I have seen the following seven engravings of such an instrument. The most ancient is engraven on wood, merely outlines, and very badly drawn; it is in _Petrus de Natalibus Catalogus Sanctorum, 1510_. There was a German translation of some of _Petrarch's_ Works, published in 1520; this contains an engraving in wood, representing an execution, with a great number of figures, correctly drawn. _Aldegrever_, in 1553, published another print on this subject. The fourth is in _Achillis Bocchii Quaestiones Symbolicae_, 1550. There is one in _Cats's_ Dutch Emblems, 1650. And the two last are in _Golfrieds's_ Historical Chronicles, in German, folio, 1674. These five last are engraven on copper. In all these representations the axe is either straight or semicircular, but always horizontal. The sloping position of the French axe appears to be the best calculated for celerity. Machines of this kind are at present made use of for executions throughout all France, and criminals are put to death in no other manner. The following is the account of an execution, which I had from an eye-witness. The crowd began to assemble at ten in the morning, and waited, exposed to the intense heat of the sun in the middle of July, till four in the afternoon, when the criminals, a Marquis and a Priest, were brought, in two coaches; they were condemned for having forged _assignats_. The Marquis ascended the scaffold first; he was as pale as if he had already been dead, and he endeavoured to hide his face, by pulling his hair over it; there were two executioners, dressed in black, on the scaffold, one of which immediately tied a plank of about 18 inches broad, and an inch thick, to the body of the Marquis, as he stood upright, fastening it about the arms, the belly, and the legs; this plank was about four feet long, and came almost up to his chin; a priest who attended, then applied a crucifix to his mouth, and the two executioners directly laid him on his belly on the bench, lifted up the upper part of the board which was to receive his neck, adjusted his head properly, then shut the board and pulled the string which is fastened to the peg at the top of the machine, which lifted up a latch, and down came the axe; the head was off in a moment, and fell into a basket which was ready to receive it, the executioner took it out and held it up by the hair to show the populace, and then put it into another basket along with the body: very little blood had issued as yet.