There were at this time standing at the foot of the coffin, two young men, of uncommon short stature; I should think not more than four feet high. Their dress was the most gaudy that I ever beheld. One of them had the clothes, just taken from Andre, hanging on his arm. I took particular pains to learn who they were, and was informed that they were his servants sent up from New York to take his clotfies; but what other business I did not learn. I now turned to take a view of the executioner, who was still standing by one of the posts of the gallows. I walked nigh enough to him to have laid my hand upon his shoulder, and looked him directly in the face.
He appeared to be about twenty-five years of age, his beard of two or three weeks growth, and his whole face covered with what appeared to me to be blacking taken from the outside of a greasy pot. A more frightful looking being I never beheld ; his whole countenance bespoke him to be a fit instrument for the business he had been doing. Wishing to see the closing of the whole business, I remained upon the spot until scarce twenty persons were left; but the coffin was still beside the grave, which had previously been dug. I now returned to my tent, with my mind deeply imbued with the shocking scene I had been called to witness."
Every authentic account that we have, shows how much our officers regretted the necessity of Andre's death, and how amply they fulfilled his parting adjuration. " The tears of thousands," says Thacher, "fell on the spot where he la)-, and no one refrained from proclaiming his sympathy. Many wept openly as he died ; among whom, it is recorded, (apparently on the testimony of Laune) was La Fayette.