fell, I heard Mr. Whitbread begin; and the first
sentence was clear enough, though his voice sounded thin at that
distance.

"I suppose," he said, "it is expected I should speak something to the
matter I am condemned for, and brought hither to suffer."

Then he went on to say how he was wholly guiltless of any plot against
His Majesty, and that in saying so he renounced and repudiated any
pretended pardons or dispensations that were thought to have been given
him to swear falsely. He prayed God to bless His Majesty, and denied
that it was any part of Catholic teaching that a king might be killed as
it was said had been designed by the alleged plot; and he ended by
recommending his soul into the hands of his blessed Redeemer by whose
only merits and passion he hoped for salvation. He spoke very clearly,
with a kind of coldness.

Father Harcourt's voice was not so clear, as he was an old man; but I
heard Mr. Sheriff How presently interrupt him. (He was upon horseback
close beside the gallows.)

"Or of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's death?" he asked.

"Did you not write that letter concerning the dispatch of Sir Edmund
Berry Godfrey?"

"No, sir," cried the old man very loud. "These are the words of a dying
man. I would not do it for a thousand worlds."

He went on to affirm his innocence of all laid to his charge; and he
ended by begging the prayers of all in the communion of the Roman Church
in which he himself died.

When Mr. Anthony Turner had spoke a while, again Sheriff How interrupted
him.

"You do only justify yourselves here," he said. "We will not believe a
word that you say. Spend your time in prayer, and we will not think your
time too long."

But Mr. Turner went on as before, affirming his entire innocence; and,
at the end he prayed aloud, and I heard every word of it.

"O my dear Saviour and Redeemer," he cried, lifting up his eyes, and his
hands too as well as he could for the cords, "I return Thee immortal
thanks for all Thou hast pleased to do for me in the whole course of my
life, and now in the hour of my death, with a firm belief of all things
Thou hast revealed, and a stedfast hope of obtaining everlasting bliss.
I cheerfully cast myself into the arms of Thy mercy, whose arms were
stretched on the Cross for my redemption. Sweet Jesus, receive my
spirit."

Then Mr. Gavan spoke to the same effect as the rest, but he argued a
little more, and theologically too, being a young man; and spoke of