Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/172

 but, as I could not walk for exhaustion, I tottered on a long way behind the rest. Meanwhile, we met a number of muleteers, taking wood, fastened on their mules with ropes, to the court. A chiaous cut the ropes, and ordered me to be placed on a mule. One executioner held me by one foot, another by the other, that I might not fall off. My comrades they led in a row by three chains, and I rode honourably after them, only in my shirt, and that very comfortably, on my prickly wooden saddle. They led us, for greater disgrace and ridicule, through the most populous squares and streets, and it was very hot weather, so that we could have died for excessive thirst. Some pitied us, others gnashed their teeth at us, and said the best place we could go to was the gallows. When they had led us up and down the city to their satisfaction, they conducted us straight to the sand-gate, where the fish-market is held. On both sides of us, in front and behind, walked a countless multitude of people, for never before had so many persons been seen led to execution at once.

The press of people crowding out through the gate hindered our conductors, so that they were obliged to stop with us in front of the gate. For my own part, sick and tormented by great exhaustion, thirst, and heat, as I was, and, moreover, with my skin torn off by the saddle till I bled, I could not recollect where we were. Looking round I saw John von Winorz, the priest, and asked him where we were. He answered that we were not far from the gallows, and, therefore, had better resign ourselves to the will of God, and commit our souls to Him. Meanwhile, we kept advancing further, the janissaries making a road for us by the use