last words I said to you.' Next, he alluded to the slander,
circulated 'through the jealousy of the people,' that at the execution
of Essex he had stood in a window over against him and puffed out
tobacco in defiance of him. He contradicted it utterly. Essex could not
have seen him, since he had retired to the Armoury. He had bewailed him
with tears. 'True I was of a contrary faction, but I bare him no
ill-affection, and always believed it had been better for me that his
life had been preserved; for after his fall I got the hatred of those
who wished me well before; and those who set me against him set
themselves afterwards against me, and were my greatest enemies.'

'And now,' he concluded an address of which the eloquence is not to be
judged from the halting reports, 'I entreat that you will all join with
me in prayer to that great God of Heaven whom I have grievously
offended, being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in
such callings as have been most inducing to it; for I have been a
soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are courses of wickedness and
vice. So, I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God.' 'I
have,' he said, 'a long journey to take, and must bid the company
farewell.'

[Sidenote: _Preparing for the Block._]

With that the Sheriffs ordered that all should depart from the scaffold,
where he was left with them, the Dean, and the executioner. Having given
his hat and money to some attendants, he prepared himself for the block,
permitting no help. Throughout, wrote on November 3 Mr. Thomas Lorkin to
Sir Thomas Puckering, 'he seemed as free from all manner of apprehension
as if he had been come thither rather to be a spectator than a sufferer;
nay, the beholders seemed much more sensible than he.' Having put off
gown and doublet, he called for the axe. There being a delay, he chid
the headsman, 'I prithee, let me see it!' Fingering the edge, he
remarked to the Sheriffs with a smile: 'This is a sharp medicine; but it
is a sure cure for all diseases.' Then, going to and fro upon the
scaffold upon every side, he entreated the spectators to pray to God to
bestow on him strength. Arundel he asked, as if he expected the wish to
be granted by James, to 'desire the King that no scandalous writings to
defame him might be published after his death.' To a question from
Tounson he replied that he died in the faith professed by the Church of
England, and hoped to have his sins washed aw