the side of the Earl; and in the evening, every -body
going to Vaillant’s shop to hear the particulars.
I wrote to him ’. as he serves me, for the
account: but he intends to print it, and I will
send it you with some other things, and the trial.
Lord Ferrers at first talked on indifferent matters,
and observing the prodigious confluence of people,
(the blind was drawn up on his side,) he said,—“But
they never saw a lord hanged, and perhaps will never
see another;” One of the dragoons was thrown
by his horse’s leg entangling in the hind wheel:
Lord Ferrers expressed much concern, and said, “I
hope there will be no death to-day but mine,”
and was pleased when Vaillant told him the man was
not hurt. Vaillant made excuses to him on his
office. “On the contrary,” said
the Earl, “I am much obliged to you. I
feared the disagreeableness of the duty might make
you depute your under-sheriff. As you are so
good as to execute it yourself, I am persuaded the
dreadful apparatus will be conducted with more expedition.”
The chaplain of the Tower, who sat backwards, then
thought it his turn to speak, and began to talk on
religion; but Lord Ferrers received it impatiently.
However, the chaplain persevered, and said, he wished
to bring his lordship to some confession or acknowledgment
of contrition for a crime so repugnant to the laws
of God and man, and wished him to endeavour to do
whatever could be done in so short a time. The
Earl replied, “He had done every thing he proposed
to do with regard to God and man; and as to discourses
on religion, you and I, Sir,” said he to the
clergyman, “shall probably not agree on that
subject. The passage is very short: you
will not have time to convince me, nor I to refute
you; it cannot be ended before we arrive.”
The clergyman still insisted, and urged, that. at
least, the world would expect some satisfaction.
Lord Ferrers replied, with some impatience, “Sir,
what have I to do with the world? I am going
to pay a forfeit life, which my country has thought
proper to take from me—what do I care now
what the world thinks of me? But, Sir, since
you do desire some confession, I will confess one
thing to you; I do believe there is a God. As
to modes of worship, we had better not talk on them.
I always thought Lord Bolingbroke in the wrong, to
publish his notions on religion: I will not fall
into the same error.” The chaplain, seeing
sensibly that it was in vain to make any more attempts,
contented himself with representing to him, that it
would be expected from one of his calling, and that
even decency required, that some prayer should be
used on the scaffold, and asked his leave, at least
to repeat the Lord’s Prayer there. Lord
Ferrers replied, “I always thought it a good
prayer; you may use it if you please.”