My turn had come at last, and I was more than glad. A murmur ran among the people, for I had been known to most of them since childhood; yet when I stood beneath the gallows with the noose about my neck, it was as though the crowd had vanished into space. I saw them not at all. My whole life flashed before me like a dazzling blaze, and, strange as it may seem to you, the only thing I noted was a certain far-off spot where, as a boy, I had first climbed the cliffs.
"Have you aught to say, sir?" asked the captain.
No, I was there to die and not to speak, and therefore had naught to say; or rather, what I had to say was said full swiftly underneath my breath, to Someone else. Then I turned to mount the ladder: but I never did it, for even as I set my foot upon the bottom rung, a distant cry broke out behind me; and glancing round, as everyone was doing, I saw a horseman coming headlong down the hill towards us, waving a paper high above his head and shouting as he rode.
Soon he was near enough for us to catch his words.
"Stop! in the King's name, stop!" he shrieked.
And then I knew him. It was Dassell. The crowd made instant way for him, as well they might, for such was his furious speed that otherwise he would most certainly have rushed straight into them. In the shadow of the gallows he drew up. His horse was lathered in sweat, and dripping foam, while he himself was wellnigh fighting for his breath.
"Well, and what now, sir?" asked the captain, staring in amazement.
"A--pardon--from--His--Majesty--the--King--for--Michael Fane!" gasped Dassell.
What followed is not very clear to me, but I know a mighty shout of joy arose, and that, later on, I walked, like one a-dreaming, with good friend Dassell to my home, The Havering. And there I heard from him the story of my wonderful deliverance. Here it is, exactly as he told it me:--
After being snuffed out by Jeffreys in the courthouse at Dorchester, he lingered till my fate was settled, then posted up to London. There he sought and found Lord Feversham, whom he urged to plead with James on my behalf: and his lordship, having known my father well, and also me, was not averse to doing it. So he went straightway to the King, bearing Dassell with him.