But it is hard to die so soon — a violent, a felon's death; and I have taken no life. It has occurred to me, as the captain said, who came to see me this morning, that there is hope as long as there is life, though he gave me none, and I have no reasonable hope to live but a few moments longer. No, no, my friend, none!" " But 'tis right I should say to you, Jackson, to mitigate, though not entirely to relieve one thought that your death, though a violent one, will not he the same as the murderer on the gallows. Yours is a punishment at the yard-arm, according to the usages of the service at sea, and the charges on which your sentence was based will be known, as they are a high crime indeed at sea, but not murder." " Yes, but I would rather be put on the forecastle, I think, and be shot." " But 'tis of no moment, now," I continued, " it will not be to you, if redeemed; the agitation of this hour, and the fell dishonor of a death at the yard-arm, shall give you to estimate with a deeper gratitude the blessedness of that calm of heaven that shall gather over the soul which was lost and is found, that was exposed to eternal danger and is now rescued to an unchanging safety.
It shall be certainty, and no more doubt; honor, and no more disgrace; holiness, and no more sin." " Had I been confined on shore, away from the noise of shipboard, 1 might perhaps have had a better opportunity of thinking of the soul, and preparing for death, in the space given me, and could I have had a sister or a brother there, how it would have soothed these hours. But I have tried to do my best, and I fear it has been too little," and here the poor fellow paused a moment, and then added: " I think I must kneel down and pray now," and accordingly rose from the cot on which we were both seated, and desirinsr that I would not move, fell on his own knees, and audibly communed with his God in a prayer so fit and accurately expressed, that no word was uncharged with the feelings of a man ready to die and make his peace with God, and to commend his spirit to His care.
Would to God a world could have heard it; would to God a slumbering world could wake to the feeling of this man, who viewed with the vision of his awakened spirit the relation of his responsible being to eternity. I si ould have knelt with him at this time, but he requested me to retain my seat, from that generally inherent principle of a sailor's difference for an officer, which before had caused him, as I prayed with him, to offer me his jacket to kneel upon, lest the deck might he too dusty for a kneeling-place. Alas! I thought, as I refused it, and other articles proffered, there is no need of bunting, or a damask cushion here, to kneel upon," when the anxious soul would look to God for forgiveness and salvation in its need, and when but a few hours more should consign the spirit to eternity.
Six bells how struck, (eleven o'clock,) and yet the summons came not. Still there was a stir over the decks which seemed to indicate it might be on its way. The stir was in answer to the preparatory signal now made from the Cumberland to have all thing's in readiness for executing; the sentence of the court-martial. The prisoner knew not the signal, but his quick ear detected the movement, and as the signal of the Cumberland fell to her deck, the yellow Hag' on board the St. Mary's ran up to the royal-mast head. All necessary preparations had been early made on board the St. Mary's, for executing' the sentence now so soon to be consummated. A small platform had been arranged on the larboard side of the forecastle, a little above one of the guns, and supported by a stanchion, one end of which rested on the muzzle of the gun.
This gun was loaded, the clu 3 line was used as the whip rope by which the unfortunate man was to be run up to the larboard arm of the foreyard; and this line was so rove as to connect along- the vard with a weight of round shot, that was to descend by the foremast, and rouse the prisoner to the yard-arm; and this weight, for the time being, was held in its place near the maintop, by a line that led over the muzzle of the shotted gun. On firing the gun, the shot would cut the line, and the weight fall, hauling the poor fellow up to the yard-arm. And around the St. Mary's, on this beautiful sheet of water, lay the different ships and other vessels of the fleet, nine or ten in number, in full view of the transaction, which was now so rapidly maturing to its finale.