All hearts were powerfully stirred by sympathy for him. The eqiiifi/ of that sentence was not questioned by military men ; and yet, only inexorable expediency at that hour Avlien the Eepublican cause seemed in the greatest peril, caused the execution of the sentence in his case. The sacrifice had to be made for the public good, and the prisoner was hung as a spy at Tappan at noon on the 2nd of October, 1780.

It is said that Washington never saw Major Andre, having avoided a personal interview with him from the beginning, \ Unwilling to give

X X

THE HUDSON.

him unnecessary pain, Washington did not reply to his letter asking for the death of a soldier, and the unhappy prisoner was not certain what was to be the manner of his execution, until he was led to the gallows. The lines of Miss Anne Seward, Andre's friend, commencing,

" O Washington I I thought Ihee great and good, Nor knew thy Kero-thirst for guiltless blood, .Severe to use the power that fortune gave, Thou cool, determined murderer of the brave I"

were unjust, for he sincerely commiserated the fate of the prisoner, and would have made every proper sacrifice to save him.

Hw

ANUHES PEN AND INK SKETCil.

Major Andre Avas an accomplished young man, and a clever amateur artist. He was perfectly composed from the time that his fate was made known to him. On the day fixed for his execution, he sketched with pen and ink a likeness of himself sitting at a table, and gave it to the officer of his guard, who had been kind to him. It is preserved in the Trumbull Gallery of pictures, at Yale College, in Connecticut.