¿what do you think of this text? is a fragment of the Cencis of alexanderdumas?

Question

Then the executioner descended, entered tie chapel, and reappeared leading Lucrezia, who was the first to suffer. At the foot of the scaffold he tied her hands behind her back, tore open the top of her corsage so as to uncover her shoulders, gave her the crucifix to kiss, and led her to the step ladder, which she ascended with great difficulty, on account of her extreme stoutness; then, on her reaching the platform, he removed the veil which covered her head. On this exposure of her features to the immense crowd, Lucrezia shuddered from head to foot; then, her eyes full of tears, she cried with a loud voice--

"O my God, have mercy upon me; and do you, brethren, pray for my soul!"

Having uttered these words, not knowing what was required of her, she turned to Alessandro, the [p. 409] chief executioner, and asked what she was to do; he told her to bestride the plank and lie prone upon it; which she did with great trouble and timidity;

but as she was unable, on account of the fullness of her bust, to lay her neck upon the block, this had to be raised by placing a billet of wood underneath it; all this time the poor woman, suffering even more from shame than from fear, was kept in suspense; at length, when she was properly adjusted, the executioner touched. the spring, the knife fell, and the decapitated head, falling on the platform of the scaffold, bounded two or three times in the air, to the general horror; the executioner then seized it, showed it to the multitude, and wrapping it in black taffetas, placed it with the body on a bier at the foot of the scaffold.

what did you feel at read this?

Answer 1

There is a feeling of foreboding and then horror as the character is executed. It is rather a grisly scene and it includes her humiliation as she is executed, decapitated in from of a crowd. It's not fun nor pleasant to read, not at all, but perhaps that is what makes it so well-written and so wonderful to read. It makes us both think and feel. If there was no feeling to it then it would be just a textbook history. This actually reaches in and grabs our heart.