A few
prisoners are speedily added to Brown's little company, who,
thinking it is perhaps prudent to keep men off horseback who were
so prone to flight, orders them to walk.
But he has ideas of courtesy, has this rough old warrior, and
says he means them no unkindness and will walk with them. Such a
favourable opportunity must in no wise be missed, so the old
soldier-prophet gives them his mind upon the wickedness of slave-
holding and the meanness of slave-hunting, which discourse, let
us hope, is not wholly unfruitful. When he has held them for one
night he thinks they have been brought far enough from their
haunts to prevent further mischief, and sets them free. That one
night spent with him they are not likely to forget. He would not
so much as allow them the privilege of swearing. 'No taking of
God's name in vain gentlemen; if there is a God you will gain
nothing, and if there is none you are fools indeed.' Such is the
old man's plain argument.
One of them, a harum-scarum young physician, is taken specially
under charge by John Brown. Before retiring Brown desires him to
pray. 'I can't pray,' he says, with an oath. 'What, did your
mother never teach you?' asks Brown.
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