William Strange, the man who had sent for me, then said, in a clear and audible tone of voice:—­“Brother sailors, attend to the last words of a dying man.  We are brought here at the instigation of some of you who are now standing in safety among the crowd:  you have made fools of us, and we are become the victims to the just vengeance of the laws.  Had you succeeded in the infamous design you contemplated, what would have been the consequences?  Ruin, eternal ruin, to yourselves and to your families; a disgrace to your country, and the scorn of those foreigners to whom you proposed delivering up the ship.  Thank God you did not succeed.  Let our fate be a warning to you, and endeavour to show by your future acts your deep contrition for the past.  Now, sir,” turning to the captain, “we are ready.”

This beautiful speech from the mouth of a common sailor must as much astonish the reader as it then did the captain and officers of the ship.  But Strange, as I have shown, was no common man; he had had the advantage of education, and, like many of the ringleaders at the mutiny of the Nore, was led into the error of refusing to obey, from the conscious feeling that he was born to command.

The arms of the prisoners were then pinioned, and the chaplain led the way, reading the funeral service; the master-at-arms, with two marine sentinels, conducted them along the starboard gangway to the forecastle; here a stage was erected on either side, over the cathead, with steps to ascend to it; a tail block was attached to the boom-iron, at the outer extremity of each foreyard-arm, and through this a rope was rove, one end of which came down to the stage; the other was led along the yard into the catharpings, and thence down upon the main-deck.  A gun was primed and ready to fire, on the fore part of the ship, directly beneath the scaffold.

I attended poor Strange to the very last moment; he begged me to see that the halter, which was a piece of line, like a clothes’ line, was properly made fast round his neck, for he had known men suffer dreadfully from the want of this precaution.  A white cap was placed on the head of each man, and when both mounted the platform, the cap was drawn over their eyes.  They shook hands with me, with their messmates, and with the chaplain, assuring him that they died happy, and confident in the hopes of redemption.  They then stood still while the yard ropes were fixed to the halter by a toggle in the running noose of the latter; the other end of the yard-ropes were held by some twenty or thirty men on each side of the main-deck, where two lieutenants of the ship attended.

All being ready, the captain waved a white handkerchief, the gun fired, and in an instant the poor fellows were seen swinging at either yard-arm.  They had on blue jackets and white trousers, and were remarkably fine-looking young men.  They did not appear to suffer any pain, and at the expiration of an hour, the bodies were lowered down, placed in coffins, and sent on shore for interment.