an inclination for the girl himself; that in
his life before he had never experienced the repulse of a slave; he
meant to possess her, and he would. David might choose another wife or
mistress, whichsoever might best suit his inclination; there were in the
plantation ten _capusses_ or _metisses_ as pretty as Cecily. David
talked of his love,--love so long and tenderly shared, and the planter
shrugged his shoulders; David urged, but it was all in vain. The creole
had the cool impudence to tell him that it was a bad 'example' to see a
master concede to a slave, and that he would not set that 'example' to
satisfy a caprice of David's! He entreated,--supplicated, and his master
lost his temper. David, blushing to humiliate himself further, spake in
a firm tone of his services and disinterestedness,--that he had been
contented with a very slender salary. Mr. Willis was desperately
enraged, and, telling him he was a contumacious slave, threatened him
with the chain. David replied with a few bitter and violent words; and,
two hours afterwards, bound to a stake, his skin was torn with the lash,
whilst they bore Cecily to the harem of the planter in his sight."

"The conduct of the planter was brutal and horrible; it was adding
absurdity to cruelty, for he must after that have required the man's
services."

"Precisely so; for that very day the very fury into which he had worked
himself, joined to the drunkenness in which the brute indulged every
evening, brought on an inflammatory attack of the most dangerous
description, the symptoms of which appeared with the rapidity peculiar
to such affections. The planter was carried to his bed in a state of the
highest fever. He sent off an express for a doctor, but he could not
reach his abode in less than six and thirty hours."

"Really, this attack seems providential. The desperate condition of the
man was quite deserved by him."

"The malady made fearful strides. David only could save the colonist,
but Willis, distrustful, as all evil-doers are, imagined that the black
would revenge himself by administering poison; for, after having
scourged him with a rod, he had thrown him into prison. At last,
horrified at the progress of his illness, broken down by bodily anguish,
and thinking that, as death also stared him in the face, he had one
chance left in trusting to the generosity of his slave, after many
distrusting doubts, Willis ordered David to be unchained."

"And David saved the