I pulled up my boat with the others belonging to the ships
of the fleet, in obedience to the orders of the officer superintending,
close to the fore-chains of the ship. In about half-an-hour afterwards,
the prisoners made their appearance on the scaffold, the caps were
pulled over their eyes, and the gun fired underneath them. When the
smoke rolled away, the Englishman was swinging at the yard-arm, but the
Frenchman was not; he had made a spring when the gun fired, hoping to
break his neck at once, and put an end to his misery; but he fell on the
edge of the scaffold, where he lay. We thought that his rope had given
way, and it appeared that he did the same, for he made an enquiry, but
they returned him no answer. He was kept on the scaffold during the
whole hour that the Englishman remained suspended; his cap had been
removed, and he looked occasionally at his fellow-sufferer. When the
body was lowered down, he considered that his time was come, and
attempted to leap overboard. He was restrained and led aft, where his
reprieve was read to him and his arms were unbound. But the effect of
the shock was too much for his mind; he fell down in a swoon, and when
he recovered, his senses had left him, and I heard that he never
recovered them, but was sent home to be confined as a maniac. I thought,
and the result proved, that it was carried too far. It is not the
custom, when a man is reprieved, to tell him so, until after he is on
the scaffold, with the intention that his awful situation at the time
may make a lasting impression upon him during the remainder of his life;
but, as a foreigner, he was not aware of our customs, and the hour of
intense feeling which he underwent was too much for his reason.
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