It was a damp, chill evening of mid3 fall. Heavy rain clouds obscured thestars and not a traveler ventured along the wind-swept roads. From theattic were loaded into the wagon crowbars, sledge4 hammers, iron pikesand oil-soaked faggots.
The crowbars and sledge hammers might be used on the gates or doors.
There could be no doubt about the use to which the leader intended toput the pikes and torches.
When the wagon had been loaded the old man summoned his faithful son,Owen.
"Captain Owen Brown," the steel voice rang, "you will take privateBarclay Coppoc and F.J. Merriam and establish a guard over this houseas the headquarters of our expedition. Hold it at all hazards. You areguarding the written records of our work, the names of associates, thereserves of our arms and ammunition5. We will send you reinforcements indue time."Owen saluted6 his commander and the two privates under his command tooktheir places beside him.
Brown waved to the eighteen men standing7 around the wagon.
"Get on your arms, and to the Ferry!"They had been ready for hours, eager for the Deed. Not one among them inhis heart believed in the wisdom of this assault, yet so grim was thepower of Brown's mind over the wills of his followers8, there was not alaggard among them.
Brown drove the wagon and led the procession down the pitch-black roadtoward the town. The men fell in line two abreast9 and slowly marchedbehind the team.
Cook and Tidd, raised to the rank of Captains, their commissionsduly signed, led the tramping men. There were many captains in thisremarkable army of twenty-one. There were more officers than privates.
The officers were commissioned to recruit their black companies when thefirst blow had been struck.
The enterprise on which these twenty-one veteran rangers10 had started inthe chill night was by no means so foolhardy as appears on the surface.
The leader was leaving his base of supplies with a rear guard of butthree men. Yet the army on the march consisted of but eighteen. He knewthat the United States Arsenal11 had but one guarded gate and that theold watchman had not fired a gun in twenty-five years. It would be thesimplest thing to force this gate and the Arsenal was in their hands.
The Rifle Works had but a single guard. They could be taken in fiveminutes. Once inside these enclosures, he had unlimited12 guns andammunition at his command.
The town would be asleep at ten o'clock when he arrived at the Marylandend of the covered bridge across the Potomac. Eighteen armed men were anample force to capture the unsuspecting town. Not a single policeman wason duty after ten. The people were not in the habit of locking theirdoors.
The one principle of military law which the leader was apparentlyviolating was the failure to provide a plan of retreat. But retreat wasthe last thing he intended to face.
The one thing on which he had staked his life and the success of hisdaring undertaking13 was the swarming15 of the black bees. His theory wasreasonable from the Abolitionist's point of view. He believed that negroChattel Slavery as practiced in the South was the sum of all villainies.
And the Southern slave holders17 were the arch criminals and oppressors ofhuman history. In his Preamble19 of the new "Constitution" to which hismen had sworn allegiance, he had described this condition as oneof "perpetual imprisonment20, and hopeless servitude or absoluteextermination." If the negroes of the South were held in the chains ofsuch a system, if they were being beaten and exterminated21, the blackbees _would_ swarm14 at the first call of a master leader and deluge22 thesoil in blood.
John Brown believed this as he believed in the God to whom he prayedbefore he loaded his pikes and torches on the wagon. These black legionswould swarm to-night! He could hear their shouts of joy and revengeas they gripped their pikes and swung into line under his God imposedleadership.
The whole scheme was based on this faith. If Garrison's words were true,if the Southern slave holder18 was a fiend, if Mrs. Stowe's arraignment23 ofSlavery on the grounds of its inhuman24 cruelty was a true indictment25, hisfaith was well grounded.
His thousand pikes in the hands of a thousand determined26 blacks led bythe trained Captains whom he had commissioned was a force adequate tohold the town of Harper's Ferry and invade the Black Belt beyond thePeak.
The moment these black legions swarmed27 and weapons were placed in theirhands the insurrection would spread with lightning rapidity. The weaponswere in the Arsenal. The massacres28 would be sweeping29 through Virginia,North and South Carolina before an adequate force could reach thismountain pass. And when they reached it, he would be at the head of ablack, savage30 army moving southward with resistless power.
The only question was the swarming of this dark army. Cook, who hadspent nearly a year among the people and knew these slaves best, was theone man who held a doubt. For this reason he had begged Brown a secondtime to let him sound the strongest men among the slaves and try theirspirit. Brown refused. He knew a negro. He was simply a white man in ablack skin by an accident of climate. He knew exactly what he would dowhen put to the test. To discuss the subject was a waste of words. Andso with faith serene31 in the success of the Deed, he paused but a momentat the entrance of the bridge.
He ordered Captains Kagi and Stevens to advance and take as prisonerWilliam Williams, the watchman. The two rangers captured Williamswithout a struggle.
"A good joke, boys," he laughed.
"You'll find it a good one before the night's over," Stevens answered.
When he attempted to move, a revolver at his breast still failed toconvince him.
"Go 'way, you boys, with your foolishness. It's a dark night, but I'mused to being scared!"It was not until Kagi gave him a rap over the head with his rifle thathe sat down in amazement32 and wiped the sweat from his brow. He forgotthe chill of the night air. His brain was suddenly on fire.
Brown waited at the entrance of the bridge until the watchman had beencaptured and Cook and Tidd had cut the line on the Maryland side of theriver.
He then advanced across the covered way to the gate of the Arsenal hut afew yards beyond the Virginia entrance.
He captured Daniel Whelan, the watchman at the Arsenal entrance.
Dumbfounded but stubborn, he refused to betray his trust by surrenderingthe keys.
"Open the gate!" Brown commanded.
"To hell wid yez!"A half dozen rifles were thrust at his head.
He folded his arms and stood his ground.
They pushed a lantern into his face and Brown studied him a moment. Hedidn't wish a gun fired yet. The town was asleep and he wanted it tosleep.
"Get a crowbar," he ordered.
They got a crowbar from the wagon, jammed it into the chain which heldthe wagon gate and twisted the chain until it snapped. He drove thewagon inside, closed the gate and the United States Arsenal was in hishands.
Brown placed the two watchmen in charge of his men, Jerry Anderson andDauphin Thompson.
He spoke33 to the prisoners in sharp command.
"Behave yourselves, now. I've come here to free all the negroes in thisState. If I'm interfered34 with I'll burn the town and have blood."Every man who passed through the dark streets was accosted35, madeprisoner and placed under guard.
Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc were ordered to hold the Armory36. Oliver Brownand William Thompson were sent to seize the Shenandoah bridge, thedirect line of march into the slave-thronged lower valley.
Stevens was sent to capture the Rifle Works which was accomplished37 intwo minutes.
The program had worked exactly as Brown had predicted. Not a shot hadbeen fired and they were masters of the town, its two bridges, theUnited States Arsenal, Armory and Rifle Works.
The men were now despatched through the town for the real work of thenight--the arming of the black legion with pikes and torches.
It was one o'clock before the first accident happened. Patrick Higgins,the second night watchman, came to relieve Williams on the Marylandbridge.
Oliver Brown, on guard, cried:
"You're my prisoner, sir."The Irishman grinned.
"Yez don't till me!"Without another word he struck Oliver a blow. The crack of a rifle wasthe answer. In his rage young Brown was too quick with the shot. Thebullet plowed38 a furrow39 in Higgins' skull40 but failed to pierce it.
He ran into the shadows.
Once inside the Wager41 House, he gave the alarm. The train from the Westpulled into the station and was about to start across the bridge whenHiggins, his face still streaked42 with blood, rushed up to the conductorand told him what had happened. He went forward to investigate, wasfired on and backed his train out to the next station.
As the train pulled out Shepherd Haywood, a freedman, the baggage masterof the station, walked toward the bridge to find the missing watchman.
The raiders shot him through the breast and he fell mortally wounded.
The first victim was a faithful colored employee of Mayor Beekham, thestation master of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
The shot that killed him roused a man of action. Dr. John D. Starrylived but a stone's throw from the spot where Haywood had fallen.
Hearing the shot and the groans43 of the wounded man, the doctor hastenedto his rescue and carried him into the station. He could give nocoherent account of what had happened and was already in a dyingcondition.
The doctor investigated. He approached two groups of the raiders, waschallenged and retreated. Satisfied of the seriousness of the attackwhen he saw two armed white men lead three negroes holding pikes intheir hands into the Armory gate, he saddled his horse and rode to hisneighbors in town and country and gave the alarm.
While this dangerous messenger was on his foam-flecked horse, Brown,true to his quixotic sense of the dramatic, sent a raiding party ofpicked men to capture Colonel Washington and bring to his headquartersin the Arsenal the sword and pistols. On this foolish mission hedespatched Captains Stevens, Cook and Tidd, with three negro privates,Leary, Anderson and Green. He gave positive orders that ColonelWashington should be forced to surrender the sword of the firstPresident into the hands of a negro.
Day was dawning as the strange procession on its return passed throughthe Armory gate. In his own carriage was seated Colonel Washington andhis neighbor, John H. Allstead. Their slaves and valuables were packedin the stolen wagons44 drawn45 by stolen horses.
Brown stood rifle in hand to receive them.
"This," said Stevens to Washington, "is John Brown.""Osawatomie Brown of Kansas," the old man added with a stiffening46 of hisfigure.
He then handed a pike to each of the slaves captured at Bellair andAllstead's:
"Stand guard over these white men."The negroes took the pikes and held them gingerly.
At sunrise Kagi sent an urgent message to his Chief advising him thatthe Rifle Works could not be held in the face of an assault. He beggedhim to retreat across the Potomac at the earliest possible moment.
Retreat was a word not in the old man's vocabulary. He sent Leary toreinforce him, with orders to hold the works.
He buckled47 the sword and pistols of Washington about his gaunt waistand counted his prisoners. He had forty whites within the enclosure. Hecounted the slaves whom he had armed with pikes. He had enrolled48 underhis banner less than fifty. They stood in huddled49 groups of wonder andfear.
The black bees had failed to swarm.
He scanned the horizon and not a single burning home lighted the skies.
It had begun to drizzle50 rain. Not a torch had been used.
He had lost four precious hours in his quixotic expedition to captureColonel Washington, his sword and slaves. He could not believe this amistake. God had shown him the dramatic power of the act. He held aWashington in his possession. He was being guarded by his own slaves,armed. The scene would make him famous. It would stir the millions ofthe North. It would drive the South to desperation.
The thing that stunned51 him was the failure of the black legions tomobilize under the Captains whom he had appointed to lead them.
It was incredible.
He paced the enclosure, feverishly52 recalling the histories of mobs whichhe had studied, especially the fury of the French populace when therestraints of Law and Tradition had been lifted by the tocsin of theRevolution. The moment the beast beneath the skin of religion andculture was unchained, the massacres began. Every cruelty known to manhad been their pastime.
And these beasts were white men. How much more should he expect of theBlacks? Haiti had given him assurance of darker deeds. The world wasshivering with the horrors of the Black uprising in Haiti when he wasborn. He had drunk the story from his Puritan mother's breast. Fromchildhood he had brooded with secret joy over its bloody53 details.
The Black Bees had swarmed there and Toussaint L'Overture had hived themas he had asked Frederick Douglas to hive them here. They seized therudest weapons and wiped out the white population. They butchered tenthousand French men, women and children. And not a cry of pity or mercyfound an echo in a savage breast.
What was wrong here?
He had proclaimed the slave a freeman. He had placed an iron pike in hisright hand and a torch in his left. Why had they not answered with ashout of triumph?
His somber54 mind refused to believe that they would not rise. Even now hewas sure they were mobilizing in a sheltered mountain gorge55. Before noonhe would hear the roar of their coming and see the terror-stricken facesof the whites fleeing before their rush.
He had repeated to his Northern crowds the fable56 of negro suffering inthe South until he believed the lie himself. He believed it with everybeat of his stern Puritan heart. And he had repeated and shouted ituntil the gathering57 Abolitionist mob believed it as a message from God.
The fact that the system of African slavery, as actually practiced inthe South, was the mildest and most humane58 form of labor59 ever fixedby the masters of men, they refused to consider. The mob leader neverallows his followers to consider facts.
He knows that his crowd prefers dreams to facts. Dreams are the motivesof crowd action. The dream, the illusion, the unreality have ever beenthe forces that have shaped human history in its hours of crisis whenFate has placed the future in the hands of the mob.
The fact that Slavery in the South had lifted millions of blacksavages--half of them from cannibal tribes--into the light of humancivilization--that it had been their school, their teacher, theirchurch, their inspiration--did not exist, because it was a fact. Theydid not deal in facts.
And so again Brown lifted his burning eyes toward the hills reflectedin the mirror of the rivers. Down one of those rocky slopes the BlackLegion would sweep before the day was done!
He had boldly despatched Cook across the Potomac bridge with the wagons,horses and treasures stolen from Colonel Washington's house to be storedat headquarters. There was still no doubt or shadow of turning in hisimperious soul.
With each passing moment the swift feet of the avengers were closing thetrap into which he had walked.
By ten o'clock the terror-stricken people of the town and county hadseized their weapons and the fight began. Bullets were whistling fromevery street corner and every window commanding a glimpse of the Arsenaland Armory.
Brown's handful of men began to fall. The Rifle Works surrendered firstand his guard of three men were all dead or wounded. By three o'clockhis forces had been cut to pieces and he had taken refuge in the EngineHouse of the Armory. The bridges were held by the people. Owen, Cook andhis guard at the old log house on the Maryland side were cut off andcould not come to his rescue.
The amazing news of an Abolition16 invasion of Virginia and the captureof the United States Arsenal and Rifle Works had shaken the nation.
President Buchanan hastily summoned from Arlington the foremost soldierof the Republic and despatched Colonel Robert E. Lee to the scenewith the only troops available at the Capital, a company of marines.
Lieutenant60 J. E. B. Stuart volunteered to act as his aide. The youngcavalier was in the East celebrating the birth of a baby boy.
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1
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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7
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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15
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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preamble
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| n.前言；序文 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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21
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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arraignment
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| n.提问，传讯，责难 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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indictment
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| n.起诉；诉状 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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armory
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| n.纹章，兵工厂，军械库 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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43
groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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44
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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45
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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46
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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47
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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48
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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49
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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50
drizzle
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| v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨 | |
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51
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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52
feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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53
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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54
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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55
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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56
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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57
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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59
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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