What Was The Role of David Herold

[J. Beckert]

This is very interesting, but Booth had no guarantee he was going to get into the box without violence. Why would he have to be certain he would be guaranteed to cross the bridge without treating Cobb the way he reacted to Rathbone or even worse? He was armed and left behind one man that was shot and two who were viciously stabbed. If Cobb denied him permission to cross, I don't see him wheeling his horse around in disgust.