Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/120

 104 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63 order Yorkshire peasants to be hung in batches with undisturbed composure ; she could read without dis- tress of the wholesale slaughter of Irish mothers and their babes ; but each death-warrant which she signed for a- person that she had herself been acquainted with cost her poignant anguish. At length, on the 1st of December, Cain- December. . . . pian, wearing the gown which he had worn at his trial, was brought with Sherwin and Bryant out of the Tower. They had suffered their last miseries there, and Little-ease, and the scavenger's daughter, and the thumbscrew, and the rack, and the black cells, and the foul water, were parted with for ever. Peace at any rate, and, after one more pang, a painless rest lay now before them. The torture chamber brought one blessing with it Death had ceased to be ter- rible. The morning was cold and wild. They were lashed on hurdles, their hollow faces transparent with the beauty of highly-wrought enthusiasm. As they were dragged along the road they were spattered with showers of mud from the horses' hoofs. Notwithstand- ing the weather the streets were thronged, and familiar as these dreadful scenes had become, the crowd was un- usually excited. At Tyburn, round the gallows, more than three thousand gentlemen were assembled on horse- back, and every spot of vantage ground was covered with knots of citizens. Sir Francis Knowles, Lord Charles Howard, and Sir Henry Lee, attended officially with pardons ready if the prisoners would but consent