It is under-
stood that one of the judges told the Marshal that
he would not be authorised in breaking the door of
Craft's house. Craft kept himself close within the
house, armed himself, and awaited with remarkable
composure the event. Ellen, in the meantime, had
been taken to a retired place out of the city. The
Vigilance Committee (appointed at a late meeting
in Fanueil Hall) enlarged their numbers, held an
almost permanent session, and appointed various sub-
committees to act in different ways. One of these
committees called repeatedly on Messrs. Hughes
and Knight, the slave-catchers, and requested and
advised them to leave the city. At first they
peremptorily refused to do so, ''till they got hold of
the niggers.' On complaint of different persons,
these two fellows were several times arrested, car-
ried before one of our county courts, and held to
bail on charges of 'conspiracy to kidnap,' and of
'defamation,' in calling William and Ellen 'SLAVES.'
At length, they became so alarmed, that they
left the city by an indirect route, evading the
vigilance of many persons who were on the look-out
for them. Hughes, at one time, was near losing
his life at the hands of an infuriated coloured man.
While these men remained in the city, a prominent
whig gentleman sent word to William Craft, that
if he would submit peaceably to an arrest, he and
his wife should be bought from their owners, cost
what it might.
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