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.

38 TA# Life, Crime, and Caphtre of John Wstke# Booth.
man he bad murdered was moving in state aecross the mourning continent.
The old negro geared up his wagon by means of a set of fossil harness, and
when it was backed to Garrett's porch, they laid within it the discolored
corpse. The corpse was tied with ropes around the legs and made fast to.'
the wagon sides. Harold's legs were tied to stirrups, and he was placed in
the centre of four murderous looking cavalrymen. The two sons of Gar rett were also taken along, despite the sobs and petitions of the old folks and
women, but the rebel captain who had giren Booth a lift, got oftl amidst the
night's agitations, and was not rearrested. So moved the cavalcade of re tribution, with death in its midst,.along the road to Port Royal. When
the wagon started, Booth's wound till now scaecely dribbling, began to run
anew. It fell through the crack of the wagon, dripping upon the axle, and
spotting the road with terrible w'afers. It stained the planks, and soaked
the blankets; and the old negro, at a stoppage, dabbled his hands in it by
mistake; he drew back instantly, with a shudder and stifled expletive,
"Gor-r-r, dat'11 never come off in de world; it's murderer's blood." He
wrung his hands, and looked imploringly at the officers, and shuddered
again: "Gor-r-r, I wouldn't'have dat on me fur tousand, tousand dollars."
The progress of the team was slow, with frequent danger of shipwreck
altogether, but toward noon the cortege filed through Port Royal, where
the citizens came out to ask the matter, and why a man's body, covered
with sombre blankets, was going by with so great escort. They were told
that it was a wounded confederate, and so held their tongues. The little
ferry, again in requisition, took them over by squads, and they pushed'from
Port Conway to Bell Plain, which they reached in the middle of the after
noon. All the way the blood dribbled from the corpse in a slow, incessant,
sanguine exudation. The old niegro was niggardly dismissed with two
paper dollars. The dead man utitied and cast upon the vessel's deck, steam
gotten up in a little whilei and the broad Potonmac shores saw this skeleton
ship flit by, as the bloody sun- threw gashes and blots of unhealthy light
along the silver surface.
All the way associate with the-carcass, went Harold, shuddering' in so
grim companionship, and in the awakened fears of his own approaching
ordeal, beyond which it loomed already, the g(;ssamer fabric of a scaffold.
He tried to talk for his own exoneration, saying he had ridden, as was his
wont, beyond the East Brancel, and returning, found Booth wounded, who
begged him to be his companion. Of his crime he knew nothir.g, so help
him God, &c. But nobody listened to him. All interest of crime,
co)urage, and retribution centered in the dead flesh at his feet. At Wash.
iPgton, high and low turned out to look on Booth. Only a few were permitted to see his corpse for purposes of recognition. It was fairly' preserved, though on one -side of the face distorted, and looking blue-1ikl
death, and wildly bandit-like, as if bearen by avenging winds.
Yesterday the Secretary of War,'without instructions of any kind, corm
mitted to Colonel Lafayette C. Baker, of the secret service, the stark corpse
of J. Wilkes Booth. The secret.service never fulfilled its volition more
secretively. "What have you lone with the body?" said I to Baker.
"That is known" he answered, "to only one man living besides myself.
It is gone. I will not tell you where. The only man ho knows is sworn
to silence. Never till the great trumpeter comes shall the grave of
Booth be discovered." And this is'true. Last night, the 27th of April, a
small row boat received the carcass of the murderer; two men were in it,
they carried the body off into the darkness, and out of that darkness it will
never return. In the darkness, like his grcat crime, may it remain forever,
I