Two days after this, on the 8th of August, the Prophet and Orrin Porter Rockwell were arrested by the sheriff and two deputies of Adams county, on the charge of murder. Three months before, Lilburn W. Boggs was found one night lying in his bed at his home in Independence, Jackson county, with three bullet wounds in the head. These were not fatal and he soon recovered. The report was spread that the Mormons had done this to punish Boggs for the murders of the Saints which he had sent the mob to do; but there was no evidence to show that any member of the Church had been in the slightest degree connected with the crime. In the latter part of July, almost three months after the shooting, Boggs swore out a complaint against Orrin P. Rockwell for having tried to murder him, and against Joseph Smith as his aid in the crime. Boggs had applied to Governor Reynolds of Missouri, and Reynolds had applied to Governor Carlin of Illinois, for the arrest of the Prophet and Brother Rockwell as fugitives from justice. Thousands of people had seen Joseph at Nauvoo on the day that Boggs had been shot. Certainly he had not been in Missouri, and therefore had not fled from the state. According to his right, the Prophet demanded that they be taken to the city court of Nauvoo for a hearing. This the officers refused to allow but seeming not to know what their duties really were, they went back to Quincy to consult with Governor Carlin. When they came back, two days later, Brother Rockwell had gone east, and Joseph had hid himself, not wishing to be taken, contrary to law, back to Missouri. The sheriff tried to frighten Emma into telling where Joseph was, by threatening her if she refused, but it was of no use. During more than four months the Prophet was hiding at Nauvoo and the neighboring country, though once he same suddenly before the people and preached to them. During this time he wrote important letters to the Saints, especially on the subject of baptism for the dead. All kinds of tricks were tried in order to capture him. A reward of $1,300 was offered for his arrest, and the threat was made that if he was not found the mob would come upon Nauvoo and burn the city. On hearing this last, the Prophet told Wilson Law, who had been made major-general, that though the Saints would make every sacrifice that God or man could require at their hands to preserve peace, yet they should defend themselves if necessary. At length, relying on the advice of Mr. Butterfield, an able lawyer who had become Joseph's attorney, and the promise of Thomas Ford, who had been elected governor of Illinois after the end of Carlin's term, the Prophet permitted himself to be arrested by Wilson Law on the 26th of December, and, with a company of brethren, set out for Springfield, the capital of Illinois, to be tried before the circuit court.