ABSTRACT
Bouton, an offi cer of the watch, left us his account: ‘The sulphur was lit, but the fl ame was so poor that only the top skin of the hand was burnt, and that only slightly. Then the executioner, his sleeves rolled up, took the steel pincers, which had been especially made for the occasion, and which were about a foot and a half long, and pulled fi rst at the calf of the right leg, then at the thigh, and from there at the two fl eshy parts of the right arm; then at the breasts. Though a strong, sturdy fellow, this executioner found it so diffi cult to tear away the pieces of fl esh that he set about the same spot two or three times, twisting the pincers as he did so, and what he took away formed at each part a wound about the size of a six-pound crown piece.
