The Irish standard., 1909-03-06

they hammered wedges of iron be-
tween them until, regardless Of the
cries of the sufferers, they had bruised
to pieces and forever crippled those
b poor honest, innocent, laborious hands,
which had never been raised to their
mouths but with penurious and
scanty proportion of the fruits q
their own soil.
1.-THE most substantial and leading
yeomen, the responsible farmers, the
fparochial magistrates and chiefs OF
villages were tied two and two t>y
the legs together, and their tormel.-
tors, throwing them with their heads
downward over a bar, beat them on
the soles of the feet with a rattan un-
til the nails fell from their toes. and
then, attacking them at their heads
as they hung downward, as before al
their feet, they beat them with sticks
and other instruments of blind fury
until the blood gushed out at thci.
eyes, mouths and noses.
mot thinking the ordinary whips
and cudgels sufficient they MAIDS
whips of the branches of the bale tres
"a tree full Of sharp and strong
.thorns, which tear the skin and LAGER
ate the flesh far worse than ordinary
scourges.
y Exploring with a searching and i'll
fQuisitive malice. stimulated by an in
satiate rapacity, all the devious paths
OF nature for whatever is most un-
friendly to man, they made rods of a
plant highly caustic and poisonous
called bechetta, every wound of which
testers and gangrenes, adds double
and treble to the present torture
leaves a crust Of leprous sores upon
the body and often ends in the de-
struction Of life itself.
'.At night these poor innocent SUI
|ferers. those martyrs Of avarce and
extortion. were brought into dungeons
Il and were three times scourged and
A made. to reckon. the watches of tine
night by periods and intervals of tor
lnent. In the severe. depth of winter
they were led out before break of day
and, stiff and sore with the bruises Of
the night, were plunged into water
and whilst their jaws chung together
with the cold and their bodies wee
rendered infinitely more sensible. tne
blows and stripes were renewed upon
their backs, and then, delivering them
over to soldiers. they were sent into
their farms and villages to discover
where a. few landfuls of grain might
be found concealed.
After this circuit of the day
through their plundered and ruined
villages, they We're remanded at night
to the same prison. whipped as before
at their return to the dungeon, and
at morning whipped at their leaving
IT., Days Of menace, insult and OK
s tortion-nights Of bolts, letters and
fagellation-succeeded to each other
in the same round and for a lorg
time made up all the vicisstudes CT
life to these miserable people.
But as there are persons whose
fortitude could bear their own suffer
ling, they were assaulted on the side
of sympathy. Children were scourgad
almost to death in the presence of
their parents. This was not enough
The son and father were bound clos,
together, face to face and body to
body, and in that situation cruelty
dashed together. so that the blow
(which escaped the father fell upon the
son. and the blow which missed the
son wound over the back Of the parent
"A The circumstances were combn"d
with so subtle a cruelty that evsry
stroke which did not excruciate the
sense should wound and laoerate the
!. sentiments and affections of nature.
ION the same principle and for the
same ends. virgins who had never seen
the sun we're dragged from the inmost
sanctuaries Of their houses y "
: Wives were torn from the arms OF
their husbands and suffered the Same
4 flagitious wrongs. which were indeed
hid in the bottom of the dungeons
in which their honor and their liberty
were buried together.
These monstrous and oppressive
demands. exacted with such tortures.
threw the whole province into despair.
They abandoned their crops on the
ground. The people in body would
nhave fled out of its confines, but bands;
oof soldiers invested the avenues of tie
province. and, making line Of ci:-
cumvallation. drove back those
Twretches who sought exile as RELIEF,
into the prison of their native soil.
se.. Not suffered to quit the district,
they fed to the many wild thickers
VI which oppression had scattered
Through 1t, and sought among the