Regarding the _peine forte et dure_ Holinshed says, that when accused felons stood mute of malice on arraignment they were pressed to death “by heavy weights laid upon a board that lieth over their breasts and a sharp stone under their backs, and these commonly hold their peace thereby to save their goods unto their wives and children, which if they were condemned should be confiscated to the prince.” There are continual references to the _peine forte et dure_ in the legal records throughout the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In 1605 Walter Calverly, Esq., of Calverly in Yorkshire, who was arraigned for the murder of his wife and two children, stood mute, and was pressed to death in York Castle. Another notable instance of the application of this fearful punishment was in the case of Major Strangways, who was arraigned in February 1657-8 for the murder of his brother-in-law Mr. Fussell. He refused to plead unless he was assured that if condemned he might be shot as his brother-in-law had been. In addition he said that he wished to preserve his estate from confiscation. Chief Justice Glyn reasoned with him at length, but could not alter his decision, and he was duly sentenced to the _peine forte et dure_. The sentence ran that he was to be put into a mean room where no light could enter, and where he was to be laid upon his back with his body bare; his legs and arms were to be stretched out with cords, and then iron and stone were to be laid upon him “as much as he could bear--and more;” his food the first day was to be three morsels of barley bread, and on the second day he was “to drink thrice of water in the channel next to the prison, but no spring or fountain water--and this shall be his punishment till he dies.” Strangways suffered in Newgate. He was attended to the last by five pious divines, and spent much of his time in prayer. On the day of execution he appeared all in white “waistcoat, stockings, drawers, and cap, over which was cast a long mourning-cloak,” and so was “guarded down to a dungeon in the press-yard, the dismal place of execution.” On his giving the appointed signal, “his mournful attendants performed their dreadful task. They soon perceived that the weight they laid on was not sufficient to put him suddenly out of pain, so several of them added their own weight, that they might sooner release his soul.” He endured great agonies. His groans were “loud and doleful,” and it was eight or ten minutes before he died. After death his body was exposed to view, and it was seen that an angle [Illustration: W^m. Spiggot _under pressure in_ NEWGATE _for not pleading to his Indictment_] of the press had been purposely placed over his heart, so that he might the sooner be deprived of life, “though he was denied what is usual in these cases, to have a sharp piece of timber under his back to hasten execution.”