of his cruelty; I have
been struck like a dog, (look at this mark upon my cheek,) and I have
been compelled to minister to the disgusting and unnatural lechery of a
monster--all through thee, thou chicken-hearted knave, who even now doth
tremble with unmanly terror!'

'Woman, thou art a liar!' exclaimed our hero, rising and boldly
confronting his three enemies--'I do tremble, but with indignation
alone! Dare you charge your misfortune upon me? Did you not dishonor me
by adultery with this vile negro?--and then to talk to me of kind
reproof! Pshaw, thou double-eyed traitorous w----e!--I had served thee
rightly had I strangled thee on the spot, and thrown thy unclean carcase
to the dogs!'

'Silence, curse ye, or I'll cut out your tongue as I did the
_Kinchen's_!' roared the Dead Man, drawing his knife. 'Nero, what cause
of complaint have you against this man?'

'Cause enough,' replied the black--'he shut me up in a dark dungeon for
having gratified the wishes of his licentious wife.'

'Enough,' cried the Dead Man--'I will now state my grounds of complaint
against him. Firstly--he played the spy upon me, and was the cause of my
being returned to the State Prison, from which I had escaped.
Secondly--he discovered the secrets of my Anthony street crib, and
administered a drug to my wife which has deprived her of reason. And
thirdly he is my mortal foe, and I hate him. Is that not enough?'

'It is--it is!' replied Julia and the African. The Dead Man continued:

'Now, Sydney, listen to me: you behold the light of day for the last
time. But 'tis not my wish to kill you at once--no, that would not
satisfy my vengeance. You shall die a slow, lingering death; each moment
of your existence shall be fraught with a hell of torment; you will pray
for death in vain; death shall not come to your relief for years. Each
day I will rack my ingenuity to devise some new mode of torture. To
increase the horrors of your situation, you shall have a companion in
your captivity--a being unnatural and loathsome to look upon--a creature
fierce as a hyena, malignant as a devil. Ha, you turn pale; you guess my
meaning. You are right; you shall be shut up in the same dungeon with my
Image! the deformed and monstrous dwarf, whom Heaven (if there is one,)
must have sent as a curse and a reproach to me; he shall now become your
curse and punishment!'

Poor Frank heard this awful doom pronounced which he could not repress.
He could have borne any