You all know how dear
life is to you, and how dear your lives are to your friends; and
in remembering that, consider that the lives of others are as
dear. Do not therefore take the life of any one if you can
possibly avoid it, but if it is necessary to take life in order
to save your own, then make sure work of it.'
Two of them were deputed to hasten, when the town was in their
hands, to Colonel Washington's house, four miles distant--to
seize him, free his slaves, and take the relic of the house, the
famed sword of his illustrious ancestor George Washington, that
with this in hand John Brown might head the campaign. That feat
they actually performed, and for one brief day their leader bore
that sword.
Silently marched that little band of about a score under shelter
of the darkness. They had their plans complete, even a
Constitution ready framed, should they be successful. The
telegraph wires were cut. They contrived to terrify all on guard
without firing a shot, and as the sun rose, Harper's Ferry,
arsenal, armoury, and rifle works, and many prisoners were in the
hands of John Brown. The day wore on, but the expected
reinforcements came not; the spreading news, however, brought
hostile troops around the captured place, and they hourly
increased.
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