Shelby sat perfectly silent, pale with excitement, while Sam told his story ?God be praised, she isn?t dead!? she said; ?but where is the poor child now?? ?De Lord will pervide,? said Sam, rolling up his eyes piously?As I?ve been a sayin?, dis yer ?s a providence and no mistake, as Missis has allers been a instructin? on usThar?s allers instruments ris up to do de Lord?s willNow, if ?t hadn?t been for me today, she?d a been took a dozen timesWarn?t it I started off de hosses, dis yer morning? and kept ?em chasin? till nigh dinner time? And didn?t I car Mas?r Haley night five miles out of de road, dis evening, or else he?d a come up with Lizy as easy as a dog arter a coonThese yer ?s all providences ?They are a kind of providences that you?ll have to be pretty sparing of, Master SamI allow no such practices with gentlemen on my place,? said MrShelby, with as much sternness as he could command, under the circumstances Now, there is no more use in making believe be angry with a negro than with a child; both instinctively see the true state of the case, through all attempts to affect the contrary; and Sam was in no wise disheartened by this rebuke, though he assumed an air of doleful gravity, and stood with the corners of his mouth lowered in most penitential style ?Mas?r quite right,?quite; it was ugly on me,?there?s no disputin? that ar; and of course Mas?r and Missis wouldn?t encourage no such worksI?m sensible of dat ar; but a poor nigger like me ?s ?mazin? tempted to act ugly sometimes, when fellers will cut up such shines as dat ar Mas?r Haley; he an?t no gen?l?man no way; anybody?s been raised as I?ve been can?t help a seein? dat ar ?Well, Sam,? said MrsShelby, ?as you appear to have a proper sense of your errors, you may go now and tell Aunt Chloe she may get you some of that cold ham that was left of dinner todayYou and Andy must be hungry ?Missis is a heap too good for us,? said Sam, making his bow with alacrity, and departing It will be perceived, as has been before intimated, that Master Sam had a native talent that might, undoubtedly, have raised him to eminence in political life,?a talent of making capital out of everything that turned up, to be invested for his own especial praise and glory; and having done up his piety and humility, as he trusted, to the satisfaction of the parlor, he clapped his palm-leaf on his head, with a sort of rakish, free-and-easy air, and proceeded to the dominions of Aunt Chloe, with the intention of flourishing largely in the kitchen ?I?ll speechify these yer niggers,? said Sam to himself, ?now I?ve got a chanceLord, I?ll reel it off to make ?em stare!? It must be observed that one of Sam?s especial delights had been to ride in attendance on his master to all kinds of political gatherings, where, roosted on some rail fence, or perched aloft in some tree, he would sit watching the orators, with the greatest apparent gusto, and then, descending among the various brethren of his own color, assembled on the same errand, he would edify and delight them with the most ludicrous burlesques and imitations, all delivered with the most imperturbable earnestness and solemnity; and though the auditors immediately about him were generally of his own color, it not unfrequently happened that they were fringed pretty deeply with those of a fairer complexion, who listened, laughing and winking, to Sam?s great self-congratulationIn fact, Sam considered oratory as his vocation, and never let slip an opportunity of magnifying his office Now, between Sam and Aunt Chloe there had existed, from ancient times, a sort of chronic feud, or rather a decided coolness; but, as Sam was meditating something in the provision department, as the necessary and obvious foundation of his operations, he determined, on the present occasion, to be eminently conciliatory; for he well knew that although ?Missis? orders? would undoubtedly be followed to the letter, yet he should gain a considerable deal by enlisting the spirit alsoHe therefore appeared before Aunt Chloe with a touchingly subdued, resigned expression, like one who has suffered immeasurable hardships in behalf of a persecuted fellow-creature,?enlarged upon the fact that Missis had directed him to come to Aunt Chloe for whatever might be wanting to make up the balance in his solids and fluids,?and thus unequivocally acknowledged her right and supremacy in the cooking department, and all thereto pertaining The thing took accordinglyNo poor, simple, virtuous body was ever cajoled by the attentions of an electioneering politician with more ease than Aunt Chloe was won over by Master Sam?s suavities; and if he had been the prodigal son himself, he could not have been overwhelmed with more maternal bountifulness; and he soon found himself seated, happy and glorious, over a large tin pan, containing a sort of olla podrida of all that had appeared on the table for two or three days pastSavory morsels of ham, golden blocks of corn-cake, fragments of pie of every conceivable mathematical figure, chicken wings, gizzards, and drumsticks, all appeared in picturesque confusion; and Sam, as monarch of all he surveyed, sat with his palm-leaf cocked rejoicingly to one side, and patronizing Andy at his right hand The kitchen was full of all his compeers, who had hurried and crowded in, from the various cabins, to hear the termination of the day?s exploitsNow was Sam?s hour of gloryThe story of the day was rehearsed, with all kinds of ornament and varnishing which might be necessary to heighten its effect; for Sam, like some of our fashionable dilettanti, never allowed a story to lose any of its gilding by passing through his handsRoars of laughter attended the narration, and were taken up and prolonged by all the smaller fry, who were lying, in any quantity, about on the floor, or perched in every cornerIn the height of the uproar and laughter, Sam, however, preserved an immovable gravity, only from time to time rolling his eyes up, and giving his auditors divers inexpressibly droll glances, without departing from the sententious elevation of his oratory ?Yer see, fellow-countrymen,? said Sam, elevating a turkey?s leg, with energy, ?yer see, now what dis yer chile ?s up ter, for fendin? yer all,?yes, all on yerFor him as tries to get one o? our people is as good as tryin? to get all; yer see the principle ?s de same,?dat ar?s clarAnd any one o? these yer drivers that comes smelling round arter any our people, why, he?s got me in his way; I?m the feller he?s got to set in with,?I?m the feller for yer all to come to, bredren,?I?ll stand up for yer rights,?I?ll fend ?em to the last breath!? ?Why, but Sam, yer telled me, only this mornin?, that you?d help this yer Mas?r to cotch Lizy; seems to me yer talk don?t hang together,? said Andy ?I tell you now, Andy,? said Sam, with awful superiority, ?don?t yer be a talkin? ?bout what yer don?t know nothin? on; boys like you, Andy, means well, but they can?t be spected to collusitate the great principles of action Andy looked rebuked, particularly by the hard word collusitate, which most of the youngerly members of the company seemed to consider as a settler in the case, while Sam proceeded ?Dat ar was conscience, Andy; when I thought of gwine arter Lizy, I railly spected Mas?r was sot dat wayWhen I found Missis was sot the contrar, dat ar was conscience more yet,?cause fellers allers gets more by stickin? to Missis? side,?so yer see I ?s persistent either way, and sticks up to conscience, and holds on to principlesYes, principles,? said Sam, giving an enthusiastic toss to a chicken?s neck,??what?s principles good for, if we isn?t persistent, I wanter know? Thar, Andy, you may have dat ar bone,?tan?t picked quite clean Sam?s audience hanging on his words with open mouth, he could not but shop proceed

He sat down beside me, and said in his smoothest voice as he opened two letters, "The Szgany has given me these, of which, though I know not whence they come, I shall, of course, take careSee!"--He must have looked at it-"One is from you, and to my friend Peter HawkinsThe other,"--here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly,--"The other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is not signedWell! So it cannot matter to us And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed Then he went on, "The letter to Hawkins, that I shall, of course send on, since it is yoursYour letters are sacred to meYour pardon, my friend, that unknowingly I did break the sealWill you not cover it again?" He held out the letter to me, and with a courteous bow handed me a clean envelope I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silenceWhen he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softlyA minute later I went over and tried it, and the door was locked When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofaHe was very courteous and very cheery in his manner, and seeing that I had been sleeping, he said, "So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bedThere is the surest restI may not have the pleasure of talk tonight, since there are many labours to me, but you will sleep, I pray I passed to my room and went to bed, and, strange to say, slept without dreamingDespair has its own calms-This morning when I woke I thought I would provide myself with some papers and envelopes from my bag and keep them in my pocket, so that I might write in case I should get an opportunity, but again a surprise, again a shock! Every scrap of paper was gone, and with it all my notes, my memoranda, relating to railways and travel, my letter of credit, in fact all that might be useful to me were I once outside the castleI sat and pondered awhile, and then some thought occurred to me, and I made search of my portmanteau and in the wardrobe where I had placed my clothes The suit in which I had travelled was gone, and also my overcoat and rugI could find no trace of them anywhereThis looked like some new scheme of villainy? 17 June-This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains, I heard without a crackling of whips and pounding and scraping of horses' feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyardWith joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high bootsThey had also their long staves in handI ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for themAgain a shock, my door was fastened on the outside Then I ran to the window and cried to themThey looked up at me stupidly and pointed, but just then the "hetman" of the Szgany came out, and seeing them pointing to my window, said something, at which they laughed Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonized entreaty, would make them even look at meThey resolutely turned awayThe leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes, with handles of thick ropeThese were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them, and by their resonance as they were roughly moved When they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on it for luck, lazily went each to his horse's headShortly afterwards, I heard the crackling of their whips die away in the distance-Last night the Count left me early, and locked himself into his own roomAs soon as I dared I ran up the winding stair, and looked out of the window, which opened SouthI thought I would watch for the Count, for there is something going shop on

He was very imperious, and harsh to the childrenElise was a timid little thing; but Henry was bold and high-spirited, like his father, and he had never been brought under, in the least, by any oneHe was always finding fault, and quarrelling with him; and I used to live in daily fear and dreadI tried to make the child respectful;?I tried to keep them apart, for I held on to those children like death; but it did no goodHe sold both those childrenHe took me to ride, one day, and when I came home, they were nowhere to be found! He told me he had sold them; he showed me the money, the price of their bloodThen it seemed as if all good forsook meI raved and cursed,?cursed God and man; and, for a while, I believe, he really was afraid of meBut he didn?t give up soHe told me that my children were sold, but whether I ever saw their faces again, depended on him; and that, if I wasn?t quiet, they should smart for itWell, you can do anything with a woman, when you?ve got her childrenHe made me submit; he made me be peaceable; he flattered me with hopes that, perhaps, he would buy them back; and so things went on, a week or twoOne day, I was out walking, and passed by the calaboose; I saw a crowd about the gate, and heard a child?s voice,?and suddenly my Henry broke away from two or three men who were holding the poor boy screamed and looked into my face, and held on to me, until, in tearing him off, they tore the skirt of my dress half away; and they carried him in, screaming ?Mother! mother! mother!? There was one man stood there seemed to pity meI offered him all the money I had, if he?d only interfereHe shook his head, and said that the boy had been impudent and disobedient, ever since he bought him; that he was going to break him in, once for allI turned and ran; and every step of the way, I thought that I heard him screamI got into the house; ran, all out of breath, to the parlor, where I found ButlerI told him, and begged him to go and interfereHe only laughed, and told me the boy had got his desertsHe?d got to be broken in,?the sooner the better; ?what did I expect?? he asked ?It seemed to me something in my head snapped, at that momentI felt dizzy and furiousI remember seeing a great sharp bowie-knife on the table; I remember something about catching it, and flying upon him; and then all grew dark, and I didn?t know any more,?not for days and days ?When I came to myself, I was in a nice room,?but not mineAn old black woman tended me; and a doctor came to see me, and there was a great deal of care taken of meAfter a while, I found that he had gone away, and left me at this house to be sold; and that?s why they took such pains with me ?I didn?t mean to get well, and hoped I shouldn?t; but, in spite of me the fever went off and I grew healthy, and finally got upThen, they made me dress up, every day; and gentlemen used to come in and stand and smoke their cigars, and look at me, and ask questions, and debate my priceI was so gloomy and silent, that none of them wanted meThey threatened to whip me, if I wasn?t gayer, and didn?t take some pains to make myself agreeableAt length, one day, came a gentleman named StuartHe seemed to have some feeling for me; he saw that something dreadful was on my heart, and he came to see me alone, a great many times, and finally persuaded me to tell himHe bought me, at last, and promised to do all he could to find and buy back my childrenHe went to the hotel where my Henry was; they told him he had been sold to a planter up on Pearl river; that was the last that I ever heardThen he found where my daughter was; an old woman was keeping herHe offered an immense sum for her, but they would not sell herButler found out that it was for me he wanted her; and he sent me word that I should never have herCaptain Stuart was very kind to me; he had a splendid plantation, and took me to itIn the course of a year, I had a son bornO, that child!?how I loved it! How just like my poor Henry the little thing looked! But I had made up my mind,?yes, I shop had

Shelby, you cannot be serious ?I?m sorry to say that I am,? said Mr?I?ve agreed to sell Tom ?What! our Tom??that good, faithful creature!?been your faithful servant from a boy! O, MrShelby!?and you have promised him his freedom, too,?you and I have spoken to him a hundred times of itWell, I can believe anything now,?I can believe now that you could sell little Harry, poor Eliza?s only child!? said MrsShelby, in a tone between grief and indignation ?Well, since you must know all, it is soI have agreed to sell Tom and Harry both; and I don?t know why I am to be rated, as if I were a monster, for doing what every one does every day ?But why, of all others, choose these?? said Mrs?Why sell them, of all on the place, if you must sell at all?? ?Because they will bring the highest sum of any,?that?s whyI could choose another, if you say soThe fellow made me a high bid on Eliza, if that would suit you any better,? said Mr ?The wretch!? said Mrs ?Well, I didn?t listen to it, a moment,?out of regard to your feelings, I wouldn?t;?so give me some credit ?My dear,? said MrsShelby, recollecting herself, ?forgive meI was surprised, and entirely unprepared for this;?but surely you will allow me to intercede for these poor creaturesTom is a noble-hearted, faithful fellow, if he is blackShelby, that if he were put to it, he would lay down his life for you ?I know it,?I dare say;?but what?s the use of all this??I can?t help myself ?Why not make a pecuniary sacrifice? I?m willing to bear my part of the inconvenienceShelby, I have tried?tried most faithfully, as a Christian woman should?to do my duty to these poor, simple, dependent creaturesI have cared for them, instructed them, watched over them, and know all their little cares and joys, for years; and how can I ever hold up my head again among them, if, for the sake of a little paltry gain, we sell such a faithful, excellent, confiding creature as poor Tom, and tear from him in a moment all we have taught him to love and value? I have taught them the duties of the family, of parent and child, and husband and wife; and how can I bear to have this open acknowledgment that we care for no tie, no duty, no relation, however sacred, compared with money? I have talked with Eliza about her boy?her duty to him as a Christian mother, to watch over him, pray for him, and bring him up in a Christian way; and now what can I say, if you tear him away, and sell him, soul and body, to a profane, unprincipled man, just to save a little money? I have told her that one soul is worth more than all the money in the world; and how will she believe me when she sees us turn round and sell her child??sell him, perhaps, to certain ruin of body and soul!? ?I?m sorry you feel so about it,?indeed I am,? said MrShelby; ?and I respect your feelings, too, though I don?t pretend to share them to their full extent; but I tell you now, solemnly, it?s of no use?I can?t help myselfI didn?t mean to tell you this Emily; but, in plain words, there is no choice between selling these two and selling everythingEither they must go, or all mustHaley has come into possession of a mortgage, which, if I don?t clear off with him directly, will take everything before itI?ve raked, and scraped, and borrowed, and all but begged,?and the price of these two was needed to make up the balance, and I had to give them upHaley fancied the child; he agreed to settle the matter that way, and no otherI was in his power, and had to do itIf you feel so to have them sold, would it be any better to have all sold?? MrsShelby stood like one strickenFinally, turning to her toilet, she rested her face in her hands, and gave a sort of groan ?This is God?s curse on slavery!?a bitter, bitter, most accursed thing!?a curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evilIt is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours,?I always felt it was,?I always thought so when I was a girl,?I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over,?I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom?fool that I was!? ?Why, wife, you are getting to be an abolitionist, quite ?Abolitionist! if they knew all I know about slavery, they might talk! We don?t need them to tell us; you know I never thought that slavery was right?never felt willing to own slaves ?Well, therein you differ from many wise and pious men,? said Mrs sermon, the other Sunday?? ?I don?t want to hear such sermons; I never wish to hear MrMinisters can?t help the evil, perhaps,?can?t cure it, any more than we can,?but defend it!?it always went against my common shop sense

It was open, and led through a stone passage to a circular stairway, which went steeply down I descended, minding carefully where I went for the stairs were dark, being only lit by loopholes in the heavy masonryAt the bottom there was a dark, tunnel-like passage, through which came a deathly, sickly odour, the odour of old earth newly turnedAs I went through the passage the smell grew closer and heavierAt last I pulled open a heavy door which stood ajar, and found myself in an old ruined chapel, which had evidently been used as a graveyardThe roof was broken, and in two places were steps leading to vaults, but the ground had recently been dug over, and the earth placed in great wooden boxes, manifestly those which had been brought by the Slovaks There was nobody about, and I made a search over every inch of the ground, so as not to lose a chanceI went down even into the vaults, where the dim light struggled, although to do so was a dread to my very soulInto two of these I went, but saw nothing except fragments of old coffins and piles of dustIn the third, however, I made a discovery There, in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count! He was either dead or asleepI could not say which, for eyes were open and stony, but without the glassiness of death, and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all their pallorThe lips were as red as everBut there was no sign of movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart I bent over him, and tried to find any sign of life, but in vainHe could not have lain there long, for the earthy smell would have passed away in a few hoursBy the side of the box was its cover, pierced with holes here and thereI thought he might have the keys on him, but when I went to search I saw the dead eyes, and in them dead though they were, such a look of hate, though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place, and leaving the Count's room by the window, crawled again up the castle wallRegaining my room, I threw myself panting upon the bed and tried to think-Today is the date of my last letter, and the Count has taken steps to prove that it was genuine, for again I saw him leave the castle by the same window, and in my clothesAs he went down the wall, lizard fashion, I wished I had a gun or some lethal weapon, that I might destroy himBut I fear that no weapon wrought along by man's hand would have any effect on himI dared not wait to see him return, for I feared to see those weird sistersI came back to the library, and read there till I fell asleep I was awakened by the Count, who looked at me as grimly as a man could look as he said, "Tomorrow, my friend, we must partYou return to your beautiful England, I to some work which may have such an end that we may never meetYour letter home has been despatchedTomorrow I shall not be here, but all shall be ready for your journeyIn the morning come the Szgany, who have some labours of their own here, and also come some SlovaksWhen they have gone, my carriage shall come for you, and shall bear you to the Borgo Pass to meet the diligence from Bukovina to BistritzBut I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle Dracula I suspected him, and determined to test his sinceritySincerity! It seems like a profanation of the word to write it in connection with such a monster, so I asked him point-blank, "Why may I not go tonight?" "Because, dear sir, my coachman and horses are away on a mission "But I would walk with pleasureI want to get away at once He smiled, such a soft, smooth, diabolical smile that I knew there was some trick behind his smoothnessHe said, "And your baggage?" "I do not care about itI can send for it some other time The Count stood up, and said, with a sweet courtesy which made me rub my eyes, it seemed so real, "You English have a saying which is close to my heart, for its spirit is that which rules our boyars, 'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest' Come with me, my dear young shop friend