Sir John having reached the vessel, he called to the seamen for help, but they having learned their captain's commands from their fellows, did not offer to render the slightest aid, and the wretched gentleman was immediately conveyed to the purser's cabin. White and Mahony were selected by their captain as the performers in the dreadful scene which was now to be enacted. While Goodere stood at the entrance of the cabin guarding it with a drawn sword, his two assistants entered it, and approached their victim. He cried aloud for mercy, offering all he possessed as a return, if they would spare his life; but, regardless of his prayers, they deliberately proceeded to the completion of their sanguinary intentions. Seizing him by the shoulders, they threw him on the deck, and there, with a handkerchief which they took from his pocket, they attempted to strangle him. Finding that their efforts were unavailing, they procured a cord from their guilty commander, with which they speedily despatched him; White kneeling on his breast and holding his hands, while Mahony fixed the cord round his throat, and tightened it until strangulation had taken place. They then accompanied their captain to his cabin, who gave them the sum agreed upon for their services, and bid them seek their safety in flight. The murder was soon made known on shore, through the instrumentality of the crew of the vessel; and the circumstance having come to the knowledge of Mr. Smith, the attorney, he procured a warrant to be issued, upon which the officers of the city proceeded on board the ship. They found that the captain had there been already put under arrest by the lieutenant and sailing-master, and he was immediately conveyed in custody to the prison of the town. It was not long before Mahony and White were also secured; and the prisoners being brought to trial at Bristol, on the 26th March, 1741, they were convicted on the clearest evidence, and sentenced to death. Captain Goodere's time, after conviction, was spent chiefly in writing letters to persons of rank, to make interest to save his life; and his wife and daughter presented a petition to the king: but all endeavours of this kind proving ineffectual, he employed a man to hire some colliers to rescue him on his way to the fatal tree. His efforts in this respect, however, were as unavailing as those which he had made to procure a mitigation of his punishment; for the circumstance having been made known to the sheriff, he took such steps as were deemed expedient and necessary to prevent the success of the project. The wretched companions in guilt of the captain exhibited the greatest hardihood; and when the jailers were employed in putting on their irons, they declared that they had no fear of death.