Brother Richards remained but a moment at the window; and then started for the inner prison, the door of which opened on the landing in front of the door to the room the brethren had occupied. As he passed him Elder Taylor said: "Stop, doctor, and take me along." Ascertaining that the iron door to the criminals' cell was open, he returned and dragged his wounded companion into it. Inside the cell he exclaimed: "Oh! Brother Taylor, is it possible that they have killed Brothers Joseph and Hyrum? It cannot surely be, and yet I saw them shoot them! Oh Lord, my God, spare Thy servants!" he exclaimed several times, raising his hands to heaven with each exclamation. "Brother Taylor, this is a terrible event," he went on; and then dragged him still further into the cell. Taking up an old filthy mattress he threw it over the wounded man saying: "I am sorry I cannot do better for you; but that may hide you, and you may yet live to tell the tale, but I expect they will kill me in a few moments." The doctor then went out to learn for certain the fate which had befallen the Prophet. While he was gone Elder Taylor suffered the most excruciating pain. Dr. Richards returned in a few minutes, and confirmed his worst fears--the Prophet was dead! "I felt," says Elder Taylor, "a dull, lonely, sickening sensation at the news." "When I reflected that our noble chieftain, the Prophet of the living God, had fallen, and that I had seen his brother in the cold embrace of death, it seemed as though there was a void or vacuum in the great field of human existence to me, and a dark, gloomy chasm in the kingdom, and that we were left alone. Oh, how lonely was that feeling! How cold, barren and desolate! In the midst of difficulties he was always the first in motion; in critical positions his counsel was always sought. As our Prophet he approached our God, and obtained for us His will; but now our Prophet, our counselor, our general, our leader was gone, and amid the fiery ordeal that we then had to pass through, we were left alone without his aid, and as our future guide for things spiritual or temporal, and for all things pertaining to this world or the next, he had spoken for the last time on earth!" "These reflections and a thousand others flashed upon my mind. I thought, Why must the good perish, and the virtuous be destroyed? Why must God's nobility, the salt of the earth, the most exalted of the human family, and the most perfect types of all excellence, fall victims to the cruel, fiendish hate of incarnate devils?" Ah, why? Footnotes