Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/39

 One day, as they were passing along these rooms, the jailor said: “You were asking me of the punishments here—this is one;” and he pointed to a large ring in the floor—he raised by it a square of stone, and bade his companion look in, telling him a criminal had lived and died there. It was a square cell, in which a man could neither stand or lie down, but must always sit upright,and even there a ring on one side, from which hung a chain, showed that the hapless wretch, even in that living tomb, bore iron fetters, till his release. The jailor went on to show instruments of torture, and on being asked, said he had never acted as an executioner, jocularly adding, but it may be my fate to operate upon you, and I will show you how it is done.

He explained the process by taking from the wall a straight wide sword, sharp on both sides; the criminal would be made to kneel down, with his eyes bandaged—the executioner putting the sword-hilt to his own waist, and swaying it from side to side, once or twice, should give a sharp decisive blow, which ought at one stroke to take the head clear off; but he had known bunglers to take two, or even three strokes. He hoped he would always be more successful. He placed a candle on a chair and acted the agree-