-in-chief; and, if for a graver offence than manslaughter, it
seems to have been understood that a pardon was not to be granted
without previous express direction from the king. This was in
compliance with a clause in the royal instructions, issued to all the
governors, by which they were enjoined not to remit any fines or
forfeitures above L10 in amount, or to dispose of escheats, without
the royal sanction; forfeiture of lands and chattels being a
consequence of attainder upon conviction of the higher class of
felonies. The commission to Andros expressly excepted treason and
murder from the offences which he was authorized to pardon.]

This completes the narrative of this remarkable case. The body of Mark
is said by Dr. Bartlett to have remained on the gibbet "until a short
time before the Revolution." Certain it is that when Dr. Caleb Rea
passed through Charlestown on the first day of June, 1758, on his way
from Danvers to join the regiment, of which he had been chosen
surgeon, in the expedition against Ticonderoga, he found the body
hanging, and, having examined it, recorded in his journal that "his
[Mark's] skin was but very little broken, although he had hung there
near three or four years."[13]

[Footnote 13: Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., vol. xviii. p. 88, n.]

Finally, another patriot,--Paul Revere,--in describing his famous ride
on the 18th of April, 1775, on a still more important errand, says,
"After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite where
_Mark was hung in chains_, I saw two men on horseback under a
tree,"[14] &c.; thus alluding to the site of the gibbet as a place
well known at that time,--as undoubtedly it was, to all the country
round.

[Footnote 14: Letter of Colonel Revere to Cor. Sec. of Mass. Hist.
Soc., Jan. 1, 1798: 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 107.]

I have said that this is the only case of petit treason to be found in
our records. There was, indeed, an earlier case in which the penalty
of death by burning was inflicted; but in regard to that case there is
no suggestion anywhere to my knowledge that the crime of petit treason
had been committed, nor any allegation to that effect in the charge or
indictment, nor even a hint that any life was lost by the misconduct
of the condemned.[15] This was the case of Maria, a negress, who was
executed at Roxbury in 1681. Perhaps it will be well to give the story
of this case as it appears on the records of the Court of
Assistants.[16