I have no doubt that he would have proved as good as his word, had the warning given not been promptly taken.

He was furious at the thought of such a piece of high-handed _theft_, as we were about to perpetrate the stealing of our own bodies and souls! The feasibility of the plan, too, could the first steps have been taken, was marvelously plain.

Besides, this was a _new_ idea, this use of the bay.

Slaves escaping, until now, had taken to the woods; they had never dreamed of profaning and abusing the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by making them the highway from slavery to freedom.

Here was a broad road of destruction to slavery, which, before, had been looked upon as a wall of security by slaveholders.