On the 4th they pursued their way, up hill and down, the carriage sometimes becoming so firmly fixed in the narrow deep ruts, that it was necessary to take out the horses, and for the men of the party, with the assistance of passers-by, to lift it over to more even ground.

At length they arrived at Erndebrueck, and drove to an inn; but not finding their luggage, they went to another, and while they were preparing to start for Berlenburg, William Seebohm went to the Custom-office to show the ticket of clearance they had received on entering the Prussian territory at Burbach.  This ticket should have obviated all delay attendant on the examination of the luggage; but it happened, most unfortunately, that the custom officer was the landlord of the inn they first came to.  Their leaving his house without taking refreshment was, in his eyes, an unpardonable offence, and on William Seebohm presenting to him the ticket, his countenance and language betrayed the passion which raged in his breast.  He declared their trunks should be examined in the strictest manner; and when they represented the necessity they were under of speedily pursuing their journey, and desired him to despatch the business as quickly as possible, he replied by detaining them until they were obliged to send back the horse and guide, and consent to pass the night under his roof.  He then demanded their passports, and finding they had not been vise’d at all the towns through which they had passed, and that the travellers had departed from the route described in them, he sent for a gendarme, and placed them under arrest.  They were not allowed to take anything from their trunks without being watched by the gendarme; and when they took out a letter of recommendation, written by Dr. Steinkopf to the clergyman of the place, whom they had requested to call upon them, the gendarme insisted on first reading it.  On their expostulating with the landlord at being treated in this manner, instead of making a direct reply, he strutted up and down the room, repeating continually, “Ja, ja, ja, ja! they shall know what they went away from my house for, and that there is a custom-office here.”  The Friends took their evening meal, as is usual in Germany, in-one of the sleeping-rooms—­that which had been allotted to Martha Savory and Martha Towell.  Into this chamber, when they had eaten, the landlord brought a party of eight or nine men to take their supper.  After supper the men smoked, and some of them did not even refrain from showing their ill-breeding in a more disagreeable way.  William Seebohm overheard the landlord and the gendarme say to each other, “These people are travelling this way to visit the Separatists, and strengthen them in their religious opinions; but we will disappoint them.”

The next morning they were favored with a short season of solemn communion, in which they were given to believe that the Name of the Lord would be their strong tower.  Their liberation, in fact, was near; for their envious jailor, finding probably no excuse for longer detaining them, suffered them to depart, but sent the gendarme to guard them as far as Berlenburg.  The man proved to be an excellent guide, and being eager to bring them to the magistrate of that town, where they could be more effectually checked in their schismatical object, he was very useful in shouldering the carriage when they came to a stand in the miserable roads.