For one convict woman, trial by water was a far better fate than death by fair

1. Write in the transcription and memorize the following words:

? In what meaning do you expect these words in the text? (Underline)

convict trial jail fate felon feigned counterfeit forge guilty stake to be hanged flaming scaffold deceitfully		осудить, признать виновным испытание, проба, суд тюрьма судьба, рок, удел уголовный преступник притворный подделывать, подражать кузница, подделывать виновный кол, столб, ставка быть повешенным пламенеющий эшафот, леса (строит.) вероломно, предательски, обманчиво
execution		выполнение, свершение, использование, казнь, приведение в исполнение

2. Read and translate the text.

There were other ways to clear the jails of convicted felons than to transport them to the other side of the world. Among those awaiting execution in Newgate prison in June 1788 were two men and two women who had been convicted that they "one piece of false, feigned and counterfeit money and coin, to the likeness of one shilling, falsely and deceitfully, feloniously and traitorously, did forge, counterfeit and coin".

The law decreed that women guilty of counterfeiting money, which was high treason, were burnt at the stake. Men went to the gallows.

On Monday, June 23, 1788, all four were told the date of their execution. The two men were to be hanged on the Wednesday. One of the women, Margaret Sullivan, would die the same day. The execution of the second woman, Catherine Heyland, would be stayed for a month.

Heyland, 34, had found a sponsor in Sheriff Bloxham, who was responsible for executions in the City of London. To his mind she was innocent — or not so guilty that she deserved to burn. He had already seen one burning at the stake. It was not easily forgotten.

The Times attacked the barbarity of the sentence on Sullivan: "Must not mankind laugh at our long speeches against African slavery ... when ... we roast a fellow creature alive, for putting a pennyworth of quicksilver into a halfpennyworth of brass?"

She spent Tuesday night in prayer with a Catholic priest, refusing a gift of strawberries sent by Bloxham's wife. The prisoners in Newgate heard crowds gather in St Paul's churchyard and the inns of the Old Bailey in the early morning. At 6am, St Sepulchre's bell began to toll.

Bloxham's men assembled the apparatus of execution: a covered-in walkway from the Debtors' Gate, and steps leading on to the portable scaffold, which towered to three times a man's height.

People struggled for the best view. The King's Head and the Four Kings, the two inns closest to the execution place, did roaring business: at the Magpie and Stump, miniature gallows were on sale.

At 7am, the two condemned men — hooded, their hands tied behind their backs — were led to the scaffold. The nooses went round their necks. There was a roar of "Hats off!" and, for 45 minutes, the chaplain made a pious and inaudible speech. The platform dropped and the men kicked at the end of their ropes.

Fifteen minutes later Sullivan, in penitential white, emerged with the priest. She was taken to the stake and made to stand on a stool. Faggots were placed around her. With ceremony and deliberation, the sheriff's men appeared with flaming torches, and her body was ritually turned to ash before the crowd in the street. The dignitaries of the City, Bloxham among them, watched from a viewing platform.

The sickening smell floated down Newgate Street to the City and down the Strand to the Thames. London was shocked. Sullivan's execution was seen as savage, senseless, utterly out of step with enlightened thinking.

Heyland was due to burn in four weeks' time, on July 21. Parliament was in recess, and the court officials who could save her were in the country for the summer. Three and a half weeks passed without word from them.

By the last of the evening light on Sunday, July 20, men prepared the equipment for her execution outside the prison. Inside, Heyland was with the chaplain. Gifts and notes arrived from well-wishers.

While she prayed, Bloxham galloped towards a country house where the secretary of state was spending the weekend.

He arrived at 3am, demanded to be taken to his lordship’s bedroom and within an hour was galloping back to London with the paper.

Already the crowds were gathering in St Sepulchre’s yard.

Two hours before the torches were due to light the faggots, Heyland was allowed a further four days of life.

The stake was dismantled, the faggots carted away. On Monday, the secretary of state was back in London, importuned by Bloxham to extend Catherine’s reprieve. On July 24, when orders had again been given to bring back the faggots, a paper arrived which reprieved her from her dreadful penalty during His Majesty’s pleasure.

It was not a complete reprieve. In March 1789, Heyland listened to the burning of another female coiner, 19-year-old Christian Murphy, and knew it was a spectacle in which she might still star.

In April, however, King George III officially regained his wits and a national day of thanksgiving was celebrated. Some of the convicts condemned to die were pardoned. Heyland was among them. She was sentenced to transportation for the rest of her natural life and was removed to the Lady Julian for the journey to New South Wales.

3. Answer the questions:

1. What were the other ways to clear jails of convicted felons?

2. When were four felons told the date of their execution?

3. Who was Catherine Heyland?

4. What happened on July 20, 1788?

5. Who reprieved Heyland from her dreadful penalty?

4. Give the synonyms to the words:

Jail (n) Fate (n) Convict (v) Execution (n) Counterfeit (v)

Kill (v) Trail (n) Feigned (adj) Flaming (adj) Forge (n)

5. Translate the sentences into English:

1. Закон гласил, что женщина, виновная в подделке денег, должна быть сожжена у столба.

2. В июне 1788 года все четверо были приговорены к казни.

3. По мнению судьи, женщина была невиновна или не настолько виновна, чтобы быть казнённой через сожжение.

4. Двое осуждённых мужчин, руки которых были связаны, а на голове у них были капюшоны, взошли на эшафот.

5. 24 июля 1788 года пришла бумага, которая оправдывала Катрин Хейленд и освобождала её из заключения.

6. Make up your own sentences with the words (see task 1).

7. Discuss the topics:

1. What was the fate of Catherine Heyland?

2. What do you think about those dreadful penalties in the eightieth century?