With regard to the relations existing between Booth and John H. Surratt, and his mother, Mary E. Surratt, the evidence showed that they would always retire to an upstairs room whenever a lengthy conference was desired; but that they frequently held short private conferences in the parlor, when it could be done without danger of interruption. Booth's right to thus come into the house and demand these private interviews was never questioned, but granted with the alacrity due to a common purpose that required it. _Foundation for the Arrest of Mrs. Surratt._ The agents of the government, in pursuing their investigations, obtained evidence that Mrs. Surratt's house had been the meeting-place or headquarters of the conspirators, and that she was in private, confidential intercourse with Booth. One of the principal witnesses against her was Louis J. Wiechmann, who had been for several months a boarder in her house, and whose friendly relations with the family were due to the fact that he had been a fellow-student with John H. Surratt at St. Charles College, in Maryland, and to the further fact that they were co-religionists. Wiechmann had been, during all this time that he had been a boarder at Mrs. Surratt's, employed as a clerk in the office of General Hoffman, Commissary General of Prisoners; and from him the facts above alleged were learned. Wiechmann also stated that Mrs. Surratt sent him to Booth with a message that she wanted to see him on private business, and that Booth replied that he would come that evening or as soon as he could, and that he did come that evening.