feel that the atonement had
washed away the offence.

During the punishment Master Archy had betrayed no small degree of
emotion, and before the driver had struck the sixth blow he had asked
his father, in a whisper, to stay the hand of the negro. He had several
times repeated the request; but Colonel Raybone was inflexible till the
crime had, in his opinion, been fully expiated.

Long Tom unloosed the straps, and the body of the culprit dropped to the
ground, as though the vital spark had for ever fled from its desecrated
tabernacle.

"De boy hab fainted, Massa Raybone," said the driver.

"I see he has," replied the planter, with some evidence of emotion in
his tones, as he bent over the prostrate form of the boy, to ascertain
if more was not done than had been intended.

He felt the pulse of Dandy, and satisfied himself that he was not dead.
We must do him the justice to say that he was sorry for what had
happened--sorry as a kind parent is when compelled to punish a dear
child. He did not believe that he had done wrong, even accepting as true
the statement of the culprit; for the safety of the master and his
family made it necessary for him to regard the striking even of a blow
justifiable under other circumstances as a great enormity. It was the
system, more than the man, that was at fault.

Dandy was not dead, and Colonel Raybone ordered two of the house
servants, who were present, to do every thing that his condition
required. He and Archy then walked towards the house, gloomy and sad,
both of them.

CHAPTER VI.

A VISION OF THE PROMISED LAND.

Dandy, lacerated and bleeding, but still insensible, was conveyed to his
chamber in the mansion house, by some of the servants. His physician was
an old slave, skilled in the treatment of cases of this kind. When the
patient recovered from the swoon into which he had fallen, his back was
carefully washed, and the usual remedies were applied. Though suffering
terribly from the effects of his wounds, he did not permit a sigh nor a
groan to escape him.

The mangled flesh could be healed, but there was no balm at Redlawn that
could restore his mangled spirit. Dandy felt that he had been crushed to
earth. Slavery, which had before been endurable with patience and
submission, was now intolerable. He had been scourged with the lash. He
had realized what it was to be a slave in the most bitter and terrible
sense.

"I will watch and wait," said he to himself,