as soon communicated to Montague, pluming himself a generous fellow for being first to disclose what he supposed a valuable secret.  Indeed, such was the force of association on this fellow, that he could not bring his mind to believe such a match possible, unless the fair fugitive (of the circumstances of whose escape he was well posted) had, by the exercise of strategy, imposed herself on the gentleman.  The reader may easily picture to himself the contempt in which Montague held the fellow’s generous expos‚; but he as readily became sensible of the nature of the recognition, and of its placing him in a dangerous position.  At first he thought of sending his wife and child immediately to her mother, in Nassau; but having intimations from the fellow that the matter might be reconciled with golden eagles, he chose rather to adopt that plan of procuring peace and quietness.  With a goodly number of these gold eagles, then, did he from time to time purchase the knave’s secrecy; but, with that singular propensity so characteristic of the race, was he soon found making improper advances to the wife of the man whose money he received for keeping secret her early history.  This so exasperated Montague, that in addition to sealing the fellow’s lips with the gold coin, he threatened his back with stripes of the raw hide, in payment of his insolence.  Albeit, nothing but the fear of exposure, the consequences of which must prove fatal, caused him to bear with pain the insult while withholding payment of this well-merited debt.  With keen instincts, and a somewhat cultivated taste for the beautiful, Finch might with becoming modesty have pleaded them in extenuation of his conduct; but the truth was, he almost unconsciously found himself deeply enamoured of the fair woman, without being able to look upon her as a being elevated above that menial sphere his vulgar mind conditioned for her when in slavery.  Here, then, the reader will more readily conceive than we can describe the grievous annoyances our otherwise happy couple were subjected to; nor, if a freeman’s blood course in his veins, can he fail to picture the punishment it so dearly merited.  However, it came to pass that in the course of a few months this fellow disappeared suddenly, and nearly at the same time was Montague summoned to New Orleans to direct some complicated affairs of his brother, who lay a victim to that fearful scourge which so often devastates that city of balmy breezes.  After due preparations for an absence of some two months, Montague set out on his journey; but had not been forty-eight hours gone, when Finch again made his appearance, and taking advantage of a husband’s absence, pressed his advances with grossest insult, threatening at the same time to convey information of the discovery to Pringle Blowers.  Successively did these importunities fail to effect Mr. Finch’s purpose; but he was of an indomitable temper, and had strong faith in that maxim of his race, which may be transcribed thus:—­“If