they were extended on the cross on Calvary, for the redemption of
sinners." He saw drops of blood on the corn: this was Christ's blood,
shed for man. He saw on the leaves in the woods letters and numbers and
figures of men,--the same symbols which he had seen in the skies. On May
12, 1828, the Holy Spirit appeared to him, and proclaimed that the yoke
of Jesus must fall on him, and he must fight against the serpent when the
sign appeared. Then came an eclipse of the sun in February, 1831: this
was the sign; then he must arise and prepare himself, and slay his
enemies with their own weapons; then also the seal was removed from his
lips, and then he confided his plans to four associates.

When he came, therefore, to the barbecue on the appointed Sunday, and
found not these four only, but two others, his first question to the
intruders was, how they came thither. To this Will answered manfully,
that his life was worth no more than the others, and "his liberty was as
dear to him." This admitted him to confidence; and as Jack was known to
be entirely under Hark's influence, the strangers were no bar to their
discussion. Eleven hours they remained there, in anxious consultation:
one can imagine those dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, and amid
the flickering of pine-knot torches, preparing that stern revenge whose
shuddering echoes should ring through the land so long. Two things were
at last decided: to begin their work that night; and to begin it with a
massacre so swift and irresistible as to create in a few days more terror
than many battles, and so spare the need of future bloodshed. "It was
agreed that we should commence at home on that night, and, until we had
armed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient force, neither age nor
sex was to be spared: which was invariably adhered to."

John Brown invaded Virginia with nineteen men, and with the avowed
resolution to take no life but in self-defence. Nat Turner attacked