"It took so much time to drag Dennis in, that this ceremony was over with Hugh, and nearly over with Barnaby, before he appeared. He no sooner came into the place he knew so well, however, and among faces with which he was so familiar, than he recovered strength and sense enough to clasp his hands and make a last appeal. ...‘All I ask, sir,—all I want and beg, is time, to make it sure,’ cried the trembling wretch, looking wildly round for sympathy. ‘The King and Government can’t know it’s me; I’m sure they can’t know it’s me; or they never would bring me to this dreadful slaughterhouse. They know my name, but they don’t know it’s the same man. Stop my execution—for charity’s sake stop my execution, gentlemen—till they can be told that I’ve been hangman here, nigh thirty year. Will no one go and tell them?’ he implored, clenching his hands and glaring round, and round, and round again—‘will no charitable person go and tell them!’"
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Ch. 77.
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Barnaby Rudge
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty was published in November, 1841, and was Charles Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel, set during the Gordon Riots of 1780. It was one of two Dickens novels published in his short-lived weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock. Barnaby Rudge was originally planned to be his first published novel, but changes by the publisher led to extended delays, which caused it to be his fifth published novel.
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