, 1868-08-21
cOntrlvanoo. for Pun.,hmsnt in the Day. Of

hO ACaAooNal UCuul OOAO OoN1S"SA A-N-
notony just as carefully as weakness. Its
capital and other corporal punishments
might be rather more frequent than modern
prejudices approved, but excellent care was
taken to divest them Of tedious uniformity.
Mr.. Justice Tresiyan, the very worthy pre-
decessor of Jeffreys, was quite an artist in
this species Of deadly variety, as the follow
ers of John Ball and Wat Tyler experienced,
some of whom he hanged four times over
before he allowed them to die. Bot clever
ds our English adopts were,-and some Of
them were exceedingly so,-we must admit
that they competed but poorly with their
continental rivals, with whom, in the good
old time, death was beyond all questions the
veritable king of terrors' Thanks to our
noveliSts, the reading public is pretty well
acquainted with the common appliances Of
torture and we are therefore not under the
necessity of enlarging on such fascinating
items as the rack, the wheel, the thumbscrew
and the boot. But these were only the every
day forms of punishment. There were al
ways individuals, princes and politicians, es-
pecially of the Byzantine empire, who rose
superior to such vulgar usages, and with
whom killing by inches was not a mere fig.
ure Of speech, but dread reality. Indeed,
some of their detestable inventions of cruel~
ty have obtained as wide celebrity as the
bull of Phaloris. There was the 'chdmbre
a crucer'-a heavy chest, short, shallow, and
lined with sharp tones-in which the suffer
er was packed, and the lid, heavily weighted,
shut down on him. There were the 'berni
cles,' consisting of mattress, on which the
victim was fastened by the neck with bull
locks sinews to keep him from moving, while
his legs were passed through kind of stocks
and crushed between two great logs of wood,
on the uppermost of which a man was seat
ed the process being repeated on the third
day, which, as the old chronicler tells US,
is the cruelest thing that ever was heard Of
There were the iron cage of Louis XI., in
which some of his victims spent years, and
which were so malciously contrived that
every position-staudiug, sitting or lying
was equally uncomfortable to the unhappy
occupant But, unquestionably, the master
contrivance of all these delicate inventions
for producing excruciating agony we're the
'baiser de la VERGE Of Baden Baden, and
the iron coffin of LISA. Iu the former the
prisoner, bliudfolded, and fastened in chair,
was lowered by windlass through well>
like shaft, reaching from the top of the castle
deep down into the heart of the rock on
which 1t stands, so deep-for the shaft still
exists-that the visitor passing beneath can
scarcely discern the glimmering daylight at
the top. Here he was immured in a dun>
geon hewn out of the living stone and fitted
with door of the same material, foot thick,
so artfully constructed that it was not to be
distinguished from the adjoining wall. In
this miserable cell, surrounded by darkness
that might be felt-silent, helpless, hopeless,
like toad in the center of its blood-he re-
mained until the hour of trial He was then
brought before his judges, who awaited him,
masked and solemn, in larger excavation,
called the hall Of judgment. Thence he was
conducted to the torture chamber den
amply supplied with all the necessary imple
ments-and subjected to its amenities ac
cording to the discretion of his judges. This
over the captive was sped through the last
act Of the tragedy. He was unbuckled from
his iron bed directed to kiss bronze statute
of the Virgin, that stood at the end of the
passages leading from the chamber, as the
seal OF whatever declaration had been wrung
from his agony. YEARLY be dragged him,
self along, with tottering limbs and failing
strength, until, as he raised his lips to the
mild face of the Madonna, a trap-door gave
way beneath his tread, and precip pitated him
tathoms down upon series of delicately
poised wheels
p" All hOrrent with projecting spearsl"-
which his fall set in rapid motion. Nor do
we>exaggerate in the least for the fragments
of the murderous machinery, stuck thickly
over with bits of bone and pieces of dress,
still remain at the bottom of the fearful
oubliette. More awful still was the punish
ment OF the iron coffin, wherein the prisoner
saw his dungeon contracting around him day
BY day, and hour by hour, the floor stealing
up and the roof creeping dowu,-slo Wy,
steadily, neutrality-suspicious. as fate, and
as remorseless, the dread machinery mains
tanning the calm monotouy of its march,
through the lingering days and nights of
horror, until the final collapse crushed him.
~N0~0-~~~~-sO~
HIS SPEECH.-Grant is supposed to have
made the following speech on being visited
Dy the committee appointed to inform him
OF his nomination
You'd scarce expect one of my age,
To speak in public on the stage;
And If l chance to fall below
CHARLES Sumner and Galusha Grow,
Don't view me with Ben Buffers eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
From Marshals pups great dogs do blow.
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