Powell & Herold

[BettyO]

Sorry, Craig. But I don't believe the Herold/Powell escort story any longer. Other developments (and we've discussed them here in another thread) seem to point to the fact that Powell was alone. The ruse of posing as a doctor's delivery boy, he most certainly got from Herold, since Herold was a pharmacist's assistant. Mr. Benjamin Tayloe's servant claimed that he saw Powell arrive at the Seward home alone, tie his horse to the street lamp in front of the house, knock at the door and be admitted into Seward's home.

His slow retreat was obviously not to draw attention to himself as he was chased by Bell screaming "Murder!" I think he was attempting to pose as a simple passer-by on horseback. When he turned the corner, he put spurs to his horse, a pacer, and had a bit of trouble getting the old horse to gallop. A pacer is a horse trained to trot and usually trot only - not gallop.