Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

250 LETTERS.
to gather round him and appear to detain him in eager
conversation. He will listen and reply, but keep imperceptibly moving backward toward the green curtain. You will all follow him, and when he vanishes
behind the curtain you will continue to stand close
together and appear to be still talking with him."
At the close of the meeting, twenty-five or thirty
of us women clustered round lMVr. Thompson and
obeyed the directions we had received. When he had
disappeared from our midst, there was quiet for two
or three minutes, interrupted only by our busy talking. But the Southerners soon began to stand on
tiptoe and survey the platform anxiously. Soon a
loud oath was heard, accompanied by the exclamation, "He's gone! " Then such a thundering stampede as there was down the front stairs I have never
heard. We remained in the hall, and presently Samuel J. May came to us so agitated that he was pale to
the very lips. "Thank God, he is saved!" he exclaimed; and we wrung his hand with hearts too full
for speech.
The Boston newspaper press, as usual, presented a
united front in sympathy with the slave-holders. They
were full of indignation against the impudent Englishman who dared to suggest to enlightened Americans that there was a contradiction between their
slave-laws and the Declaration of Independence. The
"Boston Post," preeminent in that sort of advocacy
of democratic dignity, was very facetious about the
cowardly Englishman and his female militia. But
they were all in the dark concerning the manner of
his escape; for as the door behind the curtain was
known to very few, it remained a mystery to all except the abolitionists. L. MARIA CHILD.