Synopsis

In a public place in Constantinople at the corner of a bazaar, the executioner is seated upon a stone and is resting from his daily labors while eating a crust of bread. Suddenly there come running into the place a lot of Turkish men and women preceding some Turkish policemen, who drag along four prisoners in chains. The policemen shut up the four prisoners in the pillory. Their four heads stick up through the huge plank, which is provided with four openings. One of the policemen urges the executioner to decapitate the prisoners. He accordingly seizes a mighty sabre and cuts off by a single stroke the four heads, which roll upon the ground. After having placed the heads in a cask, he resumes eating his meal. Immediately the four heads pop out of the cask one at a time to see what the executioner is doing, and in due order each one seeks its body. The four executed prisoners thus reunited throw themselves upon the headsman and in spite of his resistance one of them picks up the sabre lying upon the ground and cuts his body into two pieces. The four prisoners take flight. The two legs and lower part of the body run frantically, while the bust upon the ground calls to them with gestures of despair. Finally, when the legs, in their flight, come close to the bust, it seizes them and thus the pieces of the executioner are united. Then he calls the policemen, who, followed by the crowd, enter into the pursuit of the escaping men.