“A torturer undresses the patient, ties his hands and feet with a rope, and makes him climb onto a little seat in order to pass the rope through some iron rings which are attached to the wall. After this, the seat is removed from beneath the patient, such that he remains suspended by the rope, which the torturer tightens more and more violently until the criminal has confessed, or until a surgeon who is present advises the judges that he is in danger of dying. These ropes cause, as one may well imagine, an infinity of pain as they cut into the flesh, and as they cause the hands and feet to swell to the point where blood issues from the nails. Since the patient is violently pressed against the wall, and the ropes are tightened with such force, there was always the risk of rupturing his limbs and so care was taken beforehand to wrap certain bands very tightly about his chest. At the moment when he suffers the most, in order to frighten him, he is told that this is but the beginning of the ordeal and that he had better confess all before proceeding to the limit. Besides the tortures just mentioned, the torturer lashes a little ladder onto the legs of the patient where he is suspended, whose sharpened rungs cause an incredible pain as they strike the bones of the legs...”.