I do not say that I was
wrong when I so engaged and so pledged myself. But if I had been wise
as a free man should be, I should have foreseen of late what has now
happened, and not have been found, when last night's sun went down (and
as to-morrow night's sun shall not find me), holding a command against
the highest interests of my race--now, at length, about to be redeemed."

"You--Toussaint Breda--the loyal! If Heaven has put any of its grace
within you, it has shown itself in your loyalty; and do you speak of
deserting the forces raised in the name of your king, and acting upon
the decrees of his enemies? Explain to me, my son, how this can be. It
seems to me that I can scarcely be yet awake."

"And to me, it seems, father, that never till now have I been awake.
Yet it was in no vain dream that I served my king. If he is now where
he can read the hearts of his servants, he knows that it was not for my
command, or for any other dignity and reward, that I came hither, and
have fought under the royal flag of France. It was from reverence and
duty to him, under God. He is now in heaven; we have no king; and my
loyalty is due elsewhere. I know not how it might have been if he had
still lived; for it seems to me now that God has established a higher
royalty among men than even that of an anointed sovereign over the
fortunes of many millions of men. I think now that the rule which the
free man has over his own soul, over time and eternity--subject only to
God's will--is a nobler authority than that of kings; but, however I
might have thought, our king no longer lives; and, by God's mercy, as it
seems to me now, while the hearts of the blacks feel orphaned and
desolate, an object is held forth to us for the adoration of our
loyalty--an object higher than throne and crown, and offered us by the
hand of the King of kings."

"Do you mean freedom, my son? Remember that it is in the name of
freedom that the French rebels have committed the crimes which--which it
would consume the night to tell of, and which no one knows better, or
abhors more, than yourself."

"It is true; but they struggled for this and that, and the other right
and privilege existing in societies of those who are fully admitted to
be men. In the struggle, crime has been victorious, and they have
killed their king. The object of my devotion will now be nothing that
has to be wrenched from an anointed ruler, nothing which can be gained
by violence