Memoirs of Portugal, historical and medical / [William Thomas].

  • Thomas, William
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of Portugal, historical and medical / [William Thomas]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/188 (page 28)
    they were attended by a number of priests, sur- rounded by the officers of justice, the executioner and his assistant, and guarded by the posse comi- tatus of the city, who conducted them to the square prepared for the execution. -‘Three or four of the priest assended the stage, and the Spaniard followed, who prostrated himself but was immediately taken up by the priest, and seated on one of the stools. The executioner di- rectly began the ceremony by pivioning him to the seat, with cords passed round his limbs ; the priests then seemed to enter into some conversation with him, and apparently exhorting him tothe confession of the cri:ne he had been guilty of, the avowal of his accomplices, and extent of the design, and no doubt occasionally exhorting him to repentance. They continued thus engaged some time, when the ex- eculioner again resumed his office, and another cord was passed strongly round his body, which fixed him to the post behind him ; this finished, the priests again began their exhortations, who indeed seemed very earnest in their endeavours, and thus another space of time was spent in their admonitions, when they again desisted, and gave room to the executioner, who passed another ligature round his waist up to his breast; this seemed to exhaust him much, and must from the tightness have so compressed the lungs and inter