Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/193

Rh again examined many times by the Privy Council, especially in regard to his notorious opinions on equivocation, with the view probably towards discrediting him in the eyes of his co-religionists. The continued postponements of the execution, together with the intercession in his favour by the Spanish Ambassador, induced Garnet to think that his life would be spared, and he seemed to have cherished this hope until within a few minutes of his death; but the only grace granted to him was that he should be allowed to hang until dead, i.e. that his body should not be taken down and submitted to the executioner's knife until life was extinct. By this concession he escaped the butchery undergone by his friends, Winter, Digby, Keyes, and Grant.

III.

'On the 3rd of May,' says the official account, 'Garnet, according to his judgment, was executed upon a scaffold, set up for that purpose at the West-end of St. Paul's Church. At his arise up the scaffold, he stood much amazed, fear and guiltiness appearing in his face. The Deans of St. Paul's and Winchester being present, very gravely and christianly exhorted him to a true and lively faith to God-ward, a free and plain acknowledgment to the world of his offence; and if any further treason lay in his knowledge, to unburden his conscience, and show a sorrow and detestation of