The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend.

D%* Asmsit?&'. Di.e
' Booth, do I repeat it correctly." Booth nodded his By this time
the grayness of dawn was approaching'; moving figures nquisitively cow
ing near were to be seen distinctly, and the cocks began to crow gutturally,
though the barn was a hulk of blaze and ashes, sending toward the'zenith
a spiral line of dense smoke. The women became importunate that the
troops might be ordered to extinguish the fire, which was spreading toward
their precious corn-cribs. Not even death could banish the call of interest.
Soldiers were sent to put out the fire, and Booth, relieved of the bustle
around him, drew near to death apace. Twice he was heard to say, " kill
me, kill me." His lips often moved but could complete no appreciable
sound. He made once a motion which the quick eye of Conger understood to mean that his throat pained him. Conger put his finger there,
when the dying man attempted to cough, but only caused the blood at his
perforated neck to flow more. lively. lie 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, wrho motioned
for st:ong 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. Nowand 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 re lapsing, stillness reasserted, would again be dispossessed by the same mag
nificent triumph of man over mortality. Finally the fussy little doctor
arrived, in timie to be useless. Hle 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, fast ened 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.
They' sewed him up in a saddle blanket. This was his shroud; too like
a soldier's. Harold, meantime,. had been'tied to a tree, but was now re leased for the march. Colonel Conger pushed on immediately for Wash.
ii'gton; the cortege was to follow. Booth's only arms were his carbine.
knife, and two revolvers. They found about him bills of exchange, Canada
money, and a-diary. A venerable old negro living in the vicinity had the
misfortune to possess a horse. This horse was a relic of former genes
tions, and showed by his protruding ribs the general leanness of the land.
Ilie moved in an eccentric amble, and when put upon his speed was genes ally run backward. To this old ne,ro's horse was harnessed a very shaky
and absurd wagon, which rattled' like approaching dissolution, and each part
of it ran without ally connection or correspondence with any other part It
had no tail-board, and its shafts were sharp as famnine;'and into this mnimicry
el a vehicle the murderer was to be sent to the Potomac river, while the