to prison,
with orders that he should be exposed to public view every day in the
market-place; and that if it could be proved by any of the frequenters
that he had ever been seen in Chester before, he should be deemed
accessory to the robbery and should suffer death.

He remained in suspense for five weeks, until Drummond chanced to come
to Chester on business, and, recognising the runaway, claimed him as
his property. The consequence was that the two years which remained of
his period of servitude were doubled; and when he arrived at
Newcastle, Drummond's severity and violence greatly increased. A
complaint of his master's ill-usage was made to the justices, and that
worthy was at last obliged to sell him to another; but Annesley gained
little by the change. For three years he continued with his new owner
in quiet toleration of his lot; but having fallen into conversation
with some sailors bound for Europe, the old desire to see Ireland once
more came upon him, and he ventured a second escape. He was recaptured
before he could gain the ship; and under the order of the court, the
solitary year of his bondage which remained was increased into five.
Under this new blow he sank into a settled state of melancholy, and
seemed so likely to die that his new master had pity upon his
condition, began to treat him with less austerity, and recommended him
to the care of his wife, who often took him into the house, and
recommended her daughter Maria to use him with all kindness. The
damsel exceeded her mother's instructions, and straightway fell in
love with the good-looking young slave, often showing her affection in
a manner which could not be mistaken. Nor was she the only one on
whom his appearance made an impression. A young Iroquis Indian girl,
who shared his servitude, made no secret of her attachment to him,
exhibited her love by assisting him in his work, while she assured him
that if he would marry her when his time of bondage was past, she
would work so hard as to save him the expense of two slaves. In vain
Annesley rejected her advances, and tried to explain to her the
hopelessness of her desires. She persistently dogged his footsteps,
and was never happy but in his sight. Her rival Maria, no less eager
to secure his affection, used to stray to the remote fields in which
she knew he worked, and on one occasion encountered the Indian girl,
who was also bent upon visiting him. The hot-blooded Indian then lost
her self-c