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.