, AND FIND MYSELF AMONGST FRIENDS.

I think some people shook me by the hand, and others shouted as I walked
in the open air, but I recollect no more. I afterwards was informed
that I had been reprieved, that I had been sent for, and a long
exhortation delivered to me, for it was considered that my life must
have been one of error, or I should have applied to my friends, and have
given my name. My not answering was attributed to shame and confusion--
my glassy eye had not been noticed--my tottering step when led in by the
gaolers attributed to other causes; and the magistrates shook their
heads as I was led out of their presence. The gaoler had asked me
several times where I intended to go. At last, I had told him, _to seek
my father_, and darting away from him I had run like a madman down the
street. Of course he had no longer any power over me: but he muttered
as I fled from him, "I've a notion he'll soon be locked up again, poor
fellow! it's turned his brain for certain."

As I tottered along, my unsteady step naturally attracted the attention
of the passers-by; but they attributed it to intoxication. Thus was I
allowed to wander away in a state of madness, and before night I was far
from the town. What passed, and whither I had bent my steps, I cannot
tell. All I know is, that after running like a maniac, seizing
everybody by the arm that I met, staring at them with wild and flashing
eyes; and sometimes in a solemn voice, at others, in a loud, threatening
tone, startling them with the interrogatory, "Are you my father?" and
then darting away, or sobbing like a child, as the humour took me, I had
crossed the country; and three days afterwards I was picked up at the
door of a house in the town of Reading, exhausted with fatigue and
exposure, and nearly dead. When I recovered, I found myself in bed, my
head shaved, my arm bound up, after repeated bleedings, and a female
figure sitting by me.

"God in heaven! where am I?" exclaimed I faintly.

"Thou hast called often upon thy earthly father during the time of thy
illness, friend," replied a soft voice. "It rejoiceth me much to hear
thee call upon thy Father which is in heaven. Be comforted, thou art in
the hands of those who will be mindful of thee. Offer up thy thanks in
one short prayer, for thy return to reason, and then sink again into
repose, for thou must need it much."

I opened my eyes wide, and perceived that a young person in a Quaker's
dress