ered to
the winds, as soon as it was possible to approach the centre of the
burning pile, a few ashes were taken in a shovel and sprinkled in the air.

They were not satisfied with burning the living, they also delivered to
the flames the bodies of those who had died a natural death before their
execution could be carried out, as if an anticipated death should not be
allowed to save them from the punishment which they had deserved. It also
happened in certain cases, where a person's guilt was only proved after
his decease, that his body was disinterred, and carried to the stake to be
burnt.

The punishment by fire was always inflicted in cases of heresy, or
blasphemy. The Spanish Inquisition made such a constant and cruel use of
it, that the expression _auto-da-fe_ (act of faith), strangely perverted
from its original meaning, was the only one employed to denote the
punishment itself. In France, in the beginning of the fourteenth century,
fifty-nine Templars were burned at the same time for the crimes of heresy
and witchcraft. And three years later, on the 18th March, 1314, Jacques
Molay, and a few other dignitaries of the Order of the Templars, also
perished in the flames at the extremity of the island of Notre Dame, on
the very spot where the equestrian statue of Henry IV. now stands.

Every one is acquainted with the fact that judges were found iniquitous
enough to condemn Joan of Arc to death by fire as a witch and a heretic.
Her execution, which took place in the market-place of Rouen, is
remarkable from a circumstance which is little known, and which had never
taken place on any other occasion. When it was supposed that the fire
which surrounded the young heroine on all sides had reached her and no
doubt suffocated her, although sufficient time had not elapsed for it to
consume her body, a part of the blazing wood was withdrawn, "in order to
remove any doubts from the people," and when the crowd had satisfied
themselves by seeing her in the middle of the pile, "chained to the post
and quite dead, the executioner replaced the fire...." It should be stated
in reference to this point, that Joan having been accused of witchcraft,
there was a general belief among the people that the flames would be
harmless to her, and that she would be seen emerging from her pile
unscathed.

The sentence of punishment by fire did not absolutely imply death at the
stake, for there was a punishment of this description which was speci