The
captain ordered them all to come aft on the top and quarter-deck. The
most profound silence reigned, and there was not an eye but had a tear
in it.
William Strange, the man who had sent for me, then said, in a clear
and audible tone of voice:--"Brother sailors, attend to the last words
of a dying man. We are brought here at the instigation of some of you
who are now standing in safety among the crowd: you have made fools of
us, and we are become the victims to the just vengeance of the laws.
Had you succeeded in the infamous design you contemplated, what would
have been the consequences? Ruin, eternal ruin, to yourselves and to
your families; a disgrace to your country, and the scorn of those
foreigners to whom you proposed delivering up the ship. Thank God you
did not succeed. Let our fate be a warning to you, and endeavour to
show by your future acts your deep contrition for the past. Now, sir,"
turning to the captain, "we are ready."
This beautiful speech from the mouth of a common sailor must as much
astonish the reader as it then did the captain and officers of the
ship. But Strange, as I have shown, was no common man; he had had
the advantage of education, and, like many of the ringleaders at the
mutiny of the Nore, was led into the error of refusing to _obey_, from
the conscious feeling that he was born to _command_.
The arms of the prisoners were then pinioned, and the chaplain led the
way, reading the funeral service; the master-at-arms, with two
marine sentinels, conducted them along the starboard gangway to the
forecastle; here a stage was erected on either side, over the
cathead, with steps to ascend to it; a tail block was attached to the
boom-iron, at the outer extremity of each foreyard-arm, and through
this a rope was rove, one end of which came down to the stage; the
other was led along the yard into the catharpings, and thence down
upon the main-deck.
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