8. THE HORSE.--This was a frame of wood--a sort of trough, across which was a round bar, like the step of a ladder. On this bar the prisoner was laid, with his feet elevated higher than his head. He was then bound to the horse by a cord drawn thrice round each arm, and the same round each leg. By means of sticks, after the manner of screws, the cord being twisted, it was thus tightened, and, cutting into the flesh, much bloodshed was caused. The rope was then removed to the sounder parts, and the torture repeated, producing excruciating agony. 9. THE DICE.--Sometimes iron dice were fastened to the heels of the feet, when screws were forced through the flesh till they reached the bones, producing indescribable suffering. 10. THE WET CLOTH.--The prisoner, while bound to the horse, in some cases, had thrown over his face a thin cloth, forming a bag to pass into his mouth, so that he was scarcely able to breathe; and, at the same time, a very small stream of water was directed to fall into the mouth, sinking the bag down his throat. Six or seven English pints of water have been thus poured into one person, and the convulsive agonies produced were like a sense of suffocation. Sometimes the cloth was removed from the face, to allow the wretched victim to answer the questions proposed by the inquisitors; when the pain occasioned by the pulling up of the bag from the throat was as if the bowels were being drawn through the mouth, and it was found to be soaked with blood as well as with water. In his struggling efforts to breathe, the sufferer would rupture a blood-vessel, and, in not a few instances, die under the horrid torture. Various other modes of cruelty were employed in some courts, according to the will of the inquisitors. Some used canes put between the fingers, which were then pressed together, so as to dislocate the joints, and occasion exquisite pain. Others tied small cords round the thumbs, so tightly as to force blood from under the nails. Red-hot irons were pressed upon the naked breasts, and iron slippers heated were put on the feet, so as to burn the flesh to the bone. And in perpetrating these enormities, especially on the persons of women, the inquisitors behaved in the most inhuman and revolting manner, indicating the execrable character of the Romish “mystery of iniquity.” CHAPTER XIV. VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION. Victims--1. Juan de Salas--2. Donna Johanna Bohorques--3. Donna Maria Bohorques--4. Melchior Hernandez--5. Lewis Pezoa.