CHAPTER VII.

On the keen scent.

Good resolutions-enjoying freedom-going after A crazy man-the old tempter in A new form-Mary Gordon-my new “Cousin"-Engaged again-visit to the old folks at home-another marriage-starting for Ohio-change of plans-Domestic quarrels-unpleasant stories about Mary-bound over to keep the peace-another arrest for bigamy-A sudden flight-secreted three weeks in A farm house-recaptured at Concord -escaped once more-traveling on the underground railroad-in Canada.

It would seem as if, by this time, I had had enough of miscellaneous marrying and the imprisonment that almost invariably followed.  I had told Governor Price, when I first implored him for pardon, that if he would release me I would begin a new life, and endeavor to be in all respects a better man.  I honestly meant to make every effort to be so, and on my stay to New York I made numberless vows for my own future good behavior.  I bound myself over, as it were, to keep the pace-my own peace and quiet especially-and became my own surety.  That I could not have had a poorer bondsman, subsequent events proved to my sorrow.  But I started fairly, and meant to let liquor alone; to attend strictly to my medical business, which I always managed to make profitable, and above all, to have nothing to do with women in the love-making or matrimonial way.

With those good resolutions I arrived in New York and went to my old hotel in Courtland Street, where I was well known and was well received.  My trunk, which I had left there sixteen months before, was safe, and I had a good suit of clothes on my back—­the clothes I took off when I went to prison in Trenton—­and which were returned to me when I came away.  I went to a friend who loaned me some money, and I remained two or three days in town to try my new-found freedom, going about the city, visiting places of amusement, enjoying myself very much, and keeping, so far, the good resolutions I had formed.

From New York I went to Troy, and at the hotel where I stopped I became acquainted with a woman who told me that her husband was in the Insane Asylum at Brattleboro, Vt.  She was going to see him, and if he was fit to be removed, she proposed to take him home, with her.  I told her of the success I had had in taking care of two men at Newbury and Montgomery; and how I had traveled about the country with them, and with