But, instead of approaching the town as he intended to do, he wandered in a circuitous direction, and returned to the church.
The services were over, and as he saw that many of the men were mounting horses, he retreated to the woods again, where he lay till morning.
His pursuers inquired of the worshippers, and finally got upon his track the next morning, bringing their trained dogs. From that time till Wednesday morning they chased him up and down the woods and swamps. His feet were wounded and swollen, his bare head exposed to the burning July sun, and he had eaten nothing since Sunday morning.
On Tuesday morning he became desperate, and resolved to leave the swamp. He did so, and ran along the road. On several occasions the dogs were upon him when he again intrenched himself among bushes surrounded by water, and lay watching, pistol in hand. But as he had no ammunition besides that in his revolver, he determined to make that as useful as possible, and reserved for a probable extremity.
Once they caught sight of him at two hundred yards distance and cried. “There he is! There’s the —— scallawag!” and hissed their dogs upon him.
On Wednesday morning he eluded them and reached the residence of the Intendant of Baconsville, on the outskirts of the town. He was a pitiable object indeed; with clothing torn and covered with mud, feet bare, swollen and bleeding; fair broad brow burned to a blister, auburn hair, unkempt; famished, fainting, and only his determined energy left of his former self.
Refreshed by a cup of coffee and a judicious breakfast, and a bath for his feet, he hobbled to his home, which he reached about ten o’clock.
It had become his sole wish to see his family once more, and if he must die, to die with them; and his apprehensiveness had become so great that he with great difficulty persuaded to tarry at his neighbors for food. To be driven from home, and hunted through swamps and forests, like a ferocious beast, had become an insupportable thought.
And wherefore was he?
Because he sought through that great instrument of enlightenment, the press, to disseminate his political opinions, and the principles of a Republican government, and to strengthen and perpetuate the Union.