The arrest of General Walsh and others, and the discovery of a great number of revolvers, etc., all loaded and ready for use, and the rather unpleasant discovery that the Brigadier-General had actually employed a Government detective to go to his house and give instructions in making cartridges, were _rather_ mortifying to the order, and when it appeared that the Chairman of the Vigilance Committee, whose province was to take the balance of the arms, which we learned were in Walsh's barn, and with all possible haste remove them to a place of safety, and the Chairman (who makes this record for the edification of his constituents), deemed the safest place he could find the retired locality of Camp Douglas, and if the inquisitive eyes of Gen. Sweet, and his grasping propensities, should take possession of all the valuable carbines, Enfield rifles, muskets and revolvers, let them moderate their wrath, and find consolation in the thought that in their last hour it will be a pleasant reflection that all those bristling warlike implements fell into the hands of men who will not put them to base uses.
When it was announced, with all confidence, that beneath the hay in Charley Walsh's barn was a large number of firearms that must be speedily removed, a new idea of the value of ladies' hoops burst upon the world (not "The Wide-Wide World,") but the few who were present when James L. Rock, one of the editors of the Chicago _Times_ announced that his wife (and Mr. Rock ought to know), and some other ladies could quickly remove these weapons by concealing them under their hoops, Colonel Sweet, with his usual gallantry, spared the ladies the inconvenience and trouble, and removed them quite as well and as quickly.
After the first arrests, other followed, but after a time many of these worthies were liberated, not because of their innocence; and they may now one and all consider themselves on their good behavior.
After the first arrests, the hall of the "Temple" in Chicago was deserted. It was not thought to be exactly _safe_, and meetings were held occasionally wherever they could find a place of safety, where it was morally certain Gen. Sweet would not know of their gatherings or of their business, and where it would be a dead secret forever; and they one and all swore that whoever had exposed them to the Government _should die by assassination_. This was their fixed purpose, and when suspicion fastened upon Hull, no less than three persons _volunteered_ to do the deed, those men were Lewis C. Morrison, old Felton, the Outside Guardian, and, by his own confession, detective of the order, and James L. Rock, one of the editors o the Chicago _Times_.