And grovel and grope for my son, till I find myself drenched with the rain.
Anything fallen again? Nay—what was there left to fall?
I have taken them home, I have number'd the bones, I have hidden them all.
They would scratch him up—they would hang him again on the cursed tree.
Sin? O yes—we are sinners, I know—let all that be,
And read me a Bible verse of the Lord's good-will towards men—
"Full of compassion and mercy, the Lord"—let me hear it again;
"Full of compassion and mercy—long-suffering." Yes, O yes!
For the lawyer is born but to murder—the Saviour lives but to bless.
Robbers of His Majesty's mails had always been hanged on conviction, but this severity had proved no deterrent, and it was not until the Earl of Leicester, Postmaster-General in 1753, prevailed upon the Government to have their bodies afterwards hung in chains, that any diminution of mail-robberies took place. Highwaymen, it is curious to reflect, did not so much mind being hanged, but had the greatest horror of their bodies being afterwards exposed. It is a weakness not readily to be understood, this horror, not of death, but of the desecration of the senseless body after death; but it was a very useful feeling to play upon, by way of deterrent.