Pontius Pilate Ford's Entrance upon the Scene at Carthage--The Old Cry of "Crucify!"--Joseph's Final Effort to Avert Danger from Nauvoo--Lack of Faith and Suspicions of Cowardice--A Fatal Blindness--Like a Lamb to the Slaughter--The Arms Demanded--Farewell to Nauvoo--At Carthage CHAPTER LXIV. Voluntary Yielding to Process--Joseph and Hyrum Charged with Treason--Ford's Cowardice and Falsehood--In Carthage Jail--The First Day and Night--Preaching to the Guards--Ford Leaves the Martyrs to their Fate CHAPTER LXV. Administration of the Holy Endowments--The work of the Closing Months --Union of Satanic Forces Against the Prophet--A Momentary Glance at him Before the Final Hour CHAPTER LXVI. The Last Day--Ford's Action at Nauvoo--Conspiracy Between the Guards and Murderous Mob Militia--The Prisoners Left to their Fate--"A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief"--The Assault and the Murder--The End Anecdotes and Sayings of the Prophet Appendix THE HOUR The Ripened Time. * * * _Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird_. _For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies_. * * * _Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues_. _For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities_. THE PROPHECY OF JOHN THE REVELATOR. THE APOSTASY AND THE RESTORATION. In the reign of Tiberius of Rome, the Lord Jesus was crucified. At the hour of the atonement, His Gospel was to the dominant earthly power only "a deadly superstition," [1] "a strange and pestilent superstition," [2] sought to be crushed at any cost by the ruthless power of the pagan empire. Thus came the persecutions of the early Christians, lasting until after Christianity, with irresistible power, had "sprung up, even in Rome, the common reservoir for all the streams of wickedness and infamy." [1] In the midst of these early tribulations, the plain and simple Gospel was becoming involved and mystified by the many opposing sects which professed to believe in Jesus; and yet it retained so much of divinity as enabled it to resist persecution and idolatry, and made it, in the fourth century, the established religion of Rome. This elevation was not achieved without some sacrifice of identity. And in the commingling with error, truth yielded much. [3]