pecial ambition to free the Washington
slaves. Fighting began at daybreak of the 17th. The Mayor of
Harper's Ferry and another fell mortally wounded.

Brown and his party by noon were driven into an engine-house near
the armory, where they had barred the doors and windows, and made
port-holes for their rifles. There they were besieged and fired
on by their assailants.

Colonel Washington and others of their captives were held by Brown
in the engine-house. Shots were returned by Brown and his men.
Some idea of Brown's character and bravery can be formed from
Colonel Washington's description of his conduct in the engine-house
fort:

"Brown was the coolest and firmest man I ever saw in defying danger
and death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through,
he felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand and held his rifle
with the other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure,
encouraging them to be firm and sell their lives as dearly as they
could."

He wreaked no vengeance on his prisoners. Though his sons and
friends were dead and dying around him, and himself, near the end
of the fight, cleaved down with a sword, and bayonets were thrust
in his body, he sheltered his prisoners so that not one of them
was harmed. And non-combatants were not fired on by his band.

When Brown's party in the _fort_ were reduced to himself and six
men, two or more of these being wounded, Colonel Robert E. Lee,
_then of the United States Army_, arrived with a company of marines.
After Lee's demand to surrender was refused by Brown, an entrance
was forced, and, bleeding, some dying, he and those left were taken.
Of the nineteen, ten were killed, five taken prisoners, and four
had succeeded in escaping, two of the four being afterwards captured
in Pennsylvania. They had killed five and wounded nine of the
inhabitants and of their besiegers.

Not only was all the vicinity wildly excited, but the whole South
was in an uproar. Slavery had been physically assaulted in its
home. The North partook of the excitement, generally condemning
the rash proceeding, though many deeply sympathized with the purpose
of Brown's movement, and his heroic conduct and life caused many
to admire him. He was a devout believer in the literal reading of
the Holy Bible, and of the special judgments of God, as he interpreted
them in the Old Testament. His attack on slavery he regarded as
more rational than and as likely to triumph