Ancient Scottish ballads, recovered from tradition, and never before ...

57
have been adopted upon extraordinary occasions. After
the Carthaginians had exhausted all the torments which
their fancy could devise, on the virtuous Regulus, they
resorted to this as the last and most exquisite of all
their tortures. " First, his eyelids were cut off, and
then he was, remanded to prison. He was, after some
days, exposed with his face to the burning- sun. At
last, when malice was fatigued with studying all the
arts of torture, he was put into a barrel of nails that
pointed inwards, and in this painful position he contin-
ued till he died."
—
Goldsmith's Roman Hist. 8vo.
vol. I, p. 247. He may not, indeed, have been rolled
down a "brae;" as that operation would have more
speedily put an end to his sufferings, which it was the
savage pleasure of his enemies to prolong.