so expertly executed _en Grève_, that the sufferer was unconscious of his
end. "Shake yourself," exclaimed the executioner; and, on his lordship's
making the attempt, his head rolled into the dust.

This adroitness was the result of competition. In that day there were
degrees of hangmen, and promotion might be accomplished. Not only had the
king his executioner, and the Lorraines theirs--the court and the
city--the abbot of St Germain des Près--the abbot of this, and the abbot
of that--but various communities and Signories, having right of life and
death over their vassals, kept an executioner for purposes of domestic
torture, as they kept a seneschal to carve their meats; or as people now
keep a _chef_ or a_ maître d'hôtel_. In those excellent olden times of
Europe, hangmen, doubtless, carried about written characters from lord to
lord, certifying their experience with rope and axe--branding-iron and
thong. So long as the Inquisition afforded constant work for able hands, a
good hangman out of place must have been a treasure! Had there been
register-offices or newspaper advertisements, there probably would have
appeared--

"WANTS A SITUATION--An able-bodied, middle-aged man, without encumbrance,
who can have an undeniable character from his last situation, as headsman,
hangman, and general executioner. He is accustomed to the use of
thumbikins and the most approved and fashionable modes of torture; and
officiated for many years as superintendent of the wheel of a foreign
prince, renowned for the neatness of his rack. Drawing and quartering in
all their branches. Pressing to death performed in the most economical
style. Impalement in the Turkish manner; and the pile, as practised by the
best Smithfield hands, &c. &c. &c."

Independent, indeed, of the high prosperity and vast perquisites of such