He had rejected the confessor provided by the sheriff, and had insisted on the privilege of choosing his own, whom Little John had promised to bring.

Little John, however, had not made his appearance when the fatal procession began its march; but when they reached the place of execution, Little John appeared, accompanied by a ghostly friar.
"Sheriff," said young Gamwell, "let me not die with my hands pinioned: give me a sword, and set any odds of your men against me, and let me die the death of a man, like the descendant of a noble house, which has never yet been stained with ignominy." "No, no," said the sheriff; "I have had enough of setting odds against you.

I have sworn you shall be hanged, and hanged you shall be." "Then God have mercy on me," said young Gamwell; "and now, holy friar, shrive my sinful soul." The friar approached.
"Let me see this friar," said the sheriff: "if he be the friar of the bridge, I had as lief have the devil in Nottingham; but he shall find me too much for him here." "The friar of the bridge," said Little John, "as you very well know, sheriff, was father Michael of Rubygill Abbey, and you may easily see that this is not the man." "I see it," said the sheriff; "and God be thanked for his absence." Young Gamwell stood at the foot of the ladder.

The friar approached him, opened his book, groaned, turned up the whites of his eyes, tossed up his arms in the air, and said "Dominus vobiscum." He then crossed both his hands on his breast under the folds of his holy robes, and stood a few moments as if in inward prayer.

A deep silence among the attendant crowd accompanied this action of the friar; interrupted only by the hollow tone of the death-bell, at long and dreary intervals.