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Abstract In 1757 Robert-Frarn;:ois Damiens was sentenced to be publicly quartered in Paris for attempting to take the life of King Louis XV. Because the unusual strength of his muscles and joints prevented the horses from tearing his arms and legs apart, the executioner had to make incisions to carry out the punishment. But the affecting drama of Damiens’s suffering, detailed by Michel Foucault at the opening of his Discipline and Punish, should not mislead us into thinking many offenders were treated as harshly. On the contrary, Damiens’s execution was altogether exceptional. The judges, uncertain what punishment to inflict for so heinous a crime, decided to impose the same sentence that the previous regicide, Frarn;:ois Ravaillac, had received in 1610. French authorities had not quartered anyone in the intervening years, and they would never do so again.
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