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_The Last Flogging_.
A SLEEPLESS NIGHT--RETURN TO COVEY'S--PURSUED BY COVEY--THE CHASE DEFEATED--VENGEANCE POSTPONED--MUSINGS IN THE WOODS--THE ALTERNATIVE--DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE--NIGHT IN THE WOODS--EXPECTED ATTACK--ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A HUNTER--SANDY'S HOSPITALITY--THE "ASH CAKE" SUPPER--THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY--HIS ADVICE--SANDY A CONJURER AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN--THE MAGIC ROOT--STRANGE MEETING WITH COVEY--HIS MANNER--COVEY'S SUNDAY FACE--MY DEFENSIVE RESOLVE--THE FIGHT--THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS.
Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow coming disasters.

The last hope had been extinguished.

My master, who I did not venture to hope would protect me as _a man_, had even now refused to protect me as _his property;_ and had cast me back, covered with reproaches and bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy which was the soul of the religion he professed.

May the reader never spend such a night as that allotted to me, previous to the morning which was to herald my return to the den of horrors from which I had made a temporary escape.
I remained all night--sleep I did not--at St.Michael's; and in the morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of Master Thomas, feeling that I had no friend on earth, and doubting if I had one in heaven.