Nothing is now left for me but to pass sentence upon you in
accordance with the law. The sentence of the court is, that you be
taken hence to the prison from whence you came, and on this day
week, at twelve o'clock, from thence to the gallows erected in the
yard thereof, and there and then be hanged by the neck until you are
dead; and may the Lord have mercy on your soul!"
His honour, concluding nervously, orders the jury to be dismissed,
and the court adjourned.
How burns the inward hate of the oppressed culprit, as mutely, his
hands pinioned, and the heavy chain about his neck, he is led away
to his prison-house, followed by a deriding crowd. "Come that happy
day, when men will cease to make their wrong fire my very blood!" he
says, firmly marching to the place of death.
CHAPTER XLVII.
PROSPERITY THE RESULT OF JUSTICE.
TEN years have rolled into the past since the Rosebrook family-moved
by a sense of right to enquire into the errors of a bad system of
labour-resolved to try the working of a new scheme. There was to be
no cutting, nor lashing, nor abusing with overburdening tasks.
Education was to regulate the feelings, kindness to expand the
sympathies, and justice to bind the affections and stimulate
advancement. There were only some fifty negroes on the Rosebrook
plantation, but its fame for raising great crops had resounded far
and wide. Some planters said it "astonished everything," considering
how much the Rosebrooks indulged their slaves.
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