The general-in-chief, however, considered that in this case mercy to one would be injustice to many. Walker had solemnly sworn, with bended knee and on the Holy Evangelists, to observe and have observed the treaty of the twenty-third of October; and he was responsible before the world, and especially to the Americans in Nicaragua—as well as before the throne of Heaven—for the faithful observance of his oath. How could the treaty continue to have the force of law if the first violation of it—and that too by the very man who had signed it—was permitted to pass unpunished? As an act of right and justice, none could reasonably impugn the sentence of the court, and Walker considered the question of policy as clear and unequivocal as the question of justice. Not only did duty to the Americans in Nicaragua demand the execution of the sentence, but it was politic and humane to make their enemies feel that there was a power in the State capable and resolved to punish any offences against their interests. Mercy to Corral would have been an invitation to all the Legitimists to engage in like conspiracies, and would have involved them in future difficulties, which many of them managed to escape. It was after such reflections as these that Walker determined to approve the sentence of the court, and Corral was, accordingly, ordered to be shot at midday on the eighth of November. As soon as the sentence was published, the sympathy of the people for the prisoner was everywhere shown. His mild and gentle demeanor had conciliated the friendship of those among whom he had long lived; and without the stern manner of Chamorro, he had won more the affection of his party. Father Vigil, after ministering to the spiritual wants of the unhappy man, asked that the rigor of the sentence might be relaxed in his behalf; but he soon saw that the mind of the general-in-chief was fixed, and desisted from efforts clearly useless. Then the night before the fatal day the daughters of Corral, accompanied by many of the women of the city, came with sobs and anguish and tears to attempt what the priest had failed to accomplish. But he who looks only at present grief, nor sees in the distance the thousand-fold sorrow a misplaced mercy may create, is little suited for the duties of public office; and hard as it was to resist such entreaties as the daughters of the prisoner pressed, Walker promised them to consider the pleas they had urged, and closed the painful interview as soon as kind feeling permitted. The next day the hour of execution was postponed from 12 M. to 2 P.M., and at the appointed hour the sentence was executed under the direction of Colonel Gilman, the officer of the day.