Llofruddiaeth Caerfyrddin, Thomas yn cael ei grogi/Carmarthen Murder. The Execution

← Llofruddiaeth Caerfyrddin, Thomas yn cael ei grogi

Llofruddiaeth Caerfyrddin, Thomas yn cael ei grogi gan Anhysbys

→

Carmarthen Murder.
The Execution.

The last act in this awful Tradegy was played in Carmarthen Goal at eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, Feb. 13,1894. After the trial, efforts were made to get the sentence repealed, but to no effect. Billington arrived on Monday afternoon, and found the arrangements complete. The chaplain arrived in the goal early in the morning and remained with the prisoner till the end. The procession to the scaffold was formed a few minutes before eight, and as the clock struck eight the black flag was seen arising over the gates, signifying that the dread act had been accomplished. No persons were allowed to witness the execution except the officials.

Fair arose the sun on Tuesday,
While the birds sang in the air,
Fair was nature's pleasing prospect,
No one seemed to have a care;
But in yonder gloomy dungeon
Lies a man in broken sleep,
Who can tell the dreams and visions
Which do through his memory creep?

See, the Warder now awakes him:-
"Rise up now, your time is come,
Soon you'll sleep a deeper slumber,
Undisturbed by rising sun."
Ere he's dressed, the chaplain comes in
To direct his thoughts on high,
But the prisoner without motion
Hears all that he has to say.

Swiftly are the minutes flying,
Now the hangman's at the door,
While the bell of old Saint Peter's
Slowly tolls out evermore;
There's the governor and doctors
And the sheriff's come to see
The sharp sword of justice falling
As our country's laws decree.

Now they move on to the scaffold,
Thomas there is safely bound,
While the chaplain is repeating
Words of deep and solemn sound;
Loud the bell tolls from the steeple,
Who can tell the prisoner's thought,
As he stands beneath the gallows
Where his crime has thus him brought.

A white cap his face encloses,
Billington then jumps aside,
In an instant, when the bolts pulled,
Does the platform then divide;
All is over in a moment,
A black flag is raised on high,
For an hour the corpse is hanging
In the spot where he did die.

Now this Tragedy is ended,
In our memory long 'twill dwell,
It will be to as a warning
To resist the sins of hell;
O young men of this our country
Keep from all temptations wrong,
Learn to walk in paths of virtue,
In the struggle be thou strong.