106 Ten Years of my Life. 



President Lincoln was carried from Ford's Theatre to the 

 house of a German photographer, Mr. Henry Uike, and died 

 fcarly on Saturday morning. Mr. Seward was not killed, but 

 severely wounded by a man of the name of Payne. He was 

 sick in bed with a fractured jaw from a fall from his carriage, 

 when Payne entered the house under the pretext of bringing 

 some medicine from the apothecary. As he made some noise, 

 young Seward, the Assistant-Secretary of State, came out of 

 his room, and was immediately felled to the ground by a blow 

 on his head with the butt-end of a revolver. When Payne, 

 knife in hand, jumped towards the bed of the old Secretary of 

 State, a male nurse, an invalid, caught him round his waist 

 from behind, and though he received several stabs he did not 

 let go his hold ; and when dragged to the bed by the far 

 stronger assassin, his exertions were so far successful that they 

 caused the stabs to miss their aim, wounding Mr. Seward only 

 in the neck. 



The house was of course alarmed, but the assassin succeeded 

 in making his escape, wounding some persons of the house- 

 hold who met him on the staircase. When Miss Fanny Seward, 

 the amiable daughter of the Secretary, rushed into her father's 

 bedroom, she found him lying on the ground, entangled in his 

 bloody sheets. The sight of her bleeding brother and father 

 made. such a frightful impression on her, that she ailed from 

 that time, and died after her father and brother had recovered 

 from their wounds. When Mr. Seward was asked afterwards 

 what were his thoughts on seeing the knife oPthe assassin over 

 him, he said, ' I looked into his^face, and thought, "What a 

 handsome man ! " ' 



There were many reports afloat accusing well-known persons 

 of having taken part in the conspiracy, and neither the Vice- 

 President, Mr. Johnson, nor high military commanders escaped 

 suspicion. 



John Wilkes Booth was tracked, and defending himself when 

 surrounded in a barn, was shot by a corporal. Payne was 

 caught and hanged with three others, amongst whom was Mrs. 

 Surrat, the first woman, I was cold, who ever suffered this pun- 

 ishment in the United States. 



Though I mourned very much the death of the good and 

 kind President, war had hardened me somewhat against the 

 impression of such scenes and news, and 1 left the same even- 



