The sentence of the court then is that you be taken from the dock in which you now stand to the prison from whence you came, and that from thence you be brought to the place of execution on next Saturday, and there be hanged by the neck until you be dead, and may God have mercy on your soul!" The Rapparee gazed at him with a look of the most hardened effrontery, and exclaimed, "Is it in earnest you are ?" after which he was once mor|e committed to his cell, loaded with heavy chains, which he wore, by the I way, during his trial.
Now, in order to account for his outrageous conduct, we must make a disclosure to the reader.

There is in and about all jails a certain officer yclept a hangman--an officer who is permitted a freer ingress and egress than almost any other person connected with those gloomy establishments.

This hangman, who resided in the prison, had a brother whom Sir Robert Whitecraft had hanged, and, it was thought, innocently.
Be this as it may, the man in question was heard to utter strong threats of vengeance against Sir Robert for having his brother, whose innocence he asserted, brought to execution.

In some time after this a pistol was fired one night at Sir Robert from behind a hedge, which missed him; but as his myrmidons were with him, and the night was light, a pursuit took place, and the guilty wretch was taken prisoner, with the pistol on his person, still warm after having been discharged.

The consequence was that he was condemned to death.