be disappointed of his prey. And now,
with the speed of an arrow, having passed the avenue, with the distance
between her and her pursuers constantly increasing, this poor, hunted
female gained the "Long Bridge," as it is called, where interruption
seemed improbably. Already her heart began to beat high with the hope
of success. She had only to pass three-quarters of a mile across the
bridge, when she could bury herself in a vast forest, just as the time
when the curtain of night would close around her, and protect her from
the pursuit of her enemies.

But God, by his providence, had otherwise determined. He had ordained
that an appalling tragedy should be enacted that night within plain
sight of the President's house, and the Capitol of the Union, which
would be an evidence wherever it should be known of the unconquerable
love of liberty which the human heart may inherit, as well as a fresh
admonition to the slave-dealer of the cruelty and enormity of his
crimes.

Just as the pursuers passed the high draw, soon after entering upon the
bridge, they beheld three men slowly approaching from the Virginia side.
They immediately called to them to arrest the fugitive, proclaiming her
a runaway slave. True to their Virginia instincts, as she came near,
they formed a line across the narrow bridge to intercept her. Seeing the
escape was impossible in that quarter, she stopped suddenly, and turned
upon her pursuers.

On came the profane and ribald crew faster than ever, already exulting
in her capture, and threatening punishment for her flight. For a moment
she looked wildly and anxiously around to see if there was no hope of
escape. On either hand, far down below, rolled the deep, foaming waters
of the Potomac, and before and behind were the rapidly approaching steps
and noisy voices of her pursuers. Seeing how vain would be any further
effort to escape, her resolution was instantly taken. She clasped her
hands convulsively together, raised her tearful and imploring eyes
toward heaven, and begged for the mercy and compassion there which was
unjustly denied her on earth; then, exclaiming, "Henry, Clotelle, I die
for thee!" with a single bound, vaulted over the railing of the bridge,
and sank forever beneath the angry and foaming waters of the river!

Such was the life, and such the death, of a woman whose virtues and
goodness of heart would have done honor to one in a higher station of
life, and who, had she been born in any