There was a dead silence as the voice approached still nearer, and the chorus was borne upon the night air: "O, the Lamb, the loving Lamb, The Lamb of Calvary! The Lamb that was slain, but liveth again, To intercede for me!" And, as the last two lines were sung, Milly emerged and stood in the centre of the group. When Dred saw her, he gave a kind of groan, and said, putting his hand out beforehis face: Woman, thy prayers withstand me!" "O, brethren," said Milly, "I mistrusted of yer councils, and I's been praying de Lord for you. O, brethren, behold de Lamb of God! If dere must come a day of vengeance, pray not to be in it! It's de Lord's strange work. O, brethren, is we de fust dat's been took to de judgmentseat? dat's been scourged, and died in torments? 0, brethren, who did it afore us? Didn't He hang bleeding three hours, when dey mocked Him, and gave Him vinegar? Did n't He sweat great drops o' blood in de garden?" And Milly sang again, words so familiar to many of them that, involuntarily, several voices joined her : "Agonizing in the garden, On the ground your Maker lies; It is finished! Sinners, will not this suffice?" "If de Lord O, brethren, I's been in "O, won't it suffice, brethren!" she said. could bear all dat, and love us yet, shan't we? dere's a better way. I's been whar you be. de wilderness! Yes, I's heard de sound of dat ar trumpet! O, brethren! brethren! dere was blackness and darkness dere! But I's come to Jesus, de Mediator of de new covenant, and de blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better tings than dat of Abel. Has n't I suffered? My heart has been broke over and over for every child de Lord give me! And, when dey sold my poor Alfred, and shot him, and buried him like a dog, 0, but did n't my heart burn? O, how I hated her dat sold him! I felt like I'd kill her! I' felt like I'd be glad to see mischief come on her children! But, brethren, de Lord turned and looked upon me like he done on Peter. I saw him with de crown o' thorns on his head, bleeding, bleeding, and I broke down and forgave her. And de Lord turned her heart, and he was our peace. He broke down de middle wall 'tween us, and we come together, two poor sinners, to de foot of de cross. De Lord he judged her poor soul! She wan't let off from her sins. Her chil'en growed up to be a plague and a curse to her! Dey broke her heart! O, she was saved by fire— but, bress de Lord, she was saved! She died with her poor head on my arm - she dat had broke my heart! Wan't dat better dan if I'd killed her? O, brethren, pray de Lord to give 'em repentance! Leave de vengeance to him. Vengeance is mine- I will repay, saith de Lord. Like he loved us when we was enemies, love yer enemies!” A dead silence followed this appeal. The key-note of another harmony had been struck. At last Dred rose up solemnly: "Woman, thy prayers have prevailed for this time!" he "The hour is not yet come!" said. CHAPTER XXIII. FRANK RUSSEL'S OPINIONS. CLAYTON was still pursuing the object which he had undertaken. He determined to petition the legislature to grant to the slave the right of seeking legal redress in cases of injury; and, as a necessary step to this, the right of bearing testimony in legal action. As Frank Russel was candidate for the next state legislature, he visited him for the purpose of getting him to present such a petition. Our readers will look in on the scene, in a small retired back room of Frank's office, where his bachelor establishment as yet was kept. Clayton had been giving him an earnest account of his plans and designs. "The only safe way of gradual emancipation," said Clayton, "is the reforming of law; and the beginning of all legal reform must of course be giving the slave legal personality. It's of no use to enact laws for his protection in his family state, or in any other condition, till we open to him an avenue through which, if they are violated, his grievances can be heard, and can be proved. A thousand laws for his comfort, without this, are only a dead letter." "I know it," said Frank Russel; "there never was anything under heaven so atrocious as our slave-code. It's a bottomless pit of oppression. Nobody knows it so well as we lawyers. But, then, Clayton, it's quite another thing what's to be done about it." "Why, I think it's very plain what's to be done," said Clayton. "Go right forward and enlighten the com munity. Get the law reformed. That's what I have taken for my work; and, Frank, you must help me." "Hum!" said Frank. 66 Now, the fact is, Clayton, if I wore a stiff white neckcloth, and had a D.D. to my name, I should tell you that the interests of Zion stood in the way, and that it was my duty to preserve my influence, for the sake of being able to take care of the Lord's affairs. But, as I am not so fortunate, I must just say, without further preface, that it won't do for me to compromise Frank Russel's interests. Clayton, I can't afford it— that's just it. It won't do. You see, our party can't take up that kind of thing. It would be just setting up a fort from which our enemies could fire on us at their leisure. If I go in to the legislature, I have to go in by my party. I have to represent my party, and, of course, I can't afford to do anything that will compromise them." "Well, now, Frank," said Clayton, seriously and soberly, are you going to put your neck into such a noose as this, to be led about all your life long-the bond-slave of a party?" "Not I, by a good deal!" said Russel. "The noose will change ends, one of these days, and I 'll drag the party. But we must all stoop to conquer, at first." "And do you really propose nothing more to yourself than how to rise in the world?" said Clayton. "Is n't there any great and good work that has beauty for you? Is n't there anything in heroism and self-sacrifice?" Well," said Russel, after a short pause, 66 may be there is; but, after all, Clayton, is there? The world looks to me like a confounded humbug, a great hoax, and everybody is going in for grub; and, I say, hang it all, why should n't I have some of the grub, as well as the rest?" Man shall not live by bread alone!" said Clayton. "Bread's a pretty good thing, though, after all," said Frank, shrugging his shoulders. "But," said Clayton, "Frank, I am in earnest, and you've got to be. I want you to go with me down to the depths of your soul, where the water is still, and talk to me on honor. This kind of half-joking way that you have is n't a good sign, Frank; it's too old for you. A man that makes a joke of everything at your age, what will he do before he is fifty? Now, Frank, you do know that this system of slavery, if we don't reform it, will eat out this country like a cancer." "I know it," said Frank. "For that matter, it has eaten into us pretty well." "Now," said Clayton, "if for nothing else, if we had no feeling of humanity for the slave, we must do something for the sake of the whites, for this is carrying us back into barbarism, as fast as we can go. Virginia has been ruined by it-run all down. North Carolina, I believe, has the enviable notoriety of being the most ignorant and poorest state in the Union. I don't believe there's any country in old, despotic Europe where the poor are more miserable, vicious, and degraded, than they are in our slave states. And it's depopulating us; our men of ability, in the lower classes, who want to be respectable, won't stand it. They will go off to some state where things move on. Hundreds and hundreds move out of North Carolina, every year, to the Western States. And it's all this unnatural organization of society that does it. We have got to contemplate some mode of abolishing this evil. We have got to take the first step towards progress, some time, or we ourselves are all undone." "Clayton," said Frank, in a tone now quite as serious as his own, "I tell you, as a solemn fact, that we can't do it. Those among us who have got the power in their hands are determined to keep it, and they are wide awake. They don't mean to let the first step be taken, because they The three fifths vote don't mean to lay down their power. that they get by it is a thing they won't part with. They'll die first. Why, just look at it! There is at least twentyfour millions of property held in this way. What do you suppose these men care about the poor whites, and the ruin |