The Pit and the Pendulum Charles III and Charles IV only four persons were condemned. The Inquisition was, however, abolished during the period of French intervention (1808–13). The original source of the pendulum torture method is one paragraph in the preface of the 1826 book "The history of the Inquisition of Spain " by the Spanish priest, historian, and activist, Juan Antonio Llorente. relating a second-hand account by a single prisoner released from the Inquisition's Madrid dungeon in 1820, who purportedly described the pendulum torture method. Most modern sources dismiss this as fantasy. One theory is that Llorente misunderstood the account he heard; the prisoner
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film) Elizabeth taunts her insensate husband. Nicholas opens his eyes and begins laughing hysterically while his wife and the doctor recoil in horror. Believing himself to be Sebastian, he replays the events of his mother and uncle's murders. He overpowers Dr. Leon, believing him to be Bartolome, and Leon falls to his death in the pit while trying to escape. Nicholas seizes Elizabeth, and repeats his father's promise to Isabella to torture her horribly. Francis, having heard Elizabeth's screams, enters the dungeon. Nicholas confuses Francis for Bartolome, and knocks him unconscious. He straps him to a stone slab located directly beneath