innocent as an angel--all these qualities that
should disarm the very wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyes of those
to whom I stand indebted, commodities to buy and sell. You are a
chattel; a marketable thing; and worth--heavens, that I should say such
words!--worth money. Do you begin to see? If I were to give you freedom,
I should defraud my creditors; the manumission would be certainly
annulled; you would be still a slave, and I a criminal."

I caught his hand in mine, kissed it, and moaned in pity for myself, in
sympathy for my father.

"How I have toiled," he continued, "how I have dared and striven to
repair my losses, Heaven has beheld and will remember. Its blessing was
denied to my endeavours, or, as I please myself by thinking, but delayed
to descend upon my daughter's head. At length, all hope was at an end; I
was ruined beyond retrieve; a heavy debt fell due upon the morrow, which
I could not meet; I should be declared a bankrupt, and my goods, my
lands, my jewels that I so much loved, my slaves whom I have spoiled and
rendered happy, and oh! tenfold worse, you, my beloved daughter, would
be sold and pass into the hands of ignorant and greedy traffickers. Too
long, I saw, had I accepted and profited by this great crime of slavery;
but was my daughter, my innocent, unsullied daughter, was _she_ to pay
the price? I cried out--no!--I took Heaven to witness my temptation; I
caught up this bag and fled. Close upon my track are the pursuers;
perhaps to-night, perhaps to-morrow, they will land upon this isle,
sacred to the memory of the dear soul that bore you, to consign your
father to an ignominious prison, and yourself to slavery and dishonour.
We have not many hours before us. Off the north coast of our isle, by
strange good fortune, an English yacht has for some days been hovering.
It belongs to Sir George Greville, whom I slightly know, to whom ere now
I have rendered unusual services, and who will not refuse to help in our
escape. Or if he did, if his gratitude were in default, I have the power
to force him. For what does it mean my child--what means this
Englishman, who hangs for years upon the shores of Cuba, and returns
from every trip with new and valuable gems?"

"He may have found a mine," I hazarded.

"So he declares," returned my father; "but the strange gift I have
received from nature easily transpierced the fable. He brought me
diamonds only, which I bought, at first, in innocence; at a sec