n of their absconding
property, the Maryland soldiers were not only willing to accede to the
demand, but to aid in enforcing it.

Mrs. Gibbons found herself in a continual unpleasant conflict with the
authorities. Sympathy, feeling, sense of justice, the principles of a
life, were all on the side of the enslaved, and their attempt to escape.
She worked for them, helped them to evade the demands of their former
masters, and often sent them on their way toward the goal of their hopes
and efforts, the mysterious North.

She endured persecution, received annoyances, anonymous threats, and had
much to bear, which was borne cheerfully for the sake of these oppressed
ones. General Lockwood, then commander of the post, was always the
friend of herself and her proteges, a man of great kindness of heart,
and a lover of justice.

As has been said, they remained at Point Lookout fifteen months. The
summer following her introduction to the place, Mrs. Gibbons visited
home, and after remaining but a short time returned to her duties. She
had left all at home tranquil and serene, and did not dream of the
hidden fires which were even then smouldering, and ready to burst into
flame.

She had not long returned before rumors of the riots in New York, the
riots of July, 1863, reached Point Lookout.

"If private houses are attacked, ours will be one of the first," said
Miss Gibbons, on the reception of these tidings, and though her mother
would not listen to the suggestion, she very well knew it was far from
impossible.

That night they retired full of apprehension, and had not fallen asleep
when some one knocked at their door with the intimation that bad news
had arrived for them. They asked if any one was dead, and on being
assured that there was not, listened with comparative composure when
they learned that their house in New York had been sacked by the mob,
and most of its contents destroyed.

The remainder of the night was spent in packing, and in the morning they
started for home.

It was a sad scene that presented itself on their arrival. There was not
an unbroken pane of glass in any of the windows. The panels of the doors
were many of them beaten in as with an axe. The furniture was mostly
destroyed, bureaus, desks, closets, receptacles of all kinds had been
broken open, and their contents stolen or rendered worthless; the
carpets, soaked with a trampled conglomerate of mud and water, oil and
filth, the debris left by t