I had seen Mr.Gavan say something to the hangman, and he answered again; but I could not hear what it was.
Then, when the silence fell, I heard Mr.Whitbread begin; and the first sentence was clear enough, though his voice sounded thin at that distance.
"I suppose," he said, "it is expected I should speak something to the matter I am condemned for, and brought hither to suffer." Then he went on to say how he was wholly guiltless of any plot against His Majesty, and that in saying so he renounced and repudiated any pretended pardons or dispensations that were thought to have been given him to swear falsely.

He prayed God to bless His Majesty, and denied that it was any part of Catholic teaching that a king might be killed as it was said had been designed by the alleged plot; and he ended by recommending his soul into the hands of his blessed Redeemer by whose only merits and passion he hoped for salvation.

He spoke very clearly, with a kind of coldness.
Father Harcourt's voice was not so clear, as he was an old man; but I heard Mr.Sheriff How presently interrupt him.

(He was upon horseback close beside the gallows.) "Or of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's death ?" he asked.
"Did you not write that letter concerning the dispatch of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey ?" "No, sir," cried the old man very loud.

"These are the words of a dying man.