FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540   541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548  
549   550   551   552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   566   567   >>  
edly. "To let him be execute in this dreadful state of mind would be to destroy baith body and soul--and to let him gang I dare not--what will be done?-- But he is my sister's son--my own nephew--our flesh and blood--and his hands and feet are yerked as tight as cords can be drawn.--Whistler, do the cords hurt you?" "Very much." "But, if I were to slacken them, you would harm me?" "No, I would not--you never harmed me or mine." There may be good in him yet, thought Jeanie; I will try fair play with him. She cut his bonds--he stood upright, looked round with a laugh of wild exultation, clapped his hands together, and sprung from the ground, as if in transport on finding himself at liberty. He looked so wild, that Jeanie trembled at what she had done. "Let me out," said the young savage. "I wunna, unless you promise" "Then I'll make you glad to let us both out." He seized the lighted candle and threw it among the flax, which was instantly in a flame. Jeanie screamed, and ran out of the room; the prisoner rushed past her, threw open a window in the passage, jumped into the garden, sprung over its enclosure, bounded through the woods like a deer, and gained the seashore. Meantime, the fire was extinguished, but the prisoner was sought in vain. As Jeanie kept her own secret, the share she had in his escape was not discovered: but they learned his fate some time afterwards--it was as wild as his life had hitherto been. The anxious inquiries of Butler at length learned, that the youth had gained the ship in which his master, Donacha, had designed to embark. But the avaricious shipmaster, inured by his evil trade to every species of treachery, and disappointed of the rich booty which Donacha had proposed to bring aboard, secured the person of the fugitive, and having transported him to America, sold him as a slave, or indented servant, to a Virginian planter, far up the country. When these tidings reached Butler, he sent over to America a sufficient sum to redeem the lad from slavery, with instructions that measures should be taken for improving his mind, restraining his evil propensities, and encouraging whatever good might appear in his character. But this aid came too late. The young man had headed a conspiracy in which his inhuman master was put to death, and had then fled to the next tribe of wild Indians. He was never more heard of; and it may therefore be presumed that he lived and died after the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540   541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548  
549   550   551   552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   566   567   >>  



Top keywords:

Jeanie

 

master

 
sprung
 

America

 

prisoner

 
Donacha
 

looked

 

Butler

 
learned
 

gained


proposed

 

discovered

 

escape

 

aboard

 
secured
 

anxious

 

length

 

secret

 

disappointed

 

species


embark

 

avaricious

 

hitherto

 

designed

 

shipmaster

 

inquiries

 

inured

 

treachery

 

conspiracy

 
headed

character

 

encouraging

 

propensities

 
inhuman
 
presumed
 
Indians
 

restraining

 

improving

 
planter
 

Virginian


country

 
servant
 
indented
 
fugitive
 

transported

 

sought

 
tidings
 

measures

 

instructions

 

slavery