By IF. IF. RavenhUl, Esq. 5 



die, ris do nothing unworthy that virtue in which we have mutually supported 

 bach other, and for which I desire you not repine that I am first to be rewarded; 

 since you ever preferred me to yourself in all other things, afford me, with 

 cheerfulness, the precedence in this. * 



I desire your prayers in the articles of death, for my own will then be offered 

 for you and yours. 



J. Pen ruddock. " 



Unfortunately he does not tell us whether he had ever seen the 

 original j or what was his authority for this letter. We cannot feel 

 certain whether either of the above letters was ever penned by Colonel 

 Penruddoek. The one has the weight which attaches to a publication 

 made soon after the event. The other has no date at all, and there 

 are not a sufficient number of the Coloners undoubted letters left 

 to us to judge from the style. It may be there was a second letter 

 from Mrs. Penruddoek to her husband, during the thirteen days 

 he still survived, and that the latter is an answer to that, but that 

 is mere conjecture, so I pass on. 



The morning of Wednesday, the 16th of May, dawned on a 

 scaffold set for the execution, in that noble amphitheatre the castle 

 yard at Exeter. The bright green foliage of the fine old trees 

 which surrounded it, then alive with the song and hum of young 

 spring bird and insect, must have contrasted strangely with the 

 black-clothed mournful groups, and the tolling bell. 



The executioner has made his preparations — the block is placed, 

 the axe gleams in the sun, and the sawdust is thrown round — the 

 hour of death has come ! 



We know not the friends who were present to support Penruddoek 

 and Grove on the occasion. But we may fairly presume that 

 George Penruddoek, the former's eldest son, Mr. Bowman, who 

 preserved the notes of Sergeant Glynne's sentence of death, and 

 Mr. Martin, the Vicar of Compton Chamberlain, were there, and 

 some relations of Hugh Grove, together with Doctors Short and 

 Flavell, apparently two clergymen of the Church of England, who 

 assisted the condemned with ministrations during their last hours. 



The following accounts of what happened are from manuscripts 

 now at Compton and Zeals, which have a genuine appearance, though 



" Se invicem anteponendo " Tacitus.— A gricola, 



