Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-05-05

lance was up NIL. Inc night was nne out
cloudy. The roads were heavy here and
there from recent rain, but Booth took little
thought of that. When the level road was
reached he dashed ahead at the fullest posi-
BILE speed, and never drew rein till he reach
ed the place, oddly called 7 B, sixteen miles
from Washington where he was forced TO
dismount, owing to a broken girth. This was
quickly repaired by handy man in the tav-
ern, who remembered well, four years after,
what an enormous drink of brandy Booth
swallowed before remounting his horse. No
time was lost in getting forward. Both fugi-
tives kept well together on the wings of the
wind Beyond T B the road becomes very
lonely and the country wears desolats and
deserted look. Groves of tall pine trees on
one side, and dreary stretches Of marshland
on the other, are visible.
Flying along this dark and gloomy high
way, what thoughts must have filled Booths
mind In every nodding pine branch he
must have imagined an arm of vengeance
stretched out across the road to smite him
When nine miles from Beantown he had TO
turn to the left, and take kind Of bride
path through a strip of pine forest Who
will envy his thoughts as in the darkness and
solitude created by the overarching trees he
could not help rejecting that, no matter to
what end of the earth he might fly, the
avenging hand of an outraged nation would
reach him and punish him for his unpardon-
able crime2 After emerging from the forest
path he had to ride through a number of
fields, the road taking that course along the
headlands.
At 4 o'clock in the morning he reached the
fence that surrounds the plot on which stood
DIR. Mudd's dwelling. Booth and Harold dis
mounted. The latter opened the wicket in
the fence, with Booth leaning heavily on his
shoulder, for his broken ankle was now Civ
ing him great pain both moved forward TO
the entrance door The knock was answered
by Mrs. Mudd, with light in her hand and,
as she told me four years subsequently, she
was shocked at the appearance of Booth.
"His eyes," she said, had most unnatural
expression, either from excessive drinking or
excessive mental excitement, 1 don't know
which. His hair was in disorder his clothes
covered with mud, and he appeared unable
to stand" Booth was taken into the parlor
| and laid upon a lounge.
DR.. Mudd was then called and asked by
Booth to examine his leg and see what was
the matter with it. To do this il would be
necessary to pull off his boot, but as it was
very close fitting, the pain of the operation
would be excessive, so the doctor took out
his knife and cut the bootleg down from the
top and around at the instep. He then slip
ped of the remainder of the boot from the
foot, and Mrs Mudd offered one Of her soft
woolen slippers in its place.
The doctor spent some time feeling for
fracture or an induraton, and could discover
none, but at last found that it was a clean
break Of the leg, just as a stick Of candy
might be broken in the middle and leave two
clean smooth surfaces. He then dressed the
leg and bound it tightly at the point where
the break occurred, putting on boot made
of pasteboard, extending from the instep to a
point below the knee. The bootleg that he
cut of he threw away in corner, and never
thought more about it. and yet it was this
bootleg that came within hair of having
him hanged, and as il was had him sentenced
to the Dry Tortugas for life.
Neither Mudd nor his wife had the faintcst
idea that Booth had assassinated the Presi-
dent, and in the remote part of the country
where they lived they were not likely to hear
the news for several days. Booth told them
a plausible story about being out hunting and
falling of his horse. After an hours stay in
Mudd's house, during which time Booth con-
sumed a bottle of whiskey and three ham
sandwiches, both he and Harold started on
horseback, Booth feeling much pain from his
leg, for the Virginia ferry, seven miles away.
They crossed the ferry with their horses aud
pulled up at Garretrs farm, where Booth was
killed few days after, and that was the end
of the wild ride for life of John Wilkes Booth.
To go back to DIR. Mudd. Little did that
unsophisticated physician dream of the troub-
lie he was destined to undergo from having
entertained Lincoln's assassin.
On the following Monday a company of
cavalry, under the command of Col. O'Beirne,
which was then, in conjunction with several
other companies, securing the country in all
directions. stopped at Mudd's house and
made search for Booth. One of the cavalry
men picked up the discarded bootleg lying
in the corner, and scrutinizing it all over,
found inside on the leather the initials ~.
w. B." That was enough. To the cavalry
men it was proof strong as holy writ that
Mudd was one Of the conspirators. They
then threw rope round his neck, fastened
one end to the pommel Of saddle, and liter
ally dragged him on foot all the way to Wash
| ington, leaving his beautiful wife in an agony
of grief and with family of four children
| to look after.
Booth rode the forty miles from Washing
ton to Mudd's house in six hours. 1t took
my team of fast steppers ten hours to cover
the same distance. The breaking of the sad
die girth of his horse was an evidence of the
helter-skelter pace at which he rode, but in
vain the riding, for if he had ridden to the
end of the earth he could not have escaped
the fate that befell him.-Henty Y. CORnOr.