But for that resistance, every soul of us would have been hurried off to the far south.

Just a moment previous to the trouble with Henry, Mr.Hamilton _mildly_ said--and this gave me the unmistakable clue to the cause of our arrest--"Perhaps we had now better make a search for those protections, which we understand Frederick has written for himself and the rest." Had these passes been found, they would have been point blank proof against us, and would have confirmed all the statements of our betrayer.

Thanks to the resistance of Henry, the excitement produced by the scuffle drew all attention in that direction, and I succeeded in flinging my pass, unobserved, into the fire.

The confusion attendant upon the scuffle, and the apprehension of further trouble, perhaps, led our captors to forego, for the present, any search for _"those protections" which Frederick was said to have written for his companions_; so we were not yet convicted of the purpose to run away; and it was evident that there was some doubt, on the part of all, whether we had been guilty of such a purpose.{227} Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start toward St.
Michael's, and thence to jail, Mrs.Betsey Freeland (mother to William, who was very much attached--after the southern fashion--to Henry and John, they having been reared from childhood in her house) came to the kitchen door, with her hands full of biscuits--for we had not had time to take our breakfast that morning--and divided them between Henry and John.

This done, the lady made the following parting address to me, looking and pointing her bony finger at me.