THE LAST DAY AT CHEE-HA. 229 



ing him in pecuniary difficulty ; and hence the 

 name of ' May's Folly,' which the spot yet bears. 

 He became, from this moment, a soured and dis- 

 contented man ; sometimes hunting the deer on 

 these grounds that we have traversed to-day, with 

 desperate energy, as if he would exterminate the 

 very race and then relapsing into a state of moody 

 listlessness. He grew still more unsocial and 

 secluded as he advanced in life, and men began to 

 whisper strange stories of him. Some hinted that 

 the poisonous influence of French revolutionary 

 atheism had tainted him even in these remote soli- 

 tudes ; that he had mocked at sacred things 

 respected not the consecrated ground and even 

 denied the authority and sanctity of the holy book ! 

 Others said, that in his moody fits, he had treated 

 his slaves with barbarity; and had shrunk back 

 from the public scorn, which such cowardice is sure 

 to provoke, into the seclusion we have noticed. Be 

 the cause what it may, he withdrew himself more 

 and more from the public observation until, at 

 last, he died. Then, it is said, that a few of his con- 

 fidential slaves, to whom he had imparted his desire, 

 complied with his dying injunctions ; w T hich were 

 < to bury his body secretly, in the midst of these 

 wild and melancholy barrens ; to level the grave, 

 and strew it over with leaves, so that no man mis-lit 



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