Like the Parels of Pauline:

As Symon Legree stared down at the wriggling Pauline. He twisted his handlebar mustache. and observed that she was tied tightly to the railroad tracks as the locomotive surged forward at a incredible speed . "I will free you if you sign over the dead to your fathers home stead and agree to be my wife" He stated in an arrogant manor. "No Never, I will never agree to be your wife you loathsome individual" as she freed her hand and raised it to her forhead. "Splat" as the train ran over her. "Oh well I will have to find another victim I guess" Symon mused, as he wiped the blood and gore off of his face with an old hanky. He walked back to town as the vultures circled over head.

Or

you could have Pauline strapped to a large log on a mill that was about to be sliced in two with a large saw.

Or In a medieval dungeon as a pendulum swung back and fourth.

Lots of grist for the story mill.