Politics & government > Life of Sir Walter Raleigh

IN THE TOWER TO HIS EXECUTION.
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The three first were ordered to he executed on Friday;
Raleigh on Monday ; and, judging from the description
of this tragi-comedy in a letter of Sir Dudley Carleton,
who was a spectator, the scene must have been extra¬
ordinary. Markham came first on the scaffold, and after
a few complaints of his hard fate, bade farewell to his
friends, betook himself to his devotions, and was about
to lay his neck upon the block, when a bustle was seen
in the crowd, and John Gib, a Scotch groom of the bed¬
chamber, pressing forward, called out to stay the execution
by the king’s command. The prisoner was accordingly
withdrawn, and locked up in an adjoining hall. “ The
Lord Grey,” says the same writer, “ whose turn was
next, was led to the scaffold by a troop of the young
courtiers, and was supported on both sides by two of his
best friends; and, coming in such equipage, had such
gayety and cheer in his countenance, that he seemed a
dapper young bridegroom.” Having confessed his fault,
and asked pardon of the king, he knelt down and prayed
with much fervency; after which he was about to
From thence to Heaven’s bribeless hall,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,—
No conscience molten into gold ;
No forged accuser bought or sold ;
No cause deferr’d, no vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king’s attorney ;
Who pleads for all without degrees,—
And He hath angels—but no fees.
And when the grand twelve-million jury
Of our sins, with direful fury,
’Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his death ; and then we live.
Be Thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder !
Thou givest salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer’s palms.
Then this is mine eternal plea,
To him that made heaven, earth, and sea ;
Seeing my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine next noon.
Just at the stroke of death, my arms being spread,
Set on my soul an everlasting head,
So shall I ready, like a palmer fitf
Tread those blessed paths shown in thy Holy Writ.”