The Memoirs of a Prague Executioner by Josef Svátek

Author:Josef Svátek [Svátek, Josef]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Sharpless House, Inc.
Published: 2010-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

In the evening before the execution, the City Recorder came to my house.

“I am ready for tomorrow,” I told him.

“Actually,” he replied, “this won’t be a regular execution. Since both condemned are men of the cloth, they’re to be executed in front of the Old Town City Hall upon a specially built scaffold. The scaffold is to be built tonight and covered by a black drape. Such are the orders of the Royal Judge.”

“Yes, but how will the Guild of Carpenters agree to build the scaffold? I can’t build it myself that fast.”

“That’s been taken care of,” he said. “The guild received a special decree guaranteeing them that building this scaffold won’t be to their honor’s detriment. Their apprentices will build it tonight. You’re only to supervise them so they do a decent job. Tomorrow morning the city jailer will issue you the black drape as well as two coffins. In them, you’ll place the bodies of those beheaded men and bury them at St. Valentine’s cemetery at night. Now if you excuse me...”

He then was on his way to the Guild’s Grandmaster. The latter wasn’t too thrilled about this commission, but having received the above-mentioned decree, he reluctantly promised to construct the scaffold on time.

The work didn’t start until the Old Town Square became completely deserted that night. When I arrived at the site at midnight, the carpenters threatened to walk out on the job should I or any of my staff even touch their project. My supervision was thus limited to informing them where to build the edifice and that there should be three steps leading to its platform.

Before sunrise, while my assistants were moving the execution block to the scaffold, I collected a huge black drape from the jailer. We covered the entire scaffold with it and hid the two coffins underneath the platform. Several guards were dispatched to watch over the scaffold. Some of the local thieves would not hesitate to steal the drape. They could sell it to Jewish brokers. Three-score cubits of fabric would easily sell for a few three-scores of groschen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.