eady in his hand, took up a position
on the left-hand side of his victim. The magistrate, between one puff and
another of smoke, gave a long harangue on the evils of borrowing money
and not returning it, however small the sum might be. The disgrace, he
argued, would be great in anybody's case, but for a soldier of the King,
not only to commit the great offence of borrowing money from a person of
lower grade than himself--"a butcher," but then also to add to his shame
by not returning it--this was something that went beyond the limits of
decency.

"How much was it you borrowed?" he inquired in a roaring kind of voice.

"A hundred _cash_," answered the thread of a voice from the head on the
ground buried in the coat-sleeves.

"Well, then, give him a hundred strokes, to teach him to do better next
time!"

As a hundred _cash_ is equivalent to one penny-halfpenny, to my mind, the
verdict was a little severe, but, as there is no knowing what is good
for other people, I remained a silent spectator.

The flogger then, grabbing at one end of the board with his strong hands,
swung it two or three times over his head, and gave a tremendous whack on
the man's thighs, causing them to bleed. Then immediately another and
another followed, each being duly reckoned, the poor fellow all the while
moaning pitifully, and following from the corners of his frightened eyes
the quick movements of the quivering plank. Soon his skin became livid
and inflamed, and, after a few more blows had been given, large patches
of skin remained attached to the board. The pain must have been intense.
The wretch bit his sleeves, and moaned and groaned, until, finally, he
became faint. Meanwhile, I had produced my sketch-book, and had already
with my pencil jotted down magistrate, flogger, flogged and soldiers,
when the ill-natured official took offence at what I was doing and
ordered the flogging to be at once stopped. Had I only known, I would
have begun my sketch before. As it was--and the culprit had only received
less than one-fifth of the number of blows to which he had been
sentenced--the performance was bad enough. There was only one redeeming
feature about it, and I must say no one was more astonished at it than
myself. Nearly all the soldiers, friends of the offender, blubbered like
children while his punishment lasted. This circumstance seemed to prove
to me that the Easterns, though apparently cruel, are, after all, not
quite so hard-hearted a