Harrington: A Story of True LoveO'Connor, William Douglas
General
Harrington: A Story of True Love
O'Connor, William Douglas
Slavery -- United States -- Fiction
He turned and looked over the bayou far up the lowland to the plantation
a mile away. Suddenly he started, clutching the knife with a firm grasp,
his eyes flashing, his teeth and nostrils set, and his manhood once
again flooding his heart with fire. Figures near the mansion—figures on
horseback, guns, flashing in the sun, in their hands—one, two, three,
four, five, six—six mounted horsemen—and, lower down on the lawn, what
are those things running in circles? Hark! Far off a long, harsh, savage,
yelling bay. The hunt is afoot, and the hounds have struck the trail!
Away, Antony, for Liberty or Death!
Eyes flashing, teeth and nostrils set, every nerve and sinew valorously
strung, he turned with a leap, and rushed straight into the morass.
Before the headlong, desperate courage of his charge, the loathsome
tenants of the swamp gave way. Plunging from the floodwood, the
affrighted alligator trundled off, and the startled moccasins slipped and
writhed from his path at the noise of his coming. Hark, again! Nearer
than before the booming yell of the hounds. Speed, Antony! It is the
Sabbath of the Lord our God, and we hunt you down. What man shall there
be among us that shall have one slave, and if it fly into the morass on
the Sabbath day, shall he not set hounds upon it and hunt it down? Speed
on, dark chattel! The good Christians of St. Landry and Avoyelles are
spurring hard upon your trail, and in the land over which the memory of
Christ stretches like the sky, well-doing such as theirs is lawful on the
Sabbath as on every other day!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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