. Emily unconsciously arrived at this
+conclusion; and, discerning some indications of pure love towards her in
+his gross and earthly mind, she felt that he was entitled to her
+sympathy. She cherished no affection for him; all that her gentle heart
+could contain was bestowed upon another. A suspicion had more than once
+entered her mind that Maxwell was, in some manner, connected with the
+foul plot which had drawn her into its toils. But, she reasoned, if he
+loved her, he would not injure her,--no, not even in revenge for her
+refusal. _She_ could not, and her beautiful nature would not allow her
+to believe it, even of a man as gross as her better judgment told her
+Maxwell was.
+
+To her inquiry for her uncle, Maxwell informed her that he had some
+conversation with him since he came on board at Baton Rouge, and that he
+had requested him to attend her at tea. He had not seen him since, but
+supposed he was forward, or in his state-room.
+
+Emily readily accepted his arm, for anything was a relief from the
+hateful presence of Jaspar. Maxwell used all the art which politeness
+could lend to render himself agreeable. His ready wit, and the
+adaptation of his conversation to the unhappy circumstances of her
+position, in some measure dispelled the misery of the hour. Besides, it
+was plain the attorney did not believe the statement of the will; for a
+high-born Southern gentleman would never associate in public with a
+slave girl. She had, too, a presentiment that he came on some errand to
+her. Perhaps the good minister, Mr. Faxon, had sent him with good news
+to her. Perhaps through him the will had been proved false. Such
+reflections as these imparted more interest to his society than she
+would otherwise have felt.
+
+During the tea-hour his assiduous courtesy left scarcely a particular in
+which Henry Carroll, who, as before, occupied a seat opposite to him,
+could render himself of use. He could hardly address a word to her
+without interrupting her companion. An introduction, which had before
+placed the young captain and the attorney on speaking terms, did not
+prevent the latter from mixing excessively good with excessively bad
+breeding. He was apparently unwilling that Henry should be heard by
+Emily. Maxwell had some idea of the relation which subsisted between his
+two companions; but, of course, knew nothing of the previous night's
+interview, which had indissolubly bound their hearts together. He
+seemed determined to keep their sympathies as far apart as possible.
+
+Henry Carroll wondered at the absence of Jaspar and at the sudden
+appearance of Maxwell, for he had not before seen him. His attentions to
+her he loved created no jealousy. Emily had satisfactorily acknowledged
+her affection for him, and to believe her pure nature, especially under
+the present circumstances, susceptible of coquetry, were infidelity. A
+single look beaming with love had assured him that his star was still in
+the ascendant.
+
+At the conclusion, Maxwell, with the same elegant courtesy, conducted
+her back to the ladies' cabin. Emily repeated her acknowledgments for
+the attentions, and was about to enter her state-room, when he addressed
+her.
+
+"May I beg the favor of a few moments' private conversation, Miss
+Dumont?" said he, in a more business-like manner than that he had
+assumed at the tea-table.
+
+Emily hesitated. Her supposition concerning his mission was partly
+verified in this request; but the remembrance of her last interview with
+him at his office in New Orleans came like a cloud over the bright sky
+of her hopes. Curiosity and a painful interest prompted her to risk the
+interview. If this interview was likely to be of an unpleasant nature,
+she could retire; and, if the worst she apprehended was likely to be
+realized, she knew that Henry Carroll hovered near her, at all times,
+like a guardian angel.
+
+"In your legal capacity, I presume?" said she, with a smile and a
+crimson face.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," replied Maxwell, not a little disconcerted to
+discover this troublesome caution.
+
+"Will you take a seat, then? I think no one will feel an interest in our
+conversation beside ourselves."
+
+"Excuse me," replied Maxwell, in his blandest tones, "a few words of our
+conversation overheard might expose persons we wish not to injure."
+
+"Perhaps it had better be deferred to a more convenient opportunity."
+
+"Delays are dangerous, Miss Dumont. Justice to yourself requires that my
+communication be made at once. Allow me to attend you to the promenade
+deck, where we shall be secure from interruption."
+
+Emily, with many doubts, accepted his arm, and they proceeded to the
+promenade deck.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, in a very serious tone, for she wished
+to awe the profligate into the most business-like reserve, "be as speedy
+as possible, for I am fearful of the effects of the night-air upon my
+health."
+
+Maxwell was disconcerted at this change in the manner of his companion,
+and vexed to account for it. The remembrance of past events came to his
+aid, but afforded no satisfactory solution. He could not see why Emily
+should studiously reject his overtures. His experience of female society
+had been of the most flattering character. He was perfectly aware of his
+popularity. His personal attractions always had been a strong
+recommendation, and he could not see why they should not be in this
+instance. His family was good, his fortune supposed to be
+respectable,--everybody did not know the inroads he had made upon it;
+his business was a pastime--the gate of honor and fame. It was true his
+character was dissolute, but she did not know this.
+
+Unfortunately for him and his prospects, she did know it, and the fact
+had all the weight which a virtuous mind attaches to such a
+circumstance.
+
+"I have been fortunate enough to obtain some information which may be of
+great value to you, or I should not thus have intruded upon you," said
+Maxwell, with the air of a man upon whom suspicion rested unjustly.
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Maxwell!" replied Emily, forgetting both the night-air and
+the character of the man who stood beside her; "pray, tell me all at
+once!"
+
+"Pardon me," replied he, coldly, "as the story is somewhat lengthy,
+perhaps it might be deferred till to-morrow, if your health is likely to
+suffer from exposure at this hour."
+
+Emily was confused; but she could not stoop to the weakness of deception
+to smooth over her former coldness. She was burning with impatience to
+be restored, even in imagination, to the position from which she had
+been degraded by the cruel will. Her companion's language was not
+calculated to remove her doubts of his intentions. If the communication
+was of a business character, why should he be offended at her haste to
+terminate the interview? This reflection strengthened her resolution not
+to conciliate him. She would trust to Providence and the justice of her
+cause, rather than make an intimate of a man whom she despised.
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, growing desperate at the lady's silence,
+"perhaps I have offended in some manner. If I have, it was
+unintentional, and I trust you will forgive me."
+
+"O, no, sir, not at all!" exclaimed Emily, mollified, in spite of
+herself, by the humility of the attorney. "There is no offence, and no
+apology is necessary."
+
+"I am greatly relieved by this assurance, and, with your leave, will
+proceed with my narrative."
+
+Maxwell now entered into a relation of the history of the will, but
+studiously avoided imparting a single fact with which she was not
+already acquainted. All this he had related with a lawyer's skill, to
+awaken her curiosity and interest, and to remove by distance any
+unpleasant suspicions which might have been awakened in her mind in
+regard to his motives.
+
+To all he said Emily listened with profound attention, momentarily
+expecting the development of the foul plot. But thus far Jaspar Dumont
+is as pure as an angel,--nothing is disclosed. In this manner half an
+hour passed away, and Emily was no wiser than at first.
+
+Maxwell has now, with an adroitness peculiar to the successful lawyer,
+made _himself_ the subject of his remarks. He is careful that she shall
+know how sagacious he has been in discovering the facts he has not yet
+revealed. He tells her how many weary days and nights he has spent in
+searching out the truth; what wonderful intelligence of his had
+converted the shadow of a suspicion into the reality of an
+incontrovertible conviction; how a single word he casually overheard has
+been followed through weary days and dismal nights, till he has arrived,
+with all the evidence in his hands, at the truth!
+
+Emily was certainly grateful for the deep interest he had manifested in
+her behalf, and she expressed her gratitude with modest earnestness.
+
+"But, Miss Dumont," continued Maxwell, "I could not thus have sacrificed
+myself for every client. My health and strength, under ordinary
+circumstances, would have given way, and the case have been lost."
+
+"Indeed, sir, you may rely on the fullest and most substantial
+acknowledgment for the service you have rendered. My purse shall be
+entirely at your disposal," responded Emily, warmly and innocently.
+
+"Money, Miss Dumont, would not have tempted me to make the sacrifice of
+health and comfort which this exertion has required of me. I have done
+all my humble talents would permit from a higher motive. I look for my
+reward in the consciousness of having done my duty."
+
+"I trust, Mr. Maxwell, you will receive the great reward which is sure
+to follow every noble and true action."
+
+Emily was sadly perplexed to understand this new and singular
+phenomenon.
+
+"The act itself is its own reward," said Maxwell, with an attempt to
+counterfeit humility, which was very awkward, but which deceived Emily,
+agitated as she was by hopes and fears.
+
+"But, as I said," continued he, "I would not have done this for every
+client, and I trust you will pardon me when I say the only reward I
+look forward to is your smile of approval."
+
+"I certainly cannot but approve of the motives which have actuated you,
+and your actions perhaps I could better appreciate if my knowledge of
+them was more extensive," responded Emily, disappointed and displeased,
+as her suspicions were reawakened.
+
+But a faint smile rested upon her beautiful features, as if to soften,
+the reproof she had administered, and to conceal her rising emotions.
+She felt that Maxwell could assist her, but she feared every moment that
+some allusion to the prohibited subject would compel her to banish him
+from her presence.
+
+"A smile from you were an ample reward for all my trouble and exertion,"
+said Maxwell, deceived by the smile of Emily. "To be as sincere as your
+generous nature demands, I cannot conquer the love I have before
+expressed. I--"
+
+"Excuse me, sir," indignantly interrupted Emily, "I must retire."
+
+"Nay, nay, Miss Dumont! I meant no offence. Hear me but for a moment!"
+
+"Not another instant, sir! You have deceived me."
+
+"Upon my honor, I have not. I possess the evidence by which your
+birthright and possessions may be restored."
+
+"No more! I had rather die in poverty, with the stain clinging to me,
+than owe the restoration of my rights to you. You have taken advantage
+of my unprotected condition to impose upon me."
+
+"You wrong me, Miss Dumont; as, if you will remain but a moment, I will
+prove to you," said Maxwell, pleading like an injured man.
+
+Maxwell's peculiar tone and penitent air made Emily pause, and perhaps
+think she had spoken too hastily. All the wrong of which she could
+accuse him was, that he loved her. She felt that this was not a crime.
+The remembrance of wrongs she knew he had inflicted upon others,
+perhaps weak and unprotected like herself, nerved her resolution, and to
+a word of love from him she could not listen. She wished to conciliate
+him, if possible, but not at the expense of her self-respect.
+
+"Why have you detained me all this time to listen to a story with which
+I was before as familiar as yourself? Why have you used the language of
+love, which a refusal to hear now renders insolent?"
+
+"I have offended you, Miss Dumont," said he, in the humblest tones; "can
+I hope to be forgiven?"
+
+"Your future conduct alone can secure my forgiveness."
+
+"Then I solemnly promise never again to allude to the admiration with
+which I have regarded your matchless beauty, or to mention the love
+which now consumes my heart."
+
+"I trust you are sincere," said Emily, not knowing whether to smile or
+frown upon this making and breaking the promise in the same breath. The
+deep anxiety she felt for her future fate made her disposed to forget
+the past, and in a gentler tone she expressed her forgiveness.
+
+Maxwell imagined that, at last, his star was in the ascendant. His
+experience of woman-kind only indicated that he had been too
+precipitate, and that the reserve, even the refusal he had received,
+were only the accidents of the moment, not the natural expression of an
+indifferent heart. His assurance increased as he reflected. He was led
+to believe that he might, now that the ice-barrier was removed, be more
+unreserved in his wooing. His perseverance had now overcome all
+obstacles, and the prize was in his grasp.
+
+"I have a plan to propose," said he, "which will immediately secure to
+you all your rights."
+
+"Pray what is it?" asked Emily, eagerly.
+
+"As you have forbidden me to speak of love, I am placed in a very
+unfortunate position. In short, you can obtain possession of your estate
+by returning as my wife."
+
+This last sentence was said in a whisper, and in a tone of assurance,
+as though he felt she would gladly accept the alternative.
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Emily, aghast with astonishment and indignation, for
+the abruptness of the degrading proposition nearly deprived her of the
+power of speech.
+
+"Even so, Emily. I have the power to restore your rights, and will do so
+on this condition. The ceremony may be performed at Natchez, where we
+shall arrive to-night; or, if you fear I promise more than I can
+perform, I will draw up an agreement, which you shall sign, to the
+effect that you will accept my hand on the restoration of your rights. I
+will give you two hours to think of it; and if, at the end of that time,
+you accept the proposal, I will at once take the necessary steps to
+regain your fortune, and remove the stigma which rests on your name."
+
+"Never, sir, never! I will die a beggar before I will owe my prosperity
+to such a contract!" exclaimed Emily, whose indignation now found
+utterance.
+
+"I beg madam will reflect before she decides," said Maxwell, in a
+satirical tone.
+
+"Sir, I will die upon the rack, before the hand of a villain shall lead
+me to the altar!" answered Emily, unable to control her feelings.
+
+"Softly, lady, softly!"
+
+"Leave me, sir! leave me, or I will call upon my uncle to protect me
+from further insult!"
+
+"Your _uncle_, I fear, was left at the last wood-yard; so I heard my
+friend De Guy say."
+
+Emily felt herself the victim of a plot, and, rousing all her energies,
+she said,
+
+"I see it all. The machinations of a villain--for such you are--shall be
+foiled."
+
+"Miss Dumont," said Maxwell, his passions roused by the severity of her
+epithet, "do you forget your condition? You are a _slave_! Your supposed
+uncle is not here. You have no free papers, and are liable to be
+committed to the next jail."
+
+"But I am not without a friend who is able to protect me," said Emily,
+with spirit, as she saw Henry Carroll ascend to the deck upon which they
+stood.
+
+"Your friend is helpless. Another word, and I will proclaim your
+condition," and he rudely seized her by the arm. "Your friend cannot
+help you. He has not your free papers."
+
+"But he has a strong arm!" shouted Henry Carroll, as with a single blow
+he struck the attorney to the deck.
+
+"This way, Emily," said he to the weeping girl, who clung tremblingly to
+him; "you are safe now."
+
+Emily was conducted by the gallant arm which had protected her from we
+know not what indignity. She felt secure in his presence from further
+molestation, and his soothing words and hopeful promises did much to
+restore her.
+
+Maxwell soon recovered from the effects of the blow he had received,
+and, boiling with passion, swore vengeance upon the man who had
+interrupted him. But his passion was of short duration, and was
+succeeded by sober reflections upon the "position of his case." Emily
+Dumont was not of that class of women with whom he was accustomed to
+deal. He had found in her an element with which he had not before been
+conversant,--of which, indeed, he had read in books of poetry, but did
+not believe it existed in the material world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+                            "Caught, caught
+     In thine own trap! Thou hast confessed it all,--
+     The means, the end, the motive,--laid all Bare!
+     O, thou poor knave!--and that convenient friend
+     Who swears or unswears, speaks or holds his peace,
+     At thy command,--you have conspired together!"
+
+                                            LOVELL.
+
+
+On board the Chalmetta, Harwell discovered an old acquaintance in the
+person of a notorious gambler,--a class of persons who congregate on
+Mississippi steamers, and practise their arts upon the unwary traveller.
+This person, who went by the name of Vernon, was well known at the faro
+and roulette boards in New Orleans. He was an accomplished swindler. In
+the winter season, when the city is crowded with the elite of the state,
+and with strangers from all parts of the Union, Vernon found abundant
+exercise for his professional ability at the hells of the city, in the
+employment of their proprietors, acting the part of banker, or anything
+else that offered him the means of gratifying his luxurious habits. A
+twinge of conscience never prevented him from adopting any means of
+emptying the pockets of his victims, even without the formality of dice
+or cards.
+
+In the summer season he beguiled his time on the river, or migrated with
+the fashionables to Pascagoula, or a more northern watering-place,--in
+fine, to any sphere which afforded him a theatre for the exercise of his
+talents as a blackleg. Wherever he was, he never passed by an
+opportunity to obtain possession of his neighbor's valuables. If the
+monied man would accept a hand at euchre or poker, why, he was so much
+the easier cleaned out; if not, false keys, pick-locks, or
+sleight-of-hand, soon relieved the unfortunate victim of his superfluous
+possessions.
+
+Early in his career of fashionable dissipation, Maxwell had made the
+acquaintance of this notorious individual. Indeed, he had sufficient
+cause to remember him, for he had made a deep inroad into his patrimony.
+Maxwell was too great a rascal himself to be long duped by a greater
+one. A kind of business intimacy had grown up between them, and
+continued to exist at the time of our story. This connection was not,
+however, publicly acknowledged by Maxwell; it would have been the ruin
+of his fine prospects: but he used him whenever a scheme of profit or
+revenge required an unscrupulous confederate. Yet this Vernon was by no
+means a dependent creature of Maxwell's, for he was bold, reckless, and
+independent to the last degree. Whether acting as the paid devil of
+another, or on his own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own
+will. His physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
+character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon, for a
+hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the luckless
+individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his trade; but
+latterly his claims to the distinction of _gentleman_ and _man of honor_
+had been of such a questionable character, that the man who refused to
+meet him did not lose caste among the bloods of the city.
+
+Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New Orleans,
+with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As usual, he
+practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which, however, afforded him
+but a narrow field, the passengers being mostly officers, who had left
+their pay in the _cabarets_ of Mexico.
+
+By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in possession of
+a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his power he had
+endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which was constantly
+spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate victims, vainly
+striving against the coolness and trickery of professional blacklegs, to
+recruit their exhausted finances, or retrieve the ruin to which an
+unlucky hour had enticed them. Henry obstinately refused to take a hand;
+but Vernon's heart was set upon the bag of gold he knew was in Henry's
+trunk, and he resolved to possess it,--a feat not easy to accomplish on
+board a crowded steamer.
+
+After Maxwell had recovered from the blow which had felled him to the
+deck, and while Henry was soothing the distress of Emily, he met Vernon,
+who was in the act of reconnoitring the young officer's state-room.
+Vernon was just the person to serve him in this extremity. The protector
+of Emily must be removed from his charge, as her uncle had been by De
+Guy. He resolved upon a consultation with the blackleg. Accordingly he
+expressed his desire, to which the gambler replied by requesting him to
+give notice of the approach of any one, while he did a little business
+in the state-room.
+
+Maxwell vainly remonstrated, but was obliged to comply with the wishes
+of the robber, or lose his services.
+
+Vernon, thus protected from intrusion, entered the room, and by the aid
+of a pick-lock soon succeeded in obtaining possession of all poor
+Henry's earthly wealth. Beckoning Maxwell to follow, he descended to the
+main deck, where, procuring a lantern, they proceeded aft.
+
+We must return to Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, whom we left on their way
+to the fugitive in the hold of the steamer.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a whisper, as they prepared to jump down the
+hatchway; "whisht, now, and don't spake a loud word, for the life of
+yous."
+
+Uncle Nathan promised obedience, and followed Pat into the hold. All was
+total darkness, and it was not without a feeling of superstitious dread
+that Uncle Nathan heard his companion tap on the box which contained
+the mulatto. He heard the whispered recognition of its inmate, and stood
+like a statue while Hatchie freed himself from his confinement.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, in a low voice; "give me your hand, Mr. Binson.
+Now, there yous are," and he placed Uncle Nathan's hand in that of
+Hatchie.
+
+Uncle Nathan found the hand was warm, and felt completely relieved of
+the sensation of fear which had come over him.
+
+"Glad to see you," said he, though an instant afterwards his conscience
+asked him if he had not told a lie, inasmuch as it was so dark he could
+not see anything.
+
+"You are a _friend_, I trust," replied Hatchie, who, although he
+implicitly relied on the _faith_ of the Irish ally, had not the fullest
+confidence in his judgment. Nothing but what he deemed a stern necessity
+would have compelled him to trust the secret with any one. So many
+dangers encompassed him, that the duty he owed to his injured mistress
+obliged him to look around for the means of preserving the valuable
+document he possessed. An accident to the steamer, the continuous danger
+of being restored to Jaspar, and a hundred other painful reflections,
+brought him to the resolution of depositing the will in the hands of the
+most trustworthy person he could find. In this extremity, he canvassed
+the characters of all he knew on board. Henry Carroll, he feared, was
+too impetuous, if not actually devoted to Jaspar. He knew nothing of the
+interesting relation which the hearts of the lovers had
+recognized,--pity he did not! Uncle Nathan, whom Pat had described in
+glowing colors,--none are more highly esteemed than those who confer the
+most solid benefits,--seemed to him the proper person, especially as Pat
+had seen _her_ speak to him after the accident. An honest man is so
+easily known, that the poor Irishman's instinctive knowledge of human
+nature imparted the most correct information.
+
+"I _am_ your friend, and I trust the Lord will always put it into my
+heart to befriend the unfortunate," said Uncle Nathan, in answer to
+Hatchie's remark.
+
+"It is not on my own account that I need a friend," said Hatchie, in a
+melancholy tone, for the responsibility which rested upon him had
+solemnized his mind, and banished all reflections of self. "It matters
+little what becomes of _me_. But, sir, you are a stranger to me, and I
+know not that I may trust you."
+
+"Nor I nuther, till I know what you want of me. If it is an honest
+sarvice, one that I can do without goin' agin my conscience, why, I am
+ready to do anything to help a feller-cretur."
+
+"The service I am about to request," replied Hatchie, his doubts in a
+great measure removed by the apparent sincerity of his auditor, "can be
+done honestly; and, if your conscience approves any act, it will approve
+this one."
+
+"Very well, I will act for you to the best of my judgment, and use all
+the discretion that natur gave me, and a little I larned by the
+way-side. Partrick tells me you want to talk with the lady whose life
+you saved last night."
+
+"Not exactly to talk _with_ her, but about her. I feel that I can trust
+you, even with her destiny. That lady is my mistress. She is an angel of
+goodness. I am perfectly willing to be _her_ slave, so that it was not
+to gain my freedom I escaped in this box. It was to save her from a
+cruel wrong which her uncle would inflict upon her."
+
+"That old gentleman who is with her?" interrupted Uncle Nathan.
+
+"The same. He is the most hardened villain in the world,--so different
+from my poor master, who was a good man, and loved even his slaves! This
+man would make it appear that my mistress is not the legitimate child of
+her father, but the daughter of a quadroon girl, whom he formerly owned.
+He has forged a will to obtain his own purposes, and deprived poor
+mistress of her natural rights. But, on the night when the villany was
+perpetrated, I managed to obtain the true will, and to make my
+escape,--and a very narrow escape it was, for I was shot at and obliged
+to jump into the river to save my life. They think the shot killed me;
+but I shall yet expose their villany--"
+
+"Good gracious, I hope so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, whose sympathies
+wore awakened by the brief narrative of the mulatto.
+
+"Now, it is scarcely prudent for me to retain possession of this will. I
+may be discovered, or drowned, or shot; and then my poor mistress would
+never be restored."
+
+"True," replied Uncle Nathan, appreciating his companion's reasoning,
+and admiring his warm devotion to his mistress.
+
+"I wish to place the will in the keeping of some trusty person, who will
+guard it as his own life,--who will deem no sacrifice too great to
+relieve the distressed, and foil the wicked," said Hatchie, earnestly.
+
+"I will do the best I can."
+
+"Before I intrust it to you, I must feel that you will not only be
+discreet, but that you will labor to foil this wicked plot."
+
+"I will do everything I can," replied Uncle Nathan, warmly, for his
+heart was touched at the wrongs of Emily.
+
+"Then here is the will," said Hatchie, handing him the packet, which he
+had taken the precaution to envelop in oil-cloth. "Remember how much
+depends upon your caution and fidelity. God forgive me, if I have done
+wrong in giving it to you."
+
+"You may depend upon me. I will take good care of the document. But
+shan't I say anything to the lady about it?"
+
+"Assure her, if you can without exposing yourself, that the will is
+safe. It will give joy to her heart to know that she has the means of
+restoration to her home and name."
+
+"I will see everything done about right; and I hope soon to meet you in
+the land of liberty."
+
+"I shall never leave my mistress. I have been near her from her birth,
+and, though only a slave, I feel that I was sent into the world for no
+other purpose than to protect and serve her. Liberty away from her has
+no charms for me."
+
+"Goodness!" ejaculated Uncle Nathan; "I never should have thought it!"
+
+Hatchie's devotion to his mistress, so eloquently expressed, jostled
+rather rudely the Northerner's prejudices concerning the treatment of
+slaves.
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by three taps on the deck above
+them, produced by the brogan of Pat Fegan.
+
+Hatchie recognized the preconcerted signal, and, abruptly terminating
+his remarks, he leaped into the box, drew on the lid, and left Uncle
+Nathan to find his way out as best he could.
+
+"Whisht, now," said Pat, whispering down the hatch. "Jump up, Mr.
+Binson!"
+
+Uncle Nathan approached the hatchway, and endeavored to leap out, an
+effort which was assisted by Pat, who, rudely seizing him by the collar,
+jerked him out with a violence that threatened his bones with
+dissolution.
+
+"How the divil did yous tumble in there?" screamed Pat, as two persons
+approached. "Are yous hurted?"
+
+"A little," replied Uncle Nathan, perceiving the ruse of his coadjutor.
+
+"I fear yous are. Thry are your legs broke?" continued Pat, whose energy
+of utterance gave a fair appearance to the deceit.
+
+"Are you much hurt?" asked one of the persons who had by their presence
+disturbed the conference.
+
+"Very little," replied Uncle Nathan, who really felt the uncomfortable
+effects of a knock on the knee he had received in his involuntary ascent
+from the hold.
+
+"Bad luck to 't, but 'twas a wicked fall!" said Pat, fearful that his
+conscientious companion would expose the deceit.
+
+"Can I render you any assistance?" asked one of the intruders, who were
+none other than Maxwell and Vernon, whom we left on their way to the
+main deck.
+
+"Thank ye, I don't need any," replied Uncle Nathan, hobbling off,
+accompanied by Pat.
+
+"Now, is the coast clear?" said Vernon, who carried a lantern he had
+borrowed from the mate.
+
+"All clear; but put out that light,--the engineers will notice us,"
+replied Maxwell.
+
+"But I can't find my way into the hold without it. There is no danger of
+the engineers. They are all asleep on the forward deck."
+
+"What do you want in the hold?" asked Maxwell, in an irritable tone.
+
+"I want to hide this bag of money," replied Vernon, in a whisper. "As
+soon as the covey finds he has been picked, they will search the boat;
+and my character is not likely to save me from the indignity of being
+obliged to open my trunk, and turn out my pockets."
+
+"It is bad business, and I wish you had not done this thing. As I told
+you before, _I_ have nothing to do with it. I feel myself rather above
+common robbery."
+
+"Self-esteem! But you came down on your own business, not on mine. You
+can return, and not trouble yourself any further," growled Vernon.
+
+"I need your help, and will pay you for it."
+
+"Very well, then, wait till _this_ job is finished."
+
+"Go on! I will follow," replied Maxwell, finding remonstrance vain.
+
+After a careful scrutiny of the premises, Vernon concealed his lantern
+under his coat, and leaped into the hold, followed by Maxwell.
+
+"Now," said Vernon, "I must put this bag into one of these boxes, to be
+guarded by the spirits of the brave men whose bones repose in them."
+
+"Are you mad, man? Would you open the coffins of the dead to hide your
+ill-gotten gold?" exclaimed Maxwell, alarmed at the purpose of his
+confederate.
+
+"Why not? We need not disturb the bodies,--only open the outside box."
+
+"Very well," said Maxwell, who felt how useless it was to oppose his
+companion. "But remember, I have nothing to do with the robbery."
+
+"Of course not, and nothing to do with sharing the proceeds; but sit
+down, if you have anything to say to me. We are perfectly safe from
+interruption here;" and Vernon seated himself on the box which was
+occupied by the mulatto.
+
+"My words need not be many. In the first place, I have been insulted,
+and must have satisfaction; and, in the second, there is a girl in the
+cabin to whom I am much attached, and she will not give me the smallest
+sign of encouragement. Have her I must, by fair means or foul. I would
+marry her. You understand?"
+
+"Certainly; but what's the plan?" asked Vernon, indifferently.
+
+"Rather a difficult one, and may require some nerve to execute it,"
+replied Maxwell, who proceeded to develop his schemes, both in respect
+to Henry Carroll and to Emily.
+
+Although the conspirators spoke in a low tone, Hatchie heard and
+understood the whole plot. The voice of Maxwell he recognized, and,
+although the name of the lady against whom his designs were meditated
+was not mentioned, he comprehended who she was.
+
+The confederated scoundrels having finished their conference, Vernon
+drew from his pocket a small screw-driver, and proceeded to remove the
+screws from one of the boxes, which, to Hatchie's great relief, was not
+the one occupied by himself. After much labor, for the boxes were
+carefully constructed, to bear the rough usage of transportation, he
+succeeded in removing the lid, and deposited the bag of money between
+the coffin and the case which enclosed it.
+
+Having effected the object which brought them to the hold, the two
+ascended again, and made their way to the cabin.
+
+In addition to the knowledge of the plot, Hatchie was made acquainted
+with a fact which afforded him much pleasure--that Henry Carroll, in
+defence of his mistress, had knocked Maxwell down. This was evidence in
+his favor. He also heard something of the preference she had bestowed
+upon him, and that on this account, more than for the blow, he was to be
+the victim of Maxwell's vengeance. But he resolved to foil both schemes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     "He must be taught to know he has presumed
+     To stand in competition with me.
+     --You will not kill him?"  SHIRLEY.
+
+           --"Wherefore com'st thou?
+     --To comfort you, and bring you joyful news."
+                                MARLOW.
+
+
+On the second night of the Chalmetta's voyage, as Henry was about to
+retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he had struck a
+"fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at once that it had
+called forth this note. On opening the billet, his supposition proved to
+be correct. It was a challenge from Maxwell.
+
+We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret that
+faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that Captain
+Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough to resist
+the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which encourages
+duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"--a lady whom he fondly loved.
+He felt that the insult which she had received was not sufficiently
+punished. Besides, there was an audacity about the man which deserved to
+be punished, and he resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry
+never reflected that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of
+innocence escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in
+defence of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that
+he should fall, _he_ who had espoused the cause of innocence, why it was
+simply impossible!
+
+He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to act as his
+"friend." The two seconds--Major Brunn on the part of Henry, and Vernon
+on the part of Maxwell--arranged the preliminaries.
+
+The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would remain there
+long enough to allow the meeting to take place.
+
+Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
+opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at ease. To
+meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell to be) was not
+a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of honor. He had a hundred
+times braved death on the field of battle, but to die in a duel with
+such a man seemed to his now tranquillized mind anything but honorable.
+Emily had retired, and he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had
+seen her for the last time on earth, for the possibility of being killed
+himself tardily came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and
+another to Uncle Nathan.
+
+The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression upon his
+mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the letter was to
+interest him in her favor,--to induce him to conduct her to his Northern
+home.
+
+Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the morality,
+and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling of honor--of
+false honor--comforted him, and, animated by its spirit, he even looked
+forward with pleasure upon his revenge,--upon the death of his opponent.
+This would be in accordance with the justice of the case, and he
+flattered himself that justice, if it did not always prevail, would
+triumph in this instance. With such reflections he closed his eyes, and
+sunk to his slumbers.
+
+The Chalmetta moved lazily on her course. Her lights had all been
+extinguished, and the idlers, who a few hours before had paced the
+decks, were now slumbering in their berths, or on the cabin floor. The
+clock over the clerk's office indicated the hour of twelve. On the main
+deck forward the sleepy firemen were languidly supplying the furnaces;
+the engineers, less actively employed, had fallen asleep by the
+cylinders.
+
+On the after quarter, laying flat upon the deck, were two men earnestly
+engaged in conversation, in which the whispered brogue of Pat Fegan
+might have been detected. After the conversation had continued some
+time, one of them cautiously raised his head, as if to penetrate the
+gloom that enshrouded them. Satisfied that they were alone, the two
+rose, and, without noise, climbed up one of the posts to the gallery
+which surrounded the cabin. Then, with a light step, they passed on, and
+stopped before the state-room occupied by Vernon.
+
+"Are you sure this is his room?" asked Hatchie, in a smothered whisper.
+
+"Troth, I am, thin," responded his companion; "but be aisy, or you'll
+wake him."
+
+"The worse for him," replied Hatchie, as his teeth ground together.
+
+Hatchie placed his hand upon the door, and softly opened it. The sleeper
+heard him not. The negro groped about the room until his hand rested
+upon some pistols which lay on a trunk by the side of the berth. These
+he took, and, handing two of them to Pat, retained the third in his
+hand. Closing the door, they proceeded, as they had come, to the main
+deck.
+
+Seating himself behind a heap of merchandise, Hatchie proceeded to
+examine the pistols by the light of a lantern which Pat had _borrowed_
+from the sleeping engineers. The pistols were of the common pattern used
+in duelling. Two of the three were mates; and Hatchie discovered, on
+examination, that neither of them were loaded with ball. The third
+pistol, which contained two balls, was very similar in form and size to
+the pair. Hatchie extracted the balls from this one, and loaded the pair
+with one ball each, leaving the unmatched one blank. They then carefully
+conveyed them to Vernon's state-room, and placed them on the trunk
+precisely as they had found them.
+
+As had been premised, the Chalmetta arrived at Natchez about daylight.
+Vernon, well acquainted with all its localities, led the parties of the
+duel to a retired place in the vicinity. The distance was measured off,
+and the principals took the stations assigned them.
+
+"Now be careful they do not see you do it," said Vernon, in a low,
+careless tone.
+
+The pistols were handed to the principals, the signal was given, and
+both fired nearly at the same instant.
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Maxwell, dropping his pistol, and grasping the
+left arm, which had been hit by Henry's ball. "How does this happen?"
+
+But Vernon was as much confounded by this unexpected result of the duel
+as his principal. He had only time to protest that he had prepared the
+pistols as agreed upon, when Major Brunn arrived at the spot.
+
+On examining the wounded man, it was found that the ball had struck the
+fleshy part of the arm. The injury was very trifling. Maxwell was much
+astonished at receiving a ball from his opponent's pistol,--a
+circumstance which was owing entirely to Hatchie's precaution on the
+previous night. He had overheard the plan by which Maxwell was to fire a
+ball at Henry, with no danger of receiving one in return. Vernon had
+loaded the pair without ball, and the single pistol with two balls.
+Henry was to select from the pair; the third was to be concealed upon
+the person of Maxwell, who was to use it instead of the blank. Major
+Brunn, supposing Vernon to be a man of honor, had not insisted upon
+examining the charge in presence of both seconds, and thus everything
+had worked to the satisfaction of the confederates up to the time of the
+firing. By Hatchie's precaution, Henry held one of the two which were
+loaded with ball, while Maxwell had fired the blank.
+
+Maxwell was, as may be supposed, vexed and disconcerted at the result
+of the duel; and, with an ill grace, he resolved to postpone his revenge
+to another time, inasmuch as he could not hope again to shoot at his foe
+in perfect safety.
+
+The party returned to the steamer just in season for her departure.
+Maxwell's wound was examined by the surgeon, and pronounced very slight.
+Henry was rejoiced at this intelligence, for the cold-blooded thoughts
+which had found a place in his heart had departed, and his naturally
+kind disposition resumed its sway. He was glad that the affair had
+terminated without the loss of life; glad that his conscience was not
+burdened with the blood of a fellow-creature; glad, too, that he had
+escaped unhurt. This last consideration was not a selfish one. He felt
+that all the energy he possessed he should require in the restoration of
+her he so tenderly loved.
+
+His first step, on returning to the steamer, was to destroy the letters
+he had written to meet the worst calamity which might befall him. Having
+occasion to open his trunk, he discovered, to his surprise, that it was
+unlocked. Further examination showed that he had been robbed of all his
+earthly possessions. This was a severe blow. The money was the
+accumulation of two years' service, and he was now penniless,--without
+even a sufficient sum to pay his passage. He immediately informed the
+captain of his loss, who gave him the comfortable assurance that the
+robber had probably gone ashore at Natchez. However, he caused a
+thorough search of the boat to be made; but, as may be supposed, the
+search was vain.
+
+Uncle Nathan sympathized with him in his loss,--not with words alone,
+but voluntarily proposed to lend him any amount he required; an offer
+which Henry accepted with gratitude.
+
+"I see you are acquainted with that lady you saved from drowning," said
+the worthy farmer, after he had passed the loan to Henry. The duel had
+before been discussed and roundly condemned. The cause of the quarrel
+had introduced the fact to which the farmer had alluded.
+
+"I am. Her father was my best friend. I spent a few weeks with him a
+short time before his death."
+
+"O, ho!" thought Uncle Nathan, "I guess the black feller didn't know
+that, or he would have given the papers to him;" and he resolved to
+inform Hatchie of Henry's presence.
+
+Descending, he soon discovered Pat Fegan, and, by his help, was enabled
+to hold a conference with Hatchie, who, now that it was daylight, talked
+through a crevice in his box.
+
+Hatchie was anxious to know the result of the duel, which Uncle Nathan
+imparted, to whom, in return, the mulatto related the means he had used
+to foil the attorney's purpose, which was nothing less than murder. He
+also disclosed the particulars of the second plot, which was to be put
+in execution that night.
+
+The information the faithful slave had gained in relation to the
+character of Henry's efforts for his mistress made him quite willing to
+have him admitted into the confidence of her secret protectors.
+
+Uncle Nathan returned to the cabin, delighted with the idea of sharing
+his responsibility with Henry. But his first wish was to relieve the
+distress of Emily, who, he rightly judged, was in continued suffering,
+on account of the painful uncertainty which shrouded her destiny.
+
+Emily rose on the morning of the duel in blissful ignorance of the
+danger which Henry had incurred on her account. She had passed a
+sleepless night, in the most intense agony. Her eyes were red and
+swollen with weeping, and her heart yet beat with the violence of her
+emotions. She felt in the most intense degree the misery of her
+situation, to which she failed not to give all its weight. She had a
+friend--a brother--more than brother--near, in the person of Henry. That
+love which she allowed her fond heart to cherish was like an oasis in
+the desert of her misery. She loved him, and in this thought--in the
+delightful sensation which accompanied it--she found her only solace.
+
+At breakfast she saw him again; again his speaking eyes told how fondly
+his heart clung to her; again his smile fanned her fevered brain, like
+the zephyr of summer, into a dream of bliss. Her heart led her back to
+the days when they had wandered together over her father's plantation.
+Then, restrained by the coyness of unrevealed love, each enjoyed a
+happiness to which the other was supposed to be a stranger.
+
+But the anguish of her painful position _would_ come to destroy the
+dream of bliss, and dissipate the bright halo her imagination had cast
+before her. She retired to her state-room, to ponder again her unhappy
+lot. "Thy will be done," murmured she, as, throwing herself into a
+chair, she resigned herself to the terrible reflection that she was a
+slave and an outcast. The bright dream of love was only a chimera, to
+make her feel more deeply the terrible reality.
+
+Whilst she was thus venting her anguish, she was roused from her
+lethargy of grief by the chambermaid, who had entered by the inner door.
+
+"Please, ma'am, a gentleman out in the cabin says he wants to speak to
+you."
+
+"A gentleman wishes to speak to me? Did he send his name?"
+
+"No, ma'am. He said you wouldn't know him, if he did; so it was no use
+to send it."
+
+"Pray, what looking gentleman is he?"--her mind reverting to Maxwell.
+
+"Well, ma'am, he's a very respectable looking gentleman," answered the
+girl, to whom Uncle Nathan (for he was the person alluded to) had given
+half a dollar. "I think he is a Yankee, by his talk."
+
+"Pray, ask him to send his name."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the chambermaid, retiring.
+
+Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's
+description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread a new enemy.
+
+The chambermaid presently returned, and said the gentleman's name was
+Benson.
+
+Emily's perplexity was not diminished, but she resolved to see the
+applicant at the door of the room, so that, if his errand was from
+Maxwell, she could easily retire from his presence. Accordingly she
+instructed the girl to show him to the door on the gallery.
+
+"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, as soon as he reached the
+position assigned him; "you are Miss Dumont, I believe?"
+
+"The same," said she, as calmly as her fluttering heart would permit.
+"May I beg to know your business with me?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Uncle Nathan, bluntly; "but don't be scart. I know
+something of your trials; and I trust the Lord will give you strength to
+endure them with patience."
+
+"Really, sir, you astonish me! May I be allowed to ask how you became
+acquainted with my affairs?"
+
+"All in good time, ma'am; I have in my possession a document, which, I'm
+told, will set matters all right with you."
+
+"What is it, sir?"--and Emily was still more astonished at the
+singularity of the adventure.
+
+"_It is your father's will_, ma'am," replied Uncle Nathan, disdaining
+all preface and preliminary to this important remark.
+
+"My father's will, sir! Impossible!"
+
+"Fact, ma'am. I will tell you all about it," and Uncle Nathan proceeded,
+in his own blunt way, to relate his adventures in the hold.
+
+Emily listened with surprise and joy to the honest farmer's story. When
+he had concluded, although she did not give way to the joy of her heart,
+a change from the depth of despair to the pinnacle of happiness took
+place in her silent heart. How devoutly she thanked the great Father
+who had watched over her in her anguish, and now shed a halo of joy
+across her darkened path! How earnest was the silent prayer which arose
+from the depths of her heart, for the safety of the faithful slave, who
+had perilled his life for her happiness! How deeply laden with the
+incense of gratitude was the song of thanksgiving which rose from her
+soul to the Giver of all good!
+
+And when Uncle Nathan told the story of the duel, a new song of
+thanksgiving arose for Henry's safety. The joy she felt in his
+preservation would not be entirely confined to her heart, and Uncle
+Nathan--unromantic bachelor as he was--could not but discern the deep
+interest she felt in him.
+
+The interview was concluded, and the worthy farmer left the gallery more
+rejoiced than if he had himself been declared heir of Colonel Dumont's
+millions; and he looked around, as excited as a school-boy on the first
+day of vacation, to find Henry, and relate the good news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     "Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash
+     Of echoing thunder."  BYRON.
+
+
+The day of the duel was a day of happiness to Emily Dumont. The
+restraint which Jaspar's presence imposed was removed. Maxwell, from
+prudence or some other motive, did not intrude upon her. Her heart was
+rejoiced by the glad tidings which Uncle Nathan had conveyed to her.
+Henry Carroll was permitted to enjoy her society. It was a day of bliss
+to both; and, though a crowded steamer could ill afford the privacy
+which new-born love ever seeks, yet opportunities of giving expression
+to their feelings were not wanting. All day long they revelled in the
+delightful emotions which warmed their hearts. Their intercourse was now
+burdened by no painful reflections on the misery which had so lately
+environed Emily. The means of her restoration to home and society were
+at hand. The only difficulty now was to discover the best method of
+establishing her rights. Against Jaspar and Maxwell they cherished no
+ill-will,--they had no desire to punish them for their wicked designs.
+
+Uncle Nathan, too, was in the "full enjoyment of his mind." The relief
+he had "providentially" been able to afford to Emily's mind was the
+medium of an abundant satisfaction. As the darkness began to gather, he
+found an opportunity of conversing with Henry, whose entire devotion to
+Emily during the day had rendered him a stranger in the gentlemen's
+cabin. The plot which Hatchie had revealed to him had caused him but
+little anxiety. Maxwell's wounded arm, he concluded, would delay its
+execution. But he gave the particulars to Henry, who was not at all
+satisfied that it would not be undertaken.
+
+"We must watch to-night," said he.
+
+"Sartain, we'll keep a good look-out; but the scamp can't do anything
+while he is wounded."
+
+"But he had confederates."
+
+"Perhaps he has. But here is another friend," said Uncle Nathan, as he
+perceived Pat Fegan, who had for some time been watching an opportunity
+to speak to him.
+
+"Sure, the naiger would like to spake wid yous," said Pat, in a whisper.
+
+"What's the matter, Pat?" asked Henry.
+
+"Nothin', your honor," replied Pat, promptly; "I was only tellin' this
+gintleman that a poor divil was dhrunk on the lower deck, and he'd
+betther go and praych timperance to him."
+
+"No, no, Partrick, that's too bad," interrupted Uncle Nathan,
+reprovingly; "I must teach you to tell the truth."
+
+Pat opened his eyes with astonishment when he heard Uncle Nathan explain
+to Henry the part he had borne in the drama, and was about to utter in
+plain Irish his opinion of a man who would thus betray a confidence,
+when Henry explained that he was an old friend of Hatchie and the lady.
+
+"Long life to your honor, if that be true!" exclaimed Pat; "and you
+won't blow on the naiger?"
+
+"I have too strong an interest in him to do anything to his injury,"
+replied Henry. "But show me the way to him, Pat."
+
+"One at a time, if yous plaze," said Pat, as he perceived Uncle Nathan
+about to follow them.
+
+Pat led the way to the after part of the lower deck, to which Hatchie
+had ascended, as on the night of the rescue, to inhale the fresh air.
+This step was a safe one in the night, as, if any one approached (which
+was seldom), he could easily and speedily regain his hiding-place.
+
+"Hould aisy," said Pat, as they approached the fugitive; "don't be
+afraid,--I have brought yous a frind."
+
+"I hope you will not bring me too many friends," replied Hatchie, a
+little disconcerted.
+
+"Don't you know me?" said Henry, as he grasped the hand of Hatchie; "I
+have just come from your mistress, and know your whole story."
+
+"Not all," replied Hatchie; "you cannot know how much anxiety I have
+endured. Miss Emily is not yet safe."
+
+"But we can easily foil the villain's future designs."
+
+"We will, at least, endeavor to do so."
+
+"I believe I have seen you before; we were companions in the rescue."
+
+"We were, and God bless you for the noble service you rendered my
+mistress!"
+
+"That service was all your own, my gallant fellow."
+
+"You undervalue your own efforts. He who gets into the Mississippi
+seldom gets out alive. Without your timely assistance, I tremble to
+think of what might have been the end. My experience of the river
+enabled me to bring her up; but without your aid at the moment it came I
+do not think I could have saved her. But this is all past. Thank God,
+she is yet safe, though another danger hovers over her."
+
+"This foul conspiracy,--will they put it in execution to-night?"
+
+"I heard the villain they call Vernon, an hour ago, engage a deck hand
+to help him row the boat."
+
+"Then there is indeed danger. I had thought Maxwell's wound would have
+prevented it for a season."
+
+"A mere scratch. I would your ball had found the villain's heart, if he
+has one. But Vernon is the most dangerous man--a more accomplished
+villain."
+
+"Vernon," said Henry, musing; "he was Maxwell's second."
+
+"Yes. That duel was a plot to murder you."
+
+"How so?"
+
+Hatchie explained the plan of Vernon, which had been rendered futile by
+his precaution.
+
+"The scoundrel! but how knew you this, and how happens it that I escaped
+while he is wounded?" said Henry.
+
+"I overheard the plot when I did the other. Vernon is a common robber.
+He came into the hold to conceal a bag of money he had stolen."
+
+"A bag of money!" interrupted Henry, his thoughts diverted from the
+subject.
+
+"Ay, a bag of money."
+
+"Do you know where they hid it?"
+
+"I do; but why do you ask?" and Hatchie was much pained to discover in
+Henry what he mistook for a feeling of rapacity. He wanted and expected
+the perfection of an angel in the man who sustained the relation of
+lover and protector to his mistress.
+
+"Because I have been robbed of all I had in the world," replied Henry,
+seeing the shade upon Hatchie's brow.
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the mulatto, his doubts removed, and pleased in
+being able to restore his money.
+
+"The money is undoubtedly mine. Your noble devotion to your mistress has
+thus proved a fortunate thing for me. But about the pistols?"
+
+Hatchie related the means he had used to derange Maxwell's plan.
+
+"I shall never be able to repay the debt I owe you," said Henry, warmly,
+as the mulatto finished his story.
+
+"I did it for my mistress' sake. I learned that you were her friend."
+
+"And she will bless you for the act."
+
+"Now, what shall be done to insure her safety to night? for they will
+attempt her abduction, I doubt not."
+
+It was arranged that Henry should watch in the vicinity of Emily's
+state-room, while Uncle Nathan, Hatchie and Pat Fegan, should occupy the
+lower deck. Emily was not to be informed of the danger; it would
+distress her to no purpose.
+
+They had no doubt of their ability to protect her. Accustomed as Henry
+was to danger, perhaps he did not fully appreciate that which was now
+gathering around Emily. He felt that, in knowing the particulars of the
+nefarious scheme, he was abundantly able, even single-handed, to prevent
+its success.
+
+Obtaining a screw-driver and a lantern from one of the engineers, he
+succeeded in obtaining possession of his stolen bag of gold. On his
+return to the cabin, he observed Vernon standing at the bar, and the
+temptation to give his moral faculties a start could not be resisted.
+Purchasing a dozen cigars, he remarked that he had no change, and coolly
+pulled the bag of gold from his pocket. Vernon's astonishment and
+consternation could not be entirely concealed, as he recognized the bag
+he had securely deposited in the box with the dead. Henry took no notice
+of him, though he heard him say, in a suppressed tone, "The devil is in
+this boat!"
+
+Henry sought his state-room, where he found Uncle Nathan impatiently
+waiting to hear the result of the interview.
+
+"There is danger," said Henry, "and we must be ready to do our duty
+manfully."
+
+"Good gracious! you don't say so!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"We must watch to-night, and, if need be, fight!"
+
+"How you talk! You don't think the feller with the sore arm will try to
+do anything to-night?"
+
+"I fear he will;" and Henry opened his trunk, and took therefrom a pair
+of revolvers.
+
+"Gracious! will there be any need of pistols? Couldn't you reason with
+them?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan, who, as before hinted, had a great
+repugnance to the use of deadly weapons.
+
+"I am afraid they will not listen to reason," said Henry, smiling, in
+spite of his anxiety. "If action is necessary, it must be prompt. I know
+your heart, my good friend, and I trust your non-resistant notions will
+not interfere with your duty. I must rely on your aid in this affair."
+
+"Sartain. I will do all I can, if I die for it. But I think I can get
+along very well without one of them 'ere things," said Uncle Nathan,
+eying the pistols with distrust.
+
+"Very well, I shall not urge you, though I think it would be prudent for
+you to have one. As you go to your station, you will oblige me by giving
+this one to the mulatto boy."
+
+"Sartain, cap'n," replied Uncle Nathan, taking the pistol; "I an't
+exactly a non-resistance man, only I hate to use pistols;--not that I'm
+afeered on 'em; but to take a feller-cretur's life is a dreadful thing.
+You know the New Testament says, 'Resist not evil,' and--"
+
+"Yes, I remember; but now is the time to act, and not to preach. I shall
+place myself near Miss Dumont's state-room, and your party will see that
+the stern-boat is not disturbed."
+
+"All right, cap'n, but do be careful about spilling blood!" said Uncle
+Nathan, who did not like the cool, determined air with which Henry
+handled his pistols.
+
+"Be assured I will not wantonly take the life of even the most hardened
+villain; but in defence of Miss Dumont I shall consider that the end
+will justify the means."
+
+Uncle Nathan went to his post, and Henry, muffling himself in a large
+camp-cloak, seated himself near Emily's door. Accustomed as he was to
+the perils and privations of the camp, the duty before him did not seem
+difficult or irksome. To his chivalrous spirit there was a pleasure in
+thus watching over an innocent being, while she slept, unconscious of
+the danger that menaced her. Lighting his cigar, he resigned himself to
+the dream of blissful anticipations, which relieved the monotony of the
+scene.
+
+Maxwell, in the seclusion of his state-room, had thoroughly digested the
+plan for the abduction of Emily. Vernon had arranged the details, and
+the lawyer's reflections suggested no material alteration. His wounded
+arm was a hindrance, but time was too precious to admit of delay. The
+Chalmetta was so tardy in her movements that Jaspar must soon overtake
+them, and then the opportunity would be lost.
+
+If he could get Emily into his power, and away from the influences which
+now surrounded her, he doubted not he could induce her, by threats or
+persuasion, to become his wife; then he would spring the trap upon
+Jaspar, and the coveted object of his existence would be gained. He had
+already forged a bill of sale of her person, and, thus provided with an
+implement of coercion, he doubted not that success would crown his
+efforts.
+
+As the evening advanced, and the passengers had mostly retired for the
+night, Maxwell and Vernon left the state-room, and went aft to examine
+more particularly the means of descent to the lower deck. As they
+approached Emily's state-room, they perceived Henry puffing away at his
+second cigar. Had it been any other person, Maxwell would not have
+devoted a thought to him. It was he with whom he had fought the
+duel,--whom a mysterious providence seemed to protect. Was he there by
+accident or design?
+
+The two confederates passed round the gallery, and returned to the
+cabin. A long hour they waited, and the cabin clock pointed to the hour
+of twelve; still Henry had not changed his position. His cigar was
+consumed, but there he sat like a statue, obstinately obstructing the
+completion of Maxwell's designs. The confederates began to fear he had
+some knowledge of their contemplated project. Yet how could this be? The
+plan had been arranged in the hold of the steamer. It was impossible
+that any one, even the men they had hired to row the boat, could know
+their intentions. Vernon, who had seen the stolen bag of money
+miraculously restored to its owner, who had seen two balls pass
+harmlessly through him, was perfectly willing to believe that Henry
+Carroll was the devil! But, devil or not, it was all the same to him.
+
+It was already time to commence operations. Vernon was impatient to
+begin; for, as he averred, he did not like to lose a whole night's sleep
+in so small an affair. But nothing could be done while Henry retained
+his present position, unless they silenced him by force; and he seemed
+an ugly customer.
+
+The Chalmetta pursued her way, stemming with difficulty, as it would
+seem by her lazy pace, the current of the mighty river. She had just
+passed Vicksburg. The night was dark and gloomy. Those bright, beautiful
+moons, with which the panorama-mongers are wont to gild the eddying
+current, and solemnize the scenery with a pale loveliness, were not in
+the ascendant. Even the bright stars were hid by the thick clouds. The
+darkness cast a sad gloom over the scene, which a few hours before had
+been "leaping in light, and alive with its own beauty." The yellow bank
+rose high on either side of the river, and formed a sombre wall, which
+seemed to keep the sojourner on the tide a prisoner from the world
+above.
+
+Yet, deep as was the darkness, and perilous as was the navigation of the
+river, the Chalmetta sluggishly pursued her upward course, shunning
+sand-bars and snags which the eye could not see, and which the stranger
+knew not of. Now she crept, like a thief at night, so closely beneath
+the high bank that her tall chimneys almost swept the overhanging
+branches; then, stealing from the treacherous shoal, she sped her way
+through the middle of the vast waters, as if ashamed of her former
+timidity. Here she shot through the narrow cut-off, and there left her
+foaming surge in the centre of the broad expanse.
+
+On board all was still, save the puffing blasts of steam, which, at each
+stroke of the pistons, echoed through the woods and over the plains. The
+cabin lights had long been extinguished, and, from a distance, nothing
+could be seen of her but the huge blazing furnaces, and the red signal
+lantern, which was suspended over the boiler deck. The firemen, just
+roused from their dream of comfort, no more passed round the coarse
+jest, no more whistled "Boatman, dance," but, like automata, threw the
+fuel into the roaring furnaces. Occasionally, the startling note of the
+great bell roused the deck-watch from his slumber, and he sang over
+again the monotonous song that told the pilot how far his keel was from
+the sands below. Again the bell pealed a heavy stroke, which indicated
+that the steamer was in free water, and the leadsman settled himself for
+another nap.
+
+The passengers, save those whom we have before noted, were deep in the
+arms of Morpheus, rejoicing, no doubt, in their dreams, over the many
+tedious hours they thus annihilated.
+
+Wakeful and watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever present to
+his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil was kept. Her
+image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the love-sick brain
+conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart, and the melody of her
+voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the dignity of the man, he
+built childish air-castles, wherein he throned his idol, and in a few
+fleeting moments squandered years of happiness by her side. The perils
+of the past, the sternness of the present, the responsibilities of the
+future, all faded away, and from their ashes rose the bright empress of
+his soul.
+
+This, we know, was all very foolish of him; but then it must be
+remembered he was in love, and men in love can scarcely be called
+accountable beings.
+
+Thus he dreamed, and thus he trod the fairy ground of imagination, nor
+heeded the creaking timbers and the increasing rapidity of the puffs
+from the escape-pipe. To a man not intoxicated by the dream of young
+love these facts would have indicated a great increase in the speed of
+the boat; but he noticed them not.
+
+By the motions of the Chalmetta it was plain that, though incapable of
+accomplishing any wonderful feat in the attainment of speed, she had a
+considerable amount of that commodity somewhat vulgarly termed "spunk."
+As she passed the mouth of the Yazoo river, another steamer, apparently
+of her own calibre, rounded gracefully into the channel, from a
+wood-yard. This boat--the Flatfoot, No. 3--seemed, by her straining and
+puffing, to throw the gauntlet to the Chalmetta; a challenge, real or
+imaginary, which the latter made haste to accept,--or, rather, her
+sleepy firemen did, for, without leave or license, they crammed her
+furnaces to their utmost capacity. The effects of this movement were
+soon perceptible in every part of the boat, for she creaked and groaned
+like a ship in a gale. But the Flatfoot, No. 3, had the lead, and seemed
+to gain upon her rival,--a circumstance which seemed to rouse the
+lethargic firemen of the Chalmetta to the highest pitch of excitement,
+for they packed the furnaces more closely still.
+
+Maxwell saw, with much satisfaction, the prospect of a race; not that he
+expected in this instance to enjoy the excitement which, with "fast
+men," is consequent upon such an occasion. He hoped it might distract
+the attention of the person who, by accident or design, opposed the
+execution of his purpose. He had sent Vernon to the cabin to watch the
+movements of Henry, while he remained upon the main deck, forward of the
+furnaces, to encourage the firemen in their ambitious project of passing
+the other boat. Several barrels of hams which lay upon the deck the
+apparently excited attorney ordered the firemen to throw into the
+furnaces, promising to screen them from blame by paying the owner double
+their value. The firemen, not blessed with an undue amount of caution,
+willingly obeyed the order, and soon the boilers hissed and groaned
+under the extraordinary pressure. The engineers, roused from their
+slumbers, and entering at once into the sport, secured the safety-valve
+in its place by attaching to the lever double the usual weight.
+
+Still the person whom Maxwell wished to lure from his post remained
+immovable. A few pitch-barrels were now split up, and cast into the
+furnaces, which so increased the pressure that the faithful safety-valve
+refused longer to endure the curb placed upon the discharge of its
+function. It was again secured, and the reckless firemen, urged on by
+Maxwell and the engineers, still pressed the boat to its destruction.
+
+The boilers, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure to which they were
+subjected, still realized the expectations of the confident engineers,
+and refused to be the agents of an "awful calamity." But all exertion
+was of no avail; the Flatfoot, No. 3, whose tall chimneys vomited forth
+a long trail of flame, showing that she, too, was hard pressed, was
+rapidly increasing her distance. Still the firemen plied the furnaces,
+and again the engineers added more weight to the lever of the
+safety-valve. The boilers were evidently pressed to their utmost, the,
+decks were hot, and her timbers creaked and snapped as though they would
+drop out of her.
+
+Hatchie had placed his party in the hold, one of which was on the
+look-out at the hatchway. He saw the danger of the steamer; but all his
+friends were in the safest places the boat afforded. It was an anxious
+hour for him; but everybody was in peril, and there was no remedy.
+
+Maxwell, whose excitement in the race was feigned, perceived that the
+boat was in imminent danger. He had not intended to carry the excitement
+quite so far. An explosion was not exactly the thing he desired. It
+would not be sufficiently discriminating in its choice of victims. But
+the firemen were too much excited to listen to reason; therefore he
+proceeded, with Vernon, towards the extreme after part of the boat.
+Passing round the gallery of the ladies' cabin, they perceived that
+Henry had, at last, left his post. Such was indeed the case. Roused from
+his abstraction by the terrible anticipation of an explosion, he had
+gone forward to reason with the pilots on the recklessness of their
+course in allowing the boat to be so hard pressed.
+
+"Now is our time," said Maxwell, in a whisper.
+
+"Here goes, then!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Be careful that you do not injure her,--and bring her clothes."
+
+"Ay, ay! Have the boat ready quick, for, if I mistake not, the sooner we
+are out of this boat the better."
+
+The ruffian approached the door of Emily's state-room, and was about to
+open it, when, with a noise louder than the crashing of the thunderbolt,
+the starboard boiler exploded, and the Chalmetta lay a shapeless wreck
+upon the waters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "False world, thou ly'st; thou canst not lend
+             The least delight;
+     Thy favors cannot gain a friend,
+             They are so slight."          FRANCIS QUARLES.
+
+
+The traveller on the Mississippi observes with interest the innumerable
+islands which dot the river, and relieve the monotony of the scenery.
+These islands are, for the most part, covered with a luxurious growth of
+cotton-wood trees. They have generally been formed by what are
+technically called cut-offs, or new channels, from the main land. The
+mighty torrent, scorning its own well-beaten track, ploughs a way
+through the country, and returns to its channel miles below, opening at
+once a new path for the voyager upon its tide. The portion of land thus
+separated from the main shore is often subdivided by the action of the
+waters into several smaller islands. These islets are, however, oftener
+seen in isolated positions, varying in area from a few square rods to
+several acres. A remarkable feature of these islands is their
+_locomotive_ powers,--for, strange as it may seem, they annually take a
+step down stream! Observation has shown a change of position almost
+incredible.
+
+The river, continually wearing upon the up-river side of the island,
+washes the sands and soil to the lower side. Thus, the situation of the
+island is actually changed. The fact is clearly shown by the singular
+configuration of the mass of trees growing upon them. The wood on the
+upstream side of the island is of the largest size; while that on the
+down-stream side begins at the mere shrub, and, by a regular gradation
+in height, like a pair of stairs, increases to the altitude of the
+full-grown tree. Each successive year places a new layer of soil upon
+the lower side, in which the young tree takes root; and the growth of
+each year is distinctly visible to the traveller as he ascends the
+river.
+
+On one of these islands, above Vicksburg, was located a neat cottage.
+The island differed in many respects from others. Its area might have
+been eight or ten acres. On one side of it was a narrow, but deep
+stream, which, entering from the broad river, described a semi circle,
+and returned its waters on the same side. On three sides, except at the
+mouths of the little stream, the island was rendered inaccessible by the
+high banks, while on the fourth side the shrubs grew so luxuriantly as
+to be impervious, save to the most resolute visitor. From the high banks
+which walled it in the surface of the island sloped gradually towards a
+common centre, through which rushed the little stream.
+
+This little island had probably been a part of the main land; the river
+had forced its way through a valley, and, by degrees, had worn down the
+high land on either side, till they formed the precipices which now
+frowned on the visitor. The little stream had, perhaps, once been a
+meandering rivulet,--part of one which emptied into the river on the
+opposite side.
+
+On one of the sloping sides of the interior was situated the cottage. It
+was small in size, containing but four rooms and an attic, and was
+neatly painted white. Its location in the valley concealed it from the
+main land, and from the traveller upon the river. It was accessible only
+by means of the stream, which rolled by within a few rods of the door. A
+cow grazed in the woods, which had been partly cleared of under-brush,
+and had the appearance of a park grove. Near the house a plot of land
+had been reduced to a state of cultivation, upon which an old negro
+servant managed to raise vegetables sufficient for the use of the
+family.
+
+The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with none of
+the gaudy trappings of fashion. Everything was plain and useful. On the
+side fronting the stream, which served the inmates as a highway, were
+two rooms,--a library, which was also the sitting-room, and a sleeping
+apartment. The library was far the most substantial and
+comfortable-looking room in the house, inasmuch as it was abundantly
+supplied with modern and classical lore. In the middle was a large
+writing-desk, upon which lay sundry manuscripts, apparently the last
+labor of the occupant. The books and papers were all arranged with
+scrupulous neatness and method.
+
+The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another sleeping
+apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro and his
+wife,--the property of the proprietor, and his only attendants upon the
+island. Back of the house, as is the custom of the South, was a small
+building used as a kitchen. Near it was another building, appropriated
+to the use of the cow aforesaid.
+
+In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the bank,
+was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to rank with the
+miniature yachts of our large cities. She was schooner-rigged, with a
+small cabin forward. Her masts, by an ingenious contrivance, could be
+lowered down aft, and, by means of a rope attached to the fore-top, and
+running through a block on the bowsprit, could be instantly restored to
+their original upright position. This arrangement the owner found
+necessary, on account of the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed
+the two openings of the stream into the river.
+
+On the night of the Chalmetta's terrible disaster, a man wrapped in a
+camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the landing-place. In one
+hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the other a double-barrelled
+gun. Descending the steps to the rude pier of logs, he drew the boat
+in-shore and seated himself in the stern-sheets. Unloosing the
+stern-line, which alone held her, the boat was borne on by the rapid
+stream. The helm the occupant handled with a masterly skill, and in a
+moment the little bark swept through the half-hid opening into the broad
+river. Placing the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling
+the proper line, brought the masts to their upright position. He then
+inserted the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the
+sails. By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of the
+island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the river.
+Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed close in
+shore, he laid the boat's course up the stream. The wind was blowing
+fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the current, the
+boat careened to her task, and made very good progress through the
+water. While the gallant little bark pursues her way, we will introduce
+her skipper to the reader.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was about fifty years of age. He was descended from one of
+the old French families of Louisiana; and had been, for nearly thirty
+years, a practising physician in the city of New Orleans, during which
+time he had accumulated a very handsome fortune. At the age of
+twenty-five he had been married to a lady, whose only recommendations
+were her personal beauty and her fashionable accomplishments. Her vanity
+had disgusted him, and her uncontrollable temper had embittered to its
+very dregs the cup of his existence. Being naturally of a gloomy and
+melancholy temperament, this unfortunate union had rendered his life
+almost insupportable. Domestic happiness, to which he had looked forward
+with high-wrought anticipations, proved, in his case, to have no
+foundation.
+
+He was disappointed. His dream of home and its blessings faded away, and
+was supplanted by a terrible reality. He grew more and more melancholy.
+But there was a solace, which saved him from absolute misery. Two
+children--a boy and a girl--blessed his otherwise unhallowed union. The
+education of these children was the only joy his home afforded; but
+even this to his misanthropic mind could not compensate for his
+matrimonial disappointment.
+
+Years passed away; the son was sent to college, from which, to the
+anguish of his father, he was expelled for gross misconduct. The young
+man returned to New Orleans, and became one of the most dissolute and
+abandoned characters of the city. Dr. Vaudelier disowned him, and sunk
+the deeper in his melancholy.
+
+The death of his wife left him alone with his daughter; and if the fatal
+influence of past years could have been removed, perhaps he might have
+been a happy man. The daughter was a beautiful girl, and promised to
+realize all the fond expectations of her father. Her daily education and
+method of life, as directed by her father, were better calculated to fit
+her for the occupancy of a nun's cell than for rational society.
+
+About five years previous to the time of our story, the solemn quiet of
+Dr. Vaudelier's dwelling was disturbed by the arrival of a young French
+gentleman, bearing letters of introduction to the misanthropic
+physician. This gentleman was delighted with the daughter of his host,
+and she experienced a before unknown pleasure in his society. The doctor
+was, to some extent, obliged to abandon the "pleasures of melancholy,"
+and accompany the young couple into the world.
+
+This intimacy between the young persons rapidly ripened into love. Dr.
+Vaudelier's inquiries into the character and circumstances of the young
+gentleman were not satisfactory, and he refused to sanction the union.
+Perhaps he was influenced more in this decision by the dread of parting
+with his daughter than by any other motive. The father's refusal was
+followed by the elopement of the young couple,--an act which blasted the
+only remaining hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to
+endure the shock.
+
+Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as the only
+effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to whose rites
+and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence, doomed the suicide
+to eternal woe!
+
+Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to be
+enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He could not
+endure even that which the practice of his profession demanded. The
+great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to escape from its
+hated scenes.
+
+He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and accidentally had
+noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed his residence.
+
+His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the inhabitants of
+his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with their presence. Steamers
+and flat-boats continually passed his little domain; yet the traveller
+knew not that it was occupied by human beings.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier's pursuits were of the most simple nature. He read and
+wrote nearly the whole day, and in the evening,--often at the dead of
+night,--he would unmoor his yacht, and stem the tide of the mighty
+river. His chief happiness was in communion with nature. His solitary
+habits had completely estranged him from society; and he chose the night
+for his lonely excursions on the river, to avoid the presence of man.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was a benevolent man; and his benevolence was still his
+friend. It kept his heart from corroding, or becoming entirely cold. His
+professional services he freely gave to the poor "squatter," woodman and
+boatman, whenever he could learn that they were needed. The old negro
+made frequent visits to the shore to procure provisions and other
+necessaries, and informed his master if any of his indigent neighbors
+needed his aid. Dr. Vaudelier, as far as he was known, was regarded with
+profound respect and affection, and none were disposed to disturb his
+privacy when it was understood that entire seclusion was his desire.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier reclined on the cushions in the stern-sheets of his boat.
+With an abstracted mind he gazed upon the gloomy outlines of the shore.
+Nature in this sombre dress seemed in unison with the gloom of his own
+soul. Scarcely conscious of his actions, he managed the boat with the
+most consummate skill, avoiding the unseen shoal and the unfavorable
+current, but still never allowing the sails to shiver. Far ahead of him
+he descried the blazing chimneys of a steamer. It was night, and he was
+secure from the prying gaze or the rude hail of the voyagers.
+
+His reflections were gloomy. He reviewed his earlier years. He thought
+of his affectionate daughter, who had promised to be the stay of his
+declining years, perhaps at that moment a wanderer and an outcast. He
+had heard nothing of her since her departure. He had made no effort to
+ascertain her fate. He considered his whole course of conduct to her,
+the nature of the education he had imparted to her, the example he had
+set for her imitation. His reflections were not altogether satisfactory,
+and kindled a few compunctious thoughts. The blame had not been all on
+the side of the daughter. His misanthropic character was the origin of
+some part of it.
+
+Thus he mused, and thus dawned upon his mind the first gleams of
+repentance. His melancholy temperament had caused the loss of his
+daughter; and, for the time, it grew repugnant. He felt that he was not
+living the life his Maker intended he should live.
+
+His meditations were suddenly interrupted by a tremendous explosion, and
+he was at once satisfied that it proceeded from the steamer he had
+before observed. His supposition was soon verified by the flames he saw
+rising from the spot where he had last seen her. She was, he judged, at
+least three miles distant. His benevolent disposition, stimulated by the
+reflection, and, perhaps, by some unconscious resolution of the previous
+hour, prompted him to hasten to her relief. Leaving the helm, he took
+from the little cabin a stay-sail, and by the light of the lantern
+attached it to the lines and hoisted it. The lively little craft,
+feeling the additional impulse, careened till her gunnel was nearly
+submerged, and cut her way with increased velocity through the
+unfavorable current. Half an hour elapsed before he approached near
+enough to make out the condition of the shattered steamer. Another
+steamer lay as near to her as the flames, which had apparently been
+partly subdued, would permit. Men were busily engaged in throwing on
+water, and their efforts promised to be crowned with success, for the
+volume of flame was rapidly decreasing. A line was passed from the bow
+of the Chalmetta to the Flatfoot, No. 3 (for these were the steamers),
+which enabled the latter to control the drift of the former. Dr.
+Vaudelier was too far off, however, to form a very correct idea of the
+casualty.
+
+Portions of the wreck were floating by him, and occasionally his boat
+struck against a timber or cask. While anxiously straining his vision,
+to ascertain further particulars of the disaster, he heard a faint cry
+close ahead of him. By the light of his lantern, which he had hung up by
+the foremast, to attract the eye of any sufferer who might need aid, he
+saw a man clinging to a barrel floating by him. Hastily letting go the
+halyards, the fore and main sails came down, the boat was put about, and
+Dr. Vaudelier, with much exertion, succeeded in saving the almost dying
+sufferer. Conveying him to the cabin, which was of sufficient size to
+contain two berths, he placed him upon one of them, and proceeded to
+ascertain his ailments. These, as far as he could discover them,
+consisted of a broken arm, a severe contusion of the head, and several
+severe scalds. The wounded man's endeavors to aid in his own rescue had
+been too violent, and on being placed in the berth he had fainted. After
+administering such relief as he was able, he returned to the
+stern-sheets, hoisted the sails, and the boat, which had been drifting
+down-stream, again approached the wreck.
+
+The flames of the Chalmetta were now extinguished. Before the benevolent
+physician could reach her, the Flatfoot had taken her in tow, and both
+were rapidly leaving him. Further pursuit was useless; so, taking in
+the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and again turned his attention to
+the sufferer.
+
+The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid, and she
+soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager discerned
+through the darkness the narrow opening of the little stream. Taking in
+the sails and lowering the masts, the little craft glided through the
+rivulet, and in less time than is taken to relate it was securely moored
+in front of the cottage. The old negro, bewildered by the unseasonable
+summons, assisted in conveying the wounded stranger to the cottage.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, after a more thorough examination of his patient than he
+had been able to make before, was pleased to find that his wounds,
+though serious, were not of a dangerous character. He set the broken
+arm, and, by the exercise of the great skill for which he had been
+distinguished, restored him to consciousness, and made sure his future
+recovery.
+
+"Where is she? Is she safe?" murmured the sufferer, as his returning
+consciousness afforded a partial knowledge of his condition. "Where am
+I?"
+
+"You are among friends, sir,--among friends. Do not distress yourself,"
+replied the doctor, in a soothing tone.
+
+"Where is she? Great God! what has become of her?" exclaimed the wounded
+man, with startling energy.
+
+"You must be quiet, sir, or you will injure your arm," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, mildly restraining the excited man.
+
+"O, Emily, Emily!" groaned the sufferer. "Why did I leave you? Why did
+we not perish together?"
+
+"Be calm, sir,--be calm! You have lost a friend in this terrible
+disaster?"
+
+"I have. O that I could have died with her!"
+
+"Are you sure she has perished?"
+
+"She could scarcely have survived the explosion."
+
+"Was she not in the ladies' cabin?"
+
+"She was."
+
+"Then probably she is safe. The ladies' cabin was thrown from its
+position; but it appeared to be comparatively but little shattered. The
+forward cabin was blown entirely in pieces."
+
+"Thank God for this intelligence!" ejaculated Henry Carroll,--for the
+reader has already discovered that it was he whom the doctor had
+rescued.
+
+"Another steamer was close at hand, so that probably most of the ladies
+were saved, unless, as is often the case, they jumped overboard in their
+fright."
+
+"Heaven protect her!" exclaimed Henry.
+
+"But, sir, I must insist on perfect quiet. Your condition imperatively
+demands it. To-morrow everything shall be done to relieve your anxiety.
+We shall then receive Vicksburg papers, which will contain the names of
+all who are lost."
+
+"I will try to be quiet, but I cannot but be anxious till I know the
+whole truth."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier again applied a soothing balm to the scalded portions of
+his body, and gave him a powerful narcotic, the effects of which were
+soon visible in a deep, troubled slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     "But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward!
+     All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest thee.
+     Prythee avoid, nor longer cling thus round me,
+     Like something baneful, that my nature's chilled at."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+In a small log-cabin, a few miles above "Cottage Island," reposing upon
+a rude bed, on the morning of the Chalmetta's disaster, was a young and
+beautiful female. She was pale and in tears, evidently suffering the
+most excruciating mental agony. An old woman, from whose bosom her
+half-civilized mode of life had not entirely banished those refined
+sympathies which belong by intuition to her sex, was vainly striving to
+impart comfort.
+
+"You ought to be thankful, ma'am, that you wan't blowed up, with the
+rest of the poor people," said she, kindly, attempting to turn the
+lady's attention from her absorbing misery.
+
+"I had rather a thousand times have perished than fallen into the hands
+of the villain who rescued me," replied Emily,--it was she,--with a
+shudder.
+
+"O, ma'am, they shan't hurt a hair of your head. My old man wouldn't see
+such a good cretur as you hurt, for all the world."
+
+"Alas! I fear his power will not avail against this hardened villain."
+
+"Never you fear, ma'am! Two sich popinjays as them couldn't skeer my
+Jerry, nohow. Besides, my son, Jim, will be back in an hour or two."
+
+"I fear they cannot aid me."
+
+"Yes, they can. My Jerry alone would turn 'em inside out, if they are
+sarcy."
+
+"I can scarcely hope the villains--"
+
+"Softly, lady, softly! do not be harsh!" said Harwell, entering the
+apartment in which Emily was, and which was the only one the cabin
+contained.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell," said Emily, rising, "if you have any mercy, or pity for
+my misfortunes, let me be left alone."
+
+"I would not injure you, Miss Dumont," replied Maxwell, in a gentle
+tone. "I would see you in safety at your destination. Mr. Vernon has
+been two hours absent, in search of a carriage."
+
+"A carriage! For what?"
+
+"To convey you to a steamboat-landing."
+
+"Bless your heart, sir! you needn't go a step for that. My Jerry will
+hail the very next one that passes the wood-yard," suggested the old
+lady.
+
+"Silence, old woman!" said Maxwell, sternly, for he feared the dame
+would increase Emily's distrust of him.
+
+"Don't old-woman me, you puppy! I know what's what!" responded the dame,
+sharply, for her temper was not exactly angelic; "it's my opinion you
+don't mean this lady any good. Let me tell you, aforehand, you can't cut
+any of your didoes here!"
+
+"Silence, woman! when I need your help I will ask it. I propose, Miss
+Dumont, to convey you to Vicksburg, where you can be comfortably
+accommodated until a steamer arrives which will take you to Cincinnati.
+It may be several days, you are aware."
+
+"Several days!" exclaimed the mistress of the cabin; "who ever heerd of
+such a thing! There'll be one along afore the day is out."
+
+"For Cincinnati?" sneered Maxwell, who found the old woman's tongue a
+very formidable weapon.
+
+"I dare say there will," responded the dame.
+
+"It is extremely uncertain, Miss Dumont. We came in the last one, and it
+is scarcely possible, at this season, another followed immediately. But
+here is the carriage."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, I shall positively refuse to accompany you," said Emily,
+in a most decided tone. "This good woman, I doubt not, will accommodate
+me."
+
+"That I will," promptly responded the dame.
+
+"I am sorry, Miss Dumont, I cannot, in this instance, yield to your
+wishes. I must insist on your company to Vicksburg," said Maxwell,
+striving, by a supercilious manner, to keep down his angry passions.
+
+"By what right, sir, do you _insist_ upon it? I was not aware that you
+were invested with any legal control over me."
+
+"Then you are mistaken. I act upon undoubted authority."
+
+"Indeed, sir, are you my guardian?" said Emily, shuddering at the
+thought of the will.
+
+"Not technically a guardian. My authority is a little more definite."
+
+"I do not understand you, sir."
+
+"It is immaterial. Perhaps you had better go with me peaceably,
+however," said Maxwell, with a carelessness foreign to his feelings.
+
+"That, sir, I never will do alive!" replied Emily, surmising the nature
+of the attorney's assumed authority. "Mr. Maxwell, you have taught me to
+believe that you are a hardened villain, and I _command_ you, leave my
+presence!"
+
+The indignation of Emily was roused, and she spoke with a flashing eye,
+and with an imperativeness which her wrongs alone could have called to
+her aid.
+
+"That was very prettily done, lady; but I cannot obey. It is useless to
+multiply words. You _must_ go with me;" and Maxwell extended his hand.
+
+Emily recoiled from the proffered hand; her brow lowered, and her lips
+compressed. She regarded him with a look of ineffable scorn,--a look
+before which even Maxwell, penetrated, as he was, with evil purposes,
+quailed.
+
+"Go along, now, about your business, and don't bother the lady any
+more!" said the old woman, taking advantage of the momentary silence.
+
+"Miss Dumont, I once more ask you to go with me peaceably," said
+Maxwell, not heeding the dame's remark.
+
+"And once more I answer, _I will not_!"
+
+"I should be sorry to use compulsion. Do you forget your condition?"
+
+"I do not," replied Emily, with a tremor, but without the loss of her
+self-possession. "I am of the best blood of Louisiana."
+
+"But still a _slave!_"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed the hostess.
+
+"I am _not_ a slave! You know this is the plot of a villain like
+yourself. The true will has been found."
+
+"Indeed! Is it here?" said Maxwell, with a sneer, for while he had Emily
+in his power he feared nothing.
+
+"No; but it shall be brought forth in due season."
+
+"Until which time you are a slave; and not only a slave, but _my_
+slave," replied Maxwell, with perfect coolness, as he drew from his
+pocket-book the forged bill of sale.
+
+"Great God, desert me not in this hour of my afflictions!" groaned
+Emily. This last revelation entirely unnerved her, and exposed in a more
+terrible light her appalling position. She doubted not the paper she saw
+in Maxwell's hands was a bill of sale of her person, and that it would
+establish his claim; for his present purposes seemed too flagrant to be
+pursued without good authority. Her features, dress and language, she
+felt, would be no safeguards. She had seen slave-girls as fair and white
+as herself. She had heard of those who, with scarcely a drop of negro
+blood in their veins, were educated to pander to the appetite of
+depravity. She had seen them in the streets of New Orleans, in no manner
+differing in appearance from, the best-born ladies. Her situation,
+then, was an awful one.
+
+"Will you read this paper?" continued Maxwell.
+
+"No; like the will, it is a forgery!" replied Emily, determined to die
+rather than yield herself to the guidance of the attorney.
+
+"It gives me an undeniable right to your person, and you must obey me.
+The carriage waits in the road."
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, if you have a particle of honor left, or if even a shadow
+of pity rests in your heart, leave me, and finish your despicable
+persecution!" said Emily, in a pleading tone.
+
+"I have both honor and pity; but I cannot abandon my purpose. You
+refused to trust to my honor, refused to receive the offered hand, which
+would lead you back to the home you have left. I would fain have averted
+the calamity you are madly courting; but you would not. I humbly prayed
+to be allowed to step between you and your uncle's avarice; but you
+would not. I would willingly have prevented the accomplishment of your
+uncle's plans; but--"
+
+"Then you own that it is a plot?"
+
+"I acknowledge nothing."
+
+"But you know it is a base trick?"
+
+"It is not for me to say. The law will be satisfied. I have offered to
+do all I could for you, and you have refused. You appeal to my pity.
+Pity! did you pity me when I would have been your willing slave,--when I
+pleaded for the hope you have ruthlessly crushed?"
+
+"I did pity you; but I could not help you. I could not then, and I
+cannot now, give my hand where my heart is uninterested. I feared you
+then, as I despise you now. Report said your character was not entirely
+free from stain, and you are now striving to demonstrate the truth of
+the rumors," said Emily, whose contempt would not be concealed.
+
+"Report may have belied me," replied Maxwell, struggling with his
+violent passions. "But we are wasting time. Proceed with me to
+Vicksburg, and I pledge you my honor you shall not be injured or
+insulted."
+
+"Your honor!" said Emily, bitterly. "It is but a poor dependence for an
+unprotected female."
+
+"Gently, Miss Dumont! Do not rouse the demon within me by such taunts."
+
+"I fear the worst demon of your nature is already in the ascendency."
+
+"Enough! Will you go, or will you not?" said Maxwell, impatiently.
+
+"I will not!"
+
+"Then I must claim you as my slave,--do not start!--and _compel_ you."
+
+"Bond or free, I will not stir from beneath this roof with you," replied
+Emily, with calm resolution. All hope, if she had cherished any, was
+gone. Silently she breathed a prayer for strength and meekness to endure
+all; for fortitude to enable her to struggle till death with the
+oppression of her enemy; and for courage to meet any emergency in which
+her lot might be cast.
+
+"It must be done! I will hesitate no longer!" said Maxwell, seizing
+Emily by the arm.
+
+"Look here, you varmint, that won't do here!" exclaimed the mistress of
+the house, who, much against her inclination, had remained silent during
+the past fifteen minutes. "It shan't be said that Jerry Swinger's ruff
+couldn't protect a stranger."
+
+"But, woman, she is my property," answered Maxwell, not a little
+intimidated by the ferocious aspect of the matron.
+
+"Do not believe him, good woman, do not believe him!" exclaimed Emily,
+as she saw the woman was a little staggered by the attorney's claim.
+
+"No, ma'am, I won't believe him," responded Mrs. Swinger, as her heart
+triumphed over the argument of the lawyer.
+
+"It matters little whether you believe me or not. Here is the bill of
+sale, and, in the name of the law, I take what is mine."
+
+The hostess was not a little perplexed by the document, and Emily
+observed, with terror, that she wavered in her purpose.
+
+"It is a gross forgery!" exclaimed Emily, with a glance of earnest
+pleading, which the rough but kind-hearted woman could not resist.
+
+"I don't care nothin' about your bill of sale! The gal is safe," said
+Mrs. Swinger, with emphasis.
+
+Maxwell, resolving to execute his design, again seized Emily by the arm,
+and was on the point of hurrying her out of the cabin.
+
+Mrs. Swinger was a stout, masculine woman, brought up in the woods, and
+never fainted in her life, even in presence of an alligator or a
+panther. So she had no scruples in seizing Mr. Maxwell by the nape of
+the neck, and giving him a kind of double twist, which sent him reeling
+into the corner of the cabin.
+
+"I'll teach you to put your hands upon an onprotected female, you
+varmint, you!" said she, and, going to the door, she screamed "Jerry"
+three times, with a voice that would have done honor to a Stentor.
+
+"Now, stranger," said she, elevating her tall form to its full height,
+and, with a gesture like a queen of the Amazons, pointing to the door,
+"take yourself off, or my Jerry will tote you down to the river, and
+drown you like a kitten!"
+
+Mrs. Swinger's arm fell like a tragic heroine's, and she stood proudly
+contemplating the object of her wrath, perhaps hoping the attorney would
+await the arrival of "her Jerry," in whose prowess she seemed to place
+unlimited confidence.
+
+Vernon, who was waiting near the vehicle he had procured, heard the loud
+and angry words of the excited dame, and now approached the house to
+ascertain the cause of the confusion. This redoubtable worthy had
+received the reward of his villany, and considered the deed
+accomplished; but he had no objection to a little excitement. A fight
+was his element, and he never let slip an opportunity to join in one.
+
+The worthy Jerry Swinger; the good woman's beau ideal of a man, reached
+the cabin at the moment Vernon entered.
+
+Maxwell had now the alternative of abandoning his coveted prize, or of
+fighting for it. The first he would not do; and the second, with the
+wound he had received in the duel, was not an easy matter. The latter,
+however, he determined upon. Drawing from his pocket a revolver, he
+again approached Emily.
+
+"What's all this about?" said Jerry, as he entered the cabin.
+
+"Save me, sir,--save me from these villains!" exclaimed Emily, whose
+piteous accents penetrated the heart of the honest woodman.
+
+"That I will, ma'am. Why, you infarnal, sneakin' whelp of an alligator,
+whar's your conscience? But you've run agin a snag, and you shan't make
+another bend, this trip; so sheer off! Suke, jest fotch out my rifle,
+thar."
+
+Mrs. Swinger, before the assailants could prevent it, unhung the rifle,
+and was about to present it to her husband, when Maxwell pointed his
+pistol at her, and said, "Move another inch, woman, and I will fire!"
+
+"Look here, stranger," said Jerry, approaching the attorney, "if you
+touch that trigger, I'll pull your heart out!"
+
+Vernon saw that his time had come, and, grappling with the woodman, they
+both fell upon the mud floor of the cabin.
+
+Maxwell, his pistol still pointed at the woman, advanced a step, with
+the intention of taking the rifle from her. Mrs. Swinger, perceiving his
+purpose, elevated the rifle to her shoulder as gracefully as the most
+accomplished Kentuckian would have done, and fired. But her aim was bad;
+the ball passed through the attorney's hat. It came near enough,
+however, to rouse his passion, and, without a moment's deliberation,
+which might have saved him the reproach of shooting a woman, he fired.
+His aim, better than his feminine opponent's had been, sent the ball
+through her side, and she fell. Emily, filled with horror by the
+sanguinary scene, sprung to Mrs. Swinger's aid, as she fell.
+
+"Look here, you cussed villain," said Jerry Swinger, who, in the
+struggle, had got his antagonist under him, and had drawn from his
+pocket a long clasp-knife, "if you stir an inch, I'll put this
+blood-sucker through your shrivelled-up gizzard!"
+
+Vernon attempted to rise, bowie-knife in hand, to the conflict. Jerry
+Swinger was about to put his threat in execution, when Maxwell,
+released, by the fall of the woman, from danger in that quarter, struck
+him a heavy blow upon the head with the pistol in his hand. The woodman
+sunk back, with a groan, and Vernon, rising from his fallen posture, was
+about to plunge the knife to his heart, when a new actor appeared upon
+the stage. The blade of Vernon was arrested in its deadly descent, and a
+single blow from the fist of the new-comer laid the black-leg prostrate
+by the side of the woodman. Maxwell was thrown off his guard by the
+suddenness of the new assailant's movements, and, before he could raise
+his pistol,--his only dependence,--it was wrested from him. The
+new-comer threw the pistol down, and, seizing the attorney by the neck,
+and applying a smart blow with the knee upon his back, he brought him to
+the floor. Taking a cord which hung on the cabin wall, he bound the
+fallen man hand and foot, and dragged him out of the cabin. Placing his
+back against a tree, he lashed him firmly to its trunk. Leaving the
+chop-fallen attorney to mature his plans, the conqueror returned to the
+hut.
+
+"O, Hatchie, Hatchie! you have again saved me!" exclaimed Emily, as she
+saw her deliverer reenter. "Thank God! I am safe, though at what a
+terrible sacrifice!"
+
+She had, in her terror, obtained but a very imperfect idea of the
+exciting scene which had transpired before her. When she saw Vernon
+fall, and then Maxwell, she realized that she was safe. With an
+effort,--for her excited nerves had taken away her strength,--she rose
+from her position on the floor, by the side of her lifeless hostess. At
+this moment Hatchie entered, and, with a heart full of gratitude, she
+grasped his hand.
+
+"O, Hatchie! what do I not owe you for this service!"
+
+"I am so happy to serve you, Miss Emily!" replied Hatchie, rejoiced to
+hear again his mistress' voice.
+
+"You have been my best friend in this season of adversity. Without you,
+I had been lost forever. But let us do what we may for these poor
+people, who have, I fear, sacrificed their lives in my defence."
+
+The inanimate form of Mrs. Swinger was placed upon the bed by Hatchie,
+and, while Emily endeavored to ascertain the nature of her wound, the
+mulatto examined into Jerry's condition. The worthy woodman had only
+been stunned by the blow, and Hatchie's vigorous application soon
+restored him to consciousness. With the assistance of the mulatto, he
+rose. Looking wildly around him, he discovered the form of Vernon upon
+the floor. This seemed to recall his recollection of the events of the
+hour.
+
+"Whar's Suke?" said he.
+
+Then perceiving her outstretched form upon the bed, he calmly, but very
+sorrowfully, asked, "Is she dead?"
+
+"No, thank God! she is not dead; but I fear she is badly injured,"
+replied Emily, who was still bending over the sufferer.
+
+The woodman approached the bed-side, and, observing the faint breathing
+which gently heaved her chest, he seemed comforted.
+
+"Whar's the wound?" asked he, in a melancholy tone.
+
+"In her side," replied Emily; "the bullet seems to have penetrated the
+region below the heart."
+
+"Poor gal! I'm feered it's all up with her. She has been a good woman to
+me."
+
+"I am afraid my visit to your house will prove a sad day to you, even if
+she recovers," said Emily, in a sad tone.
+
+"No, stranger, no! Suke would have died any day to save a neighbor from
+misery;" and the woodman's eyes filled with tears at the remembrance of
+his humble companion's virtues.
+
+"But let us hope for the best. Is there a physician in the vicinity?"
+
+"Ay, stranger, there is one that sometimes helps the poor folks about
+here."
+
+"Then, Hatchie, you can go for him."
+
+"Stop a little! The doctor is an oncommon strange man, and lives on an
+island down the bend."
+
+"I will go for him," said Hatchie.
+
+"I dar say; but whar you gwine? that's the pint. Nobody can find the way
+that warn't there before. My son, Jim, will soon be here."
+
+"But we must be as speedy as possible," suggested Emily.
+
+The arrival of the woodman's son terminated the difficulty. It was
+arranged that Hatchie should go with him, to assist in rowing back.
+
+As they were about to depart, Vernon showed signs of returning life, and
+Hatchie conveyed him to an out-building till a more convenient season,
+and then dismissed the negro and his vehicle, which had been brought to
+convey Emily to Vicksburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
+       Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave;
+     Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell,
+       As eager to anticipate their grave."  BYRON.
+
+
+We left the Chalmetta in a situation which demands explanation.
+
+Emily retired to her state-room on that dreadful night entirely relieved
+from the distressing anticipations which had before oppressed her. Her
+name and her home were virtually restored to her. The foul stain upon
+the honor of her father had been removed. Doubt and fear scarcely
+disturbed her; the battle yet to be fought seemed but a trifle. Maxwell
+had said her uncle was left at a wood-yard. This was strange. It looked
+not like an accident, but the doing of the wily attorney; and perhaps
+Jaspar had voluntarily withdrawn; perhaps her uncle had made _her_ the
+reward of Maxwell's silence. But these reflections were now robbed of
+their bitterness. She felt that in Henry Carroll she had a sufficient
+protection.
+
+She retired to her state-room with a light heart, and even Maxwell's
+villanous designs were forgotten as she revelled in the bright hopes
+before her. She knew nothing of the foul plot which had been concocted
+for her abduction. She knew not that Henry Carroll was then watching
+over her. In blissful ignorance of the danger that hovered near her, she
+sunk into the quiet sleep of innocence.
+
+After midnight her slumbers were disturbed by the unusual creaking of
+the boat, and the hasty puffs of steam from the escape-pipes. She
+awoke, and was at once sensible of the immense pressure to which the
+boilers were subjected. Awhile she lay and listened to the ominous
+sounds which indicated the danger of the boat; then, much alarmed, she
+rose and dressed herself. For nearly an hour she sat in the darkness of
+the room, during which time the danger seemed momentarily to increase,
+until, no longer able to endure such agonizing suspense, she was about
+to leave the room. At this moment Vernon was about to enter, when the
+explosion took place.
+
+The forward part of the Chalmetta was completely torn in pieces. The
+gentlemen's cabin was lifted from its supports, and torn into fragments.
+The unfortunate occupants of berths in this part of the boat were either
+instantly killed or severely wounded. The ladies' cabin, being at a
+greater distance from the immediate scene of the explosion, had not
+suffered so severely. Although torn from its position, and shattered by
+the shock, it had proved fatal to but a few of its occupants, who had
+been crushed by falling timbers. The hull of the boat was not injured by
+the explosion, but before those who had escaped a sudden death could
+recover their disordered faculties, the flames began to ascend from the
+wreck of the cabin, which had been precipitated upon the furnaces.
+
+The scene surpassed description. The groans of the wounded and scalded,
+the shrieks of those who were on the boat, expecting every moment to be
+carried down in her, mingled in wild confusion on the midnight air.
+Fortunately the passengers were mostly soldiers, accustomed to scenes of
+horror, who immediately turned their attention to the extinguishing of
+the flames. The Flatfoot, No. 3, approached within a short distance of
+the wreck, and a line was passed from her to the bow of the Chalmetta.
+Her passengers and crew were humanely assisting in rescuing those who
+had jumped or been thrown overboard in the disaster.
+
+By the aid of a fire-engine on board of the Flatfoot, which had
+approached near enough to render it available, the flames were
+extinguished. It was ascertained that the Chalmetta had received no
+serious damage in her hull; and as all the survivors had been picked up,
+the Flatfoot took her in tow, and proceeded up the river.
+
+Emily had been stunned by the explosion, and ere she could recover,
+Vernon, with a strong arm, bore her to the main deck. The boat was
+lowered into the water, and, before the passengers, or the petrified
+watch in the hold, could regain their self-possession, it was impelled
+by the strong arm of Vernon, and the ruffian who had been hired for the
+purpose, far astern of the wreck.
+
+The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when Vernon had
+handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by Hatchie and his
+friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck of the cabins came
+tumbling down.
+
+Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made his way,
+as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the stern, where
+he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from the forward part
+of the boat now enabled him to discover the abductors of Emily rowing
+down the river. Leaping into the water, he seized a door, which was
+floating near him, and thus enabled to sustain himself with tolerable
+ease, he swam after them.
+
+Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on the
+shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her pious heart
+was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she had been rescued
+from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to her deliverer, for
+such she supposed was the person in the boat with her. Who was he? Was
+it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was. She raised her head from the
+position in which Maxwell had placed it, and endeavored to distinguish
+his features; but the darkness defeated her wish.
+
+"Fear nothing, lady; you are safe," said Maxwell.
+
+The voice was like the knell of doom. It grated harshly upon her ears,
+and gave rise to a thousand fears in her timid heart.
+
+"Thank God, I am safe!" said she, after a pause.
+
+"And I thank God I have been the means of preserving you," replied
+Maxwell, willing to render the terrible calamity an accessory to his
+crime.
+
+"But why do you go this way?" asked Emily, as she saw the Flatfoot
+approach the wreck.
+
+"I only wish to convey you from the scene of danger."
+
+"Then why not go to that steamer?"
+
+"Probably she is by this time converted into a hospital for the
+sufferers. I would not shock your delicate nerves with such a scene of
+woe and misery as will be on board of her."
+
+"May we not render some assistance?"
+
+"No doubt there are more assistants than can labor to advantage now."
+
+Emily was silent, but not satisfied. Her fears in some measure subsided,
+when, about two miles below the scene of the disaster, Maxwell ordered
+the boat to be put in at a wood-yard. The attorney was all gentleness,
+and assisted her to the cabin of Jerry Swinger, the owner of the
+wood-yard.
+
+Hatchie had been able, by severe exertion, to keep within hearing of the
+splashing oars. The current fortunately carried him near the wood-yard,
+and, aided by the sounds he heard at the cabin, and by the boat which he
+saw, he concluded the party had landed there. Letting go the door, a few
+vigorous strokes brought him to the shore. Approaching the cabin, he
+satisfied himself that his mistress had taken shelter there. Concealing
+himself in the woods, he awaited with much anxiety the next movement of
+the attorney. In the morning he heard the noise at the cabin, and had
+been the means of saving his mistress from a calamity far more dreadful
+than death itself.
+
+On the evening of the day of the explosion, an elderly gentleman sat in
+a private apartment of one of the principal hotels in Vicksburg,
+attentively reading an "Extra," in which the particulars of the disaster
+were detailed. He read, with little apparent interest, the account,
+until he came to the names of "Saved, Killed, Wounded and Missing." An
+expression of the deepest anxiety settled upon his countenance. He
+finished reading the list of survivors, and a transient feeling of
+satisfaction was visible on his face. When in the list of the "missing"
+he read the name of "Miss Dumont, Antoine De Guy and Henry Carroll," a
+smile as of glutted revenge and malignant hatred dispelled the cloud of
+anxiety which had before brooded over his features. Throwing down the
+sheet, he drank off a glass of brandy, which had been waiting his
+pleasure on the table. The potion was not insignificant in quantity or
+strength, and the wry face he made did not add to the amiability of his
+expression. As the dose permeated his brain, and produced that agreeable
+lightness which is the first phase of intoxication, he rubbed his hands
+with childish delight, and half muttered an expression of pleasure.
+
+Suddenly his countenance assumed its former lowering aspect, his brows
+knit, and his lips compressed.
+
+"Missing!" muttered he. "What the devil does _missing_ mean? What can it
+mean but dead, defunct, gone to a better world, as the canting
+hypocrites say?"
+
+But we will not attempt to record the muttered soliloquy of the
+gentleman,--Jaspar Dumont, who had reached Vicksburg that day, from the
+wood-yard where we left him. It was too profane, too sacrilegious, to
+stain our page.
+
+Grasping the bell-rope with a sudden energy, as though a new thought had
+struck him, he gave it a violent pull, which brought to his presence a
+black waiter.
+
+"Has the Dragon returned?" asked Jaspar.
+
+"Yes, sar, jus got in, Massa."
+
+"Is there any person in the house who went up in her?"
+
+"Yes, massa, one gemman in de office."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Massa--massa--" and the darkey scratched his head, to stimulate his
+memory, which act instantly brought the name to his mind.
+
+"Massa _Lousey_."
+
+"Mister what, you black scoundrel!"
+
+"Yes, sar,--Massa Lousey; dat's de name."
+
+"Lousey?" repeated Jaspar.
+
+"Stop bit," said the waiter, a new idea penetrating his cranium. "Dar
+Lousey, dat's de name, for sartin."
+
+"Dalhousie," responded Jaspar. "Give my compliments to Mr. Dalhousie,
+and ask him to oblige me with a few moments' conversation in this room."
+
+"Yes, sar;" and the waiter retired, muttering, "Dar Lousey."
+
+The Dragon was a small steamer, which had been sent, on the intelligence
+of a "blow up," to obtain the particulars for the press, and render
+assistance to the survivors. Dalhousie was a transient visitor at the
+hotel, and, with many others, had gone in the Dragon to gratify his
+curiosity.
+
+"Sorry to trouble you, sir," said Jaspar, as the gentleman entered the
+apartment; "but I am much interested in the fate of several persons who
+were passengers on board the Chalmetta."
+
+"No trouble, Mr. Dumont, I am extremely happy to serve you," replied
+Dalhousie, whose obsequious manners were ample evidence of his
+sincerity.
+
+"My niece was on board of her," continued Jaspar, "and I see her name in
+the list of missing."
+
+"Your _niece_!" replied Dalhousie, emphasizing the latter word. He had a
+few days before come from New Orleans, and had there heard of the
+startling developments in the Dumont family.
+
+"No matter," returned Jaspar, sharply; "she went by the name of Dumont.
+Did you find any bodies?"
+
+"We picked up the remains of six men and two females."
+
+"Can you describe the females? How were they dressed?" asked Jaspar, in
+an excited manner.
+
+"One was dressed in black. The other had on a common calico."
+
+"But the one in black,--describe her,--her hair,--was she tall or
+short?" interrupted Jaspar, hurriedly.
+
+"Her hair was in curls. She was apparently about twenty-six or seven,
+and rather short in stature."
+
+"Curls," muttered Jaspar; "she has not worn curls since the colonel
+died. She may have put them on again to please that infernal Captain
+Carroll. Twenty-six years old, you think?"
+
+"She may have been younger. Her features were terribly mangled," and Mr.
+Dalhousie cast a penetrating glance at Jaspar, as though he would read
+out the beatings of his black heart.
+
+Jaspar considered again the description, and, though it did not
+correspond to his niece's, his anxiety had contributed to warp his
+judgment. He was very willing to believe the Chalmetta's fatal disaster
+had forever removed the only obstacle to the gratification of his
+ambition, and the only source of future insecurity. He paced the room,
+muttering, in his abstraction, sundry broken phrases.
+
+Dalhousie watched him, and endeavored to obtain the purport of his
+disjointed soliloquy. A stranger, without some strong motive, could
+scarcely have had so much interest in him as he appeared to have.
+
+"Had she any jewels--ornaments of any kind?" asked Dalhousie, after the
+silence had grown disagreeable to him.
+
+"She had," replied Jaspar, stopping suddenly in his perambulation of the
+room, and speaking with an eagerness which betrayed his anxiety to
+obtain more evidence. "Were any found upon her person?"
+
+"You are a man of honor, Mr. Dumont, and, if I disclose to you a
+thoughtless indiscretion of my own, you will not, of course, expose
+me?" said Dalhousie, with, hesitation, and apparent want of confidence.
+
+"Of course not," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "What has this to do with
+the matter?"
+
+"Did your niece wear a ring?"
+
+"Yes, a mourning ring."
+
+"Do you know the ring? Could you identify it?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Jaspar, who remembered having seen an ornament of
+this description on the finger of Emily.
+
+"Will you describe it to me, if you please?"
+
+But Jaspar had reckoned without his host. The details of a piece of
+jewelry were matters entirely foreign to his taste. However, he
+succeeded in giving a description, which, from its general terms, might
+have applied to one mourning ring as well as another.
+
+"Is this the one?" asked Dalhousie, with an anxiety which he could
+scarcely conceal, as he produced a ring.
+
+"That _is_ it," replied Jaspar, confidently; and the jewel did bear some
+resemblance to that worn by Emily.
+
+"But where did you obtain this?"
+
+"I must insist on the most inviolable secrecy."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Jaspar, eagerly.
+
+"I will disclose the particulars only on the condition that you pledge
+yourself never to reveal my agency in the matter; for it would
+compromise my character."
+
+"Very well. I pledge you my honor," replied Jaspar, impatiently. "You
+took it from the corpse of the lady in black."
+
+"I did, and you must be aware that such an act would subject me to
+inconvenience, if known."
+
+"Don't be alarmed; your secret is safe."
+
+"But are you sure this is the ring worn by your niece?"
+
+"It looks like it;" but Jaspar was perplexed with a doubt. He bethought
+himself that it was only in a casual glance he had observed Emily's
+ring. He had never examined it, and, after all, this might not be the
+one. There was certainly nothing strange in any lady dressed in black
+wearing a mourning ring. Again he turned the ring over and over, and
+scrutinized it closely. His finger touched a spring, and the plate flew
+up, disclosing a small lock of gray hair, twined around the single
+letter D.
+
+"I will swear to it now," exclaimed Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed the
+malicious joy he felt at the discovery. He was perfectly satisfied now
+of the identity of the ring. It never occurred to him that D stood for
+any other name than Dumont.
+
+"This appears to be decisive evidence," replied Dalhousie. "Your
+_niece_, then, must be the person brought down by the Dragon."
+
+"Without doubt."
+
+"As this matter, then, is settled to your satisfaction--"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Jaspar.
+
+"I beg your pardon," resumed Dalhousie, with a supercilious air; "I only
+meant that your mind was satisfied--relieved from a painful anxiety."
+
+"A very painful anxiety," replied Jaspar.
+
+"I understand, sir, you own a large plantation."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Perhaps you need an overseer?"
+
+Jaspar acknowledged that he did need an overseer.
+
+"I should be happy to make an engagement with you," said the other, in
+complaisant tones.
+
+"I don't think you would suit me. You are too genteel, by half,"
+returned Jaspar, bluntly.
+
+"I have been in a better position, it is true. I was born in France, but
+I understand the business."
+
+"Did you ever manage a gang of niggers?"
+
+After a little hesitation, Dalhousie replied that he had.
+
+"We will talk of it some other time," said Jaspar, satisfied, from the
+air and manner of the other, that his statement was false.
+
+Dalhousie put on his hat, and, taking the mourning ring from the table,
+was about to enfold it in a bit of paper.
+
+"What are you about, sir?" exclaimed Jaspar, as he witnessed the act.
+
+"The ring is my property, is it not?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Put it down, or, by heavens, I will expose your rascality in taking
+it!"
+
+"Do not be hasty, sir. I have not studied your looks, the last hour,
+without profiting by them."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" said Jaspar, a little startled.
+
+"I mean that the death of your niece does not seem to be received with
+that degree of sorrow which an uncle would naturally feel."
+
+"_Fool_! she was not my niece!"
+
+"Why are you so anxious to establish her decease?"
+
+"Was I anxious?" said Jaspar, not knowing how far he might have betrayed
+himself.
+
+"Quite enough so to convince even the most indifferent observer that you
+were extremely rejoiced at the event," replied Dalhousie, willing to
+make out a strong case.
+
+Jaspar did not reply, and it was plain Dalhousie's remarks had had their
+effect.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, I flatter myself I am a man of discretion. As you were
+saying, you need an overseer," said Dalhousie, with a glance at Jaspar,
+which conveyed more meaning than his words.
+
+The glance was irresistible, and Jaspar engaged him at a liberal salary,
+as well as his wife, who was to be the housekeeper at Bellevue.
+Dalhousie was a needy man. His fortunes were on the descending scale.
+Born in France, he had emigrated to this country, with the chimerical
+hope of speedily making a fortune. He could not build up the coveted
+temple stone by stone, but wished it to rise like a fairy castle. With
+such views, he had wandered about the country with his wife (whom he had
+married since his arrival), in search of the philosopher's stone. He
+had several times engaged in subordinate capacities, but his impatient
+hopes would not brook the distance between him and the goal. He had been
+to New Orleans, but the city was almost deserted. On his arrival at
+Vicksburg, Jaspar had been pointed out to him as a person who could
+probably favor his wishes, and he had obtained an introduction to him.
+
+Jaspar's thoughts and feelings he read. He discovered the nature of the
+relations between the uncle and niece,--which required but little
+sagacity, under the circumstances. Determined to profit by the knowledge
+he had obtained, his first step was to satisfy Jaspar of the death of
+Emily, of whom, in reality, he knew nothing. The initial letter of his
+wife's name in the ring had suggested the means, and he had convinced
+Jaspar as related. How Dalhousie's sense of moral rectitude would allow
+him to use the deception, we will not say; but he seemed to tolerate the
+idea that the great purpose he had in view would justify any little
+peccadilloes he might commit in obtaining it.
+
+He had gained his end, and taken the first step in the great road to
+fortune; and he doubted not his future relations with Jaspar would
+suggest a second.
+
+The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in behalf of
+Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg.
+
+In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned the next
+day to Bellevue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "Say quick! quoth he; I bid thee say,
+     What manner of man art thou?
+
+     "Forthwith, this frame of mine was wrenched
+     With a woful agony,
+     Which forced me to begin my tale;
+     And then it left me free."  ANCIENT MARINER.
+
+
+The morning advanced, and Henry Carroll, under the influence of the
+powerful opiate, still slept. By his side sat the misanthropic
+physician, who seemed to have learned a lesson of the dealing of the
+Creator with the creature such as he had never before acquired. He had
+rescued a fellow-creature from sure death, and the act seemed a part of
+the great duties of life which he had so long neglected. He reflected
+upon the numerous opportunities of doing good to his fellow-men from
+which his hermit-life debarred him. Again he thought of his daughter.
+Her image rose before him in the darkened chamber of the sick man, and
+seemed to reproach him for his want of faithfulness to her. The incident
+and reflections of the previous night had strangely influenced his mind,
+and changed the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of
+his lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
+vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.
+
+The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs. Swinger.
+Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in case the
+patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical instruments, he
+proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat, he took the two
+messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The wind was still fresh,
+and the yacht, with all her sails spread, bore the doctor rapidly on his
+errand of mercy. A strange impulse seemed to animate him,--an impulse of
+genuine, heart-felt sympathy towards the whole human family,--a feeling
+to which he had before been a stranger. His profession seemed to him now
+a boon of mercy to the suffering, and he saw how poorly he had performed
+his mission to the world. He felt a pleasure he had never before
+experienced, in being able to relieve the distressed, to heal the
+wounded heart, as well as the bruised limb.
+
+Under the skilful pilotage of Dr. Vaudelier the more rapid currents were
+avoided, the boat pressed to her utmost speed; and in a short time the
+party landed at the wood-yard of Jerry Swinger.
+
+During the absence of the messengers Emily, by the most assiduous
+attentions, had succeeded in restoring the wounded woman to a state of
+partial consciousness. The arrival of the doctor increased her hopes of
+a speedy restoration. The rough woodman, who had patiently watched Emily
+as she labored over his beloved partner, was melted into tears of joy
+when he heard her faintly articulate his name.
+
+After a thorough examination of the wound, the doctor announced the
+gratifying intelligence that the woman was not dangerously wounded. The
+severe operation of extracting the ball was performed, and the patient
+left to the quiet her situation demanded.
+
+On the passage from Cottage Island Hatchie had related the particulars
+of the affray, so that on his arrival Dr. Vaudelier was in possession of
+all the facts.
+
+"You have had a severe fight here, madam," said he to Emily, who had
+followed him out to inquire more particularly into the situation of her
+hostess.
+
+"We have, indeed; but I trust no lives will be lost," replied Emily.
+
+"No; the woman will do very well. The wound is a severe one, but not
+dangerous. Her strong constitution will resist all fatal consequences."
+
+"I trust it may, for this has been a day of disaster, without the loss
+of more life."
+
+"You were a passenger in the Chalmetta?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Then you have had a narrow escape."
+
+"But a more narrow one since the explosion. Thank Heaven, I have been
+preserved from both calamities!"
+
+"Had you no friends on board?"
+
+"I had--one friend;" and she hesitated. "I fear he has perished."
+
+"Hope for the best!" replied the doctor, kindly.
+
+The blush, and then the change to the paleness of death, as Emily
+thought of Henry, first as the lover, and then as a mangled corpse had
+not escaped the notice of Dr. Vaudelier. He read in her varying color
+the relation they had sustained to each other.
+
+"I have no alternative but hope," said Emily; "but it seems like hoping
+against the certainty of evil."
+
+"I saved the life of a gentleman this morning who must shortly have
+perished without aid. He, too, had lost a dear friend."
+
+"Indeed!" said Emily, with interest.
+
+"Yes; but he was much injured, and will require the most diligent care."
+
+"I trust your merciful endeavors will be crowned with success. Do you
+know the gentleman?"
+
+"I do not. He has not yet been able to converse much. He was dressed in
+the uniform of an officer."
+
+"An officer! Perhaps it is he!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was much interested in the adventure, and the pale,
+anxious features of Emily excited his sympathy for her.
+
+"As I dressed his wounds," said he, "I noticed the initials upon his
+linen. Perhaps these may afford some clue."
+
+"What were they?" exclaimed Emily, scarcely able to articulate, in the
+intensity of her feelings.
+
+"H.C."
+
+"It is he! It is he! And you say he is wounded?"
+
+"I am sorry to say he is."
+
+"Can I go to him?" said Emily, grasping the doctor's arm.
+
+"I fear your presence will excite him. Are you a relative?"
+
+"No, not a relative," replied Emily, blushing; "but I know he would like
+to see me."
+
+"I do not doubt it," said the doctor, with a smile,--a luxury in which
+he rarely indulged. "I am afraid your presence will agitate him."
+
+"Let me watch over him while he sleeps. He need not know I am near."
+
+"Rather difficult to manage, but you shall see him. Will you return with
+me?"
+
+"Thank you, I will. But poor Mrs. Swinger!" and a shade of anxiety
+crossed her features, as she thought of leaving her kind hostess in
+affliction.
+
+"Her husband is a good nurse, and understands her case better than you
+do. If I mistake not, your services will be full as acceptable at my
+cottage."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier tried to smile at this sally; but the effort was too much
+for him, and he sank under it.
+
+Emily, though sorry to leave her protectress, was drawn by the
+irresistible magnetism of affection to Cottage Island. She compromised
+between the opposing demands of duty by promising herself that she would
+again visit the wood-yard.
+
+She embarked with Dr. Vaudelier, and they were soon gliding down the
+mighty river on their way to Cottage Island. Emily had wished Hatchie to
+accompany her, as much for his safety as for her own; but the faithful
+fellow desired to stay at the wood-yard. They had before had an
+interview in relation to the will. Uncle Nathan, who had been made the
+custodian of it, had not been seen or heard from, and her case again
+seemed to be desperate. Hatchie assured her of his safety, and of his
+good faith. He had left him in the hold, and, with common prudence, the
+worthy farmer might have made his escape unharmed. Emily, who now
+regarded her devoted servant in the light of a guardian angel, had
+entire confidence in his reasoning and conclusions. Of Hatchie's motive
+in remaining at the wood-yard she had no conception. If she had had, she
+would probably have insisted on his attendance.
+
+After the departure of Dr. Vaudelier and Emily, Hatchie went to the
+cabin, and took therefrom a carpet-bag belonging to Maxwell,--an article
+which, even in the hurry of his exit from the steamer, he had not
+omitted to take. With this in his hand, he proceeded to the
+out-building, to satisfy himself of the security of his prisoners; but
+Vernon had fled,--the wooden door of the shed had not been proof against
+his art. Hatchie was not disconcerted by this incident. Vernon, he was
+aware, was only a subordinate, who did his evil deeds for hire, and
+against him he bore no ill will. But it immediately occurred to him that
+the ruffian might have liberated Maxwell, and this would have utterly
+deranged his present plans. Taking from the shed a long rope, he
+proceeded to the other side of the cabin, where he had secured the
+attorney to the tree. To his great satisfaction he found the prisoner
+secure. Vernon did not see him, or was too intent on his own safety to
+bestow a thought upon his late employer.
+
+Hatchie reached the scene of Maxwell's humiliation. Coolly seating
+himself on a log near the discomfited lawyer, and regarding him with a
+look of contempt, he proceeded to examine the fastenings of the
+carpet-bag. Maxwell spoke not; his pride was still "above par," and he
+returned Hatchie's contemptuous glances with a scowl of scorn and
+hatred. The attorney was in sore tribulation at the unexpected turn
+affairs had taken, and the future did not present a very encouraging
+aspect. Of the mulatto'a present intentions he could gain no idea. The
+long rope he had brought with him looked ominous, and a shudder passed
+through his frame as he considered the uses to which it might be
+applied. As he regarded the cool proceedings of his jailer, the worst
+anticipations crowded upon him. The mulatto looked like a demon of the
+inquisition to his guilty soul. But, tortured as he was by the most
+terrible forebodings, he still preserved his dignified scowl, and
+watched the operations of Hatchie with apparent coolness.
+
+Hatchie examined the lock upon the carpet-bag, and found that it
+entirely secured the contents from observation.
+
+"I will trouble you for the key of this bag," said he, politely, as he
+rose and approached the attorney.
+
+"What mean you, fellow? Would you rob me?" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Not at all, sir; do not alarm yourself. The key, if you please. In
+which pocket is it?"
+
+Hatchie approached, with the intention of searching his prisoner.
+
+"Stand off, villain!" cried Maxwell, as he gave the mulatto a hearty
+kick in the neighborhood of the knee.
+
+"Very well, sir," said Hatchie, not at all disconcerted by the blow.
+
+Taking the rope he had brought, he dexterously passed it round the legs
+of the attorney, and made it fast to the tree.
+
+"Now, sir, if you will tell which pocket contains the key, you will save
+yourself the indignity of being searched."
+
+"Miserable villain! if you wish to commit violence upon me, you must do
+it without my consent."
+
+"Sorry to disoblige you, sir," said Hatchie, with an affectation of
+civility; "but I must have the key."
+
+"I have not the key; it is lost. If I had, you should struggle for it."
+
+"You will pardon me for doubting your word. I must satisfy myself."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted the attorney, as his tormentor proceeded to put
+his threat in execution.
+
+This was a contingency for which Hatchie was not prepared. To the little
+operation he was about to perform he desired no witnesses at present,
+and a slight rustling in the bushes near him not a little disconcerted
+him. Stuffing a handkerchief into the attorney's mouth, he waited for
+the intruder upon his pastime; but no one came, and he proceeded to
+search the pockets of the lawyer. To his great disappointment, the key
+could not be found.
+
+Hatchie was persuaded that this carpet-bag must contain some evidence
+which would be of service to his mistress, in case Uncle Nathan and the
+will should not come to light. There were two acts to the drama he
+intended to perform on the present occasion; the first, alone with the
+attorney,--and the last, in the presence of witnesses. Deferring,
+therefore, the opening of the bag to the second act, he proceeded with
+the first.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell," said he, "as you have given me encouragement that
+you _can_ tell the truth, I have a few questions to put to you."
+
+"I will answer no questions," replied Maxwell, sullenly.
+
+He saw that the mulatto would have it all his own way; and he felt a
+desire to conciliate him, but his pride forbade. He felt very much as a
+lion would feel in the power of a mouse, if such a thing could be.
+
+"Please to consider, sir. You are entirely in my power."
+
+"No matter; do with me as you please,--I will answer no questions."
+
+"Think of it; and be assured I will do my best to _compel_ an answer. If
+I do not succeed, you will be food for the buzzards before yonder sun
+sets."
+
+"What, fellow! would you murder me?" exclaimed Maxwell, in alarm.
+
+"I would not; if you compel me to use violence, the consequences be upon
+your own head. Will you answer me?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated. The dreadful thought of being murdered in cold blood
+presented itself on the one hand, and the scarcely less disagreeable
+thought of exposing his crimes, on the other. The loss of reputation,
+his prospective fall in society, were not less terrible than death
+itself. Resolving to trust in his good fortune for the result, he firmly
+refused to answer.
+
+Hatchie now took the rope, and having cut off a portion from one end,
+with which he fastened together the legs of his prisoner, he ascended
+the tree with an end in his hand. Passing the rope over a smooth branch
+about fifteen feet from the ground, he descended and made a slip-noose
+in one end. Heedless of the remonstrances of the victim, he fastened it
+securely to his neck.
+
+Seating himself again on the log, with the other end of the rope in his
+hand, he looked sternly upon the attorney, and said,
+
+"Now, sir, I put the question again. Will you answer me?"
+
+"Never!" said Maxwell, in desperation.
+
+"Very well, then; if you have any prayers to say, say them now; your
+time is short."
+
+"Fool! villain! murderer! I have no prayers to say. I am not a
+drivelling idiot, or fanatic; I can die like a man."
+
+"You had better reconsider your determination."
+
+"No, craven! woolly-headed coward! I will not flinch. Do you think to
+_drive_ a gentleman into submission?"
+
+"Be calm, Mr. Maxwell; do not waste your last moments in idle
+invectives. The time were better spent in penitence and prayer."
+
+"Pshaw! go on, if you dare, with your murderous work!"
+
+Hatchie now unloosed the cords which secured the attorney to the tree,
+and he stood bound hand and foot beneath the branch over which the line
+was passed. Seizing the end of the rope, the mulatto pulled it gently at
+first, but gradually increasing the pressure upon the prisoner's throat,
+as if to give him a satisfactory foretaste of the hanging sensation.
+This slow torture was too much for the attorney's fortitude; and, as his
+respiration grew painful, he called to his executioner to stop. Hatchie
+promptly loosened the rope.
+
+After giving the victim time to recover from the choking sensation, the
+mulatto repeated his question.
+
+The fear of an ignominious death, of dying under such revolting
+circumstances, had a cooling effect upon the bravado spirit of the
+lawyer. His pride had received a most salutary shock, and he felt
+disposed to treat for his life, even with the despised slave of Miss
+Dumont. Had his tormentor been any other than one of that detested race,
+he could easily have regarded him as a man and conceded something for
+the boon of life. Reduced to the last extremity by the relentless energy
+of his victor, he had no choice but to yield the point or die.
+
+"Will you answer my questions?" repeated Hatchie, sternly.
+
+"What would you have me answer?" replied Maxwell, doggedly.
+
+"Did you forge the will by which my mistress is deprived of her rights?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you know who did?"
+
+Maxwell hesitated, and Hatchie again pulled the rope till his face was
+crimson.
+
+"Who forged the will?" repeated Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"I did not," replied Maxwell, as soon as he could regain breath enough
+to speak.
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"I know not."
+
+[Illustration: Hatchie forcing secrets from Maxwell. Page 178]
+
+Hatchie pulled the rope again.
+
+"Your master--"
+
+"I have no master. Miss Emily is my mistress."
+
+"I have been told his name was De Guy."
+
+"Who is De Guy?"
+
+"A lawyer of New Orleans."
+
+"And what agency had you in the affair?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"Then Mr. Dumont and De Guy are the only persons concerned in the
+transaction?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are positive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, how comes it, Mr. Maxwell, that they have intrusted you with
+their secret? How came you by this knowledge?" said Hatchie, fiercely,
+as he prepared, apparently, to swing up the attorney.
+
+Maxwell was staggered by this question, and Hatchie perceived his
+discomfiture. That Maxwell had any agency in the transaction he only
+suspected; certainly it was not he whom he had seen with Jaspar on the
+night of his escape from Bellevue. There was much evidence for and much
+against him.
+
+Maxwell, unwilling to criminate himself, was in a sad dilemma; his ready
+wits alone could save him. But his hesitation procured him another
+instant of suffocation.
+
+"I obtained the knowledge from De Guy," said he, at last.
+
+"How! did he voluntarily betray the confidence of his employer?"
+
+"No, from his inquiries concerning the affairs of the family, I
+suspected something; when the will was read my impressions were
+confirmed. I charged him with the crime."
+
+"Did he acknowledge it?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Then why did you not expose the plot?"
+
+"It did not suit my purpose."
+
+"What was your purpose?"
+
+"To marry Miss Dumont."
+
+The attorney's answers seemed plausible. His actions were in conformity
+with his avowed purpose. If he wished to marry his mistress, he would
+not have joined in the plot. But the bill of sale, which Emily had
+mentioned to him, was against him. Poor Hatchie was no lawyer, and was
+sadly perplexed by the conflicting testimony.
+
+"Where did you get that bill of sale?" said he.
+
+Again the attorney hesitated, and again Hatchie pulled the rope till he
+was ready to answer.
+
+"Is it a forgery?" said Hatchie, slackening the rope.
+
+"Probably it is," replied Maxwell.
+
+"Who wrote it?"
+
+"De Guy."
+
+"This De Guy is a most consummate villain, and shall yet be brought to
+justice. But how came it in your possession?"
+
+"I received it from De Guy, as the agent of Mr. Dumont. In fine, I
+_bought_ the girl," said Maxwell, maliciously.
+
+Hatchie's temper had nearly got the better of him, for he made a spring
+on the rope, which threatened death to the attorney. But his judgment
+overcame his passion, and he again turned his attention to the great
+object before him.
+
+"Now, Mr. Maxwell, as you are a lawyer," said Hatchie, "you are aware of
+the disadvantages I shall labor under in making the evidence you have
+furnished me available."
+
+"I am," replied the attorney. "Do you think I would have yielded to you,
+if I had not known it?"
+
+"Have you told me the truth in these statements?" asked Hatchie.
+
+The attorney hesitated; but a sharp twinge at the neck compelled him to
+say that he had.
+
+"Then I shall be obliged to trouble you to repeat some of your
+revelations. Now, mark me, Mr. Maxwell; I am going to procure the
+woodman and his son, to witness your statements."
+
+"Fool! what avail will they be, extorted with a rope about my neck?"
+
+"Perhaps we may be able to show you some law such as you never read in
+your books. If, as I suspect, this carpet-bag contains papers, I doubt
+not we shall find something to confirm your evidence."
+
+The face of the lawyer grew a shade paler; but he spoke not.
+
+"Before I go, let me charge you, at your peril, not to be obstinate; for
+here I solemnly assure you that you shall swing by the branch above you,
+if you refuse to answer," said Hatchie, going towards the cabin.
+
+The scene of this exploit was at some distance from the log-cabin of the
+woodman, and the mulatto had scarcely got out of sight before Vernon
+appeared. He had been at a little distance from the parties during the
+whole scene, but he had too much respect for the prowess of his late
+conqueror to venture on a rescue. He had once been tempted to do so, and
+had made the noise which had disturbed Hatchie. The blackleg, without
+much sympathy for his confederate, had rather regarded the whole scene
+as a good joke than as a serious affair; and, as he approached the
+lawyer, his merriment and keen satire were not relished by the victim.
+
+"But how is it, Maxwell, about this will? You have never told me about
+it," said Vernon, who, ruffian as he was, believed in fair play.
+
+"I will tell you another time; cut these ropes, and let us be off."
+
+"But let me tell you, my fine fellow, that though I can rob a man who
+has enough, I would not be concerned in such a dirty game as this," said
+Vernon, as he severed the ropes which bound the attorney. "If you have
+been helping old Dumont to wrong his niece, may I be hanged, as that
+nigger would have served you, if I don't blow the whole affair!"
+
+"You know nothing about it; but, let me tell you, I am not concerned in
+the affair. The girl, I have no doubt, is a slave."
+
+The confederates now made all haste to depart from their proximity to
+such dangers as both had incurred, and, by a circuitous way, reached the
+river, where, taking a boat, they rowed under the banks down stream.
+
+Hatchie was disappointed, on his return, to find his prisoner had
+escaped. A diligent search, by the precaution of the confederates, was
+rendered fruitless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     "Why should my curiosity excite me
+     To search and pry into the affairs of others,
+     Who have to employ my thoughts so many cares
+     And sorrows of my own?"                LILLO.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont sat in the library at Bellevue. It was the evening after
+his return from Vicksburg. Near him, engaged in examining a heap of
+papers, was his new overseer, Dalhousie.
+
+Jaspar was musing over the late turn his affairs had taken; and, while
+he congratulated himself on his present triumphant position, he could
+but regard with apprehension the future, which seemed to smile only to
+lure him on to certain destruction. The trite saying, "There is no peace
+for the wicked," is literally and universally true. The lowering brow,
+the threatening scowl, the suspicious glance, of the wicked uncle, were
+as reliable evidences of his misery as his naked soul, torn with doubt
+and anguish, could have been. Every new paper the overseer turned over
+produced a start of apprehension, lest it might contain evidence of his
+villany. His nerves had suffered terribly beneath the vision of guilt
+and punishment that constantly haunted him. His new overseer, whom he
+had partially admitted to his bosom as a confidant, had secured a strong
+hold upon his fears. His presence seemed necessary to cheer him in his
+lonely hours, to chase away the phantoms of vengeance that pursued him.
+Harassed by doubts and fears, his constitution was, in some degree,
+impaired, and his mind, losing the pillar upon which it rested, was
+prone to yield also.
+
+Dalhousie examined with minuteness the papers to which his attention had
+been directed. Before him was a heap of documents of various kinds, all
+in confusion,--bills and bonds, letters and deeds, were thrown
+promiscuously together. His purpose was to sort and file them away for
+future reference. This confusion among the papers was not the work of
+Colonel Dumont; he had been strictly methodical and accurate in all his
+business affairs. This fact was attested by the occasional strips of
+pasteboard, on which were marked various descriptions of papers, as well
+as by bits of red tape that had secured the bundles.
+
+Dalhousie perceived that the labyrinth he was engaged in exploring had
+not been the labor of the former owner of Bellevue, and he was perplexed
+to understand why Jaspar had taken such apparent pains to disarrange
+them. But Jaspar did have a motive; he had produced the disorder in his
+careless search for any paper which might be evidence against him. So
+heedlessly, however, had he ransacked the drawers, that, if any such
+were there, they must have escaped his notice. He was too much excited
+to do the work with the attention his own safety demanded.
+
+Dalhousie continued to examine the papers, and Jaspar still trembled
+lest something might turn up which would give the overseer a
+confirmation of the opinions he had expressed at Vicksburg. Still Jaspar
+had not the courage to undertake the task himself. He allowed the
+overseer to perform it, in the very face of the danger he wished to
+escape.
+
+The overseer seemed to Jaspar's troubled vision perfectly indifferent.
+He could discover no anxiety in his features, to indicate that he had
+any other purpose than to do his employer's bidding. A more close
+inspection would have developed a slight twinkle, as of anticipation, in
+the marble face of Dalhousie.
+
+As he turned paper after paper, his eye rested upon a packet enclosed
+in a blank envelope. His curiosity was aroused, and, glancing
+indifferently at Jaspar, he saw that his piercing eye regarded him with
+intense scrutiny. Continuing his labor without disturbing the mysterious
+packet, he waited until the sharp eye of his companion was removed from
+him.
+
+On the table by the side of Jaspar was a bottle of brandy, at which, at
+short intervals, the miserable man paid his devoir. Dalhousie did not,
+therefore, have to wait long before the keen watcher left his chair,
+and, with his back to him, took a long draught of the exciting beverage.
+The overseer, seizing the favorable opportunity, slipped the packet into
+his pocket. As indifferently as before, he completed the task, and
+Jaspar was relieved when he saw the papers again filed away.
+
+Dalhousie sought his room, and, scarcely heeding the salutation of his
+wife, he seated himself, and drew forth the packet. Removing the blank
+envelope, he found it was a letter, directed to "Emily Dumont," with a
+request to Mr. Faxon that it might be delivered to her after the
+writer's decease. This seemed to imply that the writer had intended the
+clergyman as the keeper of the letter; but with this surmise the
+overseer did not trouble himself. He turned the letter over and over,
+examined the seal of Colonel Dumont, which was upon it, and, at last, as
+though he had satisfied the warning voice of conscience, he snapped the
+wax, and opened it. The letter was quite a lengthy one, yet, without
+raising his eyes, he completed the reading of it. A faint smile of
+satisfaction played upon his lips, as he re-folded the paper, and
+returned it to the envelope.
+
+"You have a letter, Francois?" said his wife, who had watched him in
+silence as he read, and who noticed the complacent smile its contents
+had produced.
+
+"Yes, Delia, and our fortune is at last come," replied Dalhousie,
+rising, and bestowing a kiss upon the fair cheek of the lady.
+
+"Is it from France?"
+
+"No, dear; it is from the land of spirits!" answered Dalhousie, with a
+good-natured laugh.
+
+"Indeed! I was not aware that you had a correspondent there."
+
+"But I have; and I am exceedingly obliged to him for putting me in
+possession of such useful information as this letter contains."
+
+"Pray, who is your ghostly correspondent?"
+
+"Colonel Dumont,--a deceased brother of the worthy Jaspar, in whose
+employ we now are."
+
+"Do not jest, Francois!" said the lady, as a feeling akin to
+superstition rose in her mind.
+
+"Jest or not, the letter was written by him," continued her husband,
+still retaining his playful smile.
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Not exactly; but I presume he meant it for me, or it would not have
+slipped so easily through Mr. Dumont's fingers into mine."
+
+"To whom is it directed, Francois?"
+
+"You grow inquisitive, Delia. I will tell you all about it in a few
+days. I must go now and see that the hands are all in their quarters;"
+and Dalhousie, to avoid unpleasant interrogatories, left the room.
+
+The overseer went the rounds of the quarters, more as a matter of form
+than of any interest he felt in his occupation. A gentleman by birth and
+education, these duties were extremely distasteful to him,--embraced
+because necessity compelled him. His mind seemed far away from his
+business, for a party of negroes passed him on his return, upon whom he
+did not bestow the usual benediction the boys receive when found out
+after hours.
+
+"Strike while the iron is hot," muttered he, as he entered the house,
+and gave his lantern to a servant. "If I don't do it to-night, it may be
+too late another time. The letter is in safe hands; and, as to the
+other traps, I must get them if I can. At any rate, I will try."
+
+Approaching the door of the library, he knocked, and was requested to
+enter. Under pretence of receiving directions for his next day's
+operations upon the plantation, he entered, and opened a conversation
+with Jaspar. Walking carelessly up and down the room while his employer
+issued his commands, he occasionally cast a furtive glance at the
+secretary. Then, narrowing down his walk, he approached nearer and
+nearer to it, until his swinging arm could touch it as he passed.
+Finally he stopped, and leaned against the secretary, with his hands
+behind him. He appeared very thoughtful and attentive, while Jaspar,
+glad to find a theme he could converse upon, expatiated upon his
+favorite methods of managing stock and crops. The overseer listened
+patiently to all he said, occasionally interrupting with a word of
+approbation. The enthusiastic planter, suspecting nothing of the
+overseer, labored diligently in his argument, and did not notice that,
+when the attentive listener carelessly put his hands into his pockets,
+he conveyed with them the key of one of the drawers.
+
+Dalhousie, having effected the object which brought him to the library,
+soon grew tired of the planter's arguments, and edged towards the door,
+through which he rather rudely made his exit.
+
+Jaspar again relapsed into the moody melancholy from which the presence
+of the overseer had roused him. Sinking back into his chair, he again
+was a prey to the armed fears that continually goaded him. Occasionally
+he roused from his stupor, and, driven by the startling apparition of
+future retribution, paced the room in the most intense nervous
+excitement. Frequent were the stops he made at the brandy-bottle on the
+table; but, for a time, even the brandy-fiend refused to comfort
+him,--refused to excite his brain, or pour a healing balm upon his
+consuming misery. Again he sunk into his chair, overcome by the torture
+of his emotions, and again the gnawing worm forced him to the bottle,
+until, at last, nearly stupefied by the liquor, he slumbered uneasily in
+his chair. But the terrible apparition, which seldom left him when
+awake, was constant in his dreams; and, just as he was about to plunge
+into the awful abyss that always yawned before him, he awoke, and
+staggered to the bottle again. A gleam of consciousness now visited his
+inebriated mind, and he bethought himself of retiring. With a dim sense
+of his usual precaution, he reeled to the secretary, and attempted to
+lock the drawers. He discovered that one key was missing; but, too much
+intoxicated to reason upon the circumstance, he took another draught of
+brandy, and ambled towards his sleeping-room. He was too far gone to
+effect a landing at the head of the stairs, and fell full-length upon
+the floor when he released his hold of the banister.
+
+Dalhousie was still up, and his knowledge of Jaspar's habits enabled him
+to judge the occasion of the noise he heard, and he immediately hastened
+to the rescue. "Lucky!" muttered he, as he lifted the fallen man. "He
+must have been intoxicated when he examined those papers, or he would
+have seen that letter."
+
+Jaspar, who had not entirely lost his senses, muttered something about
+an accident, and clung closely to his companion, who soon deposited him
+on his bed.
+
+The overseer, instead of returning to his room, descended to the
+library, where the light was still burning. Locking the door, he seated
+himself in the large stuffed chair, and drew from his pocket the letter
+he had purloined from the secretary. Opening it, he proceeded to a
+re-perusal of it. The letter was as follows:
+
+     "MY DEAR CHILD:--When you read this letter, your father will be no
+     more. The last act of affection will have been performed, and the
+     ground closed over your only earthly protector. I am aware that you
+     will be exposed to many trials and temptations. The latter you are,
+     I trust, prepared to resist; the former must come to all. I feel
+     that I have done my duty to you, not only in bestowing an abundance
+     of this world's goods, but that I have not entirely failed to
+     implant in your mind the treasure 'which neither moth nor rust can
+     corrupt.' I have done all that I could do, and in a short time I
+     must lay my body in the grave, and leave you an orphan. But you are
+     in the hands, and under the protection, of a Father who is
+     infinitely more able to take care of you than I have been. Into His
+     hands, with my ransomed spirit, I undoubtingly commit you.
+
+     "As I write this letter, I feel the hand of death upon me. In a few
+     short days, it may be only hours, I must go. I am the less ready to
+     bid you the everlasting adieu when I think of the dangers that may
+     surround you. In my last hours I am doomed to the torments of
+     suspicion. I pray God they may be groundless. Perhaps they are only
+     idle fancies, the dotings of an over-anxious father. I feel, as the
+     sands of life are fast ebbing out, that some great calamity is
+     lowering over you. I know not that a remark I accidentally
+     overheard should thus haunt me; but it has roused my suspicions,
+     and the presage of calamity will not depart from me. I cannot, with
+     the warning voice ever ringing in my mind, help taking steps to
+     guard you against the worst that may befall you.
+
+     "My dear child, if I should disclose my suspicions, and they should
+     prove unreasonable, I shall have done a grievous wrong to him I
+     suspect. Although you cannot save me from the misery of doubting in
+     my last hour, you can save me from injuring another in your good
+     opinion. If I have wronged him, let the injury die with me. If my
+     suspicions are not groundless, I offer you the means of saving
+     yourself from the calamity that impends.
+
+     "Should any event occur after my death which deprives you of any of
+     your inheritance, follow the directions I now give you.
+
+     "In the back of the lower drawer of the secretary you will find a
+     secret aperture. The back of the drawer is a thick board, upon
+     which is screwed, on the lower side, a thin slat. Take out the
+     screws and remove the piece they secure, and the aperture will be
+     seen. It contains a sealed packet, the contents of which require no
+     explanation.
+
+     "If nothing happens after my decease, and you peaceably obtain all
+     your rights, burn the packet without opening it. My unjust
+     suspicions, then, cannot influence you, or injure the person to
+     whom they refer.
+
+     "This letter you will receive from Mr. Faxon, to whom I recommend
+     you for counsel and consolation in every trial.
+
+     "And now, my child, I must bid you farewell. I feel my end
+     approaching. May God forever bless and preserve you!
+
+     "Your dying father,
+
+     "EDGAR DUMONT."
+
+Dalhousie perused and re-perused this letter, until its contents were
+fixed in his mind. He had many doubts and scruples, both prudential and
+conscientious, in regard to the step he was about to take: but the
+chimera of fortune prompted him to risk all in the great project he had
+matured. Taking from his pocket a small screw-driver, with which he had
+prepared himself, he opened the drawer designated in the letter, the key
+of which he had secured. Emptying the drawer of its contents, he turned
+it over, and, to his great delight, perceived the slat as described in
+the letter. Removing the screws, he soon had the satisfaction of holding
+in his hand the packet which, he doubted not, would restore the heiress
+of Bellevue to her home and her estates, if she were still alive; or
+which would give him a hold upon Jaspar, by means of which he could make
+his fortune.
+
+Dalhousie was not a natural-born villain. It was the pressure of
+necessity, the almost unconscious yielding of a weak resolution, which
+had led him thus far in his present illegal and dishonorable course. Of
+the heiress he knew nothing; and the thought of restoring her had never
+entered his head, much more his heart. The great purpose of his life
+was to make his fortune, and it was this idea alone which influenced him
+in the present instance. He had entered upon his duties at Bellevue only
+the day before; but so impatient was he to realize the hope which had
+brought him there, that every hour seemed burdened with the weight of
+weeks.
+
+Carefully depositing its contents as he had found them, he locked the
+drawer, and put the key upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     "The accursed plot he overheard,
+        Its every point portrayed;
+     Yet ere the villain's words were cold.
+        The counter-plot was made."
+
+
+Hatchie was chagrined at the loss of his prisoner. His diligent search
+was of no avail. The Chalmetta's boat, which lay at the wood-yard in the
+morning, was gone; so he had no doubt Maxwell had made his escape in it.
+Having no further motive in remaining at the wood-yard, he procured a
+small canoe, with the intention of joining his mistress at Cottage
+Island.
+
+Seated in the stern of the canoe, Hatchie propelled it with only
+sufficient force to avoid the eddies which would have whirled his frail
+bark in every direction. His thoughts wandered over the events of the
+past few days. He moralized upon the conduct of the attorney and the
+uncle, and nursed his indignation over them. Hatchie was a moralist in
+his own way, but not a moralist only. The great virtue of his
+philosophy, unlike much of a more scholastic origin, was its practical
+utility. From the past, with its conquered trials, he turned to the
+future, to inquire for its dangers, to ask what snares it had spread to
+entangle the fair being whom he worshipped with all a lover's fondness,
+without the lover's sentiment.
+
+We will not follow him in his peregrinations through the mazes of the
+misty future, for they were interrupted by the appearance on the water
+of a distant object, which excited his attention. A searching and
+anxious scrutiny convinced him that it was the boat in which Maxwell had
+made his escape. Though at a great distance from him, he could see that
+it contained two men. Guardian as he was of his mistress' honor and
+safety, the sight awakened all his fears and called up all his energy.
+Did they know that his mistress had gone to Cottage Island? It was
+possible that Vernon had obtained a knowledge of her movements. The
+faithful fellow was almost maddened at the thought.
+
+The boat approached Cottage Island, and Hatchie observed them pull in
+under the high bank. This movement was ominous of evil, and all the
+mulatto's fears were confirmed, when, as they passed the mouth of the
+little stream, he saw one of them rise in the boat and point it out.
+Satisfied that his canoe was yet unnoticed by his enemies, and dreading
+no immediate danger, he paddled across the river so as to bring the
+island between them. When he had gained a position which hid him from
+their view, he used all his immense strength in propelling the canoe
+towards the island. A few minutes sufficed to bring him up with the
+western shore of the islet, his enemies being upon the opposite side.
+Keeping close to the high bank, he paddled down-stream to the lower
+extremity of the island, where the sound of voices caused him suddenly
+to check his progress, and gain a landing. Drawing the canoe out of
+reach of the current, he climbed up the bank, which, being near the
+down-stream end of the island, sloped gradually down, till it terminated
+in the low, sandy beach.
+
+He reached the high bank without attracting the attention of the party
+of whose motions he wished to obtain a knowledge. He could now
+distinctly hear their conversation, though they were still at a
+considerable distance from him. Cautiously he climbed a thick
+cotton-wood tree, whose foliage completely screened him from
+observation, and there awaited the nearer approach of Maxwell and his
+confederate.
+
+"Are you sure this is the island?" said Maxwell, when they had come
+within hearing of Hatchie.
+
+"This must be the one," replied Vernon. "We shall soon see whether it is
+inhabited or not."
+
+"With whom did the girl leave the wood-yard?"
+
+"With a doctor who lives like a hermit on this island. I saw them from a
+distance get into the sail-boat, and I asked a boatman for the
+particulars."
+
+"Who is the doctor?"
+
+"Don't know. The boatman said it was an outlandish name, and he had
+forgotten it. You mean to have the girl, do you?"
+
+"I do, if possible."
+
+"O, it's quite possible--nothing easier. You say the girl belongs to
+you?"
+
+"I do; did I not show you the bill of sale?"
+
+"That might be a trick of your own, you know. It's a devilish queer
+story."
+
+"Pshaw! man, are you crazy? This thing has startled your conscience more
+than all the crimes of a lifetime. What has gotten into you, Vernon? I
+never knew you to moralize before."
+
+"Look here, my boy, I can do almost anything; but I would not wrong a
+woman,--no, not a _woman_,--I am above that," said Vernon, with much
+emphasis.
+
+"But, man, she is my slave--a quadroon."
+
+"Property's property; but since I met the girl in the boat, I am half
+inclined to believe she is no quadroon. Maxwell, I had a sister once,
+and may my body be rent into a thousand pieces but I would tear out the
+heart of the man who would serve her as you do this girl. If she is your
+_property_, why, that alters the case."
+
+"Certainly it does; so, end your sermon, and tell me how to gain
+possession of my _property_."
+
+"We can storm the island."
+
+"What! two of us?"
+
+"I can get plenty of soldiers, if you will pay them."
+
+"I will give a thousand dollars for her; and, if I get her again, by
+heavens, she shall not escape me! I will put a pair of ruffles on her
+wrists such as the dainty girl never got of her milliner. How many
+persons are on the island?"
+
+"That I don't know--perhaps half a dozen. Your hangman will be there,"
+and Vernon chuckled at the thought of the scene he had witnessed near
+the wood-yard.
+
+Maxwell's teeth grated, and Hatchie distinctly heard the malediction he
+bestowed upon him. Fears for his personal safety did not, for a moment,
+disturb him. Prudence alone prevented him from rushing upon the
+villains, and thwarting in its embryo stage their design upon his
+mistress.
+
+"You mean," said Maxwell, "to take the girl from the house by force?"
+
+"There is no other way."
+
+"Then we had better examine the island, or it will not be an easy matter
+to land in a dark night."
+
+"How does the owner land?"
+
+"Probably by the little stream we saw above."
+
+"Rather difficult navigation for a stranger. We had better land in this
+part of the island. Let us walk through the thicket and find the house."
+
+Hatchie saw them attempt to pass through the thick brush; but the task
+was not an easy one. By the aid of a bowie-knife, with which they cut
+away some of the bushes, they penetrated to the larger growth of trees,
+where the under-brush no longer impeded their progress. They passed
+beyond the hearing of the mulatto, though from his elevated position he
+occasionally obtained a view of them, as they approached the cottage.
+Anxiously he waited their return, in the hope of getting more definite
+ideas of the time and method of the proposed attack upon the island.
+
+After a careful survey of the premises, Maxwell and Vernon returned to
+their former position.
+
+"Quite an easy job," said Vernon; "the only difficulty is this thick
+brush, which can be easily removed. I will cut away a part now."
+
+"Very well," responded Maxwell, as his associate proceeded to cut away
+the bushes, and form a pathway through, the thicket. "When shall the
+thing be done?"
+
+"As to that I can hardly say. When we get to Vicksburg we can decide.
+Better let the girl rest a week or so; for it may take that time to get
+things ready. You can't hire men to do such work as easily as you can to
+cut wood and dig ditches. It takes skill and caution."
+
+"Very well, I am in no haste."
+
+For nearly an hour Vernon labored at his task, and completed a path
+through which the party could easily pass to the cottage.
+
+The object of their visit accomplished, Hatchie saw them return to their
+boat, and row down the river. After they had disappeared round a bend,
+he descended from the tree, and examined the labors of Vernon. He found
+the bushes which had been cut down were nicely placed at each end of the
+path in an upright position, so as to conceal it from the eyes of the
+passer. For a long time the mulatto reflected upon the conversation he
+had heard, and considered the means of defeating the diabolical plot.
+Against a band of ruffians, such as Vernon would enlist for the service,
+he could not contend single-handed. To remove his mistress from the
+island, while Henry Carroll lay helpless there, would not be an
+acceptable proposition to her. Resolving to lay the information he had
+gained before Dr. Vaudelier, he returned to his canoe, and, having
+rounded the island, reached the cottage by the usual passage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Henry Carroll still slept. For six hours he had lain under the influence
+of the powerful opiate. Emily entered his chamber in company with the
+doctor, on their return from the wood-yard. The sight of Henry, pale and
+worn as he appeared, excited all her sympathy. His right arm, which was
+uninjured, lay extended on the bed; she gently grasped it, and, bending
+over him, imprinted upon his pallid lips a kiss, that was unknown and
+unappreciated by its recipient. Only a few days before she had listened
+to the eloquent confession of him who now lay insensible of her
+presence. She was a true woman, and the presence of Dr. Vaudelier did
+not restrain the expression of her woman's heart. It was visible in her
+pale cheek, in her heaving breast, and in her sparkling eye, from which
+oozed the gentle tear of affectionate sympathy.
+
+She held his hand; unconsciously, at the silent bidding of her warm
+heart, she gently pressed it. As though the magnetism of love had
+communicated itself to the sleeper, he sighed heavily, and uttered a
+groan of half-subdued anguish. His eyelids fluttered; he was apparently
+shaking off the heaviness of slumber. His lips quivered, and Emily heard
+them faintly articulate her name.
+
+At the request of the good physician, she reluctantly withdrew from the
+apartment.
+
+The sufferer endeavored to turn in the bed; the effort drew from him a
+groan of agony, which, in a more wakeful state, a proud superiority over
+every weakness would not have permitted him to utter. His eyes opened,
+and he stared vacantly about the darkened chamber. The doctor took his
+hand, and examined his pulse.
+
+"How do you feel, captain? Does your head ache?" asked he.
+
+"Slightly; I am better, I think," replied the invalid, faintly.
+
+"And you are better," said the doctor, with evident satisfaction. "The
+scalds are doing very well, and the wound on your head is not at all
+serious."
+
+"Now, sir, will you tell me where I am?"
+
+Dr. Vaudelier imparted the information.
+
+"Emily! Emily! Won but lost again!" murmured Henry. "Would that we had
+sunk together beneath the dark tide!"
+
+"Do not distress yourself, my dear captain. We must be careful of this
+fever."
+
+"Distress myself!" returned Henry, not a little provoked at the coolness
+of the doctor. "You know not the loss I have sustained."
+
+"But you must keep calm."
+
+"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed rather
+wildly at his host.
+
+This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience was of
+such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before
+marriage,--the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary hour,--and
+he sympathized with the unhappy man.
+
+"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it chilled the
+ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can understand your
+present state of feeling."
+
+"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had better
+die now than endure the misery before me."
+
+The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express the
+thought.
+
+"You will regain her," said he.
+
+"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw scores of
+dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."
+
+"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be restored to
+your arms again."
+
+"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an infallible
+prophet."
+
+"In this instance, I am."
+
+Henry looked at the doctor, and saw the smile of satisfaction that
+played upon his usually stern features. It augured hope--more than hope;
+and, as the wrecked mariner clings to the disjointed spar, his mind
+fastened upon that smile as the forerunner of a blissful reunion with
+her his soul cherished.
+
+"Be calm, sir, be calm; she is safe," continued Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Do you know it?" almost shouted Henry, attempting to rise.
+
+"Be quiet, sir," said the doctor, in a voice approaching to sternness;
+"be quiet, or I shall regret that I gave you reason to hope."
+
+"Where is she?" asked Henry, sinking back at the doctor's reproof, and
+heeding not the darting pain his attempt to rise had produced.
+
+"She is safe; let this suffice. I see you cannot bear more now."
+
+"I can bear anything, sir, anything. I will be as gentle as a lamb, if
+you will tell me all you know of her."
+
+"If you keep entirely quiet, we will, in a few days, let her speak for
+herself."
+
+"Then she is safe; she has escaped every danger?"
+
+"She has."
+
+"And was not injured?"
+
+"No; she was taken, it seems, from the wreck by a villain. Thank God,
+she has escaped his wiles!"
+
+Henry's indignation could scarcely be controlled, even by the reflection
+that Maxwell's wicked intentions had been turned, by an overruling
+Providence, into the means of her safety.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier related to his patient the incident of the wood-yard; not,
+however, without the necessity of frequently reproving his auditor,
+whose exasperation threatened serious consequences. When, at the
+conclusion of the narration, he told Henry that the loved one was at
+that moment beneath his roof, he could scarcely restrain his immoderate
+joy within the bounds of that quiet which his physician demanded.
+
+"May I not see her?" said he.
+
+"That must depend entirely upon your own behavior. You have not shown
+yourself a very tractable patient thus far."
+
+"I will be perfectly docile," pleaded Henry.
+
+"I fear I cannot trust you. You are so excitable, that you explode like
+a magazine of gunpowder."
+
+"No, no; I solemnly promise to keep perfectly quiet. She will, I know,
+be glad to see me, wounded and stricken though I am."
+
+"She has already seen you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and not content with _seeing_ you merely, your lips are not yet
+cold from the kiss she imprinted upon them;" and a smile, not altogether
+stoical, lit up the doctor's cold expression. "You shall see her, but
+the instant I perceive that the interview is prejudicial to your nerves,
+I shall remove her."
+
+"Thank you, doctor!" said Henry, fervently.
+
+"O, it is part of my treatment. It may do you more good than all my
+physic. I have known such cases."
+
+"I am sure it will," returned the patient.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier retired, and after a serious charge to Emily, he
+reentered, leading the Hygeia who was to restore the sick man.
+
+"Be careful," was the doctor's monition, as he elevated his fore-finger,
+in the attitude of caution; "be careful."
+
+"O, Emily!" exclaimed Henry, more gently than the nature of the
+interview would seem to allow, as he extended his hand to her.
+
+Emily silently took the hand, and while a tell-tale tear started from
+her eye, she pressed it gently; but the pressure startled the sick man's
+blood, and sent it thrilling with joy through its lazy channels. The
+invalid, as much as the pressure of the hand warmed his heart, seemed
+not to be satisfied with the hand alone; for he continued to draw her
+towards himself, until her form bent over him, and their lips met. It
+was the first time when both were conscious of the act. We will not go
+into ecstasies over the unutterable bliss of that moment. We will not
+deck our page with any unseemly extravagances. If the experience of the
+reader has led him through the hallowed mystery of the first kiss of
+love, he needs not another's fancy to revive the beatific vision. If
+not, why, thousands of coy and blushing damsels, equally in the dark,
+are waiting, from whom he may select one to assist him in solving the
+mystery. Besides, it is not always wise to penetrate the secrets of the
+heart, even in a novel; for there is a sacredness about them, a kind of
+natural free-masonry, which must not be made too common.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, when he saw that the patient was disposed to behave
+himself in a reasonable manner, withdrew from the room, and left them to
+the undisturbed enjoyment of their happy reunion. In an hour he
+returned, and peremptorily forbade all further conversation. He
+permitted Emily to remain in the room, however, on the promise to allow
+the invalid to use no further exertion in talking.
+
+All day, like a ministering angel, she moved about his couch, and laved
+his fevered brow. All his art could not lure her into any conversation
+beyond the necessary replies to his questions concerning his physical
+condition. Henry was too thankful for being permitted to enjoy her
+presence to forfeit the boon by any untractableness, and, for one of his
+excitable temperament, he was exceedingly docile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "_Appius_. Well, Claudius, are the forces
+     At hand?
+
+     "_Claudius_. They are, and timely, too; the people
+     Are in unwonted ferment."
+
+     KNOWLES.
+
+
+It was midnight at Cottage Island,--the third night after the events of
+the preceding chapter. Henry Carroll, by the skilful treatment of his
+host, was in a great degree relieved from his severe pain, and had now
+sunk into a natural and quiet slumber. By his bedside sat Dr. Vaudelier.
+Emily had, an hour before, retired to the rest which her exhausted frame
+demanded. For the past three days she had watched patiently and lovingly
+by the invalid. And now she had only been induced to retire by the
+promise of the doctor to call her, if any unfavorable symptom appeared.
+
+The threatened assault upon the island had been thoroughly considered,
+and for the past two nights the island wore the appearance of a
+garrisoned fortress, rather than the secluded abode of a hermit. Emily
+knew of the peril which now menaced her, but the ample means at hand for
+protection rendered it insignificant. All thought, even of her own
+security, was merged in her generous interest in the comfort of the
+sufferer.
+
+The good physician was uneasy and disturbed, as he sat by the bedside of
+his patient. The circumstances which surrounded him were novel in the
+extreme. Accustomed as he had been to the quiet which always reigned in
+his domain, to find himself, as it were, the inmate of a fortress, in
+momentary expectation of an attack, was so singularly odd, that his
+natural indifference deserted him. He had collected quite a large force
+of his humble neighbors to assist him in his present emergency, and they
+were now making their final arrangements to meet the assault.
+
+The doctor was restless; but it was not on account of any fear of his
+personal safety,--he was above that. The lonely and innocent being whom
+he had undertaken to protect had filled his mind with a sense of
+responsibility. A single day had been long enough for Emily to win a way
+to his affections, and he had grown to regard her with the tender care
+of a father. Occasionally he left his place at the bedside, and went to
+the window, as if to assure himself that the attack had not already
+commenced.
+
+In front of the cottage a different sentiment prevailed among the motley
+group there assembled. There were twenty men, including Hatchie, all
+armed with rifle and bowie-knife, and every one anxious for the fight to
+commence. Besides their arms, each man was provided with a small cord,
+and a torch of pitch-wood, the end of which had been plentifully
+besprinkled with turpentine.
+
+The party was composed mostly of woodmen and boatmen, who had promptly
+and willingly obeyed the doctor's summons. Like most men of their class
+in that locality, they were hardy and reckless; they had not that
+healthy horror of a mortal combat which the moralist would gladly see.
+Dr. Vaudelier had always been their friend; had always promptly and
+kindly aided them in their necessities, whether moral, physical, or
+pecuniary. As he had laved the fevered brows of their wives and
+children, so had he said prayers over their dead, in the absence of a
+clergyman. He had exhorted the intemperate and the dishonest, and with
+his purse relieved the needy in their distress. They were not
+ungrateful; they appreciated his many kindnesses, and rejoiced in an
+opportunity to serve him. These men, notwithstanding their rude speech,
+their rough exteriors, and their reckless dispositions, were
+true-hearted men. They reciprocated the offering of a true friendship,
+not by smooth speeches and unmeaning smiles, but by actions of manly
+kindness. The philosopher in ethics may say what he pleases of the
+refinements of sympathy; we would not give a single such heart as those
+gathered on Cottage Island for a whole army of puling, sentimental,
+hair-splitting moralizers. They were men of action, not of words; and,
+though they hesitated not, in what they deemed a good cause, to close
+with their man in deadly combat, they were true as steel to a friend in
+the hour of his need.
+
+With these men the exploits of Hatchie, which had been related, and
+perhaps exaggerated, by Jerry Swinger, who was a leading spirit of the
+party, had been much applauded, and he had, in spite of the odium of his
+social position, obtained a powerful influence over them. They heard him
+with attention, and deferred to his skill and judgment. By his advice,
+and to remove the confusion of the affray from the vicinity of the
+cottage, it was determined to receive the invaders near the beach where
+he had overheard Vernon propose to land. Jerry Swinger, whom natural
+talent and the wish of the party seemed to indicate as leader, marched
+the expedition towards the avenue which had been made in the bushes by
+the ruffians.
+
+For so many men, excited as they were by the anticipation of a conflict,
+they were remarkably quiet and orderly. Dr. Vaudelier had cautioned them
+to avoid all noise, and not to fire a rifle unless absolutely necessary.
+He had also instructed them to make prisoners of the assailants, if
+possible, without injuring them.
+
+Jerry Swinger stationed his party near the avenue, ready to spring upon
+and overpower the foe, when the favorable moment should arrive.
+
+An hour passed by, and the impatience of the ambushed woodmen seemed
+likely to give their faithful leader some trouble, when the careful dip
+of oars near the shore saluted their ears. In a whisper Jerry gave the
+oft-repeated caution for silence, and charged them to be prompt when the
+moment came.
+
+The assaulting party approached the shore. There were two boats, the
+foremost of which contained eight men, under the direction of Maxwell,
+and the other six, led by Vernon. The latter had reconnoitred the island
+several times, and had somewhat modified the plan of the attack, on
+discovering that the cottage, for the past two nights, had been occupied
+by more than its usual occupants. Several men had been seen to land
+there; but, as his preparations on the lower part of the island were
+undisturbed, it never occurred to him that his purpose would be
+anticipated.
+
+Vernon had procured the services of fourteen men, chicken-thieves, and
+others of desperate fortunes, to engage in the enterprise, by holding
+out to them the hope of plunder, of which the cottage, he assured them,
+would afford an abundant harvest. The real purpose of the expedition
+was, therefore, unknown to any of the party, except the leaders. The
+prospect of a sharp fight had not in the least dampened the ardor of
+their hopes. With men of their craft it was a dull season, and the
+prospect of "cracking a crib" plentifully stored with valuables was
+quite a pleasant anticipation.
+
+It was arranged that Maxwell, with the larger portion of the
+desperadoes, should land at the lower part of the island, and, if any
+defenders appeared, commence hostilities, and draw them away from the
+house, while Vernon, with the most experienced of the "cracks-men,"
+should assault the house, and effect the purpose of the enterprise. In
+the person of one of the chicken-thieves a pilot for the creek was
+discovered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, it was decided that
+Vernon should approach the cottage by the usual channel.
+
+Maxwell's boat was beached, while that of Vernon proceeded up the river
+to the little stream. The skill of his pilot, of whom Vernon had felt
+many doubts, soon brought him to the creek. The current, he found, was
+quite rapid, and he feared it would carry him into the midst of the
+"enemy's camp" before Maxwell should have made his demonstration. As the
+boat was whirled along towards the centre of the island, for the oars
+could not be used, on account of their noise, his position seemed to
+grow desperate. Vernon was on the point of risking the noise, and taking
+to the oars, when he discovered an overhanging branch, which he seized
+as the boat passed under it. Fortunately for him, a bend in the stream
+turned the current from the middle of the creek, or its violence would
+have drawn him into the water. By the aid of his companions, he
+succeeded in making the boat fast to the branch. He listened; but all
+was still. There were no indications of the approach of the other party.
+
+Seating himself in the stern-sheets of the boat, he again considered the
+operations in which he was soon to engage; but, as these were
+necessarily to be directed by the circumstances of the moment, his
+deliberations soon gave way to that impatience which the perpetrator of
+crime experiences at an unexpected delay. His eager spirit was, however,
+soon gratified by sounds of conflict, which proceeded from the part of
+the island where Maxwell had landed. Awhile he listened, and the sounds
+grew more and more distinct. Loosing the boat from its aerial moorings,
+it was again driven by the current towards the landing in front of the
+cottage. Preparations were now made to effect the grand object, and,
+landing by the side of the doctor's yacht, Vernon found no one to oppose
+his progress, though the sounds from the lower extremity of the island
+indicated that the affray was growing hotter and more violent. At the
+head of his party, Vernon was about to enter the house, when the
+approach of a body of men from the scene of action caused him to pause,
+and await their approach.
+
+Maxwell had landed on the beach, and, not suspecting the proximity of
+the ambush which waited to receive him, had proceeded towards the avenue
+made at his first visit to the island. Removing the loose bushes, they
+attempted to pass through; but no sooner were they fairly involved among
+the young trees than Jerry Swinger shouted his first order, to light the
+torches, and, in an instant, the woods were illuminated, and the
+position of both parties disclosed. This was, undoubtedly, a masterly
+stroke of preparation on the part of Jerry. The torches, on the
+application of the match, emitted a broad sheet of flame, which glared
+upon the invaders like a sudden flash of lightning, and utterly
+confounded them. It seemed like the bolt of Omnipotence thrown across
+their path in the hour of their great transgression.
+
+Maxwell was unprepared for an immediate attack. He had calculated on
+effecting a junction with Vernon in the vicinity of the cottage. Before
+his party had time to recover from the panic, they were surrounded by
+the resolute woodmen. The attorney, who was as brave and active as he
+was unprincipled and cunning, was not a man to be defeated without a
+stout resistance. Encouraging his party by shouts, and by his own
+example, a general engagement ensued.
+
+Hatchie no sooner saw the foe of his mistress' peace, than, stepping
+between him and Jerry Swinger, who also had an account to settle with
+him, he knocked down the pistol which was levelled at his head, and
+grasped him by the throat. In the hands of Hatchie the attorney was as
+nothing. The stalwart mulatto cast him upon the ground, and, with his
+cord, bound him hand and foot. The leader vanquished, it was the work of
+but a few moments to secure the rest of the assailants.
+
+Jerry Swinger learned, from sundry exclamations of the defeated party,
+that another portion of the expedition was to land at the creek. Leaving
+a few of his men in charge of the prisoners, he made all haste, with the
+remainder, towards the cottage.
+
+The affray had occupied but a few moments. The sturdy woodmen,
+accustomed to such scenes, and animated by a high motive, had done their
+duty promptly and efficiently, as the woful appearance of the
+disconcerted ruffians testified. Some hard blows had been dealt; some
+few upon both sides were severely wounded; but, considering the
+desperate character of the invaders, the masterly tact of Jerry Swinger
+had evidently saved much bloodshed.
+
+Hatchie, as soon as he had secured his prisoner, hastened, somewhat in
+advance of Jerry's party, towards the cottage.
+
+Vernon waited the approach of the party in front of the cottage. While
+it was yet at some distance, he discovered Hatchie, whom he recognized
+by the light of his torch, running in front of it. The appearance of the
+mulatto, alone, he interpreted as the signal of victory to the party in
+conjunction with him, who, he imagined, were pursuing him. Resolving,
+therefore, to lose no more time, he advanced towards the house, ordering
+two of his followers to secure Hatchie.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier had heard the sounds of the distant encounter, and
+occasionally sought the window to assure himself the invaders did not
+approach the cottage. The glaring torch of Hatchie, who was running
+towards the house, gave him some misgivings, and, seizing the pistols
+which lay upon the table, he went to the door, on opening which he was
+confronted by Vernon.
+
+"Come on, boys! come on!" shouted the ruffian, as he pushed by the
+doctor. "The way is clear; let us make quick work."
+
+The pistol of Dr. Vaudelier had been raised to shoot down the assailant;
+but his hand dropped at the sound of his voice, he staggered back and
+let the weapon fall from his hand, and uttered an exclamation of intense
+feeling.
+
+"This way, men! this way!" shouted Vernon, as he pressed on.
+
+Entering the room at the right of the entry, in which a bed had been
+temporarily placed for the use of Emily, he found the affrighted girl,
+who had been aroused from her transient slumber by the noise of the
+attack. Rising from the bed upon which she had merely thrown herself,
+she was confounded by the appearance of her former persecutor.
+
+"Ah, my pretty bird, you are again in my power, and I shall take care
+that no weak indulgence again deprives me of your society," said Vernon,
+as he seized her arm, and attempted to hurry her from the room.
+
+"Unhand me, villain!" exclaimed she, roused to desperation by the sudden
+and painful change which had overtaken her.
+
+"Do not pout, my pretty dove! there is no chance to escape this time.
+Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help you; so I
+advise you to come quietly with me."
+
+"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"--and she
+struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.
+
+"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."
+
+"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.
+
+"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the hands of
+two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your bidding."
+
+The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow on the
+back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.
+
+"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted his
+mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him, examined
+the condition of the fallen man.
+
+"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."
+
+"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily, bursting into
+tears, as the terrible scene through which she had just passed was fully
+realized. "But where is Henry--Captain Carroll--is he safe?"
+
+"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room," replied
+Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been worse."
+
+"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie, seizing the
+prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him to a tree, and I
+will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till both are hung."
+
+"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that moment
+entered. "_He is my son_!"
+
+"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on the
+sofa.
+
+"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone. "I would
+that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I recognized him as
+he entered the house, and had nearly lost my consciousness, as the
+terrible reality stared me in the face, that my son, he whose childhood
+I had watched over, who once called me by the endearing name of father,
+is a common midnight assassin!
+
+"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an abundant
+shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his eyes. "Is he
+the person who has caused you so much trouble?"
+
+"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest comfort to
+the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for Maxwell."
+
+"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an interested motive
+to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be brought so low!"--and
+the doctor wrung his hands in anguish.
+
+"Perhaps, sir," said Emily, "he is not so bad as you think; let us hear
+before we condemn him."
+
+Her resentment, if her gentle nature had for a moment harbored such a
+feeling, had all given way to the abundant sympathy she felt for the
+doctor in his deep distress. Forgiving as the spirit of mercy, she now
+applied restoratives to the man who had so lately attempted to wrong
+her; and Dr. Vaudelier, with a sad heart, assisted her in her merciful
+duty.
+
+Hatchie, on his approach to the cottage, had been assailed by the men
+whom Vernon had sent to secure him. A severe encounter had ensued, and
+although Hatchie's great muscular power and skill had enabled him to
+keep his assailants at bay, he would eventually have had the worst of
+it; but Jerry Swinger came to his aid in season for him to save his
+mistress from injury. Vernon's party, like that of Maxwell, were all
+secured.
+
+The noise caused by the entrance of Vernon had awakened Henry Carroll
+from his slumbers. He listened, but could not make out the occasion of
+it; for, in consideration of his feeble condition, he had not been
+informed of the meditated attack. The cry for help uttered by Emily
+convinced him of the nature of the disturbance. His first impulse was to
+rise and rush to her assistance; but of his inability to do this he was
+painfully reminded in his attempt to rise. The heavy fall of Vernon on
+the floor, and the voice of Hatchie, assured him that, whatever the
+affair might be, it had assumed a new phase. His painful apprehensions
+were quieted by the appearance of Hatchie, who in a concise manner
+related the events of the night.
+
+The last lingering doubt of the suspicious invalid was removed by the
+entrance of Emily herself.
+
+"You are safe, dear Emily!" exclaimed he.
+
+"I am, thank God!"
+
+"And I could not assist in your defence!"
+
+"Heaven will protect me, Henry. It seems as if a veritable angel hovered
+over my path to shield me from the thousand perils that assail me."
+
+"The angels do hover around you, Emily; you are so pure, and good, and
+true, that they are ever near you, even in your own heart. Angels always
+minister to the good,--to those who resist the temptations of the
+world."
+
+"You speak too well of me. But you have been excited by this tumult,
+Henry."
+
+"I was a little disturbed; but, unable to help myself, I could do
+nothing for others,--not even for you, dearest."
+
+"I know what you would have done, if you had been able. I know your
+heart, and I feel just as grateful as though your strong arm had rescued
+me."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, who had succeeded in restoring Vernon--or, by his true
+name, Jerome Vaudelier--to consciousness, now entered the room. He
+appeared more melancholy and harassed in mind than Emily had before seen
+him. His soul seemed to be crushed by the terrible realization that _his
+son_ was a common felon--worse than felon, the persecutor of innocence.
+A soul as sensitive as his to the distinctions of right and wrong could
+hardly endure the misery of that hour.
+
+With an absent manner, he inquired into the condition of the patient,
+and took the necessary steps to soothe him to slumber again.
+
+Hatchie, having satisfied himself that the prisoners were all safe, left
+them under guard of the woodmen, and returned to the chamber of the sick
+man; and, at the doctor's urgent request, Emily left Henry to his care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     "_Friar_ Can you forgive?
+     _Elmore_. As I would be forgiven."
+
+     LOVELL.
+
+
+On the morning following the defeat of Maxwell and Vernon, it became
+necessary to make some disposition of the prisoners, so that the
+conquerors could attend to their daily duties. Their number was too
+large to be left upon the island in the absence of its defenders. A
+consultation between Dr. Vaudelier and the principals of the party took
+place. There were so many difficulties in the way of bringing the
+invaders to justice, that it was finally decided to release them all.
+The burden of the evidence was against the physician's son. The doctor,
+however much he deprecated the deed, was anxious to save his son from
+the publicity of a trial. His friends, seeing the melancholy truth,
+relieved his mind by suggesting that all of them be released, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+Vernon had entirely recovered from the effects of Hatchie's blow, and
+was seated at the window of his apartment, contemplating the means of
+escape. At his father's request, two men had sat by him during the
+night, as much to prevent his escape as to minister to his wants. The
+watchers were still in the room. Vernon was not yet informed of the
+relation he sustained to the proprietor of the mansion in which he now
+involuntarily abode. He thought that, considering the unequivocal
+circumstances under which he had been made a prisoner, he was treated
+with a great deal of gentleness; but to him the reason was not apparent.
+He had been an alien from his father's house for a long period, and was
+not acquainted with the history of the past three or four years of the
+doctor's life.
+
+His mind was now occupied in devising the means of escape; and just as
+he had struck upon a feasible project, he was interrupted by the
+entrance of Jerry Swinger, who had been sent by Dr. Vaudelier to
+ascertain the present frame of his son's mind, and broach to him the
+tidings that he was beneath his father's roof,--a circumstance of which
+his watchers were also ignorant.
+
+"Well, stranger, how do you feel yourself, this morning?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Better. That was a cursed hard rap which some one gave me, last night,"
+replied Vernon,--as, from the force of habit, we must still call him.
+
+"That are a fack, stranger; the man that gin you that blow has a moughty
+hard fist; and I advoise you to keep clear of him, or he will beat you
+into mince-meat."
+
+"I will try to do so."
+
+"You will larn to, if he mought have one more chance at that head of
+yours."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He's an oncommon fine fellow, and made your cake dough once before."
+
+"Ah, was it Miss Dumont's--that is, the quadroon's servant."
+
+"Quadroon, man!--that's all humbug. But he's the boy, and is bound to
+fotch his missus out straight, in the end."
+
+"Well, if she is his mistress, I hope he may. I wish her no harm,
+however much appearances belie me."
+
+"Is that a fack, stranger?"
+
+"Certainly; she never did me any harm."
+
+"Then what mought be the reason you were so onmerciful to her?"
+
+"I never used her hardly. My friend said she was his slave, and all I
+wished was to have him obtain his own. In short, I was paid for my
+services."
+
+"No doubt of it, stranger. But I can't see how the tenth part of a man
+could hunt down such a gal as that,--it's onnateral. Besides, you didn't
+believe she was a slave."
+
+"'Pon my honor I did, or I would not have lifted a finger. But I see you
+have released the rest of your prisoners,--I hope you will be as
+generous towards me."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself, stranger!"
+
+"I have a mortal aversion to courts of justice."
+
+"Quite likely," returned Jerry, pleased with the man's frankness.
+
+"Besides, I belong to a respectable family, who will not mind paying
+something handsome to avoid exposure."
+
+"Can't be bought, stranger; besides, respectable villains arn't any
+better nor others."
+
+"True; but, you know, their friends, who are educated, are more
+sensitive in such matters than others."
+
+"That mought be true, for's aught I know; but it's mighty strange you
+never thought of that sarcumstance before."
+
+"Never was in limbo before."
+
+"That's the go, is't? Look-a-here, stranger, is it the darbies, or the
+crime, which brings the disgrace upon the family? Accordin' to my
+notion,--and I believe I've got something besides nits and lice in my
+head,--it's the deed, and not the punishment, that fotches the disgrace.
+But whar does your family live?"
+
+"In New Orleans," replied Vernon, who knew nothing to the contrary,
+though we are not sure that, if he had, it would have made any
+difference in his reply.
+
+"And your name is Vernon?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Is that your family name, or only a borried one?"
+
+"It is my real name," replied Vernon, not a little perplexed by the
+coolness and method of the woodman's queries.
+
+"I rather guess not," suggested Jerry, mildly.
+
+"'Pon my honor--"
+
+"Think again,--maybe you mought fotch the real one to your mind."
+
+Vernon, whose temper was not particularly gentle under contradiction,
+was nettled, and disposed to be angry.
+
+"Perhaps you know best," said he, conquering his passion, and assuming
+one of those peculiarly convincing smiles, which must be an hereditary
+possession in the family of the "father of lies."
+
+"Perhaps I do," replied Jerry. "If you don't know any better than that,
+why, then, I do know best. It arn't Vernon."
+
+"It is not manly, captain, to insult a prisoner," replied Vernon, with
+an air of dignity, which came from the same source as the liar's smile.
+
+"I don't mean to insult you, stranger; but facts is facts, all over the
+world," said Jerry, untouched by the other's rebuke.
+
+"What mean you?"
+
+"Nothin', stranger, only I know you. Your mother arn't livin'."
+
+"No," returned Vernon, with a start; for, with all his vices and his
+crimes, a sense of respect for the name and honor of his family had
+outlived the good principles imbibed upon a mother's knee. Although a
+villain in almost every sense of the word, there were many redeeming
+traits in his character, which the reader will be willing to believe, on
+recalling his expressions of conscientiousness uttered to Maxwell.
+Family pride is often hereditary, and the reverses and degradations of a
+lifetime cannot extinguish it. It was so with Vernon. His real name was
+unknown, even among his most intimate associates. He had early taken the
+precaution--not in deference to the feelings of his father--to assume a
+name; it was from pride of birth, which shuddered more at the thought of
+a stain upon the family escutcheon than at all the crimes which may
+canker and corrode the heart.
+
+"My mother is not living," continued he; "but how know you this?"
+
+"It don't matter, stranger. Have you seen your father lately?"
+
+"Not for many years. I am an outcast from his presence," replied Vernon,
+with some appearance of feeling.
+
+"That's onfortunate; does he know what sort of a lark you are?"
+
+"I hope not," replied Vernon, with a sickly smile.
+
+"But he does; he knows all about this ongodly scrape you got into last
+night."
+
+"What mean you?" said the ruffian, sternly.
+
+"Mean? Why, just exactly what I say, Mr. Vaudelier! Don't start! I know
+you as well as you know yourself."
+
+Vernon bit his lips; he was confounded at hearing his name uttered,--a
+name which had not greeted his ears for many years. His passion was
+disarmed before the rude but cutting speech of the woodman, whose
+knowledge of human nature, bred in the woods as he had been, was
+remarkable. There are men in the world, supposed to be entirely
+intractable, who, when rightly approached, prove as gentle as lambs.
+There is no evil without its antidote, however deeply it may be hid from
+the knowledge of man; and there is no man so vile that he cannot be
+reformed. The image of God, marred and disfigured as it may be, exists
+in every man, as the faultless statue exists in the rough block of
+marble; from which, when the fashioning hand, aided by the magic of
+genius, touches it, the imago of beauty shall come forth. So, when man,
+in whom always exists the elements of the highest character, shall be
+approached by the true reformer,--the highest and truest genius,--the
+bright ideal shall assume the actual form.
+
+The woodman had touched a chord in the heart of the gambler which
+vibrated at his touch. It was not the words, but the genuine sympathy
+with which they were laden, that overcame the indifference of the
+vicious man. Perceiving his advantage, the woodman followed it up,
+repeatedly disarming the bolt of passion, which was poised in the mind
+of his auditor.
+
+"Your father," said Jerry, "is a good man, and you mought go round the
+world without finding a better."
+
+"Very true!" replied Vernon, moved to a degree he was unwilling to
+acknowledge.
+
+"Now, if you jest turn over a new leaf in the book of life, and try to
+fotch out right in the end, I believe the old man would cry quits on the
+old score."
+
+"Send those men away, captain! I will not attempt to escape."
+
+Jerry complied, and the watchers took their departure.
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+"Close by, stranger. May be you'd like to see him?"
+
+"On no account!"
+
+"That's a good sign, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "You will have to see him,
+I am afraid. You are under his ruff."
+
+Vernon, completely overcome, staggered to a chair, and covered his face
+with his hands.
+
+"Not so bad a boy as one mought suppose," soliloquized Jerry, as he went
+to the door, and requested the servant to summon Dr. Vaudelier. "The
+fellow has fed on husks long enough, and, as the scripter says, he is
+goin' to rise and go to his dad."
+
+"Do not let my father see me,--anything, rather than that!" exclaimed
+Vernon, rising, and grasping the woodman's arm. "I am a great villain!"
+
+"That's very true, stranger; but you have got into the scrape, and the
+best thing you can do is to get out on't."
+
+"How can I!"
+
+"Be an honest man."
+
+"I fear I never can be that."
+
+"Try it! There is something left of you."
+
+At this moment Dr. Vaudelier entered the room. His aspect was stern and
+forbidding, and the son buried his face in his hands after the first
+glance at him.
+
+"Jerome," said he, "you will bring my gray hairs with sorrow down to the
+grave."
+
+"Easy with him, doctor, easy! He is a little touched, and, if you manage
+him right, you can fotch him over. He is under conviction now. Don't let
+on yet!"
+
+"Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me," continued the doctor.
+"Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus enter my house
+with a band of ruffians behind you?"
+
+"Father," said the convicted Vernon, "I did not know it was your house,
+or I could never have done it."
+
+"Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight assassin!" and
+Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like a child.
+
+"Forgive me, father!" exclaimed the repentant son. "Forgive me!"
+
+"God and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!"
+
+"Easy with him, doctor!" interposed Jerry, fearful lest the son's
+repentance should be dissipated before the father's sternness.
+
+"I will atone for all, to the best of my ability."
+
+"Would that you might do so!"
+
+"I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!"
+
+"Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so deeply
+injured."
+
+"I would be her slave for life!"
+
+"If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the wrongs which
+have been inflicted upon her."
+
+"I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail
+anything to her. Maxwell assured me she was his slave, and showed me the
+bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my help."
+
+"You were too willing to believe him," said the doctor, sternly.
+
+"I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew (which is but
+little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will tell you all."
+
+"Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry."
+
+Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the
+position of the matter.
+
+"Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have done?"
+
+"Freely, sir; and may God enable you to persevere in the course you have
+taken!"
+
+"Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life with the
+strength your good wishes impart."
+
+Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the attorney,
+concealing no part of his own or his confederate's villany. Of the will
+he knew nothing, his operations having been confined to the attempts to
+obtain possession of her person.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole truth. It
+was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had chosen the better
+part. His fervent prayer ascended that the penitent might be faithful to
+his good resolutions.
+
+All the circumstances relating to the will were unknown to Vernon, which
+was the occasion of much congratulation both to his father and to Emily.
+It seemed to relieve him from some portion of the guilt which the
+subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and, when these circumstances
+were related to him, a burst of generous indignation testified that he,
+the blackleg, the robber, was above such villany. However depraved in
+some respects, that vice which is commonly called _meanness_ had no
+place within him. He was, or rather had been, of that class of operators
+who "rob the rich to pay the poor;" who have no innate love of vice,
+only a desire to be free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand,
+without toil or sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.
+
+"Jerome," said Dr. Vaudelier, "this Maxwell must be watched, and, if you
+are true to yourself, no one can do this duty as well as you."
+
+"Trust me, sir! I am strong in this lady's service."
+
+"I shall not doubt you, my son, until I have occasion to do so. I am
+satisfied, if Miss Dumont is."
+
+"I feel perfectly confident in the good faith of your son, and am
+indebted to him for the zeal he manifests in my cause."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Dumont," said Vernon. "You are too generous; but, be
+assured, your confidence shall not be abused."
+
+It was determined that Vernon should immediately depart for Vicksburg,
+whither Maxwell had gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     "He gives me leave to attend you,
+     And is impatient till he sees you."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+It was the afternoon of the same day, as Dr. Vaudelier was reclining
+upon a rustic seat near the landing, he was surprised by the appearance
+of a canoe coming down the creek. The canoe contained an elderly
+gentleman, and a negro, who, after several unsuccessful attempts,
+succeeded in landing the passenger upon the little pier. He was about
+fifty years of age, apparently. His hair and whiskers were a mixture of
+gray and black; his countenance was full, and his complexion florid,
+which contrasted oddly with the green spectacles that rested upon his
+nose.
+
+"Do I have the honor of addressing Dr. Vaudelier?" said, the stranger,
+in a tone so soft and silky that the doctor could hardly persuade
+himself it did not proceed from a woman.
+
+"That is my name, sir; and to whom am I indebted for this unexpected
+pleasure?"
+
+"De Guy, sir,--Antoine De Guy, at your service," squeaked the visitor,
+with whom the reader is already acquainted.
+
+"Well, sir, may I inquire the object of your visit?"
+
+"Certainly, sir. I am informed there is a lady at present residing with
+you, one of the unfortunate persons who were on board the Chalmetta at
+the time of her late disaster. A Miss Dumont."
+
+"Who informed you, sir?"
+
+De Guy hesitated a little, and then said he heard a number of gentlemen
+discuss the late disaster at the hotel in Vicksburg; that one of them
+had mentioned this fact--he really could not tell the gentleman's name.
+
+"What is your business with the lady?" asked the doctor, to whom the
+idea of a new enemy of Emily had already presented itself.
+
+"That, sir, I can best disclose to the lady in person," squeaked the
+street-lawyer, with a low bow.
+
+"This way then," and the doctor led him to the library, into which he
+soon after conducted Emily.
+
+"Miss Dumont?" said De Guy, rising and making a profound obeisance as
+she entered. "My name is De Guy."
+
+Emily bowed slightly, but made no reply.
+
+"May I beg that our interview may be private?" said the attorney,
+glancing at Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"This gentleman is my friend and confidant; it is not necessary that he
+should retire," replied Emily, as Dr. Vaudelier was moving towards the
+door.
+
+"Very well, madam; though I think, from the nature of my business, you
+would wish it to be confidential."
+
+"Perhaps I had better withdraw," suggested the physician.
+
+"By no means, my dear sir; if this gentleman's visit relates to business
+matters, I must beg the favor of your counsel."
+
+"As you please, Miss Dumont; I come charged with a message from your
+uncle, my respected client, Mr. Dumont."
+
+"Indeed, sir!" replied Emily, a slight tremor creeping through her
+frame; "pray deliver it at once."
+
+"It is simply to say your immediate presence at your late residence is
+necessary."
+
+"Where did you see my uncle?" asked she.
+
+"At Bellevue, madam, yesterday morning. I arrived at eleven o'clock
+to-day."
+
+"When did Mr. Dumont return from his journey up the river?" asked Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+De Guy reflected a moment; from the shade of displeasure on his
+countenance, it was evident he disliked the interference of the doctor.
+
+"About four days ago."
+
+"When did you last see your uncle, Miss Dumont?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I have not seen him since the second day of our journey,"--which was
+the time that Jaspar had been left at the wood-yard.
+
+"Probably, then, he has returned to Bellevue. It is singular that, under
+the instructions of the will, he should leave you in this unceremonious
+manner."
+
+"Not at all," interrupted De Guy.
+
+"You speak as though you were familiar with his motions," said Dr.
+Vaudelier, with a penetrating glance at the attorney.
+
+"To some extent, I am," replied the silky-toned lawyer, with a smile
+which was intended to declare his own innocence in any of the plots of
+Jaspar. "He has voluntarily acquainted me with some of the particulars
+of this unfortunate affair."
+
+"Indeed, sir!"
+
+"Such is the fact," continued the attorney, with professional ease; "he
+has sent for Miss Dumont in order to effect a compromise."
+
+"A compromise!" exclaimed Emily, with disdain; "there can be no
+compromise, short of restoring, absolutely, my rights!"
+
+"It is very probable he is quite ready to do so," replied the
+accommodating attorney.
+
+"May I ask what has produced this singular and sudden change in the
+purpose of my uncle?"
+
+"Well, madam, it would be difficult to explain the precise reasons. His
+mind seemed troubled; I advised him to unburden to me, which he did. The
+conclusion of the whole matter is, he has taken this step by my
+advice," said De Guy, with an air of the deepest humility.
+
+Emily was somewhat moved, by the revelation of the attorney, from the
+stern reserve she had manifested, and said,
+
+"I am grateful for your interest in my behalf."
+
+"Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's duty,
+which is superior to every other gratification."
+
+"May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?" asked Dr. Vaudelier,
+incredulously.
+
+"The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was not
+exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt obliged
+to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of justice," said the
+attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful whether he was
+perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.
+
+"Humph!" said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.
+
+"Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir," continued
+De Guy.
+
+"Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right between
+this lady and her uncle?"
+
+"The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont," replied De Guy, readily.
+
+"You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose, just as
+it was in the very act of being consummated, without a strong motive."
+
+"True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel Dumont is
+upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this time, of his
+share in the transaction."
+
+"Well."
+
+"And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the steamer."
+
+"True."
+
+"Was not the reaeppearance, the rising from the dead, of this man, quite
+enough to convince him that all his plans had failed?"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"The boy had the will!"
+
+"It is all plain to me," said Emily, more disposed to trust De Guy than
+Dr. Vaudelier was.
+
+"Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should adopt
+this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save him from
+exposure."
+
+"Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power again,"
+suggested Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"I assure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even now, at the
+guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is awakened."
+
+"And well it might be," said the doctor.
+
+"True," responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of honest
+indignation; "but when we see a man disposed to repent, we should be
+ready to assist him."
+
+Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents of the
+morning,--called to mind the feelings which had been awakened in the
+presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full force of De Guy's
+argument.
+
+"If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done his
+niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means, advise her to
+follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature suggests. 'To err
+is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a Christian, and will act in
+the true spirit of Christianity."
+
+"I trust she will," responded De Guy, meekly; "I trust she will, and,
+with all convenient haste, try to mitigate his distress."
+
+"I will! I will!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Perhaps you will accompany me, as your uncle suggests," insinuated De
+Guy.
+
+"There is certainly no need of such haste as this," said the doctor.
+
+"Her uncle may change his mind."
+
+"Then his penitence is not sincere, and he cannot be trusted."
+
+"I should scarcely call it penitence, sir, since it is only the fear of
+discovery which has driven him to this step," said the attorney,
+branching off in to a new school of ethics.
+
+"I can go in a few days," said Emily. "Captain Carroll, you think, is
+out of danger now?"
+
+De Guy started, and a scowl of the deepest malignity overshadowed his
+countenance, which had before been that of a meek and truthful man. The
+change was so sudden that he seemed to be a man within a man, and the
+two creatures of an opposite character. Neither the doctor nor Emily
+noticed the start, or the sudden change of expression; and the attorney,
+seemingly aware of the danger of wearing two faces, restored the former
+aspect.
+
+"I think he is entirely out of danger," replied Dr. Vaudelier, in reply
+to Emily's question. "Perhaps he will be able to accompany you in a few
+days."
+
+Emily blushed, but made no reply, other than a sweet smile, betokening
+the happiness such an event would give her.
+
+"I fear, madam, the delay will be dangerous," suggested De Guy, who did
+not relish the proposition of the doctor.
+
+"Why dangerous? If Mr. Dumont changes his mind, we have the means of
+proving that that miserable will is false."
+
+"You forget, sir, that Mr. Benson may be lost, and with him the will,"
+interposed Emily, whose love of truth did not enable her to conceal the
+weakness of her case.
+
+"Indeed! Is the will in the hands of a third party?" said the attorney,
+with apparent indifference, while, in reality, he was inwardly chuckling
+with delight.
+
+"It matters not," replied the doctor; "the lady's case is safe. You can
+inform Mr. Dumont that his niece will present herself in a week or ten
+days."
+
+"But, my dear sir, the delay will be fatal, both to the lady and her
+uncle," said the attorney, with alarm.
+
+"It cannot be helped," said the doctor.
+
+"Mr. Dumont's health, I fear, will render it unsafe to wait so long.
+Miss Dumont does not wish her uncle to die unforgiven."
+
+"I will go, sir; I will go at once," exclaimed Emily, shocked at the
+condition of Jaspar, and anxious, as was her nature, to relieve the
+sufferings he must endure in her absence. She forgot how basely he had
+wronged her--how he had attempted her life; the divine sentiment, "Love
+your enemies," prevailed over every other consideration.
+
+"Die unforgiven," muttered the doctor. "Is he sick?"
+
+"He is, sir, and near his end."
+
+"Why have you not mentioned this circumstance before? It seems of
+sufficient importance to merit a passing word."
+
+"I wished not to distress the lady. I think I hinted that he was in
+great distress."
+
+"I fear some evil, Miss Dumont."
+
+"Be assured, sir, if Mr. Dumont meditates any further wrong, he has not
+the power of putting it into effect. He is prostrate upon his bed, and
+if his niece does not see him soon, it will be too late, if it is not so
+already. The stricken man must soon stand for judgment in another
+world," said De Guy, solemnly.
+
+"This alters the case," said the doctor, musing.
+
+"But, sir," continued the attorney, "I was aware that, after what has
+happened, my mission would be attended with many difficulties, and I
+have not come unprepared to overcome them. I do not wonder that you have
+no confidence,--I confess I should not have, under like circumstances.
+You know Dr. Le Verier?" and the attorney drew from his pocket a bundle
+of papers, and opening one, he glanced at the signature upon it, as he
+pronounced the name.
+
+"I do, very well," replied the doctor.
+
+"Our family physician!" exclaimed Emily.
+
+"Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle's physical condition,"
+said De Guy, handing her the paper.
+
+Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.
+
+"Very satisfactory," said he; "you will pardon me for doubting your
+word--"
+
+"Don't mention it, sir," replied De Guy, blandly. "I fully appreciate
+your motive, and honor you for it. And you know Mr. Faxon?"
+
+"O, yes--what of him," said Emily, eagerly.
+
+"A letter from him," replied De Guy, giving her the missive.
+
+Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents, the
+attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude such as
+attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if the pockets of
+the latter be empty.
+
+"I will go immediately!" exclaimed Emily, as she finished reading the
+letter. "Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a different man, and is
+ready to restore all my rights."
+
+"Finally," said De Guy, "here is your uncle's own signature. This letter
+I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty, signed his
+name."
+
+Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would restore
+all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to return to Bellevue
+with all possible haste. Emily recognized the signature, though it was
+apparently written by the trembling hand of a dying man.
+
+"The papers are quite satisfactory," said Dr. Vaudelier, as he completed
+the reading of the note from Jaspar. "If you had presented them at
+first, I should have been spared my uncourteous suspicions. But you will
+pardon them, and consider that the lady's case requires the utmost
+caution."
+
+"It was only in deference to the lady's nerves that I broke the
+intelligence gradually. I was quite willing to sacrifice myself, for the
+moment, in your good opinion, for her sake. I trust you will appreciate
+and regard my motives, as I do yours."
+
+Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of Emily's
+returning to Bellevue with De Guy. But a death-bed scene was a difficult
+thing to reason against, and he was obliged to yield the point before
+the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more calm persuasions of Dr.
+Vaudelier.
+
+It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the party
+should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.
+
+Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in relation to
+their departure.
+
+At the mention of Hatchie's name, the attorney grew marvellously uneasy,
+and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed him to the
+island was waiting for him. He therefore proposed that Dr. Vaudelier
+should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning, which was readily
+agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat, without confronting
+the mulatto.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     "_Jaffier_. O, Belvidera!
+     _Belvidera_. Why was I last night delivered to a villain?
+     _Jaffier_. Ha! a villain?
+     _Belvidera_. Yes, to a villain!"
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+Agreeably to the arrangement of the previous night, Emily was on board
+of the "Montezuma," prepared to commence her journey to Bellevue. While
+De Guy conducted Emily to the ladies' cabin, Hatchie was getting her few
+articles of baggage on board, and the boat was fairly under weigh
+without the faithful mulatto's having had a sight of the new protector
+of Emily. The attorney congratulated himself on this circumstance; his
+mind had thus been released from the pressure of a most painful anxiety.
+His plan was now accomplished.
+
+But the meeting could not be much longer deferred. De Guy, however, now
+that they were free from the friends of Emily, no longer dreaded it.
+
+The dinner hour arrived, and Hatchie was standing by the side of his
+mistress on the gallery, when De Guy approached and announced the fact.
+His voice startled Hatchie. It was the same squeaking tone he had heard
+at Bellevue on the night of his escape. He turned to look upon the
+speaker, and was confounded to behold the very person who had plotted
+with Jaspar on that memorable night! With a presence of mind which never
+deserted him, he held his peace, resolved not to frighten his mistress
+by exposing the fact.
+
+Hatchie stood lost in thought on the gallery long after De Guy had
+conducted his mistress to the dinner-table. The mulatto was in a
+quandary,--a worse quandary than the congressional hero of Kentucky has
+described in any of his thousand relations of hair-breadth escapes. His
+mistress was fairly committed to her new destiny, and how could he
+extricate her?
+
+He resolved to do the only thing he possibly could do,--to watch
+unceasingly, to be ever ready to defend his mistress in case of
+necessity. The papers which De Guy had brought from Bellevue, and which
+he heard described by the doctor, did much to assure him that no evil
+was intended towards her; but the man who had been a villain once was,
+in his opinion, exceedingly apt to be so again.
+
+Emily was ill at ease during the passage; not that she felt unsafe, or
+dreaded treachery, but something seemed to whisper that evil _might_ be
+near her. An undefined sensation of doubt seemed to beset her path, and
+urge upon her the unpleasant necessity of extreme caution. She was
+conscious of being engaged in a good work. She had forgiven her great
+enemy, and was now on her way to smooth his dying pillow. There was
+something lofty and beautiful in the thought, and she derived much
+consolation from it.
+
+De Guy rarely intruded himself upon her notice during the passage. At
+meal-hours he was scrupulously polite and attentive, but he was as cold
+and formal as she could desire. She never ventured upon the promenade
+deck, unless her faithful Hatchie was near.
+
+The mulatto, with all his watchfulness, was unable to discover any
+indications of treachery on the part of De Guy, though an apparently
+confidential conversation with the captain of the steamer, on the night
+before their arrival at New Orleans, had rather an unfavorable
+appearance.
+
+It was late at night when the Montezuma arrived at New Orleans. The
+steamer quietly took her berth at the levee, so that few of the
+passengers took any notice of their arrival, and contentedly turned
+over in their berths to wait the advent of the coming day.
+
+Hatchie, who occupied a room near the boiler deck, had been awakened by
+the confusion of making fast the steamer. His watchful vigil over the
+safety of his mistress did not permit him to slumber while the
+possibility of danger existed. He had, therefore, risen; but scarcely
+had he completed his dress, when the door of his room was suddenly
+opened, and himself violently seized by two stout men. The attack had
+been so sudden, and the movements of the assailants so well directed,
+that resistance was hopeless. Before he fully realized the presence of
+his foes, his hands were pinioned behind him. In this condition, without
+knowing why or by whom he was assailed, he was hurried away to the
+calaboose.
+
+At an early hour in the morning carriages and drays began to assemble on
+the levee, and all the noise and bustle of landing passengers, baggage
+and freight, commenced.
+
+Emily Dumont, as soon as it was fairly light, rose from her couch, and
+made her preparations to leave the steamer. Fully equipped for her
+journey to Bellevue, she entered the cabin, where De Guy soon presented
+himself.
+
+"Where is Hatchie?" was the first question she asked; for Hatchie had
+always been on the spot whenever and wherever she needed his services.
+
+"I have taken the liberty to send him up to the St. Charles with your
+luggage. You will, of course, breakfast there," said the attorney,
+blandly.
+
+"Such was not my intention," replied she, as a cold tremor--she knew not
+why--agitated her.
+
+"I am sorry to have mistaken your purpose; the ride to Bellevue is a
+long one to take without any refreshment."
+
+"I mind it not; my haste is too great to admit of any delay."
+
+"I sent by your servant to order an early breakfast, and a carriage at
+seven o'clock."
+
+"Very well, I will conform to the arrangement you have made," replied
+Emily, with a dissatisfied air.
+
+A carriage was called from the mass which had congregated, whose drivers
+were not a whit behind those of the metropolitan city in earnest
+perseverance; and De Guy assisted her into it, seating himself at a
+respectful distance on the forward seat.
+
+Now, the act of engaging a cab or a carriage is of itself quite an easy
+matter; but we question whether passengers are generally as well suited
+as in the present instance. Without troubling the worthy Mr. De Guy with
+any foolish queries as to where he should drive them, the Jehu mounted
+his box, and conducted his team apparently to the entire satisfaction of
+his fare. It may be that the intelligent driver had a way of divining
+the wishes of his customers; or it may be that De Guy, in deference to
+any supposed repugnance to business matters on the part of his
+companion, had previously discussed this topic. Without any design of
+prejudicing the reader's mind in favor of the latter supposition, we
+confess our inclination to accept it as correct.
+
+Emily vainly attempted to assure herself that her companion was
+conducting her in good faith to the home of her early years. An
+undefined feeling of insecurity was painfully besetting her, whichever
+way she turned. She considered and reconsidered the evidences he had
+brought to Cottage Island of the truth of his own statements, and of his
+own trustworthiness. It was all in vain. Could those papers have been
+forgeries? It was a terrible thought to her.
+
+The carriage stopped, and the attorney invited her to alight.
+Change--anything, was a relief to the painful sensations which had
+almost overpowered her, and without reflection she did so. Her faculties
+were so confused she did not notice that it was not the private entrance
+of the St. Charles. She took everything for granted, and accepted the
+offered arm of De Guy. She crossed the broad side-walk, and, raising her
+eyes, was overwhelmed by seeing at the side of the door she was about
+to enter the sign of "_Anthony Marwell, Attorney and Counsellor at
+Law_."
+
+"Please to walk up stairs," squeaked the attorney, drawing her after him
+to the inside of the door, which he immediately closed and bolted.
+
+"Not a step further, sir!" said she, with as much firmness as she could
+command. "What means this? Am I again betrayed?"
+
+"Nay, nay, madam, walk up quietly," said De Guy, in a soothing tone, as
+he applied a little gentle force to the arm he held.
+
+"Unhand me, sir!" screamed Emily, as loud as her agitated condition
+would permit.
+
+But De Guy heeded her not; and, without condescending to utter another
+word, he took her up like a child, and bore her up the stairs to
+Maxwell's office. Turning the key to prevent interruption, he opened the
+lawyer's private apartment in the rear, and placed the fainting girl
+upon the bed, and retired.
+
+Unlocking the office door, he was confronted by an old negress, who had
+charge of the sweeping and cleaning department of the building.
+
+"Sar! what's all dis about?" screamed she, in no gentle tone; for the
+colored lady had witnessed De Guy's achievement from the stair-case
+above.
+
+"Hush, Dido--"
+
+"Sar! who are you dat come inter Massa Maxwell's room widout no leave?"
+
+"Never mind who I am, Dido. There is a lady in the bedroom, by whom Mr.
+Maxwell sets his life--do you hear?--sets his life. She has fainted, and
+you must take care of her,"--and De Guy slipped a half-eagle into the
+negress' hands.
+
+"Dat alters de case," said the black lady, eying the money with much
+satisfaction. "Massa Maxwell's a sly dog. I take good care ob de
+lady--not de fus time, nuder."
+
+"Don't let her get away; take good care of her, and you shall have half
+a dozen just such pieces."
+
+"Never fear, Massa, I's use to de business."
+
+De Guy left the building, satisfied, it would seem, of the negress'
+fidelity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "_Lieut_. Forgive me, sir, what I'm compelled t' obey: An order for
+     your close confinement.
+
+     "_King H_. Whence comes it, good lieutenant?
+
+     "_Lieut_. Sir, from the Duke of Gloster.
+
+     "_King H_. Good-night to all, then!"
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Connected with the estate at Bellevue, of which Jaspar Dumont was now in
+actual possession, was a small slave jail. It had been constructed under
+the immediate direction of Jaspar, to afford a place of confinement for
+the runaway or refractory negroes of the plantation. It was located at
+some distance from the proprietary mansion, and from the quarters of the
+negroes. Jaspar's taste in matters of this kind was of the most refined
+character, and he had caused it to be constructed on a plan and in a
+manner that would seem to bid defiance to the skill of a Baron Trenck,
+or a Stephen Burroughs. The material was granite, brought at no trifling
+expense from the North. There were no windows upon the sides, and only
+one entrance, which was secured by double iron doors. Light and air were
+supplied, in meagre quantities, by means of a skylight in the roof,
+which was regulated by a cord passing down upon the outside.
+
+This jail, either by accident or design, was so constructed that any
+noise inside was not transmitted to the outside. Whether this was
+because of the reflecting properties of the walls, which might have sent
+the sound echoing out at the skylight on the apex of the four-sided
+roof, or because of some other natural causes, we shall not take up the
+reader's time in discussing. Its inmates might startle Heaven with their
+cries, but certainly every ear on earth below must be deaf to their
+wail. This circumstance seemed typical of the actual fact of oppression;
+but we are sure that Jaspar never meant to typify the groans, by man
+unheeded, of the victims of tyranny ascending to be heard above.
+
+It was the day after the events related in the last chapter, and the
+negro jail was tenanted; but not by a refractory or a runaway slave. It
+was now devoted to a more dignified purpose, being occupied by a white
+man and his wife, the victims of Jaspar Dumont's hatred and fears. They
+had already been prisoners for the past forty-eight hours. No sound from
+the wide, wide world without had reached them; and, though the man had
+shouted himself hoarse in endeavors to arrest the attention of any
+casual passer-by, the sound of his voice had risen to Heaven, but had
+not been heard by any mortal ear.
+
+On a heap of dirty straw, in one corner, lay a female. She was feeble
+and helpless. By her side, gazing sadly upon her, was her companion,
+pale and haggard, and apparently conquered in spirit. The sufferings of
+the frail being by his side seemed to pierce him to the soul. He felt
+not for himself; his thoughts, his feelings, all were devoted to her,
+whom he had loved and respected through many vicissitudes, whose kindly
+sympathy had cheered his heart in many of the severest of earth's
+trials. They had passed through peril and poverty together, and now the
+cup of tribulation seemed full to the brim. They were doomed to
+death,--not to the death of the malefactor, but as victims of private
+interest. No friendly jailer had been near, to bring them even a cup of
+cold water to assuage their consuming thirst. Not a morsel of food had
+they tasted since their incarceration! The terrible doom to which they
+were consigned was too apparent; there was nothing to foreshadow even
+the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with their
+inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was equal to any
+crime which his own safety demanded.
+
+The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her companion
+bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his sunken eyes, he
+imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.
+
+"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.
+
+"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a single drop
+of cold water!"
+
+"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?" exclaimed
+Dalhousie,--for it was he,--striking his hands violently upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!--I am ready to die,"
+said she, faintly.
+
+Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to permit
+his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible situation of
+his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail with long strides,
+gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate remedy for his woes.
+Escape had scarcely presented itself to his mind. He had not the energy
+of character which rises superior to every ill, and had bent himself
+supinely to the fate which awaited him. To work through the solid walls
+of the jail seemed to him an impossibility, even if provided with the
+necessary implements. The scheme was too vast for his mind,
+unaccustomed, as it was, to contend with great difficulties.
+
+Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him, armed
+with energy to break through every obstacle which might oppose him. His
+feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for her relief, and such
+a demand even his supine nature could not resist.
+
+Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had, apparently, been
+quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel with which the earth had
+been thrown out.
+
+Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated him. "_I_
+began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it for water," muttered
+he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced digging. Awhile he labored
+with the energy of desperation; but, enfeebled by long fasting, and
+unused to such severe toil, he soon felt his strength give way. It
+appeared to be his only hope, the only ministration of comfort to the
+loved one beside him, and he strove manfully against the weakness which
+beset him. An hour he labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his
+toil. Overcome by his exertions, he seated himself upon the brink of the
+pit, and gave way to the agonizing emotions which filled his soul. A
+sigh from his wife roused him to a new effort, and, partially
+invigorated by the few moments' rest, he again applied himself to his
+task. The ground was of a moist character, and he had every
+encouragement of soon finding the coveted treasure. Animated by this
+hope, he redoubled his efforts, and for another hour despair nerved his
+arm, and strengthened his sinking frame. Still the buried treasure
+eluded his search. Exhausted by his exertions, he sunk heavily upon the
+side of the pit, and the big tears coursed down his hollow cheeks.
+Deserted by man, he felt that there was no God in heaven; and no
+divinely-born sentiment came to cheer him in the hour of his
+despondency. He felt that the hand of death must soon take him and his
+loved wife into its cold embrace. With much effort he drew himself to
+her side, and endeavored to compose his mind for the struggle with the
+destroyer.
+
+Two hours he lay by her side; but his time had not yet come. Rested from
+the severe fatigue he had undergone, he felt a new vigor stealing
+through his frame. Something like hope again flitted before his
+desponding mind, and, partially raising himself from his recumbent
+posture, he gazed about the apartment. The pit he had dug was yawning
+near him. A shudder convulsed his frame, as it reminded him of the open
+grave that gaped to receive him. Had he not dug this grave for himself?
+
+The instinct of self-preservation drew him to his feet. Seizing the
+shovel, he advanced to the pit, when, to his unspeakable delight, he
+perceived that the bottom of it was covered with black, dirty water. The
+sight roused his dormant energies, and he saw before him years of life
+and happiness. Leaping into the pit, he drank from the putrid pool,
+using the palms of his hands for a drinking vessel.
+
+Tearing off the top of his glazed cap, he succeeded in making a very
+tolerable cup of it, with which he conveyed some of the precious liquid
+to the parched lips of his sinking wife. The act roused her from the
+absent mood to which she had abandoned herself. She took a long draught
+of the discolored beverage, and, had it been the pure mountain spring,
+its effect could scarcely have been more magical. It not only refreshed
+the body, but inspired the mind. With this dawning hope the poor
+prisoners built the flimsy fabric of future joy and safety.
+
+Dalhousie had lived years in the hours of his confinement. Experience,
+the stern mentor of humanity, had ministered to him, and imparted the
+strength and resolution which often require years to mature. Thoughts,
+and feelings, and energies, to which he had before been a stranger, came
+bounding through his mind, as the mighty river, which, having broken
+away the feeble barrier man had set in its course, roars and thunders
+down its before forsaken path. The powerful impulse of hope, stimulated
+by this successful act, made him curse his supineness in calmly yielding
+to the awful fate which awaited him. His best hours--his hours of
+unimpaired strength--had now passed away; there was no fountain at which
+he could renew it. But energy now burned within him, and, like an
+invisible power, seemed to drive him on to some great act. The impulse
+was irresistible; hopeless as his case had before appeared, he
+determined to escape. But how? This question had not yet presented
+itself. Escape from the jail!--from death!--himself,--more than himself,
+his wife! Stone walls lost their appalling firmness, and were no more
+than downy masses, which his breath could blow away.
+
+Animated by this irresistible impulse, he took the shovel, and sounded
+upon the walls; but they were everywhere firm and solid beneath his
+blow. It seemed useless to his usually inert mind, and he was about to
+abandon himself again to the jaws of despair, when a new thought
+suggested itself. Fired with the inspiration of the new idea, he
+impulsively proceeded to carry it into execution. By the side of the
+wall, with vigorous strokes, he commenced digging, with the intention of
+undermining it. Without a thought of his enfeebled body, he plied the
+shovel with the energy of desperation. Instead of making a calm
+calculation, and proceeding with such an economy of strength as would
+enable him to complete the work, he labored as though the task before
+him could be easily and quickly accomplished.
+
+His wife, somewhat revived by the draught she had taken, penetrated the
+purpose of her husband; but she saw that his strength must entirely fail
+him ere the work could be accomplished.
+
+"You must husband your strength, Francois," said she; "rest a little."
+
+"The hope of deliverance is too strong to let me sacrifice another
+moment in idleness," replied Dalhousie, without ceasing from his labors.
+
+"But, Francois, you will kill yourself, if you work so hard."
+
+"That would be an honorable death, at least."
+
+"And leave me to linger here?--No, let us die together, if die we must.
+Perhaps I can help you,"--and she strove to rise.
+
+"Do not rise, Delia,--keep quiet; I am strong, and will yet deliver you
+from this dungeon. Lay quiet, dear; do not add to my distress."
+
+"I fear I must lay still,--I cannot rise," said she, sinking back with
+the exhaustion of the effort.
+
+Dalhousie threw down his shovel, and hastened to her side.
+
+"Do not attempt to rise again, dear," said he. "Let me get you some more
+water."
+
+He again filled the rude cup at the pit, and, after she had taken a long
+draught of it, he laved her head, an operation which appeared to refresh
+her.
+
+"Do you feel better?"
+
+"Much better."
+
+"Now keep perfectly quiet, and I will resume my task."
+
+"I will; but pray, Francois, do not work so hard; temper your enthusiasm
+with reason. You cannot succeed, unless you are careful."
+
+"I will, dear; I will rest every little while."
+
+Dalhousie resumed his labor, and, convinced by his wife's reasoning, he
+labored more moderately. While he toils at this apparently hopelessly
+task, we will return to the night when we left him in the library, after
+having obtained possession of the secret packet.
+
+The overseer, after leaving the library, was perplexed to determine his
+future course. He was in possession of a mighty secret, a secret which
+involved his employer's very existence. The realization of a thousand
+golden dreams was at hand, and he was resolved, without an over-nice
+balancing of conscientious scruples, to make the most of the information
+he had obtained. There were two methods of procedure open to him, and
+his perplexity was occasioned by this fact. In this instance his
+resolution was not at fault, for the reins were in his own hands. It was
+not like hewing a path through the granite barriers of difficulty,
+against the very frown of destiny. He imagined that some overruling
+power had made the path, and invited him to walk in it.
+
+Should he make his fortune by means of the uncle or the niece? The
+question of his existence had narrowed itself down to this point. It
+was sure, he felt, from one or the other.
+
+Being of a naturally generous disposition, with strong affections, and
+having not a little of the natural sense of justice in his composition,
+he was decidedly in favor of permitting the niece to enrich him. This
+was his personal preference; but he was sensible of the truth of the
+axiom, that individual preferences must sometimes be sacrificed to the
+success of the main object; and, if the circumstances demanded it, he
+felt able to make the sacrifice.
+
+If he forwarded the packet to its proper destination, the lady would,
+without doubt, be soon restored to her possessions. This was the course
+he preferred, as well as the course which justice and morality demanded.
+But, alas! his moral sentiment was not sufficiently developed to make
+him pause before taking the opposite course, if his present and
+temporary interest should seem to demand it. A departure from the strict
+injunction of conscience is sure to bring misery; and this was doubly
+true in his case.
+
+The uncle was in actual possession, and he called to mind the old maxim,
+that "possession is nine points in the law." He was unwilling to risk
+the bright prospects, which had so suddenly opened upon him, on the
+tenth point. Fearing that Jaspar's unscrupulous character would enable
+him to defeat the heiress, he had not the courage to do his duty and
+trust Heaven for the reward.
+
+With this view of his position, he reluctantly--we will do him the
+justice to say reluctantly--abandoned the project of restoring the niece
+to her birthright. Thus was the great purpose of his life narrowed down
+to one point, and he retired to his pillow to consider in what manner he
+should approach Jaspar.
+
+Simple as this single point had before appeared, he found, on
+reflection, that it was environed with difficulties and dangers. Jaspar
+was intrenched in his own castle, and it would require some address even
+to approach near enough to hold a parley. Conclusive as were the
+evidences in his possession of Jaspar's perfidy, they might, by the aid
+of cunning and gold, be made to appear as forgeries, gotten up for the
+purpose of extorting money. The stake was a great one, and he determined
+with a bold hand to play the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     "_Cassius_. At such a time as this, it is not meet
+     That every nice offence should bear its comment.
+     --You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus!"
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont, on the morning after the abstraction of the papers by
+Dalhousie, rose from his inebriated slumbers; but his rest was a
+misnomer. The strong excitement, which a few weeks before had served to
+keep his mind occupied, had now passed away. His villany was
+accomplished; but it had not purchased the satisfaction he coveted--it
+had cost too much sacrifice of soul. Brandy was his only solace; and
+even this only conjured up demons of torture in his fevered imagination.
+
+He was conscious that on the previous night he had drank too much. There
+seemed to be a chasm in his recollection which all his efforts could not
+fill. He might, while in a measure unconscious of his actions, have
+betrayed some of his momentous secrets. The overseer, of whose presence
+he had an indistinct remembrance, might have obtained some further clue
+to the great mystery. These were annoying reflections, and while he
+resolved to be more temperate in future, how fervently he adjured his
+patron demon to ward off any danger he might have courted in his
+inebriation!
+
+After his accustomed ride through the cane-fields, he retired to the
+library. The decanter had been replenished with brandy, and his late
+resolutions did not deter him from freely imbibing of its contents. The
+equilibrium was restored. His mind, stimulated by the fumes of the
+liquor, resumed its usual buoyancy. He paced the room, and drank
+frequent draughts of the fiery beverage.
+
+Suddenly he stopped in his perambulation, as a faint recollection of the
+lost key came to his mind. He searched his pockets; but it could not be
+found. The drawer was locked. Suspicious as he was fearful, he trembled
+lest in his oblivious moments he had compromised his secret. He sent for
+the overseer, determined to know and provide for the worst.
+
+After the messenger left, his reflections assumed a new direction. He
+tried to laugh away his suspicions, applied epithets to himself which it
+would not have been safe for another to have applied, and in good round
+oaths cursed his own stupidity. In his privacy he was a pattern of
+candor, and bestowed upon himself such a rating as, to another, would
+have given fair promise of good results.
+
+He satisfied himself that the drawer could contain nothing to implicate
+him; and, even if it did, why, he was safe enough in the hands of
+Dalhousie. The overseer he regarded as a kind of _thing_, who, while he
+retained him in his service, would never injure him. Jaspar, for some
+reason or other, had formed no very elevated opinion of Dalhousie's
+acuteness. He had bought him off cheaply once, and could do so again. If
+he refused to be bought off cheaply,--and Jaspar grated his teeth at the
+reflection,--why, a method could be devised to get rid of him.
+
+While engaged in these musings, a knock at the door startled him to his
+feet. It was not the overseer's knock.
+
+A servant announced a strange gentleman, who declined to give his name.
+
+"Show him in," said Jaspar, re-seating himself, and striving to assume a
+tranquillity which did not pervade his mind. Since the consummation of
+his base scheme he had been a prey to nervous starts, and the
+announcement of a stranger stirred the blood in its channels, and sent
+his heart into his throat. This nervous excitement had been increasing
+upon him every day, and his devotion to the bottle by no means tended
+to allay it. Such are the consequences of guilt. If the victim, before
+he yields to temptation, could anticipate the terrible state of suspense
+into which his guilt would plunge him,--if he could see only a faint
+reflection of himself, starting at every sound in nervous terror, as
+before the appearance of some grim spirit of darkness,--he would never
+have the courage to commit a crime.
+
+The stranger entered the library. It was De Guy. At his appearance
+Jaspar's fears gave way to a most uncontrollable fit of passion.
+
+"Villain!" exclaimed he, "how dare you enter my house, after what has
+passed?"
+
+"Gently, my dear sir! You forget that we have been friends, and that our
+mutual safety requires us to remain so still," said De Guy, in his silky
+tone and compromising manner.
+
+Jaspar compressed his lips, and grated his teeth, while a smothered oath
+escaped him. But his rage soon found a more audible expression.
+
+"Friends!" By ----, I should think we had been _friends!_" said he,
+fiercely.
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir,--_friends_."
+
+"Then save me from my friends!"
+
+"Better say your enemies! I fear you have a great many."
+
+"Save me from both! May I ask to what fortunate circumstance I am
+indebted for the honor of this visit?" said Jaspar, sarcastically
+mimicking the silky tones, of the attorney.
+
+"I came to forward our mutual interest."
+
+"Then, by ----, you can take yourself off! You and I will part company."
+
+"Indeed, sir, this is ungenerous, after I have assisted you into your
+present position, to treat me in this manner," replied the attorney,
+smilingly shaking his head.
+
+"I am _not_ indebted to you for my life, or my position! You have been
+a traitor, sir!--a traitor! and, tear out my heart, but I will swing,
+before I have anything further to do with you!" roared Jaspar, with
+compound emphasis, as he rose from his chair, and advanced to the
+brandy-bottle.
+
+"Gently, Mr. Dumont, gently! Do not get into a passion! May I ask what
+you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?" interrogated the
+attorney, with a smile of assurance.
+
+"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed shabby
+trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."
+
+"My _dear_ sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily, I trust?"
+
+"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit," returned
+the attorney, complacently.
+
+"Do you take me for an idiot?"
+
+"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit such a
+supposition."
+
+"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in spite of
+himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.
+
+"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the time,
+then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will pardon the
+little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own views."
+
+Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
+companion.
+
+"Explain yourself," said he.
+
+"Everything has come out right,--has it not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are in quiet possession?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
+wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey, all
+your hopes would have been blasted."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of anxiety
+beclouded his brow.
+
+"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness with
+which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.
+
+The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
+ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's belief,
+and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was not, however,
+so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on the subject.
+
+"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of doubt or
+anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her boiler."
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were lost,--were they not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have shared
+their fate."
+
+"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked Jaspar,
+with a sneer.
+
+"Exactly so!"
+
+"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as this?"
+
+"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the attorney,
+convincingly.
+
+Jaspar looked incredulous, and resorted to the brandy-bottle, which
+seemed to bear the same relation to him that the oracle of Delphi did to
+the ancient Greeks.
+
+"You do not think me capable of _inventing_ such a story, I trust," said
+De Guy, seriously.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! you have joined the church, haven't you, since we met
+last?"
+
+"I see, sir, you think, because I assisted you in your plans, that I
+have no honor, no conscience, no humanity. Why, sir, what I have done
+for you was only a duty which my religion demanded of me."
+
+"Your creed must be an original one!" replied Jaspar, with a sickly
+laugh.
+
+"It _is_ an original one. You thought yourself better entitled to your
+brother's property than this giddy girl. So did I; and it was my duty to
+see justice done. A matter of conscience with me, upon my honor."
+
+"Enough of this!" said Jaspar, sternly, for a joke soon grew stale with
+him.
+
+"Be it so; but remember the story is true."
+
+"And you did me the favor to blow up the steamer!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"At the risk of my own life, I did. I bribed the firemen to crowd on the
+steam, and the engineers to keep down the safety-valve,--all under the
+excitement of a race, though with special reference to your interest."
+
+"Was this part of your creed, too?"
+
+"Certainly," and the attorney launched out into a dissertation of
+theology and kindred topics, with which we will not trouble the reader.
+
+Jaspar heard it not, for he was busy in considerations of a less
+metaphysical character. He was thinking of his present position, and of
+the overseer, whose step he heard on the veranda.
+
+"I see," said he, interrupting De Guy, "you have been my friend."
+
+This remark was the result of his deliberations. He might need the
+services of the attorney.
+
+"I expect my overseer on business in a moment," continued he, "and I
+should like to see you again, after he has gone. May I trouble you to
+step into this room for a few moments?"
+
+"Certainly," replied De Guy, who was congratulating himself on his
+success in conciliating the "bear of Bellevue," as he styled him among
+his boon companions.
+
+Jaspar closed the door upon the attorney, and was in the act of lighting
+a cigar, when Dalhousie entered. The overseer endeavored to discover in
+the countenance of his employer some indications of his motive in
+sending for him; but Jaspar maintained a perfect indifference, which
+defeated his object, Neither spoke for several moments; but at last the
+overseer, embarrassed by the silence, said,
+
+"You sent for me, Mr. Dumont?"
+
+"I did," said Jaspar, suddenly, as though the words had roused him from
+his profound abstraction; "I did; one of my keys is missing, so that I
+cannot open the drawer. You arranged its contents, I believe."
+
+"Yes," said Dalhousie, flustered, for he was not so deeply skilled in
+the arts of deception as to carry them on without some compunction; "but
+I left the key in the drawer."
+
+"You see It is not there," said Jaspar, fixing his sharp gray eye upon
+the overseer.
+
+"It is not," said Dalhousie, advancing to the secretary. "Probably it
+has fallen upon the floor--" and he stooped down to look for it.
+
+Jaspar watched him in silence, as he felt about the floor. The overseer
+was in no haste to find it, though his eyes were fixed on it all the
+time.
+
+"Didn't you put it into your pocket, by mistake?" suggested Jaspar.
+
+"Certainly not," replied Dalhousie; "here it is;" and, picking up the
+key, he handed it to Jaspar. "I was certain I left it here."
+
+Jaspar felt much relieved.
+
+"Sorry to have troubled you," said he, "but I wanted a paper--" and he
+rose and opened the drawer, as if in quest of it.
+
+"No trouble at all," returned the overseer. "Now that I am here, a few
+words with you would be particularly agreeable to me."
+
+Jaspar's curiosity was instantly excited, and, forgetting the paper and
+De Guy, he requested him to proceed immediately with his business.
+
+"It is a matter of much interest to both of us," continued Dalhousie,
+embarrassed by the difficulties of his position.
+
+"Well, sir, go on," said Jaspar, impatiently, for the overseer's
+hesitation had rather a bad odor.
+
+"I may as well speak bluntly and to the point," stammered Dalhousie,
+still reluctant to state his business.
+
+"Why don't you? I am not a sentimental girl, that you need make a long
+preface to your oration."
+
+"I will, sir. Every man is in duty bound to consider his own interest--"
+
+"Certainly, by all means. Go on."
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece--" and Dalhousie paused
+again.
+
+Jaspar's reddening face and the curl upon his lip indicated the volcano
+of passion which would soon burst within him.
+
+"Proceed, sir," said he, struggling to be calm.
+
+"In regard to your relations with your niece, you are aware that I am
+somewhat acquainted with them."
+
+"I am; I hope you do not know too much for your own good. You know I am
+not to be trifled with."
+
+"I am not concerned for my own safety," replied Dalhousie, a little
+stung by the implied threat of Jaspar; "but I wish to provide for your
+safety. I intend to go to France."
+
+"I do not prevent you."
+
+"I lack the means."
+
+"And you wish me to furnish them?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And how large a sum do you need?"
+
+"A pretty round sum. I will keep entirely away from this part of the
+country, so that you need not fear me."
+
+"Fear you!" sneered Jaspar, rising and draining a glass of brandy. "I
+fear no man, no devil, no angel!"
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware that your reputation is in my hands."
+
+"Not at all, sir," said Jaspar, coldly.
+
+"Know, then, that I have a copy of the genuine will, and the means of
+attesting it!"
+
+Jaspar was prepared for almost anything, but this was too much. He paced
+the room with redoubled energy. His bravado had vanished, and he was as
+near pale as his bloated visage could approach to that hue. He strode up
+and down the room in silence, while his heart beat the reveille of fear.
+For a time his wonted firmness forsook him, and he felt as weak as a
+child, and sunk back into a chair.
+
+By degrees he grew calmer. The case was a desperate one. Again he
+swallowed a long draught of brandy, which seemed to reduce his nerves to
+a state of subjection. Gradually he rallied the dissipated powers of his
+mind, and was ready to meet the emergency before him.
+
+Dalhousie, after making his appalling announcement, had thrown himself
+into a chair, to await the effect of his words. He seemed in no hurry to
+continue the subject. Thus far the effect warranted his most sanguine
+hopes of the realization of his great schemes.
+
+Jaspar, after recovering some portion of his former calmness, said,
+
+"May I ask how you obtained possession of the document?"
+
+"That question, sir, I must decline answering."
+
+"You will, at least, show me the paper?"
+
+"That also I must decline."
+
+Jaspar bit his lip.
+
+"How shall I know, then, that you are not deceiving me?"
+
+"I assure you that I have the document, and you must trust to my honor
+for the rest."
+
+"Honor!" exclaimed Jaspar, giving way to his passion. "No one but a
+scoundrel ever talks of his honor! By ----, I only want to hear that
+word, to know that the man is a ---- rascal!"
+
+"Very well, sir, I shall be under the necessity of seeking out your
+niece."
+
+"My niece!" roared Jaspar, terror-stricken. "Did you not see her buried
+at Vicksburg?"
+
+"It might have been she, but it is scarcely possible."
+
+"Hell!" shouted Jaspar, unable to govern his fury. With long strides he
+paced the room, his teeth grating like a madman's, and his eyes
+bloodshot and glaring like those of a demon. His fears seemed to arm him
+with desperate fury.
+
+"Where is the ring?--the ring!" said he, stopping in front of the
+overseer. "Didn't you give me her ring?"
+
+"I gave you a ring," said Dalhousie, calmly.
+
+"Was it not _her_ ring? Did it not have her initial, and her father's
+hair in it?" and Jaspar flew to the secretary, where he had deposited
+the evidence of his niece's supposed death.
+
+"There is no longer any need of continuing the deception--"
+
+"Deception! Here is the ring, and here is the letter D. Doesn't it stand
+for Dumont?"
+
+"Not at all. It stands for Delia, my wife's name, in this instance."
+
+"Your wife's name!" exclaimed Jaspar, striking his forehead furiously.
+
+"It does, sir, and for her mother's name also, whose memory it was
+intended to commemorate."
+
+Jaspar's emotions were so violent, that the overseer began to fear some
+fatal consequences might ensue.
+
+"Calm yourself, Mr. Dumont. Do not let your passions overcome you. I
+have no intention of making an evil use of this information," said he,
+in a soothing tone.
+
+This seemed to calm the violence of Jaspar's feelings, and with a strong
+effort he recovered his command of himself.
+
+"My niece Is yet alive, is she?" said Jaspar, looking anxiously at the
+overseer.
+
+"Perhaps not; but probably she is."
+
+"And it was not she that was buried?"
+
+"As to that, I cannot say; I never saw the lady alive."
+
+"And what are your plans?" asked Jaspar, with a glance of doubt at the
+overseer.
+
+"I will go to France, if you provide the means."
+
+"Suppose I will not?"
+
+"Perhaps your niece will."
+
+"What if she is dead?"
+
+"I can better tell when I know that she is dead."
+
+"How much money do you require?"
+
+"Twenty thousand."
+
+"A large sum."
+
+"From millions your niece would gladly give more."
+
+"I will think of your proposition. Come in again in two hours, and you
+shall have my answer."
+
+"Better give me an answer now."
+
+"I wish to consider."
+
+"You have only to choose between twenty thousand dollars and the whole
+fortune. With your means at command, much reflection is not needed."
+
+"Show me the papers, and I will decide at once."
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I must consider whether your pretensions are well founded."
+
+"I will not be over nice; but any attempt to play me false shall rest
+heavily on your own head."
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, with something like a smile, but more like a
+sneer.
+
+With compressed lips, and the scowl of a demon, Jaspar witnessed the
+departure of the overseer. His case looked desperate, and he felt
+something like the gloominess of despair. Dalhousie could be disposed
+of, but the niece!--the niece, if she yet lived, would be the
+destruction of all his avaricious schemes.
+
+As usual when agitated, he paced the room; and, as he reflected upon the
+danger, and the desperate remedies which suggested themselves, his
+manner grew more and more demoniacal. He resolved to trust no man. This
+was a dark thought, and could proceed only from the darkest mind.
+
+The twenty thousand dollars he could pay; but the man who had such a
+hold upon him would never be satisfied while a dollar remained. And
+revenge was sweet! No! Dalhousie must not be _bought_ off! It was a
+feast to his mind to anticipate the torture of the overseer!
+
+An exclamation of satisfaction escaped him, as he suddenly decided upon
+the means of torture. In imagination he could see before him _the
+thing_, who had dared to threaten him, lingering out the moments of a
+hated life in slow agony. The vision was one of pleasure, and he rubbed
+his hands with delight.
+
+The means of accomplishing his dark purpose then came up for
+consideration, and in this connection he happened to think of De Guy. He
+must be the minister of his vengeance, and the herald of his future
+safety; and he summoned him again to his presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     "Thou hast stepped in between me and my hopes,
+     And ravished from me all my soul held dear."  ROWE.
+
+
+De Guy returned to the library at Jaspar's summons. The shrewd attorney
+at once perceived the conflict which agitated the mind of his patron. He
+had come to Bellevue with a purpose, and, as Jaspar's disturbed mind
+seemed to favor that purpose, he hailed it as an omen of success. But
+what had so agitated him? Jaspar was not a man to be depressed by any
+trivial circumstance.
+
+The attorney did not have to wait long in suspense, for Jaspar related
+the particulars of his interview with Dalhousie, and mentioned the price
+he had named to insure his silence. It was now De Guy's turn to be
+disturbed. The purpose for which he had come was likely to be thwarted
+by this new aspirant for a share in the Dumont estates.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Jaspar, in a tone which betrayed his deep
+anxiety.
+
+"Get rid of him! His story is a fabrication," returned De Guy.
+
+"Not entirely. He knows too much for our safety."
+
+"So much the worse for him!"
+
+"Why? What would you do?"
+
+"Shut his mouth! It matters not how. You do not want to--" and the
+attorney drew his under lip beneath his upper teeth, and produced an
+explosive sound, very much like the crack of a pistol, or a
+champagne-cork, but which Jaspar did not mistake for the latter. "You
+do not want to--_f-h-t_--him, if you can help it."
+
+"It would be the safest way," returned the other, not at all embarrassed
+by the attorney's ambiguous method of expressing himself.
+
+"Perhaps not; though 'dead men tell no tales,' it is also true that
+'murder will out.' Besides, I have conscientious scruples."
+
+Jaspar sneered at this last remark; but the attorney was too useful an
+adviser at that moment to be lightly provoked, and he suppressed the
+angry exclamation which rose to his lips.
+
+"How would the slave jail do?" said he, with a fiendish smile.
+
+"Too public. Our object is to save the man's life,--an act of humanity;
+but we must not endanger our own safety."
+
+"No mortal man can ever know that he is confined there. The jail was
+built under my own direction, and, owing to its peculiar construction,
+not even the hands on the estate will know that it is occupied. I always
+keep the keys myself."
+
+"If you are satisfied, it is enough. But how can you get him in?"
+
+"I can manage that, with your assistance," said Jaspar, who had already
+arranged every particular. "But his wife?"
+
+"His wife! Has he a wife?"
+
+"Ay; and one who, if I mistake not, will give us more trouble than the
+fellow himself."
+
+"She must be caged with him."
+
+"You say well, Mr. De Guy. But can you reconcile this advice with your
+dainty humanity?" said Jaspar, with a sneer.
+
+"Certainly, I can! It were cruelty to separate man and wife, even in
+death. If I had a wife, I should be sorry to part with her under any
+circumstances."
+
+Jaspar grinned a sickly smile.
+
+"But the plan!" continued the attorney. "This loving couple will not
+willingly occupy your fancy apartment."
+
+"Leave that to me. Go to the jail. Here are the keys. I will send them
+to you. When they are in, lock the doors!"
+
+De Guy smiled.
+
+"You do not understand me?"
+
+The attorney confessed that he did not.
+
+"Nevertheless, go to the jail, and wait their coming. Unlock the doors,
+and get out of sight. They will enter, like lambs."
+
+Jaspar explained a little further, and the attorney took his departure
+to obey his instructions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the time appointed, Dalhousie returned to receive Jaspar's reply.
+
+"You are punctual," said the latter.
+
+"I am," replied Dalhousie, cavalierly. "This business admits of no
+delay. Are you prepared to give me an answer?"
+
+"Yes," returned Jaspar, endeavoring to assume a crestfallen air.
+
+"Well, sir, do you accept my terms?"
+
+"I do, on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"It is, that you sign this bond never again to land in America, and to
+preserve entire silence in regard to the information you have obtained;"
+and Jaspar read an instrument he had drawn up, to blind the eyes of the
+overseer.
+
+"I agree to it."
+
+"It is well. But a further difficulty presents itself. I have not so
+much money in the world. The estate, perhaps you know, consists mostly
+of real estate, stocks, negroes, &c. I have not five thousand dollars by
+me."
+
+The overseer looked at Jaspar with a keen, contemptuous glance, as if to
+read any attempt on his part to dupe him; but the wily planter moved not
+a muscle.
+
+"Then you cannot, if you would, consummate the bargain?" said he.
+
+"I said not so," returned Jaspar. "I only remarked that a difficulty had
+presented itself."
+
+"Pray explain yourself."
+
+"The difficulty can be removed."
+
+"Well, how? What new risk must I run?"
+
+"No risk. To tell you all in a few words, I have the money in gold
+buried on the estate."
+
+"That will suit me better. I prefer gold."
+
+"It is buried three feet under ground, in the slave jail. I selected
+that place to bury it, because I could dig without attracting
+attention."
+
+"It can easily be brought to light. An hour's work with the spade will
+unearth it."
+
+"True; but I have not the strength to dig. Besides, I am engaged with a
+friend in the nest room."
+
+Dalhousie accepted the excuse, for he had seen De Guy, as he was walking
+in the garden, half an hour before.
+
+"I can dig it up myself. Show me the spot."
+
+"Very well; but sign the bond first."
+
+"Of course, if you keep not your faith with me, the bond is nothing,"
+said Dalhousie, as he affixed his signature to the paper, which Jaspar
+folded carefully, and put in his pocket.
+
+"Here are directions which will enable you to find it without the
+necessity of my attending you;" and he handed him a slip of paper, upon
+which were written minute directions to the supposed locality of the
+treasure.
+
+"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the directions, "while
+I am digging, you should close the doors upon me?"
+
+"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the heart
+belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial muscles.
+
+"I have not the highest confidence in _your_ honor."
+
+"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you any person
+at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"
+
+"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the mortifying
+fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.
+
+"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door, and, if
+she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside when I close
+the door."
+
+Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the fitness of
+the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt it.
+
+Briefly he narrated to his wife--though with some variations and
+concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all his operations--the
+history of the affair, and the good fortune that awaited him; and
+requested her attendance at the jail, to stand sentry over the gloomy
+den, while he dug up the treasure.
+
+De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his wife
+made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in a
+cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie walked
+twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building. Stationing his
+wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the locality of the
+supposed treasure.
+
+De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when the
+vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the exercise of
+extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, the rear of the
+jail. Cat-like, he crept to the corner, and listened. He could hear
+their conversation. Carefully he stole round to the corner nearest to
+the door. For an instant the wife had left her station, to observe the
+progress of her husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was
+not the man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
+which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he flew
+to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the midst of
+their vision of wealth and happiness.
+
+Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to the
+mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his neighbor's cow.
+Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently waiting his return.
+
+"Are they safe?" said he.
+
+"As safe as your jail-walls can make them. Your plan was a clumsy one,
+but I _forced_ it to succeed."
+
+"Did they not enter without scruple?"
+
+"Yes, but the sentinel."
+
+"Pshaw! did you not know she would desert her post? If she saw not
+danger, she would fear none in the day-time,--it is woman-like."
+
+"Not always; but it matters not; they are safe. Now to business."
+
+"Business!" exclaimed Jaspar, with a start, and a wild stare at the
+attorney. "The business is done."
+
+"Not all of it. There are other enemies in the field."
+
+"What mean you?" said Jaspar, alarmed. "Are we not safe yet?"
+
+"Not quite," replied the smooth attorney, with a quiet smile. "The game
+you played was a deep one, and you must needs persevere to the end."
+
+"Explain yourself, man; don't trifle with me," said Jaspar, roused by
+the smooth smile of the attorney; for that smile seemed to him full of
+meaning.
+
+"All in good time, my dear sir. Let me beg of you not to be discomposed
+by anything I may say to you."
+
+Jaspar sneered, but ventured no reply.
+
+"I have served you faithfully, you must acknowledge."
+
+"I will acknowledge nothing," said Jaspar, testily.
+
+"The steamer exploded, you remember," returned De Guy, with an
+expression of sly humor, which Jaspar did not appreciate.
+
+"I do remember it, by Heaven! But this villanous Dalhousie says my niece
+was not known to have been killed."
+
+"Exactly so."
+
+"Sir! Do you mean to say that you _know_ she was not lost?"
+
+"Precisely so."
+
+"By ----! Sir, you have been making a merit of this very thing."
+
+"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a
+particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself this
+morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan succeeded
+admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the intention of
+serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good intentions!"
+
+"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"
+
+"Did the best that could be done, under the circumstances."
+
+"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."
+
+"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of happiness
+and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my advice."
+
+"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.
+
+"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will be the
+best that could possibly be given to a man in your condition."
+
+"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the smooth
+words of his companion.
+
+"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."
+
+"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day without
+opening your mouth."
+
+"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."
+
+"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when the girl
+herself is at hand?"
+
+"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin, always
+advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to other
+matters."
+
+"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and paying his
+devoir to the brandy-bottle.
+
+"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair and
+coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing himself
+lazily upon the sofa--"I will tell you. The case is not desperate yet.
+How much is the amount of the old colonel's property?"
+
+"How, sir! What mean you?"
+
+"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable
+_sang-froid_, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and, taking
+therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent vesuvian.
+Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely declined the courtesy,
+he continued, "It is necessary to our further progress that I have this
+information."
+
+"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What then?"
+replied Jaspar, doggedly.
+
+"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more than
+double that sum."
+
+"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.
+
+"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."
+
+"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.
+
+"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy, calmly.
+
+"He might possibly have left more."
+
+"Haven't you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the
+attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one
+perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened the
+drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.
+
+"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"
+
+"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is worth
+more,"--and he commenced fumbling over the contents of the drawer.
+
+"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains out!"
+said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the table.
+
+"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you shall have
+it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"--and he prepared to depart.
+
+"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can satisfy you,
+though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the subject."
+
+"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney, not at all
+disconcerted by what had happened.
+
+"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."
+
+"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at least. Is it
+not a million and a half?"
+
+"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.
+
+"Perhaps two millions."
+
+"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.
+
+"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a million and
+a half."
+
+"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.
+
+"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De Guy,
+loud enough to be heard by his companion.
+
+"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which betrayed
+but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as he heard these
+words.
+
+"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and one-third of
+it would be very handsome for you."
+
+"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very grateful to
+you for allowing me so much."
+
+"Exactly so. Gratitude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The fact is,
+Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my expensive habits,
+one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a single man, and not
+likely to change your condition at present, so that you can have no
+possible use, either for yourself or for your heirs, for any more than
+one-third."
+
+"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering sneer.
+"But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion's share?"
+
+"O, but, my dear sir, you will not grumble! Your sense of justice will
+enable you to perceive the equity of this division."
+
+"Enough of this! I am in no humor for jesting," said Jaspar, with a
+frown.
+
+"Jesting!" exclaimed the attorney, with a well-made gesture of
+astonishment; "I was never more in earnest in my life."
+
+"May I be allowed to inquire the name of your intended bride?" sneered
+Jaspar.
+
+"A very proper question; and, considering our intimate friendship, a
+very natural one. Although my intention is a profound secret, and one I
+should not like to have go abroad at present, especially as her nearest
+of kin might possibly object, still I shall venture to inform _you_,
+since you are to have the honor of providing the means of carrying my
+matrimonial designs into effect."
+
+"I am certainly under obligations for your favorable consideration. But
+the lady's name?"
+
+"Miss Emily Dumont! a beautiful creature--high-spirited--every way
+worthy--"
+
+"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized
+the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy. "You cursed
+villain! You and I must cry quits!"
+
+"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing from his
+pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is _all_ mine."
+
+Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing down the
+pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the violence of his
+emotions.
+
+"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me. There is
+no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear all,"--and Jaspar
+felt that he was sold to the fiend before him.
+
+"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney, resuming
+his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the moment of peril.
+"I offer you the means of safety. You will escape all the dangers that
+lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to see, you perfectly
+understand."
+
+"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his forty
+pieces of silver--the more fool he, to throw them away! I could not do
+this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my money."
+
+"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice too mean
+for your noble nature."
+
+Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform their
+office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous master.
+
+"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."
+
+Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion towards
+which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the command was
+imperative. He could not resist--his will was gone.
+
+"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.
+
+"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied the
+attorney, promptly.
+
+"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you will."
+
+"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the honored
+inmate of our dwelling,--the affectionate uncle of your Emily, as of
+old," said the attorney, with infinite good humor.
+
+Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the stroke of
+this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no time.
+
+"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing a pen,
+and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have already been
+somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is your consent to my
+union with your niece. Call some one to witness it."
+
+Jaspar signed the certificate, without reading it. A witness was called,
+and the paper in due form was deposited in De Guy's pocket.
+
+"Now, sir, the lady is not altogether willing to consent to this
+arrangement; but you must persuade her, and, if need be, compel her, to
+consent. She will be here in a few days. After the marriage, it will
+only remain for me to make over to you one-third of the property, which,
+as her husband, I can then legally do. Be firm, and behave like a man,
+and your troubles are ended. Everything will be hushed up, and you can
+spend the evening of your days in peace and quiet. I bid you good-day."
+
+The attorney formally and politely ushered himself out of the library,
+and took his departure for New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     "Jaffier, you're free; but these must wait for judgment."
+
+     OTWAY.
+
+
+We left Dalhousie engaged in the seemingly hopeless task of undermining
+the wall of the slave jail, at which he labored for several hours,
+resting at intervals, as his exhausted frame demanded. The prospect of
+realizing his hope encouraged him, and lent an artificial strength to
+his arm. He had already excavated a pit several feet in depth, but had
+not reached the bottom of the foundation wall. The quantity of earth
+piled upon the brink of the pit required extra exertion to remove it,
+but he toiled on with the energy of despair.
+
+After laboring several hours more, he discovered, to his great joy, the
+bottom of the foundation. Again he plied the spade, and, by almost
+superhuman exertions, he succeeded in excavating a hole under the
+stones, which, below the surface of the ground, were not laid in mortar.
+After loosening all the small stones around a larger one, he found that
+he could pry it out, which, with much labor, he accomplished. The
+removal of the other stones was comparatively an easy task, and a little
+time sufficed to clear a space up to the solid masonry.
+
+But here a new difficulty presented itself. The hole he had dug was
+already half filled with the stones he had tumbled from their positions.
+His strength was not sufficient to remove them, and he was compelled to
+dig again, in order to prosecute his labors.
+
+The wall removed, he commenced digging outside of the foundation wall.
+Patiently he dug down to obtain sufficient room for the deposit of earth
+from the outside. Slowly and laboriously he undermined the ground, till
+the surface above him caved in, and--joy to his panting soul!--the air,
+the pure air of heaven, rushed in through the aperture! Hastily
+enlarging the cavity, and removing the earth to the inside, he ascended
+to the surface of the ground. A feeling of gratitude thrilled through
+his frame, as he once more inhaled the free air of heaven, that he had
+escaped the terrible fate which a few hours before had seemed
+inevitable.
+
+With faltering step,--for now that his Herculean task was accomplished,
+the reality of his weakened physical condition was painfully
+apparent,--he walked round the jail, to satisfy himself that no one was
+in the vicinity. The sun was set, and the shades of night were gathering
+upon the earth. The time was favorable for his escape. Having satisfied
+himself that he was unobserved, he hastened to the garden, which was
+close at hand, to procure the means of invigorating his own body, and
+restoring to life and animation the partner of his captivity. Fruit of
+various kinds--melons, figs--rewarded his anxious search. Filling his
+handkerchief with cantelopes and figs, he hastened back to the jail,
+with all the speed his weary limbs would permit. His thoughts were fixed
+upon his wife, whose suffering had pierced his soul more deeply than all
+the anxiety and doubt he had experienced on his own account. As he
+tottered along, he asked himself if he should eat of the fruit he
+carried ere she had tasted of the banquet. He drew one of the
+rosy-cheeked, juicy figs from the handkerchief. It was no loss of
+time--no deferring of the succor she needed--to eat as he walked; run he
+could not, though he fain would have quickened his tardy pace. It would
+restore his strength, and enable him the better to protect and rescue
+her. It was not wrong, though, from the deep well of his affection, came
+up something like a reproach for his selfishness. He ate the fruit. The
+effect was, or seemed to be, magical. He thought he could feel it
+imparting strength to his exhausted form. Again he ate, and in the
+pleasant sensation to his unsated palate, his imagination, as much as
+the fruit, nerved his muscles, and he walked with a firmer step.
+
+He had not completed one-half the distance back, when he discovered two
+men in the vicinity of the jail. A cold shudder nearly paralyzed him.
+Was his labor all in vain? Had he with so much trial and suffering
+effected his escape, only to be incarcerated again? The thought was
+maddening, and he resolved to die rather than be returned to the
+dungeon.
+
+Drawing a revolver from his pocket, with which he had prudently prepared
+himself before his interview with Jaspar, he proceeded on his way.
+
+On a nearer approach, the men appeared to be strangers to him. They
+might, however, be in the employ of Jaspar. They might be engaged in
+watching over his captivity.
+
+He approached nearer. He had never seen either of them before. They did
+not look like men whom Jaspar would have been likely to select for such
+a purpose as he apprehended. Still, he took the precaution to examine
+the caps upon his pistol, and have his bowie-knife in a convenient place
+for immediate use.
+
+Dalhousie was the first to speak.
+
+"Your business here?" demanded he, regardless of the courtesy to which
+he had been all his life accustomed.
+
+"The fact on 'tis," replied one of the strangers, a little startled by
+the rude manner of Dalhousie, "the fact on 'tis, we are lookin' arter
+the mansion of a Mr. Dumont. Perhaps you will oblige us by tellin' us
+which way to go."
+
+"He lives in yonder house," replied Dalhousie, pointing it out.
+
+The simplicity of the speaker dissipated his apprehensions, and his
+curiosity was excited.
+
+"You know him, do you?" continued he.
+
+"Well, no--I can't say I do."
+
+"But you have business with him?"
+
+"Not particularly with him,--the Lord forbid!" replied the stranger,
+devoutly.
+
+"Devil a bit with him, at all," added his companion.
+
+"Since no one else resides under the same roof with him, may I ask the
+reason of your visit there, if I am not too bold?" said Dalhousie.
+
+"Sure, it's only to see the counthry, about here, we've come," replied
+the Irish stranger.
+
+"No, Partrick, you know that is not the truth. Never tell a lie for
+anything, Partrick. Our business an't with him, but it consarns him. We
+don't care about mentioning it to everybody."
+
+"I do not mean to be impertinent," said Dalhousie; "but perhaps I may be
+able to serve you. The man you seek is a villain!"
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Nathan,--for we presume it is
+unnecessary to _tell_ the reader that it was he,--"I know _that_."
+
+"Indeed, then you have some knowledge of him?"
+
+"Sartain! but do you know a minister in these parts by the name of
+Faxon?"
+
+"I do; he lives close by."
+
+"Do you belong in this part of this country, Mister?" asked Uncle
+Nathan, who seemed to make the question a prelude to other inquiries.
+
+"I do. But I must leave you now. I am the bearer of life to one whom I
+love dearer than myself. I have been foully wronged by the man you
+visit."
+
+"Heavens and airth! you don't say so?" exclaimed Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Doomed to a death by starvation, with my wife, in yonder jail, by his
+malice, I have just effected my escape. My wife is nearly dead, but I
+hope to restore her with these fruits."
+
+"Good Heavens! who would have thought there was such a monster upon the
+airth?"
+
+"By the powers!" ejaculated Pat Fegan.
+
+"Can't we help you?" asked Uncle Nathan.
+
+"Perhaps you can. I thank you, and, if it is not too late, she also will
+thank you. My strength is nearly gone."
+
+Dalhousie, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, proceeded towards the
+jail, the former relating, as they went, the terrible incidents of their
+captivity, and the means by which he had effected their happy
+deliverance.
+
+On the night of the explosion of the Chalmetta's boiler, Uncle Nathan
+and Pat Fegan had saved their lives by jumping overboard, and had been
+picked up by the Flatfoot. The true-hearted New Englander had made a
+diligent search for the parties who had intrusted the will in his
+keeping, but without success. He had been enabled to gain no tidings of
+any of them, and was now continuing his search to the mansion of the
+Dumont family.
+
+The party reached the jail, and Dalhousie leaped into the pit, followed
+by his companions. The poor wife seemed to have no realization of the
+event which had set them free, and gazed with a wild stare upon her
+husband and those who accompanied him.
+
+"We are safe, Delia! we are safe!" said Dalhousie, as he proceeded to
+untie the bundle of fruit.
+
+"Safe! no, it cannot be--only a dream! But who are these persons?"
+
+"They are friends, Delia--friends who have come to help me in saving
+you. Take one of these figs, dear. They will restore you."
+
+"Figs!" replied Delia, with a vacant look.
+
+"Yes, dearest; taste it,"--and he placed the fruit, which he had
+divested of its rind, to her lips.
+
+The act seemed to restore her wandering mind to its equilibrium, and she
+painfully lifted herself on the pallet of straw, and took the fruit in
+her hand. She gazed upon it with a kind of silent rapture, while a
+faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.
+
+"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"--and she tasted the fig.
+
+"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."
+
+"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to eat
+myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place? Are not
+these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the pit you have
+dug?"
+
+"No, dearest, they are _our_ friends," said Dalhousie, pained by the
+wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that it might end in
+insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you have eaten some of
+these figs and melons. I am almost restored by the joy of this moment,
+dearest; and you must strive to be of good cheer."
+
+Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle Nathan and
+Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not so easily
+restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to have given her
+constitution a shock from which it would take time to recover.
+
+A conference took place between the parties, to decide upon the best
+means of removing the lady, who was utterly incapable of moving a step,
+and scarcely of lifting her form on her rude couch. Uncle Nathan was not
+long in devising a method; and, directing Pat to enlarge the aperture
+through which the captives were to escape, he went in search of some
+canes, with which to construct a litter. Pat applied himself vigorously
+to his task, tumbling over the huge stones like playthings, and handling
+the shovel with all that dexterity for which the Celtic race is so
+distinguished.
+
+A rude litter was constructed, on which were laid the coats of the
+party, so as to render it as comfortable as possible to the sufferer.
+Uncle Nathan and Dalhousie, with much tenderness, though not without
+pain to the invalid, succeeded in getting her through the aperture into
+the open air, where she was placed upon the litter.
+
+It was decided to carry her to the house of Mr. Faxon, upon whose active
+sympathies they relied for shelter and assistance; and they went with
+the more confidence, because Uncle Nathan had heard from Emily the
+interest he took in her affairs. The litter was borne by Uncle Nathan
+and Pat, while Dalhousie walked by its side, to cheer the heart of his
+wife by promises of future joy, which the uncertain future might never
+redeem.
+
+Mr. Faxon received the party with scarcely an inquiry as to the nature
+of the misfortune which brought them to his door. There was a person in
+distress, and this was all his great, sympathetic heart needed to bid
+him open wide his doors.
+
+Delia Dalhousie was placed upon a bed, a negro was despatched for a
+physician, and every effort used to alleviate her physical and mental
+sufferings.
+
+After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon listened
+with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's confinement, and
+the causes which led to it; for the overseer was so candid as to relate
+all, not even omitting the bribe he had agreed to take of Jaspar.
+
+"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when they are
+unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the future. Never
+do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever befalls you in this
+changing world, you will have an approving conscience to smile upon you,
+and lighten the darkest hour of adversity. But your tale brings me
+consolation. There is yet hope that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel
+story of her death has darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in
+spite of the reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and
+I pray that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
+unfortunate."
+
+Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and acknowledged
+the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle Nathan heard with
+astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of Emily had been guilty,
+and his simple New England heart was sorely perplexed by it. He had no
+"idea" of such depravity, and he was tempted, even in spite of the
+Scripture injunction to the contrary, to "thank God that he was not like
+other men."
+
+In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the evening
+had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to broach the
+subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until a late hour, in
+discussing the means of doing justice to the injured, in restoring to
+Bellevue its rightful mistress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "To do a great right, do a little wrong."
+
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
+Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant during
+her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with every luxury
+the most pampered appetite could desire, her confinement deserved no
+better name. She recognized the place, and doubted not she should be
+again subjected to the infamous persecution of her old enemy. She
+wondered that he had not already presented himself, and concluded he
+could not yet have returned from his up-river journey, or he would have
+done so. No one visited her but the negress, whose conversation, in her
+eagerness to serve the liberal proprietor of the office, was disgusting
+to her refined sensibilities. Not oven De Guy came, to give her any
+intimation of the nature of the fate which awaited her.
+
+Maxwell's mind, she was satisfied, was fixed upon the possession of her
+estates. She could not now entertain the belief which once, in her weak
+pity, she had countenanced, that the attorney could _love_ her. O, no!
+God forbid that even the human heart can love, and, at the same time,
+persecute the object of its affections! It was her estates; and she half
+resolved to compromise with her tormentor by yielding him one-half of
+her property, on the condition of his restoring the other half, for she
+doubted not that he was able to do so. But there was something so
+debasing to her sentiment of truth and justice in the fact of
+bargaining with so base a man, that she could not conquer her prejudice,
+and finally determined to suffer everything rather than succumb to the
+villain.
+
+Hope had not yet abandoned her. She had too much confidence in the
+omnipresent justice of an overruling Providence to doubt that all would
+yet end well.
+
+Dido was her jailer, and she scarcely left the office, through which
+alone egress was had from the apartment of Emily. There she dozed away
+the day and night, freely indulging in the fashionable habit of
+"imbibing," to chase away the _ennui_ of the heavy hours. Her liberal
+perquisites enabled her to gratify her appetite without stint or
+measure, though a sort of demi-consciousness of her responsibility
+deterred her from an entire abandonment to the pleasures of the cup.
+
+The apartment in which Emily was confined was lighted by windows of
+stained glass, opening into the main office, so that there was no
+immediate connection with the open air. This fact rendered the room so
+secure that Dido rested perfectly easy from the fear of interruption,
+save from the front of the building.
+
+The colored guardian, having imbibed rather inordinately one day, was
+disposed to court the favor of the sleepy god, and stretched herself at
+full length upon one of the easy lounges of the office. Her eyelids
+opened and closed languidly, as though she was about to sink away into
+dreamy unconsciousness, when she was startled by a loud knocking at the
+door.
+
+"Who's dar?" shouted Dido, springing to her feet; for a visit to the
+office, at this season of the year, was of rare occurrence.
+
+"Open the door, Max," responded a voice from the outside.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell not here, sar," said the colored lady, partly opening the
+door.
+
+"Not here!" returned the visitor, pushing into the office in spite of
+the negress, who was disposed to prevent his entrance. "Isn't Max in
+town?"
+
+"No sar; he went away to de Norf about a monf ago."
+
+"Look here, you black imp," said the stranger, in a severe tone, "do you
+mean to say that Max is _not_ in town?"
+
+"I do, for sartin, sar."
+
+"And he has left you to practise law for him in his absence?" returned
+the visitor, with a grin.
+
+"No sar, I takes care ob de buildin."
+
+"Fudge! Maxwell always shuts up his room when he leaves town;" and the
+stranger walked round the room towards the private apartment, much to
+the consternation of Dido.
+
+"No, Massa, he tell me, monf ago, to keep de room in order."
+
+"No doubt he did," returned the stranger, placing his hand on the handle
+of the door, and attempting to open it, which, by Dido's precaution, was
+ineffectual.
+
+"Is there no one in this room?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"No sar, de room is locked, and Massa Maxwell hab carry off de key."
+
+The stranger walked several times round the room, and thoroughly
+scrutinized everything; after which, to the entire satisfaction of the
+colored lady, he took his departure. Passing out of the building, he
+crossed the street and entered a coffee-room, at the front window of
+which he seated himself, as if with the intention of watching Maxwell's
+office.
+
+This person was the reader's old acquaintance, Vernon,--or, more
+properly, Jerome Vaudelier, whose intervening history we are now called
+upon to relate. It will be remembered that, at the request of his
+father, and at the earnest desire of Henry Carroll, as well as by the
+promptings of his own wish to do justice to the heiress, he had gone to
+Vicksburg, for the purpose of keeping an eye on the movements of
+Maxwell. On his arrival at the hotel, he found the attorney, and dined
+With him; but after dinner he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
+All Vernon's inquiries were of no avail. The landlord said he had paid
+his bill, and that was the last he had seen of him. Vernon was
+perplexed, and on learning that no boat had left since dinner, he was at
+a loss which way to proceed. Late in the afternoon he obtained, as he
+thought, some clue to him; and he departed, without loss of time, to
+Jackson, whither the attorney was supposed to have gone. His search,
+however, was futile, and he returned to Vicksburg by the morning train.
+Much disheartened, he was compelled to go to Cottage Island with the
+intelligence that his efforts had been foiled. On his arrival, he
+learned, to his astonishment, that Emily had just gone to Bellevue in
+company with De Guy--a person of whom he had no knowledge.
+
+Though Dr. Vaudelier and Henry Carroll had been satisfied with the
+evidences brought by De Guy, Vernon was not. He knew better than they
+the character of Maxwell, and it was determined that he should proceed
+immediately to New Orleans, to guard against the possibility of any evil
+to which Emily might be subjected.
+
+On the morning after De Guy's departure, he proceeded down the river,
+and landed in the vicinity of Bellevue, to which he immediately made his
+way. Without a direct application to any one, he learned that Emily had
+not yet arrived. He waited in the vicinity another day, but obtained no
+tidings of her. His worst fears were now confirmed. De Guy had deceived
+them.
+
+This De Guy, then, was an emissary of Maxwell. To his mind, now animated
+by a high purpose, the reflection was annoying. To the fate of Emily his
+new destiny seemed to be attached. His greatest error--at least, the one
+most troublesome to his awakened conscience--was the act of oppressing
+Emily. He felt that the washing of the stains from his character
+depended upon securing her rights.
+
+The _ci devant_ desperado, as we have before indicated, was radically
+changed at heart, and he now felt more interest in the welfare of Emily
+than he had ever before harbored for any human being.
+
+His position was full of embarrassments. He learned, while at Bellevue,
+that Jaspar was not, and had not been, sick. This information decided
+his future course. The mission of De Guy had only been a decoy, to lure
+her into the hands of Maxwell.
+
+Hatchie was with her; but, alas! what could a slave do against the
+powerful machinations of such a villain as Maxwell?
+
+After obtaining the information which satisfied him of the imposture, he
+proceeded to New Orleans. Knowing the name of the steamer in which De
+Guy had taken passage from Vicksburg, he hastened to the levee, to gain
+what tidings he might from the officers of the Montezuma. He found that
+a lady and gentleman answering to his description had taken a carriage
+on the morning of their arrival, and this was all they knew. In answer
+to his inquiries for Hatchie, he learned that a servant had been handed
+over to the police, to be imprisoned in the calaboose till called for.
+
+This was scanty information upon which to continue his search. His first
+step was to go to the calaboose, where he managed to obtain an interview
+with Hatchie. The poor fellow was in an agony of grief,--not on his own
+account, but on that of his mistress, for he well understood the reason
+of this imprisonment.
+
+Hatchie, of course, could give him no information of the whereabouts of
+Emily, nor offer any suggestion; and Vernon was compelled to leave the
+disheartened mulatto, with only a promise of speedily effecting his
+deliverance.
+
+Vernon's next step was to ascertain the present abiding place of
+Maxwell, if, indeed, he was in the city; and for this purpose he had
+gone to his office. The open room did not verify the statements of the
+negress. He knew that Maxwell always closed up his rooms when he left
+the city, and the fact of their being open now tended to fix suspicion
+upon him, or rather to confirm the suspicions before entertained. He
+had made the visit to the attorney's rooms to gain information; and,
+being partly convinced, by the manner of the negress, that the rear
+chamber was occupied, he retired to the coffee-room to digest the
+knowledge, and, if possible, arrive at some conclusion through it, as
+well as at the same time to keep watch of the movements at the office.
+
+Who was this De Guy, who had been the agent of Maxwell?--for such he
+determined to believe him, until convinced to the contrary. He canvassed
+their mutual acquaintances, but could remember no such person. Intimate
+as he had been with all the associates of Maxwell, he could not identify
+this bold and cunning confederate.
+
+He had not long deliberated, when, to his surprise,--albeit it was not
+an event at all remarkable,--Maxwell entered the coffee-room.
+
+Before Vernon had time to decide whether or not he should charge the
+lawyer with the abduction of Emily, that worthy approached his chair,
+and, with much cordiality,--more than he had formerly bestowed upon
+him,--extended his hand, and expressed his happiness at again meeting
+him in the city.
+
+Undecided as yet how to proceed, Vernon returned his salutations with an
+appearance of equal cordiality.
+
+"My dear fellow," said Maxwell, "I am rejoiced to see you in town again.
+I was afraid you would quite desert us."
+
+This language was new and strange to Vernon. It sounded like the days in
+which he had been respectable--before his vices had found him out.
+
+"Indeed! why did you think so?" replied Vernon.
+
+"Why, Vernon, there was some kind of a ridiculous story current at
+Vicksburg, to the effect that you had joined the church, or something of
+that sort."
+
+"Ha, ha! funny!" said Vernon, adopting the free and easy style, which
+had formerly distinguished his colloquial efforts. "Where did you pick
+up the story?"
+
+"O, it was quite current when I left Vicksburg."
+
+"A good joke, hey?" said Vernon, musing.
+
+When Maxwell left Vicksburg, it was impossible that any such story could
+have been extant. Of his reformation no one but the people of Cottage
+Island could have known anything. It seemed a little mysterious that
+Maxwell should know of it; but the fact of De Guy's visit to the house
+of his father came to his assistance, and the mystery was solved. De Guy
+had communicated this information to Maxwell, and thus he was enabled to
+establish conclusively the connection between them.
+
+Vernon's plan for the future was adopted; and manifesting no surprise,
+he denied the fact of his reformation, however strong the circumstances
+might be against him. He had often been implicated in fouler deceptions
+than this in a worse cause, and, in spite of his great resolves, he did
+not hesitate in this instance.
+
+"Quite a sell, wasn't it, this reformation? The old gentleman has a fine
+place up there,--money in the bank,--hey, boy? I saw through the whole
+of it, as soon as I heard the absurd story," said Maxwell, who, to do
+him justice, did not believe the tale. It was too much for his
+credulity, that a thing like Vernon could be animated by a good
+motive,--could, by any possibility, abandon the error of his ways.
+
+"Just so, Max. The fact is, I found the old fellow had plenty of money,
+and no one but me to leave it to; so I thought it would be a devilish
+pity to have it all go to found a hospital, an orthodox college, or some
+such absurdity, and I could not resist the temptation to become a little
+saintly, just for a few days."
+
+"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The old
+fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"
+
+"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip to from
+Vicksburg?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence, and
+thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I gave you
+the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and then taking
+the boat."
+
+"But you didn't know I had reformed then,--ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the island,--I overheard
+that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy speaking of it. But I own,
+Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you unheard."
+
+"Max, who is this De Guy?"
+
+"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know him."
+
+"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot _wool_ me? By the way, that
+was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after the girl. When he
+had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I had not come and
+assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not possibly be concerned
+in the affair."
+
+"Indeed! did you do me this essential service?" said Maxwell, forgetting
+that he had denied his connection with De Guy.
+
+"I did. If you had left the matter with me, I could have done it
+better."
+
+"Well, Vernon, I see you are all right yet; but the thing worked to a
+charm. De Guy is the cleverest fellow out. The girl is safe."
+
+"So I suppose," said Vernon, with an assumption of indifference.
+
+"But all the sport is yet to come."
+
+"Indeed," said Vernon, burning with anxiety, but striving to maintain
+his accustomed easy and reckless air.
+
+"Yes, Vernon, all the hard work we did up the river shall not be in
+vain. I shall win the prize!" and Maxwell rubbed his hands at the
+pleasant anticipation.
+
+"Wish you joy, Max! But you don't mean to marry the girl?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What! a quadroon?"
+
+"Pshaw! that story is all blown through. Her old uncle, up the river,
+got up that abstraction, so as to finger her property," said Maxwell,
+forgetting, in his candor, the scruples which his companion had
+expressed on a former occasion with relation to persecuting a white
+woman,--scruples which Vernon did not seem disposed to press upon the
+attorney's memory.
+
+"You helped him through with his scheme?" answered Vernon, with a bold,
+careless air.
+
+"'Pon honor, I had nothing to do with it. Old Jaspar did it all
+himself," replied Maxwell, with an oath.
+
+"Looks a little like you, though," said Vernon, with a nonchalance which
+provoked Maxwell, whose temper was not of the mildest tone.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is none of mine, though the plan was a creditable one.
+But it has brought old Jaspar into a wasp's nest."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I had my eye on the girl, ever since the colonel died. I saw through
+Jaspar's plot, and a little bravado made him tell me all about it."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Just so; and, as they are old clients of mine, why, I could not do less
+than get them out of the scrape, and remove the stain from the name of
+the fair heiress."
+
+"How can you do it?"
+
+"That's the point."
+
+"Looks rather complicated."
+
+"Exactly so; but energy and skill will accomplish wonders."
+
+"Very true," replied Vernon, in his usual quiet manner, well knowing
+that Maxwell would take the alarm if he appeared in the least
+inquisitive,--so he contented himself with this simple ejaculation.
+
+"Can I trust you still?" said Maxwell, in a low tone, and with an
+anxious look, after a pause of several minutes.
+
+"I care not whether you trust me or not," replied Vernon, with
+characteristic indifference.
+
+"Are you the man you were two months ago? If you are, I need ask no more
+questions."
+
+"I am. And now let me tell you, if you have work for me, the pay must be
+liberal. I have reformed in one respect, and that is from low prices to
+high ones. I have done too many of your little chores for nothing. Good
+pay is my motto now."
+
+"Be it so," replied Maxwell, whose suspicions, as Vernon had intended,
+were diverted by this by-talk. "I will pay you well. If my plan
+succeeds, three thousand."
+
+"Good! that sounds liberal. But suppose it fail?"
+
+"It cannot fail."
+
+"What is the plan? You mean to help old Jaspar out of the scrape, and
+save the girl too. How can you do it?"
+
+"There is only one way--marry the girl!"
+
+"Just so," replied Vernon, with an indifference it was hard to assume.
+
+"Here are the whole details of the plan. I have Jaspar's consent to my
+marriage with the girl, but I dare not attempt to consummate the scheme
+in the city. She is so cursed obstinate, that it is a hard matter to
+manage her. I saw Jaspar last night, and we concluded to have the
+ceremony performed at Bellevue, as soon as possible, or that fiery son
+of Mars and your worthy patriarch will be down upon us, and spoil the
+whole."
+
+"Never fear them," said Vernon. "You will not proceed for a week or
+two?"
+
+"A week or so will make no difference. But I am afraid it will take more
+time than that to induce her to consent. The difficulty which has
+troubled me more than any other is to get her to Bellevue. She tells
+Dido that she will not go alive. She fears Jaspar more than she does me,
+and rightly suspects that if she yields she will have to encounter
+both. She has not seen me since the row at the wood-yard, and I intend
+to transact all business with her through De Guy."
+
+"She is a difficult case," suggested Vernon, to fill up a pause in
+Maxwell's speech.
+
+"Now, it has occurred to me," continued Maxwell, "that _you_ could
+manage her like a young lamb."
+
+"I!" exclaimed Vernon.
+
+"Certainly. You stand well with her, do you not?"
+
+"Like a saint."
+
+"You can get up a rescue, or something of that sort, you know."
+
+"To be sure," replied Vernon, thoughtfully.
+
+"Pretend that you are going to effect her escape."
+
+"Capital!" said Vernon, suddenly; "I _will_ pretend to effect her
+escape. But there is one difficulty--" and he suddenly checked his
+apparent zeal, and assumed a thoughtful air.
+
+"A difficulty?"
+
+"Ay. I must be at Baton Rouge to-morrow night, or all my hopes up the
+river are lost."
+
+"And you will return--"
+
+Vernon reflected, and then replied,
+
+"In four days."
+
+"That will do. Don't let it be more than four days."
+
+"No."
+
+"And, Vernon, you had better write to the military lover that the lady
+is doing well--that Jaspar's health is improving, &c. They won't hurry
+down, then."
+
+"A good thought. I _will_ write to him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Here is my hand for my true constancy."
+
+     "There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
+     I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
+     With this thy fair and outward character."
+     SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+"Villain!" muttered Vernon, as Maxwell left the coffee-room, "your work
+of iniquity is nearly done. If from the depths of my seared heart can
+come up one single good impulse to guide me, I will bring the guilty and
+the innocent to their just desert."
+
+He had told Maxwell that he should go to Baton Rouge, and prudence
+required him to go. He had certain intelligence that a boat would leave
+in an hour, and he hastily wrote the letter to Captain Carroll. This
+letter was not exactly of the tenor Maxwell had bargained for, inasmuch
+as the object of it was to request the immediate presence of his father
+and Henry at Bellevue, which promised soon to be the theatre of war.
+With this letter in his pocket, he made his way to the levee, and
+departed for Baton Rouge.
+
+It was with some compunction that he took this seemingly inconsistent
+step. It was, for the time, turning his back upon the object to which he
+had devoted himself. It was necessary for him to gain time, even at the
+sacrifice of Emily's feelings, for a short season, so that his father
+and Henry Carroll might reach Bellevue as soon as Emily. He had written
+them all the details of the plan. His own purpose was to have Emily's
+strongest friends at hand on her arrival at Bellevue, so as effectually
+to foil the machinations of Jaspar and Maxwell. His own visit to Baton
+Rouge was only a feint to avoid a meeting with Maxwell in the interim,
+thus keeping the appearance in unison with the pretension.
+
+The river had risen some three or four feet, and the large and rapid
+steamers had commenced running. The "Raven," to the clerk of which he
+had intrusted the letter for Cottage Island, was a remarkably fast boat,
+and he had every reason to hope that his plan would be successful.
+
+Three days he remained at Baton Rouge, in a state of impatience and
+inactivity, rendered doubly uncomfortable by the fear that Maxwell might
+change his plan in his absence.
+
+A downward steamer was approaching the city, and he hastened on board.
+His letter had been faithfully delivered, for almost the first person he
+discovered on board the boat was Henry Carroll, and Dr. Vaudelier was
+close at hand. This was excellent, and he congratulated himself on the
+bright prospect before him.
+
+It was arranged that the doctor and his late patient should remain in
+the vicinity of Bellevue until the following day, when Vernon would
+convey Emily to her home. They were accordingly landed at the Red
+Church, and Vernon proceeded to New Orleans.
+
+Maxwell greeted him with a cordiality which showed the interest he felt
+in the scheme, the consummation of which would realize his dreams of
+luxurious indulgence. They wended their way, without loss of time, up
+the street, deciding that Vernon should at once broach the proposition
+to Emily of going up to Bellevue. The attorney, when they had arrived
+within a short distance of the office, directed Vernon to proceed alone,
+agreeing to meet him at a coffee-room in the neighborhood.
+
+On reaching the office, a new difficulty was presented. The inflexible
+guardian of Emily refused to allow Vernon to see her, stoutly persisting
+that De Guy would not permit it. Vernon was obliged to resort to Maxwell
+in this dilemma, who, affirming that he did not wish Emily to know of
+his presence in town, had kept the secret from the negress. So what
+could he do? But, bidding Vernon wait, he left the coffee-room, and soon
+returned with an order signed by De Guy, whom, Maxwell affirmed, he had
+been so fortunate as to meet at the Exchange.
+
+"But of what use is this paper? The girl cannot read. Shall I take the
+keys from her?" asked Vernon.
+
+"The note will be sufficient. Show it to her; she will pretend to read
+it, and would, if it were in Hebrew or Sanscrit," said Maxwell, who then
+repeated the caution he had before given, not to betray the fact of his
+presence in the city.
+
+Vernon presented the note to the negress, who, with a business-like air,
+opened it; and, though he could perceive that she held it up-side down,
+she examined it long and attentively, sputtering with her thick lips, as
+though actually engaged in the to her impossible operation of reading
+it.
+
+"Dis alters de case, Massa. Why you no show dis paper before?" said
+Dido, with an air of huge importance, which would have done credit to
+the captain of a country company of militia.
+
+"Open the door, and don't stop to chatter!" replied Vernon.
+
+"Yes, Massa, I have read de letter, and now I knows dat Massa Guy wants
+you to see de leddy. Dat alters de case. I has nussin furder to say,"
+muttered Dido, as she unlocked the chamber door.
+
+Emily was seated on a sofa, reading a book she had taken with her to
+while away the time on board of the steamer.
+
+"Missus, a gemman, who hab brought a letter from Massa Guy," said Dido,
+as she opened the door.
+
+"Bring the letter, then," replied Emily, scarcely raising her eyes from
+the book.
+
+"No, Missus, de letter am for me, and I hab read it. It orders me to
+'mit dis gemman."
+
+"That is sufficient," said Vernon, pushing the attendant back, and
+closing the door.
+
+Emily rose; and great was her surprise at perceiving the son of her late
+benefactor. An avalanche of doubt rushed through her mind, and she could
+not conjecture the occasion of this visit. She had left him at his
+father's house. Had he forsaken his new-born repentance? Was he again
+the minister of Maxwell's evil purposes? She had been a prey to the most
+distressing anticipations, and had now settled down into the calmness of
+resignation. Resolved to die rather than become the bride of Maxwell,
+she had spent the hours and days of her imprisonment in nerving herself
+to meet whatever bitter fate might await her, in maintaining her purity
+and her principle.
+
+The appearance of Jerome Vaudelier caused her a thrill of apprehension,
+but it was quickly supplanted by a feeling of interest in the individual
+himself. Her own gloomy position seemed divested of its sombreness, as
+she felt that the penitence of the erring soul had not been a reality.
+
+"Jerome Vaudelier, are you, too, the minister of a villain's wishes?"
+
+"Nay, Miss Dumont--"
+
+"Say that you are yet true to yourself; that you have not forgotten
+those solemn vows you made in the home of your father; say that you are
+not the tool of the vile Maxwell--say it before you speak your business
+with me!"
+
+"Miss Dumont, I acknowledge that the present appearance is against me;
+but I assure you I have come only as the minister of good to you."
+
+"Bless you for the words! I feared you had again been tempted."
+
+"So I have, lady, and apparently have yielded; but it was only to save
+you. Listen to me, and I will disclose all the details of the plots
+which are even now ripening to ensnare you,"--and Vernon, in a low tone,
+briefly narrated everything, and the means which were in operation to
+secure her safety.
+
+"You must go to Bellevue to-morrow, there to meet my father and Captain
+Carroll," said he.
+
+The color came to her pale cheek, at the mention of her lover's name.
+She felt that Vernon meant to be true to her, and true to himself. And
+it required no persuasion to induce her to acquiesce in the
+arrangements.
+
+"But, Hatchie--must I leave him in prison? It is not a meet reward for
+his fidelity."
+
+"It cannot be avoided, Miss Dumont. I will see him to-day, and when his
+honest heart knows that you are in safety, he will be just as happy in a
+prison as in a palace. He shall be set at liberty in a few days."
+
+"I hope he may. Does this De Guy accompany you?"
+
+"No; but Maxwell says he will reach Bellevue as soon as we do."
+
+"Why is this? Why does not Maxwell present himself, and urge his
+infamous proposals?"
+
+"I know not, unless it be that De Guy is the more artful of the two."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us change the scene to the next day, at the abode of Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, by the kind attentions of their host, were
+restored to a comparatively healthy state. The lady had suffered much in
+her physical and mental constitution, and a shade of deep melancholy
+rested upon her handsome features. She could not forget the horrors of
+the dungeon in which she had been confined. It seemed a great epoch in
+her life; all before it was strange and undefined, while every trivial
+incident since was a great paragraph in her history.
+
+Mr. Faxon was seated in his library, surrounded by his guests. The
+affairs of the Dumont family had again been discussed, for to them they
+were full of interest.
+
+The good minister feelingly expatiated upon the bitterness of the
+heiress' lot, brought up as she had been amid all the refinements of
+polished society, whose sensibilities were rendered doubly acute by
+nature and the circumstances which environed her, to be thus degraded
+into the condition of a base-born, despised being,--to be so suddenly
+hurled from honor and opulence,--it was a dreadful blow! So feelingly
+did he narrate the particulars, so tenderly did he describe the
+loneliness of her position, that his hearers were deeply affected, and
+Delia shed a flood of tears.
+
+"I too have been a wanderer, though a voluntary one, from the home of my
+father," said she.
+
+"Nay, Delia," said Dalhousie, tenderly; "do not revert to your own
+experience. Remember you are not strong enough to bear much excitement."
+
+"I did not intend to speak of my own experience; but the sufferings of
+poor Miss Dumont call to my mind the remembrance of similar feelings."
+
+"I presume the company are not desirous of hearing the story of an
+elopement," said Dalhousie, with a smile.
+
+"Nor I to relate one. The pure devotion of Miss Dumont to the memory of
+her father recalls the affection, the fond indulgence, of my own father.
+I have not, as she has, the consciousness of having never wilfully
+abused his confidence."
+
+"If you have erred, madam," said Mr. Faxon, "your father still lives,
+does he not? Perhaps it is not yet too late to atone for the fault."
+
+"Alas! I know not whether he is living or not. I wrote to him several
+times, but never received an answer."
+
+"Who was your father, madam?" said Mr. Faxon, with much sympathy in the
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I dread even to mention the name I bore in the innocent days of
+childhood."
+
+"Fie, Delia!" said Dalhousie, with a pleasant laugh, "what have you done
+to sink yourself so far in your own estimation? You and your father
+differed as to the propriety of our marriage; to you, as a true woman,
+your course was plain. This is the height and depth of your monstrous
+sin."
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by the announcement that a
+gentleman waited to see Mr. Faxon.
+
+The good clergyman had a habit of promptness in answering all calls upon
+him. This custom had been acquired by the reflection that a poor dying
+mortal might wait his blessing, ere he departed on his endless journey;
+that, sometimes, a moment's delay could never be atoned for; therefore
+he rose on the instant, and hastened to the parlor, where the visitor
+waited.
+
+"Ah! is it possible--Captain Carroll!" said he, as he grasped Henry's
+hand; "I am glad to see you. But how pale and thin you look!"
+
+"Good reason for it, my dear sir. I was on board of the Chalmetta."
+
+"Were you, indeed! Thank God, you escaped with life! Were you much
+injured?"
+
+"I was, but, thanks to the care of a good physician, I am nearly
+restored again."
+
+"But our poor lady--Miss Dumont--have you any tidings of her? Report
+said she was lost in the catastrophe."
+
+"She is safe, though, unfortunately, at present in bad hands;" and Henry
+related to the astonished minister the events of Emily's history since
+her departure from Bellevue, not concealing even the details of his
+present relations with her.
+
+"And now, my dear sir," said he, rising to depart, "the crisis has come.
+Dr. Vaudelier waits close by, and we are ready to witness the denouement
+of this climax of plots. It is already time for Jerome and Emily to
+arrive, and we desire your immediate presence at the mansion-house."
+
+"I will attend you. But I have in the house several friends of Miss
+Dumont--"
+
+"Bring them all with you," interrupted Henry, looking at his watch.
+"The more witnesses the better, especially if they be friends."
+
+"But wait till I tell you who they are."
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Faxon, I must not tarry longer. I will meet them at the
+mansion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     "What devil's here, dragging the dead to life,
+     To overthrow me?"
+
+     "Who art thou?
+     Speak! speak!"
+
+     "The features all are changed,
+     But the voice grows familiar on my ears."
+
+           LOVELL
+
+
+Jaspar Dumont was seated in the library. The ravages of care and vice
+were growing more plainly visible on his face. His countenance was
+haggard, and his complexion seemed to be a struggle between the wanness
+of care and the redness of intemperance.
+
+Near him sat De Guy, who had but just arrived.
+
+"The lady has come," said the attorney, adjusting his green spectacles;
+"and I am here to claim the fulfilment of our contract."
+
+Jaspar looked up from the floor, upon which his eyes had been fastened,
+and gazed with a fixed stare upon his companion.
+
+"You do not understand me," insinuated De Guy.
+
+"I do," said Jaspar, sternly; "I do; you have come to plunder me."
+
+"You do me injustice, my kind friend; I come to save you from the doom
+of a felon."
+
+"To put your foot upon my neck, and leap out of the pit your villany has
+dug!"
+
+"Very well, my dear sir, if you are of this mind, my course is plain.
+Did you not agree to this arrangement?" said De Guy, with a smile, which
+was meant to soften the hard question.
+
+"True, I did," replied Jaspar, with a whining sullenness. "What would
+you have of me now?"
+
+"Only that you fulfil the stipulations of the bargain."
+
+"Can I fulfil them? Can I marry you, even if the girl were willing?"
+
+"You can give your commands. Will she not obey them?"
+
+"Fool if she does!" muttered Jaspar, in a low tone.
+
+"She will be so glad to be restored to her home, I fancy she will not
+think the terms are hard."
+
+"I don't know," said Jaspar, eying the attorney from head to foot. "I
+consent to the marriage. I can do no more."
+
+"Perhaps you will be willing to use a little gentle force, to save your
+own neck," said the attorney, with something like a sneer.
+
+"Anything, anything, that will silence your damning tongue, and rid me
+of your teasing!"
+
+"Now, sir, you are reasonable."
+
+"Summon the girl," said Jaspar, impatiently. "I will say all I have to
+say in a few words. But, if she foils you, it is not my fault."
+
+"True sir; but Miss Dumont, at this critical juncture of her affairs,
+will have respect for your counsels;" and the attorney withdrew to call
+her.
+
+Emily entered the abode of her early years, and the memories of the past
+came crowding thick upon her. She seemed to realize that her sorrows
+were near an end, but the hope which such a pleasant thought inspired
+could not entirely overcome the gloom which the scene around her was
+calculated to produce. It was here she had often rambled with her
+father, and a thousand trivial incidents presented themselves to remind
+her of him.
+
+As she entered the house, she clung to the arm of Vernon, as though she
+was entering the abode of evil spirits; for, with all the memories of
+the past, she could not forget that the home of her childhood was
+inhabited by her inhuman uncle.
+
+She had been but a short time seated in the old, familiar drawing-room,
+like a stranger now, when De Guy entered, to request her presence in the
+library. She rose, and looked at Vernon, who, understanding the glance,
+approached, as if to bear her company.
+
+"This gentleman had better remain here," suggested De Guy.
+
+"I prefer that he should attend me," said Emily, firmly, even while her
+heart rose to her throat, at the thought of meeting her uncle.
+
+"But really, madam, his presence would embarrass the business of the
+interview."
+
+"He is a friend," stammered Emily, "and is acquainted with all the
+circumstances of this affair."
+
+"I will attend her, sir," said Vernon, who had before remained silent.
+
+"Pardon me," said the attorney, looking sharply at Vernon, "but it will
+be impossible to transact any business in presence of others."
+
+"Lead on," said Vernon, sternly; "I will attend the lady, in spite of
+all objections."
+
+"Sir, you are insolent!" said the attorney, tartly, though without the
+loss of his self-possession.
+
+"The gentleman will not in the least retard the business. Pray pass on,"
+interposed Emily, fearful of a collision between the parties.
+
+"It is impossible, madam. I must insist that he remain here. Such is Mr.
+Dumont's express order."
+
+"Will you say to Mr. Dumont that the lady demands my attendance? Perhaps
+he will yield the point," answered Vernon.
+
+"I will see him, but it is useless. I know his views;" and De Guy left
+the room.
+
+"Do not hesitate to go with him, Miss Dumont; I will be close at hand;
+but no violence will be offered you. I see my father and Captain Carroll
+coming up the road," said Vernon, looking out the window. "Yield, if
+necessary, and fear nothing."
+
+"Mr. Dumont persists in his purpose of meeting the lady alone," said De
+Guy, as he reentered the drawing-room.
+
+"The lady, in your absence, has concluded to dispense with my
+attendance," replied Vernon.
+
+"This way, madam,"--and the attorney, with punctilious politeness, led
+the way.
+
+Vernon threw himself upon a sofa, as they were leaving; but no sooner
+had the door closed, than he rose in haste, and left the apartment.
+Reaching the veranda of the house, he met Dr. Vaudelier and Henry
+Carroll, who followed him back to the drawing-room.
+
+"This way, silently, if you please," said he, and then closed the door.
+A moment sufficed to inform the new comers of the position of affairs;
+then Vernon left the room, and went to the library door, which he found,
+by Henry's direction. Stationing himself in a recess behind some coats,
+he waited till his presence should be needed.
+
+The meeting between Emily and her uncle was not embarrassed by any
+formal greetings. Jaspar did not even raise his eyes from the floor, as
+she entered. He heard the door close, and being aware by the silence of
+the parties--for De Guy had judged an announcement unnecessary--that
+they were ready to hear him, he said, in a gentle tone,
+
+"Emily, I have sent for you to receive a proposition, which will finally
+terminate the unfortunate circumstances that have shrouded our family in
+hostility and misery."
+
+"Indeed, uncle, I have no feeling of hostility towards you. God forbid!"
+replied Emily, upon whose agitated senses Jaspar's mild words had fallen
+like promises of peace.
+
+Jaspar was astonished. He had lost much of the severity of his
+disposition in the miseries which had overtaken him. He was humiliated,
+his spirit broken, and he could not understand why his victim did not
+upbraid him, as he expected, for the wrongs he had inflicted. A
+momentary hope of reconciliation on better terms crossed his mind; but
+there stood the attorney, who would permit no other compromise.
+
+"I restore your fortune," said Jaspar, with a shudder, as he raised his
+head for the first time from the floor to look upon his niece,--"I
+restore it, on one condition."
+
+"Name not the fortune, uncle; your peace and happiness are far dearer to
+me than all the wealth of the world. You have wronged me, but I freely
+forgive you; and Heaven will also forgive you, if you sin no more. O,
+uncle, I beseech you dismiss this evil man, and let me be to you as a
+daughter!"
+
+"Let us attend to business, if you please, Mr. Dumont," said the
+attorney, in a whining tone; for, it must be confessed, the conversation
+had assumed a different turn from what he had anticipated.
+
+"I must state the business for which I requested your presence," said
+Jaspar, not a little moved by the words of Emily. Human nature is a
+strange compound of inconsistencies. This man, whose life had been
+stained with crime, was now disposed to regard the past with contrition.
+We have seen him scorning even an allusion to the higher life of the
+soul,--but success was then within the reach of his crime-stained hand!
+Now, failure on every hand awaited him, and all those bravadoes with
+which he had kept down his better nature deserted him. Not one scornful
+thought came to banish the good angel from his presence. But the feeling
+was of short duration. It was but a momentary contrition, which a
+selfish hope or a burst of passion could dissipate.
+
+"I will restore your fortune, on one condition," said he. "You can
+accept or reject it, at your option."
+
+"I beg your pardon," suggested the attorney, "these were not exactly the
+terms of our contract."
+
+"Name the condition, uncle," added Emily, indifferently; for she was
+anxious to have the business, whatever it might be, finished, so that
+she could again plead with Jaspar for his personal reformation, for she
+was a little encouraged by the appearance of humiliation he had
+manifested.
+
+"I restore your fortune, on condition that you give your hand to this
+gentleman in marriage;"--and Jaspar again fixed his eyes on the floor,
+as if he dreaded the outbreak of a storm.
+
+"This gentleman!" exclaimed Emily, indignantly. "This gentleman!"--and
+she gazed upon him with a proud look of contempt, from which the
+attorney would fain have hid his head. Her surprise was equal to her
+indignation. Vernon had told her that _Maxwell_ was to be the suppliant
+for her hand, and she could not see why his menial had the presumption
+to claim her.
+
+"This gentleman!" repeated Emily. "I had rather die a thousand deaths!"
+
+"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step," replied
+De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the energy of
+Jaspar.
+
+"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can
+administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.
+
+"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly. "Fate has
+so decreed. Your good uncle's circumstances imperatively demand it."
+
+"Is this so, uncle?"
+
+"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though it may
+be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.
+
+"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a fate. What
+circumstances do you refer to?"
+
+"I am in this man's power."
+
+"God be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my fortune,
+not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than become such a
+_thing_ as to marry that man!"
+
+"Nay, lady, _you_ are of more worth to me than your fortune, large as it
+is. I have contracted with your uncle for your hand, and he must pay the
+price," said De Guy.
+
+"He speaks truly, Emily. I have _sold_ you to him," replied Jaspar,
+vacantly.
+
+Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in allusion
+to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes, while the
+indignant blood mounted to her cheek.
+
+"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said, quickly.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of passion.
+
+"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely tried.
+
+"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but now I
+feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on which his
+brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he reseated himself.
+
+"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table with his
+fist.
+
+"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar's violence, but firm
+in her purpose.
+
+"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar, passionately.
+
+"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for--"
+
+"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy, laying
+his hand upon her arm.
+
+"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your touch!"
+exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been
+contamination.
+
+The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a scowl of
+malignity, as he said,
+
+"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let it end.
+Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day to be
+consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your whims."
+
+"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend upon your
+acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose passion had moderated a
+little.
+
+"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied Emily,
+and she again moved towards the door.
+
+"You leave not the room till you consent to this union," interposed De
+Guy.
+
+"Stand from my path, or I will summon assistance!"
+
+"Your summons would be in vain."
+
+With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance; but De
+Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled to free
+herself from the villain's grasp, without success. Knowing that Vernon
+was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the top of her voice.
+
+"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend of mine,"
+said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary of mine. Haven't
+you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture of sarcasm and
+triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.
+
+The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The door was
+wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had taken the
+precaution to lock it.
+
+"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the intrusion.
+
+"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"
+
+"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet spectator
+to the violence offered his niece.
+
+"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him, towards
+a large closet on the other side of the room.
+
+"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second time
+uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door splintered, and
+Vernon stood in the room.
+
+"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from his pocket
+a revolver.
+
+"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time,
+he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he approached the
+lawyer.
+
+"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which suddenly lost
+its silky tone, and was firm and round.
+
+"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.
+
+Jaspar's ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the prospect of a
+fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve his arm. He advanced
+behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had clasped both hands around him.
+Vernon tried to free himself from the bearish hug, and they both fell to
+the floor. Jaspar still held tight, and the struggle promised to be a
+severe one.
+
+De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the combatants
+had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his pocket, so that,
+unembarrassed, he might convey Emily to a place of security, until this
+unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was the pistol in his pocket,
+when the window behind him flew open, and the attorney was in the iron
+grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed from her assailant, retreated to
+the other side of the room, where, glancing in terror upon the new
+assault, she saw De Guy thrown violently upon the floor by her
+ever-present and ever-faithful slave, Hatchie!
+
+The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early in the
+evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the calaboose,
+and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.
+
+Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and judged that
+the conflict had begun with something more than the war of words.
+Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the library, and
+rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.
+
+The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood
+contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who had
+followed Henry into the room, assisted Jaspar to rise, and conducted him
+to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed entirely to have oozed
+out, and they remained doggedly considering the new state of things.
+
+Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket the
+revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable person, he
+loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an acknowledgment of weakness
+to hold him longer a close prisoner. Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the
+hair, he bade him rise, at the same time giving a sharp twist to the
+ornamental appendage of his cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion
+of his hand, and the entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge
+parti-colored whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly
+hair, where the mixed color had before predominated!
+
+"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair before,"
+said Henry Carroll.
+
+"The face is not of the natural color," added Dr. Vaudelier, remarking
+that the skin of the forehead, which the wig had concealed, was very
+white, and almost transparent, while the face was besmeared with the
+color that composed the florid complexion of the attorney.
+
+"Take off his spectacles, Hatchie," said Henry.
+
+The glasses were removed, and a pair of piercing black eyes glared upon
+them.
+
+"It is Maxwell, by ----," shouted Jaspar, who had in some measure
+recovered from the exhaustion of his struggle with Vernon, and had
+watched with much anxiety the "unearthing" of his confederate.
+
+"It is Maxwell," responded Hatchie, tearing open the vest which
+encircled the attorney's portly form, and displaying the cushion that
+had been used to extend his corporation.
+
+"Merciful Heaven! how narrowly have I escaped!" exclaimed Emily, laying
+her head in giddy faintness upon the shoulder of Henry, who, at the
+moment he was at liberty, had flown to her side.
+
+At this moment Mr. Faxon entered, and saw, with astonishment, the
+evidence of the recent fray.
+
+"Justice is triumphant, I see," said he, taking Emily by the hand, and
+affectionately congratulating her upon her return to Bellevue.
+
+"Heaven has been more indulgent to me than I deserve,--has preserved me
+from a thousand perils I knew not of; and has, at last, placed me again
+in this haven of repose!" replied Emily.
+
+"Bless His holy name, my child; for, though we forget Him, He can never
+forget us!" said the minister, devoutly.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," interrupted Jaspar, with a bitter scowl, "I trust,
+when you have finished your cant, you will depart, and leave me in
+peace."
+
+"We will, at this lady's pleasure," said Dr. Vaudelier.
+
+"Hell! would you trifle with me?" roared Jaspar, rising in a passion.
+"Would you turn me out of my house?"
+
+"Never yours, Mr. Dumont! Heaven has restored the innocent and oppressed
+to her rights," answered Mr. Faxon, calmly.
+
+"Uncle," said Emily, earnestly, "let me entreat you to lay aside the
+terrible aspect you have worn, and be again even as you once were. The
+past shall be forgotten, and I will strive to make the future happy."
+
+Jaspar gazed at her with a vacant stare, and, muttering some
+unintelligible words, sunk back into his chair, and buried his face
+beneath his hands. The consciousness of the utter failure of the plan he
+had cherished for years, and the terrible obloquy to which his crime
+subjected him, rushed like an earthquake into his mind. He was
+completely subdued in spirit, and groaned in his anguish.
+
+"The way of the transgressor is hard," remarked Mr. Faxon, in pitying
+tones.
+
+These words were heard by Jaspar. They touched his pride. He could not
+endure the notes of pity. He raised his head, and his eyes glared with
+the fury of a demon.
+
+"Leave the house, sir!" gasped he, choking with passion. "Leave my
+house, or I will tear you limb from limb! I can do it, and I _dare_ do
+it!" and he started suddenly to the floor. "Yes, I _dare_ do it, if you
+mock me with your canting words!"
+
+His eyes rolled like a maniac's, and he gasped for breath, as he
+continued,
+
+"I am a murderer already!--a double murderer! Dalhousie and his wife
+have felt my vengeance. They have starved like dogs! Their prison is
+their tomb!"
+
+"Compose yourself, Mr. Dumont," said Mr. Faxon; "your soul is still free
+from the heavy burden of such a guilt. Dalhousie and his wife live."
+
+"You lie, canting hypocrite! No mortal arm can save them. They have been
+eight days in my slave jail. Here are the keys," gasped Jaspar, drawing
+them from his pocket.
+
+"You shall see; I will call them," said Mr. Faxon.
+
+Dalhousie and his wife, followed by Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan, entered
+the room.
+
+Jaspar fixed his glaring eyes upon those whom he supposed were rotting
+within the precincts of his Inquisition. His power of speech seemed to
+have deserted him, and he shook all over like an aspen-leaf.
+
+To Jaspar alone on the estate was the secret of Dalhousie's imprisonment
+known. He had not approached the jail, and if any other person was aware
+that it had been undermined, they had not communicated the fact to him.
+
+As the last party entered, Dr. Vaudelier turned to look upon the new
+comers. Starting suddenly from his chair, he approached them, and gazed
+with earnestness into the face of Delia.
+
+"Is it possible!" said he.
+
+"My God,--my father!" and father and daughter were locked in each
+other's embrace.
+
+Maxwell, stripped of his disguise, and ruined in his own opinion, and in
+the opinion of everybody else, had watched all the proceedings we have
+narrated in silence. Ashamed of the awkward appearance he made in his
+undress, and confused by the sudden change in his affairs, he was at a
+loss to know which way to turn.
+
+Henry Carroll realized the sense of embarrassment that pervaded all
+parties, and was desirous of putting an end to the state of things which
+promised nothing but strife and confusion. So he directed Hatchie to
+fasten Maxwell's hands together, and keep him secure. This step the
+attorney seemed not inclined to permit, and a struggle ensued.
+
+"Mr. Dumont," said he, "is this by your order?"
+
+"No," replied Jaspar, anxious to secure at least one friend. "No! I am
+still in my own house, and the law will protect me."
+
+"Certainly," returned Maxwell; "this is all a farce. There is not a
+single particle of evidence to disprove the will."
+
+"Well, now, I reckon there is a leetle grain," said Uncle Nathan,
+stepping forward and producing the will, which had been intrusted to him
+on board the Chalmetta. "This will set matters about right, I rayther
+guess."
+
+"What mean you, fellow?" said Jaspar. "What is it?"
+
+"The genuine will," replied Hatchie, still holding Maxwell. "I gave it
+into his hands. To explain how I came by it, I need only call your
+attention to a certain night, when I surprised you and this honorable
+gentleman in this very apartment."
+
+"It is all over!" groaned Jaspar.
+
+"This is a forgery!" exclaimed Maxwell.
+
+"Ay, a forgery!" repeated Jaspar, catching the attorney's idea. "Who can
+prove that this is a correct will, and the other false?"
+
+"I can," said Dalhousie. "Here is a duplicate copy, with letters
+explaining the reason for making it, in the testator's own
+hand-writing."
+
+Dalhousie candidly stated the means by which he had obtained possession
+of the papers, and trusted his indiscretion would be overlooked. Dr.
+Vaudelier frowned, as his son-in-law related the unworthy part he had
+performed, and perhaps felt a consciousness of the good intentions which
+had years before induced him to refuse his consent to the marriage of
+his daughter.
+
+Jaspar yielded the point; but Maxwell, in the hope of gaining time,
+boldly proclaimed all the papers forgeries.
+
+"It matters not; we will not stop to discuss the matter now. Tie his
+hands, Hatchie," said Henry Carroll, and, with the assistance of others,
+he was bound, and handed over to a constable, upon the warrant of Mr.
+Faxon, who was a justice.
+
+The party separated,--Henry and Emily seeking the grove in front of the
+house, to congratulate each other on the happy termination of their
+season of difficulty. The meeting between Dr. Vaudelier and his son and
+daughter was extremely interesting, and the hours passed rapidly away,
+in listening to the experience of each other. The meeting concluded with
+the making of new resolves, on the part of Dalhousie, to seek "the great
+purpose of his life" by higher and nobler means.
+
+As the dinner-hour approached, the happy parties were summoned by Mr.
+Faxon to visit his house, and partake of his hospitality. The good man
+was never happier in his life than when he said grace over the noon-day
+meal, surrounded by the restored heiress of Bellevue, and her happy
+friends.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     "From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss,
+     They lived together long, without debate;
+     Nor private jars nor spite of enemies
+     Could shake the safe assurance of their states."
+
+     SPENSER.
+
+
+Our story is told. It only remains to condense the subsequent lives of
+our characters into a few lines.
+
+Jaspar Dumont lingered along a few weeks after the return of Emily; but
+his life had lost its vitality. Continued devotion to the demon of the
+bottle laid him low,--he was found dead in the library, having been
+stricken with an apoplectic fit.
+
+After the death of Jaspar, Maxwell was tried for a variety of crimes,
+and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.
+
+Dr. Vaudelier, accompanied by Dalhousie and his wife, removed to New
+Orleans, where they spent many happy years, devoted to those pure
+principles of truth and justice which the events of our history
+contributed not a little to create and strengthen.
+
+Vernon,--or, as he has changed his character, we may venture to change
+his name,--Jerome Vaudelier, went to California in the first of the
+excitement; where, amid the temptations of that new and dissolute land,
+he yet maintains the integrity he vowed to cherish on the night of the
+attack upon Cottage Island.
+
+Uncle Nathan and Pat Fegan spent a few days at Bellevue, and then
+started for the North. The honest yeoman, either on account of the many
+adventures they had passed through together, or because Pat was a true
+convert of his, had taken quite a fancy to the Hibernian, and insisted
+that he should accompany him home. Pat became a very worthy man, after
+abandoning the "critter," which had been his greatest bane. For three
+years he served our New Englander faithfully on the farm, at the end of
+which period his desire to get ahead prompted him to take a buxom Irish
+girl to his bosom, and go to farming on his own hook. A visit of Henry
+and Emily, about this time, to the worthy farmer, contributed to forward
+this end; for Pat, with Celtic candor and boldness, stated to them his
+views and purposes. Before the heiress left, Pat's farm was bought and
+paid for, besides being well stocked, by her princely liberality.
+
+Jerry Swinger and his wife, who had rendered such important services to
+Emily, were not forgotten. The honest woodman disdained to receive
+compensation for any service he or his good wife had rendered, but Emily
+found a way to render them comfortable for life, without any sacrifice
+of pride on their part.
+
+One year after the events which close our history the great mansion at
+Bellevue was the scene of gay festivities. Dr. Vaudelier and his
+daughter, and Dalhousie, and Jerry Swinger and all his family, were
+there, because, in the hour of its owner's greatest happiness, she could
+not be without those who had been her friends in the season of
+adversity. All the country round was there,--New Orleans was
+there,--everybody was there, to witness the nuptials of the fair heiress
+and the gallant Captain Carroll.
+
+The great drawing-room was brilliantly illuminated. The happy couple
+entered the room, and stood up before Mr. Faxon. A step behind Emily,
+watching the proceedings with as much interest as a fond father would
+witness the espousal of a beloved daughter, stood Hatchie. Race and
+condition did not exclude him from the proud and brilliant assemblage
+that had gathered to honor the nuptials of his mistress.
+
+They were married, and, ere the good minister had concluded his
+congratulations, the huge yellow palm of the faithful slave was extended
+to receive the white-gloved hand of the bride. Nor did she shrink from
+him. With a sweet smile, and a look which told how deep were her respect
+and admiration, she gave him her hand, heedless of the proud circle
+which had gathered around her to be first in their offering of good
+wishes.
+
+"God bless you, Miss Emily! Bless you!" said he, and the tear stole into
+his eye, as he withdrew from the crowd.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HATCHIE, THE GUARDIAN SLAVE; OR, THE
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