252 



CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 



this information, I forbore to say a single word to the judge, 

 and entered into the necessary explanation with Maria. 

 She burst into a flood of tears, observing . that the prisoner 

 was first cousin to the sister-in-law of one of her female com- 

 panions, and that I ought to set about in good earnest to de- 

 liver him from his confinement. Teopiste, who saw the 

 negress weep, grew angry, remarking that it behoved me 

 to take an interest in the affair ; and that it was sufficient I 

 had been requested to do so by the female who had reared my 

 child. 



To my misfortune, Democracia entered at the mo- 

 ment. Without wishing me a good day, and without any 

 preface, she called me a brute and an ungrateful monster, 

 telling me that I was not justified in giving displeasure to 

 a wet-nurse ; that I ought to consider her as a second mo- 

 ther ; that persons of the highest dignity pledged themselves, 

 and moved heaven and earth, to oblige not only their ser- 

 vants, but those whom they had taken under their pro- 

 te6lion ; and that if I was not capable of undertaking this 

 good office for Maria, and of procuring the deliverance 

 of the negro recommended by her, she would go in per- 

 son, and would take care to be accompanied by my wife, 

 and by Clarissa herself. This unfortunate child, stunned 

 by the clamours of her grandmother, and by the lamentations 

 of her nurse, wept bitterly ; and all the little ones did the 

 like. 



I was so much confounded by this scene, that. I had not 

 a word to offer in reply : my head became giddy, and I was 

 agitated beyond measure. To avoid sensations of a still more 



powerful 



