The custom then was, when any person
was supposed guilty of sorcery or witchcraft, they carried
them to a place in the town called _La Tour Beauregard_, and
there, tying their hands behind them by the two thumbs, drew
them to a certain height with an engine made for that
purpose, by which means sometimes their shoulders were
turned round; and sometimes their thumbs torn off; but this
fancy of witches has for some years been laid aside.
It will be noticed in the subsequent _Confessions_ of witches (page
11, &c.), that a number of colons (:) are inserted in the text where
they would not be required as ordinary marks of punctuation. These
correspond, however, to similar pauses in the original records, and
evidently indicate the successive stages by which the story was wrung
from the wretched victims. They are thus endowed with a sad and
ghastly significance, which must be borne in mind when the confessions
are read. It must also be remembered that these confessions were not
usually made in the connected form in which they stand recorded, but
were rather the result of leading questions put by the inquisitors,
such as: How old were you when the Devil first appeared to you? What
form did he assume? What parish were you in? What were you doing? &c.
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