She did not endure her fate calmly. She bit, kicked, scratched, cursed the saints and all mankind, and called upon the devil to help her. They had to bind her by force to the pillar.
And Henry Catsrider actually took pleasure in the hideous contest.
It is one of the most ghastly privileges of the headsman to wound with words the wretches whom he is worrying to death, to torture their souls as well as their bodies.
"Oh—oh, you old witch! So you have come under my hands at last, eh?"
"I suckled you, you dog! You have sucked witch's milk from me. Show yourself the devil you are!"
"Come along then, you queen of witches, come and be crowned!"
With that he placed upon her head the crown, made of three staves, and began to screw them together.
Red Barbara turned her face toward Valentine Kalondai and cried; "Judge! make them take this crown off, it hurts me!"
"Wait a bit!" said the headsman, with a harsh laugh; "I'll give you a sedative immediately;" and seizing a scourge with one hand, he gave a vicious twist at the screw with the other.
The tortured hag bellowed for anguish.