A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court by Mark Twain Chapter 35 Page 12

and ribald remarks, singing snatches of foul song, skipping, dancing — a very holiday of hellions, a sickening sight.

We had struck a suburb of London, outside the walls, and this was a sample of one sort of London society. Our master secured a good place for us near the gallows. A priest was in attendance, and he helped the girl climb up, and said comforting words to her, and made the under-sheriff provide a stool for her. Then he stood there by her on the gallows, and for a moment looked down upon the mass of upturned faces at his feet, then out over the solid pavement of heads that stretched away on every side occupying the vacancies far and near, and then began to tell the story of the case. And there was pity in his voice — how seldom a sound that was in that ignorant and savage land! I remember every