noon
The compressed spring will at last recoil with power proportionate to the force by which it has been restrained -- and freed posterity will avenge on a future tyrant my cruel and unnatural murder . '' Hansford sat down , and Sir William Berkeley , flushed with indignation , replied , `` I had hoped that the near approach of death , if not a higher motive , would have saved us from such treasonable sentiments . But , sir , the insolence of your manner has checked any sympathy which I might have entertained for your early fate . I , therefore , have only to pronounce the judgment of the court ; that you be taken to the place whence you came , and there safely kept until to-morrow noon , when you will be taken , with a rope about your neck , to the common gallows , and there hung by the neck until you are dead . And may the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on your soul ! '' `` Amen ! '' was murmured , in sad whispers , by the hundreds of pale spectators who crowded around the unhappy prisoner .