nd so to launch him into
eternity (Fig. 350). When the cart arrived at the foot of the gallows, the
executioner first ascended the ladder backwards, drawing the culprit after
him by means of the ropes, and forcing him to keep pace with him; on
arriving at the top, he quickly fastened the two _tortouses_ to the arm of
the gibbet, and by a jerk of his knee he turned the culprit off the
ladder, still holding the _jet_ in his own hand. He then placed his feet
on the tied hands of the condemned, and suspending himself by his hands to
the gibbet, he finished off his victim by repeated jerks, thus ensuring
complete strangulation.

When the words "shall be hung until death doth ensue" are to be found in
a sentence, it must not be supposed that they were used merely as a form,
for in certain cases the judge ordered that the sentence should be only
carried out as far as would prove to the culprit the awful sensation of
hanging. In such cases, the victim was simply suspended by ropes passing
under the arm-pits, a kind of exhibition which was not free from danger
when it was too prolonged, for the weight of the body so tightened the
rope round the chest that the circulation might be stopped. Many culprits,
after hanging thus an hour, when brought down, were dead, or only survived
this painful process a short time.

[Illustration: Fig. 350.--Hanging to Music. (A Minstrel condemned to the
Gallows obtained permission that one of his companions should accompany
him to his execution, and play his favourite instrument on the ladder of
the Gallows.)--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in Michault's "Doctrinal du Temps
Present:" small folio, goth., Bruges, about 1490.]

We have seen elsewhere (chapter on _Privileges and Rights, Feudal and
Municipal_) that, when the criminal passed before the convent of the
_Filles-Dieu_, the nuns of that establishment were bound to bring him out
a glass of wine and three pieces of bread, and this was called _le dernier
morceau des patients._ It was hardly ever refused, and an immense crowd
assisted at this sad meal. After this the procession went forward, and on
arriving near the gallows, another halt was made at the foot of a stone
cross, in order that the culprit might receive the religions exhortations
of his confessor. The moment the execution was over, the confessor and
the officers of justice returned to the Chatelet, where a repast provided
by the town awaited them.

[Illustration: Fig. 351.--View of the Pi