When remonstrances had poured in
from all quarters, Jeffreys consented to the execution being postponed
for five days; and the sentence was eventually commuted from burning to
hanging. So the first victim of Monmouth's ill-fated rebellion was
hanged on a scaffold in the market-place of Winchester.
A striking object hanging at one end of the hall is the top of the
reputed Round Table of King Arthur, painted in radiating white and green
sections, with a portrait of the famous king inset, crowned and robed,
and the Tudor rose in the centre, while around the circumference are
the names of the knights in old black-letter characters. Doubtful though
it is that the table is the actual one that figures in the Arthurian
legends, yet it is certainly of great antiquity, and has been frequently
referred to by more than one writer of mediaeval days. It has been
conjectured that it may be nothing more than the wheel of fortune which
Henry III commanded to be made for the castle. In later years another
palace was started here by Charles II, the only portion that was
completed being now used as barracks.
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