ve the face a wet appearance; drops of pitch, congealed in
what had once been the eyes, produced the effect of tears. However,
thanks to the pitch, the ravage of death, if not annulled, was visibly
slackened and reduced to the least possible decay. That which was before
the child was a thing of which care was taken: the man was evidently
precious. They had not cared to keep him alive, but they cared to keep
him dead.

The gibbet was old, worm-eaten, although strong, and had been in use
many years.

It was an immemorial custom in England to tar smugglers. They were
hanged on the seaboard, coated over with pitch and left swinging.
Examples must be made in public, and tarred examples last longest. The
tar was mercy: by renewing it they were spared making too many fresh
examples. They placed gibbets from point to point along the coast, as
nowadays they do beacons. The hanged man did duty as a lantern. After
his fashion, he guided his comrades, the smugglers. The smugglers from
far out at sea perceived the gibbets. There is one, first warning;
another, second warning. It did not stop smuggling; but public order is
made up of such things. The fashion lasted in England up to the
beginning of this century. In 1822 three men were still to be seen
hanging in front of Dover Castle. But, for that matter, the preserving
process was employed not only with smugglers. England turned robbers,
incendiaries, and murderers to the same account. Jack Painter, who set
fire to the government storehouses at Portsmouth, was hanged and tarred
in 1776. L'Abbe Coyer, who describes him as Jean le Peintre, saw him
again in 1777. Jack Painter was hanging above the ruin he had made, and
was re-tarred from time to time. His corpse lasted--I had almost said
lived--nearly fourteen years. It was still doing good service in 1788;
in 1790, however, they were obliged to replace it by another. The
Egyptians used to value the mummy of the king; a plebeian mummy can
also, it appears, be of service.

The wind, having great power on the hill, had swept it of all its snow.
Herbage reappeared on it, interspersed here and there with a few
thistles; the hill was covered by that close short grass which grows by
the sea, and causes the tops of cliffs to resemble green cloth. Under
the gibbet, on the very spot over which hung the feet of the executed
criminal, was a long and thick tuft, uncommon on such poor soil.
Corpses, crumbling there for centuries past, accounted