“If he was a relation of yours, ma’am, I can tell you that he died like a man.  First I thought that I would spend what little strength I had left in fighting the mob at the door, and that they should not go in except over my body; but the gaoler opened the door in pretence of finding out what was the matter, for he was in the plot; so I thought that I would run up and give warning.  But by the time I got to the door of the upper room where the prophet was, the mob was up behind me, so I never rightly knew what I did, for they knocked me down just within the room.  There were four or five men with the prophet and Mr. Hyrum, and these kept the mob back for a few minutes at the door, but a bullet hit Mr. Hyrum in the head, and I saw the prophet leaning over him, and he said in a voice that was very sad, ‘My dear, dear brother!’

“Then the prophet stood up quite calmly and pulled out a pistol and shot at the mob until all its barrels were discharged.  His firing made the men hold back, for a good number of the mob were struck.  Then they came on again until the door was literally full with muskets and rifles, but I was lying on the floor below the shots, so I saw them pass over my head.  The very walls were riddled with them, and the prophet stood in the midst of the shots and threw up his hands towards heaven and cried, ‘O Lord, my God.’  Then, not knowing what he did, he staggered to the window, dying from his wounds, and he fell outside the window, and I heard that the mob out there propped up his body and used it for a target.”

Susannah rose up with clenched hands and pitiful face, but she went out of the room, leaving the two men together.  “Were you injured?” asked Ephraim of the stranger.

“Well, sir, I was bruised by being trampled on, but the gaoler got hold of me and dragged me into an iron cell and locked me in, and the next morning he came and let me out.”

“That was a year ago,” said Ephraim.  “Have you been in Nauvoo since then?”

“Yes, I went back.  I wanted to know, sir, what would come, and take my share of the suffering after seeing the prophet die so courageous; but, sir, the Church is sorely divided.  I didn’t like to say it before your lady, for I see that she’s got some one she cares for amongst us, but there’s a strong party among the apostles and elders that are worshippers of Baal, and are most evil in their conduct and practice, and are apostate, though they call themselves followers of the prophet.  And Mr. Brigham Young is at the head of them.  It’s a bad thing that the Illinois militia is set out to fight against us and turn us out of the city without mercy, but it’s a sorer thing that the greater part of our people, being ignorant, will follow Mr. Brigham Young; and he’s bent on going west, sir, into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, where he can set up a kingdom of his own.  His teaching is against good doctrine in two respects; he says that they will wax strong there until they can avenge the blood of their brethren who have been hunted and slain, and that the elders and apostles will live like the patriarchs of old, and have many wives, in order to build up the Church.”