dumbfounded spectators could comprehend what had been done, dashed out
of a rear door, sprang upon a waiting horse, and galloped off in the
darkness.

No pen can describe the horror and rage which seized the spectators when
they understood what had taken place. The stricken President was carried
across the street to a house where he died at twenty-two minutes past
seven the next morning.

About the time of his assassination, an attempt was made upon the life
of Secretary Seward, who was confined to his bed, suffering from a fall.
A male attendant prevented the miscreant from killing the secretary,
though he was badly cut. The best detective force of the country was set
to work, and an energetic pursuit of Booth was made. He had injured his
ankle when leaping from the box upon the stage of the theatre, but he
rode into Maryland, accompanied by another conspirator, named David E.
Harrold. At the end of eleven days they were run down by the pursuing
cavalry, who brought them to bay on the 26th of April. They had
crossed from Maryland into Virginia and taken refuge in a barn near Port
Royal, on the Rappahannock.

[Illustration: THE CIVIL WAR PEACE CONFERENCE.

Three commissioners from the Confederacy suggesting terms of peace to
President Lincoln and Secretary Seward in Fortress Monroe, January
1865.]

DEATH OF BOOTH.

The barn was surrounded and the two men were summoned to surrender.
Harrold went out and gave himself up. Booth refused and defied the
troopers, offering to fight them single-handed. To drive him from his
hiding-place, the barn was set on fire. Booth, carbine in hand and
leaning on his crutch, approached the door with the intention of
shooting, when Sergeant Boston Corbett fired through a crevice and hit
Booth in the neck. The wound was a mortal one, and Booth was brought out
of the barn and laid on the ground, where he died after several hours of
intense suffering. The body was taken to Washington and secretly buried.
There is good reason to believe that it was sunk at night in the
Potomac.

PUNISHMENT OF THE CONSPIRATORS.

The country was in no mood to show leniency to any one concerned in the
taking off of the beloved President. Of the five conspirators tried,
four were hanged. They were: Payne, Harrold, G.A. Atzeroot, and Mrs.
Mary A. Surratt, at whose house the conspirators held their meetings.
Dr. S.A. Mudd, who dressed Booth's wounded ankle, and was believed to be
in sympathy with the pl