His voice shook as he spoke.
"Are the vizards ready?" he asked again.
"Ay, it is Brandon the hangman and the fellow Hulet, and they are to have thirty pounds apiece—and now, I think, Colonel Hacker may go to fetch the King," replied Peters.
"Will you see him pass?" asked Harrison.
"I will not look on him again, alive or dead!" replied Cromwell sombrely.
But Peters and Nunelly went to an upper window where they might have a good view....
In his bedchamber the King still waited; the soldiers had withdrawn and left him alone with Juxon, to whom the dying man gave his last instructions, and one, above all, important.
"Let my son forgive his father's murderers—and let him always maintain the Church of England and his own royal rights in this realm—let him make no compromise on these points. And let my younger sons never be cajoled into taking their brother's place—my son Charles, who, in a few moments now, will be King of England and Scotland."
"I promise," said Juxon.
Then the King rose and walked up and down.