“No, sir,” replied the officer, “you know your offence well enough; return to your place of confinement.”
The man ran down stairs, wrenched the gun from the sergeant’s hand, and rushing back, discharged it at the heart of Lieutenant Foster.
He turned to go to his inner apartment, but exclaiming, “Ah! me,” he fell dead before the entrance.
Doyle, having been tried by a civil court, was now under sentence, awaiting his execution. He was a hardened villain, never exhibiting the slightest compunction for his crime.
The commanding officer. Major Clark,[[110]] sent to him one day to inquire if he wanted anything for his comfort.
“If the Major pleased,” he replied, “he should like to have a light and a copy of Byron’s Works.”
Some fears were entertained that he would contrive to make way with himself before the day of execution, and to guard against it, he was deprived of everything that could furnish him a weapon. His food was served to him in a wooden bowl, lest a bit of broken crockery might be used as a means of self-destruction.
One morning he sent a little package to the commanding officer as a present. It contained a strong rope, fabricated from strips of his blanket, that he had carefully separated, and with a large stout spike at the end of it. The message accompanying it was: "He wished Major Clark to see that if he chose to put an end to himself, he could find means to do it in spite of him."
And this hardened frame of mind continued to the last. When he was led out for execution, in passing beyond the gate, he observed a quantity of lumber recently collected for the construction of a new Company’s store.
“Ah! Captain, what are you going to build here?” inquired he of Captain Scott,[[111]] who attended him.