The day appointed for the execution was Tuesday. Monday the criminal frankly admitted to his adviser, that he knew what he was doing that terrible night, and was fully responsible for the deed, which acknowledgment he signed in writing. He also dictated a letter to his youngest brother, faithfully warning him against following his own ways of wildness and drinking, also a note containing good advice to two young men who had been officers in the prison, and finally an address to be read on the scaffold. Brothers and other relatives took leave of him Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. The fatal hour was fixed at eleven, A. M. Pike was up in due season, took a slight morning repast, dressed for the day, had devotional exercises, and finished parting with friends at nine, that he might have opportunity for becoming duly rested and composed in mind for that painful occasion. At ten the other officers retired, leaving him alone with us two. What an hour before us? I had never experienced the like before and hope never to again. It was much like standing on the crumbling verge of time and looking into eternity's vast abyss. We had a season of prayer, then conversation for the purpose of learning his present feelings and convictions. He professed a hope that God had forgiven his sins and would accept him at last; said that no doubt it would be better for him to go then than be pardoned and return to the world once more, for, in that case, his appetite might overpower him again and he do other horrid deeds. Still, it was hard to die in the way he must. Personal conversation over, we continued bringing to his mind fitting portions of Scripture and appropriate verses from hymns and thus occupied the moments till eleven slowly arrived. Our door opens. The sheriff with his attendants enters. We march to the scaffold in the hall, where are gathered many reporters for the press and other gentlemen. The address being read and prayer offered, Mr. Holman at his right and myself at his left lead him upon the fatal drop, and there support him while the preparation for the last is being made. During the adjustment of the black cap and noose, I feel a tremor in his arm. He is taken forward from us and placed under the beam. His legs are bound, his arms pinioned, the sheriff reads extracts from the doings of the court, and gives the final sentence. The spring is touched, the drop falls, the surgeon calls for the rope to be drawn higher, as the feet touch the floor. This done, life ends in about a quarter of an hour. As the drop fell, Mr. Holman settled back in a chair, faint. I led him to a window where he soon recovered, but serious illness followed, caused by the excitement and anxiety of his labors here.