life of General Grant, and on this charge and specification he was indicted and tried, though he failed, like Atzerodt, to accomplish the bloody deed.

Mrs. Surratt was charged with having on or before, the sixth day of March, 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and the twentieth of April, 1865, received, entertained, harbored and concealed, aided and assisted" the conspirators in the execution of their plans. She was charged with being cognizant of the intended crime almost from its inception, becoming an active participant and general manager. With Doctor Mudd, it was charged, she planned the means and assistance for the escape of the assassins, and visited Mudd at five o'clock on the day of the assassination, to see that certain weapons were in readiness. Booth had frequent interviews at her house, and was with her on the afternoon of the fourteenth.

In

The part taken by Doctor Mudd, in the tragedy, was described in the indictment as that of an accomplice. He was, it appeared, in the confidence of Booth several months prior to the assassination. January, he had an interview with John H. Surratt and Booth, at the National Hotel. He introduced Booth to Surratt, and was visited by Booth at the Pennsylvania House. When the assassins fled to his house, he dressed Booth's wound and assisted in the escape of both Booth and Harold. When the officers called at his

house, soon after the assassination, he denied that he knew either of the criminals, but subsequently, after his arrest, he admitted the fact of his acquaintance with Booth; both of the fugitives were well cared for by him at his house.

Arnold was tried for being one of the original conspirators, but it was not charged that he maintained any active. relation to the plot at the time appointed for its execution. His guilt consisted in being an accomplice before the act.

Harold's complicity admitted, of course, of no doubt. On the night of the assassination he was seen at the livery stable with Booth, and on various occasions he was known to have held secret meetings with Booth, Atzerodt, and others of the conspiracy, at Mrs. Surratt's and elsewhere. During his flight with Booth, he acknowledged to confederate soldiers that he and Booth had made way with the president.

Atzerodt, Harold, Payne, and Mrs. Surratt, were found guilty of crimes deserving death, and were hanged therefor on the seventh of July, 1865. Arnold, O'Laughlin, and Mudd, were sent to the Dry Tortugas for hard labor during life; and Spangler for six years of hard labor, at the same place. John H. Surratt, son of Mrs. Surratt above named, and who was also indicted, fled to Europe; being discovered, he was arrested and sent to Washington, but, after a protracted trial by jury, escaped conviction.

in mid-ocean, July 29th, and, August 6th, the two vessels arrived simultaneously at their respective destinations. This cable worked for a time, but the electric current grew weak and finally failed altogether.

But these repeated failures, though a severe disappointment to those engaged in the great and costly enterprise, did not destroy their faith in its feasibility, and the mighty task was begun anew, advantage being taken of whatever instruction past experience could furnish or suggest.

Especial care had, it is true, been exercised in the previous undertaking, to have the construction of the cable itself as perfect as possible. It was the result of many months' thought, experiment, and trial. Hundreds of specimens were made, comprising every variety of form, size, and structure, and most severely tested as to their powers and capabilities; and the result was the adoption of one which, it was believed, possessed all the properties required, in a far higher degree than any cable that had yet been laid. Its flexibility was such as to make it as manageable. as a small line, and its strength such that it would bear, in water, over six miles of its own weight suspended vertically. The conducting medium consisted not of one. single straight copper wire, but of seven wires of copper of the best quality, twisted round each other spirally, and capable of undergoing great tension without injury. This conductor was then enveloped in three separate coverings of gutta percha, of the best quality, forming the core of the cable, round which tarred hemp was wrapped, and over this, the outside covering, consisting of eighteen strands of the best quality of iron wire,—each strand composed of seven distinct wires, twisted spirally, in the most approved manner, by machinery specially adapted to the purpose. Such was the exquisitely constructed cable used on this occasion.

Great attention was also paid to the arrangement of the apparatus for paying out. The machine for this purpose was placed on deck in the after-part of the vessel, and somewhat on the starboard side,

to be clear of the mast, etc. The cable, as it came up from its enormous coils in the hold, passed first through a guiding groove and over a deeply grooved wheel, on to the drums, each of the latter being furnished with four deep grooves, each groove being cut one-eighth of an inch deeper than the former to allow for slack. The cable, after winding round these drums, passed on from the last groove over another guiding wheel, to a distinct piece of machinery, also standing on the deck, and half-way between the brakes and the ship's stern. Here a grooved wheel worked on a sliding frame, furnished with weights fixed on a rod, which ended in a piston, inside of a cylinder, full of water.

This piston, being made not quite large enough to fit the cylinder, the water had room to play about it, but with difficulty-so that, yielding freely to every alteration of pressure, it could do so to none with a jerk, as the piston required some little time to dislodge the water from one side of it to the other, it acting, in short, as a water cushion. this last piece of machinery the cable passed over a wheel or sheave projecting well over the stern of the ship, and so down into the ocean depths.

From

So intelligent and powerful an association as that which had this great enterprise in charge-an association composed. of some of the leading merchants and capitalists of England and America, guided by the wonderful genius of Mr. Cyrus W. Field,-might well be supposed incapable of yielding to defeat, and thus it was that, until success finally and beyond all peradventure crowned their efforts, they continued their tests and trials of improved machinery and cables, availing themselves of every resource of science, and even bringing into requisition, at last, the magnificent conveniences of conveyance afforded by that "leviathan of the deep," the steamer Great Eastern.

In this way, certain facts and principles were arrived at, and demonstrated by trials and expeditions conducted in accordance therewith, which showed plainly what had been the errors of the past, and what

should be the governing rules of future operations. Among these facts and principles were the following:

It was proved by the expedition of 1858, that a submarine telegraph cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland, and messages transmitted.

By the expedition of 1865-when the cable was lost-it was demonstrated that the insulation of a cable improves very much after its submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its conducting power is considerably increased thereby; that the steamship Great Eastern, from her size and constant steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use of paddles and screw, rendered it safe to lay an Atlantic cable in any weather; that in a depth of over two miles, four attempts were made to grapple the lost cable, in three of which the cable was caught by the grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the chain attached to it; that the payingout machinery used on board the Great Eastern worked perfectly, and could be confidently relied on for laying cables across the Atlantic; that with the improved telegraphic instruments for long submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute could be obtained. through such a cable as that sunk between Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack actually paid out did not exceed fourteen per cent., which would have made the total cable laid between Valentia and Heart's Content nineteen hundred miles; that the lost Atlantic cable, though capable of bearing a strain of seven tons, did not experience more than fourteen hundred-weight in being paid out into the deepest water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland; that there was no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep waters of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland, and that two buoys even, when moored by a piece of the Atlantic cable itself, which had been previously lifted from the bottom, had ridden. out a gale; that more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic cable had been

recovered from a depth of over two miles, and that the insulation of the gutta percha covered wire was in no way whatever impaired by the depth of water or the strains to which it had been subjected by lifting and passing through the hauling-in apparatus; that the cable of 1865, owing to the improvements introduced into the manufacture of the gutta percha core, was more than one hundred times better insulated than cables made in 1858, then considered perfect; that the electrical testing could be conducted with such unerring certainty as to enable the electricians to discover the

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existence of a fault immediately after its production or development, and very quickly to ascertain its position in the cable; and, finally, that with a steamengine attached to the paying-out machinery, should a fault be discovered on board whilst laying the cable, it was possible to recover it before it had reached the bottom of the ocean, and have it repaired at once.

Still led on by that master-spirit of the enterprise, Mr. Field, its friends formed themselves into a new company, with a large amount of capital, and the summer of 1866 was fixed upon for another effort, the Great Eastern to be employed for the pur

pose. By the time (says Dr. H. M. Field, the admirable historian of the enterprise,) the big ship had her cargo and stores on board, she was well laden. Of the cable alone there were two thousand four hundred miles, coiled in three immense tanks, as the year before. Of this, seven hundred and forty-eight miles were a part of the cable of the last expedition. The tanks alone, with the water in them, weighed over a thousand tons; and the cable which they held, four thousand tons more; besides which she had to carry eight thousand five hundred tons of coal and five hundred tons of telegraph stores -in all some fourteen thousand tons, besides engines, rigging, etc., which made nearly as much more. So enormous was this burden, that it was thought prudent not to take on board all her coal before she left the Medway, especially as the channel was winding and shallow. It was therefore arranged that about a third of her coal should be taken in at Berehaven, a port on the south-west coast of Ireland. The time for her departure, was the last day of June; and in four or five days she had passed down the Irish coast, and was quietly anchored in the harbor at Berehaven, where she was soon joined by the other vessels of the squadron. The Terrible, which had accompanied the Great Eastern on the former expedition, was still there to represent the majesty of England. The William Corry, a vessel of two thousand tons, bore the ponderous shore end, which was to be laid out thirty miles from the Irish coast, while the Albany and the Medway were ships chartered by the company. While the Great Eastern remained at Berehaven, to take in her final stores of coal, the William Corry proceeded around the coast to Valentia, to lay the shore end. She arrived off the harbor, July 7th, and immediately prepared for her heavy task. This shore end was of tremendous size, weighing over eight tons to the mile. The cable was to be brought off on a bridge of boats, reaching from the ship to the foot of the cliff. All the fishermen's boats were gathered from along

the shore, while the British war-ship Racoon, which was guarding that part of the coast, sent up her boats to help, so that, as they all mustered in line, there were forty of them, making a long pontoon-bridge; and Irish boatmen with eager looks and strong hands were standing along the line to grasp the massive chain. All went well, and by one o'clock the cable was landed, and its end brought up the cliff to the station. The signals were found to be perfect, and the William Corry then slowly drew off to sea, unlimbering her stiff shore end, till she had cast over the whole thirty miles. At three o'clock, the next morning, she telegraphed through the cable that her work was done, and she had buoyed the end in water a hundred fathoms deep.

The joy of the inhabitants on witnessing this scene was earnest and deep-seated, rather than demonstrative, after the lesson taught by last year's experience. The excitement was below, instead of above the surface. Nothing could prevent the scene being intensely dramatic, but the prevailing tone of the drama was serious, instead of boisterous and triumphant. Speech-making, hurrahing, public congratulations, and vaunts of confidence, were, as it seemed, avoided as if on purpose. The old crones (says an English paper) in tattered garments who cowered together, dudheen in mouth, their gaudy colored shawls tightly drawn over head and under the chin-the barefooted boys and girls, who by long practice walked over sharp and jagged rocks, which cut up boots and shoes, with perfect impunity-the men at work uncovering the trench, and winding in single file up and down the hazardous path cut by the cablemen in the otherwise. inaccessible rock-the patches of bright color furnished by the red petticoats and cloaks the ragged garments, only kept. from falling to pieces by bits of string and tape the good old parish priest, who exercises mild and gentle spiritual sway over the loving subjects of whom the ever-popular Knight of Kerry is the temporal head, looking on benignly from his car