mind to tell him the truth, Dick said, yes, master;--well, said master,
let me hear it. Well master, said Dick, I did turn the horses out; but
will never do so again. So master, satisfied with this confession, struck
Dick no more, and ordered him to be untied; but Dick had a sore back for
many weeks. And now to return to the negroes I had left at the dance, when
they discovered that their horses were gone there was the greatest
consternation amongst them, the forebodings of the awful consequences if
they dared to go home induced many that night to seek salvation in the
direction and guidance of the north star. Several who started off on that
memorable night I have since shook hands with in Canada. They told me
there were sixteen of them went off together, four of them were shot or
killed by the bloodhounds, and one was captured while asleep in a barn;
the rest of those who were at the dance either went home and took their
floggings, or strayed into the woods until starved out, and then
surrendered. One of those I saw in Toronto, is Dan Patterson; he has a
house of his own, with a fine horse and cart, and he has a beautiful Sambo
woman for his wife, and four fine healthy-looking children. But, like
myself, he had left a wife and six children in slavery. When I was about
seventeen, I was deeply smitten in love with a yellow girl belonging to
Doctor Tillotson. This girl's name was Mary, of whose lovliness I dreamt
every night. I certainly thought she was the prettiest girl I had ever
seen in my life. Her colour was very fair, approaching almost to white;
her countenance was frank and open, and very inviting; her voice was as
sweet as the dulcimer, her smiles to me were like the May morning sunbeams
in the spring, one glance of her large dark eyes broke my heart in pieces,
with a stroke like that of an earthquake. O, I thought, this girl would
make me a paradise, and to enjoy her love I thought would be heaven. In
spite of either patrols or dogs, who stood in my way, every night nearly I
was in Mary's company. I learned from her that she had already had a child
to her master in Mobile, and that her mistress had sold her down here for