twenty times as many men as I have now for a similar
expedition; but I have failed."

Then Governor Wise said, "The silver of your hair is reddened by the
blood of crime. You should think upon eternity."

John Brown replied, "Governor, I have not more than fifteen or twenty
years the start of you to that eternity, and I am prepared to go. There
is an eternity behind and an eternity before, and this little speck in
the centre is but a minute. The difference between your time and mine is
trifling, and I therefore tell you--be prepared. I am prepared--you have
a heavy responsibility. It behooves you to prepare, and more than it
does me."

Friends in the North tried to secure Brown's release, but he answered
them: "I think I cannot now better serve the cause I love so much than
to die for it, and in my death I may do more than in my life. I believe
that for me, at this time, to seal my testimony for God and humanity
through my blood will do vastly more towards advancing the cause I have
earnestly endeavoured to promote than all I have done in my life
before."

When the court asked Brown if he had any reason why he should not be
hung, he answered: "This court acknowledges the validity of the law of
God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible. That book
teaches me to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I
endeavoured to act up to that instruction. I believe that to interfere
as I have done, in behalf of God's poor, was not wrong, but right. I am
quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged
away but with blood. If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my
life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood
further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in
this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and
unjust enactments, I submit. So let it be done."

On the morning of his hanging he visited his doomed companions, and then
kissed his wife good-bye. A thousand soldiers stood round about his
scaffold. "This is a beautiful land," said Brown, as he rode, looking
across the landscape. As he climbed the steps of the scaffold a negro
child stood between some black men, and some say he stooped and kissed
the child. And this was his prayer:

"My love to all who love their neighbours. I have asked to be spared
from having any weak or hypocritical prayers said over me when I am
publicly murdered, and that