Is there not virtue in the body politic? Will not the people rise in their majesty, and with that promptitude and zeal which is so characteristic of them, discountenance such proceedings, by bringing the offenders to that punishment which they so richly deserve, and save the nation from that disgrace and ultimate ruin, which otherwise must inevitably fall upon it? JOSEPH SMITH, Junior. The other prisoners who had been left in Richmond during this dreary winter, in the spring were taken to Columbia, in Boone County, and during the summer also escaped and joined their fellow exiles in Illinois. CHAPTER XLVIII. A PROPHECY THAT DID NOT FAIL. Before concluding this writing I wish to refer to a matter before briefly alluded to. On July 8, 1838, the Lord had given a revelation to the Twelve Apostles through Joseph, the Prophet, in which John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards were chosen to fill the vacancies in the quorum of the Twelve, and the Apostles were to take leave of the saints in Far West on the twenty-sixth day of April, 1839, on the building spot of the Lord's House, and from thence depart over the great waters to preach the gospel in foreign lands. It had been the constant boast of the mob throughout the persecutions we have been relating, that this was one of "Joe Smith's" revelations, at least, that should not be fulfilled. Yet at the time appointed, the twenty-sixth day of April, five of the Twelve Apostles arrived there, having come from Quincy by various routes to elude the vigilance of their enemies, together with a number of Elders, High Priests and Priests. The five Apostles ordained Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith members of their quorum, thus making the number of Apostles present seven, a majority of the Twelve, and hence competent to transact business as a quorum. They also ordained a number to the office of Seventy. They excommunicated a number of persons from The Church; prayer was offered up by the Apostles in the order of their standing in the quorum. A hymn known to the saints as Adam-Ondi-Ahman was sung. After this hymn was sung, Elder Alpheus Cutler, the master-workman of the Lord's House, laid the south-east corner stone in its position, and then said, in consequence of the peculiar situation of the saints, it was deemed prudent to discontinue further labor on the House until the Lord should open the way for its completion. The Apostles then took leave of some seventeen saints, who were present, and started on their way to fill their missions beyond the great Atlantic Ocean. Thus was fulfilled that revelation in every particular, notwithstanding the boasts of the mob which said it should fail of fulfillment. So important do I deem the fulfillment of this prophecy, however, that I give here the official report of the proceedings of that meeting, signed by the president of it:--