Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/416

 a boy, a decided favorite of Mr Gilmore's black housekeeper. He would contrive some means to enter the house that very night, and, at all personal risks, to effect Eliza's rescue.

Of the thorough scoundrelism of Mr Grip Curtis, and his confederate, Mr Gilmore, all doubts were now removed. At Montgomery's last departure from New Orleans, a year or so before, to establish himself in business at New York, the deceased Mr Curtis had placed in his hands a sealed packet, with written. directions that it should be opened whenever his will was produced and proved in court, or within thirty days after his death, in case no will should be produced. It did not appear that Mr Curtis entertained any suspicions of the possible ill faith of his brother, or of Mr Gilmore, or that they would conspire together to defeat his intentions, and to misappropriate his property. It was only to guard against accidents, that he had taken this precaution.

On opening this package, which Montgomery now produced, we found it to contain a duplicate of Mr Curtis's will, executed in due form, by which he bestowed upon Eliza, whom he acknowledged and named in it as his natural daughter, one fourth part of his entire property, which consisted principally in houses in the city of New Orleans, estimated in the will to be worth some two hundred thousand dollars. This one fourth was all which, by the laws of Louisiana, he could give; the other three quarters going to his brother, who, with Mr Gilmore, was made his executor. But not content with even this large inheritance, this unworthy brother had conspired, it seems, with Mr Gilmore, not only to cheat his brother's orphan daughter out of her portion, but, by way of effectually stopping her mouth, and preventing all reclamations, to reduce her to slavery and concubinage; Gilmore, besides his part of her portion, to have her person also for his share of the spoils.

The will — after reciting that Mr Curtis had vainly several times attempted to obtain the assent of the