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not the fire-eaters,

the last-ditch men,

resolved that New

Orleans should be laid in ashes before the detested flag, emblematic of Yankee rule, should wave from the public buildings? And here was a black rascal in uniform, flaunting that flag in the very face of one of the foremost of the chivalry! Let the universe slide after this! Let chaos return!

The company drifted in groups of two and three through the suite of rooms. Sam disappeared suddenly. The women were in the front room. Ratcliff, supposing that he was unnoticed, rose to escape. But Victor the hound, was on hand. He had been lying partly under the bed, with his muzzle out and resting on his fore paws, affecting to be asleep, but really watching the man whom his subtle instincts had told him was the game for which he was responsible; and now the beast darted up with an imperious bark, and Ratcliff, furious, but helpless, sank back on his seat.

Colonel Delancy Hyde approached, with the view of making himself agreeable.

66

"Squire Ratcliff," said he, "you seem to be in a dam bad way. Kin I do anything fur yer? Any niggers you want kotched, Squire? Niggers is mighty onsartin property jes now, Squire. Gen'ral Butler swars he'll have a black regiment all uniformed afore the Fourth of July comes round. Would n't give much fer yer Red River gangs jes now, Squire! Reckon they 'll be findin' thar way to Gen'ral Butler's head-quarters, sure."

Ratcliff cowered and groaned in spirit as he thought of the immense sums which, in his confidence in the success of the Rebellion, he had been investing in slaves. Unless he could run his gangs off to Texas, he would be ruined.

"Look at me, Squire," continued the Colonel; "I'm Kunnle Delancy Hyde, - Virginia born, be Gawd; but, fur all that, I might jest as well been born in hell, fur any gratitude you cust 'ristocrats would show me. Yes, you're one on 'em. Here I've been drudgin' the last thirty years in the niggerketchin' business, and see my reward, - a half-shaved scalp, an' be damned to yer! But my time 's comin'. Now Kunnle Delancy Hyde tries a new tack. Instead of ketchin' niggers, he's goin' to free 'em; and whar he kotched one he'll free a

thousand. Lou'siana 's bound to be a free State. All Cotton

Uncle Sam shall have black regi

Only the freedom of every nigger

dom's bound to be free. ments afore Sumter soon. in the land kn wipe out the wrongs of Delancy Hyde, — kn avenge his half-shaved scalp!"

Here the appearance of Sam, the house-servant, with a large salver containing a pitcher, a sugar-bowl, a decanter, tumblers, and several bottles, put a stop to the Colonel's eloquence, and drew him away as the loadstone draws the needle.

Onslow came near to Ratcliff, looked him in the face contemptuously, and turned away without acknowledging the acquaintance. After him reappeared Ripper and Mrs. Gentry, arm-in-arm, the lady with her hands clasped girlishly, and her shoulder pressed closely up against that of the auctioneer. It was evident she was going, going, if not already gone. Ripper put up his eye-glass, and, carelessly nodding, remarked, "Such is life, Ratcliff!" (Ratcliff! The beggar presumed to call him Ratcliff!) The couple passed on, the lady exclaiming so that the observation should not be lost on the ears for which it was intended, "I always said he would be come up with!"

Semmes now happening to pass by, Ratcliff, deeply agitated, but affecting equanimity, said: "How is it, Semmes? Are you going to help me out of this miserable scrape?"

"Our relations must end here, Mr. Ratcliff," replied the lawyer.

"So much the better," said Ratcliff; "it will spare my standing the swindle you call professional charges on your books."

"Don't be under a misapprehension, my poor friend,” returned Semmes. "I have laid an attachment on your deposits in the Lafayette Bank. They will just satisfy my claim."

And taking a pinch of snuff the lawyer walked unconcernedly away. "O that I had my revolver here!" thought Ratcliff, with an inward groan.

But here was Madame Josephine. Here was at least one friend left to him. Of her attachment, under any change of fortune, he felt assured. Her own means, not insignificant, might now suffice for the rehabilitation of his affairs. She

drew near, her face radiant with the satisfaction she had felt in the recovery of Clara. She drew near, and Ratcliff caught her eye, and rising and putting out his hands, as if for an embrace, murmured, in a confidential whisper, "Josephine, dearest, come to me!"

She frowned indignantly, threw back her arm with one scornful and repelling sweep, and simply ejaculating, "No more!" moved away from him, and took the proffered arm of the trustee of her funds, the venerable Winslow.

The party now passed away from Ratcliff, and out of the two rooms; most of them going down-stairs to the carriages that waited in the street to bear them to the St. Charles Hotel, over whose cupola the Stars and Stripes were gloriously fluttering in the starlight.

Ratcliff found himself alone with the ever-watchful bloodhound. Suddenly a whistle was heard, and Victor started up and trotted down-stairs. Ratcliff rose to quit the apartment. All at once the stalwart negro, lately his slave, in uniform, and bearing a musket, with the old flag, stood before him.

"Follow me," said the man, with the dignity of a true soldier.

"Where to?"

"To the lock-up, to wait General Butler's orders."

On a pallet of straw that night Ratcliff had an opportunity of revolving in solitude the events of the day. In the miscarriage of his schemes, in the downfall of his hopes, and in the humbling of his pride, he experienced a hell worse than the imagination of the theologian ever conceived. What pangs can equal those of the merciless tyrant when he tumbles into the place of his victims and has to endure, in unstinted measure, the stripes and indignities he has been wont to inflict so unsparingly on others!

A

CHAPTER XLII.

HOW IT WAS DONE.

"From Thee is all that soothes the life of man,
His high endeavor and his glad success,
His strength to suffer and his will to serve :
But O, thou bounteous Giver of all good,
Thou art of all thy gifts thyself the crown!

Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor,

And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away!' -Cowper.

LL the efforts of Peculiar to induce the bloodhound,

Victor, to take the scent of either of the gloves, had proved unavailing. At every trial Victor persisted in going straight to the jail where his master, Antoine, was confined. Peek began to despair of discovering any trace of the abducted maiden.

Were dumb animals ever guided by spirit influence? There were many curious facts showing that birds were sometimes used to convey impressions, apparently from higher intelligences. At sea, not long ago, a bird had flown repeatedly in the helmsman's face, till the latter was induced to change his course. The consequence was, his encounter with a ship's crew in a boat, who must have perished that night in the storm, had they not been picked up. There were also instances in which dogs would seem to have been the mere instruments of a super human and supercanine sagacity. But Victor plainly was not thus impressible. His instincts led him to his master, but beyond that point they would not or could not be made to exert themselves.

Had not Peek's faith in the triumph of the right been large, he would have despaired of any help from the coming of the United States forces. For weeks the newspapers had teemed with paragraphs, some scientific and some rhetorical, showing that New Orleans must not and could not be taken. They all overflowed with bitterness toward the always "cowardly and base-born" Yankees. The Mayor of the city wrote, in the

true magniloquent and grandiose style affected by the Rebel leaders: "As for hoisting any flag not of our own adoption, the man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would not

be paralyzed at the mere thought of such an act!"

A well-known physician, who had simply expressed the opinion that possibly the city might have to surrender, had been waited on by a Vigilance Committee and warned. Taking the hint, the man of rhubarb forthwith handed over a contribution of five hundred dollars, in expiation of his offence.

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All at once the confident heart of Rebeldom was stunned by the news that two of the Yankee steamers had passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The great ram had been powerless to prevent it. Then followed the announcement that seven, then thirteen, then twenty, then the whole of Farragut's fleet, excepting the Varuna, were coming. Yes, the Hartford and the Brooklyn and the Mississippi and the Pensacola and the Richmond, and the Lord knew how many more, were on their way up the great river. They would soon be at English Bend; nay, they would soon be at the Levee, and have the haughty city entirely at their mercy!

No sooner was the terrible news confirmed than the Rebel authorities ordered the destruction of all the cotton-bales stored on the Levee. The rage, the bitterness, the anguish of the proslavery chiefs was indescribable. Several attempts were made to fire the city, and they would probably have succeeded, but for a timely fall of rain. On the landing of the United States forces, the frenzy of the Secessionists passed all bounds; and one poor fellow, a physician, was hung by them for simply telling a United States officer where to find the British Consulate.

But if some hearts were sick and crushed at the spectacle, there were many thousands in that great metropolis to whom the sight of the old flag carried a joy and exultation transcending the power of words to express; and one of these hearts beat under the black skin of Peek. Followed by Victor, he ran to the Levee where United States troops were landing, and there O joy unspeakable ! — standing on the upper deck of one of the smaller steamers, and almost one of the first persons he saw, was Mr. Vance.

Peek shouted his name, and Vance, leaping on shore, threw

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