The sheriffs thrust their prisoner into a room in a tavern kept by Mr. McKennie, and ordered fresh horses to be ready in five minutes. Joseph told them he wanted to obtain counsel. "G-- d-- you, you shan't have counsel, one more word and G-- d-- you, I'll shoot you!" was the brutal answer. Just then, however, a man passed the window and to him Joseph shouted, "I am falsely imprisoned here, and I want a lawyer." Presently Lawyer Southwick, the gentleman who a few days before had rode out to Wasson's to inform the Prophet that a writ was out for him, came to the house, but only to have the door slammed in his face, and be denied admittance. Another lawyer, Shepherd G. Patrick, tried to gain admission to the prisoner but met with the same treatment as the first. But at last, through the influence of a Mr. Sanger and a Mr. Dixon, owner of the hotel building where the Prophet was detained a prisoner, Reynolds was given to understand that his prisoner must have a fair trial, and all the protection the laws afforded him. A writ of _habeas corpus_ was sued out before Mr. Chamberlain, the master in chancery, who lived some six miles from Dixon, made returnable before Hon. John D. Caton, judge of the ninth judicial circuit at Ottawa. Before starting for Ottawa, however, Joseph learned that Cyrus Walker, Esq., was in the vicinity on an electioneering tour, he being the Whig candidate for Congress from that district; and the Prophet attempted to secure his services in his defense, as he was the greatest criminal lawyer in that part of Illinois. Walker, however, refused to engage in his defense unless Joseph would agree to vote for him at the coming election, and the Prophet promised him his vote. Writs were sued out before the justice of the peace against Reynolds and Wilson for making threats against the lives of Markham and Joseph; and another writ for a violation of the law in relation to writs of _habeas corpus_; and still another, this time from the circuit court of Lee County, for private injuries, false imprisonment, claiming $10,000 damages. Whether or not the sheriffs were released from the first writ, I cannot learn; but on the last writ they were held in $10,000 bonds, and as they could get no bondsmen this side of Missouri, they were taken in charge by the sheriff of Lee County, and were under the necessity of obtaining a writ of _habeas corpus_ themselves. So that while Joseph was the prisoner of Reynolds and Wilson, pending the hearing on the writ of _habeas corpus_ he had sued out, they were prisoners under the same circumstances, in charge of the sheriff of Lee County. And in this manner all started for Ottawa for a hearing on the several writs before Judge Caton.