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346

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUG!.ASS

nite light. At such a time and in such a place when a man is about closing
his eyes on this world and ready to step into the eternal unknown no word
of reproach or bitterness should reach him or fall from his lips; and on this
occasion there was to this rule no transgression on either side.
As this visit to Capt. Auld has been made the subject of mirth by heartless triflers and regretted as a weakening of my life-long testimony against
slavery by serious-minded men and as the report of it published in the
papers immediately after it occurred was in some respects defective and
colored it may be proper to state exactly what was said and done at this
interview.
It should in the first place be understood that I did not go to St. Michaels
upon Capt. Auld's invitation, but upon that of my colored friend. Charles
Caldwell; but when once there Capt. Auld sent Mr. Green a man in constant
attendance upon him during his sickness to tell me he would be very glad to
see me and wished me to accompany Green to his house. with which request
I complied. On reaching the house I was met by Mr. Wm. H. Bruff: a son-in-law of Capt. Auld and Mrs. Louisa Bruff his daughter and was con-
ducted by them immediately to the bed-room of Capt. Auld. We addressed
each other simultaneously he calling me "Marshal
Douglass" I instantly broke up the formal nature of the meeting by saying
"not Marshal but Frederick to you as formerly." We shook hands cordially
and in the act of doing so he, having been long stricken with palsy shed
tears as men thus affiicted will do when excited by any deep emotion. The
sight of him the changes which time had wrought in him, his tremulous
hands constantly in motion and all the circumstances of his condition
affected me deeply and for a time choked my voice and made me speech-
less. We both however got the better of our feelings and conversed freely
about the past.

Though broken by age and palsy the mind or Capt. Auld was remark-
ably clear and strong. After he had become composed I asked him what he
thought of my conduct in running away and going to the north. He hesitated
a moment as if to properly formulate his reply and said: "Frederick. I always
knew you were too smart to be a slave, and had I been in your place I should
have done as you did." I said "Capt. Auld, I am glad to hear you say this. I
did not run away from you, but from slavery; it was not that I loved Caesar
less, but Rome more." I told him that I had made a mistake in my narrative
a copy of which I had sent him, in attributing to him ungrateful and cruel
treatment of my grandmother; that I had done so on the supposition that in