He took
her face between his two hands, and looked long and earnestly at her.
Then, dropping his head on her shoulder, and bursting into tears, he
cried:
'My mother! O my mother!'
He had awoke. The terrible dream was over. From that moment he was
himself.
What passed between him and Selma on that fatal evening, I never knew.
He has not spoken her name since that night.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Mrs. Dawsey lay at the mansion, under guard, for several weeks. When
finally able to be moved she was conveyed to the 'furnished apartments'
bespoken for her by Joe. Her husband, after a short confinement in jail,
was set at liberty, and then made strenuous efforts to effect his wife's
release on bail. He did not succeed. Public feeling ran very high
against her; and that, probably more than the fact that she was charged
with an unbailable crime, operated to prolong her residence at the
public boarding house kept for runaway slaves and common felons at
Trenton.
At the next session of the 'county court,' after an imprisonment of
four months, she was arraigned for trial. Owing to the death of Selma,
Mulock was the only white witness against her. He told a straightforward
story, the most rigid cross-examination not swerving him from it, and
deposed to Dawsey's having attempted to bribe him to go away. His
evidence was conclusive as to the prisoner's guilt; but her counsel, an
able man, made so damaging an assault on his personal character, that
the jury disagreed.
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