the truth; but, at that moment, I could not see any other way to baffle my
enemies, and escape their clutches.

The history of that day has never ceased to inspire me with a deeper
hatred of slavery; I never recur to it but with the most intense horror at
a system which can put a man not only in peril of liberty, limb, and life
itself, but which may even send him in haste to the bar of God with a lie
upon his lips.

Whatever my readers may think, therefore, of the history of events of the
day, do not admire in it the fabrications; but _see_ in it the impediments
that often fall into the pathway of the flying bondman. _See_ how human
bloodhounds gratuitously chase, catch, and tempt him to shed blood and
lie; how, when he would do good, evil is thrust upon him.




CHAPTER III.

A DREARY NIGHT IN THE WOODS--CRITICAL SITUATION THE NEXT DAY.


Almost immediately on entering the wood, I not only found myself embosomed
in the darkness of the night, but I also found myself entangled in a thick
forest of undergrowth, which had been quite thoroughly wetted by the
afternoon rain.

I penetrated through the wood, thick and thin, and more or less wet, to
the distance I should think of three miles. By this time my clothes were