The sleepers' clothes hung upon chairs by the bedside.

The slave thought of the padlock-key, examined the pockets, and found it.
The chains were soon off, and the negro stealthily making his way to the window.

He stopped, and said to himself, "These men are villains; they are enemies to all who, like me, are trying to be free.

Then why not I teach them a lesson ?" He then dressed himself in the best suit, hung his own worn-out and tattered garments on the same chair, and silently passed through the window to the piazza, and let himself down by one of the pillars, and started once more for the North.
Daylight came upon the fugitive before he had selected a hiding-place for the day, and he was walking at a rapid rate, in hopes of soon reaching some woodland or forest.

The sun had just begun to show itself, when the fugitive was astounded at seeing behind him, in the distance, two men upon horseback.