[Footnote 529: In 1654, for rape, a man, besides being whipped in Boston and again in Watertown, is sentenced during the court's pleasure to wear a rope around his neck, the end of it "hanging downe two feete long." If found at any time without the rope "aboue forty rodd from his house," he is to be whipped: _Mass. Col. Rec._, IV, Part I, 212. There is a similar case in 1642: DAVIS, _The Law of Adultery_, 30. That such sentences were executed is shown in a realistic way by a petition of 1670 preserved in the Suffolk Files. William Stacey, suffering for some offense not mentioned, prays "that the rope which he is forced to wear around his neck may be taken off. In answer the Secretary is required to send a copy of the Court's sentence to the Constable of Charlestoun that he may see that the sentence requiring the rope to be worn outside the clothes is carried out."--_MSS. Early Court Files of Suffolk_, No. 988. On May 6, 1646, "Elizabeth Fairefeild" petitioned the court of assistants that her husband might be discharged "from y^t pte of y^e censure inflicted on him for his notorious evills, of wearing y^e rope about his necke." He was, however, compelled to wear the rope six years more; for it was not until 1652 that his faithful wife's prayer was granted: _Mass. Col. Rec._, III, 67, 161, 273.] The statute of Massachusetts prescribing the death penalty for adultery did not survive the fall of the charter. So in 1794 the scarlet letter was substituted.[530] The act published on June 20 of that year, and remaining in force until after the close of the provincial era, varies in several important details, though not essentially, from the laws of Plymouth and Connecticut already presented. The offenders "shall be set upon the gallows by the space of an hour, with a rope about their neck, and the other end cast over the gallows; and in the way from thence to the common goal shall be severely whip'd, not exceeding forty stripes each." Also the offenders "shall forever wear a capital A, of two inches long and proportionate bigness, cut out in cloth of a contrary color to their cloaths, and sewed upon their upper garments, on the outside of the arm, or on their back, in open view." If "found without their letters so worn, during their abode in this province, they shall, by warrant from a justice of peace, be forthwith apprehended and ordered to be publicly whip'd, not exceeding fifteen stripes, and so from time to time, _toties quoties_."[531]