Lord Kidrodstock - Stays and gloves

All the time she was speaking, I had groaned and sighed ceaselessly, for the two blows she had given me seemed the acme of suffering. Nevertheless, as I was to discover, the blows were as nothing in comparison with those which were to follow.

This cruel woman who delighted to play with her victims as a cat plays with a mouse, now asked me:

Do you promise to amend your ways and to behave better in the future?

" Yes! Certainly!… I will never… never again… "

Here a big sob cut short my words.

"Is your repentance sincere?"

"Oh, yes!… Have pity on me, my lady!

"No! I whill have no pity! It is for your good that I punish you. I have assumed a heavy responsibility in promising to curb your unruliness which seems to defy correction. But I tell you that I will correct you! I intend you to remember this day. I intend to write this date with this lash upon your back parts in letters which shall never be obliterated. It is necessary that you carry the marks of this day's punishment as long as you live."

My teeth chattered with terror and I was still imploring for mercy in faint tones when the real whipping began.

Action followed threats so speedily that mental anguish immediately disappeared, to give place to the physical sensation of unspeak able suffering.

A rump which has not been whipped by a thong of hippopotamus hide does not know what the lash really is. No words can describe this torture. The Russian knout cannot be more barbarous.

I had no strength left to cry out, but hoarse indistinct groans came from my agonised body. Each blow found its echo in my heart which seemed on the point of bursting through excess of suffering.

The directress, with a cruelty which I can only describe as infernal, struck her blows slowly, at intervals. I listened as in a dream to Stella's sweet voice. It was her task to count the blows. This gave me no comfort, for I did not know to what number the blows were destined to amount. I listened also to the dull thud of the lash on my flesh. It was a sound like a cataract of water and filled my ears with its resounding echo. I do not think that Niagara itself can make more noise than did that lash.

The directress, after striking from left to right, struck from right to left, and the punishment ceased with a well-aimed blow, more rigourous than the others, which cut deeply into both halves of my posterior.

It seems that I received a dozen blows, includ ing the two little preparatory ones. I could have sworn that I received more than a hundred. It is certain that if Lady Flayskin had 127

punished me in anger, the effects would have been terrible indeed and the issue probably fatal.

Happily for me, I had simply served as an example, the real anger of the directress having for its object another person altogether, as the reader will see.

As for me, I panted; it was all that was left for me to do. The energetic attentions of the two mistresses and the salts they held to my nose brought my breath back to me. I noticed also that they touched me in a curious way with a view to restoring life in me.

The first thing I naturally proceeded to do was to set up a mournful wailing.

This did not suit the directress. It was necessary that the lesson should profit the victim, so that the example should bear fruit.

A mirror was brought and placed behind me. I looked therein with tear-dimmed eyes.

Great heavens! I was hardly able to believe in such depths of human cruelty when my eyes saw, reflected from the polished surface of the mirror, my unfortunate back parts furrowed by livid weals, my flesh divided, so to speak, into a number of lumps whence the blood trickled in little streamlets down my thighs.

A kind of delirium seized me. I called for my dear mother in piercing shrieks. Two maid-servants at once hurried in, replying to the electric bell. I was carried away in their arms, out of the school-room. They laid me on my belly, as it was not possible to think of putting me upon my back. After applying vaseline to my thighs-though it seemed to me that I was being touched with red-hot iron bars – the compassionate maids did their best in every way to relieve my sufferings. They tried to tempt me with dainties for which I had not the least appetite. Then, better inspired, remarking the condition of nervous excitement into which the terror and suffering of my whip ping had thrown me, their hands softly caressed me and calmed my poor body. The state of stupor which resulted enabled me to fall asleep. But my slumbers were feverish, disturbed by nightmares.

I learnt later from my companions what had happened in the class-room after I had been carried out.

To tell the truth, I regretted savagely that I had been unable to be present during that memorable scene. Every detail, however, was so minutely described to me subsequently that I was able to conjure up the picture perfectly. I think that the description I received and which I shall now reproduce, will enable the reader to have the whole scene clearly before his eyes.

Scarcely was I outside the door of the class room, whence almost fainting I was carried by the strong arms of the maid-servants, when Lady Flayskin advanced to Miss Virginia, stopping before her and crossing her arms on her chest. She still held in her hand the terrible lash, and laughed harshly as she remarked:

"It is our turn now, Miss!"

"What do you mean?" replied the noble young lady, keeping countenance very well although her colour began to fade.

"I mean that you are about to immediately undress yourself in order that I may flog you before the whole class with the whip you are looking at. I shall lash you more severely 129

than that urchin who, after all, was much less to blame than you."

"What is the meaning of this foolish jest?'' said the young girl, withdrawing a step from the directress.

"As to folly, you are the only fool here, so remember that once for all!"

This was too much for the rich heiress of a family of knights and nobles. The colour rose to her cheeks, as with imperious voice and authoritative glance, she cried:

"Never have I been addressed in the least accent or tone of disrespect! How do you, ignoble creature, dare to be so audacious? To have imagined the possibility of my taking off my clothes before this assemblage of scholars, constitutes a criminal offence. But your most odious proceeding is to have dared to threaten me with the whip. I have told you that I wish to quit this establishment. Allow me to pass. I warn you that if you have the tem erity to lay so much as a finger upon me I shall make you bitterly repent it. You and your like are made to serve upon their knees women of my rank and position."

The sardonic laugh of Lady Flayskin made the pupils tremble. She replied: "Very well! Then I will be your servant. But it is you who will be on bended knees. Come here without further delay!"

The imperious directress pointed with extended finger to the place I had just left. With the other arm she brandished the whip which whistled horribly in the air. Her features took on terrible beauty like that of a Nemesis of old.

In reply, Miss Virginia turned her back and deliberately walked towards the door, with the obvious intention of leaving the room and per haps the house also. Scarcely had she opened the door, than she tottered backwards and was hurled irresistibly into the centre of the room. Two of the strongest maid-servants of the establishment had been informed by Stella of what was happening, and in accordance with the orders they received, had been awaiting the signal of Lady Flayskin to burst into the room and lay strong hands on Miss Virginia and prevent her from quitting the premises.

They thrust back the young girl and then 132

seized her by the shoulders and pulled her along.