his time.
Your valuable assistant, that bull-headed nigger, cannot help you; so I
advise you to come quietly with me."

"Never, villain! I never will leave this house alive!"--and she
struggled to free herself from the ruffian's grasp.

"Nay, nay, lady! do not be unreasonable."

"Help! help!" shouted Emily, with the energy of desperation.

"No use, my pretty quadroon; I put your man, Hatchie, into the hands of
two stout fellows; he cannot come, even at your bidding."

The ruffian had hardly finished the sentence before a heavy blow on the
back of the head laid him prostrate upon the floor.

"You are a false prophet," said Hatchie, quietly, as he assisted his
mistress to a sofa, while Jerry Swinger, who had followed him, examined
the condition of the fallen man.

"Thank God!" continued Hatchie, "we have beaten them off."

"Heaven is kinder to me than I deserve," murmured Emily, bursting into
tears, as the terrible scene through which she had just passed was fully
realized. "But where is Henry--Captain Carroll--is he safe?"

"All safe, ma'am; the catamounts have not been in his room," replied
Jerry Swinger. "Cheer up, ma'am; it mought have been worse."

"Let us carry this carrion from the house," said Hatchie, seizing the
prostrate Vernon in no gentle gripe. "Let us fasten him to a tree, and I
will not take my eye from him or the lawyer till both are hung."

"Stay, stay, Hatchie!" exclaimed Dr. Vandelier, who at that moment
entered. "_He is my son_!"

"Good heavens!" said Emily, rising from her recumbent posture on the
sofa.

"It is indeed true," replied the doctor, in a melancholy tone. "I would
that he had died in the innocency of his childhood. I recognized him as
he entered the house, and had nearly lost my consciousness, as the
terrible reality stared me in the face, that my son, he whose childhood
I had watched over, who once called me by the endearing name of father,
is a common midnight assassin!

"Is he your persecutor?" continued the doctor, relieved by an abundant
shower of tears which the terrible truth had called to his eyes. "Is he
the person who has caused you so much trouble?"

"No, no, sir!" responded Emily, eager to afford the slightest comfort to
the bereaved heart of the father; "he only acted for Maxwell."

"A hired villain! without even the paltry excuse of an interested motive
to palliate the offence. O God! that I should be brought so low!"--and
the doctor wrung his hands in angu