"They did," replied the Octoroon; "the free citizens of that land of liberty forgot to teach me that beneath God's bounteous heaven there live a race of men who traffic in the bodies and souls of their fellow-creatures! That was a lesson they forgot to teach me."
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to learn it here," said the planter; "and if you don't take care what you're about, it may be taught you in rather a rough fashion. But why, why, Cora, do you compel me to use this language? It is not the right of a master that I would exercise, but that of a lover."
"You forget," replied Cora, with icy coldness, "that I love, and am beloved by an honorable man, who would make me his wife."
"It is you who must forget that, Cora," answered Augustus, fiercely. "Henceforth, Gilbert Margrave and you are strangers. You are mine, I have kept my promise; I have given the fifty thousand dollars owed me by your father as the price of this moment. But it is not as a master that I address you. The rigors of slavery are not for you. Reward my devotion with one smile, one word of encouragement, and a life of luxury shall be yours; but, if you value your own happiness, do not force me to remember—"
"That I am your slave. Pardon me, Mr. Horton, it is that which I would not forget; but, as my English education has left me very ignorant, I must beg you to teach me the duties of a slave."
"Those duties are told in one word, Cora," replied the planter, "and that word is submission! absolute and unquestioning submission to every wish of the master. Blind obedience to every word, to each command, however revolting to the will of the slave. Body and soul, Cora, you are mine. Shriek, and your voice will echo through the plantation, but will awake no answer; for those who alone could hear it are slaves like yourself, and powerless to help you. Cease this mad folly, then, and thus let me—"
He advanced as if to encircle her in his arms, but the Octoroon stepped back a few paces, and raising the cord which she held in her right hand, addressed him thus:
"One step further, and it is I who will inflict upon you the chastisement of a slave, by striking you across the face."
As Cora uttered these words, a whistle resounded through the plantation, near the spot upon which she and the planter stood, and in another moment two dark figures emerged from the shade of the trees.
Before Augustus could interpose, Cora was seized in the arms of one of these men, and carried into the plantation, while the other grasped the shoulder of the planter with a hand of iron.