He then handed
me over to the authorities, and I was immediately taken before the
magistrate from whom I had previously escaped, the Concord officer
accompanying the Keene officer who had charge of me.
The examination was short; I was bound over in the sum of one
thousand dollars to take my trial for bigamy. On my way to jail I
persuaded the Concord officer-with a hundred dollar bill which I
slipped into his hand-to induce the other officer to go with me to
the hotel under pretense of looking after my things, and getting
what would be necessary for my comfort in jail. My Concord friend
kept the other officer down stairs--in the bar-room, I presume--while
I went to my room. I put a single shirt in my pocket; the distance
from my window to the ground was not more than twelve or fifteen
feet, and I let myself down from the window sill and then dropped.
I was out of the yard, into the street, and out of town in less than
no time. It was already evening, and everything favored my escape. I
had no idea of spending months in jail at Keene, and months more,
perhaps years, in the New Hampshire State Prison. All my past bitter
experiences of wretched prison life urged me to flight.
And fly I did. No stopping at the friendly farmer's, my former
refuge, this time; that would be too great a risk. No showing of
myself in any town or villege where the telegraph might have
conveyed a description of my person. I traveled night and day on
foot, and more at night than during the day, taking by-roads, lying
by in the woods, sleeping in barns, and getting my meals in
out-of-the-way farm houses.
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