The toilet completed, he laid his hat on the table and cheerfully said to the

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTEk.

guard officers deputed to lead him forth, "I am ready at any moment, gentlemen, to wait on you." Though his face was of deadly paleness, its features were tranquil and calm; his beauty shone with an unnatural distinctness that awed the hearts of the vulgar, and his manners and air were as easy as though he was going to a ball-room rather than the grave.

The spot fixed for the closing scene was in an open field belonging to the owner of the house where he was detained, and on an eminence that commands an extended view. It was within a mile, and in open sight of Washington's quarters. Here the lofty gibbet was erected, and the shallow grave of three or four feet depth was digged. The office of hangman, always an odious employment, was perhaps on this occasion more than usually so. None of our soldiers undertook it. One Strickland, a tory of Ramapo Valley, was in our hands at the time. His threatened fate may have been hard ; his years were not many ; and by the price of freedom he procured to take on himself the necessary but revolting character. Under an elaborate disguise, he probably hoped to go through the scene if not unnoticed, at least unknown.

Besides the officers that were always in the chamber, six sentinels kept watch by night and by day, over every aperture of the building; if hope of escape ever rose in Andre's breast it could not have developed into even the vaguest expectation. To the idea of suicide as a means of avoiding his doom, he never descended. The noon of this day was appointed for the execution, and at half an hour before, the cortege set forth.