Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/160

 122 THE END OF THE STRUGGLE the trial conceal the fact of torture at all, and thus violate a fundamental rule of the Dutch criminal proce- dure. The members of the Amboyna council, who sat as judges, acknowledged on oath that twelve of the English were tortured by water and two of them also by fire, but stated that one (Beaumont) was only tor- tured a little on account of his age and feeble health. AMBOYNA. The judges also pleaded in their defence that the tor- ture was in no case extreme, indeed of a " civil " sort. What it exactly amounted to we know from eye- witnesses. The accused man was hoisted up and tied spread-eagle fashion in a doorway. In the water tor- ment " they bound a cloth about his neck and face so close that little or no water could go by. That done they poured the water softly upon his head until the cloth was full up to the mouth and nostrils . . . till his body was swollen twice or thrice as big as before, his cheeks like great bladders, and his eyes staring and strutting out beyond his forehead.' ' It was the