It was further resolved that a deputation be sent to Springfield to solicit executive help, but the intention was expressed not to allow the mob movements to be retarded by this action. The mobs at Warsaw and Carthage pretended to believe that the destruction of the Warsaw Signal office had been threatened by Hyrum Smith. The statement to this effect was of a piece with the lies told to the governor. No threat had been made against the Signal office or the editor, and the mob well knew that any attack from the citizens of Nauvoo upon anybody in Carthage or Warsaw was out of the question.
The mail communications of the Saints were cut off with the connivance of officials.
A company of the mob numbering three hundred, began training at Carthage on the 13th day of June. Arms were brought to Warsaw and Carthage from Quincy and other places. On the 17th of June, fifteen hundred Missourians were reported to have crossed the river and joined the rabble at Warsaw. Five pieces of artillery had already been brought to the latter place. From Warsaw the mob forces were to proceed to Carthage and join the Quincy Grays and other companies from Adams County. Scattering from here it was their purpose to seize the arms of all the Saints in Hancock County, outside of Nauvoo, and compel them to recant their faith or be exterminated. They declared that they would take Joseph and Hyrum and the city council from Nauvoo on Thursday, the 20th of June, and deliver them up to sacrifice. If any resistance were offered, the city would be shelled and all the inhabitants slaughtered or driven away. One of the mob leaders was Levi Williams, a colonel of militia and a Baptist preacher, and to such as he was due the attempt to make the Saints recant.
No word came from the governor. Was the city to be left to massacre, pillage, ravishment, like Far West! Forbid it, Heaven!
Under these circumstances, nothing remained but to prepare for resistance—not attack, only defense. The mayor, on the 18th of June, 1844, declared the city of Nauvoo under martial law, and called out the Legion to protect the city from rapine and its people from massacre by the mob.
CHAPTER LXII.
JOSEPH'S DREAM—HIS LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS—CONSCIOUSNESS OF HIS IMPENDING FATE—HIS LOVE FOR HIS BRETHREN.
Events were now hurrying on to the last awful scene. Joseph saw the sacrificial cup prepared for him and knew that he must drink its bitter draught. As he draws nearer to the final hour clearer and clearer becomes his mind, more nearly divine are his works, and more closely do we see the likeness to the sacred Master of whom Joseph deemed himself but the humblest follower. It is no mere accidental similarity this betrayal of the modern Prophet by the modern Judas and this sacrifice of a holy name to glut the hate of Pharisees. The Prophet's work is almost done. More plainly as the supreme moment draws on he tells his followers of the fate awaiting him. At first they scarcely understand, so used are they to see him in the midst of peril. It may be that the vision of the end is opened to Hyrum's view, for he will not leave his brother's side. They have loved in life, the elder brother living by the other's prophetic words, and in death they shall not be separated. Joseph says: "Hyrum, take your family on the next boat to Cincinnati. I want you to live to avenge me." Hyrum replies: "Joseph, I will not leave you." It is not a vengeance of blood that the Prophet means: it is the triumph of the work over all murderous mobs, a triumph in which he wants his faithful brother to share in the flesh.
After the traitors had gone out from Nauvoo to join with the Pharisees in raising a mob, the Prophet related a dream to his brethren, assembled in meeting. He said that he thought that he was riding in a carriage, and his guardian angel was with him. They saw two serpents in the road firmly locked together, and the angel told him that these were two of his traitorous enemies, Robert Foster and Chauncey Higbee, so fast bound to each other that of themselves they could not harm him. Then Joseph rode on farther, but his angel was no longer by his side; and William Law and Wilson Law came out upon him, dragged him from his carriage, tied his hands and threw him into a deep pit. After a time he partly loosened his hands and climbed to the edge of the pit and looked out. He saw Wilson Law attacked by ferocious beasts and William Law expiring in the coils of a poisonous snake. They cried for him:
Oh, Brother Joseph! Brother Joseph! save us or we perish!