HOW CHARLES I. WAS BEHEADED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5838, 3 April 1897, Page 1

HOW CHARLES I. WAS BEHEADED.

The anniversary study whioh forms so valuable a feature in Comhill is this mouth devoted to the execution of Charles I. which took place on Jan. 30, 1649. The writer, Mr 0. H. Firth, thus describes the last scene in that tragedy at Whitehall :— From the middle window of the Banqueting House Charles stepped .out on the scaffold. He was dressed in. black from head to foot, but not .in mourning, and wore the George and the ribbon of the Garter. The scaffold was covered with black cloth, aud from the railings round it, which were as high as a man's waist, black hangings drooped. In the middle of the scaffold lay the block, " a little piece of wood flat at bottom, about a foot and a half long," and about six inches high. By it lay " the bright execution axe for executing malefactors," which had been procured from the Tower— probably tlio very axe which had beheaded Strafford. Near the block stood two masked men; both were dressed in close-fitting frocks— "like sailors " said one spectator, " like butchers " said another. One of them wore a grizzled periwig, and seemed by his grey beard an old man. Immediately round the foot of the scaffold stood ranks of soldiers, horse and foot, and behind them a thronging mass of men and women. Other watchers filled the windows and the roofs of the houses round. Seeing '.'.-'' „; 3 voice could not reach the people, charles addressed himself to the persons on the scaffold— some fourteen or fifteen in number * * * * When he had done, the King put his long hair under his cap, helped by Juxon aud the greybearded man in the mask, and spoke a few words with Juxon. He took off his cloak and doublet, gave his George to the bishop, and bade the executioner set the block fast. Then, as he stood, he said two or three words to himself with hands and oyes lifted up, and, lying down, placed his neck on the block. For a moment he lay there praying; his eye shining, said one of those who watched, as brisk and lively as ever he had seen it. Suddenly he stretched forth his hands, and with ono blow the gray-bearded man severed his head from his body. It was now, noted another spectator, precisely four minutes past two. The other masked man took, the King s head, and without a word held it up to the 1

people. A groan broke from the thousands round the scaffold ; " such a groau," writes i Philip Henry, '' as I never heard before, and desire I may never hear again."