God, in his infinite goodness, has looked upon me with compassion, and calmed my troubles in part. At least all that I have desired, He has done for me, or how could I have lived? Will you not call and see me some time? Don't despise the thief; Christ did not. Many thanks to your kind heart. Also please thank the Government Attorney, and the Post Masters of H----, and N---- H----. May God watch over and preserve you all. Your unworthy servant, E. A. S----. CHAPTER VI. Safety of the Mails--Confidence shaken--About Mail Locks--Importance of Seals--City and Country--Meeting the Suspected--Test of Honesty--Value of a String--A dreary Ride--Harmless Stragglers--A cautious Official--Package missing--An early Customer--Newspaper Dodge--Plain Talk--A Call to Breakfast--Innocence and Crime--Suspicion Confirmed--The big Wafers--Finding the String--The Examination--Escape to Canada--A true Woman--The Re-arrest--Letter of Consolation--The Wife in Prison--Boring Out--Surprise of the Jailor--Killing a Horse. In our larger cities, and indeed throughout the country, there are thousands of persons engaged in the transaction of business, who if called upon would testify that in the course of their employment of the mails, involving in the aggregate the collection and disbursement of millions of dollars, no part of their correspondence, valuable or otherwise, had failed or had ever been delayed through any fault of the Post-Office Department. Such, up to the year 1849, had been the experience--an experience extending through many years--of a firm in Northern New York, extensively engaged in manufacturing and real estate operations, which required the frequent transmission of heavy remittances between their place of business and New York City. For a long time they confined themselves to the use of drafts, checks, and other representatives of money, but as everything went on smoothly for years, they finally remitted money itself, in the shape of bank-notes, whenever convenience required, without bestowing a thought upon the insecurity or danger of such a course; and for a time the prompt acknowledgment of the receipt of the various sums thus sent strengthened their confidence in the safety of the mails, and the fidelity of their management. Therefore the rifling of one money letter directed by them to New York caused but little alarm; but when this was followed in rapid succession by the loss of the contents of a second, third, and even a fourth, they began to think that there was "something rotten in the state of"--New York, and accordingly called upon the Post-Office Department for aid in ascertaining the locality, and detecting the perpetrator of these robberies.