The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1835-03-18

Some are of opinion, that even then the ATTEMPT
escape in accordance with all his other course
OF conduct, and designed to obtain the delay which
he imagined would carry the time beyond the hour
named IN the sentence, and thus save hi, life. This
is corroborated hy the fact of his having inquired of
his COUNSEL after ne shtouded, whether, if he
could keep the execution off till after o'clock, he
the counsel, would interfere in his behalf The re-
ply simply admonished him that no such procrast-
nation could take place. When he leaped from the
scaffold, he told the Sheriff he would escape if he
could.
Then ensued scene OF horror, which we pray,
may find no parallel hereafter in the execution OF The
laws. The hopeless agony of the criminal was dis
played in obstinate resistance to the performance oi
the necessary duties of the agents of the law; and
even when at last suspended from the fatal cord,
his desperate clinging to the life he had forfeited,
was shown by struggles to free his arms from the
inions and clutching at the rope. lie succeeded
thrusting his hands between the rope and his throat
uhd thus resisting and struggling to the last-ded
despairng, and for augh that human eye could read
impenitent. The last five minutes of his life were
marked by horror of dying, prosration of ener-
gies as remarkable the stenness of nerve and
Areckess sleyity of carriage which had signazed him
during the whole of the trial. and in the interval be-
tween condemnation and execution, up to that mo-
ment
Such was the end of Charles Il. :. Royiugton,-
a dreadful end of a bloody tale. The horror OF The
punishment with which it closes, compares fifty, III
tragic itensity ofneres,-with the terrible atrocity
of the crime. The victim-a gentle and conhdlng
Invalid fell by the hand of an assassln-hlS profess
sed friend,-in an open thoroughtare, beneath the
walls of the grave yard,-the busy hum of human
voices warning him of the neghbourhood of busy
hfe and the tombs of the dead speaking to the
murderer of the end of life,-the beginning of eer-
nifty.
The interval is filled with strong excitement hot
chase of the fugtve singular Development OF CIR
cumstancal evidence, Imprisonment, trial, and con-
demnaon courage almost supernatural; levity
sometimes approaching Of the ordinary attr-
butes of human nature ingenuity and address
which staggered belief, and confidence which held
out against reason, and upheld by iron nerves, sus-
tanned the convict to the very portals of the grave to
which human retribution had doomed him. Then,
at that last moment the fierce and abrupt re-
action of nature against the dcccits of self dcluslon,
and the smulants of artificial courage and false
hope, delivering the whole SOUL shattered and un-
nerycd into the dominion of perfect helpless despair
These are awful pictures of human nature such Us
ii rarely presents. May hcy be warnings for good,
lessons potent than the cNhortatons OF the NOR
ast divine, to the practice of set-goycrnmcnt,-
the rule of the passions, aud the early trainings Of
the heart, to those fixed principles Of conduct, and
Of the life habits of industry, the want Of which,
led Boyington step by step to such guilt and such
punishment.