never have overcome the mountainous difficulties
which I am now about to describe.

After this we rose and stood for a few moments
in breathless silence,--we were afraid that some one
might have been about the cottage listening and
watching our movements. So I took my wife by
the hand, stepped softly to the door, raised the latch,
drew it open, and peeped out. Though there were
trees all around the house, yet the foliage scarcely
moved; in fact, everything appeared to be as still
as death. I then whispered to my wife, "Come, my
dear, let us make a desperate leap for liberty!" But
poor thing, she shrank back, in a state of trepidation.
I turned and asked what was the matter; she made
no reply, but burst into violent sobs, and threw her
head upon my breast. This appeared to touch my
very heart, it caused me to enter into her feelings
more fully than ever. We both saw the many
mountainous difficulties that rose one after the
other before our view, and knew far too well what
our sad fate would have been, were we caught and
forced back into our slavish den. Therefore on my
wife's fully realizing the solemn fact that we had to
take our lives, as it were, in our hands, and contest
every inch of the thousand miles of slave territory
over which we had to pass, it made her heart almost
sink within her, and, had I known them at that
time, I would have repeated the following en-
couraging lines, which may not be out of place