Note 605 — Chapter XIII · THE FESTIVAL OF BLOOD. [August and September, 1572.]
Reading edition
Coryat (p. 16) describes it as “the fairest gallows” he ever saw. It was on a hill, and consisted of fourteen pillars of freestone, and was “made in the time of the Guisian massacre to hang the admiral.” In this he is wrong; other authorities reckon sixteen pillars on a stone platform, tied together by two rows of beams. The bodies were left a prey to beasts and birds; and the bones fell into a charnel where the filth of the streets was shot. Le Gibet de M. by Firmin-Maillard, 18mo. Paris, 1863; Des Anciennes fourches patibulaires de M., by M. de la Villegille, Paris, 1836.