He moved about with the activity of a cat, and neither the thickness
of the trees nor the depth of the water could stop him.
He was a bold, turbulent spirit; and, from motives of revenge,
he imbrued his hands in the blood of all the whites he could meet.
Hunger, thirst, and loss of sleep, he seemed made to endure,
as if by peculiarity of constitution. His air was fierce,
his step oblique, his look sanguinary.
Such was the character of one of the negroes in the Southampton Insurrection.
All negroes were arrested who were found beyond their master's threshold,
and all white strangers were looked upon with suspicion.
Such was the position in which Isabella found affairs
when she returned to Virginia in search of her child.
Had not the slave-owners been watchful of strangers,
owing to the outbreak, the fugitive could not have escaped
the vigilance of the police; for advertisements announcing
her escape, and offering a large reward for her arrest,
had been received in the city previous to her arrival,
and officers were therefore on the lookout for her.
It was on the third day after her arrival in Richmond, as the quadroon
was seated in her room at the hotel, still in the disguise of a gentleman,
that two of the city officers entered the apartment and informed her that they
were authorized to examine all strangers, to assure the authorities that they
were not in league with the revolted negroes.
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