The Daily Cincinnati Republican, And Commercial Register

HORRID PUNISHMENT OF AN ASSASSIN.

The following thrilling account of the execution of Robert Francis Damiens in the winter of 1757, we take from the London Monthly Review of the same year. Damiens had attempted the assassination of King Louis XV. of France, from motives prompted by religious enthusiasm, and nurtured by the enemies of that prince. After undergoing mechanical torture until the ministers of justice had wrung from him the names of his accomplices, he was stripped for execution. But let us quote from the Review:

"When Damiens was stripped, it was observed that he surveyed and considered all his body and limbs with attention, and that he looked round with firmness on the vast concourse of spectators. Towards five o'clock he was placed on the scaffold which had been erected in the middle of the enclosed area, and was raised about three feet and a half from the ground; the length from eight to nine feet, and of about the same breadth. The criminal was instantly tied, and afterwards fastened by iron gyves which confined him under the arms, and above the thighs. The first torment he underwent, was that of having his hand burnt in the flame of brimstone: the pain of which made him send forth such a terrible cry as might be heard a great way off. A moment afterwards he raised his head, and looked earnestly at his hand, without renewing his cries, and without expressing any passion, or breaking out into any imprecation. To this first torment succeeded that of pinching him with red hot pincers, in the arms, thighs, and breasts. At each pinch he was heard to shriek in the same manner as when his hand was burnt. He looked and gazed at each wound, and his cries ceased as soon as the pinching was over. They afterwards poured boiling oil, and melted lead and rosin, into every wound, except those of the breast, which produced, in all those circumstances, the same effect as the two first tortures. The tenor of his articulated exclamations, at times, was as follows: 'Strengthen me, Lord God; strengthen me!—Lord God, have pity on me! O Lord, my God, what do I not suffer! Lord God, give me patience!'

At length they proceeded to the ligatures of his arms, legs, and thighs, in order to dismember him. This preparation was very long and painful, the cords, straightly tied, bearing grievously upon the fresh wounds. This drew new cries from the sufferer; but did not hinder him from viewing and considering himself with a strange and singular curiosity.

The horses having been put to the draught, the pulls were repeated for a long time, with frightful cries on the part of the sufferer; the extension of whose members was incredible, and yet nothing gave signs of the dismemberment taking place. In spite of the straining efforts of the horses, which were young and vigorous, and, perhaps, too much so, being the more restive and unmanageable for drawing in concert, this last torment had now lasted for more than an hour, without any prospect of its ending. The physician and surgeon certified to the commissaries, that it was almost impossible to accomplish the dismemberment, if the action of the horses was not aided by cutting the principal sinews, which might, indeed, suffer a length of extension, but not be separated without an amputation.

Upon this attestation the commissaries sent an order to the executioner, to make such an amputation, with regard especially to the night coming on, as it seemed to them fitting that the execution should be over before the close of the day.

In consequence of this order, the sinews of the sufferer were cut at the joints of the arms and thighs. The horses then drew afresh, and after several pulls, a thigh and arm were seen to sunder from the body. Damiens still looked at this painful separation, and seemed to preserve some sense and knowledge after both thighs and one arm were thus severed from his body: nor was it till the other arm went away that he expired.

As soon as it was certain that there was no life left, the body and scattered limbs were thrown into a fire prepared for that purpose near the scaffold, where they were all reduced to ashes."