human
British Birds_.
gpt
Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals,
human
Arguments and Decisions,
gpt
Bygone Hertfordshire,
human
History of Buckinghamshire,
gpt
Bygone Nottinghamshire,
human
History of Ufton Court,
gpt
Some Obsolete Modes of Punishment,
human
Criminal Chronology of York Castle,
gpt
Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals,
human
Bygone Leicestershire,
gpt
on account of the divine authority which was adduced to support their continuance. Lord Coke finds in the Bible a countenance for each of the horrid details of the punishment. We see that the texts supposed to bear upon the subject are raked from all parts of the Scriptures with great ingenuity, but with, in our modern eyes, not much of either humanity or probability of there being anything more than a forced reference. The sentence on traitors was pronounced as follows:
human
That the traitor is to be taken from the prison and laid upon a sledge or hurdle [in earlier days he was to be dragged along the surface of the ground, tied to the tail of a horse], and drawn to the gallows or place of execution, and then hanged by the neck until he be half dead, and then cut down; and his entrails to be cut out of his body and burnt by the executioner; then his head is to be cut off, his body to be divided into quarters, and afterwards his head and quarters to be set up in some open places directed. The headsman, or hangman, commonly sliced open the chest and cut thence the heart, plucking it forth and holding it up to the populace, saying,
gpt
Behold the heart of a traitor.