his pulse praying God it might still beat. At times it
stopped, and then she roused the sleeper, gave him the stimulant and
made him eat something which she always kept ready. Dr. Cooper had
warned that the walls of his heart were so weak even a sound sleep might
prove his death if too long continued.

CHAPTER XLVII

VINDICATION

When Socola had finished his work developing the history and character
of Conover and his crew of professional perjurers there was a sudden
collapse in the machinery of the Bureau of Military Justice. Holt was
compelled not only to repudiate the wretches by whose hired testimony he
had committed more than one murder through the forms of military law,
but also to issue a long document defending himself as Judge Advocate
General of the United States from the charge of subornation of
perjury--the vilest accusation that can be brought against a sworn
officer of any court. His weak defense served its purpose for the
moment. He managed to cling to his office and his salary for a brief
season. With the advent of restored law he sank into merited oblivion.

The charge of murder having collapsed, the Government now pressed
against Davis an indictment for treason. Salmon P. Chase, the Chief
Justice of the United States, warned the President and his Cabinet that
no such charge could be sustained.

And still malice held the Confederate Chieftain a prisoner. Every other
leader of the South had long since been released. On the public exposure
of Holt and his perjurers the conscience of the North, led by Horace
Greeley and Gerrit Smith, demanded the speedy trial or release of Davis.

The Radical conspirators at Washington, under the leadership of Stevens
inspired by his dusky companion, were now pressing with feverish haste
their programme of revolution. They passed each measure over the veto of
the President amid jeers, groans and curses. They disfranchised
one-third of the whites of the South, gave the ballot to a million
ignorant negroes but yesterday taken from the jungles of Africa, blotted
out the civil governments of the Southern States, and sent the army back
to enforce their decrees. Stevens introduced his bill to confiscate the
property of the whites and give it to the negroes. This measure was his
pet. It was the only one of his schemes which would be defeated on a
two-thirds vote if Johnson should veto it. Stevens and Butler at once
drew their bill of indictment against the Presiden