He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon, calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked down upon the quailing guards, whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet until exchange of guards. I have seen ministers of justice, clothed in ministerial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended upon a breath, in the courts of England; I have witnessed a congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms. But dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon, in an obscure village of Missouri. After Joseph and his companions had been taken by General Lucas to Independence, General Clark with about two thousand men came to Far West. This made six thousand soldiers that had preyed upon the little town during one week. He had all the brethren marched out and placed in line before him. They were perfectly harmless since their arms had been taken away. After putting fifty-six of them under arrest he commanded the remaining ones to prepare to flee from Missouri. He told them they need not hope ever to see their leaders again for their fate was fixed. After his speech he compelled the brethren, at the point of the bayonet, to sign deeds giving up their property to pay the expenses of the mob. General Wilson had been sent to Adam-ondi-Ahman. He put a guard around the town, arrested all the men and then tried them in a court of which Adam Black was judge. The men of the town were so manifestly innocent of wrong doing that even Adam Black would not convict them. Wilson ordered that within ten days they should all be gone from Daviess county. Clark, with his fifty-six prisoners, came to Richmond to meet Joseph and the rest of the prisoners. He seems to have settled on their fate, for Elder Jedediah M. Grant heard him say to his soldiers: "Gentlemen, you shall have the honor of shooting the Mormon leaders next Monday morning at eight o'clock." But Clark was a great lawyer and knew that such action would be absolutely lawless. He therefore hunted for days to find some charge that he could make against his prisoners. In a letter to the governor, he said they were guilty of treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny and perjury, but he decided to count mainly on treason and murder.