The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes BoothTownsend, George Alfred
History
The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
Townsend, George Alfred
Assassins -- United States -- Biography; Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination
He bled very little, although shot quite through, beneath and behind the
ears, his collar being severed on both sides.
A soldier had been meanwhile despatched for a doctor, but the route and
return were quite six miles, and the sinner was sinking fast. Still the
women made efforts to get to see him, but were always rebuffed, and all
the brandy they could find was demanded by the assassin, who motioned
for strong drink every two minutes. He made frequent desires to be
turned over, not by speech, but by gesture, and was alternately placed
upon his back, belly and side. His tremendous vitality evidenced itself
almost miraculously. Now and then, his heart would cease to throb, and
his pulses would be as cold as a dead man's. Directly life would begin
anew, the face would flush up effulgently, the eyes open and brighten,
and soon relapsing, stillness re-asserted, would again be dispossessed
by the same magnificent triumph of man over mortality. Finally the fussy
little doctor arrived, in time to be useless. He probed the wound to see
if the ball were not in it, and shook his head sagely, and talked
learnedly.
Just at his coming Booth had asked to have his hands raised and shown
him. They were so paralyzed that he did not know their location. When
they were displayed he muttered, with a sad lethargy, "Useless,
useless." These were the last words he ever uttered. As he began to die
the sun rose and threw beams into all the tree-tops. It was of a man's
height when the struggle of death twitched and fingered in the fading
bravo's face. His jaw drew spasmodically and obliquely downward; his
eyeballs rolled to-ward his feet, and began to swell; lividness, like a
horrible shadow, fastened upon him, and, with a sort of gurgle and
sudden check, he stretched his feet and threw his head back and gave up
the ghost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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