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heart, and he fell dead.
The boys immediately ran away and gave the alarm, and Carey disappeared in the bushes.
The hue and cry was raised, and the culprit, having gone quite a distance through the woods, came out where there were three or four of his pursuers, who immediately laid hold of him. A thing that showed the steadiness of his nerve was that he then had in his hand a gray squirrel which he had shot with his pistol while he was being pursued.
The evidence of the boys was plenary, and he was committed to jail for murder.
Lincoln is about six miles from Concord.
I was at Concord attending the court.
The constable was a Democratic friend of mine who always used to go to the convention as a delegate, and I always sent him the political documents of the campaign to be distributed.
Hearing of his death, and not being engaged on the day of the funeral, I took my horse and rode over to Lincoln to attend his funeral, with as much grief as I would attend the funeral of any dear friend.
In the February term Carey was indicted for murder, and in the April term of the Supreme Court at Lowell he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty.
Now, there is a custom which has become a law that where a prisoner who is to be tried for his life has no counsel the court must appoint someone to defend the case.
I had never seen the prisoner, and knew nothing about him, but when the chief justice asked him: “Carey, have you any counsel?”
he said: “I should like to have Mr. Butler.”
The horror of defending the murderer of my friend quite overcame me. I said:--
“I would like to ask your Honor to appoint other counsel.
Your Honor knows I have been engaged to defend quite a number of men on trial for their lives and it is a thankless and profitless task.”
My using the word “profitless” was very unfortunate, because the chief justice thought that I was making the question a matter of fees, and he replied with some severity:--
“ Mr. Butler, this is a duty which, when the court assigns a member of the bar, he cannot very well decline.
Whom shall I appoint to assist you?”
I saw that I was in for it and asked for a member of the bar to aid me. He was duly assigned.
I think it was the
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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