Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/143

 prisoners. Bat, meantime, other citizens were arming themselves and spreading the alarm about the country. The attempt was now locally recognized as a negro insurrection under the lead of an unknown white man, who was called "Captain Smith." The train which he had allowed to proceed was bearing the news to Washington and Baltimore. The first accounts published in the papers stated that the insurgents were commanded by "one Captain Anderson, who is about sixty years of age, with a heavy white beard,—cool, collected, and with a determined and desperate demeanor." These stories showed how wholly by surprise the attack had taken the country, and how completely "Old John Brown" of Kansas had been lost sight of.

Brown's time had now come to leave the town and take to the mountains. Authorities agree that he might have done this safely at any time up to nine