the driver came up with him.  Supposing him to be one of the keeper’s family, he wished him good night, but instantly discovered by his voice that he was a colored man, putting his horse to full speed.  When he returned to Paynestown, he heard people talking about a runaway, and told Dr. Whitehead he believed he had seen the man the night before:  ’I hope that he’ll get safe into Canada,’ was the reply.

    “‘How can you say that, and be a slave-holder?’ asked the
    coachman.

    “‘I wish there were no slaves,’ replied he; ’and as soon as
    others will liberate theirs, mine shall go free.’

“Stage coaches afford no facilities to the poor fugitives.  By the law of the United States’ Government, no colored man can drive a mail stage; neither can any colored man ride on one, unless he is known to be free, or is a slave travelling with his master.  Stage owners incur heavy penalties if they infringe these rules.  A verdict of one thousand six hundred dollars was lately recovered by a slave-master against the company.

“At Washington the stage was stopped to know if a colored boy could be put on.  ‘Yes; where is he?’ ‘Up at the jail yonder.’  The querist took a seat inside; and soon after I spied a colored man on the outside, with keepers.  He was a re-captured runaway, who had taken a horse with him, and imitated the Israelites, in borrowing various other articles, when he escaped from bondage.  He assumed false whiskers and a pair of spectacles; and on reaching the Ohio river, produced free papers duly stamped with the county seal.  But, unfortunately, when questioned where he had staid the preceding night, he foolishly attempted to describe the place, and was thus detected; two hundred dollars had been offered for him if taken out of the State, and one hundred dollars if taken in the State.  To ride in a stage, with a man behind, whose legs and arms were fastened together with rivetted chains and padlocks, was enough to make one feel the force of Patrick Henry’s exclamation, ’Give me liberty, or give me death!’ It was a poor consolation to administer to the gnawings of his hunger, while beholding his manly frame thus manacled:  but I thought he seemed to eat my gingerbread with a better relish, when I told him it was made where colored men were free.  At Payne’s tavern, in Fairview, the poor fellow had to undergo an examination from the landlord, and listen to a homily about truth-telling; so little do slave-holders seem aware that stealing and lying are constituent parts of their own system.  In the stage office at Lexington, we encountered the man who claimed this poor fugitive.  The driver, who had come with us the two last stages, was a native of Duchess Co., N.Y.; and he began to plead with the slave-holder in behalf of the slave.  I heard of another case where the angry master threatened to flog and sell a recovered runaway, whom he had with him; but the stage