At last, however, after a long and apparently refreshing
sleep, he awoke suddenly to a full consciousness that it was
indeed his daughter who was watching so patiently by his side.
The presence of his long absent child had a soothing effect upon
Mr. Linwood, and he now recovered rapidly from the sad and almost
hopeless condition in which she had found him. When able to
converse, without danger of a relapse, he told Clotelle of his
fruitless efforts to obtain a clew to her whereabouts after old
Mrs. Miller had sold her to the slave-trader. In answer to his
daughter's inquiries about his family affairs up to the time that
he left America, he said,--
"I blamed my wife for your being sold and sent away, for I thought
she and her mother were acting in collusion; But I afterwards
found that I had blamed her wrongfully. Poor woman! she knew that
I loved your mother, and feeling herself forsaken, she grew
melancholy and died in a decline three years ago."
Here both father and daughter wept at the thought of other days.
When they had recovered their composure, Mr. Linwood went on
again:
"Old Mrs. Miller," said he, "after the death of Gertrude, aware
that she had contributed much toward her unhappiness, took to the
free use of intoxicating drinks, and became the most brutal
creature that ever lived. She whipped her slaves without the
slightest provocation, and seemed to take delight in inventing new
tortures with which to punish them. One night last winter, after
having flogged one of her slaves nearly to death, she returned to
her room, and by some means the bedding took fire, and the house
was in flames before any one was awakened.
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