ure is bodily pain only (although no doubt you
have plenty of that) until you die. But _here_ I should imagine the
most terrible part of the whole punishment is, not the bodily pain at
all--but the certain knowledge that in an hour,--then in ten minutes,
then in half a minute, then now--this very _instant_--your soul must
quit your body and that you will no longer be a man--and that this
is certain, _certain_! That's the point--the certainty of it. Just that
instant when you place your head on the block and hear the iron grate
over your head--then--that quarter of a second is the most awful of all.

"This is not my own fantastical opinion--many people have thought the
same; but I feel it so deeply that I'll tell you what I think. I believe
that to execute a man for murder is to punish him immeasurably more
dreadfully than is equivalent to his crime. A murder by sentence is
far more dreadful than a murder committed by a criminal. The man who is
attacked by robbers at night, in a dark wood, or anywhere, undoubtedly
hopes and hopes that he may yet escape until the very moment of his
death. There are plenty of instances of a man running away, or imploring
for mercy--at all events hoping on in some degree--even after his throat
was cut. But in the case of an execution, that last hope--having which
it is so immeasurably less dreadful to die,--is taken away from the
wretch and _certainty_ substituted in its place! There is his sentence,
and with it that terrible certainty that he cannot possibly escape
death--which, I consider, must be the most dreadful anguish in the
world. You may place a soldier before a cannon's mouth in battle, and
fire upon him--and he will still hope. But read to that same soldier his
death-sentence, and he will either go mad or burst into tears. Who dares
to say that any man can suffer this without going mad? No, no! it is
an abuse, a shame, it is unnecessary--why should such a thing exist?
Doubtless there may be men who have been sentenced, who have suffered
this mental anguish for a while and then have been reprieved; perhaps
such men may have been able to relate their feelings afterwards. Our
Lord Christ spoke of this anguish and dread. No! no! no! No man should
be treated so, no man, no man!"

The servant, though of course he could not have expressed all this
as the prince did, still clearly entered into it and was greatly
conciliated, as was evident from the increased amiability of his
expression