e
identical with the German child in question? I answer this question in the
negative."

What stir there was in the room when these words were heard the silent
records lying before me do not tell, or whether all was silent while the
judge read on; but by and by his words were these:

"I must admit that the relatives of the said family of redemptioners seem
to be very firmly convinced of the identity which the plaintiff claims....
As, however, it is quite out of the question to take away a man's property
upon grounds of this sort, I would suggest that the friends of the
plaintiff, if honestly convinced of the justice of her pretensions, should
make some effort to settle _a l'aimable_ with the defendant, who has
honestly and fairly paid his money for her. They would doubtless find him
well disposed to part on reasonable terms with a slave from whom he can
scarcely expect any service after what has passed. Judgment dismissing the
suit with costs."

The white slave was still a slave. We are left to imagine the quiet air of
dispatch with which as many of the counsel as were present gathered up any
papers they may have had, exchanged a few murmurous words with their
clients, and, hats in hand, hurried off and out to other business. Also
the silent, slow dejection of Salome, Eva, Frank, and their neighbors and
kin--if so be, that they were there--as they rose and left the hall where
a man's property was more sacred than a woman's freedom. But the attorney
had given them ground of hope. Application would be made for a new trial;
and if this was refused, as it probably would be, then appeal would be
made to the Supreme Court of the State.

So it happened. Only two days later the plaintiff, through one of her
counsel, the brother of Frank Upton, applied for a new trial. She stated
that important evidence not earlier obtainable had come to light; that she
could produce a witness to prove that John F. Miller had repeatedly said
she was white; and that one of Miller's own late witnesses, his own
brother-in-law, would make deposition of the fact, recollected only since
he gave testimony, that the girl Bridget brought into Miller's household
in 1822 was much darker than the plaintiff and died a few years
afterwards. And this witness did actually make such deposition. In the six
months through which the suit had dragged since Salome had made her first
petition to the court and signed it with her mark she had learned to
write. The a