When at the hotel at Carthage, a prisoner in the hands of mob officials, he asked if he looked like a desperate character. They replied that his outward appearance seemed to indicate exactly the opposite, but they could not tell what was in his heart. "Very true, gentlemen, you cannot see what is in my heart, and you are therefore unable to judge my intentions, {29} but I see what is in your hearts, and I will tell you what I see. I can see that you thirst for blood and nothing but my blood will satisfy you. It is not for crime of any description that I and my brethren are continually persecuted and harassed by our enemies, but there are other motives, and some of them I have expressed so far as relates to myself. I prophesy in the name of the Lord that you shall witness scenes of blood and sorrow to your entire satisfaction. Many of you who are now present shall have an opportunity to face the cannon's mouth from sources you think not of." "If they take my life, I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall yet be said of him, 'He was murdered in cold blood.'" "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer morning. I have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward all men." His Assassination. A statement from Thomas Ford, Governor of Illinois in 1844: I desire to make a brief but true statement of the recent disgraceful affair at Carthage, in regard to the Smiths, so far as circumstances have come to my knowledge. The Smiths, Joseph and Hyrum, have been assassinated in jail, by whom is not known. I pledged myself for their safety, and upon the assurance of that pledge they surrendered as prisoners. . . . The compliance of the Mormons with every requisition made upon them, failed of their purpose. The pledge of security to the Smiths was not given upon my individual responsibility. Before I gave it, I obtained a pledge of honor by a unanimous vote from the officers and men under my command, to sustain me in performing it. If the assassination of the Smiths was committed by any portion of them, they have added treachery to murder, and have done all they could to disgrace the State, and sully the public honor.