Page 230 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

230 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS JN THE EAST

accusation, being roung from them by the pains or feare
of torture. And they all freely forgave one another : for
none had bene so falsely accused but he himself had accused
another as falsely.”
Moved by the sufferings of the condemned, the good-
natured Dutch guard offered them wine, with the sugges­
tion that they should drown their sorrows in drink as the
Dutch, in similar cases, were, he said, accustomed to do.
But the offer was gratefully but emphatically rejected.
Face to face with death the Englishmen were in no mood
to stain their last hours with a drunken orgy. Though
rude men who, in most cases, had led dissolute lives, they
had, deep down in their natures, a strong strain of religious
feeling. They preferred, therefore, to pass the night with
devotional exercises. Thus, as the sentry kept his solitary
vigil outside, there was borne upon his ears in the silence of
the tropical night, the deep bass voices of the prisoners as
in mournful cadence they sang the psalms appropriate to
their sad condition.
A touching memorial of that solemn night of prayer and
praise is preserved amongst the Dutch national archives
at the State Record Office at the Hague. It is a small
black-covered volume containing, bound together, “ The
Psalms of David in Meeter,” and “ The Catechisme,” both
bearing the imprint, “ Edinburgh, printed by Andro Hart, {
1611,” It is the identical book used on the occasion by
Samuel Coulson. Convincing evidence of this is supplied
1 by certain writings, bearing Coulson’s signature, which
appear in the blank pages of the volume. These include
an earnest declaration of the writer’s innocence. It was
one of several declarations to the same effect which were
inscribed in different books by the prisoners. One of the

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