to the House of Lords he insisted that, as a point of honour, he
was bound to make good the assurances given in his proclamation
of Breda, "which if I had not made," he continued, "I am
persuaded that neither I nor you had now been here. I pray,
therefore, let us not deceive those who brought or permitted us
to come together; and I earnestly desire you to depart from all
particular animosities and revenge or memory of past
provocations." Accordingly, but ten of those on whom sentence of
death had been passed were executed, the remainder being
committed to the Tower. That they were not also hung was,
according to the mild and merciful Dr. Reeves, Dean of
Westminster, "a main cause of God's punishing the land" in the
future time. For those destined to suffer, a gibbet was erected
at Charing Cross, that the traitors might in their last moments
see the spot where the late king had been executed. Having been
half hung, they were taken down, when their heads were severed
from their trunks and set up on poles at the south-east end of
Westminster Hall, whilst their bodies were quartered and exposed
upon the city gates.

Burnet tells us that "the regicides being odious beyond all
expression, the trials and executions of the first who suffered
were run to by crowds, and all the people seemed pleased with the
sight;" yet by degrees these cruel and ghastly spectacles became
distasteful and disgusting. "I saw not their executions," says
Evelyn, speaking of four of the traitors who had suffered death
on the 17th of October, "but met their quarters mangled and cutt
and reeking as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on
the hurdle. Oh the miraculous providence of God!"