● ● ●  comment they called forth, a revised version of her already published poem “Woman’s Rights” was printed in its new form in the Portland Advertiser. Dresser referred to her in his diary as “Mrs. Patterson, the authoress.”⁹⁹ Before long she delivered a successful public lecture, which may conceivably have been on Quimbyism but was much more probably on her experiences in the South.

For the Civil War was still dominating public thought. George Glover had been severely wounded in the neck at Corinth a week before his mother arrived in Portland, although she was not to learn of that for some time yet. And Patterson, who had been thrown for seven days into the Black Hole in his Salisbury prison because of his refusal to pledge himself not to escape, had implemented his refusal by actually escaping on September 20. Then followed what were later described by the bellicose press as “incredible hardships and many narrow escapes in his journey of 400 miles through the domain of wild beasts, venomous reptiles, and rebels,” until he arrived almost two months later in Washington, “worn down and destitute.”¹⁰⁰

By that time Mrs. Patterson had learned of his escape, but during her first weeks in Portland she was ignorant of it. On being restored to health, her first thought had been that now she would be able to go to Washington to plead for her husband’s release through an exchange of prisoners. She borrowed money for this purpose from Patterson’s brother John, who lived not far from Portland in Saco, Maine.¹⁰¹ She appealed to the governor of New Hampshire and received from him a written statement on October 23 certifying her entitlement to sympathetic help on her journey;¹⁰² but the journey was never made, for she then learned of Patterson’s escape.

Sometime in December he rejoined her in Portland, having gone first of all to Sanbornton Bridge. The serious privations he had suffered seem to have damaged his health, weakened his will, and increased his  ● ● ●