THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 325 



Tour pale tyrant is gone — he was my tyrant, too ! With his 

 foot upon your neck, he clutched with bloody hands at mine. 

 Then I was furious because I must be free ! You come to 

 console — because the oppressed have learned to know what 

 gentle pity is. You have Cain's mark upon your clouded 

 brow — ^but so has truth. There is the allegory ! ' The meek 

 shall inherit the earth!' — 'He that was first shall be last!' 

 That brow shall grow bright once more — the curse shall be 

 annealed ! — It shall grow pure and white with love and truth 

 — not pale of fear — ^livid with murder, and flushed with the 

 ghastly mark of bloody hands ! I hate my guilty race !" she 

 continued to murmur in a lower voice — " I hate our ferocious 

 cowardice ! We dare not be men like the hunting fathers of 

 thy hunted race — ^the hairy children of the accursed Cain ! 

 We dare not meet brute force with brute force, and hand to 

 claw grapple with the lion in his might ! We sneak behind 

 our cunning, and pervert the laws of mechanics — which govern 

 the Universe, rule the destinies of men and the earth — into 

 the horrible agents of wholesale destruction from behind our 

 sheltered ramparts I" 



" Why, what is the woman ranting about ?" said the Planter 

 nervously — turning to me with a bewildered look. " I 'most 

 believe she is a witch myself! Who ever heard such wild 

 gabble? And yet she talks very plain !" 



She had stopped when he spoke, and deliberately turned 

 her eyes upon him, and I saw nothing more in their expression 

 now than I had noted from the first — a sort of calm, intense 

 enthusiasm or stern elevation. So far as appearances went, 

 the crazy fit had passed, and she, if not restored to sanity, 

 had at least returned to her habitual mood and manner. She 

 spoke very coldly — 



" Yes ! — ' ranting about ?' — a convenient word that ! I 

 rant when you either will not or dare not understand ! I 

 rant when I tell you truths you have not the soul or the 

 heart to face ! I rant when I tell you that you are either an 



