Salcede, in 1582, for conspiring against the Duke of
Alencon; on Brilland, in 1588, for poisoning the Prince de Conde; on
Bourgoing, Prior of the Jacobins, as an accessory to the crime of Jaques
Clement, in 1590; and on Ravaillac, for the murder of Henry IV. in 1610.
These, with the case of Jean Chastel, are all of which I am aware. If any
of your readers can add to the list, I shall feel obliged.

As I am upon the subject of judicial horrors, I would ask, whether any of
your correspondents can supply me with a reference to the case of a {92}
woman executed, I think in Paris, and, if my recollection serves, for a
systematic series of infanticides.

She was put to death by being suspended over a fire in an iron cage, in
which a number of wild cats were shut up with her.

I read the story many years ago, and for some time have been vainly
endeavouring to recover it.

J. S.

_Torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 522.).--This cruel mode of execution was
practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus
Hostilius, says:--

"Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat
Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque
curru corpus, qua inhaeserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes
a tanta foedidate spectaculi oculos."--L. i., c. 28.

Livy adds, that this was the first and last example of so savage a
punishment among the Romans. The punishment, however, must have been
well-known in antiquity, as it is alluded to by Seneca among the tortures
which accompanied death.

"Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et equleos, et uncum; et adactum
per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem; _et distracta in
diversum actis curribus membra_."--Epist. xiv. 4.

Grimm (_Deutsche Rechtsalterthuemer_, p. 692.) quotes the following instance
of this punishment from Gregory of Tours, _Hist. France_, iii. 7.:

"Puellas crudelinece interfecerunt ita ut ligatis brachiis super
equorum cervicibus, ipsique acerrimo moti stimulo per diversa petentes
diversas in partes feminas diviserunt"

He adds that it occurs frequently in the legends of the Carolingian period.
Thus Turpin, c. 26., describes as follows the punishment of the traitor
Gannalon:--

"Jussit illum Carolus quatuor equis ferocissimis totius exercitus
alligari, et super eos quatuor sessores agitantes contra quatuor plagas
coeli, et sic digna morte discerptus