The Litchfield County post., 1827-09-27


endowed with a new existence, the negress
endeavored to raise herself; and while her
large eyes glistened with deep intensity of
feeling, she snatched the prOflered signet, and
F., examined it with hurried glance Of recOgni-
ton. A faint cry OfjOy burst from her, while
! bending on the youth a look OF unutterable
tenderness. she sunk back and remained mo-
tionleSs and silent. The negro boy placed the
ring carefully in his vest, and crOuchng close
by the side OF the pallet, watched with mute
! anxiety the rapidly changing countenance OF
| his expiring mother. Her garment had part
! ly fallen from her shoulders, which, mangled
| and lacerated by the scourge of the slaVe-dri-
! yer, showed that she was one of its innumer-
able victims: the wounds were deep and ter
rlble; but symptoms of modification were
evident, and promised in few hours to re-
lease the sufferer from her earthly misery
| The exertiOn which she had made nearly ex-
I hausted her remaining strength, and, for ma
! ny minutes, she continued with her EYES clio
sed, as though death bad sealed them for ever
} Her son held one of her hands in his,and, from
time to time, gently wetted her parched lips
with the milk Of a cocoa-nut beside him 80
there was fearful import in his eye it sleam-
ed like loren amidst the blackess of night
and showed the whirlwind that desolatcd his
bosom; but it changed to the expression of
| fIlal devotion and unmitigated sorrow, when
ever his dying parent signifed her maternal
! agony by pressure of his hand With his
head bent upon his knees he rocked himself
to and fro, and keeping his eye fixed on the
object OF his sOlicitude, he sung. with deep
ana thrilling earnestness,a composition which,
from its wild and mournful tones, might be
supposed a dirge or lamentation.
In fhn lsk &c |.
gro paused, for a low murmur escaped from
the dying women: he knelt over her, and APP
plea his ear to her mouth; she attempted to
speak, and as ne caught thelfaint accents of
her words, he raised his arms to heaven, and,
inclining his head, then folded them on his
breast in token Of acquiesctnce. His VOW
was registered. and the sunshine that soon
after played into the room illumined the forms
of the living and the dead.
! The Yeardley Plantation, on the borders of
which the negroes expired, was. at the period
to which this story relates, the property of
an English gentleman named GrevilIe.
distinguished official situation, which he held
at Spanish Town, frequently obliged him to
leave his estate for several days together I'M
der the sole direction of an overseer, who had
entered his service on his first arrival in the
island
This man, beneath the most specious APP
pearances, concealed dark and relentless dis
position; and whenever the absence Of his
patron freed him from the necessity Of mask
ing his true character, he never failed to forge,
with the iron hand Of tyranny, new and still
heavier chains for the victims of his cruelty
| ana aVarlce. So strange are the movements
OF the human heart. that this individual, not
wl'hstanding his malignant aspect and ungain-
ly person, had. by the cautious and uniform
semblance of determined honesty in the pres
ence of his employer, combined with the fic-
titious claims which he laid to the distinctions
Of birth and family, so far acquired that gen.
tIeman's esteem, that his confidence in his in
tegrty was unbounded.
While by many he was ahhorred, and by
all but Mr.. Greviile and his sister, Mrs. Rus
sci, disliked, Maltravers contrived to Law plans
for his own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, which it required
but one daring effort to accomplish. Exerci-
sing an almost unlimited sway over the ne:
groes, his cold FLOODED barbarity had excited
in their hosoms hatred against their oppres-
sors, and inspired thirst for revenge, which
nothing but his destruction could alIay: in
darkness and in silence, they medilated on the
work ofretribution as the achievement Of srme
future day; but when Maloa, the Oldest le-
male slave on the plantation, was sentenced
by Maltravers to chastisement Of such ex-
treme severity that she sunk under it, and
soon after expired, their exasperated feelings
hurried them to measures of immediate VEN
geance.
Mr. GreviIle had been, in early life, left
widower with an only chilo, whom. on his
departure from England, he placed under the
guardianship of his sister, Mrs. Conway Rus
sell; from whom his daughter received that
maternal care and protection that otherwise
could not have fallen to her share. Mrs Rus
sell had, Immediately after her marriage, ac-
companied her husband to the West Indies {;
but when death deprived her of an affection
ate companion, she returned to Europe, and
in the bosom Of her family sought the only
consolation she was capable of admitting at
ter the loss which she had sustained.
When letters from England announced that
his daughter had completed her education,
the anxious father wrote to his sister, entreat-
ing that she would take charge of her niece
in her voyage to Jamaica. where he then held
a high judicial station, which he found it i'm
possible at that period to leave. This arrange
ment had been entered into when Louisa Gre
vile. in her infancy, was confded to Mrs.
Russell's protection; and as soon after the
receipt of her brothers letter as the nature Of
her preparations would allow, that lady, with
her niece and a female attendant, quilted
England for the West Indies. About three
years prior to the events detailed in this sio-