sed. He went on with his
duty--examining several colored passengers before reaching me. He was
somewhat harsh in tone, and peremptory in manner until he reached me,
when, strangely enough, and to my surprise and relief, his whole manner
changed.

Seeing that I did not readily produce my free papers, as the other
colored persons in the car had done, he said to me in a friendly
contrast with that observed towards the others: "I suppose you have your
free papers?" To which I answered: "No, sir; I never carry my free
papers to sea with me." "But you have something to show that you are a
free man, have you not?" "Yes, sir," I answered; "I have a paper with
the American eagle on it, that will carry me around the world." With
this I drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's protection, as
before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and he
took my fare and went on about his business.

This moment of time was one of the most anxious I ever experienced. Had
the conductor looked closely at the paper, he could not have failed to
discover that it called for a very different looking person from myself,
and in that case it would have been his duty to arrest me on the
instant, and send me back to Baltimore from the first station.

When he left me with the assurance that I was all right, though much
relieved, I realized that I was still in great danger: I was still in
Maryland, and subject to arrest at any moment. I saw on the train
several persons who would have known me in any other clothes, and I
feared they might recognize me, even in my sailor "rig," and report me
to the conductor, who would then subject me to a closer examination,
which I knew well would be fatal to me.

Though I was not a murderer fleeing from justice, I felt, perhaps, quite
miserable as such a criminal. The train was moving at a very high rate
of speed for that time of railroad travel, but to my anxious mind, it
was moving far too slowly. Minutes were hours, and hours were days
during this part of my flight. After Maryland I was to pass through
Delaware--another slave State. The border lines between slavery and
freedom were the dangerous ones, for the fugitives. The heart of no fox
or deer, with hungry hounds on his trail, in full chase, could have
beaten more anxiously or noisily than did mine, from the time I left
Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia.

The passage of the Susquehanna river at Havre de Grace was made by
ferry-boat