murder us. So I brought a bowl of water.

"Tankee, lidde missee," he said, returned the bowl, and went away. Tom
was thereupon set to guard the gate, which he did poorly. Another
negro slipped in and sat down on our steps. He looked around the
pretty enclosure, gave a tired grunt, and said:

"Please, missee, lemme res'; I done bruk up." He held in his hands the
works of a clock, fell to studying them, and became wholly absorbed.

Rachel asked him who had broken it. He replied:

"Obbe" [our] "Ca'lina. She no like de way it talkin'. She say: 'W'at
mek you say, night und day, night und day?' Un' she tuk her bill un'
bruk it up. Un' Georgina chop' up de pianneh, 'caze it wouldn' talk
foo her like it talk too buckra. Da shame!"

But now came yells and cheers in the street, the rush and trample of
hundreds, and the cry:

"De gub'nor! de gub'nor a-comin'!"

XXXII

(FREEDOM AND CONFLAGRATION)

We ran to the windows. In an open carriage, with two official
attendants, surrounded by a mounted guard and clad in the uniform of a
Danish general, the aged governor came. On his breast were the
insignia of the order of Dannebrog. His cavalcade could hardly make
its way, and when one of the crowd made bold to seize the horses' reins
the equipage, just before our house, stopped. The governor sat still,
very pale.

Suddenly he rose, uncovered, and with graceful dignity bowed. Then he
unfolded a paper with large seals attached, and in a trembling but
clear voice began to read. In the name and by the authority of his
Majesty Christian VIII, King of Denmark, he proclaimed freedom to every
slave in the Danish West Indies.

Our cries of dismay were drowned in the huzzas of the black mob: "Free!
Free! God bless de gub'nor! Obbe is free!"

The retinue moved again; but the crowd, ignoring the command to
disperse to their homes, surged after it in transports of rejoicing.
At the fort the proclamation, with the order to disperse, was read
again. But the mob, suddenly granted all its demands, could not
instantly return to quiet toils made odious by slavery. Mad with joy
and drink, it broke into small companies, some content to stay in town
carousing, others roaming out among the island estates to pillage and
burn. Here the governor, in failing to employ prompt measures of
police, proved himself weak.

At evening, leaving our house in care of Jack and Tom, we went to spend
the night at Mr. Kenyon's, where