Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/68

50 fancied security, every place of exit had been carefully guarded by soldiers, and a strong body now entered the house, calling on all to lay down their weapons, and mercilessly cutting down every one who showed the slightest sign of resistance.

It afterwards appeared there were several females among the conspirators, most of whom were smothered with pillows, a few only of both sexes being pardoned, one of whom was a woman of high rank in the court of Hamangkoe Raht, called Karta Drya. Four royal princes, after undergoing the penalty of having the right hand cut off, were publicly beheaded; but the most appalling punishment was reserved for Elberfeld, the ringleader of this infamous plot. Like a second St. Hippolyte, his arms and legs were tied to four horses, which, on a given signal, being vigorously whipped, started in opposite directions, wrenching every limb from his body. His head was afterwards severed from the bleeding trunk, spiked