e king
(who personally presided over the tortures) suggested a new and more
horrible device. The prisoner, who had been removed during the
deliberation, was brought in and "His nails upon his fingers were riven
and pulled off with an instrument, called in Scottish a 'turkas,' which
in England we call a 'payre' or 'pincers' and under everie nayle there
was thrust in two needles over, even up to the heads. So deeply had the
devil entered his heart, that he utterly denied all that which he
avouched," and he was burnt unconfessed.

And this from a king of England!

The methods of obtaining a confession were as follows: If the witch was
obdurate, the first, and it was said, the most effective method of
obtaining confession was by what was termed "waking her." An iron bridle
or hoop was bound across her face with four prongs which were thrust
into her mouth. It was fastened behind to the wall by a chain, in such a
manner that the victim was unable to lie down, and in this position she
was sometimes kept for several days, while men were constantly with her
to prevent her from closing her eyes for a moment in sleep. Partly in
order to effect this object, and partly to discover the insensible mark
which was the sure sign of a witch, long pins were thrust into her body.
At the same time, as it was a saying in Scotland that a witch would
never confess while she could drink, excessive thirst was added to her
torments. Some prisoners have been "waked" for five nights, one it is
said, even for nine.

The physical and mental suffering of such a process was sufficient to
overcome the resolution of many, and to distract the understanding of
not a few. But other and perhaps worse tortures were in reserve. The
three principal ones that were habitually applied were the "pennywinks,
the boot, and the caschielawis." The first was a kind of thumbscrew; the
second was a frame in which the leg was inserted, and in which it was
broken by wedges driven in by a hammer; the third was also an iron frame
for the leg, which was from time to time heated over a brazier.
Fire-matches were sometimes applied to the body of the victim. We read
in a contemporary legal register, of one man who was kept for
forty-eight hours in "vehement torture" in the caschielawis; and of
another who remained in the same frightful machine for eleven days and
nights, whose legs were broken daily for fourteen days in the boots, and
who was so scourged that the whole skin wa