Part 32 (1/2)
That night Dotey and Lister slept in two rooms under guard, and the next morning the freemen of the colony were convened in the Common house to judge their case. With them Billington was also summoned, although neither Dotey nor Lister had betrayed his complicity.
Accused of deliberate a.s.sault upon each other with deadly weapons both men humbly pleaded guilty and expressed their penitence, but to this Bradford gravely replied,--
”Glad are we to know that ye are penitent, and resolved upon amendment, but ne'er the less we cannot therefore omit some signal punishment both to make a serious impression upon your own memories, and to advertise to all other evil-doers that we bear not the sword of justice in vain.
Brethren, I pray you speak your minds. What ought to be done to these would-be murderers?”
”In the army they would have earned a flogging,” remarked the captain sitting at the governor's right hand.
”Perhaps solitary confinement with fasting would subdue the angry heat of their blood most effectually,” said the elder at Bradford's other side.
”Had we a pillory or a pair of stocks I would advise that public disgrace,” said Winslow; and Allerton suggested,--
”They might be fined for the benefit of the public purse.”
”If the Governor will leave them to me I'll promise to trounce them well, and after, to set them extra tasks for a month or so,” offered Hopkins; and Alden murmured to Howland,--
”Allerton is treasurer of the public purse, and Hopkins will profit by the extra labor, mark you!”
”What is thy counsel, Surgeon Fuller?” inquired Bradford, and the whimsical doctor replied,--
”I once saw two fellows in a little village of Suss.e.x lying upon the stones of the market-place, tied neck and heels, and methinks I never have heard such ingenious profanity as those men were yelling each at his unseen comrade. I asked the publican where I baited my horse the cause of so strange a spectacle, and he said this was their manner of disciplining brawlers in the ale-house. They were to lie there four-and-twenty hours without bite or sup, and so I left them. Methinks it were a suitable discipline in this case, but I may fairly hope the profanity of those unenlightened rustics will give place with our erring brethren to sighs of penitence and sorrow.”
”What think you, brethren, of our good surgeon's suggestion?” asked Bradford, restraining the smile tempting the corners of his mouth. ”It approves itself to me as a fair sentence. Will those who are so minded raise their right hands?”
The larger number of right hands rose in the air, and the sentence was p.r.o.nounced that so soon as the doctor a.s.sured the authorities that the wounded men would take no harm from the exposure, the duelists, bound neck and heels, should be laid at the meeting of the four roads, there to remain four-and-twenty hours without food or water, and until that time each was to remain locked in a separate chamber.
”And now John Billington,” continued Bradford sternly, as the younger men were removed, ”how hast thou to defend thyself from the charge of blood guiltiness in stirring up strife between these two?”
”Nay, your wors.h.i.+p, it was their own quarrel,” replied Billington hardily. ”I did but chance to pa.s.s and saw them at it, and so tarried a moment to see fair play.”
”And to hound them on at each other, as if it were a bull-baiting for thine own amus.e.m.e.nt,” interposed Standish in a contemptuous tone. ”Nay, lie not about it, man! I heard thee, and saw thee!”
”Surely, Billington,” resumed the governor, ”thou hast not so soon forgotten how thou wast convened before us some weeks since, charged with insolence and disobedience to our captain, and with seditious speech anent the government. We did then speak of some such punishment as this for thee, but thy outcry of penitence and promise of amendment, coupled with the shame of chastising thee in sight of thine own wife and sons, was so great that we forgave thee, the more that Captain Standish pa.s.sed over the affront to himself; but now we see that the penitence was but feigned, and the amendment a thing of naught, and much I fear me, John Billington, that an' thou amend not thy ways, harsher discipline than we would willingly inflict will be thy portion in time to come.”
The governor spoke with more than usual solemnity fixing upon the offender a gaze severe yet pitiful and reluctant, as one who foresees for another a fate deserved indeed, and yet too terrible to contemplate.
Perhaps before that astute and reflective mind there rose a vision of the gallows nine years later to be erected by his own order, whereon John Billington, deliberate murderer of John Newcomen, should expiate his crime and open the gloomy record of capital punishment in New England.
At the present moment, however, the offender slunk away with his reproof, and the meeting proceeded to consider other matters, for, while the new government felt itself competent to deal with matters of life and death, it also found no matter too trifling for its attention.
Four days later Edward Dotey and Edward Lister, their wounds comfortably healed, were brought out into the market place as in fond reminiscence of home the Pilgrims called what is now the Town Square of Plymouth, and each offender was solemnly tied neck and heels together,--an att.i.tude at once ignominious and painful.
The governor, with Allerton his a.s.sistant, the captain, the elder, Winslow, Hopkins, and Warren stood formally arrayed to witness the execution of the sentence, which Billington was forced to carry out. The less important members of the community surrounded the scene, and from amid the fluctuating crowd murmurs of amaze, of pity, of approval, or the reverse became from time to time audible.
”Nay, then, 't is a shame to see Christian men so served, and they so scarce a commodity in these parts,” declared Helen Billington to her neighbor Mistress Hopkins, who nippingly replied,--
”Mayhap we've mistook the men we've put in power.”
”Ay,” returned the coa.r.s.er malcontent. ”They pa.s.sed by thy goodman, and put worse men over his head.”