"This may seem too bold to you, Hues; but that is what I glory in. All the crimes I have ever committed have been of the most daring; and I have been successful in all my attempts as yet; and I am confident that I will be victorious in this matter, as to the robberies which I have in contemplation; and I will have the pleasure and honour of seeing and knowing that by my management I have glutted the earth with more human gore, and destroyed more property, than

would henceforth consider a slave country an unsafe place to make investments; and thousands would leave the country. This state of affairs would naturally diminish the value of slave property, and disgust even the tyrant with the policy of slavery; while the country would be thus in a state of anarchy and poverty. Their banking institutions and credit sunk into disrepute with the commercial world, it would be an easy matter to effect the total abolition of slavery.

66

Desperate cases require desperate remedies.

"And suppose the blacks should refuse to serve their tyrants any longer what right would the general government have to interfere with the internal disputes of the citizens of a state respecting her state laws? The blacks would not be rebelling against the general government, neither would they be invaders: but Americans, and citizens of a state refusing obedience to a state law and power that are, before God, utterly null and void: being an audacious usurpation of his divine prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of nature, and a presumptuous transgression of the holy commandments, which should be abrogated by the Christian world. Would not the general government have more right to interfere in behalf of the injured and oppressed than in that of the tyrants and oppressors? The United States' troops would be finely employed in the southern plantations forcing obedience to the unjust laws of a few tyrants and manstealers.

"The southerners are great men for state rights, and in a case like the above, we would give them an opportunity to exercise their sovereign functions. Make slavery unpopular with a majority of the people of the United States, and southern tyrants will find a poor comforter in the general government."

any

other robber who has ever lived in America, or the known world. I look on the American people as my common enemy. They have disgraced me, and they can do no more. My life is nothing to me, and it shall be spent as their devoted enemy. My clan is strong, brave, and experienced, and rapidly increasing in strength every day. I should not be surprised if we were to be two thousand strong by the 25th of Decem ber, 1835 and, in addition to this, I have the advantage of any other leader of banditti that has ever preceded me, for at least one half of my grand council are men of high standing, and many of them in honourable and lucrative offices. Should any thing leak out by chance, these men would crush it at once, by ridiculing the idea, and the fears of the people. They would soon make it a humbug, a cock-and-bull story; and all things would be accounted for to the satisfaction of the community in short order. These fellows make strong pillars in our mystic mansion. Hues, how do you suppose I understood your disposition so quick, and drew you out on the subject of speculation, so that I could get your sentiments in so short a time after we got in company?"

H. "That is what I do not understand, and I can only account for it as I would many other of your unrivalled performances, by attributing it to your great knowledge and experience of the world and of mankind."

M. "I had not been in company with you more than two hours before I knew you as well as if I had made you, and could have trusted my life in your hands. A little practice is all you want, and you can look into the very heart and thoughts of a man.

"The art of learning men is nothing when you once see how it is managed. You must commence in this way: Begin to tell of some act of villany, and notice the answers and countenance of the man as you go on with your story; and if you discover him to lean a little, you advance a little; but if he recedes, you withdraw, and commence some other subject; and, if you have carried the matter a little too far before you have sounded him, by being too anxious, make a jest of it, and pass it off in that way."

H. 66 I cannot see how you will provide the negroes with arms to fight with."

supplies of

M. "We have a considerable amount of money in the hands of our treasurers, for the purpose of purchasing arms and ammunition to fit out the companies that are to attack the cities and banks; and we will manage to get possession of different arsenals, and supply ourselves from every source that may offer. We can get from every house we enter more or less this kind, until we shall be well supplied. The negroes that scour the country settlements will not want many arms until they can get them from the houses they destroy, as an axe, a club, or knife will do to murder a family at a late hour in the night, when all are sleeping. There will be but little defence made the first night by the country people, as all will be confusion and alarm for the first day or two, until the whites can imbody."

It was now a late hour in the night, and Hues, finding himself suffering very much from the cold (for the weather was unusually bitter), and considerably jaded by fatigue, insisted on seeking lodgings. Murrell con

sented, though he had never once complained, or seemed to feel the effects of the keen cutting wind that had been preying so uncomfortably upon the frame of his less hardened companion. They accordingly sought the first house on their road that exhibited any thing like an air of comfort, and solicited quarters ; and, so soon as they had restored the circulation before a blazing fire, they were lighted to their chambers; but a few moments convinced them that by far the most comfortable quarters were in the neighbourhood of the fire they had left; all else presenting a cold, dreary, and comfortless aspect. They however retired with a determination to live, though there was but little prospect of sleeping, through the night.

CHAPTER III.

SCARCE had rising day scattered the shadows of twilight from the face of nature on the following morning, ere Murrell and his companion were up and away on their journey-glad to catch the first opportunity of making their escape from the inhospitable accommodations of their otherwise agreeable landlord. Murrell expressed great anxiety to reach Arkansas that night; urging, that his business was of much importance, and would suffer by his absence.

Having now disclosed his plans to his young friend, and, as he thought, completely captivated his feelings and delighted his imagination with bright visions of

future and inexhaustible wealth, Murrell began now to look upon him as an undoubted proselyte to his cause, and the willing associate of his bloody and diabolical machinations. His new but hopeful pupil had, as if by enchantment, in the space of two short days, ripened into his bosom and confidential friend, the pride of his fiendish heart, and the object of his highest admiration. He proposed a brief narrative of his life from the age of ten years, and upon Hues expressing a willingness to become a hearer, proceeded after the following

manner :

Murrell. "I was born in middle Tennessee. My parents had not much property, but they were intelligent people; and my father was an honest man I expect, and tried to raise me honest, but I think none the better of him for that. My mother was of the pure grit; she learned me and all her children to steal as soon as we could walk, and would hide for us whenever she could. At ten years old I was not a bad hand. The first good haul I made was from a pedler, who lodged at my father's house one night. I had several trunk-keys, and in the night I unlocked one of his trunks, and took a bolt of linen and several other things, and then locked the trunk. The pedler went off before he discovered the trick: I thought that was not a bad figure I had made. About this time some pains were taken with my education. At the age of sixteen I played a trick on a merchant in that country. I walked into his store one day, and he spoke to me very politely, calling me by the name of a young man who had a rich father, and invited me to trade with him. I thanked him, and requested him to put