I have
come to ask you, in the presence of that other Witness, when, where,
and how she died. I want you to tell me all, and so truly that there
shall be no disappointment for me, nor remorse and denials for you in
your last hour. Tell it now, so that you will not need to send for me
to hear a different story then."

I took the chair he proffered, and he placed his own opposite and
having gently reminded me of the love and respect the members of the
Donner Party bore their captain and his wife, earnestly and feelingly,
he told me the story as he had related it to Mr. McGlashan.

Then, before I understood his movement, he had sunk upon his knees,
saying solemnly,

"On my knees before you, and in the sight of God, I want to assert my
innocence."

I could not have it thus. I bade him rise, and stand with me in the
presence of the all-seeing Father. Extending my upturned hand, I bade
him lay his own right hand upon it, then covering it with my left, I
bade him speak. Slowly, but unhesitatingly, he spoke:

"Mrs. Houghton, if I had murdered your mother, would I stand here with
my hand between your hands, look into your pale face, see the
tear-marks on your cheeks, and the quiver of your lips as you ask the
question? No, God Almighty is my witness, I am innocent of your
mother's death! I have given you the facts as I gave them to the Fallon
Party, as I told them at Sutter's Fort, and as I repeated them to Mr.
McGlashan. You will hear no change from my death-bed, for what I have
told you is true."

There, with a man's honor and soul to uncover, I had scarcely breathed
while he spoke. I watched the expression of his face, his words, his
hands. His eyes did not turn from my face; his hand between mine lay as
untrembling as that of a child in peaceful sleep; and so, unflinchingly
Lewis Keseberg passed the ordeal which would have made a guilty man
quake.

I felt the truth of his assertion, and told him that if it would be any
comfort to him at that late day to know that Tamsen Donner's daughter
believed him innocent of her murder, he had that assurance in my words,
and that I would maintain that belief so long as my lips retained their
power of speech.

Tears glistened in his eyes as he uttered a heartfelt "Thank you!" and
spoke of the comfort the recollection of this meeting would be to him
during the remaining years of his life.

Before our departure, Mr. McGlashan asked Keseberg to step aside and
show my husband th