" Intelligence of the finding of the court and of his fate were communicated to Andre through two officers from Greene, one of whom was his aide, Major Burnet. The sentence was listened to with a composure that his informants vainly strove to emulate. The prisoner had steeled himself to encounter death : " I avow no guilt," he said, " but I am resigned to my fate." Yet he shrunk from the idea of the halter. " Since

a I have this anecdote from Mr. Spark's, who received It from La Fayette himself.

THE TOWN OF GREENBURGH.

it was his lot to die," he said, " there was still a choice in the mode which would make a material difference to his feelings, and he would be happy, if possible, to be indulged with a professional death ; and he seems to have at once verbally petitioned, probably through Hamilton, that Washington would consent to his being shot probably anticipating no refusal to his request he retained for some time a tranquility of spirit approaching even to cheerfulness.

On the morning of the day originally fixed for his death Andre made a moving appeal for a change of its mode.

ANDRE TO WASHINGTON.

Tappan, 1st October, 1780. Sir:-- Buoy'd above the terror of death by the consciousness of a life devoted to honorable pursuits and stained with no action that can give me remorse, I trust that the request I make to your excellency at this serious period, and which is to soften my last moments, will not be rejected.