"Bob," he said, pointing as he spoke, "there, at the north corner of the lane, where the steps go over the stone fence, I stood in my country's uniform and told a girl good-bye. She clung to me like a sweet vine, and with trembling fingers I loosened the tendrils of her love. Behind a gallant warrior I marched into the City of Mexico, thrilled not with the victory, but with the thought that my face should soon be homeward set. That night I received a letter telling me of her perfidy. She did not write--my brother's hand sent the news. I couldn't believe it--in my breast I called him a liar. But I came home with a quaking heart, to find that she had married a negro-trader. And then, in taking up my small belongings to leave the State, I swore that I would never return so long as she was in it alive. Once that fellow came to Illinois to catch a run-away slave. He caught the fugitive at a town called Princeton. I chanced to be there. A noble-hearted man named Bryant, brother of the poet, heard the negro's pitiful story and then turned upon the trader. 'Sir,' said he, 'the shadow of a black and outrageous law may fall upon your case, but humanity which is above all law, cries out for the protection of this poor creature. Be gone from here.' "'Not until I have had my say,' I cried. 'Bring a rope and I will hang him.' There was an uneasy stir among the men assembled in the little court-room. The trader looked at me sharply. A grim smile spread over his dastardly face. I had learned more than I have yet told you--He held a mortgage upon the negroes that belonged to the father of that girl and she had married him to save the negroes, to keep them from being taken South and sold to the heartless drivers. This she had written and given to a friend to send to me, but he was tardy in sending it. However, I could not have forgiven her, although there might have been some truth in what she said and some nobility in her act. The fellow leered at me, and turning to the justice of the peace, said to him: This man ought not to have a word to say. He hates me because I married the girl he loved.' This set the idlers to tittering, and I got out of the court-room, frothing at the mouth. Under protection of the law, the rascal was permitted to go away in peace, but he did not take the negro, not then, but got him afterward. Bob, I'm strong enough to confess a weakness, and the man that isn't, isn't game. I'm bold enough to defend a prejudice, for prejudices are sometimes our dearest inheritance."