shadow
of the dungeon, and kneel beside him. At these moments he would
stretch forth his arms as if to embrace the airy figure of his brain,
and whisper, nodding his head slowly the while: "Thou wert all I
had--in a moment, darling;--wait until thy father can but pass this
dreary portal."

They put him to the rack, but elicited nothing. He endured the torture
as though scarce feeling it; and even in agony, was heard to mutter:
"In a moment, my little one--but a moment more."

His trial, with that of the others implicated in the plot, was over.
The sentence of death had been pronounced upon each. Three days after,
Everard Digsby, with Robert Winter and Grant, met death by hanging in
the churchyard of St. Paul's. Three remained awaiting the headsman's
axe--Thomas Winter, Keyes and Guido Fawkes.

Their execution was anticipated by the populace of London with
unwonted eagerness. The desire of the people to see justice meted to
those whom they deemed the prime movers in a conspiracy which had
shaken England to its foundation, was only rivaled by the curiosity
resident in each heart, to behold the one who, with undaunted nerve,
had stood beneath the House of Lords ready to fire the mine which
would rob the kingdom at one fell blow of both its monarch and
Parliament.

In that age public executions were signals for general holidays;
people flocked from the most distant shires, decked in best attire, to
witness the doing to death of some poor malefactor. But this was no
ordinary occasion; and, as if to emphasize the fact, a great throng
had assembled at Westminster even before the sun arose, on the day set
apart for the beheading of the remaining three conspirators.

At an early hour companies of halberdiers were forced to exercise
their authority in keeping the crowd at proper distance from the
ominous structure erected in the middle of the square. The object
about which this innumerable concourse of people gathered was a high
platform covered with black cloth, in the center of which stood the
block. The condemned men had been brought from the Tower shortly after
midnight, and were now lodged in the space beneath the scaffold, which
had been converted into a kind of closed pen.

The hour for the execution was eleven, and as the time approached the
multitude gradually swelled, being increased by thousands; as though
some pitiless monster were fattening itself upon thoughts of the blood
so soon to be shed.

Again and ag