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"And this is the protection you promised my mother! What is your gas worth to me!"

They felt the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and dared not attempt to console him. Mr. Comstock was the only one who ventured a response in words. He said:

"You must excuse me, Isaac, for I did what I thought would be best for you. I knew your father was determined, and he would put her in at any rate; and I knew too, that your opposition would do no good, and would only torment you to witness the scene. So I had you go for your good!"

"For my good!" thought he, "I think I should like to be my own judge in that matter!"

He spoke not one reproachful word in reply; but true to his promise to protect his mother's papers, he quickly sought her room to get the box. But lo! it was gone! and never was he allowed to know who took these papers, nor where they were hidden. Among them was my will and a note of six hundred dollars, which Mr. Packard had given me for that amount of my patrimony which my father had sent me a few years before. This note I have never seen, nor have I ever had one cent of the money it secured to me.

But George, knowing the direction the cars went with his mother, ran on the track after them, determined he never would return until he could return with his mother rescued from prison! He was not missed until he was far out of hearing, and almost out of sight -- he only looked like a small speck on the distant track. They followed after him; but he most persistently refused to return, crying:

"I will get my dear mamma out of prison! My mamma shan't be locked up in a prison! I will not go home without my mother!"

He was of course forced back, but not to stay -- only until he could make another escape. They finally had to imprison him -- my little manly boy of seven years-to keep him from running two hundred miles on the track to Jacksonville, to liberate his imprisoned mother!

But O, my daughter! no pen can delineate thy sorrow, to find thy mother gone! perhaps, forever gone! from thy companionship, counsel, care and sympathy! She wept both night and day, almost unceasingly, and her plaintive moans could be heard at quite a distance from home.

"O! mother! mother! mother!" was her almost constant, unceasing call.

Her sorrow almost cost her her reason and her life.

And so it was with Isaac. He grieved himself into a settled fever, which he did but just survive; and during its height, he moaned incessantly for his mother, not knowing what he said. His reason for a time was lost in delirium.

But my babe, thank God! was too young to realize his loss. For him, I suffered enough for two human beings.

Here we leave these scenes of human anguish, to speak one word of comfort for the wives and mothers of Illinois.

Conscious that there had already been innocent victims enough offered in sacrifice on this altar of injustice, in consequence of these cruel laws of Illinois against my own sex, I determined to appeal, single-handed and alone, if necessary, to their Legislature, to have them repealed, and thereby have the personal liberty of married women protected by law, as well as by the marital power.

This effort was a complete success, and is fully detailed in the second volume.

CHAPTER IV.
My Journey.

Sheriff Burgess left our company at Kankakee City, twelve miles distant from Manteno, where he then resided. Not knowing at that time but that he had the legal papers Deacon Dole claimed for him, I thanked him, on taking leave, for the kind and gentlemanly manner he had discharged his duties as a sheriff in this transaction, adding:

"You have only discharged your duty as a sheriff, therefore, as a man, I shall claim you as a friend."

And six months from this date, when he called upon me in my Asylum prison, and inquired so kindly and tenderly after my comfort and surroundings, I felt confirmed in my opinion that I had not misjudged him.

Not long after he died, but not until after he had frankly confessed his breach of trust, as a public officer, in this transaction.

As my wounded heart still sought the relief of tears, I continued to weep on and at length I ventured to express my sincere, deep anxiety, lest my children would not be able to survive their bereavement. Mr. Packard and Mr. Dole then both tried to console me, by assuring me they were left with kind friends who would take good care of them; and Mr. Packard said he had left a written document for each of them, which he thought would satisfy them, so that they would "soon get over it."

"O," thought I, "soon get over it! what consolation! to be told that your children would soon forget you!"

Nay, verily I am too indelibly united to their heart's tenderest, deepest affections, to suffer an easy or rapid alienation.

And so it proved-for three years this cruel wound in their sensitive hearts remained unhealed -- they instinctively and persistently spurned the mollient he offered to heal it, viz: "their mother was insane, and therefore must be locked up for her good!"