"Syphax was in the room when he said this, and falling on his knees, he exclaimed, with the most affecting earnestness, 'Wilson be dead, Sir; I will supply his place if you will let me; I have been very bad man, but the negroes did persuade me; I ashamed that ever I agree to them: but I did not know you a good master till I lived with you: I thought all white men bad men. They treat us ill, and we treat them ill, but you never treat me ill. Wilson die for you, so will I: I keep your life as my own! and your's too, dear lady,' turning to me, 'and the children's for my master's sake. I will be your faithful servant.'
"I thanked him, and Mr. Meridith promised to consider him as such.
"'But will you return to the West-Indies with me?' said he; 'you say you have no friends there.'
"'Nor none any where, Massa,' said he, very affectingly, 'for bad men do not deserve to be called so. I have been very badly used in the West-Indies, but I go any where with you, to the end of the world.'
"He was then dismissed, and I would have persuaded my husband to return immediately to England: 'within a twelvemonth,' said I, 'and I shall be of age, and Rosewood and Coombdale will be your's. Surely on these estates we can live comfortably. O let us go, and think no more of property in the Indies, when we have so much at home.' He seemed affected by my earnestness, but made it appear so very necessary that we should once more visit Jamaica, and leave our property there in proper hands, to send us the remittances, that I agreed to accompany him thither again, secretly hoping that a few months more would land us in England."
Mrs. Meridith now found herself fatigued, and begged to postpone the remainder of her story till the next evening.
"The worst is still to come," said she, "and I do not find myself equal to the recital;" and her friends were too attentive to her feelings to urge her to continue it. Anna related what had passed between Syphax and herself in the garden.
"And his distress lest you should reveal his story, Mamma," said she, "is now accounted for; but he need not have been afraid, for I think it does him credit rather than dishonour."
"Undoubtedly," said Mr. Campbell, "for though he had consented to the plan the negroes had proposed, his attachment to his master got the better of his submission to them."