One of the five gives way, and now there is a majority for death. One more appeal! The life of the woman trembles in the balance. Once more to the breach! The supreme reserve is at last brought forward--an argument much in use with Judge-Advocates in cases of refractory courts-martial, as a last resort--that the President will not allow a hair of her head to be harmed, but that _terror_, TERROR, is necessary; in this instance, to force the son to quit his hiding place, the life of the mother must be the bait held out to catch the unsurrendering son. We will hang him and then free the woman's neck. Another vote comes over. Two-thirds at last concur, and her doom is sealed. They sentence "Mary E. Surratt to be hanged by the neck until she be dead." Judge Bingham sits down and embodies the memorable "suggestion" in writing as follows: [It is without address.] "The undersigned, members of the Military Commission detailed to try Mary E. Surratt and others for the conspiracy and the murder of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, &c., respectfully pray the President, in consideration of the sex and age of the said Mary E. Surratt, if he can, upon all the facts in the case, find it consistent with his sense of duty to the country, to commute the sentence of death, which the Court have been constrained to pronounce, to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Respectfully submitted." General Ekin copies it on a half-sheet of legal-cap paper, and the five officers, viz.: Generals Hunter, Kautz, Foster and Ekin, and Colonel Tompkins, sign the copy; General Ekin keeping the draft of Bingham as a memento of so gentle an executioner. The Commission then proceeds to the next and last case, and, again exercising its prerogative of clemency, sentences Dr. Mudd to imprisonment for life. It is now Friday noon. The result of the two-days' secret session, consisting of a succinct statement of the verdict and sentence in every case, in the foregoing order, is redacted into a record. The presiding officer signs, and the Recorder countersigns it. It is placed in the hands of the Judge-Advocate, together with the petition to the President. There is an adjournment without day. The members disperse, and the work of the Military Commission is over. CHAPTER VII. THE DEATH WARRANT AND THE EXECUTION.