Each of the jury followed the example of my detested rival.  In a few moments the tarring was complete.  Few can see themselves mentally or physically as others see them; but, judging from the remarks made, I am convinced that I must have afforded an entertaining spectacle to the party.  They roared with laughter, and jeered me.  I, however, preserved a silence discreet, and, I flatter myself, dignified.

The negroes, particularly those at whose fustigation I had assisted in the morning, joined in the scoffs of their masters, calling me Bobolitionist, Black Republican, Liberator, and other nicknames by which these simple-hearted and contented creatures express dislike and distrust.

“Bring the cotton!” now cried Mellasys Plickaman.

A bag of that regal product was brought.

“Roll him in it!” said Billy Sangaree.

“Let the Colonel work his own tricks,” Major Licklickin said.  “He’s an artist, he is.”

I must admit that he was an artist.  He fabricated me an elaborate wig of the cotton.  He arranged me a pair of bushy white eyebrows.  He stuck a venerable beard upon my chin, and a moustache upon my lip.  Then he proceeded to indicate my ribs with lines of cotton, and to cap my shoulders with epaulets.  It would be long to describe the fantastic tricks he played with me amid the loud laughter of his crew.

Occasionally, also, I heard suppressed giggles from Saccharissa at the window.

I have no doubt that I should have strangled my late fiancee, if such an act had been consistent with my personal safety.

When I was completely cottoned, in the decorative manner I have described, Mellasys took a banjo from an old negro, and, striking it, not without a certain unsophisticated and barbaric grace appropriate to the instrument, commanded me to dance.

I essayed to do so.  But my heart was heavy; consequently my heels were not light.  My faint attempts at pirouettes were not satisfactory.

“Dance jollier, or we’ll hang you,” said Plickaman.

“No,” says Judge Pyke,—­“the sentence of the Court has been executed.  In the sacred name of Justice I protest against proceeding farther.  Culprit,” continued he, in a voice of thunder, “cut for the North Star, and here’s passage-money for you.”

He stuck a half-eagle into the tarry integument of my person.  Billy Sangaree, Major Licklickin, and others of the more inebriated, imitated him.  My dignity of bearing had evidently made a favorable impression.

I departed amid cheers, some ironical, some no doubt sincere.  But to the last, these chivalric, but prejudiced and misguided gentlemen declined to listen to my explanations.  Mellasys Plickaman had completely perverted their judgments against me.

The last object I saw was Saccharissa, looking more like a Hottentot Venus than ever, waving her handkerchief and kissing her hand to me.  Did she repent her brief disloyalty?  For a moment I thought so, and resolved to lie in wait, return by night, and urge her to fly with me.  But while I hesitated, Mellasys Plickaman drew near her.  She threw herself into his arms, and there, before all the Committee of Fire-Eaters of Bayou La Farouche, she kissed him with those amorphous lips I had often compelled myself to taste.  Faugh!