tle hand in his broad palm, said:

"Sweet little maid, you are not afraid to trust me?"

She turned her great blue eyes up to him and, in a whisper, answered:

"I am not."

"Have you a mother?"

"No."

"Have you any friends in England?"

"None, since my father came away."

"Where did you live before your father enlisted in the army of
Monmouth?"

"We travelled; we lived at no one place."

"Have you no friends or relatives in England?"

"None."

The captain then asked permission to talk with the father. The
permission was given by Hull, for he saw that his slave had the sympathy
of all present, and it would not be safe to refuse him some privileges.
The master of the vessel and the magistrate who had superintended the
selling of the slaves for the crown found the slave a very intelligent
gentleman. He said he had but one relative living so far as he knew. He
had a brother who had come to America two or three years before; but he
had not heard from him, and he might be dead.

"Do you know any one in England to whom your child could be sent?"

"I do not."

"What were you doing before you entered the duke's army?"

"I was a strolling player," the man answered, his fine tragic eyes fixed
firmly on the officers. "My company had reached a town one day, in which
we were to play at night, and just as I was getting ready to go to the
theatre, the Duke of Monmouth entered. He was on his way to Sedgemore,
and I was forced to join him. My child followed on foot and watched the
battle as it raged. When it was over I could have escaped, had I not
come upon Cora, who was seeking me. I took her up in my arms and was
hurrying away, when the cavalry of the enemy overtook me and I was made
a prisoner."

The simple story made an impression on all who heard it save the
obdurate master. The magistrate asked the slave what he would have done
with his child.

"Let her stay in the colony until my term of service is ended, then I
will labor to remunerate any who would keep her."

At this Hull said he would take the maid, and she might always be near
the father. All who knew Hull looked with suspicion on the proposition.

A new-comer had arrived on the scene. This was a young man of about the
same age as the prisoner. He was a wealthy Virginian named Robert
Stevens, noted for his kindness of heart and charity. He did not arrive
on the scene until after the indented slave had been sold; but he soon
heard the story of the