A short drop and a sudden stop.
It's what I've always said they deserve. I've commanded this fort for five years now. Too late for doubts surely?
I wonder how many men we've hanged in my time here? I could look it up I suppose. Naval Efficiency combined with British Justice, all carefully recorded and accounted for, right down to the length of the rope and the last words they spoke. It shouldn't feel any different this time.
Just because I know him.
Not well. You don't strike up much of a relationship with a man you keep putting in irons, no matter how ingratiating he tries to be. Did he really save her life? I suppose he did, that day at the fort when he fished her out of the sea. I'd have never got there in time. He hasn't even mentioned it, as though he feels it carries no weight with either me or her father. Just something between himself and Elizabeth, like the time they spent on the island no, best not to dwell on that. I mustn't.
He's a pirate, fairly tried and convicted, and not even by me. I didn't pass sentence, I am purely the disinterested instrument of the Law. Law, Duty, Honour - we need these things. I swore to protect them and I mustn't break faith now.
I wonder if he will be brave? Like in the ballads, the ones where the highwayman makes a final gallant speech and bows to the ladies before flinging himself to his death. Well, he can't do the last part at least - not with a proper gallows.
I wish I could sleep.
Like he can. How can he do that? His last night on earth and he sleeps like an innocent babe. Well, not perfectly innocent perhaps, not with that smile. What does he dream about? His ship, his crew, one night on an island No not that again.
I must leave now. The least I can do is to be alert tomorrow. Who knows what will happen? After all, he is Captain Jack Sparrow.
I know it's wrong to hope for a miracle, but somehow
Author's Note: I think Norrington is such a great character. They could have written him as either the corrupt and brutal local law enforcement (sort of a naval Sheriff of Nottingham) or as a bungling incompetent. Instead he is a perfectly decent man, trying to do his duty - which makes him much more interesting.
