Note 84 — Chapter XI

[The following extract from our Author’s Private Correspondence in MS. corroborates the account given in the text, and as it contains some further particulars, may be acceptable to the reader.—E.]

“March 17, 1757.—Admiral Byng’s tragedy was completed on Monday—a perfect tragedy—for there were variety of incidents, villainy, murder, and a hero. His sufferings, persecutions, aspersions, disturbances, nay, the revolutions of his fate, had not in the least unhinged his mind; his whole behaviour was natural and firm. A few days before, one of his friends standing by him, said, ‘Which of us is tallest?’ He replied, ‘Why this ceremony? I know what it means; let the man come and measure me for my coffin.’ He said, that being acquitted of cowardice, and being persuaded, on the coolest reflection, that he had acted for the best, and should act so again, he was not unwilling to suffer. He desired to be shot on the quarter-deck, not where common malefactors are:—came out at twelve—sat down in a chair, for he would not kneel, and refused to have his face covered, that his countenance might show whether he feared death; but being told that it might frighten his executioners, he submitted; gave the signal at once; received one shot through the head, another through the heart, and fell.”