But though for twenty hours her streets had flowed with lava tides of that wild element of which mobs are made, and whatsoever was leonine in her temperament had been appealed to by rumors of war, that rode past on every breeze, somewhere in the "wee sma' hours ayont the twal," the last star had paled in the news' firmament without witnessing anything more tragical than may be found among the occurrences related in this chapter, and the tired city slept. CHAPTER XII. KU-KLUX HORRORS IN TENNESSEE. The Klan Outlawed--A Price set upon the Heads of its Membership--A Rash Act of one of its Dens--Strong Provocations--Negro Insurrectionists Placed in the Jail at Trenton--Prisoners Wrested from the County Authorities by Two Hundred Men Disguised as Ku-Klux--Subsequent Massacre--Detectives in Pursuit--Members of the Order Indicted--Efforts to Convict the Accused--Failure of Prosecution--Affair in Obion--Why these Horrors are Classed as Twin Editions--Description of Madrid Bend--K. K. K. Transactions in this Remote Quarter--Planters' Jealousy--Message from Mr. J. to the Leaders of the Party--Cool Treatment it Received--The K.'s Declare their Intention of Punishing one of the Laborers on J.'s Farm--His Defiance--Arming the Blacks--A Fierce Skirmish--J.'s Flight--Massacre of Fleeing Blacks--Eight Colored Men taken from the County Jail at Troy--Their Fate a Mystery. In Tennessee, where the Klan took the form of a political party, which bitterly antagonized the Brownlow administration in every issue of government, the principles which it supported (despite the bad qualities inherent in its organization) gave it a success altogether unproportioned to the means employed. Notwithstanding it was outlawed by act of the Legislature, and a price set upon the heads of its membership, it continued to flourish long after Brownlowism had ceased to be an element in the politics of the State. But, after a comparatively uneventful history during the years which intervened, in the summer of 1874 a rash act of one of its Dens, located in Gibson county, in the western portion of the State, operated such a loss of influence to the body throughout the State, that it at once became ineffective; and here, in the autumn of this year, the latest remnant of the organization on Southern soil fell into disintegration, and ceased to exist.