among the sovereigns assembled at Eglinton, acting in my case as a committee of vigilance with full powers, of the extent of which so terrible an instance had just been exhibited before my eyes.
The mere fact that I was an Englishman went very far with many of the ruder sort to confirm the supposition that I must be an abolitionist and a conspirator. The draught of water which I had persisted in procuring for Thomas was regarded by several as a very suspicious circumstance. The words I had privately addressed to him, and the appearance of some understanding between him and myself, weighed very heavily against me. The remonstrances I had made against the cruel death to which he had just been subjected were set down as, at the very best, a great piece of impertinent interference — especially coming from an Englishman.
The same ruffian who had already twice interfered between Thomas and myself, and who had caused my seizure as a suspected person, now assumed the part of chief prosecutor. He argued, with great zeal, that I must be an emissary of the English abolitionists, and perhaps of the English government, sent out on purpose to stir up a slave revolt, and, from what had passed between me and Wild Tom, apparently in correspondence with that dangerous outlaw, and the least that could be done, in his opinion, with any proper regard for the public safety, was to give me a sound flogging, and to ride me on a rail out of the county.
This proposal was very favorably received; and nothing but the strenuous exertions of the planter whose acquaintance I had made on the road saved me from falling a victim to it. As I had entered Eglinton in his company, he seemed to consider me, in some sort, as under his protection; and he accordingly took up my cause with no little zeal. My overtaking him on the road — so he argued — was a matter of pure accident; my interference on behalf of the bloody murderer, upon whom such just, proper, and
