The magistrate and the police had obtained a position directly under
the pulpit, and just as Mr. Jonas opened his book, and after the
usual notification read the line:
'God moves in a mysterious way.'
The former jumped upon the dais, and holding a large sealed paper in
his hands said:
'Jud Sykes, I arrest you for murder, robbery, and divers other
crimes.'
No thunderbolt that ever fell could have created sach a sensation as
this.
Not one in the congregation believed the charge. Indeed, amazement
had stupefied everyone, and there was no reasoning about the matter.
They simply believed in their gifted and saintly preacher.
Roland now stepped forward.
'I know this man;' then turning he looked Mr. Jonas full in the
face. That stare was as fatal to the preacher as a musket ball. He
said nothing, but folded his hands, which the next moment were bound
together affectionately with wristlets of steel. There is no need to
chronicle anything further respecting this event. Three months
afterwards this pious servant of God was publicly executed at the
town of Little York.
Mr. Ham was anxious to proceed at law against Roland for having
challenged and wounded him, but the lawyer to whom he applied said:
'By the way, Ham, Gray was wounded, too.
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