ty punish me alone!"

The negro rang; two men entered. David pointed to a side door, which
opened into an adjoining closet.

The chair in which the Schoolmaster remained bound, so as to be
incapable of the smallest movement, was then rolled into the anteroom.

"Are you going to murder me, then? Mercy! mercy!" shrieked the wretched
man, as he was being removed.

"Gag him!" cried the negro, entering the closet.

Rodolph and the Chourineur were left alone.

"M. Rodolph," said the Chourineur, pale and trembling, "M. Rodolph, what
is going to be done? I never felt so frightened. Pray speak; I must be
dreaming, surely. What have they done to the Schoolmaster? He does not
cry out,--all is so silent; it makes me more fearful still!"

At this moment David issued from the cabinet; his complexion had that
livid hue peculiar to the negro countenance, while his lips were ashy
pale.

The men who had conveyed the Schoolmaster into the closet now replaced
him, still bound in his chair, on the spot he had previously occupied in
Rodolph's presence.

"Unbind him, and remove the gag!" exclaimed David.

There was a moment of fearful silence while the two attendants relieved
the Schoolmaster of his gag and untied the cords which bound him to the
chair. As the last ligature gave way, he sprang up, his hideous
countenance expressing rage, horror, and alarm. He advanced one step
with extended hands, then, falling back into the chair, he uttered a cry
of unspeakable agony, and, raising his hands towards the ceiling,
exclaimed, with maddened fury:

"Blind, by heaven!"

"Give him this pocketbook, David," said Rodolph.

The negro placed a small pocketbook in the trembling hands of the
Schoolmaster.

"You will find in that pocketbook wherewithal to provide yourself with
a home and the means of living for the remainder of your days. Go, seek
out some safe and solitary dwelling, where, by humble repentance, you
may seek to propitiate an offended God! You are free! Go and repent; the
Lord is merciful, and his ears are ever open to such as truly repent."

"Blind! quite blind!" repeated the Schoolmaster, mechanically grasping
the pocketbook.

"Open the doors,--let him depart!" said Rodolph.

"Blind! blind!" repeated the bewildered and discomfited ruffian.

"You are free; you have the means of providing for yourself; begone!"

"And whither am I to go?" exclaimed he, with the most unbounded rage.
"You have taken away my sight; how,