| OCR Text |
Show 288 UNCLE TOM'S CADIN : OH, retribution back into the present life. None could bear the horrors of that sick room, when he raved and screamed, and spoke of sights which almost stopped the blood of those who henrd him; and, at his dying bed, stood a stern, white, inexorable figure, saying, c: Come! come ! come ! " By a singular coincidence, on the very night that this vision appeared to Legree, the house-door was found open in the morning, and some of the negroes had seen two white figures gliiling down the avenue towards the high-road. It was ncar sunrise when Cassy and Emmeline paused, for a moment, in a little knot of trees near the town. Cassy was dressed after the manner of the Creole Spanish ladies,-wholly in black. A small black bonnet on her head, covered by a veil thick with embroidery, concealed her face. It had been agreed that, in their escape, she was to personate the character of a Creole lady, and Emmeline that of her servant. Brought up, from early life, in connection with the highest society, the language, movements and air of Cassy, were all in agreement with this ideai and she had still enough remaining with her, of a once splendid wardrobe, and sets of jewels, to enable her to personate the thing to advantage. She stopped in the outskirts of the town, where she had noticed trunks for sale, and purchased a handsome one. This she requested the man to send along with her. And, accordingly, thus escorted by a boy wheeling her trunk, and Emmeline behind her, carrying her carpet-bag and sundry bundles, she made her appearance at the small tavern, like a lady of consideration. The first person that struck her, after her arrival, was George Shelby, who was staying there, awaiting the next boat. LIFE Al\IOXO TllE I,OWLY. 289 ------- Cassy had remarked the young man from her loop-hole in the g::nTct, and seen him bear away the borly of Tom, and observeU, with secret exultation, hi;; rencontrc with Legree. Subsequently, she had gathered, from the conversations she had O\'erhcard among the negroes, as she glided about in her ghostly tlisguise, after nightfall, who he was, anU in what relation he stood to 'l'om. She, therefore, felt an immcdiatl:' accession of confidence, when she found that he was, like herself, awaiting the next boat. Cassy's air and manner, address, and evident command of money, prevented any rising disposition to suspicion in the hoteL People never inquire too closely into those who are fair on the main point, of paying well,- a thing which Cassy had foreseen when she provided herself with money. In the edge of the evening, a boat was heard coming along, and George Shelby hantled Cassy aboard, with the politeness which comes naturally to erery Kentuckian, and exerted himself to provide her with a good state-room. Cassy kept her room and bed, on pretext of illness, during the whole time they were on H.cd rh·er i and was waited on, with obsequious devotion, by her attendant. When they arrived at the Mississippi river, George, having learned that the course of the strange lady was upward, like his own, proposed to take a state-room for her on the same boat with himself,-good-naturcdly compassionating her feeble health, and desirous to do what he could to assist her. Behold, therefore, the whole party safely transferred to the good steamer Cincinnati, and sweeping up the river under a powerful head of steam. Cassy's health was much better. She sat upon the guards, came to the table, and was remarked upon in the boat as a lady that must have been very handsome. VOL. II. 25 |
