"Holding up his right hand, [he] said: "This hand did I put to the plow and got my living by it many years. If it would have pleased Her Highness to have pardoned it and have taken my left hand, or my life, she had dealt more favorably with me, for now I have no means to live; but God, which is the father of us all, will provide for me. I beseech you all to pray for me that I may take this punishment patiently." And so [he] laid his hand upon the block and prayed the executioner quickly to dispatch him; and so at two blows his hand was smitten off, and so, lifting up the stump, [he] said to the people, "I have left there a true Englishman's hand," and so went from the scaffold very stoutly and with a very great courage."
January 1, 1970