And upon all the sentence of death was passed. The prisoners, after their condemnation and judgment, were again removed to the Tower, where they remained till the Thursday following, on which day four of them, viz. Sir Everard Digby, Robert Winter, John Grant, and Thomas Rates, were drawn upon sledges and hurdles to a scaffold erected at the western end of St Paul’s Church-yard. Great pains were taken to render the spectacle of the execution as imposing as possible; and, among other arrangements made in order to guard against any popular tumult, a precept was issued by the Lord Mayor to the Aldermen of each ward in the city, requiring him to provide an able and sufficient man, armed with a halbert, to stand at the door of every dwelling-house in the streets through which the conspirators were to be drawn to execution, from seven o’clock in the morning until the return of the Sheriff.
Sir Everard Digby was the first appointed for execution, who ascended the scaffold with a firm and manly bearing; and, in a speech short but expressive, stated his conviction in the justice of the cause he had been engaged in in its religious aspect, but regretted it had been against the legal authority, for which he asked forgiveness of God, of the King, and the whole kingdom. Having engaged in prayer, he-ascended the ladder, and was immediately launched into the unseen world.
Winter and Grant expressed themselves in nearly the same terms, who, after having prayed, ascended the fatal drop.
Bates, who was the last executed, expressed himself as sorry for his co-operation in the
