The streets now displayed a kindlier aspect, for the sun had brazened the low clouds and shone past the weathervane atop the hall; the half-hearted artillery fire had ceased; merchants moved through the streets; there was the appearance of industry and health in the city; and I had an income.
I did not for a moment consider Mr. Turner’s suggestion that I procure new clothes through theft, the habit of seemly, submissive, and orderly carriage being too great in me to admit of such a plan. Little knowing how to secure the requisite finery, and motivated now as much by pleasure in exploration as by utility, I passed up and down the town’s byways, dreaming, as youth dreams, of Providence: that I should be suddenly supplied by a suit of clothes tossed into a garbage heap or lain in an alley, or that perhaps I should through some unexpected commerce with maid or char be heaped with a waistcoat hanging to dry which Master no longer desired. Though no such felicitous circumstance transpired, still I walked with light enough step. For the first time, I was free, and, better than free, employed; and now, unencumbered by the terrors of the night and pursuit, I was fully sensible of the exhilarating sensations of that liberty. My long Adagio was succeeded, thought I, by this new Scherzo, and I may even have endeavored to smile.
Well can it be imagined that my view of the city was rosy in hue. The sun fell golden and blue over the streets. Citizens laughed with soldiers.
And with every step, I rendered thanks to our Creator, who in His kindness had led me out of the house of bondage, out from under the scepter of Pharaoh, and across the dry sea-bottom to wanderings and liberty.