hind
one of the city brokers, motioning him at every bid, and she was knocked
down to him. We learned her history and know the sequel.

The Captain watched her with mingled feelings, and would fain have said,
"Good God! and why art thou a slave?"

The history of that unfortunate beauty may be comprehended in a few
words, leaving the reader to draw the details from his imagination. Her
mother was a fine mulatto slave, with about a quarter Indian blood. She
was the mistress of a celebrated gentleman in Charleston, who ranked
among the first families, to whom she bore three beautiful children, the
second of which is the one before us. Her father, although he could not
acknowledge her, prized her highly, and unquestionably never intended
that she should be considered a slave. Alice, for such was her name,
felt the shame of her position. She knew her father, and was proud to
descant upon his honor and rank, yet must either associate with negroes
or nobody, for it would be the death of caste for a white woman, however
mean, to associate with her. At the age of sixteen she became attached
to a young gentleman of high standing but moderate means, and lived
with him as his mistress. Her father, whose death is well known, died
suddenly away from home. On administering on his estate, it proved that
instead of being wealthy, as was supposed, he was insolvent, and the
creditors insisting upon the children being sold. Alice was purchased
by compromise with the administrator, and retained by her lord under a
mortgage, the interest and premium on which he had regularly paid for
more than four years. Now that he was about to get married, the excuse
of the mortgage was the best pretext in the world to get rid of her.

The Captain turned from the scene with feelings that left deep
impressions upon his mind, and that afternoon took his departure for his
Scottish home.

Time passed heavily at the jail, and day after day Manuel awaited his
fate with anxiety. At every tap of the prison-bell he would spring to
the door and listen, asserting that he heard the consul's voice in every
passing sound. Day after day the consul would call upon him and quiet
his fears, reassuring him that he was safe and should not be sold as
a slave. At length, on the seventeenth day of May, after nearly two
months' imprisonment, the glad news was received that Manuel Pereira
was not to be sold, according to the statutes, but to be released upon
payment of all co