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358 UNCLE TOM’S CABIN; OR,

there came over his sleep a shadow, a horror, an apprehension of
something dreadful hanging over him. It was his mother’s
shroud, he thought; but Cassy had it, holding it up, and showing
it to him. He heard a confused noise of screams and groanings ;
and, with it all, he knew he was asleep, and he struggled to wake
himself. He was half awake. He was sure something was
coming into his room. He knew the door was opening, but he
could not stir hand or foot. At last he turned, with a start; the
door was open, and he saw a hand putting out his light.

It was a cloudy, misty moonlight, and there he saw it !—some-
thing white, gliding in! He heard the still rustle of its ghostly
garments. It stood still by his bed: a cold hand touched his; a
voice said, three times, in a low, fearful whisper, ‘‘ Come! come !
come!” And, while he lay sweating with terror, he knew not
when or how, the thing was gone. He sprang out of bed, and
pulled at the door. It was shut and locked, and the man fell
down in a swoon.

After this, Legree became a harder drinker than ever before.
He no longer drank cautiously, prudently, but imprudently and
recklessly.

There were reports around the country, soon after, that he was
sick and dying. Excess had brought on that frightful disease that
seems to throw the lurid shadows of a coming retribution back
into the present life. None could bear the horrors of that sick
room, when he raved and screamed, and spoke of sights which
almost stopped the blood of those who heard him; and at his
dying bed stood a stern, white, inexorable figure, saying, “ Come!
come ! come !” f

By a singular coincidence, on the very night that this vision ap-
peared to Legree, the house-door was found open in the morning,
and some of the negroes had seen two white figures gliding down
the avenue towards the high-road.

It was near sun-rise when Cassy and Emmeline paused, for a
moment, in a little knot of trees near the town.

Cassy was dressed after the manner of the Creole Spanish ladies

4—wholly in black. A small black bonnet on her head, covered
by a veil thick with embroidery, concealed her face. It had been
agreed that, in their escape, she was to personate the character of
a Oreole lady, and Emmeline that of her servant.
- Brought up from early life in connexion with the highest
society, the language, movements, and air of Cassy were all in
agreement with this idea ; and she had still enough remaining
with her of a once splendid wardrobe, and sets of jewels, to
enable her to personate the thing to advantage.

She stopped in the outskirts of the town, where she had noticed
tranks for sale, and purchased a handsome one. This she re-
quested the man to send along with her. And, accordingly, thus
escorted by a boy wheeling her trunk, and Emmeline behind her,

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