o from a serjeant, and a very mettled
fellow he was; it was he that did the King's business for him
upon the scaffold. In 1653 there was a disbanding of the army in
Ireland; this gentleman was then continued captain-lieutenant
in Pretty's regiment; I discoursed with Pretty concerning him,
and one part of it, I remember, was about the King's death; and
he did tell me that he was assured by col. Hewson that Hulet
either cut off the King's head, or held it up, and said, 'Behold
the head of a traitor.' Col. Pretty could not tell me which of
the two it was; but I saw the person that did it, and methought
he did resemble this person.

Twelve months afterwards he came to live near the prisoner in Ireland,
and meeting him at the White Horse in Carlow, asked whether he was the
man that cut off the King's head or not.

Saith he, Why do you ask me this question? I told him I had
heard so by several, namely by Hewson and Pretty; upon that he
said, 'Well, what I did, I will not be ashamed of; if it were to
do again I would do it.' Once since that time, about half a year
afterwards, I was in the same place, and there talking about the
King's death, he was telling me it was true, he was one of the
two persons that were disguised upon the scaffold. I desired to
know what if the King had refused to submit to the block? saith
he, there were staples placed about the scaffold, and I had that
about me that would have compelled him, or words to that effect;
other times I have heard him speak something to this ... I have
observed in Ireland, that it hath been generally reported that
he was either the man that cut off the King's head or he that
held it up, as I said before, and I have heard them sometimes
call him Grandsire Greybeard.

_Walter Davis_ had two years before been drinking with Hulet in Dublin,
and

said I to Hulet, I pray resolve me this one question; it is
reported that you took up the King's head, and said, Behold the
head of a traitor; Sir, said he, it is a question I never yet
resolved any man, though often demanded; yet, saith he,
whosoever said it, it matters not, I say it now; it was the head
of a traitor.

_Lieut.-Colonel Nelson_ had asked Colonel Axtell (who had just been
tried and condemned) who were the two disguised persons on the scaffold.

He told me I knew the persons as well as him