"They are in ward," he said; "I heard a week ago…. They will banish them from England—they dare not do more!"
"It is all finished," she said quietly.
"What!"
"They were hanged at Tyburn three days ago—the three of them together."
He drew a hissing breath, and felt the skin of his face tingle.
"You have heard that?"
"Mr. Babington came to tell me last night. He left a paper with me: I have not read it yet."
He watched her as she drew it out and put it before him. The terror was on him, as once or twice before in his journeyings, or as when the news of Mr. Nelson's death had reached him—a terror which shamed him to the heart, and which he loathed yet could not overcome. He still stared into her pale face. Then he took the paper and began to read it.
* * * * *
Presently he laid it down again. The sick terror was beginning to pass; or, rather, he was able to grip it; and he said a conventional word or two; he could do no more. There was no exultation in his heart; nothing but misery. And then, in despair, he left the subject.