noon
A magnificent fountain of flame , visible far out on the starlit lake , spurted from the north end of Beaver Island . It was the temple , in which the Mormon people had worshipped for the last time , sending sparks and illumined vapor to the zenith . The village of St. James was partly in ashes , and a blue pallor of smoke hung dimly over nearly every hill and hollow , for Gentile fishermen crazed with drink and power and long arrears of grievances had carried torch and axe from farm to farm . Until noon of that day all householding families had been driven to huddle with their cattle around the harbor dock and forced to make pens for the cattle of lumber which had been piled there for transportation . Unresisting as sheep they let themselves be shipped on four small armed steamers sent by their enemies to carry them into exile . Not one of the twelve elders who had received the last instructions of their murdered king rose up to organize any defence . Scarcely a month had passed since his wounding unto death , and his withdrawal , like Arthur , in the arms of weeping women to that spot in Wisconsin where he had found his sacred Voree plates or tables of the law .