Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/311

Rh made for them, and cried about in their own hearing, as they are carried to execution; and truly they are such speeches, that although our fraternity be an ignorant, illiterate people, they would make a man ashamed to have such nonsense and false English charged upon him, even when he is going to the gallows. They contain a pretended account of our birth and family, of the fact for which we are to die, of our sincere repentance, and a declaration of our religion. I cannot expect to avoid the same treatment with my predecessors.

However, having had an education one or two degrees better than those of my rank and profession; I have been considering, ever since my commitment, what it might be proper for me to deliver upon this occasion.

And first, I cannot say from the bottom of my heart, that I am truly sorry for the offence I have given to God and the world; but I am very much so for the bad success of my villanies, in bringing me to this untimely end; for it is plainly evident that after having some time ago obtained a pardon from the crown, I again took up my old trade; my evil habits were so rooted in me, and I was grown so unfit for any other kind of employment. And therefore, although, in compliance with my friends, I resolved to go to the gallows after the usual manner, kneeling, with a book in my hand and my eyes lifted up; yet I shall feel no more devotion in my heart, than I have observed in my comrades, who have been drunk among common whores the very night before their execution. I can say farther; from my own knowledge, that two of my fraternity, after they had been hanged; and wonderfully came to life and made their escapes,