Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1892-10-20
Torture of Damiens.
paris, Old and New.l

Il
dukes, peers, and marshals of
France, assembled in the Grand
Chamber of Parliament. Damiens
was condemned to do penance be-
fore being tortured and torn to
pieces. He was to be tormented,
by methods no matter how bar
barous, until he revealed his
accomplsces and was also required
to make the amende honorable
before the principal door of Notre-
Dame. Thither in his shirt, he
was conveyed on a sledge, with a
lighted wax candle in his hand
weighing two pounds; and there he
went down on his knees and con-
fessed that "wickedly and traitor
ously he had perpetrated the most
detestable act of wounding the
king in the right side with the
stab of a kLife;" that he repented
of the deed, and asked pardon for
it of God, of.the king and of JUS
tice. After this he was to be car
ried on the sledge to the Place de
Greve, where, on the scaffold, he
was to undergo a variety of tor
lures, copied from those appointed
for the punishment of Ravaillac.
Finally his goods were to be con-
fscated, the house where he was
born pulled down, and his name
stigmatized as infamous, and for
ever forbidden thenceforth, un-
der the severest penalties, to be
borne by any French subject.
Damiens had been educated far
above his rank. His moral char
acter, however, was peculiarly
bad. His life had been one per-
petual oscillation between debau-
cherry and fanaticism. His chan
geableness of disposition was no.
ticed during his imprisonment at
Versailles. Sometimes he seemed
thoroughly composed, as though ne
had suffered nothing and had not
hing to suffer; at other times ne
burst into sudden and vehement
passions, and attempted to kill
himself against the walls of his
dungeon or with the chains on his
feet. AS in one Of his furious fits
Ha bite oHslis IL 4nnsae.
his teeth we're all drawn, in ac-
cordance with an official order.
When the sentence was read to
him, Damiens simply remarked:
"La journee sera rude" Every
kind of torture was applied to him
to extort confessions. His guards
remained at his side day and
night, taking note of the cries and
ordinations which escaped him
in the midst of his sufferings.
But Damiens had nothing to con-
fess, and on January % he was
carried with his flesh lacerated
and charred by fire, his bones
broken, to the place of execution.
Immediately after his self-accus-
sation in front of Notre-Dame he
was taken to the Place, lie Greve,
where the hand which had held
the knife was burnt with the
flames of sulphur. Then he was
torn with pincers in the arms and
legs, the thighes and breast, and
into his wounds were poured red
hot lead and boiling oil, with
pitch, wax and sulphur melted
and mixed. The sufferer endured
these tortures with surprising
energy. He cried out from time
to time, "Lord, give me patience
and strength" "But he did not
blaspheme," says Barber in his
narrative of the scene, "nor men
tion any names.'
The end of the hldeous tragedy
was dismemberment. The four
traditional horses were not enough.
Two more wero added, and still
the operation did not advance.
Then the executioner, filled with
horror, went to the neighboring
Hotel de Vile to ask permission
to use "the axe at the joints" He
was, according to Barber, sharply
rebuked by The kings attendants,
though, in an account of the trag-
edy contributed at the time to the
Gentleman's Magazine (and de-
rived from the gazettes published
in Holland, where there was no
censorship, the executioner was
blamed for having delayed the en-
ployment of the axe 80 long. There
are conflicting accounts, too, as to
the burning of the prisoners cal