In the meantime active preparations were in progress for our public dinner; and with the contributions of our friends who were to partake with us, and a portion served from the public table of the citizens of the town, we had a plentiful supply. And, as we considered it was to be a day of release, we partook of our feast with much cheer, and with thankful as well as social feelings, which I think have been seldom if ever surpassed. O ye sons of Columbia, at home and abroad! Think back to the fourth of July, 1839; call to mind your feast in honor of national freedom, and ask yourselves the question, whether in all your pomp and show of joy and social glee, you felt anything compared with _our_ feelings, or the interest excited during that feast. Eight months and four days we had been deprived of the sweets of that liberty which a whole nation was then engaged in celebrating; and we felt that: Now's the day, and now's the hour, To trample on a tyrant's power; To burst at once the prison's gloom, Or find a martyr'd hero's tomb. The dinner over, our brethren took a final leave of us and our prison, loaded with love, respects, compliments and messages to our families and friends in Illinois. All these, together with the goodbyes and farewells, were heard and witnessed by the keeper's family, and served the purpose for which they were intended, viz: To lull them into security, and to remove all possible ground of suspicion as to our intentions. After riding out of town a mile or two in the forest, on the road towards Illinois, they turned off into the thick leaved wilderness, and made their way in secret, as best they could, to the thicket agreed upon, within about half a mile of the prison; where, with horses saddled and bridle reins in hand, they awaited in anxious suspense the slow progress of the setting sun. CHAPTER XXXII. ------------------------ Description of the Prison:--Ladies in the Prison:--Evening of a Public Day:--Song:--Obstinate Coffee Pot:--Order of Attack:--Escape:--Race:--Great Excitement:--Our Friends in the Thicket:--Prisoners Gain the Thicket:--Flight:--Encounter:--Climb a Tree:--Faint:--Prayers:--Night Favors us at Last:--Loss of my Horse:--Journey on Foot:--Reflections.