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flicting sensations than any other regiment on the ground.
" Cooke and Parish were both young men, and behaved with uncommon firmness and resignation; they marched through the lines with a steady step, and regarded their coffins with an undaunted eye.
" On the morning of his execution Cooke wrote to his brother a letter, the original of which is in the possession of the author of this book. It is written in a free and bold style, very different to what might be expected from a man under sentence and at the point of an ignominious death. The following is a correct copy, verbatim et literatim, of the original:—
" ' Brighton, 13th of June, 1795. " ' Dear Brother,—This comes with my kind Love to you, and I hope you be well. I am brought very low and weak by long confinement and been in great trouble. Dear Brother,—I am sentenced Death, and must Die on Saturday, the 13th of June; and I hope God Almighty will forgive me my Sins. I never was no body's foe but my own, and that was in Drinking and breaking the Sabbath, and that is a great Sin. I have prayed night and Day to the Almighty God to forgive me and take me to Heaven, and I hope my prayers be not in vain. I am going to die for what the Redgment done ; I am not afraid to meet Death, for I have done no harm to no person, and that is a great comfort to me: there is a just God in heaven that knows I am going to suffer innocently. Dear Brother,—I should be very glad to see you before 1 Depart this Life. I hope God Almighty will be a Guardian over you and all my relations, and I hope we shall meet in heaven, where we shall be ever happy without End. So no more from the hand of your ever loving and Dying Brother,
'"Edward Cooke.'"
" A print extant of the execution of these misguided men is in the possession of Mr. George Shelley, Churchwarden. It is thus inscribed:—
"'The Awful Scene or Ceremony of the Two Soldiers belonging to the Oxfordshire Militia, which were shot on June 13th, 1795, in a Vale, while in Camp at Brighton, by a party of the Oxfordshire Militia which were very Active in the late riots, the men appeared vei-y composed and resigned, the party which shot them were much affected, Infantry and Artillery, were drawn up in lines on the occasion.'" F |
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