He sprang forward and seized me by the collar, while the other seized my arms behind.

I was now in the grasp of two men, either of whom were larger bodied than myself, and one of whom was armed with a dangerous weapon.
Standing in the door of the shoemaker's shop, was a third man; and in the potatoe lot I had passed, was still a fourth man.

Thus surrounded by superior physical force, the fortune of the day it seemed to me was gone.
My heart melted away, I sunk resistlessly into the hands of my captors, who dragged me immediately into the tavern which was near.

I ask my reader to go in with me, and see how the case goes.
* * * * * GREAT MORAL DILEMMA.
A few moments after I was taken into the bar-room, the news having gone as by electricity, the house and yard were crowded with gossippers, who had left their business to come and see "the runaway nigger." This hastily assembled congregation consisted of men, women, and children, each one had a look to give at, and a word to say about, the "nigger." But among the whole, there stood one whose name I have never known, but who evidently wore the garb of a man whose profession bound him to speak for the dumb, but he, standing head and shoulders above all that were round about, spoke the first hard sentence against me.

Said he, "That fellow is a runaway I know; put him in jail a few days, and you will soon hear where he came from." And then fixing a fiend-like gaze upon me, he continued, "if I lived on this road, _you_ fellows would not find such clear running as you do, I'd trap more of you." But now comes the pinch of the case, the case of conscience to me even at this moment.