the threshold of W.W.'s door, you could not fail to see how deplorable is
the condition of the fugitive slave, often for months and years after he
has escaped the immediate grasp of the tyrant. When I left my parents, the
trial was great, but I had now to leave a friend who had done more for me
than parents could have done as slaves; and hence I felt an endearment to
that friend which was heightened by a sense of the important relief he had
afforded me in the greatest need, and hours of pleasant and highly
profitable intercourse.

About a month previous to leaving the house of W.W., a small circumstance
occurred one evening, which I only name to shew the harassing fears and
dread in which I lived during most of the time I was there. He had a
brother-in-law living some ten miles distant--he was a friend to the
slave; he often came unexpectedly and spent a few hours--sometimes a day
and a night. I had not, however, ever known him to come at night. One
night about nine o'clock, after I had gone to bed, (my lodging being just
over the room in which W.W. and his wife were sitting,) I heard the door
open and a voice ask, "Where is the boy?" The voice sounded to me like the
voice of my master; I was sure it must be his. I sprang and listened for a
moment--it seemed to be silent; I heard nothing, and then it seemed to me
there was a confusion. There was a window at the head of my bed, which I
could reach without getting upon the floor: it was a single sash and
opened upon hinges. I quickly opened this window and waited in a perfect
tremour of dread for further development. There was a door at the foot of
the stairs; as I heard that door open, I sprang for the window, and my
head was just out, when the gentle voice of my friend W.W. said,
"James?"[A] "Here," said I, "---- has come, and he would like to have thee
put up his horse." I drew a breath of relief, but my strength and presence
of mind did not return for some hours, I slept none that night; for a
moment I could doze away, but the voice would sound in my ears, "Where is