e Coffee House that the great Judge, Sir William Blackstone, has given
his caveat against the Frequency of Capital Punishment for small
offences; and as His Majesty is notoriously averse from signing more
than six Death Warrants at once (the old King used to say at council, in
his German English, "Vere is de Dyin' speech man dat hang de Rogue for
me?" meaning the Recorder with his Report, and seeming, in a sort, eager
to despatch that awful Business, of which the present Prince is so
Tender), I think that we have every cause to Bless the Times and Reign
we live in. For surely 'tis but affected Softness of Heart, and Mock,
Sickly Sentiment, to maintain that Highwaymen, Horse-stealers, and other
hardened villains, do not deserve the Tree, and do not righteously
Suffer for their misdeeds; or that wanton women do not deserve bodily
correction, so long as it be done within Bridewell Walls, and not in
front of the Sessions House, for the ribald Populace to stare at. Truly
our present code is a merciful one, although I do not hold that the
Extreme Penalty of the law should be exacted for such offences as
cutting down growing trees, forging hat-stamps, or stealing above the
value of a Shilling, or even of forty; nevertheless crime must be kept
under, that is certain.[N]

At all events, they didn't hang John Dangerous. For a time, as I have
said, the Great Gentlemen at Whitehall hesitated. I have heard that
Justice Blackcap, being asked to intercede for me, did, with a scurril
jest, tell Mr. Secretary that I was a young Imp of the Evil One, and
that a little Hanging would do me no harm. Five, indeed, of my miserable
companions were put to death, at different points on the borders of
Charlwood Chase, and one, the unlucky Chaplain, met his fate before the
door of the Stag o' Tyne. The rest of the Blacks, of whom, to my joy, I
shall have no further occasion to speak, were sent to be Slaves in the
American Plantations.

I had lain in Gaol more than a month after my Sentence, when Mr.
Shapcott, a good Quaker Gentleman of the place (who had suffered much
for Conscience' sake, and was very Pitifully inclined to all those who
were in Affliction), began to take some interest in my unhappy Self;
calling me a strayed Lamb, a brand to be snatched from the burning, and
the like. And he, by the humane connivance of the Mayor and other
Justices, was now permitted to have access unto me, and to conciliate
the Keeper, Mrs. Macphilader, by money