Tom and his father were well-treated, but they were kept under guard until the next night and were then taken along by John Brown's "army," which trudged off into the darkness afoot, while Billy-boy and Jennie and the other horses in the corral whinnied uneasily, sensing, as animals do, the stir of a departure which is to leave them behind. In the center of the little column the two captives marched the five miles to Harper's Ferry and started across the bridge that led to that tiny town. A brave man, one Patrick Hoggins, was night-watchman of the bridge. He heard the trampling of many feet upon the plank-flooring. He hurried towards the strange sound. "Halt!" shouted somebody in the column. "Now I didn't know what 'halt' mint then," Patrick testified afterwards, "anny more than a hog knows about a holiday." But he had seen armed men and he turned to run and give an alarm. A bullet was swifter than he, but not swifter than his voice. He fell, but his shouts had alarmed the town. There were two or three watchmen at the arsenal. They came forward, only to be made prisoners. The few citizens who had been aroused could do nothing. The "army" seized the arsenal without difficulty. Five miles from Harper's Ferry lived Col. Lewis W. Washington, gentleman-farmer and slave-owner, great-grand-nephew of another gentleman-farmer and slave-owner, George Washington. At midnight, Colonel Washington was awakened by a blow upon his bedroom door. It swung open and the light of a burning torch showed the astonished Southerner four armed men, one of them a negro, who bade him rise and dress. They were a patrol sent out by Brown. Their leader, Stevens, asked: "Haven't you a pistol Lafayette gave George Washington and a sword Frederick the Great sent him?" "Yes." "Where are they?" "Downstairs." His four captors tramped downstairs with him. Pistol and sword were found. "I'll take the pistol," said Stevens. "You hand the sword to this negro." John Brown wore this sword during the fighting that followed. It is now in the possession of the State of New York. While its being sent George Washington by Frederick the Great is doubtful--the story runs that the Prussian king sent with it a message "From the oldest general to the best general"--its being surrendered by Lewis Washington to the negro is true.