death. Cook stopped at this place and unloaded the wagon, and then Leeman went with Byrnes to the guard-house, lingering and actually sitting beside the road. Even then they arrived before ten o' clock. With haste it is certain that, despite the muddy road, the first load of arms could have been at the school-house before eight o'clock in the morning, and the whole of the stores by ten o'clock. That Brown expected this is shown by his sending William Thompson to reassure the men at the farm of his safety and probably to urge haste; yet when the second load of arms appeared, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, at least three hours after Brown had been completely surrounded. Judging from Cook's narrative, it is likely that Thompson did not see Tidd at all. It was this inexcusable delay on the part of Tidd and Cook and, possibly, William Thompson that undoubtedly made the raid a failure. To be sure, John Brown never said so—never hinted that any one was to blame but himself. But that was John Brown's way.
Events in the town had moved quickly. After Cook had departed, Brown ordered O. P. Anderson "to take the pikes out of the wagon in which he rode to the Ferry, and to place them in the hands of the colored men who had come with us from the plantations, and others who had come forward without having had communication with any of our party."[1]
The citizens were "wild with fright and excite-
