three-quarters of an hour. But they got nothing out of him.
All through the examination the prisoner looked at him and nodded her
white face, every now and then, at his answers, as much as to say,
"That's right--that's right: they shan't harm thee, my dear." And the
love-light shone in her eyes for all the court to see. But the sergeant
never let his look meet it. When he stepped down at last she gave a sob
of joy, and fainted bang-off.

They roused her up, after this, to hear the verdict of _Guilty_ and her
doom spoken by the judge. "Pris'ner at the bar," said the Clerk of
Arraigns, "have ye anything to say why this court should not pass
sentence o' death?"

She held tight of the rail before her, and spoke out loud and clear--

"My Lord and gentlemen all, I be a guilty woman; an' I be ready to die
at once for my sin. But if ye kill me now, ye kill the child in my
body--an' he is innocent."

Well, 'twas found she spoke truth; and the hanging was put off till
after the time of her delivery. She was led back to prison, and there,
about the end of June, her child was born, and died before he was six
hours old. But the mother recovered, and quietly abode the time of her
hanging.

I can mind her execution very well; for father and mother had determined
it would be an excellent thing for my rickets to take me into Bodmin
that day, and get a touch of the dead woman's hand, which in those times
was considered an unfailing remedy. So we borrowed the parson's
manure-cart, and cleaned it thoroughly, and drove in together.

The place of the hangings, then, was a little door in the prison-wall,
looking over the bank where the railway now goes, and a dismal piece of
water called Jail-pool, where the townsfolk drowned most of the dogs and
cats they'd no further use for. All the bank under the gallows was that
thick with people you could almost walk upon their heads; and my ribs
were squeezed by the crowd so that I couldn't breathe freely for a month
after. Back across the pool, the fields along the side of the valley
were lined with booths and sweet-stalls and standings--a perfect
Whitsun-fair; and a din going up that cracked your ears.

But there was the stillness of death when the woman came forth, with the
sheriff and the chaplain reading in his book, and the unnamed man
behind--all from the little door. She wore a strait black gown, and a
white kerchief about her neck--a lovely woman, young and white and
tea