Excerpt from A Ride on Horseback to Florence Through France and Switzerland: Described in a Series of Letters Has so preserved all within, that the curious wooden ceiling, supported in the centre by pillars, which retain traces of paint, remains 5 and the planks of the floor were only exchanged for pavement, when, on the threats of France, the caissons of the Canton de Vaud were assembled here. At one end of this hall is a small room with a door, on a now closed stair case, near the wide chimney. At the other is the salle de question. A pillar of wood, to which the prisoner was bound, still stands, - as does a beam above it, pierced with holes for pulleys, and a portion of the old ropes hanging from them. A second beam, which supported a wheel on which the wretch was tortured, (tied by the arms with weights to the feet, ) crumbled down a few months ago. The pillar is seared with the red-hot irons employed in the torture 5 that by burning being continued during three quarters of an hour, with intervals of five minutes 5 if it induced confession, the private stair from the small chamber conducted the condemned to the potence in the dungeon below. The door has been walled up, on account of the vicinity of the powder magazine. Our guide led to the eating-hall, which was the kitchen also. The capitals of its pillars. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.