The engine
wherewith the execution is done is a square block of wood of the
length of four feet and a half, which does ride up and down in a slot,
rabbet, or regall, between two pieces of timber, that are framed and
set upright, of five yards in height. In the nether end of the sliding
block is an axe, keyed or fastened with an iron into the wood, which
being drawn up to the top of the frame is there fastened by a wooden
pin (with a notch made into the same, after the manner of a Samson's
post), unto the midst of which pin also there is a long rope fastened
that cometh down among the people, so that, when the offender hath
made his confession and hath laid his neck over the nethermost block,
every man there present doth either take hold of the rope (or putteth
forth his arm so near to the same as he can get, in token that he is
willing to see true justice executed), and, pulling out the pin in
this manner, the head-block wherein the axe is fastened doth fall down
with such a violence that, if the neck of the transgressor were as big
as that of a bull, it should be cut in sunder at a stroke and roll
from the body by a huge distance.
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