d I was to be sent among the
whites--and I had so lately returned from the south--and Genifrede was
so wretched!"

Genifrede threw herself on her father's bosom, with broken words of love
and gratitude. It was the first time she had ever voluntarily
approached so near him; and she presently drew back, and glanced in his
face with timid awe.

"My Genifrede! My child!" cried Toussaint, in a rapture of pleasure at
this loosening of the heart. He drew her towards him, folded his arms
about her, kissed the tears from her cheek, and hushed her sobs, saying,
in a low voice which touched her very soul--

"He can do great deeds, Genifrede. He is yours, my child; but we shall
all be proud of him."

She looked up once more, with a countenance so radiant, that Toussaint
carried into all the toils and observance of the day the light heart of
a happy father.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. I have to acknowledge that injustice is done in this work to
the character of General Vincent. The writer of historical fiction is
under that serious liability, in seizing on a few actual incidents,
concerning a subordinate personage, that he makes himself responsible
for justice to the whole character of the individual whose name he
introduces into his story. Under this liability I have been unjust to
Vincent, as Scott was to Edward Christian, in "Peveril of the Peak," and
Campbell to Brandt, in "Gertrude of Wyoming." Like them, I am anxious
to make reparation on the first opportunity. It is true that in my
Appendix I avowed that Vincent was among those of my personages whose
name alone I adopted, without knowing his character; but such an
explanation in an appendix does not counteract the impression already
made by the work. Finding this, I had thoughts of changing the name in
the present edition; but I feared the character being still identified
with Vincent, from its being fact that it was Vincent who accompanied
Toussaint's sons to Paris, and returned with the deputation, as I have
represented; I think it best, therefore, to say here that, from all I
can learn, General Vincent was an honourable and useful man, and that
the delineation of character under that name in my book is purely
fictitious. The following extract from Clarkson's pamphlet on Negro
Improvement will show in what estimation General Vincent is held by one
whose testimony is of the highest value:--

"The next