30 REMINISCENCES OF 



years. One day I was at Woolwich at the Artillery 

 Barracks. I wanted to get a patrol jacket as a 

 pattern for the Fife Light Horse. I asked Major 

 Talbot, with whom I was staying, if he could help 

 me. He said, " Come along to the Arsenal," and 

 being shown into the Governor's room I found my 

 old friend Henry Gordon. We rushed into each 

 other's arms. This was not very long before his 

 brother's death, and he was shortly afterwards made 

 a baronet. 



One morning we saw an execution. Three men 

 had their heads cut off with a sword. A wooden 

 shed was erected in the middle of a great plain, and 

 many thousands of people were present. It took 

 place soon after daylight on a winter morning. The 

 victim was placed in a chair with his arms tied. 

 The Scharfrichter stood on his left rear, with a broad 

 square-pointed sword. He did not raise his hand, 

 but brought it from right to left with a sweeping cut, 

 and the man's head just rolled away down an inclined 

 wooden trough, and the body was slipped into a coffin 

 at the bottom. The third man was very much excited, 

 and I distinctly heard him say, " Ich bin unschuldig 

 vor die Augen von Himmel ". He would not sit still, 

 and one of the assistants held him by the hair while 

 the executioner cut his head off. This was about 

 the last time an execution of the kind ever took 

 place. They were all three chimney-sweeps, and 

 had murdered an old woman to get possession of 

 her money, but only succeeded in finding a few 

 groschen. 



