in majesty, the governor of the
Bastille, a terrible man. The governor made a speech about the crime of
running away from the Bastille, and when he had spoken for a fair time,
the clergyman talked in the same sense; and then a captured tiger,
dressed like a boy, with darting fierce eyes, was dragged in by two men,
and laid face down on the square table, and four boys were commanded to
step forward and hold tightly the four members of this tiger. And, his
clothes having previously been removed as far as his waist, his breeches
were next pulled down his legs. Then the rod was raised and it
descended swishing, and blood began to flow; but far more startling than
the blood were the shrill screams of the tiger; they were so loud and
deafening that the spectators could safely converse under their shelter.
The boys in charge of the victim had to cling hard and grind their
teeth in the effort to keep him prone. As the blows succeeded each
other, Darius became more and more ashamed. The physical spectacle did
not sicken nor horrify him, for he was a man of wide experience; but he
had never before seen flogging by lawful authority. Flogging in the
workshop was different, a private if sanguinary affair between free
human beings. This ritualistic and cold-blooded torture was infinitely
more appalling in its humiliation. The screaming grew feebler, then
ceased; then the blows ceased, and the unconscious infant (cured of
being a tiger) was carried away leaving a trail of red drops along the
floor.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

After this, supper was prepared on the long table, and the clergyman
called down upon it the blessing of God, and enjoined the boys to be
thankful, and departed in company with the governor. Darius, who had
not tasted all day, could not eat. The flogging had not nauseated him,
but the bread and the skilly revolted his pampered tastes. Never had
he, with all his experience, seen nor smelt anything so foully
disgusting. When supper was completed, a minor official interceded with
the Almighty in various ways for ten minutes, and at last the boys were
marched upstairs to bed. They all slept in one room. The night also
could be set down in words, but must not be, lest the setting-down
should be disastrous...

Darius knew that he was ruined; he knew that he was a workhouse boy for
evermore, and that the bright freedom of sixteen hours a day in a ce