Having the duty of informing the prisoners as to who was reprieved and who was to die, he was shocked to record as “a literal fact that each man who heard his reprieve wept bitterly, and that each man who heard of his condemnation to death went down on his knees with dry eyes, and thanked God.”
Tendo o deber de informar aos prisioneiros de quen era indultado e quen tiña que morrer, impresionoulle "o feito literal de que cada home que oía o seu indulto choraba amargamente, mentres que cada home que oía a súa condena se arrodillaba cos ollos secos e daba grazas a deus".