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His demeanour in the Tower is said to have been marked by 
a sullen haughtiness, which contrasted unfavourably with the meek 
resignation of his noble brother in similar circumstances. ‘Thirty 
years of exile had hardened rather than softened his temper. But, 
like the earl, he behaved with courage, constancy, and a lofty 
firmness ; and his manly bearing, as free from bravado as it was 
from weakness, well became the scion of a noble line. But of the 
last days of his eventful life, no particulars have come down to us, 
save that it is said in a contemporary periodical, that he seemed to 
disregard a devotional preparation for eternity, until, on the 4th of 
December, when he received a letter from his niece, Lady Petre, 
which seems to have recalled his attention to the necessity of 
preparing for the change that awaited him, because from that time 
he evinced a more religious deportment. On the night preceding 
his execution, he wrote the following letter to the Countess of 
Newburgh, his wife :— 
‘* From the Tower, 7th Decr., 1746. 
“*The best of friends takes leave of you. He has made his will. He is 
resigned—to-morrow is the day. Love his memory. Let his friends join with 
you in prayer: ’tis no misfortune to die prepared. Let us love our enemies 
and pray for them. Let my daughters be virtuous women like you; my 
blessing to them all; my kind love to Fanny,* that other tender mother of my 
dear children. 
** Adieu ! dear friend, 
“DERWENTWATER.” 
It seems that at first Government hesitated in their sanguinary 
purpose, for orders were not given until so near the time, that the 
carpenters worked the whole day and night of Sunday, in order to 
be ready for the fatal Monday, the 8th of December. About eight 
o’clock in the morning, two troops of life guards, a troop of horse 
grenadier guards, and a battalion of foot guards, marched to Little 
Tower Hill; the horse guards lining the way from the scaffold to 
the iron gate, while the rest of the forces surrounded the scaffold. 
Four months had not elapsed since, upon the same spot, a 
vast concourse of people had witnessed the decapitation of Lords 
*The Hon. Frances Clifford, daughter of his wife, Lady Newburgh, by 
her first marriage. 
