Hence, too, the common expression, that a question which it is difficult to answer, or an argument which seems to decide the controversy, is a _poser_. The word "posing" in the passages cited by F. R. A. may refer to the examination of the pupil by the teacher of grammar. Thus, Fuller, in his _Worthies_, art. Norfolk, says that-- "The University appointed Dr. Cranmer, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to be the _poser-general_ of all candidates in divinity." Roquefort, _Gloss. de la Langue Romaine_, has "apponer, appliquer, poser, plaier." See Richardson in _appose_ and _pose_. L. _Culprits torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 480.).--In reply to MR. JACKSON'S question respecting culprits torn by horses, I beg to inform him that Robert Francois Damiens was the last criminal thus executed in France. He suffered on the 28th March, 1757, for an attempt on the life of Louis XV. The awful penalty of the law was carried out in complete conformity with the savage precedents of former centuries. Not one of the preparatory barbarities of question, ordinary and extraordinary, or of the accompanying atrocities of red-hot pincers, melted lead, and boiling oil, was omitted. The agony of the wretched man lasted for an hour and a half, and was witnessed, as Mercier informs us, by all the best company in Paris. The men amused their leisure with cards, while waiting, as he says, for the boiling oil; and the women were the last to turn their eyes from the hideous spectacle. Your correspondent may be glad to be informed that the same punishment was inflicted on Poltrot de Mere for the murder of the Duke of Guise, in 1563; on Salcede, in 1582, for conspiring against the Duke of Alencon; on Brilland, in 1588, for poisoning the Prince de Conde; on Bourgoing, Prior of the Jacobins, as an accessory to the crime of Jaques Clement, in 1590; and on Ravaillac, for the murder of Henry IV. in 1610. These, with the case of Jean Chastel, are all of which I am aware. If any of your readers can add to the list, I shall feel obliged. As I am upon the subject of judicial horrors, I would ask, whether any of your correspondents can supply me with a reference to the case of a {92} woman executed, I think in Paris, and, if my recollection serves, for a systematic series of infanticides. She was put to death by being suspended over a fire in an iron cage, in which a number of wild cats were shut up with her. I read the story many years ago, and for some time have been vainly endeavouring to recover it. J. S. _Torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 522.).--This cruel mode of execution was practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus Hostilius, says:-- "Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque curru corpus, qua inhaeserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes a tanta foedidate spectaculi oculos."--L. i., c. 28.