Brown did not hear the prayer. The rough black cloth Of the death-cap hid his eyes now. He had seen The Blue Ridge Mountains couched in their blue haze. Perhaps he saw them still, behind his eyes⁠— Perhaps just cloth, perhaps nothing any more. “ I shall look unto the hills from whence cometh my help. ”

The hatchet cut the cord. The greased trap fell.

Colonel Preston:

“So perish all such enemies of Virginia,

All such enemies of the Union,

All such foes of the human race.”