I was so amused this morning. When Mr. Winkle has been in the mud [in “Pickwick” ] the hostler brushes him down, shooing him and soothing
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watched by spies, and warning him that letters must be written and received with great caution.
Funds were raised for the proposed rescue, and Mr. Higginson sent a messenger to Kansas to enlist Captain James Montgomery as leader of the enterprise, the rallying-point being Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
In February, 1860, Mr. Higginson arrived there under the name of Charles P. Carter.
When Montgomery came with a few valuable recruits,—called in letters and telegrams ‘machines,’—Mr. Higginson jotted down on paper, which can still be seen, a list of the lions in the way. The Kansas leader was not dismayed by this array of difficulties, which included a week's journey through a mountainous country by night, carrying arms, blankets, and provisions; attacking a building—the Charlestown jail—protected by a wall fourteen feet high and defended by sentinels without and within; and followed by a retreat with prisoners and wounded by daylight.
Montgomery, however, insisted on first exploring, with but one companion, the region to be traversed.
In the midst of these plottings, Mr. Higginson wrote to his wife:—
Books for libraries press. Freeport, New York. 1914.
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