Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 268: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

co ° Cmememreest been customary for the procession to balt for a few minutes for refreshment. A bowl of punch, provided by the landlord, was bronght out, which was held to the lips of the condemned men, some of whom barely tasted it, while others would driuk. a large quantity. This custom was not departed from in the present in- atauce. All came to a halt. ; sit this place the pressure was awful, for pcople wno wished to have a goed view of the prisoners, had taken ap their stations there hours before. The police-cflicers, however, cleared a space, aszd ranged themselves round it in a circle. The bowl of hot steaming punch was brought out. The landlord of the public-house carried it. He held it aloft. The people gave a loud cheer. Blewitt was nearest, so he kad the punch presented to him first. He drank Fith avidity, and was repeatedly cheered Ly the populace for so doing. Then it was handed to Flood, who made an attempt to swallow a mouthful, but failed. The peor wretch was completely overcome by the im- mediate prospect of that death which he had so often scen inflicted npon others. The people hissed. Lhis seemed to revive him a little, and he lcoked round with lack-lustre eyes. Then he made another effort to drink. But with no better success. Finding this to be the case, and stimulated by the quan- tity of the hot beverage of which he had previously par- taken, Blewitt uttered an awful oath, and asked for the remnant. Then, amidst vociferous cheering, he swallowed the whole—drained the bow] to the dregs. The landlord, admiring his pluck, held up the empty vessel with the bottom uppermost, upen which he tapped with his fingers, to signify that it was empty. There was another cheer, and then the order was given for the procession to resume its march. Up the narrow crooked High-street they went, tlien the refuge of the lowest of the low, aud the haunt of the most vicious persons in all England, and round the corner into Oxford-road they went. No shops and houses then lined the spacious street. It was a country high-road, with gardens and meadows cn either side. Keeping steadily along this, and going at a better speed, they at length approached their destination. ong before the gallows itself was in sight, they could tell by the shoals of people which they met. All round the ill-omened spot, a crowd denser thau any eng which they had forced a passage, had congre- gated. Through this they would never have got, had not a body of officers, mounted on horseback, kept a kind of lane for them to pass through. Seated as they were, the wretched prisoners could not eee In advance without turning their heads. The gallows came in sight. That strangely formed instrument of execution, the like of which has been seen by few now living, with its three triangularly placed upright pieces of timber and transverse €ams. _But though they did not look, they could tell it was in view. The hearse cries of the peopie told them that. Besides, the different objects on the road were fumiliar to them, and they knew the spot from which the first view of the gallows could be obtained. At length the precession passed through the tio ranks of police-officers of which we have speken. hey had occupied that position since daybreak. As the procession passed through, they turned 1. and formed part of it. Jonathan still rode by the side of the cart. He had not once moved from that position after taking it. There was a clear spaceallround the scaffold. It was kept by a body of halberdiers, who steod two Clete DTS ORES SS Ta Re ORL SIE OST. QO OR OK BLUESKIN: A ROMANCE, deep, and formed as firm a barrier to the crowd as a wall would have done. This open space was reached. The chaplain grew more earnest in his exhortations. Blewitt, however, maddened by the fiery drink lie had awallowed, broke out into a song, the burden of which was taken up by the mob. Ite had resolved to die game. But Flood, who all his life had been so blustezing a bully, was quite weighed down. He seemed already like one dead—very certain is it that he was quite unconscious of what was taking place around him. The cart was driven beneath the fatal beam. The horse, who had been well trained to his work, stopped of his own accord. he executioner stood up, and was received with that awful howling ery with which the dread functionary of the law is always greeted. Unmoved, however, by this demonstration of popular dislike, the hangman drew deliberately from his pocket two small white bundles. He unrolled them one after the other, and then it could be seen what they were. ‘They were the white caps which are drawn over the faces of the condemned, in order to hide the convulsions produced by strangulation. Flood and Blewitt were already pinioned. They were forced to stand up in the cart. Tho white caps were drawn down over their faces. An officer supported Floed, or he would have fallen. At this awful moment, when he stood upon the threshold of another world, and when the horror of his position would, one would have thought, been most deeply felt, Blewitt moved his feet about, and endeavoured to dance in the bottom of the cart. ws CHAPTER CUXXXYV. RELATES WHAT TOOK PLACE AFTER THE EXECUTION OF WILD’S TWO JANIZARIES Tz was a horrible and disgusting spectacle. =. The chaplain turned away his head. But the mob, when they perceived what was taking plece, applauded him. The sounds reached the ears of the deluded rvfBan, and be continued his cance with greater energy. {ft was the hangman who put a pericd to tha per- formance. He shook Blewitt roughly, and then his assistant slipped rope round his ankles, and forming it into a running noose, drew it tight. He was then securely pinioned and quite helpless. The expression of lis face could not be seen, and so na tongue can tell what the odd-shaped cap covered. The ropes had been fixed to the fatal beam in readiness. Long practice had imparted dexterity to the hangman’s movements, and he, with great rapidity, seized one of them, and hastily tied the noose under his neck. The same operation was performed upon Flood, who had pot recovered from his state of stupor and then the preparations were complete. Like some grim apirit of evil Jonathan Wild stood beside the cart. He had eyes for nothing save the two men. The immense crowd ct people, the authorities, all and every one in fact, were nnheeded by him. Not a single movement that they made escaped his watchful gaze. When all was ready, and the chaplain had left the cart, the hangman and his assistants descended. The latter walked to the horse’s head, for the reader must understand that the men about to be hanged were not standing upon a platform of any kind, but in thie bottom of the cart. The assistaut then took a thick-thonged whin from the place where he had stuck it between the shafts. He struck the horse a sharp blow with it, and then drew him forward. The cumbrous wheels belonging to the venicle revolved. The dcomed men felt all that interposed between them and death shpping from beneath their feet, and they powerless to prevent it, though several convulsive move- ee ee i ened aOR, a ES ER YOR pap i J reel SE Ee ee, SEES FEIN ED CPF yr 5. PATER WR > AT SORE OER Che Uae A ESS =a ee "eameneenenety os ~~ —- wore GOnlGaoOokSreo >