Should any person question the probability of the incidents in Vance’s narrative, we would refer him to the “Letter to Thomas Carlyle” in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1863. On page 501, we find the following: “Within the past year, a document has come into my hands. It is the private diary of a most eminent and respectable slaveholder, recently deceased. The chances of war threw it into the hands of our troops.... One item I must have the courage to suggest more definitely. Having bidden a young slave-girl (whose name, age, color, &c., with the shameless precision that marks the entire document, are given) to attend upon his brutal pleasure, and she silently remaining away, he writes, ‘Next morning ordered her a dozen lashes for disobedience.’” In a foot-note to the above we are assured by Messrs. Ticknor and Fields that the author of the letter is “one whose word is not and cannot be called in question; and he pledges his word that the above is exact and _proven_ fact.” Footnote 22: “O no, madam, for then I shall be too black.” A Life of Toussaint, by Mrs. George Lee, was published in Boston some years since. Footnote 23: By Dsheladeddin, a famous Mahometan mystic. Footnote 24: On the contrary, Mrs. Kemble says they are cruelly treated, and that the forms of suffering are “manifold and terrible” in consequence. Footnote 25: The Savannah River Baptist Association of Ministers decreed (1836) that the slave, sold at a distance from his home, was not to be countenanced by the church in resisting his master’s will that he should take a new wife. Footnote 26: “Beloved eye, beloved star, Thou art so near, and yet so far!” CHAPTER XXIV. CONFESSIONS OF A MEAN WHITE. “Throw thyself on thy God, nor mock him with feeble denial; Sure of his love, and O, sure of his mercy at last; Bitter and deep though the draught, yet drain thou the cup of thy trial, And in its healing effect smile at the bitterness past.” _Lines composed by Sir John Herschel in a dream._ After an early breakfast the following morning, Vance proceeded to the hospital. The patient had been expecting him. “He has seemed to know just how near you’ve been for the last hour,” said the nurse. “He followed—” “Sit down, Mr. Vance, please,” interrupted the patient. Vance drew a chair near to the pillow and sat down.