a lamb that is doomed for the
slaughter than as a great overgrown Bullock to be knocked down by the
Butcher's Pole-axe. So they put me away from the rest of my companions,
and bestowed me in a sorry little chamber, where I had a truckle-bed to
myself. Dear old Mother Drum, being still under disgrace, was not
suffered to come near me. Her trial, with that of Cicely Grip, for
harbouring armed and disguised men, under the Black Act, which was
likewise a felony, was not to come on till the next session. I believe
that the Great Gentlemen at Whitehall were, for a long time after my
conviction, in a mind for Hanging me. 'Twas thought a small matter then
to stretch the neck of a Boy of Twelve, and children even smaller than I
had worn the white Nightcap, and smelt the Nosegay in the Cart. Indeed,
I think the Ordinary wanted me to be Finished according to Law, that he
might preach a Sermon on it, and liken me to one of the Children that
mocked the Prophet, and was so eaten up by the She-Bears that came out
of a Wood. When I think on the Reverend and Pious Persons who now attend
our Criminals in their last unhappy Moments, and strive to bring them to
a Sense of their Sins, it gives me the Goose-flesh to remember the
Profane and Riotous Parsons who, for a Mean Stipend, did the contemned
work of Gaol Chaplains in the days I speak of. Even while the Hangman
was getting into proper Trim, and fashioning his tools for the
slaughter, these callous Clergymen would be smoking and drinking with
the keepers in the Lodge, talking now of a Main at Cocks and now of him
who was to suffer on the Morrow, fleering and jesting, with the Church
Service in one sleeve of their cassock and a Bottle Screw or a Pack of
Cards in the other. And the Condemned persons, too, did not take the
matter in a much more serious light. They had their Brandy and Tobacco
even in their Dismal Hold, and thought much less of Mercy and
Forgiveness than of the ease they would have from their Irons being
stricken off, or the comfort they would gain from a last bellyful of
Meat. I have not come to be sixty-eight years of age without observing
somewhat of the Things that have passed around me; and one of the best
signs of the Times in which I live (and due in great part to the Humane
and Benignant complexion of his Majesty) is the falling off in
bloodthirsty and cruel Punishments. If a Dozen or so are hanged after
each Gaol Delivery at the Old Baily, and a score or more whipped