unto thee day and night? Behold the scorning of them that are at ease, and the contempt of the proud! Behold how they speak wickedly concerning oppression! They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth! Wilt thou hold thy peace for all these things, and afflict us very sore?"

The energy of the appeared gradually to

emotion which had sustained him have exhausted itself. And, after standing silent for a few moments, he seemed to gather himself together as a man awaking out of a trance, and, turning to the excited circle around him, he motioned them to sit down. When he spoke to them in his ordinary

tone:

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Brethren," he said, “the vision is sealed up, and thẻ token is not yet come! The Lamb still beareth the yoke of their iniquities; there be prayers in the golden censers which go up like a cloud! And there is silence in heaven for the space of half an hour! But hold yourselves in waiting, for the day cometh! And what shall be the end thereof?"

It was that of Hannibal.

A deep voice answered Dred. "We will reward them as they have rewarded us! In that they have filled to us we will measure to them

the cup again!" "God forbid," said Dred, "that the elect of the Lord should do that! When the Lord saith unto us, Smite, then We will not torment them with the scourge and fire, nor defile their women, as they have done with ours! But we will slay them utterly, and consume them from off the face of the earth!"

will we smite!

At this moment the whole circle were startled by the sound of a voice which seemed to proceed deep in from among the trees, singing, in a wild and mournful tone, the familiar words of a hymn:

"Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,

And did my Sovereign die?

Would he devote that sacred head

For such a wretch as I?"

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 before his 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? Didn'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;
On the bloody tree behold Him,
Hear Him cry, before He dies,

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, O, 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 firebut, 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. "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."

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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, "" 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