"The officials had brought him, in obedience to the customary orders they had received, within hearing of those doleful sounds for the purpose of impressing upon his mind the horrors of the punishment, with which he was threatened, and of inducing him to confess without incurring them."
The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents. A Romance
At least 7 entries in the ESTC (1797)<br>
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Radcliffe, Ann. <u>The Italian</u>, ed. Robert Miles (New York: Penguin, 2000). &lt;Google Books: <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=vi4JAAAAQAAJ">vol. I</a>, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cBkGAAAAQAAJ">vol. II</a>, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5RkGAAAAQAAJ">vol. III</a>&gt;