for a moment overhead and then was taken possession of by an official at whose feet it fell.
In a pause which followed the prayer, Emanuel Thomson, speaking so as to be heard some distance, solemnly declared that he was sure that God would show some sign of their innocence.
The executioner now began his bloody work. As each man stepped forward unflinchingly to the block, he affirmed in language which varied little that he was utterly guiltless in the matter for which he was to die. "And so, one by one, with great cheerfulness, they suffered the fatal stroke."
A strange distinction was made in Towerson's case. Prior to his execution there was placed about the block a large piece of black velvet. Presumably this was done in deference to his superior rank, but it is one of the curiosities of a remarkable episode that the English East India Company was afterwards, in a bill of charges, debited with the value of this material on the ground that the bloodstains upon it had rendered it unserviceable.
In keeping with this fastidious deference to rank, Towerson was buried in a special grave. A common tomb sheltered the remains of the nine other unfortunate Englishmen. Before the work of interment was completed, indeed, before the execution was barely over, a great darkness came on and a storm swept over Amboina, driving the shipping ashore and doing immense damage to property. The next day, a wretched Englishman who had testified against his fellows falsely was found on the condemned men's grave weeping and behaving strangely. He was led away and died two days later raving mad. Almost simultaneously there broke out on the island a
