When I took old Black Hawk the Indian Chief a captive to our
barracks at St. Louis I shielded him from the vulgar gaze of the
curious. I have lived too long in the woods to be frightened by an owl
and I've seen Death too often to flinch at any form of pain--but this
torture of being forever watched is beginning to prey on my reason."
The doctor's report that day was written in plain English:
"I find Mr. Davis in a very critical state, his nervous debility
extreme, his mind despondent, his appetite gone, complexion livid, and
pulse denoting deep prostration of all vital energies. I am alarmed and
anxious over the responsibility of my position. If he should die in
prison without trial, subject to such severities as have been inflicted
on his attenuated frame the world will form conclusions and with enough
color to pass them into history."
Dr. Craven was getting too troublesome. General Miles dismissed him, and
called in Dr. George Cooper, a physician whose political opinions were
supposed to be sounder.
CHAPTER XLV
THE MASTER MIND
Socola read the story of the chaining of the Confederate Chieftain with
indignation. His intimate association with Jefferson Davis had convinced
him of his singular purity of character and loftiness of soul.
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