seated three negroes, alone and cheerless, in filthy attire, and with subdued and downcast countenances, bespeaking rather the melancholy pensiveness of desponding criminals than the cheerful hilarity of joyful freemen. Unfortunate beings! thought Hues, as he surveyed, with emotions of pity, their forlorn condition; how soon will your delusions vanish! how soon will be written, in letters of blood, the disappointment of all your fond visions and cherished hopes of liberty and independence! There was no white person with them. Murrell inquired what had become of their leader: they replied they had not seen him for several days.

Murrell and Hues left the camp, and continued their way among the cane. They had progressed but a few hundred yards when Murrell paused; and, pointing through the morass to a large cottonwood-tree that rose in height and magnitude above the surrounding growth, and addressing himself to Hues, said, "Do you see yon lofty cottonwood that towers so majestically over all the other trees?" To which Hues replied he did. "That tree," continued Murrell, "stands in the Garden of Eden; and we have but a quarter of a mile to travel before we shall set foot on that happy spot, where many a noble plot has been concerted." They continued along the shore of a lake which they now found themselves approaching, till, finding a canoe that belonged to the clan, they embarked for the island that rose in its midst, and on which stood the cottonwood to which Murrell had been directing the attention of his companion. The island was covered with thick matting cane and a growth of lofty trees,

which, added to a luxuriant underwood, gave it an air of peculiar solemnity and gloom. Full in the midst of it, as if proud of its empire, rose a solitary cabin. It was the grand council-house of the mystic confederacy; in which, protected by the secrecy of surrounding deserts and trackless solitudes, they originated and digested a plan of operations more alarming in its tendency, extensive in its object, and destructive in its effects, than any of which history furnishes a record in all past time.

They landed on a point of the island, and proceeded towards the council-house. The most solemn and interesting reflections occupied the mind of Hues as he followed his mysterious companion towards that dismal, and, as he feared, fated spot. The fond recollections of home, and the many cherished objects that he had left behind; the endearments of kindred and attachment of friends, from whom he might perhaps be sundered for ever; the fertile fields and smiling scenes of his native land, destined to be deluged in the blood of his fellow-countrymen; its cities and villages laid waste by the desolating march of a lawless and murderous band of ruffians and robbers, led on by a poisonous swarm from the "great northern hive" of fanatics and incendiaries, presented to his mind a picture that strung anew his sinking energies, and nerved him to meet with dauntless front an occasion to which before he had felt wellnigh unequal. He resolved-it might be at the peril of his life-to march with determined step boldly to the throne, and learn there the decrees of the dread conspiracy; and never was there an occasion that required more cool

and deliberate firmness. To enter alone the camp of the enemy, listen to their secret councils, and mingle in their debates, with no other protection than a simple disguise, which he had no certain assurance had not been already pierced by the keen glance of their mysterious and veteran leader, called for an effort of moral courage that can only be accounted for, scarcely justified, by a consideration of the dangerous and threatening cloud that hung in such fearful proximity over the destinies of his country.

On entering the council-house they found eleven of their most prominent characters assembled, among whom Hues learned the four following names: James Haines, Perry Doddridge, Samuel Robertson, and Sperlock. After the first salutation and greeting, a general inquiry followed as to their respective prosperity and success; what progress they had been making in the distribution of counterfeit money; what new speculations had been made; were any of the fraternity overtaken or in prison, and needed their assistance; how many proselytes each member had made to the cause; who were candidates for admission, &c. Murrell was interrogated as to the cause of his absence from the council-house at the time designated for meeting the striker with Henning's negroes. He replied that his too early start, occasioned by his great anxiety to redeem his engagement, had brought upon him a most unfortunate suspicion, but urged that he had been detained by the high waters of the Mississippi. They informed him that the negroes had arrived some days before, and were badly frosted. And that, becoming doubtful as to the

time of his return, they had deemed it best to push them, and make sales as early as possible. The usual ceremonies past, all interrogatories answered, and accounts rendered by the members of the clan, Murrell desired the attention of the house; and, taking Hues by the hand, presented him to the fraternity in the following language: "Here, my brave counsellors, this is a counsellor of my own making, and I am not ashamed of the workmanship; let Mr. Hues be examined by whom he may." They all approached and shook hands with Hues, and gave him the two degrees, and the signs by which they were distinguished. He first received the sign of the striker, and afterward that of the grand counsellor. Hues was drilled by them in giving and receiving these signs till he could equal the most skilful.

He was next desired to give his opinion respecting the negro war; and asked what was his idea of their faith and principles. The following is taken from an address which he then proceeded to deliver before them :

"Gentlemen of the Mystic Conspiracy :—

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My youth and inexperience must plead the cause of any deficiency I may betray before this worthy and enlightened congregation. I am better qualified to acquiesce in the measures and sentiments of others than to advance any thing of my own. So recently have I been honoured with the secrets of this august conspiracy, that I am unable to offer any thing original. I have received all my ideas from our honourable dictator; and I should feel myself guilty of presumption were I to offer any amendments to his present deep and

well-arranged plans and purposes. Your schemes, under the guidance of our experienced leader, appear to me practicable and praiseworthy.

My opinion of the faith and principles of this lord ly band may be expressed in few words; and as I have been honoured by the instruction and confidence of our gallant leader, to be whose creature only is my highest aspiration, I flatter myself of its correctness. I consider the members of this fraternity absolved from duty or obligation to all men save their commander. We find ourselves placed in the world surrounded with every thing needful for our comfort and enjoyment; and shall we stand supinely by and see others enjoy those things to which we have an equal right, because an established order of things, which we neither believe in nor respect, forbids our participating in them?

"We consider every thing under the control of our power as our right: more, we consider man, earth, and beast, all as materials subject to the enterprise of our power. Turn your attention to the animal world; do we not see the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, all in their turns falling victims to each other: and, last of all, turn your attention to man, and do we not see him falling a victim to his fellow-man. If there be a God, he has evidently given his sanction to this system of violence, and impressed it upon nature with the force of a law. But, my brave associates, we are sworn foes to law and order, and recognise no obligations apart from those of the fraternity. Be it our boast that we are lords of our own wills, and while we live let us riot in all the pompous luxuries which the spoils of our enemies can afford.

"We are told in history that Rome lost her liberty by the conspiracy of three Romans, on an island of the river Rhenus. And why may not the conspiracy of four hundred Americans in this morass of the Missis