attention, and to each of which he answered, “Amen!” Then, addressing the executioner, he gave him six guineas, earnestly begging him to do his work quickly, and not to serve him like Lord Russell, whom he had struck three or four times. After having assured himself that the axe was sufficiently sharp, he refused to have his eyes bandaged, and placed his head upon the block. The bishops continue their prayers. The tears of the crowd flow fast. The executioner, probably troubled by the fears which Monmouth had expressed, strikes the first blow unskilfully. The victim lifts up his head; then, without uttering a word, replaces it on the block. Three more blows are struck by the unsure hand of this man, whom the yells and imprecations of the crowd cause to tremble. At length, at the fifth blow, the head is separated from the body, and the spectators rush upon the scaffold, some, in a state of fury, wishing to punish the awkward executioner, others, with pious haste, desirous of dipping their handkerchiefs in the blood of one whom they considered a martyr.[172] FOOTNOTES: [157] _Amours de Charles II. et de Jacques II., Rois d’Angleterre._ First part, pp. 74, 75. [158] _Réponse de M. de Saint-Foix au R.P. Griffet_, Paris. Ventes, Libraire à la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, 1770, p. 94. [159] _Ibid._, p. 95 _et seq._ [160] _Réponse de M. de Saint-Foix au R. P. Griffet_, p. 96. [161] Born, June 21, 1688, of James II. and Marie d’Este; recognized as King by Louis XIV., November, 16 1701, on the death of James II. [162] _Réponse de Saint-Foix au P. Griffet_, p. 118 _et seq._ [163] On the death of James II. This ill-timed boldness was one of Louis XIV.’s gravest errors, and stirred up the English nation against him. See our work _L’Europe et les Bourbons sous Louis XIV._, chap. viii. p. 190. [164] See Chap. iv. (p. 51 _ante_) of the present work, in which this accusation of criminal fraud brought by William of Orange against his father-in-law, James II., has already been considered. [165] According to Saint-Foix, the bishops chosen were not acquainted with Monmouth’s appearance, and the _pretended_ officer only uttered a few words, while the look given by the victim after the third blow of the axe was intended as a reproach to those who had promised that he should die without pain. But these observations are more ingenious than well-founded. Monmouth was accompanied to the scaffold by the bishops who had visited him in prison, and we shall shortly see that he said a good deal, that the execution took place at ten o’clock in the morning, and that far from complaining even by a look of the executioner’s unskilfulness, Monmouth bore his horrible punishment with great resignation. [166] _Observator_, August 1, 1685; _Gazette de France_, November 2, 1686; Letter of Humphrey Wanley, August 25, 1698, in the Aubrey collection, given by Macaulay in his _History of England_.