The heavy oaken door swung on its rusty iron hinges with many a squeak. I stood up, half dazzled by the sudden inrush of light. This time it was the Sheriff and his constables to greet me, together with a half score of guards to block the way. Ere I could make a move, had I desired to, I was overwhelmed by the men who crowded about me, while two of them quickly passed a rope around my chest, binding my arms fast to my sides. As I stood thus, the Sheriff drew from his jacket a document with its dangling seal. Was I never to have an end of parchment, I thought.

“Whereas, you, Captain Edward Amherst”--he began.

“Enough,” I interrupted. “It suffices that I must die. Let it be, if it must, I pray, without having to listen to more words. I’m not afraid, though it is a mean end for one who has served his King and his country ever faithfully. If I could but stand before you--aye, before you all--with my good sword in hand, I would have a different answer for you. Nor would I deem the odds too 162great. Such a death, borne down by weight of numbers, might be counted an honor by a soldier. But a dangling rope, in the hands of country bumpkins----”

“Ha, a rope,” repeated the Sheriff. “You have not heard, then?”

“What!” I cried. “Has the Judge allowed me to be shot?”

“Nay; not that, Master Captain,” answered the Sheriff. “You will see in good time, though. Meanwhile the law must take its course, and I am constrained, by it, to read this death warrant.”

“Have I not had enough of warrants of late?” I asked, but he paid no heed to me, and proceeded to read the dull legal terms.

Meanwhile many thoughts filled my mind. If I was not to be hanged, perhaps the awful torture of being burned at the stake awaited me. If so, I must make new plans, and act quickly.

All the while the Sheriff was reading from the parchment. He stumbled over the law terms, and the Latin vexed him sorely. Then he came to the decree that I must die “peine forte et dure,” and, as I had small stock of Latin, I wondered what I was to meet with.

At length there was an end to the reading. The guards advanced. I saw, among them, several who had served under me, yet never a one gave me a glance that was not tempered with fear or distrust. Some of them began to 163pull the rope tight about my arms, and this act quickened me to take some steps for escape.

So I pretended that the cords cut into my flesh, and my sudden start, as if in pain, caused them to cease their efforts, leaving me a little room to move my muscles, which was what I wanted. When I had the chance I strained at the ropes, and I felt them stretch a trifle. I knew then, that the matter of bursting my bonds was a thing somewhat within my power.

But that was the smallest part of the problem. I was a long way from freedom yet.

On that morning it seemed as if the sun had never shone so brightly, nor had the sky been so blue, nor the birds so sweetly tuneful. I do not know why I noticed such things, for it was not usual to me. Perhaps the shadow of death made the brightness of life seem greater.

They started off at a brisk pace, with me in the centre of the throng, and one man holding the ropes that passed about my arms. As we reached the foot of Witch Hill I looked up the slope, expecting to see the grim gallows crowning the summit. Then I recalled the Sheriff’s words that none was to be provided. A murmur swelled upward from the crowd, and the people pushed this way and that, trying to get a view of me, as I have seen country boys do at a London fair.

We came, at last, to the place set for the execution. The crowd parted, and moved back, at the orders of the 164Sheriff, forming a living circle. Then, for the first time, I saw the machine of death.

For a time I could not fathom its nature. It was of wood, the uprights and cross pieces being of heavy oaken beams. There were four posts, or uprights, and, on these appeared to slide, like the wooden covering on the hay ricks in the fields, a flat bed of hewn boards, as large, perhaps, as the top of the table at the inn. Out of this bed extended a long pole, threaded round and round with a screw thread. This screw passed through one of the cross pieces above. A long handle, extending either way through the spiral post, out beyond the machine, completed the instrument.

Like a flash in the pan, the truth came upon me.

I was to be crushed to death!

Tied up like a bundle of faggots, and placed on the bed-plate, the boards above me, urged down by the screw turned by the long handle, would force out my life, as is the breath from a newly fledged bird, in the hand of a school boy. No wonder the Sheriff held his peace, when I asked if I was not to hang. A more horrible death could scarce be devised, for the torture of the Indians hardly passed it. Yet an Englishman planned it; an Englishman was to suffer by it. Well had Sir George said I would pay for the blow I gave him.

Oh! But I longed for a few minutes, with a sword in my hand, to spend with my lord.

165It was time for the next move, now that I, the chief personage in what was about to happen, had arrived. The tumult, of which there had been much, had grown less. Partly because the Sheriff had moved most of the crowd back, and partly because all desired to see and hear what would come next.

My mind had become dazed. Where now was my plan of escape? Before I knew what was going on, two stout men advanced, and, by walking in a circle, they turned the cross bar, which worked the screw, and so raised the movable bed-plate. This made a space, so that my body could be put in the press. The great affair creaked and groaned, as if in mortal agony, and I could not help shuddering, as I thought of what little chance I would have beneath the oak beams.

Then I started. It was but a faint hope that came to me, yet it was a chance to escape death. It was a desperate move, but then I was in dire straits.

At a signal from the Sheriff, half a dozen men sprang forward and seized me. They lifted me clear from the ground, and carried me like a child to the machine. Then they stretched out my legs, and thrust them beneath the bed-plate. Under went my body next, verily, as if I had been but a bag of apples in the cider press.

I was pushed along over the rough planks, and then something happened. The Sheriff, to better see that all was carried out according to his wishes, had come close 166to me. He even placed his hand on my shoulder, to help thrust me in.

As he did so my boot top caught his sword hilt, half drawing the steel from the scabbard, as my body went forward. The keen edge of the weapon was uppermost, and, as I was pulled and hauled to the centre of the bed, the rope which bound my arms was drawn over the sword’s sharp blade. The steel bit deep into the hemp, but not all the way through by a good way. However, as I felt the rope being cut, I knew that, by using only my ordinary strength, I could burst my bonds. I swelled my muscles only a little, and with that I felt the cords give a trifle.

All was now in readiness. I might, then, have burst............