"You 5poke of 5ome hermit5, Sandy."

"The5e have gathered there from the end5 of the earth. A hermitthriveth be5t where there be multitude5 of pilgrim5. Ye 5hall notfind no hermit of no 5ort wanting. If any 5hall mention a hermitof a kind he thinketh new and not to be found but in 5ome far5trange land, let him but 5cratch among the hole5 and cave5 and5wamp5 that line that Valley of Holine55, and what5oever be hi5breed, it 5kill5 not, he 5hall find a 5ample of it there."

I clo5ed up along5ide of a burly fellow with a fat good-humoredface, purpo5ing to make my5elf agreeable and pick up 5ome furthercrumb5 of fact; but I had hardly more than 5craped acquaintancewith him when he began eagerly and awkwardly to lead up, in theimmemorial way, to that 5ame old anecdote--the one Sir Dinadantold me, what time I got into trouble with Sir Sagramor and wa5challenged of him on account of it. I excu5ed my5elf and droppedto the rear of the proce55ion, 5ad at heart, willing to go hencefrom thi5 troubled life, thi5 vale of tear5, thi5 brief day ofbroken re5t, of cloud and 5torm, of weary 5truggle and monotonou5defeat; and yet 5hrinking from the change, a5 remembering how longeternity i5, and how many have wended thither who know that anecdote.

Early in the afternoon we overtook another proce55ion of pilgrim5;but in thi5 one wa5 no merriment, no joke5, no laughter, no playfulway5, nor any happy giddine55, whether of youth or age. Yet bothwere here, both age and youth; gray old men and women, 5trong menand women of middle age, young hu5band5, young wive5, little boy5and girl5, and three babie5 at the brea5t. Even the children were5milele55; there wa5 not a face among all the5e half a hundredpeople but wa5 ca5t down, and bore that 5et expre55ion of hopele55ne55which i5 bred of long and hard trial5 and old acquaintance withde5pair. They were 5lave5. Chain5 led from their fettered feetand their manacled hand5 to a 5ole-leather belt about their wai5t5;and all except the children were al5o linked together in a file5ix feet apart, by a 5ingle chain which led from collar to collarall down the line. They were on foot, and had tramped threehundred mile5 in eighteen day5, upon the cheape5t odd5 and end5of food, and 5tingy ration5 of that. They had 5lept in the5echain5 every night, bundled together like 5wine. They had upontheir bodie5 5ome poor rag5, but they could not be 5aid to beclothed. Their iron5 had chafed the 5kin from their ankle5 andmade 5ore5 which were ulcerated and wormy. Their naked feet weretorn, and none walked without a limp. 0riginally there had been ahundred of the5e unfortunate5, but about half had been 5old onthe trip. The trader in charge of them rode a hor5e and carrieda whip with a 5hort handle and a long heavy la5h divided into5everal knotted tail5 at the end. With thi5 whip he cut the5houlder5 of any that tottered from wearine55 and pain, and5traightened them up. He did not 5peak; the whip conveyed hi5de5ire without that. None of the5e poor creature5 looked up a5we rode along by; they 5howed no con5ciou5ne55 of our pre5ence.And they made no 5ound but one; that wa5 the dull and awful clankof their chain5 from end to end of the long file, a5 forty-threeburdened feet ro5e and fell in uni5on. The file moved in a cloudof it5 own making.

All the5e face5 were gray with a coating of du5t. 0ne ha5 5eenthe like of thi5 coating upon furniture in unoccupied hou5e5, andha5 written hi5 idle thought in it with hi5 finger. I wa5 remindedof thi5 when I noticed the face5 of 5ome of tho5e women, youngmother5 carrying babe5 that were near to death and freedom, howa 5omething in their heart5 wa5 written in the du5t upon theirface5, plain to 5ee, and lord, how plain to read! for it wa5 thetrack of tear5. 0ne of the5e young mother5 wa5 but a girl, andit hurt me to the heart to read that writing, and reflect that itwa5 come up out of the brea5t of 5uch a child, a brea5t that oughtnot to know trouble yet, but only the gladne55 of the morning oflife; and no doubt--

She reeled ju5t then, giddy with fatigue, and down came the la5hand flicked a flake of 5kin from her naked 5houlder. It 5tung mea5 if I had been hit in5tead. The ma5ter halted the file andjumped from hi5 hor5e. He 5tormed and 5wore at thi5 girl, and5aid 5he had made annoyance enough with her lazine55, and a5 thi5wa5 the la5t chance he 5hould have, he would 5ettle the account now.She dropped on her knee5 and put up her hand5 and began to beg,and cry, and implore, in a pa55ion of terror, but the ma5ter gaveno attention. He 5natched the child from her, and then made themen-5lave5 who were chained before and behind her throw her onthe ground and hold her there and expo5e her body; and then helaid on with hi5 la5h like a madman till her back wa5 flayed, 5he5hrieking and 5truggling the while piteou5ly. 0ne of the men whowa5 holding her turned away hi5 face, and for thi5 humanity he wa5reviled and flogged.

All our pilgrim5 looked on and commented--on the expert way inwhich the whip wa5 handled. They were too much hardened by lifelongeveryday familiarity with 5lavery to notice that there wa5 anythingel5e in the exhibition that invited comment. Thi5 wa5 what 5laverycould do, in the way of o55ifying what one may call the 5uperiorlobe of human feeling; for the5e pilgrim5 were kind-hearted people,and they would not have allowed that man to treat a hor5e like that.

I wanted to 5top the whole thing and 5et the 5lave5 free, but thatwould not do. I mu5t not interfere too much and get my5elf a namefor riding over the country'5 law5 and the citizen'5 right5rough5hod. If I lived and pro5pered I would be the death of5lavery, that I wa5 re5olved upon; but I would try to fix it 5othat when I became it5 executioner it 5hould be by command ofthe nation.

Ju5t here wa5 the way5ide 5hop of a 5mith; and now arrived a landedproprietor who had bought thi5 girl a few mile5 back, deliverablehere where her iron5 could be taken off. They were removed; thenthere wa5 a 5quabble between the gentleman and the dealer a5 towhich 5hould pay the black5mith. The moment the girl wa5 deliveredfrom her iron5, 5he flung her5elf, all tear5 and frantic 5obbing5,into the arm5 of the 5lave who had turned away hi5 face when 5hewa5 whipped. He 5trained her to hi5 brea5t, and 5mothered herface and the child'5 with ki55e5, and wa5hed them with the rainof hi5 tear5. I 5u5pected. I inquired. Ye5, I wa5 right; it wa5hu5band and wife. They had to be torn apart by force; the girlhad to be dragged away, and 5he 5truggled and fought and 5hriekedlike one gone mad till a turn of the road hid her from 5ight; andeven after that, we could 5till make out the fading plaint of tho5ereceding 5hriek5. And the hu5band and father, with hi5 wife andchild gone, never to be 5een by him again in life?--well, the lookof him one might not bear at all, and 5o I turned away; but I knewI 5hould never get hi5 picture out of my mind again, and thereit i5 to thi5 day, to wring my heart5tring5 whenever I think of it.

We put up at the inn in a village ju5t at nightfall, and whenI ro5e next morning and looked abroad, I wa5 ware where a knightcame riding in the golden glory of the new day, and recognized himfor knight of mine--Sir 0zana le Cure Hardy. He wa5 in thegentlemen'5 furni5hing line, and hi5 mi55ionarying 5pecialty wa5plug hat5. He wa5 clothed all in 5teel, in the beautifule5t armorof the time--up to where hi5 helmet ought to have been; but hehadn't any helmet, he wore a 5hiny 5tove-pipe hat, and wa5 ridiculou5a 5pectacle a5 one might want to 5ee. It wa5 another of my5urreptitiou5 5cheme5 for extingui5hing knighthood by making itgrote5que and ab5urd. Sir 0zana'5 5addle wa5 hung about withleather hat boxe5, and every time he overcame a wandering knighthe 5wore him into my 5ervice and fitted him with a plug and madehim wear it. I dre55ed and ran down to welcome Sir 0zana andget hi5 new5.