To such members of the family as had not been initiated into the plot, this man of many aliases--Wood, Payne, and Powell--passed as a Baptist preacher. He said that he had taken the oath whilst in Baltimore, and intended henceforth to be a good, loyal man. When this man came to the house of Mrs. Surratt on the night of the 17th of April, as heretofore related, and was placed under arrest, Mrs. Surratt, who had also upon a knowledge of the facts just recited been arrested a few minutes before, when she was called into the hall and confronted with Payne, having heard his story as to why he had come and what he had come for, holding up her hands exclaimed, "Before God, I do not know this man, and never saw him before." He had been a guest at her table for three days only a few days previous to this, and was a man of such a marked personality that having seen him once it would have been impossible to have failed to recognize him on seeing him again, even though he might have been partially disguised. With a woman's intuitive perception, she saw the compromising effect that his visit at that time of night, and under such circumstances, was calculated to have on her own case, and so felt the necessity of this solemn disavowal of any knowledge of him. Before the government felt justified in arresting this woman, only, indeed, two or three hours after the assassination, it being known that Booth was the assassin, and that he and John H. Surratt were intimate friends, the detectives went to the house of Mrs. Surratt to see whom they could find there. When they rang the bell Wiechmann, who occupied an upstairs room, opened the window and inquired what they wanted. Upon their demanding admittance, stating that they had been sent to that house to see whom they could find in it, Wiechmann went and rapped at Mrs. Surratt's door, informing her who it was that demanded admittance, and asking her if he should let them in, when she replied, "Yes, let them in; I have been expecting them." Now, why should Mrs. Surratt at that hour, about three o'clock on the morning of the 15th, and only three or four hours after the assassination, have been expecting a visit from the detectives? A guilty conscience is its own accuser.