Richmond, making his way secretly through the lines. He was in communication with Confederate agents in Canada. He was twentysix years old; his form was manly, his bearing that of a gentleman. In parlor and drawing-room he was ever an attractive figure. He delighted in tragic and startling scenes. He had tasted the wine of popular applause upon the stage, and delighted to be before the public.

Booth did not imitate those who conspired against Cæsar, and select his associates in crime from those occupying high social position, but chose his accomplices from a gang of ruffians. Among them was Lewis Powell, often known as Lewis Payne. He had served the Confederates as a spy. George Atzeroth had frequently been in Richmond with an invoice of goods contraband of war. Daniel E. Harold had been a student of pharmacy. Spangler, Arnold, McLaughlin, and Dr. Mudd were lesser accomplices. Their rendezvous was in a boardinghouse kept by Mary E. Surratt, whose son John was also an accomplice. () Just when Booth made their acquaintance is not known. By his almost hypnotic power they became obedient to his imperious will.

During the four years of the war President Lincoln had been de nounced as "usurper," "autocrat," "tyrant," "czar" in the newspapers of the Peace Democracy. This destroyer of the liberties of the Southern people, as Booth regarded President Lincoln, had turned loose 4,000,000 slaves, thus robbing the masters of their property. The Ides of March had brought humiliation to the Confederacy. Why should not the world be rid of such a despot? Booth had often exclaimed upon the stage:

"Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.

'Speak, strike, redress!'-Am I entreated

To speak and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,

If the redress will follow, thou receiv'st

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!"

Why should not John Wilkes Booth enact in life what he had performed upon the stage-avenge the South and make his name famous? It is not probable that he gave any thought as to what benefit or loss might come to the people of the Southern States by murdering the President. Revenge and vanity impelled him. He determined to send a bullet through the brain of the "tyrant" who had conquered and despoiled the South, who had walked in triumph through the streets of the capital of the Confederacy. Passion and self-gratulation had taken

possession of him.

Every detail of preparation and execution was thought out. He knew the President was to attend the theatre. As an actor he had been many times upon its stage, and was acquainted with all its passageways. He visited the building, examined the box which would be occupied by the Presidential party, bored a hole in its door through which he might look before entering to fire the fatal shot. His forethought provided a wooden bar to be placed across another door opening to the area behind the box. By this means he could prevent any interference with the execution of his plans. That the world might know his motives and applaud his act, he wrote a carefully prepared statement, which he intrusted to a fellow-actor, Mr. Mathews, to be delivered to the "National Intelligencer" for publication.

He hired a fleet horse at a livery-stable, and rode the animal to accustom himself to its gait. His scheme contemplated the assassination of President Lincoln, also Vice-president Johnson and Secretary Seward. The last - named had been thrown from his carriage, and was lying helpless upon his bed with a fractured jaw and arm. Harold was detailed to murder the Vice-president, and Payne the Secretary of State.

The box in which the President and his party were sitting had been decorated with the Stars and Stripes. It was ten o'clock, and the curtain had risen upon the second scene of the last act. At that moment Booth dismounted from his horse in the alley at the rear of the theatre. He gave the reins to a boy, passed into the restaurant, and drank a glass of brandy. He then entered the front of the theatre, and reached the door opening to the area behind the President's box. He was well known to the employés, and was admitted by the attendant. He placed the wooden bar across the door, stepped to the box door, peeped through the hole which he had bored and saw the position of the President, drew his revolver and knife, and softly entered. He held the pistol near the President's head, fired, and leaped forward. Major Rathburn sprang to seize him. Booth struck at his throat with the knife. Rathburn, in parrying the stroke, received a wound in the arm. In leaping upon the stage a spur on one of Booth's feet caught in the folds of the flag he hated, and he fell headlong. A bone of one leg was broken; but he rose, uttered his triumphant shout, ran across the stage, gained the alley, sprang upon his horse, and disappeared.

There is poetic justice in the thought that the flag of the republic should be the means of bringing swift retribution to the murderer and his accomplices. Had it not been for the fracture of one limb, it is

altogether probable that before sunrise he would have been on the Virginia side of the Potomac, and before the week ended so far away that he would have, for a time at least, escaped capture.

A little past ten o'clock a sentinel stationed at the navy-yard bridge crossing the Eastern Branch of the Potomac saw a man on horseback rapidly approaching.

"I live out here in Charles County, and have been waiting for the moon to rise," said the horseman. The sentinel allowed him to pass, and he rode swiftly on.

Another man on horseback came. He also said that he lived in Charles County and was going home, and was permitted to cross.