to Boston I did some things of
which this court has not taken notice, and so I will not speak of them
now, but only tell your grandchildren of, if I live long enough.
Others did more and better than I could do, however. In due time they
will have their reward. One thing let me say now. When the two
brothers Curtis, with their kinsfolk and coadjutors, were seeking to
kidnap the Crafts, I took Ellen to my own house, and kept her there so
long as the (Southern) kidnappers remained in the city. For the first
time I armed myself, and put my house in a state of defence. For two
weeks I wrote my sermons with a sword in the open drawer under my
inkstand, and a pistol in the flap of the desk, loaded, ready, with a
cap on the nipple. Commissioner Curtis said "a process was in the
hands of the marshal ..." in the execution of which, he _might be
called upon to break open dwelling-houses, and perhaps to take life_,
by quelling resistance actual or "_threatened_." I was ready for him.
I knew my rights.

I went also and looked after William Craft. I inspected his weapons;
"his powder had a good kernel, and he kept it dry; his pistols were of
excellent proof; the barrels true, and clean, the trigger went easy,
the caps would not hang fire at the snap. I tested his poignard; the
blade had a good temper, stiff enough and yet springy withal; the
point was sharp."[213] After the immediate danger was over and Knight
and Hughes had avoided the city, where they had received such welcome
from the friends of this Court, such was the tone of the political
newspapers and the commercial pulpit that William and Ellen must needs
flee from America. Long made one by the wedlock of mutual and plighted
faith, their marriage in Georgia was yet "null and void" by the laws
of that "Christian State." I married them according to the law of
Massachusetts. As a symbol of the husband's peculiar responsibility
under such circumstances, I gave William a Sword--it lay on the table
in the house of another fugitive, where the wedding took place--and
told him of his manly duty therewith, if need were, to defend the life
and liberty of Ellen. I gave them both a Bible, which I had bought for
the purpose, to be a symbol of their spiritual culture and a help for
their soul, as the sword was for their bodily life. "With this sword I
thee wed," suited the circumstances of that bridal.

[Footnote 213: 1 Parker's Additional Speeches, 55.]

Mr. and Mrs. Craft were parish