d to wake himself. He was half awake. He was sure
something was coming into his room. He knew the door was opening, but he
could not stir hand or foot. At last he turned, with a start; the door
_was_ open, and he saw a hand putting out his light.

It was a cloudy, misty moonlight, and there he saw it!--something white,
gliding in! He heard the still rustle of its ghostly garments. It stood
still by his bed;--a cold hand touched his; a voice said, three times,
in a low, fearful whisper, "Come! come! come!" And, while he lay
sweating with terror, he knew not when or how, the thing was gone. He
sprang out of bed, and pulled at the door. It was shut and locked, and
the man fell down in a swoon.

After this, Legree became a harder drinker than ever before. He no
longer drank cautiously, prudently, but imprudently and recklessly.

There were reports around the country, soon after that he was sick and
dying. Excess had brought on that frightful disease that seems to throw
the lurid shadows of a coming retribution back into the present life.
None could bear the horrors of that sick room, when he raved and
screamed, and spoke of sights which almost stopped the blood of those
who heard him; and, at his dying bed, stood a stern, white, inexorable
figure, saying, "Come! come! come!"

By a singular coincidence, on the very night that this vision appeared
to Legree, the house-door was found open in the morning, and some of the
negroes had seen two white figures gliding down the avenue towards the
high-road.

It was near sunrise when Cassy and Emmeline paused, for a moment, in a
little knot of trees near the town.

Cassy was dressed after the manner of the Creole Spanish ladies,--wholly
in black. A small black bonnet on her head, covered by a veil thick
with embroidery, concealed her face. It had been agreed that, in
their escape, she was to personate the character of a Creole lady, and
Emmeline that of her servant.

Brought up, from early life, in connection with the highest society, the
language, movements and air of Cassy, were all in agreement with this
idea; and she had still enough remaining with her, of a once splendid
wardrobe, and sets of jewels, to enable her to personate the thing to
advantage.

She stopped in the outskirts of the town, where she had noticed trunks
for sale, and purchased a handsome one. This she requested the man to
send along with her. And, accordingly, thus escorted by a boy wheeling
her trunk,