chers started back with their victim. Stopping on
the second night at an inn, on the banks of the Ohio River, the
kidnappers, in lieu of a suitable place in which to confine their prize
during the night, chained him to the bed-post of their
sleeping-chamber. The white men were late in retiring to rest, after an
evening spent in drinking. At dead of night, when all was still, the
slave arose from the floor, upon which he had been lying, looked around
and saw that Morpheus had possession of his captors. For once, thought
he, the brandy bottle has done a noble work. With palpitating heart and
trembling limbs, he viewed his position. The door was fast, but the
warm weather had compelled them to leave the window open. If he could
but get his chains off, he might escape through the window to the
piazza. The sleepers' clothes hung upon chairs by the bedside. The
slave thought of the padlock-key, examined the pockets, and found it.
The chains were soon off, and the negro stealthily making his way to
the window. He stopped, and said to himself, "These men are villains;
they are enemies to all who, like me, are trying to be free. Then why
not I teach them a lesson?" He then dressed himself in the best suit,
hung his own worn-out and tattered garments on the same chair, and
silently passed through the window to the piazza, and let himself down
by one of the pillars, and started once more for the North.

Daylight came upon the fugitive before he had selected a hiding-place
for the day, and he was walking at a rapid rate, in hopes of soon
reaching some woodland or forest. The sun had just begun to show
itself, when the fugitive was astounded at seeing behind him, in the
distance, two men upon horseback. Taking a road to the right, the slave
saw before him a farmhouse, and so near was he to it that he observed
two men in front of it looking at him. It was too late to turn back.
The kidnappers were behind him--strange men before him. Those in the
rear he knew to be enemies, while he had no idea of what principles
were the farmers. The latter also saw the white men coming, and called
to the fugitive to come that way. The broad-brimmed hats that the
farmers wore told the slave that they were Quakers.

Jerome had seen some of these people passing up and down the river,
when employed on a steamer between Natchez and New Orleans, and had
heard that they disliked slavery. He, therefore, hastened toward the
drab-coated men, who, on his appr