Excerpts from Gordon's letter to his wife just before he died

Excerpts from George William Gordon's letter to his wife, which was written less than an hour before his death:

"My beloved Lucy, General Nelson has just been kind enough to inform me that the court martial on Saturday last, has ordered me to be hanged and the sentence is to be executed in an hour hence so that I shall be gone forever from this world of sin and sorrows.

"I don't think I deserve this extreme sentence. It is however, the will of my heavenly father that I should thus be suffering obeying his command to relieve the poor and needy, to protect so far I was able, the oppressed, and glory be to his name and I thank him I suffer in such a cause.

"I can now say with Paul the aged 'The hour of my departure is come and I am ready to be offered up. I have kept the Faith, I have fought a good fight and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give to me'.

" ... May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, your truly devoted and now nearly dying husband."