-
Articles/Ads
Article TRYING TO CHANGE A SOVEREIGN. ← Page 3 of 10 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
Thistlewood's dignified composure , in such marked contrast with the ruffian demeanour of some of his dying companions , as he ascended the platform in front of Newgate , in 1820 . * Prosecutions for high treason , executions for high treason , formed , in short , as lately as 1840 , common topics for general conversation , as sensational murders do , alas ! now , and it cannot be doubted , from what subsequently transpiredthat Edward Oxford's boyish and
, exceptionally weak mind was debauched with nonsense about Brutus ancl Charlotte Corday ancl Ankerstrcem and Damiens , ancl the other lay . figures constantly trotted out in the then extant " penny dreadfuls , " for there were penny dreadfuls , only they were coarser ancl more dreadfully dreadful dreadfuls than those now current , even in those clays . So that Witless in his cell had the consolation—before other solace cameof
, which I shall speak in the proper place—of feeling that he was a prisoner of state , and that the least dignified apotheosis he could attain was to have the surgical attendance of a professor in a mask , ancl his severed capital held up to the view of an awe-stricken mob as the head of a traitor ! Is vanity confined to a class , think you , gentle reader ? Is it to consider too closely , to speculate whether even into a well-furnished , vaulted apartment
in the Tower , to some immured one , moving in a higher sphere of life than any of which poor Oxford had a notion , some gleam of comfort has not penetrated . in the thought that the thinker would be the leading actor in the grand tragedy , where he would inarch behind Mr . Gentleman Gaoler bearing the processional axe with its edge turned outwards , ancl where my Lord Steward would stalk , carrying his white wand of office between treble rows of robed and coronetted peers , ancl would stop three times in his progress ancl make three several obeisances to the throne , before solemnly taking his seat on the awful chair of justice ?
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
Thistlewood's dignified composure , in such marked contrast with the ruffian demeanour of some of his dying companions , as he ascended the platform in front of Newgate , in 1820 . * Prosecutions for high treason , executions for high treason , formed , in short , as lately as 1840 , common topics for general conversation , as sensational murders do , alas ! now , and it cannot be doubted , from what subsequently transpiredthat Edward Oxford's boyish and
, exceptionally weak mind was debauched with nonsense about Brutus ancl Charlotte Corday ancl Ankerstrcem and Damiens , ancl the other lay . figures constantly trotted out in the then extant " penny dreadfuls , " for there were penny dreadfuls , only they were coarser ancl more dreadfully dreadful dreadfuls than those now current , even in those clays . So that Witless in his cell had the consolation—before other solace cameof
, which I shall speak in the proper place—of feeling that he was a prisoner of state , and that the least dignified apotheosis he could attain was to have the surgical attendance of a professor in a mask , ancl his severed capital held up to the view of an awe-stricken mob as the head of a traitor ! Is vanity confined to a class , think you , gentle reader ? Is it to consider too closely , to speculate whether even into a well-furnished , vaulted apartment
in the Tower , to some immured one , moving in a higher sphere of life than any of which poor Oxford had a notion , some gleam of comfort has not penetrated . in the thought that the thinker would be the leading actor in the grand tragedy , where he would inarch behind Mr . Gentleman Gaoler bearing the processional axe with its edge turned outwards , ancl where my Lord Steward would stalk , carrying his white wand of office between treble rows of robed and coronetted peers , ancl would stop three times in his progress ancl make three several obeisances to the throne , before solemnly taking his seat on the awful chair of justice ?