[91]
A rowdy looking crowd of men and boys followed the fugitive and his protector, shouting, ‘Stop thief!
Stop thief!’
until they came to the office of a justice of the peace, half a mile from where they started.
The astonished magistrate exclaimed, ‘Good heavens, Mr. Hopper, what brings you here this time of the morning, in such a trim, and with such a rabble at your heels!’
When the circumstances were briefly explained, he laughed heartily, and said, ‘I don't think they would have treated you so roughly, if they had known who you were.’
He was informed that Levin was a slave in Maryland, but had been living in Delaware with a man who bought him, and had thus become legally free.
Measures were taken to protect him from further aggression, and he was never after molested.
Friend Hopper went home to a late breakfast; and when he attempted to rise from the table, he was seized with violent pains in the back, in consequence of his fall.
He never after entirely recovered from the effects of it.
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