_Woman torn to pieces by Wild Cats as a Punishment for Infanticide_
(Vol. iii., p. 91.).--In the _Wonders of the Universe, or Curiosities of
Nature and Art_, vol. ii., p. 555., will be found the account of this
affair. The culprit was named Louise Mabrée, a midwife in Paris; the
corpses of no less than sixty-two infants were found in and about her
house: she was sentenced to be shut up in an iron cage with sixteen wild
cats, and suspended over a slow fire. When the cats became infuriated
with heat and pain, they turned their rage upon her; and after
thirty-five minutes of the most horrible sufferings, put an end to her
existence,--the whole of the cats dying at the same time, or within two
minutes after. This occurred in 1673.