to a year's imprisonment and three years' banishment, for not having
denounced the deed "between evening and morning." In 1457 we find the
Council of Ten attacking the Doge himself, by requiring the abdication of
Francis Foscari. A century earlier it had caused the Doge, Marino Faliero,
who was convicted of having taken part in a plot to destroy the influence
of the nobility, to be executed on the very staircase of the ducal palace,
where allegiance to the Republic was usually sworn.

[Illustration: Fig. 337.--Doge of Venice. Costume before the Sixteenth
Century. From Cesare Vecellio.]

[Illustration: Fig. 338.--Doge of Venice in Ceremonial Costume of the
Sixteenth Century. From Cesare Vecellio.]

Like the Holy Vehme, the Council of Ten compromised its authority by the
abuse of power. In 1540, unknown to the Senate, and in spite of the
well-prescribed limit of its authority, it concluded a treaty with the
Turkish Sultan, Soliman II. The Senate at first concealed its indignation
at this abuse of power, but, in 1582, it took measures so as considerably
to restrain the powers of the Council of Ten, which, from that date, only
existed in name.

[Illustration: Fig. 339.--Seal of the Free Count Heinrich Beckmann, of
Medebach. (1520--1533).]

Punishments.

Refinements of Penal Cruelty.--Tortures for different Purposes.--Water,
Screw-boards, and the Rack.--The Executioner.--Female
Executioners.--Tortures.--Amende Honorable.--Torture of Fire, Real and
Feigned.--Auto-da-fe.--Red-hot Brazier or
Basin.--Beheading.--Quartering.--Wheel.--Garotte.--Hanging.--The
Whip.--The Pillory.--The
Arquebuse.--Tickling.--Flaying.--Drowning.--Imprisonment.--Regulations
of Prisons.--The Iron Cage.--The Leads of Venice.

"It is very sad," says the learned M. de Villegille, "to observe the
infinite variety of tortures which have existed since the beginning of the
world. It is, in fact, difficult to realise the amount of ingenuity
exercised by men in inventing new tortures, in order to give themselves
the satisfaction of seeing their fellow-creatures agonizing in the most
awful sufferings."

In entering upon the subject of ancient modes of punishment, we must first
speak of the torture, which, according to the received phrase, might be
either _previous_ or _preparatory: previous_, when it consisted of a
torture which the condemned had to endure previous to capital punishment;
and _preparatory_, when it was applie