, and drawing his chair close to Glendower,
fixed his dark eye upon him, and said,--

"You are poor, and your spirit rises against your lot, you are just, and
your heart swells against the general oppression you behold: can you not
dare to remedy your ills and those of mankind?"

"I can dare," said Glendower, calmly, though haughtily, "all things but
crime."

"And which is crime?--the rising against, or the submission to, evil
government? Which is crime, I ask you?"

"That which is the most imprudent," answered Glendower.

"We may sport in ordinary cases with our own safeties, but only in rare
cases with the safety of others."

Wolfe rose, and paced the narrow room impatiently to and fro. He paused
by the window and threw it open. "Come here," he cried,--"come and look
out."

Glendower did so; all was still and quiet.

"Why did you call me?" said he; "I see nothing."

"Nothing!" exclaimed Wolfe; "look again; look on yon sordid and squalid
huts; look at yon court, that from this wretched street leads to abodes
to which these are as palaces; look at yon victims of vice and famine,
plying beneath the midnight skies their filthy and infectious trade.
Wherever you turn your eyes, what see you? Misery, loathsomeness, sin!
Are you a man, and call you these nothing? And now lean forth still
more; see afar off, by yonder lamp, the mansion of ill-gotten and
griping wealth. He who owns those buildings, what did he that he should
riot while we starve? He wrung from the negro's tears and bloody sweat
the luxuries of a pampered and vitiated taste; he pandered to the
excesses of the rich; he heaped their tables with the product of a
nation's groans. Lo!--his reward! He is rich, prosperous, honoured! He
sits in the legislative assembly; he declaims against immorality;
he contends for the safety of property and the equilibrium of ranks.
Transport yourself from this spot for an instant; imagine that you
survey the gorgeous homes of aristocracy and power, the palaces of the
west. What see you there?--the few sucking, draining, exhausting the
blood, the treasure, the very existence of the many. Are we, who are of
the many, wise to suffer it?"

"Are we of the many?" said Glendower.

"We could be," said Wolfe, hastily.

"I doubt it;" replied Glendower.

"Listen," said the republican, laying his hand upon Glendower's
shoulder, "listen to me. There are in this country men whose spirits not
years of delayed hope, wearisome pers