Dennis and Hugh were in the courtyard. "No reprieve, no reprieve! Nobody
comes near us. There's only the night left now!" moaned Dennis. "Do you
think they'll reprieve me in the night, brother? I've known reprieves
come in the night afore now. Don't you think there's a good chance yet?
Don't you? Say you do."

"You ought to be the best instead of the worst," said Hugh, stopping
before him. "Ha, ha, ha! See the hangman when it comes home to him."

The clock struck. Barnaby looked in his mother's face, and saw that the
time had come. After a long embrace he rushed away, and they carried her
away, insensible.

"See the hangman when it comes home to him!" cried Hugh, as Dennis,
still moaning, fell down in a fit. "Courage, bold Barnaby, what care we?
A man can die but once. If you wake in the night, sing that out lustily,
and fall asleep again."

The time wore on. Five o'clock had struck--six--seven--and eight. They
were to die at noon, and in the crowd without it was said they could
tell the hangman, when he came out, by his being the shorter one, and
that the man who was to suffer with him was named Hugh; and that it was
Barnaby Rudge who would be hanged in Bloomsbury Square.

At the first stroke of twelve the prison bell began to toll, and the
three were brought forth into the yard together.

Barnaby was the only one who had washed or trimmed himself that morning.
He still wore the broken peacock's feathers in his hat; and all his