together with their continued disasters in the field, ending in the speedy collapse of the rebellion and the capture of Jefferson Davis, brought them to their senses, and to a realization of their own danger; and so they at once commenced to destroy all documentary evidence of their guilt. They declared in the presence of Montgomery, and also of Merritt, that they had destroyed all their papers, lest some Yankee should steal them and they should be brought up in a possible future trial as evidence against them. Now, let us consider what is lacking in this testimony to make the evidence of Davis's complicity in this crime complete. Nothing, manifestly, but the letters referred to in the testimony; the first, that read by Sanders, and credited by him to Davis, inciting his friends in Canada to the commission of this crime, and pointing out specifically whom he would have them put out of the way; and the second, carried by Surratt to Thompson, on which Thompson laid his hand and exclaimed, "This makes the thing all right!" But the absence of this missing link in the chain of evidence against him is accounted for, and that in a way that makes the chain even stronger, if possible, than if we were able to produce these documents. His co-conspirators in Canada declare to two witnesses and in the presence of a third, George B. Hutchinson, that they have destroyed all their papers; giving as the reason for so doing, the fear that some "Yankee son of a b--h" might steal them, and they should be used as evidence against them. They burn their papers and then silently steal away. _Exeunt omnes._ CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNMENT WITNESSES AGAINST DAVIS AND HIS ASSOCIATES IN THIS CRIME. Inasmuch as the testimony given above so completely sustains the charge and specifications made by the government against Jefferson Davis, George N. Sanders, Jacob Thompson, Beverly Tucker, Clement C. Clay, William C. Cleary, _et al_, that had they been before the Commission their successful defense could only have been made by impeachment of the witnesses against them, I will now show that this could not have been done. The principal witnesses in this department of the trial, in which the Commission was only used as a medium through which to present to the world, before whom the charges were made, the evidence on which they rested, were Richard Montgomery, Sanford Conover, and Dr. James B. Merritt. Richard Montgomery was originally a citizen of the city of New York, and was in the employ of the government in its department of secret service. He was sent to Canada, in the summer of 1864, to acquire information of the plans and purposes of the rebels assembled in Canada. He acted faithfully toward the government in this service, imparting to it all the information he obtained from time to time that was of any importance.