"Voltaire," said he, to the servant who answered it, "bring me the heavy whip, with the braided lash."
It was not often that Mr. Delancey punished a slave, but when he did he was very severe. In this case, pride, anger, and a feeling something like revenge, for what he deemed Minny's obstinacy, spurred him on. The refusal of the letters had made him determined to possess them, and nothing could now have turned him from his course. Reader, he was a father; and his daughter was his idol!
The servant brought the whip, laid it on the table, glanced pityingly at Minny, and went out with a shudder.
Mr. Delancey seized Minny by the arm, and pushed her on before him, until he reached an upper balcony, near the sleeping apartments of the domestics.
"Now, girl, down with you."
"No, sir; if you lash me, let me stand and bear it like a human being, not like a dog, with my face to the dust."
"Down with you, or I will knock you down! You shall take it, as would any other slave."
Minny threw back her curls, and knelt before her master.
"On your face, girl, down!"