Again the fierce winds of persecution began to howl, as if the infernal regions had let loose their imps and commissioned them to take possession of the enemies of the people of God. Nothing seemed to satisfy them but the blood of the Prophet, and he seemed to realize it, for on his way to Carthage, Illinois, where he was murdered in cold blood, he said: "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am as calm as {23} a summer's morning. I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men; I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, 'he was murdered in cold blood.'" Fifty times had he been arrested on trumped-up charges, and forty-nine times had he been acquired by the courts of the land, innocent of any crime. Desperate and maddened by being continually foiled in their wicked designs, the mob finally declared that, "if law couldn't reach them, powder and ball should." On the 27th of June, 1844, while in jail, in the town of Carthage, and under the protective pledge of the governor of the State, Joseph Smith the Prophet, and his brother Hyrum, the Patriarch, were cruelly murdered by a furious mob, led by religious fanatics. Appended to the book containing the revelations received from the Lord by the Prophet Joseph, known as the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, is published the following narrative of the "Night of Martyrdom:" MARTYRDOM OF JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET, AND HIS BROTHER HYRUM. 1. To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p.m., by an armed mob, painted black--of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming, "I am a dead man!" Joseph leaped, from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaiming, "O Lord my God!" They were both shot after they were dead in a brutal manner, and both received four halls. 2. John Taylor, and Willard Richards, two of the Twelve, were the only persons in the room at the time; the former was wounded in a savage manner with four balls, but has since recovered; the latter, through the providence of God, escaped, "without even a hole in his robe."