Chapter 1: The Gibbet - the story of the First Victim By Mathew Hopkins
The constable rode out to the crossroads to see how the workmen were doing. A Gibbet had been ordered placed here earlier in the week and the structure was now being built. Located just a few yards off the roadway, it was positioned so that passersby would be able to see the severity with which criminals were dealt with. It's victims would be left to rot here . A sign stating the victim's crimes would be placed where all could see.
As he rode up he could see that the work was about finished. The workmen had built the structure, of dark oak that was then covered with black paint. It was set into the ground four feet deep and the base backfilled with stone and wedges hammered in to hold it upright. From base to crossbar it measured 20 feet high. A snatch block pulley was hung from the crossbar and a ladder was left for the hangman to put the rope into it. The victim would be pulled up and the rope tied off.
To test the sturdiness of the structure the workman had tested it by suspending almost 400 lbs on it for several minutes. It had creaked a bit under the strain but stood firm even when the weight was pushed until the rope finally gave way.
The Constable was satisfied with the structure and payed the workman on the spot. The workmen left for their homes leaving a length of rope with an appropriate noose hanging as they left.
A suitable Victim
The Constable and his escort rode to a tavern that was just down the road from the Gibbet and went in for some ale. There were ten others in the tavern, plus the owner and his wife. Three young women served the tables while two others plied their own trade with the patrons leading them upstairs.
The Constable watched the people while his three companions drank ale and flirted with the prostitutes and the serving maids.
When the Constable went out back to relieve himself, one of the whores followed. Turning around he saw the young girl was leaning against the wall watching him, legs crossed with a flirtatious smile and twirling one of her strawberry blonde curls with her finger. The Constable studied the girl for a few seconds as she stared teasingly at him with her head slightly cocked to one side.
She was a pretty girl of about 18 years of age, he thought. She stood barely four and half feet tall on her small bare feet and was so slim that her bones seemed ready to protrude through her flesh in places . She still possessed a quiet sensuality and appeared quite appealing nonetheless.. Her long reddish blonde hair fell in gentle curls over her bare shoulders and her blue green eyes sparkled under long eyelashes. Her small mouth seemed fixed into a constant flirtatious smirk that showed surprisingly white teeth.
Her oversized unbleached linen blouse was loose fitting, closed at the front by two wooden buttons and held up by a drawstring which she tied loosely so that it left her shoulders and the tops of her small lightly freckled breasts bare. Her unhemmed calf length skirt was full and made of faded and somewhat threadbare, blue colored broad cloth with badly embroidered flowers stitched around it and held up by a faded red sash.. The tattered hemline was dirty and it was torn up the side so that most of her shapely leg could be seen as she stood there.
The girl smiled her most flirtatious smile and said "You know, there's other uses for that thing asides pissin, Luv. For a few pfennig I could show ye"
"I bet you could do just that, " he responded while tying up his trousers.
The girl stepped up to him and put her arms around his neck and standing on her tip toes gave him a warm kiss. He put his arms around her tiny body and returned the kiss. Her young body responded willingly to his embrace. He backed away and looked at her again as she stood there and decided that she would be the first victim for his new gibbet.
"Does any body know that you came out side? he asked, while looking around to see if anyone was around.
"No, but don' matter. she replied playfully. "I'm a free woman and I come and go where I please and do as I wish" she continued, smiling.
She looked at the coins in disbelief then smiled. " Don't want to be seen with me, eh? All right, nobody will know I've gone" she replied, "it will be our secret".
"Good", he answered. Then he kissed her gently on the lips and went around to the front of the building , got his horse and rode off down the road to the stream.
The girl stood there for a minute ,stunned. She looked at the coins ,then with a smile she put them into the sash and walked cheerfully into the woods that were behind the tavern making sure there was nobody around to see her. She followed a small trail that led to the stream and then onward to the place that he had told her and sat on some rocks and waited. She had no idea of the danger that she was in. All she could think about was the two silver coins that were in her sash. She was used to getting a few pennies for her services but two silver coins were unbelievable to her. It didn't matter to her that the man was scarred and wore a patch over his eye; she had been with far worse looking men, and at least he didn't smell, like some that she had been with.. It did seem suspicious that he wanted to keep their meeting a secret but for 5 silver coins! she didn't care. Perhaps he was married or just didn't want to be seen with the likes of her. It didn't really matter, did it? She could go into the city and buy some new clothes in the morning and....
The day was bright and warm, the afternoon sky, clear and deep blue and a gentle breeze made the heat of the day bearable. She sat so caught up in her thoughts about in the new clothes that she would buy with her silver coins, that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her until the last second.
"It must be him", she thought. In anticipation she turned to face her lover only to be met by a sudden blow to the head which rendered her instantly unconscious and she fell limply to the ground.
The constable bent down and grabbed the girl by one wrist and turned and walked up the hill to the road efortlessly dragging her limp body behind him. It was but a short walk to the gibbet where he had tied his horse. He turned her onto her stomach under the gibbet and cut a section off of the rope that had been left by the workmen and tied her hands behind her. He then turned her onto her back and slipped the noose over her head and under her long curls. and ripped off the two buttons that closed her blouse.
He took back the pieces of silver and put them back into his pocket then stood back to look at the girl again. In the bright afternoon sunlight her soft creamy skin seemed to shine in contrast to the faded colors of her skirt and blouse. He admired the soft lines of her face and body, of the slender arms and legs and her tiny hands and petite feet.
After a few minutes the girl began to come to. Confused and dizzy with her head aching she looked around to see the constable standing by a tall post by the roadside. She didn't understand why she could not move her arms or why the man just stood there watching her at first. Then she looked up to see the rope hanging from the gibbet above her and suddenly realized that her hands were tied and felt the rope around her neck. She began to panic and rolled herself around and forced herself up to her knees. so that she was kneeling before the constable. The Constable pulled up the slack as she did, thus forcing her to stay on her knees and pulling the rope tightly around her throat..
Hysterical with fear the girl begged for her life and pleaded for her freedom but the constable remained unmoved. Instead he stepped up to the girl and stood there holding the rope in his right hand and and smiling down at her.
"What wouldst thou do to save your worthless life, my pretty little whore?" he asked with a sadistic sneer.
"Anything!! Anything you ask!, just please don't hurt me Please!" she cried.
"Would you take my member into your mouth and suck upon it until I come?" he asked.
"Yes!, yes if thou wouldst but spare my life good sir!" she cried desperately..
"And would you eat shit, if I command you to do so?" he asked.
Terrified now she cried "Yes if milord willed it, I would eat shit, just please do not hang me here, I don't want to die", she replied pathetically.
"And who would miss you if I did hang you? Nobody saw us together and I'm sure you told no one lest you lose your money. All Anyone may think is that you went into the city and maybe broke a law for which justice hoisted you on a rope. But, I doubt anyone will care or even notice that it is you rotting on this rope. No your life means nothing to anybody, so nothing is lost when you die", he said . The effect of his words cut her deeply because she knew he was right and she cried the tears of one who is without hope.
The Constable knelt in front of her so that he could face her eye to eye and stared cruelly into her eyes.
"You are but a filthy little worthless whore, not fit to live, not fit even to breathe the air of good decent people. Here I shall hang you and leave you to rot. You'll swing here until the maggots have picked your bones clean and they fall into the dust that you now kneel on and I dare say you will be unmissed and unmourned ." he said.
The girl realized that she was doomed and cried pathetically begging all the while. The constable stepped back and began pulling on the rope. As it tightened she was raised to her feet then onto her tip-toes and she gagged and gasped and cried. Tighter he pulled until her long slender toes no longer were on the ground and she began to swirl in the air kicking and squirming, like a fish on a hook.
He raised her up until her feet were almost twelve feet above the ground then stood back and watched her flail and kick in agony. For almost five minutes she struggled before her kicking finally became weaker and turned to twitching and the color left her body. By then he had tied off the rope and mounted his horse where he could look into her frantic eyes and watch her die.
Left to Rot
She suffered badly before death finally claimed her. The pain was horrible as the rope pinched her throat and her lungs felt as if they would burst. She wet herself and shit fell to the ground and stained her legs. Her blouse slipped off her shoulders and her sash came undone and fell to the ground as she struggled. She tried to plead for mercy but her throat was clamped shut. Her mind slowly became foggy until the pain subsided and her vision became dark and she died.
For some time he watched her body dangle limply and enjoyed watching her bare feet sway back and forth pointing her long toes first in this direction then that. Her lifeless eyes stared out beyond the horizon and her mouth was contorted in a frozen gasp with her blue tongue just visible, resting limply on her colorless lips. The impish smirk was gone now replaced by a blank tragic stare.
She was now half naked, with her two small breasts and their blueish pink nipples exposed for all to see . Her skirt, resting on her bony hips, billowed in the air like a flag baring her legs beneath her skirt like two pale shapely pendulums, whenever the wind blew. From the ground one might look up and see past the filthy soles of her bare feet, past her shape;y calves and beyond her thighs and see the light tuft of hair that marked where others had been so many times before. It was a pathetic ending for such a tender soul, because he had been right, nobody would notice or very much care as she swayed in the breeze, unmourned, unavenged and forgotten by all except the carrion birds.
Satisfied that the Gibbet was now suitably occupied, he turned his horse about and rode into town, leaving her silent corpse swaying gently, where she had died. There were other matters for him to attend to now and she was soon forgotten.
The day passed quietly at the gibbet. The sun slowly descended in the western sky as the breeze cooled the day until the evening brought a slight chill to the air. The wench swayed gently in that breeze, her hair tossed about, her skirts fluttering like a pennant, her body losing its color and stiffening with rigor as the hours passed. And all the while she was attended by increasing numbers of buzzing flies that explored her open eyes, and gaping mouth and moved into her ears and nostrils, with impunity.
Several travelers passed by, during the rest of the day, each looking at her with morbid curiosity and thinking the same sorts of things. "Who might she be?", "what had she done to get here?" and "such a pity, so pretty and left to rot here." Then each would continue their travel and put her out of their minds,; the sight of rotting corpses dangling by the roadside were nothing new to those living in this time.
Near sunset a tall traveler, stepped into the tavern and ordered an ale from the owner. Looking around her saw several young women serving tables or offering "other services" to the tavern patrons and reminded of his passage of the crossroads, turned to the owener, who he had got to know from years of visiting his tavern during his travels.
"I see the red haired girl that you had working here got herself hanged!" he said.
The owner looked quizzically at him for a few minutes then replied,"Maeve? Nah! she's right over ...." pointing toward the tables where the other girls were working it suddenly dawned on him that the only red haired girl that he knew, Maeve, wasn't among them. "Why, I thought she was still here! She was here this mornin, I thought. What did you say? She's been hanged? When?!"
"I don't know. I just passed the crossroads and there is a new gibbet there. Hanging from it is a young girl, what looks like the redhead you used to have here. A small thing with long reddish hair to the shoulder. got a light blue skirt with flowers! Can't see the face too well cause of all the fuggin flies, but it looks like it could be her! She hasn't been there long. I figured you'd know. Doesn't she work for you?"
"Nah, she just came in sometimes. Other days she went elsewhere. I used to let her sleep in the barn some nights, but she wasn't any of my girls. Well I'll be! so she got 'erself 'anged. How about that!. I guess I'll go see if it's really her tomorrow. Too bad! Oh well, those things, 'appen! Ready for another ale?"
The night became cool and a light fog descended on the country side soaking everything with moisture. Maeves curls soaked up the dampness and became twisted and knarled, and droplets formed on her lifeless flesh and dripped down her colorless legs and off her toes. The heavy wet clothe of her skirt slid down the slippery flesh and settled onto her hips and her blouse drooped from her arms in heavy furls.
The full moon shown down brightly and her body cast an eerie shadow on the road below as a gentle night breeze rustled the leaves of the nearby trees and made her body dance rhythmically from side to side and in slow circles. The air also became permiated with the sweet odor of decaying flesh, which drew ever increasing numbers of flies that covered her pale flesh.
The morning sun drove away the night chill and dried the dampness. By now Maeve's corpse had bloated noticeably in the day's heat and become discolored. The stench attracted the carrion birds which plucked out the young woman's eyes and ripped at her tender flesh with the same ferocity that they fought each other. By noon, she had become so grotesque that nobody dared glance up at her as they passed.
The tavern owner did come to confirm for himself that it was her but aside from her skirt which looked vaguely familiar, there was little else left about her that he could definitely recognize. He did recall that Maeve was flat-footed and this woman was definitely flat-footed, otherwise most of her features had either been torn away by the birds or were covered by the swarms of flies, so he couldn't be sure. "Oh well" he thoutht, "it didn't really matter." as he walked away. Just as the constable had said, nobody much cared.
As the days passed, the birds and maggots eventually consumed the rest of the poor wenches flesh, leaving her frail bones to dry and bleach in the sun. Alternating days of heat and nights of rain or mist rotted the clothe of her skirts which became tattered and torn, held in place by protruding hip bones that acted like gruesome hooks. And eventually the bones dried out enough that her skeleton began to come apart and fall to the ground below, until all that was left was the rotting noose with bits of reddish hair to sway in the breeze. Her skeleton lay scattered on the ground like a broken toy.
The constable who rode by periodically, finally stopped one day, picked up Maeves skull and put it into a clothe sack and brought it back to the city, where it would be used as a macabre candle holder and later filled with sand and used as a door stop, for many years. Preserved by the wax, it would eventually end up in a curio shop before being destroyed by fire, in this century.
The gibbet would be used for many more years and see many others dangle from its crossbeam before being abandoned. Each of it's victims would have their own tragic stories to tell.
The End
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