this beautiful flaxen is my sister Emily's; and this brownish black is my brother's. Why do you put these before me? A sentimental way of telling me, I suppose, that they all send their love, and beg I would turn Abolitionist!” "Yes," sighed Kenrick. "From their graves they beg it." With a look of unspeakable horror, his hands pressed on the top of his head as if to keep down some volcanic throe, his mouth open, his tongue lolling out, idiot-like, Onslow stood speechless staring at his friend. Kenrick led him gently to the sofa, forced him to sit down, and then, with a tenderness almost womanly in its delicacy, removed the sufferer's hands from his head, and smoothed back his thick fine hair from his brow, and away from his ears. Onslow's inward groanings began to grow audible. Suddenly he rose, as if resolved to master his weakness. Then, sinking down, he exclaimed, "God of heaven, can it be?” groans piteous but tearless succeeded. And then At last, as if bracing himself to an effort that tore his very heart-strings, he rose and said, "Now, Charles, tell me all." Kenrick handed him the letter which Peek had brought. "Let me leave you while you read,” he said. Onslow did not object; and Kenrick went into the corridor, and walked there to and fro for nearly half an hour. Then he re-entered the chamber. Onslow was on his knees by the sofa; his father's letter, smeared with his father's life-blood, in his hand. The young man had been praying. And his eyes showed that prayer had so softened his heart that he could weep. He rose, calm, though very pale. "Where can I see this negro?" he asked. "He will be here at the hotel this evening," replied Kenrick. "And what, what," said Onslow hesitatingly, "what did they do with my father? 66 They hung him on the same tree with your brother." "Yes," said Onslow, with a calmness more terrible than a frantic grief. "Yes! Of course his gray hairs were no pro tection." There was a pause; and then, "What do you mean to do?" said Kenrick. "Can you doubt?" exclaimed Onslow. A servant knocked at the door and left a package. It contained a complimentary letter and a Colonel's commission, signed by the Confederate authorities. "You see these," said Onslow, handing them to Kenrick. Then, taking them, he contemptuously tore them, and madly threw the pieces on the floor. "Yes, my father is right," he cried. "It is Slavery that has done this horror. On the head of Slavery lies the guilt. O the blind fool, the abject fawner, that I've been! Instead of being by the side of my brave brother, here I was wearing the detested livery of the brutal Power that smote down a whole family because they would not kneel at its bloody footstool! Who ever heard of a man being harmed at the North for defending Slavery? No! 't is a foul lie to say that aught but Slavery can prompt and lend itself to such barbarities! cowardly butchers! O, damn them! damn them!" The And he tore from his shoulders the badges of his military rank, and, spurning them with his foot, continued: "My noble father! the good, the devout, the heroic old man! How, even under his mortal agony, his belief in God, in right, in immortality, shines forth! Did ever an outcast creature apply to him in vain for help? Quick to resent, how much quicker he was to forgive! The soul of rectitude and truth! Did you ever see his seal, Charles? A straight line, with the motto Omnium brevissima recta! But he could not bow to Slavery as the supreme good. For that he and his must be slaughtered! And William, the brave and gentle ! And Emily, the tenderly-bred and beautiful! And my sainted He knelt, and, raising both arms to heaven, cried: "Hear me, O God! Eternal Justice, hear me ! If ever again, in thought or act, I show mercy to this merciless Slave Power, if ever again I palliate its crimes or utter a word in extenuation of its horrors, that moment annihilate me as a wretch unfit either for this world or any other! - 66 Then, rising, he said, " Kenrick, your hand!” "Not yet," said Kenrick. "My friend, Slavery is no worse to-day than it was yesterday. You have known for the last three months that these minions and hirelings of the slave aristocracy were hounding, hanging, and torturing men through out Slavedom, for the crime of being true to their country's flag." "I knew it, Kenrick; but my heart was hardened, and therefore have God's hammers smitten it thrice, - nay, four times, terribly! I saw these things, but turned away from them! Idle and false to say, Slavery is not responsible for them! They are the very spawn of its filthy loins. I know it, — I, who have been behind the scenes, know what the leaders say as to the means of treading out every spark of Union fire. And I-heedless idiot that I was! never once thought that the bloody instructions might return to plague me,- that my own father's family might be among the foremost victims ! knowledge the hand of God in this stroke! A voice cries to me, as of old to Saul, Why persecutest thou me?' And now there fall from my eyes as it were scales, and I arise and am baptized!" I ac "My dear friend," said Kenrick, "I want your conversion to be, not the result of mere passion, but of calm conviction. I have been asking myself, What if a party of Unionists should outrage and murder those who are nearest and dearest to myself, would I, therefore, embrace the pro-slavery cause? And from the very depths of my soul, I can cry No! Not through passion, though I have enough of that, — but through the persuasion of my intellect, added to the affirmation of my heart, do I array myself against this hideous Moloch of slavery. By a terrible law of affinity, wrongs and crimes cannot stand alone. They must summon other wrongs and crimes to their support; and so does murder as naturally follow in the train of slavery, as the little parasite fish follows the shark. It is fallacy to say that the best men among slaveholders do not approve of these outrages; for these outrages are now the necessary and inseparable attendants of the system." "I believe it," said Onslow. "O the wickedness of my apostasy from my father's faith! O the sin, and O the punishment! It needed a terrible blow to reach me, and it has come. Kenrick, do not withhold your hand. Trust me, my conversion is radical. in me its deadliest foe. my motto!" The 'institution' shall henceforth find 'Delenda est!' is now and henceforth Kenrick clasped his proffered hand, and, looking up, said, "So prosper us, Almighty Disposer, as we are true to the promises of this hour!" "Charles," said Onslow, "I did not think that Perdita would so soon have her prayer granted." "What do you mean?" "Her last words to me were, 'May this arm never be lifted except in the cause of right!' I feel that God has heard her." It jarred on Kenrick's heart for the moment to see that Onslow, in the midst of his troubles, still thought of Perdita; but soon, stilling the selfish tremor, he said: "What we would do we must do quickly. Will you go North with me and join the armies of the Union?" "Yes, the first opportunity." "That opportunity will be this very night." "So much the better! I'm ready. I had but one tie to bind me here; and that was Perdita. And she has fled. And what would I be to her, were she here? Nothing! Charles, this day's news has made me ten years older already. O for an army with banners, to go down into that bloody region of the Rio Grande, and right the wrongs of the persecuted!" "Be patient. We shall live to see the old flag wave resplendent over free and regenerated Texas.” "Amen! Good heavens, Charles ! - it appalls me, when I think what a different man I am from what I was when I crossed this threshold, one little hour ago!" "In these volcanic days," said Kenrick, "such changes are not surprising. These terrible eruptions, 'painting hell on the sky,' uptear many old convictions, and illumine many benighted minds." "Yes," rejoined Onslow, "in that infernal flash, coming from my own violated home, I see slavery as it is, monstrous, bestial, devilish! — no longer the graceful, genteel, hospitable, and fascinating embodiment which I - fond fool that I was! have been wont to think it. The Republicans of the North were right in declaring that not one inch more of national soil should be surrendered to the pollutions of slavery." "Time flies," said Kenrick. "Have you any preparations to make?" "Yes, a few bills to pay and a few letters to write.” "That will answer. Have your baggage ready, and let it be compact as possible. I'll call for you at your room at quarter to nine. Vance goes with us." "Is it possible? I supposed him an ultra Secessionist." "He has a stronger personal cause than even you to strike at slavery." "Can that be? Well, he shall find me no tame ally. Do you know, Charles, you resemble him personally?" "Yes, there's good reason for it. We are cousins." Onslow's heart was too full to comment on the reply. He took up the strands of hair, kissed them fervently, and placed them with his father's letter in a little silk watch-bag, which he pinned inside of his vest just over his heart. "If ever my new faith should falter," he said, "here are the mementos that will revive it. God! Did I need all this for my reformation?" "Be firm,be prudent, my friend," said Kenrick. now good by till we meet again." "And Onslow pressed Kenrick's proffered hand, and replied, “You shall find me punctual." |