The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-12-20

bones. tits one degree more extruciating
than crushing the fingers.

has been worn by many men and women.
1t has sharp knives which cut through the
scalp to the skull. Here are chains and
weights, locks and keys, handouts and
clasps for the ANGLES, stocks for the feet,
weights to hold your feet to the floor, and
pulleys to draw your head at the same
time to the ceiling. Here is bench of
solid oak, with corrugated surface, upon
which many men have been held down by
the cord, to undergo the kneading process,
aud that rolling pin, knotty and knobby,
also of oak, which lies upon the table, has
been rolled backward and forward over
the naked forms of men and women,
kAeading live flesh 10 bloody dough !!
Tiiaeaani space would fail me were | to
enuniesate the instruments of torture
here, or to set forth their uses. We can
only look at the cradle-a huge trough
of oak on rockers-the bottom and sides
Tricky set with pins, in which many vic.
tins have been rocked to DEATH Think
of lying on a bed of oaken pins, rolling to
right, to the left-always on pins-till
the flesh becomes l'vid jelly Here is
a string Of oaken beads, each bead six
teensided, about as large as hickory nut.
This ives for saving off legs and arms.
Here is an INSTRUMENT shaped like
pear. 1t is of iron, but to all appearance
harmless thing. But just take it for
moment into your mouth, and let me give
gentle pull at the string attached to the
stem of the pear, but full blown liIy-an
iron lily, unfolding its leaves so suddenly
and violently that your jaws are forced
open till the joints crack in their sockets.
No cutlery now. No utterance of words.
No screaming to raise the neighborhood.
Means and signs only from the sufferer
One witch of the string, and the tongue
is torn out by the roots !
We must leave this museum without
mentioning the hundred curiosities. We
60 into the court yard, stopping moment
to pluck leaf from lime tree which was
in full vigor 700 years ago, and then we
enter another door, descend long flight
Of steps, to dark, dismal dungeons, where
no light ever falls except through narrow
iron-grated. windows. Here are ladders
with windlasses and pulleys on which the
victims were stretched, till bones, till
joints leaped from their sockets, and cords
and tendons are torn asunder. Here are
racks, wheels, pillories, stocks, whips and
manacles. We leave these and creep
through narrow passage, through door.
way after doorway, and reach at last, far
underground, far beneath all sight or
sound of the world, a dark DUNGEON
This is the room Of the Iron Maiden
Here is the statue or image-a maiden
with an iron ruthe around the neck, en-
velopcd 10 an iron cloak. Suddenly the
folds of tho cloak are thrown apart, and
by the dim light of the candle you see that
the lining of the garment is set with sharp
spikes. One step forward aud the folds
enclose you. Iron spikes pierce your
body, and into your e-bals--clear
through to the vertebra they penetrate
Not quick en- brace, but slowly you are
enfolded-one turn of the screw, just
enough to penetrate the flesh, just enough
to touch the apple of the eye then, after
an age of anguish, another turn, and
hundred spikes reach nearer to the nerves;
and then, as heat, thirst and fever rack
the body, another gentle turn and another
age of torture and then one more ad.
vance of the spikes toward the vitals, till
death comes on, and then the maiden, I'M
folding her arms, drops her victim through
a trap door, doHn-down-into the un-
known depths We drop a pebble and
hear the faint splash of waters far be-.
meath.
Here is skull. Anatomists say it is
the skull off female. You may put your
fingers into the no es where the spikes
which entered the eyes came throug h
No name, no record. God only has the
book of remembrance.
We think of this dungeon as connected
with the barbarism of the middle ages !;
but We arc not quite SO far removed from
those days of rigorous administration of
law. Till Napoleon with the legions of
France came across the Rhine OVERLOOKING
all obstacles, this iron maiden held out her
arms to receive offenders against the law.
On the approach Of the French army in
1903, the Virgin, as it is called, with
other instruments of torture, we're thrown
into cart and dispatched in haste out of
town, but fell into the hands of the victo-
rious army.
We are to remember that Nuremberg
was free city. About thirty patrician
families for long time monopolized au.
tbority, and chose council of State, con.
sisting of eight persons, who formed the
Executive. This Executive was an ire
sponsible body. The world knew nothing
Of their secret administration of affairs
Men disappeared, and no one knew what
became Of them. The Iron Virgin EN-
braced them, and that was all Another
Virgin exists in Austria, at Neustad.-
There are other horrors, enough to cur
die the blood-not of che Roman Inquis-
ton, but of German Governments. The
heart almost ceases its beatings when you
look upon their inventions, and that
though 1867 years have rolled away since