Note 311 — Chapter XX · THE SUPREME HOUR!
Reading edition
As Lady Jane’s “neckerchief” had been taken off before, one can but suppose that she meant to ask the headsman if he would cut her head off as she knelt with her body upright, as was sometimes done, and not with her head on the block. “Before I lay me down” may be a mistake for, “Without that I lay me down.” We may add that there is no mention in any contemporary record of Jane’s hands having been tied: probably she held them clasped in the attitude of prayer.