George Mullholland has twice been dragged to the whipping-post, twice
stripped before a crowd in the market-place, twice lashed, maddened to
desperation, and twice degraded in the eyes of the very negroes we
teach to yield entire submission to the white man, however humble his
grade. Hate, scorn, remorse-every dark passion his nature can
summon-rises up in one torturing tempest, and fills his bosom with a
mad longing for revenge. “Death!” he says, while looking out from his
cell upon the bright landscape without, “what is death to me? The
burnings of an outraged soul subdue the thought of death.”
The woman through whom this dread finale was brought upon him, and who
now repines, unable to shake off the smarts old associations crowd upon
her heart, has a second and third time crept noiselessly to his cell,
and sought in vain his forgiveness. Yea, she has opened the door
gently, but drew back in terror before his dark frown, his sardonic
scorn, his frenzied rush at her. Had he not loved her fondly, his hate
had not taken such deep root in his bosom.
Two or three days pass, he has armed himself “to the death,” and is
resolved to make his escape, and seek revenge of his enemies. It is
evening. Dark festoons of clouds hang over the city, lambent lightning
plays along the heavens in the south. Now it flashes across the city,
the dull panorama lights up, the tall, gaunt steeples gleam out, and
the surface of the Bay flashes out in a phosphoric blaze. Patiently and
diligently has he filed, and filed, and filed, until he has removed the
bar that will give egress to his body. The window of his cell overlooks
the ditch, beyond which is the prison wall. Noiselessly he arranges the
rope, for he is in the third story, then paces his cell, silent and
thoughtful. “Must it be?” he questions within himself, “must I stain
these hands with the blood of the woman I love? Revenge, revenge-I will
have revenge. I will destroy both of them, for to-morrow I am to be
dragged a third time to the whipping-post.” Now he casts a glance round
the dark cell, now he pauses at the window, now the lightning courses
along the high wall, then reflects back the deep ditch. Another moment,
and he has commenced his descent. Down, down, down, he lowers himself.
Now he holds on tenaciously, the lightning reflects his dangling
figure, a prisoner in a lower cell gives the alarm, he hears the
watchword of his discovery pass from cell to cell, the clashing of the
keeper’s door grates upon his ear like thunder-he has reached the end
of his rope, and yet hangs suspended in the air. A heavy fall is heard,
he has reached the ditch, bounds up its side to the wall, seizes a
pole, and places against it, and, with one vault, is over into the open
street. Not a moment is to be lost. Uproar and confusion reigns
throughout the prison, his keepers have taken the alarm, and will soon
be on his track, pursuing him with ferocious hounds. Burning for
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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