aves were dug for the negroes,
but their bodies became food for dogs and vultures; and their bones,
partly calcined by the sun, remained scattered about, as if to mark
the mournful fury of servitude and lust of power. When the slaves were
subdued, except a few in the swamps, bloodhounds were employed to hunt
out the remaining revolters.

CHAPTER XVI. DEATH IS FREEDOM

ON receiving intelligence of the arrest of Isabella, Mr. Gordon
authorized the sheriff to sell her to the highest bidder. She was,
therefore, sold; the purchaser being the noted negro-trader, Hope H.
Slater, who at once placed her in prison. Here the fugitive saw none but
slaves like herself, brought in and taken out to be placed in ships, and
sent away to some part of the country to which she herself would soon be
compelled to go. She had seen or heard nothing of her daughter while in
Richmond, and all hopes of seeing her had now fled.

At the dusk of the evening previous to the day when she was to be sent
off, as the old prison was being closed for the night, Isabella suddenly
dated past the keeper, and ran for her life. It was not a great distance
from the prison to the long bridge which passes from the lower part of
the city across the Potomac to the extensive forests and woodlands of
the celebrated Arlington Heights, then occupied by that distinguished
relative and descendant of the immortal Washington, Mr. Geo. W. Custis.
Thither the poor fugitive directed her flight. So unexpected was her
escape that she had gained several rods the start before the keeper had
secured the other prisoners, and rallied his assistants to aid in the
pursuit. It was at an hour, and in a part of the city where horses could
not easily be obtained for the chase; no bloodhounds were at hand to run
down the flying woman, and for once it seemed as if there was to be
a fair trial of speed and endurance between the slave and the
slave-catchers.

The keeper and his force raised the hue-and-cry on her path as they
followed close behind; but so rapid was the flight along the wide avenue
that the astonished citizens, as they poured forth from their dwellings
to learn the cause of alarm, were only able to comprehend the nature of
the case in time to fall in with the motley throng in pursuit, or raise
an anxious prayer to heaven as they refused to join in the chase (as
many a one did that night) that the panting fugitive might escape, and
the merciless soul-dealer for once