o Tyburn, the well-known site of public executions. "All the
way the universal outcry and curses of the people went along with them,"
says MERCURIUS PUBLICUS. "When these three carcasses arrived at Tyburn,
they were pulled out of their coffins, and hanged at the several angles
of that triple tree, where they hung till the sun was set; after which
they were taken down, their heads cut off; and their loathsome trunks
thrown into a deep hole under the gallows. The heads of those three
notorious regicides, Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw, and Ireton are
set upon poles on the top of Westminster Hall by the common hangman.
Bradshaw placed in the middle (over that part where the monstrous high
court of justice sat), Cromwell and his son-in-law Ireton on either side
of Bradshaw."

Before this ghastly execution took place, Parliament had brought to
justice such offenders against the late king's government and life as
were in its power. According to the declaration made by the king
at Breda, a full and general pardon was extended to all rebellious
subjects, excepting such persons as should be hereafter excepted by
Parliament. By reason of this clause, some who had been most violent
in their persecution of royalty were committed to the Tower before
the arrival of his majesty, others fled from the country, but had, on
another proclamation summoning them to surrender themselves, returned
in hope of obtaining pardon. Thirty in all were tried at the Old Bailey
before the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and a special jury of
knights and gentlemen of quality in the county of Middlesex. Twenty-nine
of these were condemned to death. The king was singularly free from
desires of revenge; but many of his council were strangers to clemency,
and, under the guise of loyalty to the crown, sought satisfaction for
private wrongs by urging severest measures. The monarch, however, shrank
from staining the commencement of his reign with bloodshed and advocated
mercy. In a speech delivered to the House of Lords he insisted that, as
a point of honour, he was bound to make good the assurances given in his
proclamation of Breda, "which if I had not made," he continued, "I am
persuaded that neither I nor you had now been here. I pray, therefore,
let us not deceive those who brought or permitted us to come together;
and I earnestly desire you to depart from all particular animosities and
revenge or memory of past provocations." Accordingly, but ten of tho