“The death row prisoners were taken out at dawn to be executed. Two: a skinny, bald-headed swindler and a stocky, red-haired infidel. They pushed them out of the royal dungeons into the light of day and drove them with whips to Gallows Square. The sun had barely risen, but the crowd eager for spectacle had already blocked the square. The city's ragamuffins squabbled gloomily, shopkeepers made clumsy jokes, and artisans and craftsmen coughed sedately into their fists. The kingdom knew a lot about public executions. And every morning they chopped off heads in Gallows Square. Others, however, were burned, and those who were simpler were quickly pulled up, to the delight of the crows, which had multiplied in countless numbers in recent years...”