shipmaster had remained his close companion after their common arrest.
Hence, fortuitously, had they been chained together in the crowded
prison, where they were almost suffocated by the heat and the stench
during those days of July, August, and September.

Scraps of news filtered into the gaol from the outside world. Some
may have been deliberately allowed to penetrate. Of these was the
tale of Monmouth's execution. It created profoundest dismay amongst
those men who were suffering for the Duke and for the religious cause
he had professed to champion. Many refused utterly to believe it.
A wild story began to circulate that a man resembling Monmouth had
offered himself up in the Duke's stead, and that Monmouth survived
to come again in glory to deliver Zion and make war upon Babylon.

Mr. Blood heard that tale with the same indifference with which he
had received the news of Monmouth's death. But one shameful thing
he heard in connection with this which left him not quite so unmoved,
and served to nourish the contempt he was forming for King James.
His Majesty had consented to see Monmouth. To have done so unless
he intended to pardon him was a thing execrable and damnable beyond
belief; for the only other object in granting that interview could
be the evilly mean satisfaction of spurning the abject penitence of
his unfortunate nephew.

Later they heard that Lord Grey, who after the Duke - indeed,
perhaps, before him - was the main leader of the rebellion, had
purchased his own pardon for forty thousand pounds. Peter Blood
found this of a piece with the rest. His contempt for King James
blazed out at last.