It is
that which cuts deepest. Had I known myself, done what I might have
done before it was too late, kindness would have its rewards; but I
am fettered, and the more I move the worse for them. Custom has laid
the foundation of wrong, the law protects it, and a free government
tolerates a law that shields iniquities blackening earth." In this
train of thought his mind wandered. He would send the children into
a free state, there to be educated; that they may live in the
enjoyment of those rights with which nature had blest them. The
obstacles of the law again stared him in the face; the wrong by
which they were first enslaved, now forgotten, had brought its
climax.
Suddenly arousing from his reverie, he started to his feet, and
walking across the floor, exclaimed in an audible voice, "I will
surmount all difficulties,--I will recognise them as my children; I
will send them where they may become ornaments of society, instead
of living in shame and licentiousness. This is my resolve, and I
will carry it out, or die!"
CHAPTER VIII.
A CLOUD OF MISFORTUNE HANGS OVER THE PLANTATION.
THE document Marston signed for Lorenzo-to release him from the
difficulties into which he had been drawn by Graspum-guaranteed the
holder against all loss. This, in the absence of Lorenzo, and under
such stranger circumstances, implied an amount which might be
increased according to the will of the man into whose hands he had
so unfortunately fallen.
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