the warders in the last preparations for
his doom, taking off his coat and waistcoat, and substituting for his
wig a white cap. Having taken a respectful leave of the sheriffs, he was
about to kneel down, when it was discovered that it would be necessary
to tuck back the collar of his shirt. That office was performed by the
executioner. Then, after saying a short prayer, and crossing himself
several times, he laid his head upon the block. In less than half a
minute afterwards, he gave the signal, by spreading out his hands: his
head was severed at one blow, and the body fell upon the scaffold. The
executioner, searching his pockets, found in them a silver crucifix, his
beads, and half-a-guinea. No friend attended the man who had been so
long exiled from his own country, on the scaffold; but four undertakers'
men stood, with a piece of red cloth, to receive the head of the
ill-fated Charles Radcliffe. His body, being wrapt in a blanket, was put
into the coffin, with his head, and conveyed to the Nag's Head, in
Gray's Inn Lane, and thence, in the dead of the night, to Mr.
Walmsbey's, North Street, Red Lion Square, whence it was removed to be
interred in the church-yard of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, where a
neglected stone alone marks his burial-place. The following is the
inscription on the coffin:--"Carolus Radcliffe, comes de Derwentwater,
decollatus, die 8vo. Decembris, 1746, aetatis 53." To this were added the
words, so appropriate to the close of an adventurous life, "Requiescat
in pace."

Desolate as these last hours appear to have been, and uncheered by the
presence of a friend, some tender care was directed to the remains of
the unfortunate sufferer. His head was afterwards sewn on to the body by
a dependant of Lord Petre's family, a woman of the name of Thretfall,
whose grandson, a carpenter, who lived for many years at Ingatestone
Hall, Essex, a seat of Lord Petre's, used to relate to the happier
children of a later generation (the descendants of James, Earl of
Derwentwater), the circumstances, of which he had heard in his
childhood. The Countess of Newburgh was afterwards buried by the side of
her husband; and the sexton of St. Giles's Church, some years since, on
the lid of the coffin giving way, perceived some gold lace in a state of
preservation; so that it seems probable that the blanket in which the
bleeding remains were removed, was superseded by the costly and military
attire worn by the prisoner.

Pr