The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-10-26


confused noise outside the hut, which
was soon recognized to be the voices
of n number of men. Stamping and
swearing they rushed in, seized hold
of a small table at the foot of the bed,
and placing it in the middle of the
floor, they began emptying out great
sums of money upon it, which, or the
parting thereof, appeared to form the
matter of their dispute. As it now
sufficiently appeared to me and my
friend that these ruffians were no 9th
er than highway robbers, and that 1t
was in their or their chiefs bed we
were now lying we were driven to the
extremity of despair, not knowing
what TO do. As soon as discovered
we could expect nothing at the hands
of these bloody and lawless men but
certain death, in one form or another
if we dared move, we were discovered
and if we remained MS we were, there
was hardly chance that we should
ever tually escape observation. Being
almost afraid TO breathe, and nearly
stupehed with the squabbling and
swearing of the rufiians, |, at length,
in the courage of despair, whispered
in the ear of the black man these
words: &" Ny dear friend, Col is al
ways good, and helps us in our time
of need; have faith, and do this: See
ing that God has given you skin diff
fering SO much from the people OF this
country, you will seize my stick and
rise up naked i'll your black skin the
first time they mention the name Of
the Devil, and rushing up to them, cry
out: What in my name is that you
do Then, waiting his opportunity,
which was not long in coming, the
black man, springing from the folds
of the curtain, and rolling up his great
eyes, and showing his great jaws,
roared out III Gaelic the words | gave
him. This lucky idea brought the de-
sired result. The black no sooner APP
peared in his Satanic character than
the Williams scampered away like 50
many scared sheep.
After fervent Praise be to God e.
we began dressing as quickly as pos
sible for cur departure; for, said i,
" though we are safer here now than
we can be anywhere else, the williams
being SO superstitious that they will
not venture within some miles of the
place before daylight, yet with the
first break of day. they will be sure to
return to see after their money; and
if then found in the neighborhood we
shall fare i'll indeed. We next gath
cred up and secured the money, for
the purpose of having it restored to
those who might claim it. Much of it
was paper, and it amounted to a great
sum; and | wondered how such an
amount of money could have come
within reach of robbers in that part OF
the country. We equipped ourselves,
moreover, with two of the lanterns
which the robbers had left behind IN
THEN fright, and having got out the
horses we were ready to start. The
black then proposed to burn the hut,
and, suiting the action to the word,
he thrust burning peat into the wall,
and flared "A Wisp of burning straw
over the roof; and we soon had n
blaze which, the black said, would let
us see how to get out on our way, rs
1t had guided us of it. The night was
very dark, there being no moon, and
the sky overcast with clouds, and we
had no sign to guide us but the wind
on our cheek. We were not, indeed,
without pprehensions that We might
fall in with some one of the scared
bandits, but the black said he WAS pre-
pared to meet them all again. We
continued our nocturnal march for
many hours, without sight or sound
OF anything to realize our apprehen-
sions, and held, as well as we could
reckon, due south, until we got into a
more open part of the country. We
then expected that we should soon
either reach the high road or some hui
man habltation, and were beginning
to assure ourselves that we had now
got clear of the enemy, when both our
horses gave a loud snort, pulled back,
and, shutting the air, were eager to
plunge away in new direction.
We stopped aud called for any one
to answer u.s. Then receiving no re-
ply, we dismounted, resolved to know
what was before us; and the black
saying he was the fittest man to meet
anybody, took his lantern and went to
search. He had not far to go when
he stumbled on white figure laying
on the ground, and bringing his
lantern over it, he saw it was man
stripped of everything but his under
clothing; and laying his hand upon
the body, he found the man was dead,
and looking at his face, he saw it was
his master. The black then raised II
howl of anguish, and threw himself on
his knees and began beating his breast
and crying and sobbing as if his heart
was struggling to burst; and it was
long before | could draw his attention
to hear that | was speaking, and to
answer my question, put for the hun
dredth time. At last the matter was
explained, and the black coming to
guard the frightened horses, | went
to look at the body, and making mi
mute examination, stupeiied the poor
black by crying out that l believed
his master was not dead. The poor
slave so far forgot himself that he let
the horses go, and ran up to his mas