ng a word, Manuel stood up before his accusers, upon this
strange charge of "contrary to law."

As he looked upon his accusers, he said, "What have I done to suffer a
murderer's fate? Am I to be sold as a slave, because of the visitation
of God? I have done no murder! No!--nor have I stolen in your land! and
why did these men decoy me into"--

"Silence! silence! You are in the sheriff's office," said Dunn, pointing
his finger at his nose. "You can't come your John Bull nigger in South
Carolina."

This brought the sheriff's clerk to the door that led into the passage.
"Dunn, I have warned you about these things several times; the public
are getting wind of them; they'll bring this office into disrepute yet.
You ought to know what effect the association of officials with these
'corner-shop keepers' is already having in the community," said he.

"How the divil do ye know what yer talking about; sure it's his honor's
bisniss, and not yours at all, at all," said Dunn, addressing himself to
Mr. Kanapeaux, and then looking at Mr. Grimshaw.

"Mr. Kanapeaux, you must not interfere with the officers and their
duty; attend to your business, and get, your book ready to register this
nigger-boy," said Grimshaw.

"Well, now, my good fellow," continued Grimshaw, "I dislike this
business very much; it don't pay me enough for all the bother I have
with it. 'Tis just a little filtering of fees, which makes the duty of
my office exceedingly annoying. But we must respect the law. We do these
things to protect our institutions and make them as light as possible. I
might give you a great deal of trouble; I have the power, but I make it
a point to consider men in your case, and we'll make you so comfortable
that you won't think of being imprisoned. You must understand that it is
'contrary to law' to come among our niggers in this way; it gives them
fanciful ideas. There's such an infernal imperfect state of things as
these abolitionists are getting every thing into, behooves us to watch
the communications which are going on between, designing people and our
slaves. We are a hospitable people--the world knows that--and have a
religious respect for our laws, which we enforce without respect to
persons. We'd like to let you go about the city, but then it's 'contrary
to law.' Make up your mind, my good fellow, that you are among humane
people, who will seek to benefit you among men of your class. Make
yourself happy--and look upon me as a f