Secret Band of Brothers | Page 7

It was to be done
without the apparent knowledge of the elder brother, whom we will
hereafter call Colonel Brown. It was to be communicated to one of the
officers, with a solicitation to keep it a secret from the colonel. He also
had an appointed part to play. The character he was to sustain in this
drama of well-concocted treachery, I will next present.
CHAPTER III.
The colonel's physician advised him to take medicine, to reduce his
system, and give him the appearance of one rapidly sinking under a
pulmonary affection. He consented, as such a plan was considered the
most likely to succeed. It will be readily seen, that the design was to
work upon the sympathies of the officers, and thus procure his
enlargement. Nor were they disappointed. The colonel's health began to
fail. The drugs acted their appropriate part. Some of his friends made
vigorous exertions to have him removed to the hospital, declaring it
necessary for the continuation of life. Others were actively engaged in
giving forth intimations, and expressing their fears that he would die
before his trial came on, always taking care to assert their confidence of
his innocence. This was a mere ruse, to trick the officers into a consent
for his removal. But they had mistaken the character of the men with
whom they were dealing. They were not to be moved by exhibitions of
suffering humanity. Their hearts had become insensible to human
misery and they resisted all appeals to sympathy.
There was now but one alternative for the friends of the prisoner. They

must apply the drugs more assiduously, till they made a mere skeleton
of their subject; and then try the virtue of the "almighty dollar." This
now seemed to be the only thing that would move the hearts of
seven-eighths of the police judges, marshals, wardens, and prosecutors.
Such were the administrators of public justice, at that time, in New
Orleans. The greater part were men, who, at some period of their lives,
had been steeped chin-deep in infamy. Some were men of wealth and
liberally educated. They were men who would shrink from giving an
account of their early years. Several were verging upon three score
years and ten. All the wealth they possessed had been plundered from
another set of villains, whose misfortune was, a want of sagacity in
escaping the rapacity of their more accomplished compeers. That there
were a few honourable exceptions must be admitted, but I could not
with a good conscience assert, that one-eighth of the police was as
honest as is generally the case with those city officers, for I have facts
to the contrary.
The whole of that Southern Sodom at an early date had been inundated
with this "secret band of brothers," or this fraternal band of land pirates.
As they became wealthy they ceased their usual occupation, and began
to speculate in a different way. Having it in their power, they would rob
even their nearest friends, thus overleaping that common law of
"honour among thieves." They would do this with the utmost impunity,
whenever they saw proper. There was no redress. The very officers
were, many of them, under fictitious names and would assume
deceptive titles, for the more successful perpetration of their villany.
The unfortunate prisoner discovered, when it was too late, that his
supposed HONEST BROTHERHOOD were not what their profession
had led him to believe. Poor fellow! he had not taken enough degrees to
learn the full "mystery of iniquity." Every effort was made to procure a
light bail, but it could not be effected. At last an arrangement was made,
and for a stipulated sum he was placed in charge of a committee, who
had him removed to the hospital. The colonel, by this time, was, to
appearance, very dangerously ill. He was removed to his new quarters,
but not permitted to regain his health, lest the spell of their deceit
should be broken. His visitors were numerous. To his face, they

appeared his most sincere friends. They seemed deeply interested in his
welfare, and made bountiful proffers of sympathy and assistance. His
true friends, who were capable of rendering him succour, were very
few. He had many of the lower class of the brotherhood, the novitiates,
who were ready to act energetically and in good faith. But the head
men--the very individuals who had reaped the spoils of his
doings--were his worst enemies. They had received the lion's share,
without leaving the poor jackall even the scraps, but turned him over,
unaided, to the tender mercies of a felon's fate. They had filled their
pockets with the richest of the spoils, and would not now contribute a
penny to reward their benefactor.
At this time, there were one hundred of the brotherhood in