Accordingly, at noon, the appointed hour, I
repaired to an open spot of building-land on the Carondelet side of the
city. Here I found assembled a motley assemblage of citizens, negroes,
steamboat-hands, and the general riff-raff of the place. Although the
crowd was not so great, the meeting strongly reminded me of those scenes
of infamy and disgrace in England--public executions; the conduct of the
assembled throng on this occasion being the more decorous of the two.
Precisely at twelve, the mob made a rush towards one corner of the open
space, from which direction I saw the culprit advancing, in charge of
thirty or forty well-dressed people (the committee appointed for the
occasion being among the number). He was a stout man, and described to
me as a great bully; but now he looked completely crest-fallen. As the
party came on, he was hissed by the mob, who, however, kept at a good
distance from his guard. A man, with a large tin can of smoking pitch, a
brush of the kind used in applying the same, and a pillow of feathers
under his arm, followed immediately behind the prisoner, vociferating
loudly.
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