DEAR FRIEND:--Since thy arrest I have often thought of thee, and have wished that, like Elizabeth Fry toward her prison friends, so I might console thee in thy confinement. But that can never be; and so I can only write thee a few lines which, if they contain any comfort, may come to thee like some little ray of light.... Oh, I wish I could plead for thee as some of the other sex can plead, how I would seek to defend thee! If I now had the eloquence of Portia, how I would turn the scale in thy favor! But I can only pray "God bless thee!" God pardon thee and through our Redeemer give thee safety and happiness now and always! From thy friend, E. B. Posing as if in the shadow of the sheltering wings of the Almighty, answering this letter, Brown asserted that he had been the special instrument on earth of a militant Christ, to execute the divine will in Kansas; and incidentally solicited a contribution for his family. He said:[486] ... You know that Christ once armed Peter. So also in my case I think he put a sword into my hand and there continued it so long as he saw best, and then kindly took it from me. I mean when I first went to Kansas. I wish you could know with what cheerfulness I am now wielding the "sword of the spirit" on the right hand and on the left. I bless God that it proves "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds." I always loved my Quaker friends and I commend to their regard my poor bereaved widowed wife and my daughters and daughters-in-law, whose husbands fell at my side. One is a mother and the other likely to become so soon. They, as well as my own sorrow stricken daughters, are left very poor, and have much greater need of sympathy than I, who through Infinite Grace, and the great kindness of strangers, am "joyful in all my tribulations." Dear Sister, write to them at North Elba, Essex County, N. Y., to comfort their sad hearts. Direct to Mary A. Brown, wife of John Brown.... It may be said of this unsophisticated woman, whose heart was touched by a sympathy undeserved, that if she had known what took place at the humble cabin of the Doyles on the night of May 24, 1856, when the murderous sword, which Brown says Christ placed in his hands, was run through Doyle's breast, (while others of the party secured the helpless widow's and orphans' horses) she would not have made her contribution to this history. Also, Brown's letter to this woman may be taken as an exhibit or sample of the sacrilege and artful dissimulation that is characteristic of his prison correspondence. And, since his claims to sincerity of purpose, and a devotion to humanity depend largely upon this correspondence, it discloses the fiction, wherewith his fame has been promoted. November 29th he wrote to his friend, Mrs. George L. Stearns:[487]