Page 234 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

234
EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST
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 Thom­
son, 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, Tower-
son was fc-ned in a special grave, A common tomb
sheltered the remains of the nine other unfortunate Eng­
lishmen. Before the work of interment was completed,
indeed, before the execution was barely over, a great dark­
ness came on and a storm swept over Amboina, drivmg
the shipping ashore and doing immense damage to pro­
perty. The next day, a wretched Englishman who had
testified against his fellows falsely was found on the con­
demned 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