een some whisperings in
the empire among the elderly men and women of a desire to obtain the
assistance of Great Britain in setting it aside. Peter Grundle, for
instance, Crasweller's senior partner, had been heard to say that
England would not allow a deposited man to be slaughtered. There was
much in that which had angered me. The word slaughter was in itself
peculiarly objectionable to my ears,--to me who had undertaken to
perform the first ceremony as an act of grace. And what had England
to do with our laws? It was as though Russia were to turn upon the
United States and declare that their Congress should be put down.
What would avail the loudest voice of Great Britain against the
smallest spark of a law passed by our Assembly?--unless, indeed,
Great Britain should condescend to avail herself of her great power,
and thus to crush the free voice of those whom she had already
recognised as independent. As I now write, this is what she has
already done, and history will have to tell the story. But it was
especially sad to have to think that there should be a Britannulist
so base, such a coward, such a traitor, as himself to propose this
expedient for adding a few years to his own wretched life.

But Crasweller did not, as it seemed, intend to avail himself of
these whispers. His mind was intent on devising some falsehood by
which he should obtain for himself just one other year of life, and
his expectant son-in-law purposed to prevent him. I hardly knew as I
turned it all in my mind, which of the two was the more sordid; but I
think that my sympathies were rather in accord with the cowardice of
the old man than with the greed of the young. After all, I had known
from the beginning that the fear of death was a human weakness. To
obliterate that fear from the human heart, and to build up a perfect
manhood that should be liberated from so vile a thraldom, had been
one of the chief objects of my scheme. I had no right to be angry
with Crasweller, because Crasweller, when tried, proved himself to
be no stronger than the world at large. It was a matter to me of
infinite regret that it should be so. He was the very man, the very
friend, on whom I had relied with confidence! But his weakness was
only a proof that I myself had been mistaken. In all that Assembly
by which the law had been passed, consisting chiefly of young men,
was there one on whom I could rest with confidence to carry out the
purpose of the law when his own