The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-17

| July uS0u GQ0 uSCOf1D1On BQ6 Lou-
pie. Remains of brilliant colors are
found in numerous fragments, blue, red
and yellow being easily distinguished.
A number of the columns are inscribed
on their bases, showing that they were
dedicated to Artemis by various persons
or communities. The remains of wide
portico surrounding the temple on three
sides have been found. Seventy feet
from the south side another building in
Grecian Doric style has been discov-
cred, which is now being excavated.
The Strappado.
In his admirable work on the middle
ages, M. Paul Lacroix mentions several
modes of execution, the cruelty of which
makes US shudder. The condemned
were subjected to unheard-of tortures,
| depending upon the caprice of the mag
istrates and the executioners. For ex-
ample, they placed boiling hot eggs
under their victims arms, attached
burning wax-candles to their hands, ran
thorns and sharp fish, bones into the
| flesh, etc.
One can easily comprehend, in the
| presence of such refined cruelty, that
| hanging should sometimes be consid
cred veritable favor. It was a real
mercy, in fact, to be put to death quick
ly, without first beng compelled to suf-
fer the tortures invented by the dis
eased imaginations of the official butch,
ers. This explains, in a measure at
least, an engraving of 1490, which re.
presents hanging accompanied by mu-
sic. A murderer, sentenced to die by
the cord, obtained permission, it would
seem, to be accompanied to the place
of execution by one of his friends, who
played the bag-pipe, not only on the
way thither, but even on the gallows
itself. The condemned man expiated
his crime, therefore, to the joyous
sounds of his favorite instrument,
thanking his stars, no doubt, that he
got off so cheaply.
Indeed, he might have been con-
demned, in common with so many
others, to be put to death by some of
the barbarous modes of execution then
practised-the strappado, for example,
which was one of the more revolving.
The accused, half nude, had his hands
tied behind him with small cord,
which two men, one at each end, drew
as tightly as their strength would admit.
Another and somewhat larger cord was
tied under the victims arm, while the
other end was passed up over a grooved
wheel and then down to q windlass.
At the foot of the subject weight of
two hundred and fifty pounds was at
tached.
At his command, the magistrates aids
turned the windlass, raising the victim
up to the ceiling of the room, then they
let him fall, foot or so at a time, until
he reached the floor. Each shock,
which generally resulted in dislocating
the arm, of course, added to the
wretch's agony.
This terrible torture was practised
for a long time at Orleans, France
What made it still more horrible than
it perhaps otherwise would have been
was the fact that, not only those who
had been tried and found guilty, but
the accused also, were subjected to it.
1t was called the question. extraoEdi-
uaire. singular mode of interrogating |
people, certainly! It was the duty of |
the magistrate, before whom the case |
had been brought, to be present at the |
savage ceremony, and listen to the con-
fession the unfortunate, innocent or |
guilty, was compelled to make. When
the clerk had taken every thing down,
the accused, more dead than alive, was
The prelude was now ter
and it only remained, if the
subject was already condemned, to end
his agony, which was usually done by
decapitation but, as we have init
mated, the condition of the subject, af-
ter having been subjected to the tor
lures of the strappado, was such that
death was boon.
The physical suffering we have de-
5cribed was not always the only suffer-
ing the accused was compelled to en-
lure. In a manual for the use of the
magistrates of those times, written by
one Damboudere, they are strongly ad-
Vised, when the torture is to be applied
70 several persons, to begin with those
who are most likely to confess. If a
'ather and son, for example, were to be
subjected to the torture, the manual
the torturing of the son
irst for, says the writer, "the father
will feel for the son more keenly than
or himself"