even the friendship of his comrades, for
they well knew that it was his arm alone that punished them and that his
heart was not in his work. As Ivan's arm as well as the rest of his body
was the property of the general, and the latter could do as he pleased
with it, no one was astonished that it should be used for this purpose.
More than that, correction administered by Ivan was nearly always
gentler than that meted out by another; for it often happened that Ivan,
who was a good-natured fellow, juggled away one or two strokes of
the knout in a dozen, or if he were forced by those assisting at the
punishment to keep a strict calculation, he manoeuvred so that the tip
of the lash struck the deal plank on which the culprit was lying, thus
taking much of the sting out of the stroke. Accordingly, when it was
Ivan's turn to be stretched upon the fatal plank and to receive the
correction he was in the habit of administering, on his own account,
those who momentarily played his part as executioner adopted the same
expedients, remembering only the strokes spared and not the strokes
received. This exchange of mutual benefits, therefore, was productive
of an excellent understanding between Ivan and his comrades, which was
never so firmly knit as at the moment when a fresh execution was about
to take place. It is true that the first hour after the punishment was
generally so full of suffering that the knouted was sometimes unjust to
the knouter, but this feeling seldom out-lasted the evening, and it was
rare when it held out after the first glass of spirits that the operator
drank to the health of his patient.

The serf upon whom Ivan was about to exercise his dexterity was a man
of five or six-and-thirty, red of hair and beard, a little above average
height. His Greek origin might be traced in his countenance, which even
in its expression of terror had preserved its habitual characteristics
of craft and cunning.

When he arrived at the spot where the punishment was to take place, the
culprit stopped and looked up at the window which had already claimed
the young aide-de-camp's attention; it still remained shut. With a
glance round the throng which obstructed the entrance leading to the
street, he ended by gazing, with a horror-stricken shudder upon the
plank on which he was to be stretched. The shudder did not escape his
friend Ivan, who, approaching to remove the striped shirt that covered
his shoulders, took the opportunity to