There was no hope.

It is not the least evil attendant upon the frequent exhibition of this last dread punishment, of Death, that it hardens the minds of those who deal it out, and makes them, though they be amiable men in other respects, indifferent to, or unconscious of, their great responsibility.

The word had gone forth that Barnaby was to die.

It went forth, every month, for lighter crimes.
It was a thing so common, that very few were startled by the awful sentence, or cared to question its propriety.

Just then, too, when the law had been so flagrantly outraged, its dignity must be asserted.
The symbol of its dignity,--stamped upon every page of the criminal statute-book,--was the gallows; and Barnaby was to die.
They had tried to save him.