"This last operation was very long,because the horses used were not accustomed to drawing consequently,instead of four, six were needed and when that did not suffice, theywere forced, in order to cut off the wretch's thighs, to sever thesinews and hack at the joints. "Finally, he was quartered," recounts the Gazetted'Amsterdam of 1 April 1757. On 1 March 1757 Damiens the regicide was condemned "to make the amende honorable before the main door of the Church of Paris",where he was to be "taken and conveyed in a cart, wearing nothing buta shirt, holding a torch of burning wax weighing two pounds" then,"in the said cart, to the Place de Grève, where, on a scaffoldthat will be erected there, the flesh will be torn from his breasts,arms, thighs and claves with red-hot pincers, his right hand, holdingthe knife with which he committed the said parricide, burnt withsulphur, and, on those places where the flesh will be torn away,poured molten lead, boiling oil, burning resin, wax and sulphurmelted together and then his body drawn and quartered by four horsesand his limbs and body consumed by fire, reduced to ashes and hisashes thrown to the winds" ( Pièces originales.,372-4).
Excerpt, Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punishįrom Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
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