Years Journey through France and Part of Spain | Page 8

horse, at an inn
upon this road, and was charged only four livres ten sols! not quite four
shillings. Nor was it owing to any mistake; for I lay the following night

at just such another inn, and was charged just the same price for nearly
the same entertainment. They were carriers' inns, indeed, but I know
not whether they were not, upon the whole, better, and cleaner too, than
some of the town auberges. I need not therefore tell you, I was
straggled a little out of le Route Anglois, when I found such a bon
Marche.
Dijon is pleasantly situated, well built, and the country round about it is
as beautiful as nature could well make it. The shady walks round the
whole town are very pleasing, and command a view of the adjacent
country. The excellence of the wine of this province, you are better
acquainted with than I am; though I must confess, I have drank better
burgundy in England than I have yet tasted here: but I am not surprized
at that; for at Madeira I could not get wine that was even tolerable.
I found here, two genteel English gentlemen, Mess. Plowden and
Smyth, from whom we received many marks of attention and
politeness.--Here, I imagined I should be able to bear seeing the
execution of a man, whose crimes merited, I thought, the severest
punishment. He was broke upon the wheel; so it is called; but the wheel
is what the body is fixed upon to be exposed on the high road after the
execution. This man's body, however, was burnt. The miserable wretch
(a young strong man) was brought in the evening, by a faint torch light,
to a chapel near the place of execution, where he might have continued
in prayer till midnight; but after one hour spent there, he walked to, and
mounted the scaffold, accompanied by his confessor, who with great
earnestness continually presented to him, and bade him kiss, the
crucifix he carried in his hand. When the prisoner came upon the
scaffold, he very willingly laid himself upon his back, and extended his
arms and legs over a cross, that was laid flat and fixed fast upon the
scaffold for that purpose, and to which he was securely tied by the
executioner and his mother, who assisted her son in this horrid business.
Part of the cross was cut away, in eight places, so as to leave a hollow
vacancy where the blows were to be given, which are, between the
shoulder and elbow, elbow and wrist, thigh and knee, and knee and
ancle. When the man was securely tied down, the end of a rope which
was round his neck, with a running noose, was brought through a hole

in and under the scaffold; this was to give the Coup de Grace, after
breaking: a Coup which relieved him, and all the agitated spectators,
from an infinite degree of misery, except only, the executioner and his
mother, for they both seemed to enjoy the deadly office. When the
blows were given, which were made with a heavy piece of iron, in the
form of a butcher's cleaver without an edge, the bones of the arms and
legs were broke in eight places; at each blow, the sufferer called out, O
God! without saying another word, or even uttering a groan. During all
this time, the Confessor called upon him continually to kiss the cross,
and to remember Christ, his Redeemer. Indeed, there was infinite
address, as well as piety, in the conduct of the Confessor; for he would
not permit this miserable wretch to have one moment's reflection about
his bodily sufferings, while a matter of so much more importance was
depending; but even those eight blows seemed nothing to two dreadful
after-claps, for the executioner then untied the body, turned his back
upwards, and gave him two blows on the small of the back with the
same iron weapon; and yet even that did not put an end to the life and
sufferings of the malefactor! for the finishing stroke was, after all this,
done by the halter, and then the body was thrown into a great fire, and
consumed to ashes. There were two or three executions soon after, but
of a more moderate kind. Yet I hope I need not tell you, that I shall
never attend another; and would feign have made my escape from this,
but it was impossible.--Here, too, I saw upwards of fourscore criminals
linked together, by one long chain, and so they were to continue till
they arrived in the galleys at Marseilles. Now I am sure you will be, as
I was, astonished to think, an old woman, the mother of the executioner,
should willingly assist in a business