This committee divided itself. One half came up to the drawing-room, and
advised that the young lady should consent to go home in the sleigh
provided, and that I should consent to leave the town. Conceding so much
to the mob, they thought my life might be spared. The other half of the
committee remained below, to appease the maddened multitude, and deter
them from carrying their threats into execution.
We agreed to the propositions of the committee. The young lady was taken
home in the sleigh aforesaid, about one third of the mob following on
foot, for what purpose I know not. I was then conducted by the committee
through the mob, many members of which giving me, as I passed, sundry
kicks and cuffs, but doing me no serious bodily harm. I was next taken
by the committee to an hotel, where arrangements had been made for my
reception. The mob followed, hooting and hallooing, the sight of their
victim seeming to revive their hostile feelings. They would have broken
into the hotel, had not the proprietor held them back by his threats. He
was not a friend of mine, but he had agreed to shelter me, and he was,
of course, determined to protect his property.
The committee then secured the use of two sleighs, one of which they
placed at the back entrance of the hotel, and the other they caused to
be driven about four miles out of the town. Into the first sleigh I was
to get when I could find my opportunity, and be driven to the other
sleigh, in which I was to be finally conveyed to the town of Syracuse,
about twenty-five miles distant.
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