The young lady simpered, half blushed, expressed her doubt of having any influence [[136]]over Mr. Frederick, who was, indeed, a fine manly boy. There was nothing she could refuse to dear Mrs. Penryn and her guardian, and she would certainly endeavour to please Frederick, that she might refine his manners a little.
“Well, begin then, my dear girl, and fix upon a tasty dress for the boy. I know Fred will be pleased when it is done. I intend Samboe to be his constant attendant: he is to sleep in the little anti-room, to be ever at hand to attend Frederick’s pleasure; and, in short, he is to do what he pleases respecting him. Mr. Penryn says he will have hundreds under his power when he goes to Jamaica.”
This reference to the taste of Lavinia, was the dictate of policy; for she was recently become a ward of Mr. Penryn, was an orphan of immense property, and only a few years older than Frederick. The prudent Mr. and Mrs. Penryn were very desirous to favour an attachment between them; and Mrs. Penryn was directed, by her husband, to seek every opportunity of doing so. [[137]]
The young lady was of that negative character, so often met with amongst those who, in large boarding-schools, lose every discriminating trait in the general application of certain rules and certain pursuits. Dress, admiration, and gaiety, alone had power to animate her pretty features; from which, however, no intellectual ray ever beamed. She was highly flattered by the desire of Mrs. Penryn to exercise her taste in the choice of a dress for Samboe. That choice could not be difficult, for one who had so frequently seen the variety of costume exhibited on the stage; and as vanity, ostentation, and singularity, not congruity, were to dictate the choice, it was soon fixed, as the young lady thought, of that elegant form and expensive material, which could not fail to please the young planter; and it must be owned, that when, a few days subsequent, Samboe made his appearance in the elegant costume of Persia, that he exhibited a very fair specimen of juvenile negro beauty. The blue and silver vest and caftan, the full girdle, the capacious trowsers, and the perfectly white [[138]]turban, with its golden cord and sparkling gems, contrasted well with his sable skin and slender form; giving a lightness to his air, which even the pressure of slavery was not able materially to injure.
Lavinia’s taste was loudly applauded; and even Frederick condescended to say the boy looked something like what he ought to do. But poor Samboe, like many a white boy and girl, felt the misery of fine clothes, being continually reminded that he must not do this, he must not lie there, lest he should soil his dress.
His young master would never suffer him out of his sight: not that he cared a button for him or his clothes, but because he could not allow of any cessation in tormenting a poor being over whom he had full controul; and he was continually racking his invention, to devise some new species of torment and teasing. With a mean species of jealousy, as soon as he found Frank the stable-boy was the only kind being who regarded the poor black boy as a fellow-creature, he interdicted Samboe from ever going into the [[139]]stable, or from speaking to his good-tempered friend.
This was a cruel stroke to poor Samboe, thus to deprive him of the only portion of comfort in his bitter draught of slavery. His mind was in danger of becoming callous from oppression, and in proportion to the degradation he was subjected to. He had no motive for action, but the dread of punishment. Without voluntary agency, a mere passive instrument in the hands of others, his mind would assuredly have become irrecoverably contracted, and the powers of soul even destroyed, had not the very tyranny and caprice which were producing these lamentable results, transferred the suffering boy to the benevolent care of Captain Tremayne, and his young nephew, Charles Roslyn. (See “Twilight Hours improved.”)
Become the property of the latter by the hasty gift of Frederick, how different was the lot of Samboe, from a state of cruel coercion, of degrading slavery, which was daily debasing every manly sentiment! [[140]]
“When, to deep sadness sullenly resign’d,
He feels his body’s bondage in his mind,