HEW INVASION —RELEASE OF PRISONERS. 339 
in Capt. Emory’s band of thirty horsemen, with the three gentle¬ 
men last taken prisoners in the rear. 
Mr. Nute and Mr. Wilder had been released that morning. 
They had been, for a part of the time, imprisoned in a seven-by- 
nine stone building with grated windows. There was not an 
article of furniture in the room. 
In such a place, without ventilation, with thirteen others, they 
were kept one day, without anything to eat from early morning 
until five o’clock, p. m. Then, some dry bread and coffee were 
brought in. The prisoners said they could not eat without going 
into the fresh air; and, on being taken out doors, were scarcely 
able to stand from faintness. 
Gov. Geary arrived at the fort on the morning of the ninth. He 
was there when Sergeant Gary reported his seizure by the ruffians. 
He declared that peace should be restored; that every one who 
was not an actual settler should be driven out; and that the rights 
of all men should be protected. To some officials under govern¬ 
ment, with whom he conversed on his way to the territory, he 
stated, as the urgent necessity for this peace, “ the impossibility of 
carrying Pennsylvania for Buchanan without it.” 
Bev. Mr. Nute and friends reached Lawrence on the evening of 
the 10th. On the 6th September, Col. Cook’s camp moved with¬ 
in a half mile of Lecompton. On the eighth, a number of the 
citizens of Lawrence came up to attend the trial of the state pris¬ 
oners. No officer of the court could be found; neither judge, 
jury, clerk or marshal. The next day they appeared in Lecomp¬ 
ton, and an attempt was made by the counsel for the government, 
C. H. Grover, to postpone the trials until April, alleging that the 
County of Douglas was in a state of insurrection, caused by the 
introduction of large bodies of armed men, whose purpose was to 
resist the laws of the territory; that jurors and witnesses were 
prevented from attending court thereby. 
Mr. Branscomb and Mr. Parrott, counsel for the prisoners, 
opposed the motion. Mr. B. stated, the prisoners had been 
ready for trial the last term. They were ready now, and, as a 
right, they demanded an immediate trial. Although no sum¬ 
monses had been issued to jurors or witnesses, there were jurors 
