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.

    55/188 (page 29)
    rupted the circulation, that had they stopped now, death must have very soon ensued. But the holy bretheren bad not yet done with him, they renewed their efforts, but the poor wretch had so little power to converse with them, that the priests were obliged to put their ears close to him, to catch any thing that he might offer to say to them. Again the executioner proceeded in his opera- tion, which consisted in passing another, or ex- tending the same, cord over the whole breast, which really seemed to extinguish life altogether, but by the continued attention of the confessor, it was conjectured some sparks of life yet re- mained, and very feint indeed must they have been by this tine, for the poor creature seemed to the spectators quite exhausted, and insensible to every thing, even to the still persisting labours of the confessor, who continued patiently waiting to catch the expiring breath, which might bear with it some satisfactory tokens of their anxious assi- duity. Although this protracted ceremony conti- nued near an hour, all was silent, but did not apparently excite in the great multitude those symptoms of horror, or any of those sudden or quick sensations of feeling which are heard when a criminal dies by a quicker and more sudden stroke of justice. |