to one and all be no terror to you.

"To the martyr, who perishes in freedom's cause, death comes with a
beauteous smile and with most tender touch. But to the man whose blood
is nothing but sour swill; who prefers to stay like fattening swine
until pronounced fit for the butcher's knife; to such, death comes
with a most horrifying visage, and seizing the victim with cold and
clammy hands hurries with his disgusting load to some far away dumping
ground.

"How glad am I that I can glance over this audience and see written
upon your faces utter disdain of death.

"In concluding let me say, I congratulate you that after years of
suffering and disunion our faces are now _all_ turned toward the
golden shores of liberty's lovely land.

"Some tell us that a sea is in our way, so deep that we cannot cross.
Let us answer back in joyful tones as our vessels push out from the
shore, that our clotted blood, shed in the middle of the sea, will
float to the other side, even if we do not reach there ourselves.

"Others tell us that towering, snow-capped mountains enclose the
land. To this we answer, if we die on the mountain-side, we shall be
shrouded in sheets of whitest snow, and all generations of men yet
to come upon the earth will have to gaze upward in order to see our
whitened forms.

"Let us then, at all hazards, strike a blow for freedom. If it calls
for a Thermopylae, be free. If it calls for a Valley Forge, be free.
If contending for our rights, given unto us by God, causes us to be
slain, let us perish on the field of battle, singing as we pass out
of the world, 'Sweet Freedom's song,' though every word of this
soul-inspiring hymn must come forth wrapped in our hearts' warm blood.

"Gentlemen of the Imperium in Imperio, I await your pleasure."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE STORM'S MASTER.

When Bernard ceased speaking and took his seat the house was as silent
as a graveyard. All felt that the time for words had passed and the
next and only thing in order was a deed.

Each man seemed determined to keep his seat and remain silent until he
had some definite plan to suggest. At length one man, somewhat aged,
arose and spoke as follows:

"Fellow citizens, our condition is indeed past enduring and we must
find a remedy. I have spent the major portion of my life in close
study of this subject, searching for a solution. My impression is that
the negro will never leave this country. The day for the wholesale
exodus