James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown

Mrs. Brown, we are told, was led into the cell by the jailer. Her husband rose, and, as she entered, received her in his arms. For some minutes they stood speechless,--Mrs. Brown resting her head upon her husband's breast, and clasping his neck with her arms. At length they sat down and spoke; and from Captain Avis, who was the only witness of that sorrowful scene, (his fellow-prisoner, Stevens, having been placed in an adjoining cell before the entrance of the wife,) the following record comes:

John Brown spoke first. “Wife, I am glad to see you,” he said. “My dear husband, it is a hard fate.”

“Well, well; cheer up, cheer up, Mary. We must all bear it in the best manner we can. I believe it is all for the best.”

“Our poor children--God help them.”

“Those that are dead to this world are angels in another. How are all those still living? Tell them their father died without a single regret for the course he has pursued — that he is satisfied he is right in the eyes of God and of all just men.”

Mrs. Brown then spoke of their remaining children and their home. Brown's voice, as he alluded to the bereavements of his family, was broken with emotion. After a brief pause, Brown said:

“Mary, I would like you to get the bodies of our two boys who were killed at Harper's Ferry, also the bodies of the two Thompsons, and, after I am dead, place us all together on a wood pile, and set fire to the wood; burn the flesh, then collect our bones and put them in a large box, then have the box carried to our farm in Essex County, and there bury us.”

Mrs. Brown said, “I really cannot consent to do this. I hope you will change your mind on this subject. I do not think permission would be granted to do any such thing. For my sake, think no more of such an idea.”

“Well, well,” Brown answered, “do not worry or fret about it; I thought the plan would save considerable expense, and was the best.”

Mrs. Brown observed a chain about the ankles of her husband. To avoid its galling his limbs, he had put on two pairs of woollen socks. Mrs. Brown said she was desirous of procuring the chain as a family relic. She had already at her home the one with which the limbs of John Brown, Jr., were inhumanly shackled in Kansas, and in which