Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/150

 better," he said, lifting his bleeding head and surveying the crowd about him,—"yon had better, all you people of the South, prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question,—this negro question: the end of that is not yet." "These wounds were inflicted upon me," he also said, "both sabre cuts on my head and bayonet stabs in different parts of my body, some minutes after I had ceased fighting and had consented to surrender for the benefit of others, not for my own." We may observe that Brown took note of the fact that he had been struck by a sabre, not an officer's customary sword. An officer of marines would have been more likely to carry a sword than a sabre; but it happened that Lieutenant Green did carry a sabre. Brown seems to have watched the blade that fell upon his head and face.

The Virginians were anxious to know whether his intention was to free the slaves there or to carry them off; and