"Jesus, God!" he cried, "spare me this waiting!"
"I implore Your Majesty to eat and drink a little," entreated the bishop, and Charles, who felt himself indeed sick and faint, drank a glass of claret and eat a piece of bread. When he had finished he took a white satin cap from his pocket and gave it to Juxon, also his watch, with some broken words of thanks. Then Colonel Hacker came, and the King turned to go through the splendid galleries of his old home to his death.
He had his hat on and said not a word; beneath his composure he was struggling to overcome the physical weakness that beset him, rendering him incapable of high thoughts; the sensitive flesh shrank from what it had to face; already he felt a ring of pain round his neck.
The fine apartments, the paintings, the rich furniture still there, swam dizzily before his eyes; but he walked firmly....
Colonel Hacker led the way; they stepped through the centre window of the banqueting hall on to a scaffold hung with black, on which stood the two vizards or headsmen; both of whom wore frieze breeches and coats—one had a grey beard showing beneath the mask, the other was disguised with a light wig. When Charles stepped out of the window he recoiled with a repulsion no pride could control. In the foreground the two black figures, and beyond a sea of white faces, all looking at him; even the soldiers, horse and foot, their red coats and steel brightening the grey morning, were looking at him—all in silence.
His glance fell to the block. "Is it so low?" he asked, in a horrified way. Then he recovered himself and turned to the few about him.
"It was the Parliament began the war, not I," he said, "but I hope they may be guiltless too, and all blame may go to the ill instruments which came between us"—here one of the officers touched the axe, and the King cried out—"Take care of the axe! take care of the axe!"—resuming afterwards his speech. "The government rests with the King and not with the people, in that belief and in the faith of the Church of England I die."
He laid off his cloak and hat, then added with great wistfulness—
"In one respect I suffer justly, and that is because I have permitted an unjust sentence to be executed on another."