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
Rev. Dr. Olds followed, saying in behalf of the prisoner, David E.
Harold, that he tendered his forgiveness to all who had wronged him, and
asked the forgiveness of all whom he had wronged. He gave his thanks to
the officers and guards for kindnesses rendered him. He hoped that he
had died in charity with all men and at peace with God. Dr. Olds
concluded with a feeling prayer for the prisoner.
Rev. Dr. Butler then made a similar return of thanks on behalf of George
A. Atzerott for kindness received from his guards and attendants, and
concluded with an earnest invocation in behalf of the criminal, saying
that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin, and asking that God
Almighty might have mercy upon this man.
The solemnity of this portion of the scene may be imagined, the several
clergyman speaking in order the dying testament of their clients, and
making the hot hours fresh with the soft harmonies of their
benedictions.
The two holy fathers having received Mrs. Surratt's confession, after
the custom of their creed observed silence. In this, as in other
respects, Mrs. Surratt's last hours were entirely modest and womanly.
The stage was still filled with people; the crisis of the occasion had
come; the chairs were all withdrawn, and the condemned stood upon their
feet.
The process of tying the limbs began.
It was with a shudder, almost a blush, that I saw an officer gather the
ropes tightly three times about the robes of Mrs. Surratt, and bind her
ankles with cords. She half fainted, and sank backward upon the
attendants, her limbs yielding to the extremity of her terror, but
uttering no cry, only a kind of sick groaning, like one in the weakness
of fever, when a wry medicine must be taken.
Payne, with his feet firmly laced together, stood straight as one of the
scaffold beams, and braced himself up so stoutly that this in part
prevented the breaking of his neck.
Harold stood well beneath the drop, still whimpering at the lips, but
taut, and short, and boyish.
Atzerott, in his grovelling attitude, while they tied him began to
indulge in his old vice of gabbing. He evidently wished to make his
finale more effective than his previous cowardly role, and perhaps was
strengthening his fortitude with a speech, as we sometimes do of dark
nights with a whistle.
"Gentlemen," he said, with a sort of choke and gasp, "take ware." He
evidently meant "beware," or "take care," and confounded them.
Again, when the white death-cap was drawn over his face, he continued to
cry out under it, once saying, "Good bye, shentlemens, who is before me
now;" and again, "May we meet in the other world." Finally he drifted
away with low, half-intelligible ebullitions, as "God help me," "oh!
oh!" and the like.
The rest said nothing, except Mrs. Surratt, who asked to be supported,
that she might not fall, but Harold protested against the knot with
which he was to be dislocated, it being as huge as one's double fist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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