And straight to execution
Poor pussy she was drawn,
And high hang'd up upon a tree -
The preacher sung a psalm.
And when the work was ended,
They thought the cat near dead,
She gave a paw, and then a mew,
And stretched out her head.
Thy name, said he, shall certainly
A beacon still remain,
A terror unto evil ones
For evermore, Amen.
Ballad: The Royal Feast
A Loyall Song of the Royall Feast kept by the Prisoners in the
Towre, August last, with the Names, Titles, and Characters of every
Prisoner. By Sir F. W., Knight and Baronet, Prisoner. (Sept.
16th, 1647.)
"In the negotiations between the King and the Parliament during the
summer and autumn of this year," says Mr Thomas Wright in his
Political Ballads of the Commonwealth, published for the Percy
Society, "the case of the royalist prisoners in the Tower was
frequently brought into question. The latter seized the occasion
of complaining against the rigours (complaints apparently
exaggerated) which were exerted against them, and on the 16th June,
1647, was published 'A True Relation of the cruell and unparallel'd
Oppression which hath been illegally imposed upon the Gentlemen
Prisoners in the Tower of London.' The several petitions contained
in this tract have the signatures of Francis Howard, Henry
Bedingfield, Walter Blount, Giles Strangwaies, Francis Butler,
Henry Vaughan, Thomas Lunsford, Richard Gibson, Tho.
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