MURDER OF GILES BLIZARD.
81
foul deed had long been waited for, and was at length obtained. At the close of a gloomy day, in the last month of the year, the old gentleman seated himself upon a sofa, and prepared to take his evening nap, attended only by a black boy of the name of Diamond. The evening was tempestuous ; and between the pauses of the storm, the inmates of the apartment listened once or twice, as they thought they heard approaching footsteps ; but the wind shook the ill secured shutters with such violence as to drown all other sounds, until at length they supposed that it was nothing but fancy, or the hollow moaning of the blast. Giles Blizard was at that period of life when to many the pleasures and luxuries of this world seem sweeter from the certainty that they are drawing near their close, for often, very often, is it that— “ Aged men, full loth and slow, The vanities of life forego ; And count their youthful follies o'er, Till mem'ry lends her light no more." Thoughts similar to these might float through the brain of the old gentleman, for Giles Blizard was a lover of conviviality, and many a festive scene had those old walls witnessed ; but the hands of an antique clock, painted in various devices, pointed to the hour of midnight, and once more adjusting his head, the planter sank to sleep. The two slaves, the intended murderers, who, through a crack in the shutter, had been watching the movement of their master and his youthful attendant, perceiving by his unaltered position and deep breathing that he slept, and having full proof of the other's being in that oblivious state from the sound of his nasal organs, quietly took off the shutter, and entered the apartment, armed with a blunderbuss. Placing their hands upon the shoulders of the old gentleman, and holding the deadly weapon to his ear, they demanded where he kept his cash. In vain their victim