Also in the door which led from the vestibule into the box itself a hole
had been cut, through which the situation of the different persons in
the box could be clearly seen. Soon after the party had entered, when
the cheering had subsided and the play was going forward, just after ten
o'clock, a man approached through the corridor, pushed his visiting card
into the hands of the attendant who sat there, hastily entered the
vestibule, and closed and fastened the door behind him. A moment later
the noise of a pistol shot astounded every one, and instantly a man was
seen at the front of the President's box; Major Rathbone sprang to
grapple with him, but was severely slashed in the arm and failed to
retard his progress; he vaulted over the rail to the stage, but caught
his spur in the folds of the flag, so that he did not alight fairly upon
his feet; but he instantly recovered himself, and with a visible limp in
his gait hastened across the stage; as he went, he turned towards the
audience, brandished the bloody dagger with which he had just struck
Rathbone, and cried "_Sic semper tyrannis!_" Some one recognized John
Wilkes Booth, an actor of melodramatic characters. The door at the back
of the theatre was held open for him by Edward Spangler, an employee,
and in the alley hard by a boy, also employed about the theatre, was
holding the assassin's horse, saddled and bridled.
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