The three men were then tied with ropes to the guns, their backs against the muzzle. The rope, fastened to one of the spokes of the wheel, passed with a knot round the arms, over the muzzle of the gun, round the other arm, and then to the spoke of the opposite wheel, which kept the body fixed. The prisoners, with their wrists tied together, kept crying incessantly, "There is no God, but God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God!" Just as every thing was ready, the prisoner in the middle was let loose, having been pardoned by the Shah, and the noise made the other two turn their heads. At that instant, the priming was fired, and the explosion took place. I could only see the body nearest to me, for the thick clouds of smoke. One arm and shoulder blade was driven perpendicularly upwards, at least a hundred feet; the other arm and part of the body were found right forward, thirty yards off, with the hand torn away. The explosion produced a shower of blood, and small particles of flesh. On going to the gun, I found the head separate, as if it had been purposely severed from the body, and lying between the wheels: close to it were the lower limbs, trunkless, upturned on the ground, with part of the intestines twisted round one leg. The criminal was a man of muscular form, and about twenty-five years of age. The other, with felon marked on his countenance, could not have been more than nineteen. His head and legs also fell under the gun. Neither of the miserable wretches betrayed any emotion, or spoke a word more than declaring that they were innocent, and repeating the ejaculation " La Illah Illilah Mahomed Russool Illah!" till they were blown to atoms.
