there for
several hours, there would be time enough to see all the armory
workshops and wonders. So off we started up the muddy hillside, leaving
our engineer to his task on the railroad; for what pedestrian would not
prefer the worst dirt road to the best railroad for an hour's walking?
Our Englishman was ailing and really unwell, and half-way up the rough
hill left us to return to the easy comfort of the train.

My guide--Dr. Marmion was the name he gave in exchange for mine--said
that the row at the Ferry was nothing but a riotous demonstration by the
workmen. He came from quite a distance, and, hearing these vague
reports, had turned off to visit his patients in this quarter, so that
he might learn the real facts; and as it was then only a little past
nine, he had time to do his morning's work in Bolivar. So there we
parted, he agreeing to join me again at the Ferry; and he did so later
in the day.

Turning to the left on the main pike, I found little knots of lounging
villagers gathered in the rain and mud, spitting, swearing, and
discussing the news from the Ferry. Few of them had been there, and none
of them agreed in their account of the troubles; so I plodded on over
the hill and down the sharp slope that led to the Ferry. Just as I began
the descent, a person rode up on horseback, gun in hand, and as we came
in sight of the armory, he told me the true story,--that a band of men
were gathered together to set the slaves free, and that, after starting
the outbreak on the night before, they had taken refuge down below. He
pointed with his gun, and we were standing side by side, when a sudden
flash and a sharp report and a bullet stopped his story and his life.

The few people above us looked down from behind the shelter of houses
and fences;--from below not a soul was visible in the streets and alleys
of Harper's Ferry, and only a few persons could be seen moving about the
buildings in the armory inclosure. In a minute, some of the townspeople,
holding out a white handkerchief, came down to the fallen man, and,
quite undisturbed, carried him up the hill and to the nearest
house,--all with hardly a question or a word of explanation. Shocked by
what was then rare enough to be appalling,--sudden and violent death by
fire-arms in the hands of concealed men,--I started off again, meaning
to go down to the Ferry, with some vague notion of being a peace-maker,
and at least of satisfying my curiosity as to the meaning o