This lady had a very wealthy relative, a benevolent gentleman in many respects, but aristocratic and pro-slavery.  He remonstrated with her for harboring a fugitive slave; told her she was violating the laws of her country; and asked her if she was aware of the penalty.  She replied, “I am very well aware of it.  It is imprisonment and one thousand dollars fine.  Shame on my country that it is so!  I am ready to incur the penalty.  I will go to the state’s prison, rather than have any poor victim torn from my house, to be carried back to slavery.”

The noble heart!  The brave heart!  The tears are in my eyes while I write of her.  May the God of the helpless reward her for her sympathy with my persecuted people!

I was sent into New England, where I was sheltered by the wife of a senator, whom I shall always hold in grateful remembrance.  This honorable gentleman would not have voted for the Fugitive Slave Law, as did the senator in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin;” on the contrary, he was strongly opposed to it; but he was enough under its influence to be afraid of having me remain in his house many hours.  So I was sent into the country, where I remained a month with the baby.  When it was supposed that Dr. Flint’s emissaries had lost track of me, and given up the pursuit for the present, I returned to New York.

XLI.  Free At Last.

Mrs. Bruce, and every member of her family, were exceedingly kind to me.  I was thankful for the blessings of my lot, yet I could not always wear a cheerful countenance.  I was doing harm to no one; on the contrary, I was doing all the good I could in my small way; yet I could never go out to breathe God’s free air without trepidation at my heart.  This seemed hard; and I could not think it was a right state of things in any civilized country.

From time to time I received news from my good old grandmother.  She could not write; but she employed others to write for her.  The following is an extract from one of her last letters:—­

Dear Daughter:  I cannot hope to see you again on earth; but I pray to God to unite us above, where pain will no more rack this feeble body of mine; where sorrow and parting from my children will be no more.  God has promised these things if we are faithful unto the end.  My age and feeble health deprive me of going to church now; but God is with me here at home.  Thank your brother for his kindness.  Give much love to him, and tell him to remember the Creator in the days of his youth, and strive to meet me in the Father’s kingdom.  Love to Ellen and Benjamin.  Don’t neglect him.  Tell him for me, to be a good boy.  Strive, my child, to train them for God’s children.  May he protect and provide for you, is the prayer of your loving old mother.

These letters both cheered and saddened me.  I was always glad to have tidings from the kind, faithful old friend of my unhappy youth; but her messages of love made my heart yearn to see her before she died, and I mourned over the fact that it was impossible.  Some months after I returned from my flight to New England, I received a letter from her, in which she wrote, “Dr. Flint is dead.  He has left a distressed family.  Poor old man!  I hope he made his peace with God.”