and with it his ferocity.  It belonged to the trade, a trade of wanton depravity.  He became the terror of those who assumed to look upon a negro’s sufferings with sympathy, scoffing at the finer feelings of mankind.  Twice had his rapacity been let loose-twice had it nearly brought him to the gallows, or to the tribunal of Judge Lynch.  And now, when completely inured in the traffic of human flesh,—­that traffic which transposes man into a demon, his progress is checked for a while by a false step.

It was this; and this only to the deep disgrace of the freest and happiest country on earth.  A poor orphan girl, like many of her class in our hospitable slave world, had been a mere cast-off upon the community.  She knew nothing of the world, was ignorant, could neither read nor write,—­something quite common in the south, but seldom known in New England.  Thus she became the associate of depraved negroes, and again, served Romescos as a victim.  Not content with this, after becoming tired of her, he secured her in the slave-pen of one of his fellow traders.  Here he kept her for several weeks, closely confined, feeding her with grits.  Eventually “running” her to Vicksburg, he found an accomplice to sign a bill of sale, by which he sold her to a notorious planter, who carried her into the interior.  The wretched girl had qualities which the planter saw might, with a little care, be made extremely valuable in the New Orleans market,—­one was natural beauty.  She was not suitable property for the agricultural department of either a cotton or sugar plantation, nor was she “the stripe” to increase prime stock; hence she must be prepared for the general market.  When qualified according to what the planter knew would suit the fancy market, she was conveyed to New Orleans, a piece of property bright as the very brightest, very handsome, not very intelligent,—­just suited to the wants of bidders.

Here, at the shambles in the crescent city, she remained guarded, and for several weeks was not allowed to go beyond the door-sill; after which a sale was effected of her with the keeper of a brothel, for the good price of thirteen hundred dollars.  In this sink of iniquity she remained nearly two years.  Fearing the ulterior consequences, she dared not assert her rights to freedom, she dared not say she was born free in a free country.  Her disappearance from the village in which she had been reared caused some excitement; but it soon reduced itself to a very trifling affair.  Indeed, white trash like this was considered little else than rubbish, not worth bringing up respectably.  And while suspicion pointed to Romescos, as the person who could account for her mysterious disappearance, such was the fear of his revenge that no one dared be the accuser.  Quietly matters rested, poor virtue was mean merchandise, had its value, could be bought and sold-could be turned to various uses, except enlisting the sympathies of those who study it as a market commodity.  A few days passed and