Part 60 (2/2)

But the keen ear of the old man had heard the rumble of the swarming of twenty million white hornets in the North.

The moment he had lifted his head a prisoner in the hands of his courteous captor, he foresaw the power which the role of martyrdom would give to his cause. Instantly he a.s.sumed the part and played it with genius to the last breath of his indomitable body.

He had stained the soil of Virginia with the blood of innocent and unoffending citizens. He had raised the Blood Feud at the right moment, a few months before a Presidential campaign. He had raised it at the right spot in a mountain gorge that looked southward to the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton and northward to the beating hearts of the millions, who had been prepared for this event by the long years of the Abolition Crusade which had culminated in _Uncle Tom's Cabin_.

A wave of horror for a moment swept the nation, North and South.

Frederick Douglas fled to Europe. Sanborn, the treasurer and manager of the conspiracy, hurried across the border into Canada. Howe and Stearns hid. Theodore Parker was already in Europe.

Poor, old, gentle, generous Gerrit Smith collapsed and was led to the insane asylum at Ithaca, New York.

Two men alone of the conspirators realized the tremendous thing that had been done--John Brown in jail at Charlestown, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the militant preacher of Ma.s.sachusetts.

To Brown, life had been an unbroken horror. His tragic Puritan soul had ever faced it with scorn--scorn for himself and the world. He was used to failure and disaster. They had been his meat and drink. Bankruptcy, imprisonment, flight from justice and the death of half his children had been mere incidents of life.

He had cast scarcely a glance at his dying sons in the Engine House. He had not tried to minister to them. His hand was tightly gripped on his carbine.

His grim soul now rose to its first long flight of religious ecstasy.

He saw that the Southerner's reverence for Law and Order would make his execution inevitable. His dark spirit shouted for joy. His own blood, if he could succeed in playing the role of martyr, would raise the Blood Feud to its highest power. No statesman, no leader, no poet, no seer could calm the spirit of the archaic beast in man, which this martyrdom would raise if skillfully played. He was sure he could play the role with success.

The one man in the North who saw with clear vision the thing which Brown's failure had done was the Worcester clergyman.

Higginson was a preacher by accident. He was a born soldier. From the first meeting with Brown his fighting spirit had answered his cry for blood with a shout of approval. Higginson not only refused to run, but also groaned with shame at the fears of his fellow conspirators. His first utterance was characteristic of his spirit.

”I am overwhelmed with remorse that the men who gave him money and arms could not have been by his side when he fell.”

He stood his ground in Worcester and dared arrest. He did not proclaim his guilt from the housetop. But his friends and neighbors knew and he walked the streets with head erect.

He did more. He joined with John W. LeBarnes and immediately organized a plot to liberate Brown by force. He raised the money and engaged George H. Hoyt to go to Harper's Ferry, ostensibly to appear as his attorney at the trial, in reality to act as a spy, discover the strength of the jail and find whether it could be stormed and taken by a company of determined men.

At his first interview with Brown the spy revealed his purpose.

”I have come from Boston to rescue you,” he whispered.

The old man's face was convulsed with anger. He spoke in the tones of final command which had always closed argument with friend or foe.

”Never will I consent to such a scheme.”

”But listen--”

”You listen to me, young man. The bare mention of this thing again and I shall refuse to see or speak to you. Do you accept my decision, sir?”

Hoyt agreed at once. Only in this way could he keep in touch with the man whom he had come to save.

”The last thing on this earth I would ask,” Brown continued sternly, ”is to be taken from this jail except by the State of Virginia when I shall ascend the scaffold.”

Hoyt looked longingly at the old-fas.h.i.+oned fireplace in his prison room.

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