ally
reserved for base coiners, and which consisted in hurling the criminals
into a cauldron of scalding water or oil.

We must include in the category of punishment by fire certain penalties,
which were, so to speak, but the preliminaries of a more severe
punishment, such as the sulphur-fire, in which the hands of parricides, or
of criminals accused of high treason, were burned. We must also add
various punishments which, if they did not involve death, were none the
less cruel, such as the red-hot brazier, _bassin ardent_, which was passed
backwards and forwards before the eyes of the culprit, until they were
destroyed by the scorching heat; and the process of branding various marks
on the flesh, as an ineffaceable stigma, the use of which has been
continued to the present day.

In certain countries decapitation was performed with an axe; but in
France, it was carried out usually by means of a two-handed sword or
glave of justice, which was furnished to the executioner for that purpose
(Fig. 346). We find it recorded that in 1476, sixty sous parisis were paid
to the executioner of Paris "for having bought a large _espee a feuille_,"
used for beheading the condemned, and "for having the old sword done up,
which was damaged, and had become notched whilst carrying out the sentence
of justice upon Messire Louis de Luxembourg."

[Illustration: Fig. 346.--Beheading.--Fac-simile of a Miniature on Wood in
the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552.]

Originally, decapitation was indiscriminately inflicted on all criminals
condemned to death; at a later period, however, it became the particular
privilege of the nobility, who submitted to it without any feeling of
degradation. The victim--unless the sentence prescribed that he should be
blindfolded as an ignominious aggravation of the penalty--was allowed to
choose whether he would have his eyes covered or not. He knelt down on the
scaffold, placed his head on the block, and gave himself up to the
executioner (Fig. 347). The skill of the executioner was generally such
that the head was almost invariably severed from the body at the first
blow. Nevertheless, skill and practice at times failed, for cases are on
record where as many as eleven blows were dealt, and at times it happened
that the sword broke. It was no doubt the desire to avoid this mischance
that led to the invention of the mechanical instrument, now known under
the name of the _guillotine_,