Thus terminated the mornings amusement of the ‘four gentlemen,’ whose exploits are so complacently chronicled by the editor of the Franklin Republican.  The three men and one woman were all fired upon, it seems, though only one of them was shot down.  The half famished runaways made not the least resistance, they merely rushed in panic among the canes, at the sight of their pursuers, and the bullets whistled after them and brought to the ground one poor fellow, who was carried back by his captors as a trophy of the ‘public opinion’ among slaveholders.

In the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Nov. 27, 1838, we find the following account of a runaway’s den, and of the good luck of a ‘Mr. Adams,’ in running down one of them ‘with his excellent dogs:’ 

“A runaway’s den was discovered on Sunday near the Washington Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several months, so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected only by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near the road and fields where there has been constant daily passing.  The entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing a hog bed—­which being removed, discovered a trap door and steps that led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with plank, containing a small fire-place the flue of which was ingeniously conducted above ground and concealed by the straw.  The inmates took the alarm and made their escape; but Mr. Adams and his excellent dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down and secured one of them, which proved to be a negro fellow who had been out about a year.  He stated that the other occupant was a woman, who had been a runaway a still longer time.  In the den was found a quantity of meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c., and various cooking utensils and wearing apparel.”

Yes, Mr. Adams’ ‘EXCELLENT DOGS’ did the work!  They were well trained, swift, fresh, keen-scented, ‘excellent’ men-hunters, and though the poor fugitive in his frenzied rush for liberty, strained every muscle, yet they gained upon him, and after dashing through fens, brier-beds, and the tangled undergrowth till faint and torn, he sinks, and the blood-hounds are upon him.  What blood-vessels the poor struggler burst in his desperate push for life—­how much he was bruised and lacerated in his plunge through the forest, or how much the dogs tore him, the Macon editor has not chronicled—­they are matters of no moment—­but his heart is touched with the merits of Mr. Adams’ ‘EXCELLENT DOGS,’ that ‘soon run down and secured’ a guiltless and trembling human creature!

The Georgia Constitutionalist, of Jan. 1837, contains the following letter from the coroner of Barnwell District, South Carolina, dated Aiken, S.C.  Dec. 20, 1836.

“To the Editor of the Constitutionalist: