"At any cost?"
"At any cost. I see, feel, know but one thing-that you are guilty of a great wrong against G.o.d and humanity. I have the right to interfere with you. To free those whom you hold in bondage."
"Even though you deluge the world in blood?"
"Yes. That is why I am here. I have no personal hate. No spirit of revenge. I have killed only when I thought I had to. I have protected your citizens whom hold as prisoners."
"You had no right to take those men prisoners."
Brown ignored the interruption.
"I ordered my men to fire only on those who were trying to stop our work."
"And yet you placed these pikes in the hands of negroes and gave them oil-soaked torches?"
Brown threw his hand high over his head as if to waive an irrelevant remark.
"I am here, sir, to aid those suffering a great wrong."
"And you begin by doing a greater wrong!"
The old man pursued his one idea without a break in thought. Lee"s words made not the slightest impression.
"This question of the negro, Colonel Lee, you must face. You may dispose of me now easily. But this question is still to be settled. The end of that is not yet!"
"I, too, believe that Slavery is wrong, my friend. Yet surely this is not the way to bring to the slave his freedom. On pikes to be driven into the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of unoffending men and women! Two wrongs have never yet made a right."
The old man lifted his head towards the hills and a look of religious rapture overspread his furrowed face. His soul"s deepest faith breathed in his words:
"Moral suasion is a vain thing, sir. This issue can be settled in blood alone."
The Colonel watched him with a growing feeling of futility.
"I have taken pains in this interview, Mr. Brown, to clear the way for your surrender without bloodshed. I cannot persuade you?"
"Upon what terms?"
"Terms?"
"I said so, sir."
The Colonel marveled at his audacity. Yet he was in dead earnest. His suggestion was not bravado.
"The only possible terms I can offer I suggested in my first message. I will protect you and your men from this infuriated crowd and guarantee you a fair trial by the civil authorities."
"I can"t accept," Brown answered curtly. "You must allow me to leave this place with my men and the prisoners I hold as hostages until I reach the ca.n.a.l locks on the Maryland side. There I will release your citizens, and as soon as this is done your troops may fire on us, and pursue us."
"Such an offer is a waste of words. You must see that further resistance is useless."
"You have the numbers on us, sir," Brown answered defiantly. "But we are not afraid of death. I"d as lief die by a bullet as on the gallows. I can do more now by dying than by living. I came here to destroy the inst.i.tution of Slavery by the sword--"
Lee"s answer came with clean-cut emphasis.
"The law which protects Slavery is going to be repealed in G.o.d"s own time. I am, myself, working toward that end as well as you, sir, and the end is sure. But at this moment the Const.i.tution of the United States to which we owe liberty, justice, order, progress, wealth and power, guarantees this inst.i.tution. Until its repeal it is my duty and it is your duty to obey the law. Will you submit?"
Brown"s answer came like the crack of a rifle.
"The laws of the United States I have burned in a public square, sir.
The Const.i.tution is a covenant with Death, an agreement with h.e.l.l. I loathe it. I despise it. I spit upon it--"
Lee lifted his hand in gesture of command.
"That will do, sir!"
He faced Stuart with quick decision.
"Take him back to his men and give the signal of a.s.sault."
"Good!"
Stuart turned to Green.
"I"ll wave my cap."
Stuart led Brown through the gate to the Engine House.
Lee summoned Green.
"Your troops are raw men, I understand."
"They have never been under fire, sir. But they"re soldiers--never fear."
"All right. We"ll put them to the test. a.s.sault and take the Engine House without firing a shot. No matter how severe the fire on you, we must protect our citizens held inside. Use the bayonet only. Give each of your twelve men careful instructions. When fired on, they must not return that fire!"
Green saluted and pa.s.sed to the head of his detail of twelve men. A shout from the boys in the tree tops was the signal of Stuart"s return.
"Watch that crowd," Lee ordered the sentinel. "Use the reserves to hold them out of range."
Stuart returned with his eyes flashing.
"Ready, sir!"
"Give your signal."
Stuart stepped into the open, and waved his cap.
Green"s detail of twelve men, the commander at their head, rushed to the Engine House with a shout. The crowd of two thousand people answered with a roar.