Such politenesss was not to
be withstood, and I signified my assent with a bow.
We passed up a staircase and into a well furnished and carpeted apartment.
Here I was introduced to the under-sheriff, who, attended by half a dozen
gentlemen, brought in, like myself, as a matter of favour, was about
descending to the room in which the culprits are pinioned. Sir Thomas, who
had bestowed much humane attention on the prisoners, inquired, with real
solicitude, how they had passed the night. His colleague, who had just had
his person embellished with the insignia of office, replied, in a lively
tone. "O, very well, I understand." He added, with infinite coolness and
intelligence--"But you cannot expect men to sleep so well the night before
they are hanged as they are likely to do afterwards!"
He looked round in all our faces, as if to collect our suffrages in favour
of this pleasantry. His _high rank_ and importance _there_, prevented any
word or sign of displeasure. Most of us lifted our upper lip so as just to
show our teeth, thereby intimating that we knew he had said a very good
thing, at which, but for the painful business then in progress, we should
be ready to die with laughing.
We now followed the sheriffs through the Sessions-house, and thence, by a
covered passage on the eastern side of the yard of that building, to the
prison.
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