took the lever of the screw in both hands, gathered himself up for a strong muscular effort, and, at the moment of a preconcerted signal, drew the iron collar tight, while an attendant flung a black handkerchief over the face--a convulsive pressure of the hands and a heaving of the chest were the only visible signs of the passing of the robber’s spirit. After a pause of a few moments, the executioner cautiously peeped under the handkerchief, and after having given another turn to the screw, lifted it off, folded it up, carefully put it into his pocket, and then proceeded to light a cigar ------ “with that air of satisfaction Which good men wear who’ve done a virtuous action.” [Sidenote: EXECUTION OF A ROBBER.] The face of the dead man was slightly convulsed, the mouth open, the eye-balls turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black bier, with two lanterns fixed on staves, and a crucifix, was now set down before the scaffold--also a small table and a dish, into which alms were again collected, to be paid to the priests who sang masses for his soul. The mob having discussed his crimes, abused the authorities and judges, and criticised the manner of the new executioner (it was his maiden effort), began slowly to disperse, to the great content of the neighbouring silversmiths, who ventured to open their closed shutters, having hitherto placed more confidence in bolts and bars, than in the moral example presented to the spectators. The body remained on the scaffold till the afternoon; it was then thrown into a scavenger’s cart, and led by the “_pregonero_,” the common crier, beyond the jurisdiction of the city, to a square platform called “_La mesa del Rey_,” the king’s table, where the bodies of the executed are quartered and cut up--“a pretty dish to set before a king.” Here the carcase was hewed and hacked into pieces by the bungling executioner and his attendants, with that inimitable defiance of anatomy for which they and Spanish surgeons are equally renowned-- “Le gambe di lui gettaron in una fossa; Il Diavol ebbe l’alma, i lupi l’ossa.” “The legs of the robber were thrown in a hole, The wolves got his bones, the devil his soul.” [Sidenote: THE SPANISH DOCTOR.] CHAPTER XVII. The Spanish Doctor: his Social Position--Medical Abuses--Hospitals--Medical Education--Lunatic Asylums--Foundling Hospital of Seville--Medical Pretensions--Dissection--Family Physician--Consultations--Medical Costume--Prescriptions--Druggists--Snake Broth--Salve for Knife-cuts.