Supper was then announced, and all began to prepare for the sumptuous feast.  It being the pride of slaves to imitate the manners of their master and mistress, especially in the ceremonies of the table, all was conducted with great propriety and good order.  The food was well cooked, and in a very plentiful supply.  They had also managed in some way, to get a good quantity of excellent wine, which was sipped in the most approved and modern style.  Every dusky face was lighted up, and every eye sparkled with joy.  However ill fed they might have been, here, for once, there was plenty.  Suffering and toil was forgotten, and they all seemed with one accord to give themselves up to the intoxication of pleasurable amusement.

House servants were of course, “the stars” of the party; all eyes were turned to them to see how they conducted, for they, among slaves, are what a military man would call “fugle-men.”  The field hands, and such of them as have generally been excluded from the dwelling of their owners, look to the house servant as a pattern of politeness and gentility.  And indeed, it is often the only method of obtaining any knowledge of the manners of what is called “genteel society;” hence, they are ever regarded as a privileged class; and are sometimes greatly envied, while others are bitterly hated.  And too often justly, for many of them are the most despicable tale-bearers and mischief-makers, who will, for the sake of the favor of his master or mistress, frequently betray his fellow-slave, and by tattling, get him severely whipped; and for these acts of perfidy, and sometimes downright falsehood, he is often rewarded by his master, who knows it is for his interest to keep such ones about him; though he is sometimes obliged, in addition to a reward, to send him away, for fear of the vengeance of the betrayed slaves.  In the family of his master, the example of bribery and treachery is ever set before him, hence it is, that insurrections and stampedes are so generally detected.  Such slaves are always treated with more affability than others, for the slaveholder is well aware that he stands over a volcano, that may at any moment rock his foundation to the center, and with one mighty burst of its long suppressed fire, sweep him and his family to destruction.  When he lies down at night, he knows not but that ere another morning shall dawn, he may be left mangled and bleeding, and at the mercy of those maddened slaves whom he has so long ruled with a rod of iron.

But the supper, like other events, came to an end at last.  The expensive table service, with other things, which had been secretly brought from the “great house,” was hurriedly cleansed by the slaves, and carefully returned.  The floor was again cleared, the violin sounded, and soon they were performing another “break down,” with all the wild abandon of the African character,—­in the very midst of which, the music suddenly ceased, and the old musician assumed a listening attitude.  Every foot was motionless; every face terrified, and every ear listening for the cause of the alarm.