Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1876-11-03

AN OLD TINE TORTTRE.-Ibe i'='l: news.
papers have been actively engaged in !jenizing
certain Father Romy. who is SAID to Gsve re-
turned from Tibet, in w hich region lie has made
q number Of couTsrSious uCGer certainly EXTRA
ordinary circumstances. lhs story gees that
he fell as g missionary uaaor the suspicion oil
the local authorities aud tue oituma Me0'0qs-
Gun. reached tbe unpleasant ciimax of the luck
less ecclcsiasic beng condemned &c be ecartcie,
or uuartered an attempt Vas actually made
to put the sentence iutc ehect--{a Pre- Remy' 3
legs AID arms being tied 10 four horses. which
were strsiyhtway driven ia different directions.
But, it is added, The devoted missionary is q
very powerful r1an, aud the steeds, with all
their strength, did cot .uccce3 10 tearing him
asunder
His prosecutors. he story yaes 90 to say,
were so struck by III. seemingly miraculous
powers OF endurance that they embraced the
quasi martyr, snd sent forthwith converted 10
Christianity. Of this Last tale it may be said,
fret, that il answers the italian condition of
being zen tr0vUt0, and ncyt, thst il he be Ell
invention, it should have been written By b
madica! mao, for ouy skiliu ANTAGONISTS know
what hercueau task it is 10 tear a human
body into quarters Mrscu!arity has nothing
whatever to do With the resistance the human
frame will offer to ioordinate tension. II is
matter OF thews and siDews--of gristle n fact.
1t is 7ery difficult TO break a mans skull, uD-
less knowingly or uusGoWiagl7, the head be it
in precisely the proper place, but it is Dlu9h
more difficult to rend him asunder bodily.
Ia the days Of torue prisoners might be
racked day after dag and their limbs disocatei
and reat time after time, but the frame OF the
tormented wretch sill held good. As ior guar.
teriug sufferer by meaus oil horses, there are
two celebrated instances on historic record,
showing how hard it is TO perform he diabo-
cal operation. Ra7sj!'ac, the assassin of Henri
Ouatre, was not very powerful man. lie
had been so rackea, ,hum bserewed, booted,
toru with red.hot piacers, and sesthed with
boiling oil and molten lead. that when be was
tied to the quadrupeds, he was a mere bag of
bones, bruises and gaping wounds. Yet this
body resisted the tuGgiug OF the horses for
forty.ive minutes. A hundred and fifty years
later, Damiens. the mailman who just pricked
Louis XIV With pea kniie, was tortured in
the same abomiaab!e mauuer as RayiIIsc bad
been.
Then lie was pa, to tie horse ordeal; but
nearly az hour elapsed, and the body Ct The
miserable wr2tcl! yet held together. Then
they lashed the horses sgyage!y to make them
plunge the more fercely; add the fDe court
ladies in the gallery, specially erected for them
to witness the show, cried, in their pretty argot,
20, les paw zavaux" They p;isd The
scourged steeds; they did not pity the nan
whose body was slow 10 Jlsiutegrate. At
length humane surgeon standing by persuad-
ed the hangman to make deep cuts With sharp
knife at each of the culprt's joints, and then
the horrible purposs was eohits-h Easily enough.
But. surely, they should te a"srs Q: tue pro
cess of incision iG Tibet.