About this time (1856) he became a servant of my father’s and lived with the family many years, and it was from his own lips I gathered the story of his life as I have told it. Only about three weeks before his death he induced the writer to communicate with his friends in Virginia, giving his assumed name, James King, by which he always had been known here. A reply came at once, telling his real name, (which the old man confessed was right), and asking him to come back and see his friends, intimating, too, that he might be profited by his visit. His dread of slavery was too great, however, and he absolutely refused to go, but enquired most earnestly for his white half-brother, whom, the writer suspects, would now be glad, seeing that the great battle of slavery had been fought, to aid him. But it was not to be. James King, the slave, in whose veins flowed Virginia’s best blood, died of inflammation on the 20th day of October, 1895, in the land where he had sought and found freedom. After a silence of thirty-eight years it seemed hard that the poor old ex-slave could not have gone to see his friends, and thus had a few bright days at the close of his long and lonely life. CHAPTER X. Civil war in the United States--Large bounties paid Canadian recruits--Prices of produce go up--More than two million men under arms--I make a trip to Washington--Visiting the military hospitals--I am offered $800 to enlist--Brief interview with President Lincoln--A pass secured--I visit the Army of the Potomac--90,000 men under canvas--Washington threatened by the Confederates--Military prison at Elmira, N.Y.--Cheap greenbacks--A chance to become a multi-millionaire. “I looked, and thought the quiet of the scene An emblem of the peace that yet shall be, When o’er earth’s continents and isles between The noise of war shall cease from sea to sea, And married nations dwell in harmony; When millions, crouching in the dust to one, No more shall beg their lives on bended knee, Nor the black stake be dressed, nor in the sun The o’er labor’d captive toil, and wish his life were done.” The civil war in the United States broke out in April, 1861, and indirectly exerted much influence on Canada. From 80,000 to 100,000 of our young men, who were sympathizers with the North, went from Ontario and Quebec to join the Northern army. These Canadian recruits all received bounties--at first, usually $800 on enlisting, and then, as the struggle went on, receiving as high as $1,600. The war created a large demand for produce of all kinds, and the Northern States bought everything we had to sell, giving high prices; the farmer and other producers became wealthy, and, to quote the usual expression, “the times were good.”