four in the morning
They had thought that the clergyman having been sent for , the sentence was immediately to be executed , but I undeceived them ; and , in ten minutes after they were condemned , they were marched off under a strong escort of foot to the jail . I must make a long story short . Two days afterwards , I was ordered with the launch to Kingston , early in the morning , to receive twenty-five of the pirates who had been ordered for execution that morning at Gallows Point . It was little past four in the morning when we arrived at the Wherry wharf , where they were already clustered , with their hands pinioned behind their backs , silent and sad , but all of them calm , and evincing no unmanly fear of death . I do n't know if other people have noticed it , but this was one of several instances where I have seen foreigners -- Frenchmen , Italians , and Spaniards , for instance -- meet death , inevitable death , with greater firmness than British soldiers or sailors . Let me explain . In the field , or grappling in mortal combat , on the blood-slippery quarterdeck of an enemy 's vessel , British soldier or sailor is the bravest of the brave .