My Lord,
As none of my relations can stand being present at my dissolution,
I humbly request that your Lordship will permit ---- to attend, it
will be some consolation in my last hour; and that your Lordship
will please give orders that my body after be delivered to ---- and
by no means to remain in goal; that he and my friends may have it
decently dressed and interred. This is the last favour and request
of
Your most obedient,
but most unfortunate,
WILL. BRODIE.
About eleven o’clock the chains which had been on Mr. Brodie’s legs
since his condemnation were taken off. He was then visited by a few
select friends, with whom he conversed with the greatest composure.
About one o’clock he ate a beef-steak and drank some port wine, and
during this last repast he made some ludicrous remarks to Smith.
At two o’clock the guard marched up and surrounded the place of
execution, at the west end of the Luckenbooths, and soon after the
captain on duty informed the magistrates, in the Council Chamber, that
all was ready. The magistrates then put on their robes of office; with
white gloves and white staves, and followed by the clergymen in black
gowns and bands, proceeded from the Council Chamber to the prison,
attended by the proper officers.
At two o’clock a message came from the magistrates that they were in
waiting, upon which Mr. Brodie said he was ready. He accordingly went
downstairs, insisting that Smith should go first. Upon passing the room
that Bruce and Falconer were in he took his farewell of them through the
grate of the door, observing that, as His Majesty had given them a
respite of six weeks, he did not doubt but he would at last grant them a
pardon. When he entered the west stair a glass of cinnamon water was
given him by some of his friends, with whom he still conversed most
familiarly.
The magistrates reached the scaffold about ten minutes after two. The
two senior magistrates only attended, as the other two gentlemen in the
magistracy happened to have been on the jury of the unfortunate
criminals; and in this singular case it was certainly a very becoming
delicacy to excuse their attendance.
About a quarter past two the criminals appeared on the platform. When
Mr. Brodie came on his scaffold he bowed politely to the magistrates and
the people.
Brodie, at the first view of the immense multitude of spectators and the
dreadful apparatus, said, “This is awful!” On passing a gentleman he
asked how he did, and said he was glad to see him. The gentleman
answered he was sorry to see Mr. Brodie in that situation. Brodie
replied, “It is _fortune de la guerre_.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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