steady determination of hundreds to save a companion from the awful fate which they knew only too well awaited him, a persistent effort on their part involving self-denial, suffering and risk, which was as truly heroic as many deeds of which we read in Greek, Scottish or Dutch history, or our own U. E. Loyalists; deeds immortalized in song or story.

The story, this time told to my friend by an old man, a full black, is that the slave Moseby took his master's horse to help him escape, and after using it some time, abandoned it, and made his way on foot the remaining distance to Canada. Shortly after he was arrested, and after considerable legal wrangling, the Canadian authorities consented to deliver him up to the Americans as a criminal for horse-stealing. Of course, the colored people on the Niagara frontier thought it was a shameful surrender. The blacks then formed a numerous, if not wealthy, element of the Niagara population. One of their preachers, Herbert Holmes, who was also a teacher not like some temporisers, was also a man, although his skin was neither, white nor black, but yellow. When it was decided that Moseby was to be returned to slavery, Herbert Holmes, the teacher and preacher, said."Never while I live," and he at once, with other leading colored citizens, gave the alarm to all their comrades on the Niagara frontier, and called on them to come to the rescue at once, and nobly they responded. Few of the blacks then were better than hewers of wood and drawers of water to their white brethren, but many instances can be given of self-sacrifice by those to whom word was sent. Teamsters gave up their situations and lost their wages, journeys were made to take word to friends, by boys and girls, journeys difficult and dangerous, for besides those in authority who wanted to surrender Moseby, there were a number of black ruffians, as well as whites, who made their living at times by kidnapping escaped slaves and other colored people, getting them back over the Niagara river. To the physical hardships endured. which were light, comparatively, add the mental sufferings, for instance, while the superstitious darkies were passing the numerous burial places of the early settlers on their own farms, the runners who were sent off to give the alarm, journeys often in the night, over nearly impassable roads to St. Davids, Drummondville, Chippawa, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, then called Granelly Bay, or the Twenty and Forty-Mile Creeks.

The Deputy Sheriff of the Niagara district at this time was McLeod, who was anxious to have Moseby extradited, but, fortunately, there were some formalities to be complied with, and before this was done Holmes recruits had arrived and assembled around the Niagara jail, determined to die before Moseby was given up. The town was in a ferment, the majority of the whites were opposed to the surrender but did not want to interfere, and fortunately for Moseby he had friends even among his guards, and although attempts were made to get him out secretly from the jail and down to the ferry, the watchers always were alert, and time after time frustrated the attempted night delivery of the prisoner. Capt. Eccles and Col. Adams, of St. Catharines, interested themselves for Moseby, and got up a largely signed

petition, but without avail. McLeod wished Capt. Richardson of the Canada to take Moseby to Lewiston in his vessel, and received for an answer a reply, forcible and somewhat profane, but this certainly might be a case where the recording angel might drop a tear to erase the word. It was the answer of a humane man that no vessel commanded by him would be used to convey a man back to slavery. Moseby's owner and the Americans were clamoring for him and at last, after a three weeks' siege of the jail by from 200 to 300 negroes, some say over 400, it was determined to deliver the prisoner on a certain day. Many of the white inhabitants of the town had given help in the way of food and shelter to the blockading army, who had erected temporary huts for shelter for some, as the weather was cold, while others obtained shelter with their colored brethren. Although there were four taverns in the vicinity of the jail there was not accommodation for all. Special constables were engaged, a couple of bombardiers from Fort Mississagua in their gorgeous uniforms, to inspire fear, were detailed to ride on the waggon, one on each side of the prisoner as he was being conveyed to the wharf. As there had been numerous false alarms, there were not so many white spectators as might have been expected, but there were some hundreds who were nearly all sympathizers. It was thought during the first week that Moseby's friends would soon tire, and it was given out at different times that the prisoner was to be given up, but Holmes was not thus deceived. He and his were always on hand. Sentinels had been posted on guard, night and day for those three weary weeks. What a time of excitement this must have been for all concerned ; it sounds to us, in these prosaic days, almost beyond belief. The prisoner did not lack friends inside the prison walls, and Holmes was always warned when danger threatened.

At last the day came; the Deputy Sheriff on horseback with a drawn sword, the waggon with two spirited horses,constables in front on the waggon, constables on the rear seat of waggon, prisoner handcuffed in the centre with bombardiers on each side of him, constables with fixed bayonets on foot, on each side of the waggon and the rear, white spectators on the roofs of the neighboring houses. The prisoner was handcuffed in the jail yard and bidden good-bye by Wheeler and helped into the waggon. Outside the jail the Riot Act was read, and then the gates are thrown open and the spirited team came out with a rush. Two hundred determined black men on each side of the road and across in front of the bounding team were there as well. Most of them, personally, had felt the lash of slavery; and there also was Holmes, who, however, had never been in bondage, but had made their wrongs his own, and deserves all the more credit All this recalls the words of the old rhyme while we survey this striking picture.

“And shall Trelawny die, and shall Trelawny die?

Then forty thousand Cornishmen will know the reason why."

Holmes, although a heavy, corpulent man, was the first to reach the

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horses' heads and bring them to a standstill; another man took hold of the other horse, and a third black man by the name of Green, with a fence rail, now that the waggon was stopped, ran the rail between the spokes of the hind wheels and locked the waggon. The prisoner, whose handcuffs had either not been locked or had been so weakened that they easily broke jumped from the waggon into the thickest of the crowd and disappeared. All this did not take over two minutes. McLeod on his charger, who, with his drawn sword was m king way for the team, had got into an altercation with a large fat woman who would not make way for him, her ponderosity happily offering an effectual bar, but on whom he hesitated to use his sword, on looking back and seeing the horses stopped, shouted "Fire!" and Charge," the bombardiers fired, one of them into the air, the other at Holmes, killing him instantly, and one of the special constables with his bayonet charged at poor Green, who had just locked the waggon wheels and had not had time to get away. The prisoner, who was an athletic man, jumped a rail fence, and ran into a corn field where a man by the name of Gibson was at work, who is credited with giving him assistance. At a farm house near Virgil it is told that he stopped to obtain a drink of water (and in the same house is still shown an earthenware jar, called "the Holmes jar," having belonged to our dusky hero at one time). Moseby finally reached Montreal, and afterwards England, for he was safe neither in Canada nor the United States. The authorities were enraged at his escape, and thirty or forty of the blacks were immediately arrested and imprisoned in the jail, the leader next to Holmes being a man named Sims. They were kept prisoners for some time, and at the breaking out of the rebellion were released, and joined a colored company, marched to the Falls and afterwards to Chippawa. Capt. Johnson Clench was their first captain. My informant could give no account of the funeral, there being a warrant out against him, but he escaped and afterwards enlisted with the others, being then a lad of sixteen.

It is strange how many stories are told of how the handcuffs were removed, showing what a hold this had taken on the popular fancy, and also how differently people see and narrate the same circumstance, but all show. ing the sympathy felt for the prisoner. One tells that the blacksmith who made the fetters, so constructed them as to be easily opened; another that file was conveyed to Moseby in food sent in to him; another, that a friendly turnkey helped him, and still another, that when he left the waggon, the handcuffs were still on, and then he ran to a large stone in a field and struck them off. One of the constables lost a finger in the contest as was well known to many in town.

a

Another vivid word picture of the same scene was given by a gentleman from Toronto, the story being told him by Father Henson, of Chatham, who was either a witness or was told of it by a participator in the scene. A touch of local color is given which will be appreciated by those who have wandered over the common at Niagara, or as it is called in Kirby's Canadian