[120] The spirit of the Ironsides is not wholly extinct. In 1856 the question whether Kansas was to be a free or slave state gave rise to a border war. John Brown, a descendant of one of the English pilgrims who sailed to America in the “Mayflower” in 1620, formed a camp of God-fearing Puritans, who were “earnestness incarnate.” Six of them were his own sons. Twenty-eight of these defeated fifty-six pro-slave borderers, and once 2000 Missourians retreated before 250 of his men. John Brown was taken and hanged in 1859, but his story became the marching-song in the great war of abolition (1861–1865).
[122] Rushworth; Whitelock; Clar. Hist. v., 175; Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva; King’s Tracts, 212; Markham, Life of Lord Fairfax; Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Cromwell.
[123] Married Bridget Cromwell, 15th June, 1646.
[125] “Vous vous êtes coupé la gorge; car vous ne leur pouvez rien refuser, pas même ma vie, s’ils vous la demandent. Mais je ne me mettrai pas entre leurs mains.”
[126] Baillie.
[127] Ludlow, i. 162.