“Massa Blackee no runaway slave, eh?” inquired the cook. “Unfortunate wretch that I am!” replied Cæsar; “flesh is frail, and liberty's wand is a sugar-cane. I feel driven by present circumstances to confess, that I certainly did escape in the hold of the Saucy Jane, from Demerara, thirty years ago. Fellow-creatures, do not refund me to my old master:—I was the property of Mr. Fairfax.”
“Of my father!” exclaimed Godfrey.
“Miserable me! His son here, too!” said Caesar. “I have been kidnapped,—cheated! I'm a free man, though;—a citizen of the world; a housekeeper, and the father of seven lovely children: do not deprive them of their paternal support. Remember, I stand upon my rights: there are laws even for rabbits; English oak is the offspring of the land of liberty, and consequently I command somebody to put me ashore.”
“How can we put you ashore, my good man?” asked a fellow in the garb of an hostler; “we're cantering along at the rate of twelve miles an hour before the wind; and I've lost sight of land this long time.”
“I don't care for that:—a kangaroo isn't a cockroach, and I demand my privileges. Put back the ship, I say; I'm here by mistake.”
“Put back the ship!” repeated the man in the stableman's dress; “don't make yourself so disagreeable in company. Do you think every body is to be turned to the right-about for you? I've got fifteen mules aboard under my care, and every hour is an object.”
“My good sir,” said Devallé, with a smile which he deemed irresistible, “think of my wife and family.”
“Oh, nonsense! think of my mules.”
“If there were but a being endowed with the sublime light of reason, among you,” exclaimed Caesar, “I would shew by analogy,—yea, I would convince even any muleteer but this gentleman—”
“Now don't fatigue yourself, nor put yourself out of the way,” interrupted the man whom Caesar designated as the muleteer; “we all know, that once free, always free; at least, so I've been told by them that ought to be dead as a nail upon such things: therefore it's only a pleasant trip for you to Demerary and back. Your old master can't take you again.”