noon
For Katharine of Aragon he had seen die ; and Anne Boleyn had died on the scaffold ; and Jane Seymour was dead in childbed ; and now , with the news from Cleves , Anne 's reign was over and done with . ` Four queens , ' he repeated . And , turning swiftly to the door , he commanded that Throckmorton be sent him at once when he came to the archway . In the great place of Smithfield , towards noon , Thomas Culpepper sat his horse on the outskirts of the crowd . By his side Hogben , the gatewarden , had much ado to hold his pikestaff across his horse 's crupper in the thick of the people . The pavement of heads filled the place -- bare some of them , some of them covered , according as their owners had cast their caps on high for joy at the Bishop of Worcester 's words against the Papist that was to be burned , or as they pressed their thumbs harder down in disfavour and waited to shew their joy at the hanging of the three Protestants that should follow . In the centre towered on high a great gallows from which depended a chain ; and at the end of the chain , half-hidden by the people , but shewing his shoulders and his head , a man in a friar 's cowl .