CHAPTER V. Dusky and radiant as the night, Of that gay festal band.-BALLAD. CHRISTMAS was at hand-the great saturnalia of the South-when for a few brief days the slave is permitted to revel in some of the joys of freedom, and, as in the ancient festivals celebrated in honour of the father of the gods, the master and mistress act a subordinate part. Whatever services are required during these gala days are liberally rewarded, though they may be spontaneously offered. An unprejudiced stranger, who wished to see some of the rare lights that illumine the darkness of slavery, would rejoice in the opportunity of visiting Bellamy Place during the Christmas holidays, for there, at least, the proprietors strove to render as happy as might be, the dependents bound to them by the degrading and wretched system, as slavery under its best aspects ever must be. For two or three days previous, Mrs Bellamy, assisted by Katy, was assorting the presents she had prepared for the household slaves. Those who were called the field negroes were remembered by the bounty of the master, who never assigned them a niggard boon. And with that thoughtless indifference to the future, partly the result of the cheerful, contented disposition of the negro, but far more the product of the unnatural system of dependent bondage by which he is made no better than the beasts of the field, equally the property of his owner, the poor negro slave now abandoned himself to all the license of a carnival. The gifts of Mrs Bellamy generally consisted of a handsome calico dress, 'a radiant handkerchief, and those little showy, fancy articles that set off to advantage their shining and jetty skins. It was the morning of the first day of Christmas week, and with the earliest faint auroral streak, merry voices were tumbling on the top of each other, and making the house ring with "Christmas gift, master!" "Christmas gift, mistress!" When a master and mistress so kind as Mr and Mrs Bellamy are thus aroused from their slumbers, the gift-seekers are never sent empty away, but the ready packets are tossed to the right owners, or a promise given that is faithfully kept. But it is not the master and mistress alone who are thus honoured. Every member of the house, whoever he may be, is saluted by the same greeting; and when the white population are satisfied with the honours they have received, the negroes run headlong against each other, repeating, with the utmost pitch of their lungs, the annual, unwearied cry of "Christmas gift!" Then follows the exulting shout, "I've caught you!" with the climax of a laugh such as only a negro can give. The holidays were ushered in with unusual excitement. as the nuptials of King and Cora were to be celebrated with all the brilliancy befitting such distinguished personages. The marriage of the favourite household slave of a wealthy planter is not unfrequently made an occasion for a negro holiday by the better class of slaveholders, though the tie is one which only holds so long as it may suit his interest or convenience to allow. Here, however, were two favourites, and of course preparations were made accordingly. Mr Bellamy, at the time his own mansion was built, had erected a large hall for a dancing-room for his negroes, and every night of the annual festival the animating strains of the violin encouraged the poor slaves in one of their most favourite recreations. The wedding of Cora was to be succeeded by a ball, to which the negroes of the neighbouring plantations were invited, and for which numerous invitations had already been circulated. The only drawback to the hilarity of the occasion was the Carthaginian General. Though he was apparently subdued by the mild influence of his mistress, and was really so for the time, his passions were only slumbering. Like the chained mastiff that guarded his master's yard, they had lost none of their strength, but were ready to break loose and deal destruction around them. Following the counsels of Mrs Bellamy, Cora put aside her little, coquettish, triumphant airs, and treated him with real kindness, but it seemed to have no effect on his dark and sullen mood. Mrs Bellamy did not express the apprehensions that filled her mind, but she had a sad misgiving that something would happen to sadden the prospects of the beautiful mulatto. Still she adorned her with the bridal dress, which enhanced, as it usually does, the natural beauty of the wearer. As she stood before her mistress in her bridal attire, smiling under her pleased and admiring gaze, a sudden sadness clouded her brow, and tears gathered unbidden into her soft, black eyes. "I do not know what is the reason, mistress," said she, "but I feel so bad to-night; I do think something is going to happen to me or King; I have seen so many bad signs lately." "Oh, Cora, you must not believe in signs," said Katy. "I cannot help it, Miss Katy. I dreamed I was married last night, and that is a sure sign of a funeral; and the owls have been hooting on an old tree back of the kitchen for more than a week." "But you know there is a charm in a wedding-ring, Cora, that nothing can resist, so you must hasten to put one on," said Mrs Bellamy, in a reassuring tone. The ceremony was performed in a back sitting-room, which was decorated with holly and pine boughs, so that it looked like an evergreen bower. King would not have exchanged situations with Prince Albert, or any potentate of Europe; and the black retinue that surrounded this son and daughter of Africa, whose paler complexions shewed they approached a fairer race, gazed upon them with as much admiration as England's royal pair ever inspired. But when the doors of the supperroom were thrown open, a frame building contiguous to the ball-room, the coup d'œil was dazzling as a sunburst, The table was brilliantly lighted and adorned with all the flowers a mild southern winter so liberally supplies. Cakes ornamented and frosted, oranges, confectionaries, and all the luxuries customary on such occasions, covered the board. These dainties were partly supplied by Mrs Bellamy and partly by the negroes themselves, who took a delight in appropriating some of their own earnings to adorn the marriage-feast. Cora, who sought in vain among the wedding guests for the powerful form of Hannibal, suffered her spirits to rebound from the weight that had oppressed them, and gaily laughed and blushed, and gave herself fully to the enjoyment of woman's triumph hour. The transition from the supper to the ballroom was followed by greater hilarity and more unrestrained freedom. Wilder and wilder grew the mirth and excitement, till the floor seemed to quiver beneath the bounding, flying feet that kept time to the quick strains of the viol and the tambourine. It was inspiring to look on the master of the last instrument; the way he rattled on the parchment was quite supernatural. Shutting his eyes and opening his mouth, and throwing back his head, his knuckles rang like brazen balls on the resounding instrument. Sometimes he would rap it thunderingly with his head, then whirling it with almost inconceivable rapidity to his feet, tap it with his heels and toes, then it would be dancing on his elbows, like a thing of life and instinct. Not satisfied with this surpassing display of agility, he would throw the tambourine on the floor, and whirling it round with the end of his forefinger, its little bells would jingle like a New England sleigh. All this time he seemed as if in a magnetic |