crimes merited, I thought, the severest punishment. He was broke upon
the wheel; so it is called; but the wheel is what the body is fixed upon
to be exposed on the high road after the execution. This man's body,
however, was burnt. The miserable wretch (a young strong man) was
brought in the evening, by a faint torch light, to a chapel near the
place of execution, where he might have continued in prayer till
midnight; but after one hour spent there, he walked to, and mounted the
scaffold, accompanied by his confessor, who with great earnestness
continually presented to him, and bade him kiss, the crucifix he
carried in his hand. When the prisoner came upon the scaffold, he very
willingly laid himself upon his back, and extended his arms and legs
over a cross, that was laid flat and fixed fast upon the scaffold for
that purpose, and to which he was securely tied by the executioner and
his mother, who assisted her son in this horrid business. Part of the
cross was cut away, in eight places, so as to leave a hollow vacancy
where the blows were to be given, which are, between the shoulder and
elbow, elbow and wrist, thigh and knee, and knee and ancle. When the man
was securely tied down, the end of a rope which was round his neck, with
a running noose, was brought through a hole in and under the scaffold;
this was to give the _Coup de Grace_, after breaking: a _Coup_ which
relieved him, and all the agitated spectators, from an infinite degree
of misery, except only, the executioner and his mother, for they both
seemed to enjoy the deadly office. When the blows were given, which
were made with a heavy piece of iron, in the form of a butcher's
cleaver without an edge, the bones of the arms and legs were broke in
eight places; at each blow, the sufferer called out, O God! without
saying another word, or even uttering a groan. During all this time, the
Confessor called upon him continually to kiss the cross, and to remember
Christ, his Redeemer. Indeed, there was infinite address, as well as
piety, in the conduct of the Confessor; for he would not permit this