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THE

TERRIFIC REGISTER;

Or, Record

OF CRIMES, JUDGMENTS, PROVIDENCES, AND CALAMITIES.

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DREADFUL EXECUTION OF DAMIENS FOR ATTEMPTING TO ASSASSINATE LOUIS XV. KING OF FRANCE.

THIS unhappy man, who fell a victim to his fanatical spirit, or the temporary influence of insanity, for it is doubtful which instigated him to the commission of the crime, was a native of St. Pol, a village in France. He had for some months meditated the assassination of the king, and was only prevented by circumstances from putting it into execution before. On the afternoon of the 5th of January, 1757, his majesty was stepping into his coach at Versailles, when Damiens, who had concealed himself at the bottom of the stairs, rushed forwards and stabbed him at the fifth rib. Damiens, instead of endeavouring to escape, which he might have done in the confusion, remained with his hat on, which the king observing, gave him into custody. He soon underwent the most agonizing tortures to induce him to confess his accomplices, and he handed over a list, which he afterwards owned to be false. He was tried on the 25th of March, and the following day being Sunday, he was ordered to be executed on the 28th.

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A little before three o'clock, the commissioners went from the Conciergerie to the town-hall, preceded, according to custom, by the archers, or halberdiers. Damiens was brought in a tumbril, or dung-cart, before the principal gate of the church of Notre Dame, in his shirt, where he performed the ceremony of the amende honorable by holding a lighted torch of two pound's weight, acknowledging his crime, and begging pardon of God, the king, and the laws.

He was carried to the Grêve, and the whole city was well guarded.

When Damiens arrived at the Grève, he asked pardon for the calumnious expressions which he had used, since his confinement, against the archbishop of Paris; acknowledging them to be false and groundless; declared that his wife and daughter were entirely innocent, and no ways accessary to his crime, most earnestly entreating, that they might be used with mercy and compassion; and asserted, that be had neither inciter, accomplice, or associate in what he had done. The two clergymen, in order to impress him more strongly with devout sentiments (hoping thereby to induce him the more readily to speak the truth) and to put him in mind of his crucified Saviour, frequently presented him with a crucifix, which he respectfully kissed. The commissioners, finding that all their endeavours to induce him to confess were ineffectual, commanded him to be carried back to the Grêve. But the executioner not having everything prepared to proceed to immediate execution, Damiens waited some time, during which the two divines (who attended him in his last moments) were incessant with him in their duties. The hangman, for his neglect, was afterwards imprisoned.

A little before five Damiens was stripped, and even then gave proofs of his firmness, by surveying all his body and limps very minutely with great attention, and by looking undauntedly round on the vast concourse of people, who were inveighing against him most vehemently. He was then laid on the scaffold to which he was instantly tied, and soon afterwards fastened by two iron gyves, or fetters, one placed over his breast below his arms, and the other over his belly, just above his thighs. Then the executioner burnt his right hand (with which the villainous stab had been given) in flames of brimstone; during which operation Damiens gave a very loud and continued cry, which was heard at a great distance from the place of execution, after which, Damiens raising his head as well as he could, looked for some time at the burnt hand, with great earnestness and composure. The executioner then proceeded to pinch him in the arms, thighs, and breast, with red-hot pincers; and Damiens, at every pinch, shrieked in the same manner as he had done when his hand was scorched with the brimstone; and viewed and gazed at every one of the wounds, and ceased crying as soon as the executioner gave over the pinching. Then boiling oil, melted wax and rosin, and melted lead, were poured into all the wounds, except those on the breast: which made him give as loud shrieks and cries, as he had done before when his hand was burnt with sulphur, and his breast, arms, and thighs, torn with hot pincers. The words, which he exclaimed at every repetition of torment, were: -"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!" When he had undergone all these excruciating torments, and every thing being ready for the execution of the next part of the sentence, the executioner and his assistants proceeded to fasten round the criminals's arms, legs, and thighs, the ropes with which the horses were to tear those limbs from his body. This operation being very long, and the tight tying of the ropes upon

the fresh wounds, augmenting his pain, made the miserable Damiens renew his shrieks and cries most hideously; but such was his continued firmness, and even then, he surveyed his body minutely, and with surprising curiosity.

When the cords were fixed, four stout, young, and vigorous horses continued their repeated efforts above an hour, without doing any thing further towards the dismembering of the unhappy criminal, than stretching his joints to a prodigious length; which probably was owing to the youth aud vigour of the horses, as being for that reason too headstrong and unmanageable for pulling in concert. The physician and surgeon then acquainted the commissioners, that, unless the principal sinews of the sufferer were cut, it would be very difficult, if not almost impossible, to put that part of the sentence in execution. This was done, as the night was coming on, and it was desirable that the execution should be accomplished before the day was over. The sinews being cut, the horses began to draw anew, and after several pulls, a thigh and arm were torn from the body. Damiens looked at his several members, and had some remains of sense after the other thigh was pulled off; nor did he expire, till the other arm was likewise torn away. As soon as there was no appearance of life left, the trunk and dismembered quarters were thrown into a large blazing pile of wood, erected for that purpose near the scaffold, were they continued burning till seven o'clock next morning, and afterwards his ashes were, according to the sentence of the court of parliament, scattered in the air.

THE JEW'S LEAP.

Captain Riley and his fellow sufferers from shipwreck, in their journey from Santa Cruz, towards Haggadore, crossed a remarkably dangerous and frightful pass, called the Jew's Leap. "The path," says Captain Riley, "which we were now obliged to follow, was not more than two feet wide in one place, and on our left it broke off in a precipice of some hundred feet deep to the sea; the smallest slip of the mule or camel would have plunged it and its rider down the rocks to inevitable and instant death, as there was no bush or any thing to lay hold of by which a man might save his life. Very fortunately for us, there had heen no rain for a considerable time previous, so that the road was now dry. Rais told me, when it was wet it was never attempted, and that many fatal accidents had happened there within his remembrance; though there was another road which led around over the mountain far within the country.

"One of these accidents he said he would mention.-A company of Jews, six in number, from Santa Cruz for Morocco, came to this place with their loaded mules in the twilight, after sunset; being very anxious to get past it before night, they did not take the precaution to look out and call aloud before they entered on it, for there is a place built at each end of this dangerous piece of road, from whence one may see if there are others on it, not being quite half a mile in length; a person in hallooing out, can be heard from one end to the other, and it is the practice of all who go this way to give this signal. A company of Moors had entered, at the other end, going towards Santa Cruz, at the same time, and they also supposing that no others would dare to pass it at that hour, came on without the usual precaution. When about half way over, and in the place the two parties met, there was no possibility of passing each other, or turning about to back either way; the Moors were mounted as

well as the Jews, neither party could retire, nor could any one, except the foremost, get off his mule: the Moors soon became outrageous, and threatened to throw the Jews down headlong: the Jews, though they had always been treated like slaves, and forced to submit to every insult and indignity, yet finding themselves in this perilous situation, without the possibility of retiring, and unwilling to break their necks merely to accommodate the Moors, the foremost Jew dismounted, carefully, over the head of his mule, with a stout stick in his hand; the Moor nearest him did the same, and came forward to attack him with his scimitar; both were fighting for their lives, as neither could retreat; the Jew's mule was first pitched down the craggy steep, and dashed to atoms by the fall. The Jew's stick was next hacked to pieces by the scimitar; when, finding it was impossible for him to save his life, he seized the Moor in his arms, and, springing off the precipice, both were instantly hurled to destruction; two more of the Jews and one Moor lost their lives, in the same way, together with eight mules! and the three Jews, who made shift to escape, were hunted down and killed by the relations of the Moors who had lost their lives on the pass, and the place has, ever since, been called the Jew's Leap. It is, indeed, enough to produce dizziness, even in the head of a sailor, and if I had been told the story before getting on this frightful ridge, I am not certain but that my imagination might have disturbed my faculties, and rendered me incapable of proceeding with safety along this perilous path."

THE MARINE SPECTRE.

When Mr. Walker was setting out on his second cruise in the Boscawen private ship of war, in 1745, a report made by the French officers, when the ship was taken, that a gunner's wife had been murdered on board, began now to be looked upon by the men, as ominous of the misfortunes which would attend the cruise. One of the seamen, remarkable for his sobriety and good character, one night alarmed the ship, by declaring he had seen a strange appearance of a woman, who informed him, among other particulars, that the ship would be lost. The story spread among the crew, and laid such hold of the imagination, as would have been attended with the most serious consequences, had not Mr. Walker contrived a device for turning it all into ridicule, and with great presence of mind related the following anecdote to the assembled ship's crew.

In June, 1734, Mr. Walker lying at an anchor at Cadiz, in his ship, the Elizabeth, a gentleman of Ireland, whose name was Burnet, was then on board, going to take his passage over to Ireland. This gentleman was a particular acquaintance of Mr. Walker, and he was extremely fond of him, being a man of great good sense, and very lively in conversation. The night before the affair we speak of happened, the subject turned upon apparitions of deceased friends, in which this person seemed much to believe, and told many strange stories as authorities for them, besides giving some metaphysical arguments, chiefly that the natural fear we had of them proved the soul's confession of them. But Mr. Walker, who was entirely of another way of thinking, treated all his arguments with ridicule. Mr. Burnet, who was bred a physician, was curious to try how far fancy might be wrought on in an unbeliever, and resolved to prove the power of this natural fear over the senses: a strange way, you will say, to convince the mind by attacking the imagination; or, if it was curiosity to see the operations of fear work on fancy, it was too

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nice an experiment to anatomize a friend's mind for information only. Or perhaps the humour of the thought was the greatest motive; for he was a man of a gay temper, and frolicsome.

About noon, as they were standing, with more of the ship's company, upon deck, near the forecastle, looking at some of the governor's guard boats making fast to a buoy of a ship in the bay, in order to watch the money, that it might not be carried out of the country, Mr. Burnet proposed, as a plan for a wager, he being a remarkable swimmer, to leap off the gunnel of the ship, and dive all the way quite under water, from the ship to the boats at that distance, and so rise up upon them, to startle the people at watch in them. A wager being laid, he undressed, jumped off, and dived entirely out of sight. Every body crowded forwards, keeping their eyes at the distance where he was expected to come up; but he never rising to their expectation, and the time running past their hopes of ever seeing him more, it was justly concluded he was drowned, and everybody was in the greatest pain and concern; especially those, who by laying the wager, thought themselves in some measure accessary to his death. But he, by skilful diving, having turned the other way behind the ship, and being also very active, got up by the quarter ladder in at the cabin window, whilst everybody was busy and in confusion, at the forward part of the ship; then concealing himself the remaining part of the day iu a closet in the state room, wrapped himself up in a linen night-gown of Mr. Walker's. Evening coming on, the whole ship's company being very melancholy at the accident, Mr. Walker retired with a friend or two to his cabin, where, in their conversation, they often lamented the sad accident and loss of their friend and dear companion, speaking of every merit he had when living, which is the unenvied praise generally given to our friends, when they can receive nothing else from us. The supposed dead man remained still quiet, and heard more good things said to his memory, than perhaps he would else have ever in his life time heard spoken to his face. As soon as it was night, Mr. Walker's company left him; and he being low in spirits went to bed, where lying still pensive on the late loss of his companion and friend, and the moon shining direct through the windows, he perceived the folding doors of the closet to open; and, looking steadfast towards them, saw something which could not fail startling him as he imagined it a representation of a human figure: but recalling his better senses, he was fain to persuade himself, it was only the workings of his disturbed fancy, and turned away his eyes. However they soon again returned in search of the object; and seeing it now plainly advance upon him, in a slow and constant step, he recognized the image of his departed friend. He has not been ashamed to own he felt terrors which shook him to the inmost soul. The mate, who lay in the steerage at the back of the cabin, divided only by a bulkhead, was not yet a-bed; and hearing Mr. Walker challenge with a loud and alarmed voice," What are you?" ran to him with a candle, and meeting Mr. Burnet, in the linen gown, down drops the mate, without so much as an ejaculation. Mr. Burnet, now beginning himself to be afraid, runs for a bottle of smelling spirits he knew lay in the window, and applied them to the nose and temples of the swooning mate. Mr. Walker seeing the ghost so very alert and good-natured, began to recover from his own apprehension, when Mr. Burnet cried out to him, "Sir, I must ask your pardon; I fear I have carried the jest too far; I swam round and came in at the cabin window; I meant, sir, to prove to you the natural awe the bravest must be under at such appearances, and have, I hope, convinced you in yourself" "Sir," says Mr. Walker, glad of being awakened from a terrible dream, and belief of his friend's death,

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