Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/569

Rh many cases the adjuncts were merely figurative. Conformance to the letter rather than the spirit of the law seemed to be uppermost with its servant, and thus we find instances of dead men being hanged in fulfilment of sentence, and little regard paid to age. On one occasion a man eighty-five years of age and a boy of fourteen were hanged for robbery, the former being first tortured till his arms snapped.

In sentencing to death the courts proceeded with great formality. The condemned was expected to kiss the paper of sentence after hearing it read. The priests then took charge of him, and brothers of mercy brought in the special crucifix, el Santo Cristo de la misericordia, with which to direct his devotion. Arrayed in a white cloak, with eyes bandaged, he was thereupon placed on a hide dragged by a horse a nominal form of dragging to death and conducted forth. First marched the piper and crier, proclaiming the crime, followed by four to six of the police, several members of the benevolent archicofradia society, and brothers with torches and candles. Then came the victim on the hide, partly lifted by charitable persons on either side, attendant priests, and infantry, closing with two court officials on horseback. On reaching the scaffold in the square of the town, surrounded by troops, the condemned was supported by a priest and the executioner, and fortified with prayer till the time for hanging. A sermon impressed the warning on the multitude, and the corpse was thereupon taken to the nearest water, placed in a cask containing the painted figures of a cock, a serpent, and a monkey, and rolled awhile on the surface, after which it was conducted by the court and police