As Clayton and Custis saw this scene on their way to the tavern, an egg,
thrown from a window of the debtor's jail, whether meant for Mrs. Hudson
or not, struck her in the face, and its corrupt contents streamed down
her white and shivering breast.
"Shame! shame!" cried the people, as they saw the woman cry, and, gazing
up to the jail window, another female face appearing there, turned
their cries to curses:
"Hang her! hang her!"
For the last time in life Patty Cannon's bold and comely face swelled
again with passionate blood to the roots of the glossy black hair, and
the few who saw her rich, dark eyes, inflamed with anger, say their
pupils were dilated like the wild-cat's. She was gone in a moment, and
the sheriff had wiped Mrs. Hudson's face and breast with a handkerchief
passed up by a colored woman.
Two men were now actively going around the crowd, hat in hand,
soliciting contributions to buy the woman, the first a blind man, whose
eyes were bandaged, and a white man led him, calling loudly:
"The abolitionists have raised three hundred dollars to buy this woman's
freedom. We want a hundred more, as some mean people may bid her up
high. This man, her husband, stole her pass, to slip a friend away. We
couldn't git the evidence in, but it's God's truth, gentlemen! The
woman's nursed my wife, an' done a heap of good; and she come here, of
her own free will, out of Maryland, to nurse the Chancellor.
Pages:
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634