my prayer–give commandment that I be hanged!”
Tom was amazed. This was not the outcome he had looked for.
“Odds my life, a strange BOON! Was it not the fate intended
thee?”
“O good my liege, not so! It is ordered that I be BOILED ALIVE!”
The hideous surprise of these words almost made Tom spring from
his chair. As soon as he could recover his wits he cried out–
“Have thy wish, poor soul! an’ thou had poisoned a hundred men
thou shouldst not suffer so miserable a death.”
The prisoner bowed his face to the ground and burst into
passionate expressions of gratitude–ending with–
“If ever thou shouldst know misfortune–which God forefend!–may
thy goodness to me this day be remembered and requited!”
Tom turned to the Earl of Hertford, and said–
“My lord, is it believable that there was warrant for this man’s
ferocious doom?”
“It is the law, your Grace–for poisoners. In Germany coiners be
boiled to death in OIL–not cast in of a sudden, but by a rope let
down into the oil by degrees, and slowly; first the feet, then the
legs, then–”
“O prithee no more, my lord, I cannot bear it!” cried Tom,
covering his eyes with his hands to shut out the picture. “I
beseech your good lordship that order be taken to change this law-
-oh, let no more poor creatures be visited with its tortures.”
The Earl’s face showed profound gratification, for he was a man of
merciful and generous impulses–a thing not very common with his
class in that fierce age. He said–
“These your Grace’s noble words have sealed its doom. History
will remember it to the honour of your royal house.”
The under-sheriff was about to remove his prisoner; Tom gave him a
sign to wait; then he said–
“Good sir, I would look into this matter further. The man has
said his deed was but lamely proved. Tell me what thou knowest.”
“If the King’s grace please, it did appear upon the trial that
this man entered into a house in the hamlet of Islington where one
lay sick–three witnesses say it was at ten of the clock in the
morning, and two say it was some minutes later–the sick man being
alone at the time, and sleeping–and presently the man came forth
again and went his way. The sick man died within the hour, being
torn with spasms and retchings.”
“Did any see the poison given? Was poison found?”
“Marry, no, my liege.”
“Then how doth one know there was poison given at all?”
“Please your Majesty, the doctors testified that none die with
such symptoms but by poison.”
Weighty evidence, this, in that simple age. Tom recognised its
formidable nature, and said–
“The doctor knoweth his trade–belike they were right. The matter
hath an ill-look for this poor man.”
“Yet was not this all, your Majesty; there is more and worse.
Many testified that a witch, since gone from the village, none
know whither, did foretell, and speak it privately in their ears,
that the sick man WOULD DIE BY POISON–and more, that a stranger
would give it–a stranger with brown hair and clothed in a worn
and common garb; and surely this prisoner doth answer woundily to
the bill. Please your Majesty to give the circumstance that
solemn weight which is its due, seeing it was FORETOLD.”
This was an argument of tremendous force in that superstitious
day. Tom felt that the thing was settled; if evidence was worth
anything, this poor fellow’s guilt was proved. Still he offered
the prisoner a chance, saying–
“If thou canst say aught in thy behalf, speak.”
“Nought that will avail, my King. I am innocent, yet cannot I
make it appear. I have no friends, else might I show that I was
not in Islington that day; so also might I show that at that hour
they name I was above a league away, seeing I was at Wapping Old
Stairs; yea more, my King, for I could show, that whilst they say
I was TAKING life, I was SAVING it. A drowning boy–”
“Peace! Sheriff, name the day the deed was done!”
“At ten in the morning, or some minutes later, the first day of