232 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



sembled city was strictly decorous, and the 

 awful spectacle seemed to make a proper im- 

 pression, and elicited more feeling than I ex- 

 pected to have witnessed. The ladies in general 

 knelt as the prisoners passed : an awful silence 

 prevailed, interrupted only by the muffled 

 drums, and the exhortations of the priests; 

 but thousands of fine black eyes were suffused 

 in tears, whilst their mute trembling lips were 

 engaged in prayer for the wretched victims of 

 vice, now about to make a public atonement 

 for their crimes. 



On arriving at the open space near the Vera 

 Cruz gate, the fatal apparatus appeared in 

 view. It consisted of a high gallows, with a 

 scaffold under it ; on this were two upright 

 pieces of wood, with a seat attached to each, 

 on which the culprits, more dead than alive, 

 were, after some preparatory prayers, succes- 

 sively placed, with their hands tied before 

 them. The executioner then put an iron cir- 



