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White ascended the platform with an unsteady and tremulous step.
Slark, the Sheriff’s attendant, with a black wand, accompanied him, and
said something to the executioner, who called his assistant, and they
immediately conducted White to the west end of the platform, and while
one adjusted a rope through the chain attached to the beam, the other
held his hands and arms. White trembled, and his agitation seemed to
increase; he raised his arms, and extended his chest, as if desirous
of bursting the cords, and by the effort loosened his wrists. The
cap was drawn over his eyes, but the restlessness of the unhappy man
seemed to increase; and, just as the woman was ascending the steps, he
bent his head down, and pushed off the cap, accompanying this action
by a violent movement of the body, as if to break or get his head out
of the fatal noose. The action was made with so much strength and
violence, and his struggling appearing to increase, that a dreadful
yell, and cries of the utmost horror burst from the crowd. The two
assistant executioners were called to ascend the platform, and they
held the unhappy man while a handkerchief was tied over his eyes. They
endeavoured to draw a cap over his face, but he struggled hard with the
executioner, and repeatedly forced it off. The executioner seized the
unhappy man with some violence, to induce him to desist from proceeding
to loosen his hands, and the crowd renewed their former cries and
yellings.
Amelia Roberts was then brought upon the scaffold, and a cord having
been tied round her lower garments, the rope was adjusted round her
neck. White again got the handkerchief off, and turning to the woman
and crowd alternately, by his gestures, appeared as if desirous of
exciting universal sympathy. The arrangements of the executioner being
complete, he removed the woman to a position immediately under the
fatal beam, and then placed White by her side; but the unhappy man
gradually moved forward, until he gradually got his toes upon the
ledge, where Mr Cotton and Mr. Baker were reading the Burial Service.
The handkerchief was again placed over his eyes, but it was evident,
from the fineness of its texture, and what occurred soon afterwards,
that he must have seen through it. At the moment Mr Cotton drew a white
handkerchief from under his surplice, he leaped upon the platform, and
by sinking his head was able to grasp that part of the cord which was
affixed round his neck under his chin. It appeared to be a desperate
effort to prolong that life which he so fondly clung to. At this
moment the spectacle was most horrifying--he was partly suspended, and
partly standing on the platform. During the violence of his exertions,
his tongue was forced out of his mouth, and the convulsions of his
body and contortions of his face were truly appalling. The cries of
displeasure from the crowd were again renewed, and they continued till
the executioner had forced the wretched man’s hands from the cord, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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