Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/117

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four stakes, his face towards the ground; the deacon had the field hands assembled, and he ordered the overseer to strike him four hundred lashes; the deacon sitting in his chair, under the shade of a large tree. This poor man's wife was compelled, with the other slaves, to witness this scene, which to her was the most painful. His body was literally cut and mangled to pieces. In this condition, after being washed with salt and water, he was put in his cabin, no doctor to attend him. Through the mercy of God he recovered. The deacon sold him. He was absent seven years from his wife and child. His master returned to buy his wife, as he had been such a faithful servant. He was not a Christian either. When they came to the deacon's house, after a long absence, he refused to sell his wife, and added that he would not gratify the fellow so much as to sell her to them for him. Mr. H— now spoke. That dear woman, to him the most lovely, heard his voice, though not seeing his face, recognised it, she furiously rushed by her master, and fell upon him, literally bathed in tears. A woman's reign is that of love. The deacon commanded her to loose her hold. Mr. H— bowed to the ground upon his knees, and implored high heaven in her behalf, her arms still around his neck. Her master applied the lash until he succeeded in loosing her hold, and drove the degraded Slave with his master from his presence,