"I know nothing about it," was the reply.

This led to a full and altogether too free disclosure to the
astonished brother about the particulars of our visit to the same
house a month before, and his sister's representations that we were
married. The brother immediately started for home, and repeated the
story, as it was told to him, to his father and the family. Without
seeing his daughter, the father at once procured a warrant, and had
me arrested and brought before a justice on charge of se- duction.
The trial was brief; the daughter herself swore positively, that
though she had been imprudent and indiscreet in going to Worcester
with me, no improper communication had ever, there or elsewhere,
taken place between us.

Of course, there was nothing to do but to let me go and I was
discharged. But out of this affair came the worst that had yet
fallen to my lot in life. The story got into the papers, with
particulars and names of the parties, and in this way the people at
Worthington, who had chased me as far as Hancock and had there lost
all trace of me, found out where I was. If I had been aware of it,
they might have looked elsewhere for me; but while I was
felicitating myself upon my escape from the latest difficulty, down
came an officer from Worthington with a warrant for my arrest. This
officer, the sheriff, was connected with the family into which I had
married in Worthington, and with him came two or three more
relatives, all bound, as they boasted, to "put me through." They
were excessively irate against me and very much angered, especially
that their race after me to Hancock had been fruitless. I had fallen
into the worst possible hands.