The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-07
Puni.hment In the oIden Time.

May Is, 1868. y. W. ID.
Punishment In the OIden Time.
The medieval penal code eschewed monotony
Just as carefully weakness. Its capital aud
other col poral punishments might be rather more
frequent than modern prejudices approve Of, but
excellent care was taken to divest them Of tedious
uniformity. Mr.. Justice Tresilyan, the very
worthy predecessor of Jeffreys, was quite an
artist in this species of deadly variety, the fol-
lowers of John Ball and Wat Tyler experienced,
some of whom he hanged four times over before
be allowed them to die. But clever as our English
adopts were-snd 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 question the
vefitable king of terrors." Thanks to our
novelists, the reading public is pretty well
acquainted with the commoner appliances of tor
tuTe, and we are therefore, not under the neces-
sity of enlarging on such fascinating items the
rack the wheel, the thumbscrew, and the boot,
But these were only the every day forms Of pun
ishment. There were always individuals, princes
and politicians, especially of the Byzantine en-
pre, who rose superior to such vulgar ussges.
and with whom killing by nchesn was not
mere figure of speech, but a dread reality. In
deed some of their detestable inventions Of cru.
city have obtained as wide celebrity the bull of
Pbsloris. There was the chdnlbre a cTltcer-a
heavy chest, short, shallow and lined with sharp
stones-in which the sufferer was packed, and the
lid heavily weighted, shut down on him. There
were the " DernlcleS," CONSISTING OF u EsAtLress,
On which the victim was fastened by the neck
with bullock's 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 uppeTmost OF which man was
seated; 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 cages of Louis XI, 10 which some
of his victims spent years, and which were 80
maliciously contrived that every posltion-stand-
ing, sitting or lying-was equally uncomfortable
TO the occupant. But PROFESSIONALLY, the mas
ter contrivances of all these delicate inventions
for producing excruciating agony were the bdSie1
de Ia uieTQe of Baden Baden, and the " iron cOf
I'm" of LISA. In the former, the prisoner, blind
| folded and fastened in a chair, was lowered by a
windlass through welike shaft, reaching from
the top of the castle deep down into the heart or
the rock on which it stands, SO deep-for the
shaft still exists-that the visitor passing beneath
| can barely discern the glimmering daylight at
| the top. Here he was immured in dunge On
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 centre
of its blOck-be remained until the hour Of trial.
| He was then brought before his judges, who
| awaited him, masked and solemn, in larger ex-
| cavation, called the Hall of Judgment. From
thence he was conducted to the torture chamber
a den amply supplied with all the necessary i'm
| plements-and subjected TO its amenities accord
| ing to the discretion of his judges. This over,
the captive was sped through the last act of the
| tragedy. He was unbucked from his iron bed,
and directed TO kiss bronze statute of the Virgin
that stood at the end of one of the passages lead
| ing from the chsmber, as the seal of whatever
declaration had been wrung from his agony.
YEARLY he dragged himself along, with totterng
limbs and falling strength, until, as he raised his
lps to the mild face Of the Madonna, a trap-dOOr
gave way beneath his tread, and precipitated him
fsthoms down upon series Of deiicately-poised
All hOrrent with projecting spears
which his fall set in rapid motion. Nor do we
exaRgerate 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 oublette. More awful still
| was the punishment of the iron coffin, wherein
| the prisoner saw his dungeon contracting around
him day by day and hour by hour, the sides steal.
ing up and the roof creeping down-slowly,
| steadily, silently-passonate as fac, and as re-
worcestershire dread machinery maintaining the
calm monotony Of its march, through lingering
days and nights Of horror, until the final collapse
crushed him.
But even the worst OF these was mildness itself
when compared with the infernaliiies occasionally
| praeticed on few exceptional victims of exas-
peTated power. Regicides were tortured with
more than Indian ferocitys until the body was in
capable of further suffering. Jornandi, Dies
cendant Of the Norman conquerors Of Sicily, in
requtal for rebellion against the Emperor Henry
l.,
iron, and crowned with similar disdem. noble
matron of Constantinople. having refused the hand
| Of her daughter to one OF the Infamous parasites
| Of the second Theodore Lascares, that ingenious
tyrant caused the obstinate dame to be stripped
and inclosed to the neck in sack along with a
number Of cats, who were pricked into furious
| exercise of tooth and talon, by couple OF exc
cutoners. Another Of these worthy rulers, Jus
tinian III, was accustomed to punish his insol
| vent tributaries by suspending them, mead
| downwards, in the offensive smoke OF IRE fed
| by noxious weeds. And q third Constans III,
| having in vain endeavored to soothe the Jealousy
excited in his brother Theodosius by consigning
him TO the priesthood, at length murdered the I'M
| fortunate youth in one of the atrocious ways pc
cular 10 the East. But the crime was too horrible
for even the Greeks of the blood stained capital
habituated, to tolerate as they were, Fthe daily
| preparation Of similar deeds, and rising indig
nant, they drove the assassin from his capital
But not into security. vengeance far sur
passing any they could have inflicted thencefOr
ward shared bis exile, nor left his side even fol
an instant until the distant hour OF his owe
murder. Then only did the phantom of his vic
tim cease TO present its chalice filed with blood
TO the murderers lips, and 70 sppal his ear witt
the terrible invitation, Drink, brother. drink
drink brother! d. inkw But we must no
linger over that sink Of depravity, the Lowe
Empire. or we shall feel the poisonous influences
of its exhalations; like Duconge, for instance
who discusses with too evident relish the variou
methods devised, under the patronage OF the By
zantine rulers, for extipguishing the sight. VI
merely pause to remark that one Of the mos
used of these imperial punishments, the amputa
ton of the tongue, originated "miracle"-ths
Of speech without tongues-wfch edited the or
| prosecutors who had recourse to 10, snd exceed
ingly bothered the historian Gibbon. That wri
Ter unable to controvert the evidence adduced Il
favor Of the marvel. very Enthusiastically in