"Pris'ner at the bar," said the Clerk of Arraigns, "have ye anything to say why this court should not pass sentence o' death ?" She held tight of the rail before her, and spoke out loud and clear-- "My Lord and gentlemen all, I be a guilty woman; an' I be ready to die at once for my sin.

But if ye kill me now, ye kill the child in my body--an' he is innocent." Well, 'twas found she spoke truth; and the hanging was put off till after the time of her delivery.

She was led back to prison, and there, about the end of June, her child was born, and died before he was six hours old.

But the mother recovered, and quietly abode the time of her hanging.
I can mind her execution very well; for father and mother had determined it would be an excellent thing for my rickets to take me into Bodmin that day, and get a touch of the dead woman's hand, which in those times was considered an unfailing remedy.

So we borrowed the parson's manure-cart, and cleaned it thoroughly, and drove in together.
The place of the hangings, then, was a little door in the prison-wall, looking over the bank where the railway now goes, and a dismal piece of water called Jail-pool, where the townsfolk drowned most of the dogs and cats they'd no further use for.