Would that I had done so; but I was a fool; I thought I could be of service to Sarah by remaining near her; might see her next day; I might even be able to get her out of the house, and then we could once more elope together and go back again to Goshen where we had been so happy.  So I went to a public house three miles above Scheimer’s, and remained there quietly during the rest of the day, revolving plans for the deliverance of Sarah.  I thought only of her.  It is strange that I did not once realize what a perilous position I was in myself—­that, firmly as I believed myself to be wedded to Sarah, I was in fact amenable to the law, and liable to arrest and punishment.  All this never occurred to me.  I saw one or two of the gang who were at Scheimer’s about the hotel, but they did not offer to molest me, and I paid no particular attention to them.  I did not know then that they were spies and were watching my movements.  At nine o’clock I went to bed.  At midnight, or thereabouts, I was roughly awakened and told to get up.  Without waiting for me, to comply, five men who had entered my room pulled me out of bed, and almost before I could huddle on my clothes I was handcuffed.  Then one of them, who said he was a constable from Easton, showed a warrant for my arrest.  What the arrest was for I was not informed.  I was taken down stairs, put into a wagon, the men followed, and the horses started in the direction of Easton.  By Scheimer’s on the way, and I could see a light in Sarah’s window.  I remembered how in, all the Bedlam in the house that morning she still cried out:  “I will go with him.”  I remembered how, only a few months before, she had been brutally flogged in that very chamber, to “get the devil out of her.”  I remembered, too, the many happy, happy hours we had passed together.  And here was I, handcuffed and dragged in a wagon, I knew not whither.

This for thoughts-in the way of action, was all the while trying to get my handcuffs off, and at last I succeeded in getting one hand free.  Waiting my opportunity till we came to a piece of woods, I suddenly jumped up and sprang from the wagon.  It was a very dark night, and in running into the woods I struck against a tree with such force as to knock me down and nearly stun me.  Two of the men were on me in an instant.  After a brief struggle I managed to get away and ran again.  I should have escaped, only a high rail fence brought me to a sudden stop, and I was too exhausted to climb over it.  My pursuers who were hard at my heels the whole while now laid hold of me.  In the subsequent struggle I got out my pocket knife, and stabbed one of them, cutting his arm badly.  Then they overpowered me.  They dragged me to the roadside, brought a rope out of the wagon, bound my arms and legs, and so at last carried me to Easton.