In a rage the conspirators set fire to the building and hastened to Carthage, stating that their lives were in danger and they had been driven from their homes. The fire was discovered and extinguished before any damage had been done, but the falsehoods circulated aroused the people of Carthage and other towns. Indignation meetings were held and mobs began to gather under arms. Notes 1. Such a canal was built, and completed in 1877, at a cost to the government of more than four million dollars. 2. It was later discovered that William Law was in league with the Missourians. Chapter 35 The Martyrdom 1844 Charge of Francis M. Higbee June 11, 1844, Francis M. Higbee made complaint before Thomas Morrison, a justice of the peace at Carthage, charging Joseph Smith and the members of the Nauvoo city council with riot committed in destroying the press of the _Expositor_. The warrant was served by Constable David Bettisworth the following day. It required that the accused should go before the justice issuing the warrant, "or some other justice of the peace, for trial." The Prophet expressed his willingness to go before some other justice, as he had lawful right to do, but was not willing to be taken to Carthage to be tried before his mobocratic enemies. Bettisworth, in anger, declared that he would take him to Carthage. His attention was called to the nature of the warrant and that his actions were contrary to law, and with righteous indignation Joseph Smith obtained a writ of habeas corpus and was legally tried before the municipal court of Nauvoo and discharged. Each of the members of the city council did the same, and were likewise discharged. Anger of the Mob When Bettisworth returned to Carthage without his prisoners, the disappointment of the mobocrats was intense, and they threatened to go against Nauvoo in force. Indignation meetings were held in Warsaw and Carthage, and inflammatory speeches were made against the Saints. The assembled mobbers in each place adopted resolutions in which they said, "We hold ourselves at all times in readiness to co-operate with our fellow-citizens in this state, Missouri and Iowa, to exterminate, utterly exterminate, the wicked and abominable 'Mormon' leaders, the authors of our troubles." All members of the Church, or sympathizers with Joseph Smith, were warned to leave these townships on pain of instant vengeance. A deputation was sent by them to the governor, stating that Joseph Smith and others had refused to obey the mandate of the writ, and with other falsehoods they attempted to prejudice him in their favor. The minutes of these unlawful and wicked proceedings were published in the Warsaw _Signal_ and other papers of the state. The Saints Threatened