His bones lay bleaching on the ground where he had fallen, and no one had ventured to inter them.
The remains of the poor boy were collected as evidence against Jack and old Bates.
Another was murdered in the wood for having taken the part of an innkeeper against his comrades, who wanted to cheat him at the reckoning.
A third was also murdered for a similar offence.
They tied him to an oak-tree and burned him alive, first cutting off his ears, and nailing them to a tree, as a terror to others of the gang.
Several would have met with similar fates, and only escaped by a miracle.
“Come here,” said Ned to Master Tim. “Have you not often said and boasted that you would take Captain Jack as a deserter from the king’s army?”
Poor Tim looked pale, and turned about anxiously for succour, and trembled in every limb.
Several peasants whom Tim had not perceived at first, and several others, formed a circle around him, which gradually grew narrower and narrower, and of which Tim himself formed the centre.
“No, sir, I did not say so,” replied Tim, very modestly.