With the cold, heartless laugh of a natural tyrant, Hull answered:

"It will be all the same. He who purchases the father will have the maid
also."

He went to the place where the slaves were confined and gazed on the
lot, very much as a cattle dealer might look upon a herd he contemplated
purchasing. His gaze soon fastened on a fine, manly person in whose
proud eye the sullen fires were but half subdued. He stood with his arms
folded across his broad chest and his eye fixed upon a beautiful girl at
his side.

The captive spoke not. A pair of handcuffs were on his wrists, and the
chains came almost to the ground; but slavery and chains could not
subdue the proud captive.

Hull delighted in punishing those whom he disliked. He was a papist at
heart and consequently in sympathy with James II., so for this indented
slave he incurred from the very first a most bitter dislike. When the
slave was brought forth to be sold, he bid twelve pounds for him. This
was two pounds more than the required price, and he became the
purchaser.

"You are mine," cried Hull to the servant. "Come with me." The father
turned his great brown eyes dim with moisture upon his child, and Hull,
interpreting the look, added, "Hold, I will buy the maid also."

"She cannot be sold," the officer in charge of the slaves answered,
"unless the master of the ship sees fit to sell her for passage money."

The master of the ship was present and declared he would do nothing of
the kind.

"I will take her back to England, if she wishes to return," he added.

The child was speechless, her great blue eyes fixed on her father.

"What will you do with the maid?" asked Hull, who, having the father,
felt sure the child would follow.

"I will return her to England free of charge, if she wills it."

"Who will care for her there?" asked Hull. "Do you know her relatives?"

"No; all are strangers to me."

The father, with his proud breast heaving with tumultuous emotion, stood
silently gazing on the scene. He was a slave and he remembered that a
slave must not speak unless permission be granted him by his master; but
it was his child, the only link that bound him to earth, whose fate they
were to decide, and, had he been unfettered, he might have clasped her
to his bosom.

"Speak with the maid," suggested a by-stander, "and see if she has a
friend in England who will care for her."

The master of the ship went to the bewildered child and, taking her
lit