The laughing crowds jeer as I am hung, as I climb up the gallows stairs. Rotted tomatoes and wormy cabbage fly past my condemned head as the sack is put over it. The old sweaty smell of the prisoners before nauseate me. Suddenly I taste blood in my mouth, and I realize I've bitten my lip...

...

The body catapaults down,
Swinging,
Jarred.
As if the puppetmaster has fallen, and a hasty juvenile has taken his place.
And the ropemaster decrees:

"Hear ye, Hear ye! This is an example of what happens to those that rebuke the queen, those who refuse to accept the new law and religion! Hear ye, Hear ye!"