This arrangement enabled the designer of the building to form a vault in the centre, lighted by a small loop. It had an entrance, or “eye,” in the crown, at the crossing of the ribs, through which were swept from time to time the bones and fragments that fell from above, the _ossuarium_, or charnel-house, being cleared out, as necessity dictated, through a doorway level with the outside ground on the further or sinister side of the building. It must have been a thing quite unique in the world, somewhat recalling the Towers of Silence of the Parsees. The mode of operation was as follows:-- The executioner, in his rayed and party-coloured habit of red and yellow, mounted the ladder, placed opposite a convenient space, backwards, holding in his hand the slack ends of three cords placed round the culprit’s neck; two of these cords, “les tortouses,” had slip-knots. The wretch under treatment was encouraged to follow “le maistre des haultes œuvres,” driven up after him--no doubt with blows and execrations, according to the Gallic fashion--and drawn forward by him by means of the third cord, “le jet.” Arrived at the proper height, the operator, the mediæval “Monsieur de Paris,” rapidly attached the “tortouses” to the gallows, or chain pendent from it, and, twisting the “jet” firmly round his arm, by means of this, and the action of his knee, threw the culprit off the ladder into mid-air; the knots of the “tortouses” ran home, and the man was strangled. The executioner then gripped the crossbeam, and, placing his feet in the loop formed by the bound hands of the patient, by dint of repeated vigorous shocks terminated his sufferings.[37] It may not be questioned that death under the circumstances and complicated conditions above described cannot have been other than a very shocking spectacle, and particularly when it is noticed from the arrangement of the chains that many a malefactor may in his agony have broken loose from his bonds, and clutched and grappled in his last moments with a decaying carcass at his side. We can gather a further idea of the strange and dismal appearance of the Gibbet of Montfaucon, if we consider that the quantity of bodies attached to it, and ceaselessly renewed, attracted thousands of carrion birds to the spot. But that its hideous aspect and pestilential surroundings prevented not the establishment, in its immediate vicinity, of places of amusement and debauch, one would almost have been slow to believe were it not for the testimony of ancient poetry:-- “Pour passer temps joyeusement, Raconter vueil une repeue Qui fut faicte subtillement Près Montfaulcon, c’est chose sceüe, * * * * * Tant parlèrent du bas mestier, Qui fut conclud, par leur façon, Qu’ils yroyent, ce soir-là, coucher Près le gibet de Montfaulcon, Et auroyent pour provision, Ung pasté de façon subtile, Et menroyent, en conclusion, Avec eulx chascun une fille.”[38]