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[61] interrupted only by our busy talking. But the Southerners soon began to stand on tiptoe and survey the platform anxiously. Soon a loud oath was heard, accompanied by the exclamation, “He's gone!” Then such a thundering stampede as there was down the front stairs I have never heard. We remained in the hall, and presently Samuel J. May came to us, so agitated that he was pale to the very lips. “ Thank God, he is saved!” he exclaimed; and we wrung his hands with hearts too full for speech.

The Boston newspaper press, as usual, presented a united front in sympathy with the slaveholders. . . . But they were all in the dark concerning the manner of his escape; for as the door behind the curtain was known to very few, it remained a mystery to all except the abolitionists.

Underwood's Whittier, pp. 118-20.

Garrison wrote of the Concord mob to his brother-in-law, Sept. 12, 1835, “Our brother Thompson had a narrow escape from the mob at Concord, and Whittier was pelted with mud and stones, but he escaped bodily damage.” Thompson wrote to Garrison, Sept. 15:--

You would have been delighted to have shared our adventures in Concord (?) on the memorable night of the 4th inst. The mirthful and the melancholy were so strangely and equally blended throughout, that I scarcely know which had the advantage, and certainly could not tell the story of our ‘hairbreadth 'scapes ’ without exciting your risibility. However, my escape from the ignorant and murderous rabble that clamoured and thirsted for my blood was very providential, and I desire to feel grateful to Him who I believe watches over our persons and our cause, and will restrain the malice of our foes, or cause our sufferings to advance His glory.

Poor Whittier was compelled to receive a tithe of the vengeance accumulated for me. I had really little expectation and less desire to be stoned by proxy, but such is the fruit of keeping bad company.

Garrison's life, I. 520.

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