s, who were looked upon as having committed the worst of crimes.
In almost all cases, the victim had previously to undergo various
accessory tortures: sometimes his right hand was cut off, and the
mutilated stump was burnt in a cauldron of sulphur; sometimes his arms,
thighs, or breasts were lacerated with red-hot pincers, and hot oil,
pitch, or molten lead was poured into the wounds.

[Illustration: Fig. 348.--Demons applying the Torture of the
Wheel.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Grand Kalendrier ou Compost des
Bergers:" small folio, Troyes, Nicholas le Rouge, 1529.]

After these horrible preliminaries, a rope was attached to each of the
limbs of the criminal, one being bound round each leg from the foot to the
knee, and round each arm from the wrist to the elbow. These ropes were
then fastened to four bars, to each of which a strong horse was harnessed,
as if for towing a barge. These horses were first made to give short
jerks; and when the agony had elicited heart-rending cries from the
unfortunate man, who felt his limbs being dislocated without being broken,
the four horses were all suddenly urged on with the whip in different
directions, and thus all the limbs were strained at one moment. If the
tendons and ligaments still resisted the combined efforts of the four
horses, the executioner assisted, and made several cuts with a hatchet on
each joint. When at last--for this horrible torture often lasted several
hours--each horse had drawn out a limb, they were collected and placed
near the hideous trunk, which often still showed signs of life, and the
whole were burned together. Sometimes the sentence was, that the body
should be hung to the gibbet, and that the limbs should be displayed on
the gates of the town, or sent to four principal towns in the extremities
of the kingdom. When this was done, "an inscription was placed on each of
the limbs, which stated the reason of its being thus exposed."

The _wheel_ is the name applied to a torture of very ancient origin, but
which was applied during the Middle Ages to quite a different torture from
that used in olden times. The modern instrument might indeed have been
called the cross, for it only served for the public exhibition of the body
of the criminal whose limbs had been previously broken alive. This
torture, which does not date earlier than the days of Francis I., is thus
described:--The victim was first tied on his back to two joists forming a
St. Andrew's c