"And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me, if they have not charity, it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I——bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood."
On this passage he turned down the leaf, and there it is, a silent witness that he, too, knew he was going "like a lamb to the slaughter."
CHAPTER XV.
THE MARTYRDOM.
The next morning—the 25th of June—the city authorities of Nauvoo and some persons who had assisted the marshal to remove the Expositor press, appeared before Robert F. Smith, a justice of the peace, to answer again to the charge of riot. Owing to the excitement prevailing, the aforesaid parties consented to be bound over to appear before the circuit court at its next session; and became security for each other in $500 bonds each.
No sooner was this matter thus disposed of than one Henry O. Norton and Augustine Spencer—two worthless scoundrels whose words were utterly unreliable, went before the justice of the peace who had just dismissed the brethren, and charged Joseph and Hyrum Smith with having committed the crime of treason. The warrant for their arrest was placed in the hands of Constable Bettisworth, an over-bearing, insolent officer. He went to the Hamilton House, where the Messrs. Smith and their friends were staying: he arrested them and was for dragging them off to jail. They demanded to see the mittimus committing them to prison, a request which at first was denied, but finally the instrument was produced.
CARTHAGE JAIL
It recited that the parties under arrest had been before the justice for trial, but that said trial had been necessarily postponed because of the absence of material witnesses. That was an infamously false statement, unless the accused could have appeared before the justice without being present in person or by counsel. It afforded Constable Bettisworth an excuse, however, to drag these men off to jail, and this he was determined to do, their vigorous protest to the contrary notwithstanding.