mining his books.

Bennett kept insisting that Mr. Brown should sign the paper, and
finally began to fumble in his pistol pocket, whereupon it passed
through Mr. Brown's mind "that the little wretch might be meaning to
shoot me." As he got the pistol out, Mr. Brown seized his wrist and
turned his hand downward. After one shot had been fired, the struggle
continued until the two got outside the landing, where they were found
as already described.

The bullet had struck no vital part, and the wound was not considered
to be mortal. But as week after week passed without substantial
improvement, the anxiety of his friends and of the country deepened.
At the trial the question was raised whether recovery had been
prevented by the fact that Mr. Brown, against the advice of his
physician, transacted business in his room. After the first eight or
ten days there were intervals of delirium. Towards the end of April
when the case looked very serious, Mr. Brown had a long conversation
with the Rev. Dr. Greig, his old pastor, and with members of his
family. "In that conversation," says Mr. Mackenzie, "he spoke freely
to them of his faith and hope, and we are told poured out his soul in
full and fervent prayer," and he joined heartily in the singing of the
hymn "Rock of Ages." A few days afterwards he became unconscious; the
physicians ceased to press stimulants or nourishment upon him, and
early on Sunday, May 10th, he passed away.

Bennett was tried and found guilty of murder on June 22nd following,
and was executed a month afterwards. Though he caused the death of a
man so conspicuous in the public life of Canada, his act is not to be
classed with assassinations committed from political motives, or even
from love of notoriety. On the scaffold he said that he had not
intended to kill Mr. Brown. However this may be, it is certain that it
was not any act of Mr. Brown's that set up that process of brooding
over grievances that had so tragic an ending. By misfortune and by
drinking, a mind, naturally ill-regulated had been reduced to that
condition in which enemies are seen on every hand. A paper was found
upon him in which he set forth a maniacal plan of murdering a supposed
enemy and concealing the remains in the furnace of the _Globe_
building. That the original object of his enmity was not Mr. Brown is
certain; there was not the slightest ground for the suspicion that the
victim was made to suffer for some enmity aroused in his s