Page:Correct account of the life, confession, and execution of Willm. Burke (1).pdf/6

6 not afford any opportunities to those in attendance on him to inquire any information nor did he seem inclined to be communicative. He exclaimed at one time, "O that the hour was come, which is to separate me from the world. He ascribed the commencement of his enormities to a h vesting, which, it is presumed, was meant the formation of his intimacy with McDougal. On being asked on the subject of Daft Jamie’s murder, he said that Hare’s wife decoed him into Hare’s house, and that Hare and his wife murdered him. During the night he slept soundly for several hours. In the afternoon, measures were begun to rail off portion of the street for the erection of the scaffold, & erowd attended the place all the time of its erection; and about midnight, and in the midst of a heavy rain, the crowd gave three cheers, when the cross beam to which the rope is affixed was placed in its position. By half-past six the whole of the Lawn Market and High Street, as far as a view could be obtained, were crowded, as well as the windows and top of the adjoining houses; and the number was generally estimated at about 35,000. At about half-past seven o’clock the crowd began to exhibit symptoms of impatience, and gave a series of loud and long continued shouts, which they repeated at intervals till Burke was brought out. About 1 o’clock this morning he complained to Mr. Christie, the keeper of the lock-up, of the weight of his fetters, and requested that they might be taken off. This was instantly granted, and on holding up his leg to let them off, he exclaimed, “So may all my earthly fetters fall.” He was attended afterwards in his cell by his instructors, and at 7 he was ushered into the keeper's room, where the magistrates and others were in waiting. To this room no reporters save one belonging to an Edinburgh paper was admitted; the Magistrates having positively refused their permission.

Messrs. Reid and Stewart, the priests, administered such consolations as his religion afforded, and afterwards Burke thanked them and the Governor of the Jail for their kindness to him, and particularly thanked Mr. Christie, the keeper of the lock-up, for his attentions. He was them pinioned by the executioner, and shortly after he was about to retire to another apartment, but he was stopped by the executioner