| The party of horsemen came up to the fence, and, with mingled shouts and oaths, were dismounting, to prepare to follow themA few moments? scrambling brought them to the top of the ledge; the path then passed between a narrow defile, where only one could walk at a time, till suddenly they came to a rift or chasm more than a yard in breadth, and beyond which lay a pile of rocks, separate from the rest of the ledge, standing full thirty feet high, with its sides steep and perpendicular as those of a castlePhineas easily leaped the chasm, and sat down the boy on a smooth, flat platform of crisp white moss, that covered the top of the rock
?Over with you!? he called; ?spring, now, once, for your lives!? said he, as one after another sprang acrossSeveral fragments of loose stone formed a kind of breast-work, which sheltered their position from the observation of those below
?Well, here we all are,? said Phineas, peeping over the stone breast-work to watch the assailants, who were coming tumultuously up under the rocks?Let ?em get us, if they canWhoever comes here has to walk single file between those two rocks, in fair range of your pistols, boys, d?ye see??
?I do see,? said George! ?and now, as this matter is ours, let us take all the risk, and do all the fighting
?Thee?s quite welcome to do the fighting, George,? said Phineas, chewing some checkerberry-leaves as he spoke; ?but I may have the fun of looking on, I supposeBut see, these fellows are kinder debating down there, and looking up, like hens when they are going to fly up on to the roostHadn?t thee better give ?em a word of advice, before they come up, just to tell ?em handsomely they?ll be shot if they do??
The party beneath, now more apparent in the light of the dawn, consisted of our old acquaintances, Tom Loker and Marks, with two constables, and a posse consisting of such rowdies at the last tavern as could be engaged by a little brandy to go and help the fun of trapping a set of niggers
?Well, Tom, yer coons are farly treed,? said one
?Yes, I see ?em go up right here,? said Tom; ?and here?s a pathI?m for going right upThey can?t jump down in a hurry, and it won?t take long to ferret ?em out
?But, Tom, they might fire at us from behind the rocks,? said Marks?That would be ugly, you know
?Ugh!? said Tom, with a sneer?Always for saving your skin, Marks! No danger! niggers are too plaguy scared!?
?I don?t know why I shouldn?t save my skin,? said Marks?It?s the best I?ve got; and niggers do fight like the devil, sometimes
At this moment, George appeared on the top of a rock above them, and, speaking in a calm, clear voice, said,
?Gentlemen, who are you, down there, and what do you want??
?We want a party of runaway niggers,? said Tom Loker?One George Harris, and Eliza Harris, and their son, and Jim Selden, and an old womanWe?ve got the officers, here, and a warrant to take ?em; and we?re going to have ?em, tooD?ye hear? An?t you George Harris, that belongs to MrHarris, of Shelby county, Kentucky??
?I am George HarrisHarris, of Kentucky, did call me his propertyBut now I?m a free man, standing on God?s free soil; and my wife and my child I claim as mineJim and his mother are hereWe have arms to defend ourselves, and we mean to do itYou can come up, if you like; but the first one of you that comes within the range of our bullets is a dead man, and the next, and the next; and so on till the last
?O, come! come!? said a short, puffy man, stepping forward, and blowing his nose as he did so?Young man, this an?t no kind of talk at all for youYou see, we?re officers of justiceWe?ve got the law on our side, and the power, and so forth; so you?d better give up peaceably, you see; for you?ll certainly have to give up, at last
?I know very well that you?ve got the law on your side, and the power,? said George, bitterly?You mean to take my wife to sell in New Orleans, and put my boy like a calf in a trader?s pen, and send Jim?s old mother to the brute that whipped and abused her before, because he couldn?t abuse her sonYou want to send Jim and me back to be whipped and tortured, and ground down under the heels of them that you call masters; and your laws will bear you out in it,?more shame for you and them! But you haven?t got usWe don?t own your laws; we don?t own your country; we stand here as free, under God?s sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we?ll fight for our liberty till we die
George stood out in fair sight, on the top of the rock, as he made his declaration of independence; the glow of dawn gave a flush to his swarthy cheek, and bitter indignation and despair gave fire to his dark eye; and, as if appealing from man to the justice of God, he raised his hand to heaven as he spoke
If it had been only a Hungarian youth, now bravely defending in some mountain fastness the retreat of fugitives escaping from Austria into America, this would have been sublime heroism; but as it was a youth of African descent, defending the retreat of fugitives through America into Canada, of course we are too well instructed and patriotic to see any heroism in it; and if any of our readers do, they must do it on their own private shop responsibility |
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