The First Assassin Read Online Free PDF Page A

to bring a new name. Most had departed for the South. Was it possible that one of them had stayed behind, plotting the ultimate treachery?
    Scott and Rook had set in motion a security plan for the inauguration that would be difficult to betray: all of their subordinates knew only their own orders, not those of others. Rook felt he had guarded against some of the more outlandish rumors that had been circulating around the city, such as the suggestion that Lincoln and his cabinet would be kidnapped and smuggled to the Confederacy. He took every precaution he could imagine. Just twelve hours earlier, he had found himself racing down the Avenue in darkness to investigate a report that someone had planted explosives beneath the east portico of the Capitol, where Lincoln soon would appear. His search turned up nothing, but he posted a soldier on the spot. At daybreak, another dozen soldiers reinforced him. The colonel wanted no surprises.
    As the entourage crossed Sixth Street, Rook looked at Brown’s Hotel, on his left. This was a headquarters of secessionist sympathy. Southern politicians lived here when Congress was in session. Now they were gone, having abandoned the city in droves over the last several weeks. Still, the hotel was full, just like every place of lodging in the city. When Rook looked into the crowd along the Avenue, he could not fail to notice the large number of carpetbags. Hundreds of people visiting the city simply had nowhere to stay.
    Fourth Street came and went, then Third Street, the site of the Washington Hotel and the St. Charles Hotel. After these landmarks, the crowds dwindled. At First Street, the parade found itself at the foot of Capitol Hill, which was really more of a slight rise on a flat landscape than something deserving the honorific of “Hill.” It was as if the politicians who worked atop its low summit could not resist exaggerating even this simple fact of geography. Rook felt safer near the grounds of the Capitol, where there were fewer buildings to hide conspirators. In the distance, he saw a few pieces of light artillery—an extravagant gesture, he thought, but one that Scott himself had insisted upon in case there was actually an organized attack on the new president.
    The procession now turned off the Avenue and circled to the left. Minutes later, the presidential carriage halted on the north side of the Capitol, where a temporary covered passage protruded about one hundred feet from a doorway leading into the building. Lincoln had barely stepped off the vehicle before Buchanan offered him his arm, and then they were hustled down this corridor. Rook waited for them to disappear. Then he dismounted and entered the Capitol himself.
    The entrance was on the Senate side of the building. Inside, several attendants brushed off Lincoln and Buchanan to remove the dust that had collected on their clothes during the ride. There was a mad scramble all around them to get in position for the formal movement onto the platform where Lincoln would give his speech and take the oath. Senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, the diplomatic corps, and guests all had to take their assigned places.
    Rook had assigned soldiers to guard the windows above the platform. He decided to make sure they were in position. He left the Senate chamber, turned left, and climbed a staircase. As he was going up, a man was dashing down—a late arrival frantic to take his place in the procession. The rest of the building was empty except for the soldiers at the posts. Everything was as he had expected it.
    Peering from a window, Rook saw thousands of people gathering to hear Lincoln’s speech. They stood shoulder to shoulder, covering acres of ground. Some had scrambled up the leafless trees for a better view. There were plenty of troops among them too. All looked well.
    At the last window he intended to check, Rook came upon a bright-eyed soldier. “Any trouble here, Private?” he asked.
    “No, sir.”
    Rook