were waxing fiercer in their unholy enterprise. The reopening of
the market for freshly imported slaves from Africa was openly
advocated--indeed, prices were offered for the best specimens, as
if it were a mere cattle trade. 'For sale, 400 negroes just
landed,' was placarded in Southern streets; and to complete the
grim situation a prize was proposed for the best sermon in
defence of the slave trade. Surely the Lord gave not 'the word,'
but 'great was the company of the preachers' who were prepared to
publish it.

John Brown felt that the fullness of time was come for a
desperate stroke. Desperate indeed it was. From a military
point of view it was madness. He resolved to hire a farm in
Maryland, near to the great armoury at Harper's Ferry in the
Slave State of Virginia, and there diligently and silently to
store arms. Then with a small company he would seize Harper's
Ferry. Having possessed himself of its stores, he would retreat
to the mountains, where he hoped there would be considerable
rallying to his standard. Holding his own amid mountain
fastnesses of which he had acquired an intimate knowledge, he
thought he might at last become strong enough to make terms with
the Government.

We next find him passing as Isaac Smith, a Maryland farmer--known
to his neighbours as a demure, somewhat eccentric, son of the
soil. Three of his sons, true to the vow, were with him. Little
thought the farmers around that hard by that farmhouse a few
thousand weapons were stored and that a little band of mysterious
strangers was gathering there, but so it was. To the last there
was much opposition to Brown's impulsive scheme. Once, indeed,