Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/271

 lawyer seemed to intimate, had taken this compendious method of squaring the account. It would be safest for me, in the present excited state of the public mind, if I wished to save myself from disagreeable personal indignities, to pay the greatest deference to the committee and their orders; and he would do his best to get me off as easily as possible.

Having found, upon inquiry, that the English consul was absent from the city, I hastened with my lawyer to wait upon the vigilance committee, and the more so, as a second detachment of volunteer bailiffs had already arrived, rather ominously backed by a mob, collected before the door of the hotel, with orders to bring me by force, if I delayed any longer. Those who had me in charge did their best to protect me, yet I did not entirely escape without insults from the crowd.

Having arrived in the august presence of the committee, I found myself obliged to submit to a very stringent examination on the part of the chairman, a sharp-nosed, gray-eyed gentleman, and in spectacles, deacon, I was told, of a Presbyterian church. He inquired-as to my name, birthplace, occupation, and object in visiting the country; which I stated to be, to observe its manners and customs, and in fact, as I added, I had found them very singular indeed, and well worthy of a traveller's curiosity. I might, however, as Well have kept my observations to myself, for this sally brought a scowl blacker than before across the brows of the very solemn-looking committee, and a reproving shake of the head and glance of the eye from my friendly lawyer, who sat in one corner, but who was not allowed to take any part in the proceedings.

Tn the course of my answers, I had referred to my letter of introduction brought to the merchant, to whom a message was immediately sent, to come before the committee, and to bring that letter with him. His wife must have recruited very suddenly, for in a surprisingly short time the merchant made