about nine o'clock
I had a name as a strong man : God only knew how weak I was ; for I did not even know it myself . * * * * * There was a great crowd on Tower Hill to see my Lord Stafford 's execution ; for not only was he well known , although , as I have said , not greatly beloved ; but the rumours were got about -- and that they were true enough I knew from Mr. Chiffinch -- that he had said very strange things about my Lord Shaftesbury , and how he could save his own life if he willed , not by confessing anything of which he himself had been accused , but by relating certain matters in which my Lord Shaftesbury was concerned . However , he did not ; yet the tale had gone about that perhaps he would ; and that a reprieve might come even upon the scaffold itself . When I came to Tower Hill on horseback , about nine o'clock , the crowd covered the most of it ; but I drove my horse through a little , so that I could have a fair sight both of the scaffold , and of the way , kept clear by soldiers , along which the prisoner must come . I had not been there above a few minutes , when a company went by , and in the midst the two sheriffs , on horseback , whose business it was to carry through the execution ; and they drew up outside the gate , to preserve the liberties of the Tower . While they were waiting , I watched those that were upon the scaffold -- two writers to take down all that was said ; and the headsman with his axe in a cloth -- but this he presently uncovered -- and the block which he laid down upon the black baize put ready for it , and for the prisoner to lie down upon . Then the coffin was put up behind , with but the two letters W.S. as I heard afterwards : and the year 1680 .