designed to keep, assuring him that the Captain had forfeited his claim,
if he had any, to me or my services, when he hired me to Mr. Tower.

He hung about me for a day or two, and then left me to pursue my business
--I saw no more of him. Some time afterward Mr. H.E. Rochester informed me
that he had a _subpoena_ for me, which I found was issued by the
direction of Capt. Helm. By Mr. Rochester's counsel, I took it to Mr. A.
Sampson, who assured me that my old master had commenced a suit against me
in the Court of Equity, and the case would be tried before Wm. B.
Rochester, Esq., who was one of the circuit judges. Capt. Helm claimed
every particle of property I possessed; a claim that occasioned me great
anxiety and some cost.

Mr. Sampson encouraged me to hope, however, that the case would be
dismissed as two other cases of that kind had been.

I labored to the best of my ability to prepare myself for the trial, which
was to decide whether I had a right to possess myself and command my own
services and earnings, or whether all belonged to Capt. Helm. As I looked
forward with anxious forebodings to the day appointed for the suit to
commence, I was startled by the announcement of my old master's _death_!
Yes, Capt. Helm was dead; and with him died the law suit. He who had so
wronged me, who had occasioned me so much suffering and sorrow had gone to
his account. He who had once been thought to be one of the wealthiest as
well as one of the greatest men in the county, died a pauper--neglected
and despised, and scarcely awarded a decent burial. Like his wife, who
died such a horrid death, he had been reared in affluence and was an
inheritor of vast possessions, but his home was in a slave State; he was
raised on a plantation, and nurtured in the atmosphere of Slavery.