During these interviews he would watch her emotions as she looked
upon her child; when she would clasp it to her bosom, weeping, until
from the slightest emotion her feelings would become frantic with
anguish.
"And you, my child, a mother's hope when all other pleasures are
gone! Are you some day to be torn from me, and, like myself, sent to
writhe under the coarse hand of a slave-dealer, to be stung with
shame enforced while asking God's forgiveness? Sometimes I think it
cannot be so; I think it must all be a dream. But it is so, and we
might as well submit, say as little of the hardship as possible, and
think it's all as they tell us-according to God's will," she would
say, pressing the child closer and closer to her bosom, the
agitation of her feelings rising into convulsions as the tears
coursed down her cheeks. Then she would roll her soft eyes upwards,
her countenance filling with despair. The preservation of her child
was pictured in the depth of her imploring look. For a time her
emotions would recede into quiet,--she would smile placidly upon
Annette, forget the realities that had just swept her mind into such
a train of trouble.
One night, as Maxwell entered her apartment, he found her kneeling
at her bed-side, supplicating in prayer. The word, "Oh, God; not me,
but my child-guide her through the perils that are before her, and
receive her into heaven at last," fell upon his ear. He paused,
gazed upon her as if some angel spirit had touched the tenderest
chord of his feelings-listened unmoved.
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