This story is pure [?] fiction and is written subject to all the warnings, disavowals and disclaimers usually applicable to yarns posted to the MMSA, and in addition, to my most abject and humble posthumous apologies to the late Major Charles Wyckham-Parkes, AS WELL AS my thanks to Tim for what has turned out to be a very exciting idea for my mate and me to follow up on; I have tried to show my gratitude for his interest in the original 'Cape Manuscript', in this story itself, but, save for the above reference to Major Wyckham-Parkes, it has absolutely no links to ANY person, alive or dead. To understand its background, however, the reader should first access the true account appearing under my name in the same Archive, under the title "A REALLY CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT".
A WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY
In a community as small and interdependant as that of the prosperous and thriving settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, nothing out of the ordinary could fail to become the subject of general comment within days, if not hours, of its occurrance and so it was with the public flogging, at the Castle, of three young convicts from Worcester, whose sufferings were, depending on the teller, magnified or discounted to such an extent that it was sometimes difficult to decide just how many groups of young criminals had, in fact, been thrashed on that occasion.
On one point, however, everyone WAS agreed, namely that the boys had been taught a very salutory lesson and the result was that the Commander of the Garrison at the Castle was soon approached, although not, initially, inundated, with requests to allow his obviously well-trained and competent staff to apply similar disciplinary measures to several of the local boys, whose behaviour had become a cause of concern to their parents, teachers or employers.
Predictably, the Military authorities initially refused to have anything to do with so outrageous an idea, but when it was put to the senior officers that not only could a public service be rendered by these means, but also that the coffers of the garrison's Community Chest could well be swelled by an income so generated, the matter was reconsidered and a compromise was put to the representatives of the good Burghers who had made the original approach.
This was to the effect that, while the military view was that the correction, corporal or otherwise, of children, should remain an exclusively parental preserve, it was recognized that older and less manageable youths, such as apprentices and clerks, whose attitudes or activities were unacceptable to their Journeymen or Principals, might profit from a visit to the Castle's Parade Ground, where, at the rate of a tickey a stroke, payable, as the unkindest cut of all, out of the wages of the offender, the sharp application of birch to bare buttocks would seek to persuade the errant lads to mend their ways.
Once the principle had been accepted, it took a while before the first young reprobate was virtually dragged to a punishment parade one Tues-day afternoon, was soundly birched and was then returned to the sympathy [or derision] of his peers, to spread the word of this new and highly unpleasant hazard which stalked the young male population of the Fairest Cape.
Thereafter, however, the idea took such a firm hold among those in authority, that the original trickle of applicants became a torrent of such proportions that the usual quarterly supply of selected imported birch twigs, while quite adequate for the correction of the young cadets and subalterns of the not very large garrison, was unable to cope with the number of stout rods which were being frayed to stumps each week on the sturdy behinds of the local boys.
While it would have been quite feasible for the Quartermaster to increase his orders accordingly, this was rendered unnecessary by the foresight and enterprise of a certain Oriental businessman called Purlali, who, having taken note of the types of twig from which the birch rods were fashioned, had determined that the thin branches of a species of Osier, which grew in profusion along the banks of the Liesbeeck River, would not only do the work of their birchen equivalents just as well, but would withstand their vigorous application to elastic young hides so much better, that a rod so made could be used for between 12 and 15 strokes, as against the 8 to 10 which disposed of the genuine article, producing a substantial saving in cost to the Garrison and, accordingly, a yet greater profit for its charitable works.
Ever a perfectionist, Mr. Purlali also made a study of the mechanics of birching as a punishment form and discovered that if the rods were fashioned of some 10 twigs of unequal length, with the longest in the centre and the shorter specimens around the perimeter and with their natural curves all pointing inward, the centrifugal effect of a vigorous downward stroke would be to spread all the twigs into a broad, open spray, which would not only wreak havoc on the largest possible area of the exposed buttocks per stroke, but would also allow the shorter switches to curl round into the tender recess between them, increasing the paun of the flogging, substantially.
Anticipating, correctly, that this novel facility would produce a demand, albeit a possibly short-lived one, which would be beyond the ability of the members of the Quartermaster's staff who had always kept the Castle supplied with enough rods for its own purposes, to meet, Mr. Purlali took the risk of employing and training three of his young countrymen, who not only implemented his ideas on the manufacture of the rods, but, by trying the products out on each other, refined the design still further until, by the date of the incident mentioned below, each of the parcel of well-pickled and supple locally made rods which was delivered to the main gate of the Castle each Monday, at the very reasonable cost of ninepence per rod, could be relied upon to stripe and flay at least one pair of young haunches to the complete satisfaction of the guardian or employer who had registered the lad concerned for a whipping.
It so happened that, among the better established businesses situated on the Cape Flats, some way beyond the main residential area of Tamboers Kloof, was the premises of Mr. le Roque, a Cooper by trade, who had secured the exclusive contract for the supply of oaken barrels and vats of various sizes to the 'Wijnmakers Vereeniging' which served the Wineries and Distilleries which were springing up in the Boland and the fertile Paarl and Franschhoek Valleys beyond the ring of mountains which backed the main settlement itself.
This enterprise had flourished to such an extent, that Mr. le Roque had been obliged to indenture three apprentices to cope with the heavy demand for his products at the end of each growing season, although the lads were then far from fully occupied for much of the rest of the year and, as a result, became lazy and given to slothful practices and undesirable activities, of which they had to be rid, in short order, towards the end of February.
The boys concerned, a very likeable and popular trio who all hailed from Kuils River, beyond Bellville, and boarded, during the week, at their employer's comfortable premises, had been warned, on several occasions that their indolence, temporary absenteeism during working days [when the charms of some of the local girls overcame them], and forbidden use of both tobacco and alcohol, could easily earn them a trip to join a punishment parade at the Castle, but, with the insouciance of youth, (they were, respectively, 19, 18 and [nearly] 17 years old), they had ignored the danger signs emanating from their very kindly and well-disposed employer until, on a fateful Thursday morning in February, they were all summoned to Mr. le Roque's office, where their foreman laid out such a catalogue of derelictions, omissions and acts of disobedience, that Mr. le Roque had no alternative but to offer them all the choice between immediate cancellation of their indentures and summary dismissal, or a visit to the Castle for a sound birching.
As all three boys needed their employment to pay their own way and to assist their families, there was no real choice and all agreed, although not without a good deal of begging and pleading, which, for once, fell on deaf ears, to submit to the floggings for which their employer, anticipating that reaction, had already registered them with the Captain of the Guard at the Castle.
None of the culprits actually knew anyone who had trodden that path before him, with the result that the three lads had nothing but wild rumours of brutal severity and humiliation to guide them. All spent, predictably, a miserable day and a restless, anxious night, before presenting themselves for work, as usual, on the Friday morning, on time, for once, only to discover, with a mixture of horror and relief, that, as it was an inflexible rule that no civilian boys were to be flogged save as part of a military punishment parade and as none of the members of the garrison was due for chastisement that day, the execution of their own punishments would have to stand over until the next punishment parade, on the following Tuesday at the earliest, which assured them all of a most unpleasant and anxious intervening few days.
The immediate result of this impending nemesis was that all three boys threw themselves wholeheartedly into their work on the Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday morning, in the forlorn hope that their industry might secure them a reprieve. Unfortunately for them, however, Mr. le Roque had hardened his heart and when, at about noon on the Tuesday, two soldiers arrived from the Castle to escort the three miscreants to that day's punishment parade, he sent the three extremely nervous lads off, just as they were. wearing nothing but their light calico blouses, stained and somewhat ragged overalls and bare feet, to meet their fate, following, himself, a few minutes later, in his Sedan Chair, to witness the correction of his errant apprectices, over which he was already having grave misgivings, as he was genuinely very fond of all three boys.
To his surprise, Mr. le Roque found that he was but one of a fairly large number of local residents of both _s_e_x_es and all ages, who were willing to spend a sixpence for the experience of watching several boys being thrashed. In fact, so great was the interest which these semi-civilian, semi-military, punishments at the Castle had generated, that the Commander had agreed to allow members of the public to attend those parades at which civilian boys were to be flogged, only, on payment of an admission fee and, if they wished, to bring along their own offspring, at a reduced fee, to witness the fate of their peers and, possibly, to take timeous heed for the sake of their own hides. The initial trickle of spectators had grown over the weeks, to such an extent that the Quartermaster had taken it upon himself to employ no fewer than four local youngsters. of whom two happened to be sons of Mr. Purlali himself, to act as ushers at every punishment parade to which the public was to be admitted. And so the 'new' industry increased in its scope, affording employment to more and more of the local residents.
The three apprentices were made to jog briskly halfway across Cape Town and were somewhat breathless when they arrived at the Castle, to find that that day's parade consisted of a Rifleman who was to receive the cat for gross insubordination, an enlisted boy of about 17 or 18, who had been sentenced to the cane for sleeping on duty and themselves, only. The two soldiers had already been prepared for punishment, the adult Rifleman stripped to the waist and the boy trouserless and with his long, regulation issue shirt-tails flapping about his bare thighs, both awaiting the arrival of the remaining participants in the parade, before being marched up to the platform in the middle of the square which bore the equipment necessary for their punishments.
At that point, the three unsuspecting apprentices received their first and rudest shock, when, unlike the two soldiers, they were curtly ordered to strip naked. Unbeknown to them, it had become a tradition, going back to the very first, unprecedented flogging of the three very young convicts from Worcester, that, although all beatings carried out on days when there were no civilians present, were administered with the culprits naked, on 'Public' days, the army personnel were paraded wearing such clothing, only, as would not interfere with the actual infliction of their whippings, while the unfortunate civilians were subjected to the additional humiliation of having to strip completely on the Parade Ground and to remain stark naked throughout the entire proceedings.
The boys' very predictable protests produced no reaction from the Officer in charge of the parade save an audible threat to the effect that any one of them who had not stripped by the count of ten would get a dose of the cat for disobeying orders, in addition to the birching which he was already due. Reluctantly and all too conscious of the curious stares of the spectators, some of whom, the boys realised, probably knew them or, at least, their families, the three boys peeled off their sweat-soaked shirts and, blushing furiously, lowered and stepped out of their grimy overalls, which left them standing as naked as when they were born and trying desperately and not very successfully to conceal their genitals, until even that was made impossible by their hands being shackled behind their backs, to make any attempt at escape on the part of presumably undisciplined civilians, virtually impossible.
No sooner had the naked and embarrassed trio joined the pair of partly clothed young soldiers, than all five of them were marched across the parade ground, to the steps leading up to the platform. In response to a barked command, Private H..... ascended the short flight of steps and was escorted to a T-shaped post in the middle and towards the back of the platform. His wrists were firmly shackled to rings at the ends of the crossbar of the 'T', which being higher than he was tall, had the effect of making him rise on his toes and drawing his lean, but well muscled, shoulders and back taut. His feet were left unshackled, but a broad leather belt was passed round his waist, securing his upper body firmly to the upright of the 'T' and, at the same time, protecting his kidneys and the soft area between ribs and hips against being injured by the whip.
His sentence, of half dozen lashes on his bare back, was read out, and a sturdy Drummer Boy of some 16 or 17 years of age took up his position to the left and slightly in front of the tethered soldier, calmly combed the nine unknotted, but dripping wet and tightly bound, whipcord lashes which gave the instrument its name, through his fingers, swung it round his tousled blonde head and brought it down hard and with a loud hissing whistle, followed by a resounding crack, across the naked shoulders of the helpless soldier, whose entire body jerked into absolute rigidity in response to the surge of blinding agony caused by the many tails' biting into his bare skin.
This was no artistic or carefully planned and executed exercise in physical torture, but a straightforward, moderately severe and horribly painful whipping, inflicted competently by means of the steady, rythmic and well-aimed movements of a strong young arm and planted, with unfailingly even regularity, across slim, muscular shoulders and ribs, the first three strokes progressing from high on the former down to just where the latter ended and then retracing the entire agonising path, so that, by the time the full six lashes had been laid on and their naked target had been flogged both downwards and upwards, it seemed as though there was not a strip on unwelted skin from just below the corded, straining neck to the lowest of the wildly pumping ribs, which were hard put to it to furnish the young man's powerful lungs with enough air to sustain his continuous, full-throated howls of agony, which were accompanied by the frantic stamping of his booted feet, as the fierce sting and bite of the whip raced to his extremities before concentrating, after each lash, in his welted, but not too badly lacerated, upper body.
Many of the spectators, determined to get their money's worth, added to the general clamour by loudly counting out the lashes in concert with the Corporal who had been detailed for that purpose, so that the overall effect was that of a mob at a public execution, baying for the blood of the condemned man. Among the most vocal were some of the female spectators who, despite their protestations of horror, were clearly only too keen to see their pound of naked male flesh being whipped and were doubtless looking forward, with even greater anticipation, to the chastisement of the four pairs of bare buttocks, three of which were already exposed to their gaze at the foot of the platform and which would probably also afford a good view of the virile young loins which went with them.
As soon as his sentence was complete, the young soldier was released and was able to walk, slightly unsteadily and trying manfully not to show his tears, back to his clothes, giving the spectators and his colleagues a very good idea of why a flogging with tne cat is something to avoid.
Smelling salts were offered to those of the lady spectators who had found their first sight of a 'real' flogging either a more brutal, or a more exciting, spectacle than they had anticipated, before they settled down to watch what they had really come to see, the sound thrashing of some naked young male bottoms. The scene was thus set for the commencement of what was, obviously, to be the major entertainment. of the afternoon.
No sooner had the first victim vacated the platform, than the enlisted boy, a husky, good-looking dark-haired lad of about 17, was called up and was led to a solid-looking wooden trestle, across whose padded top he was required to bend his lithe, well-developed young body, so that his firm round buttocks, which were immediately bared by simply flipping his army shirt's tails up towards his head, formed the apex of the tight, upside-down 'V' made by his body and his legs, their remaining in position for punishment being assured by his wrists' and ankles' being strapped to the legs of the contraption over which he was bent.
Again, his sentence, of 10 strokes of the cane, to be administered on the naked buttocks, was read out, but this time two Drummers, clearly determined not to be outdone in the severity or expertise departments by their predecessor, took up their positions, on opposite sides of their bound fellow soldier. Each was armed with a slender, tapering, three-foot long wand of some very springy and flexible material, which he swished ominously through the air before resting it lightly across the taut, quivering tail before him, in order to judge the placement of his first stroke accurately. At a signal, these formidable instruments were raised high and were brought slashing down in quick succession squarely across the naked rump of the wretched boy, which seemed to recoil visibly under the impacts, absorbing the rods for an instant before expelling them cleanly from the deep, chalk-white indentations which the strokes had left across the smooth, creamy pads of naked flesh which were the buttocks being thrashed.
As the hot young blood rushed back into the clear, double-lined white grooves running levelly, evenly and close together across both cheeks of his taut, flinching rump, converting them into finger-thick, raised, crimson welts, their edges already showing the purple tinges of the bruising to come, the young victim drew a deep, rasping breath, his knuckles showing white as he clung desperately to the legs of the trestle and his naked loins pounding frantically on the beam that was supporting them, in an effort at containing the vicious sting and burn of those first strokes.
The three apprentices, who had watched the previous flogging with all the detachment of those not directly involved, were now rooted to the spot by the sight of what was being done to someone whose caning was the immediate prelude to their own birchings. All of them and also many of the spectators, were amazed that the Drummer Boys, who could not, themselves, have been more than 17 years old, should lay so vigorously into the naked hide of someone with whom they must obviously have had daily contact, if not, actually, a friendly relationship. What none of them knew, however, was that if any Drummer was so much as suspected of letting another boy, or a soldier, off lightly, he faced an interview with the Regimental Sergeant Major that evening which invariably culminated in the Drummer's lying, spreadeagled and bare tailed, over the arm of an easy chair, while a heavy and very springy length of whalebone was applied a MINIMUM of three times the number of the unsatisfactory strokes, to bare buttocks and the backs of nakthighs, ensuring that that particular Drummer was unable to sit, or even walk, in comfort for at least a week. Several of the young Drummers had experienced that treatment in the past, long before any civilians had become involved and their reports to their fellows had so completely discouraged the practice of 'going easy' that it was accepted in the ranks that, even if you had to thrash your best friend, there would be no mercy and no ill feeling as a result.
There was a concerted gasp of surprise, or was it admiration, as the thick, livid welts sprang up on both cheeks of the firm, muscular backside and some of the young ladies present were seen to clutch at their heaving bosoms, no doubt to still the fluttering of their sympathetic hearts? The Drummer boys, much encouraged by this evidence of approval, set about the rest of their task with a will, laying on the remaining strokes alternately from each side and so close together, but without overlapping, that, by the time the hapless lad had received 8 of his 10 cuts, both cheeks of his tightly clenched bum were covered with thick purple welts, some threatening to form blood blisters, from the tops of the trim, but, by then, very swollen and discoloured buttocks, down to the clear pleat where they met his musculsr, almost hairless, thighs.
The crowd shifted uncertainly as both Drummers moved slightly, one upwards, towards their victim's head and the other downwards, in the direction of his untrussed feet. Then, almost as one, they raised their canes to maximum height and brought them sizzling down, a mere couple of seconds after each other, landing diagonally across both naked haunches and forming a perfect St. Andrew's Cross, each stripe sinking into and, of course, re-inflaming all its precursors and forcing a long, high-pitched scream of pure agony from the stricken boy, who had certainly not, in his wildest nightmares, imagined such a refinement of cruelty at the very end of his thrashing.
For a long, almost unbearable moment after the resounding crack of those final strokes had died away, there was a dead silence, which was eventually broken by the broken, gasping sobs of the caned boy, who hung limply over the trestle, temporarily unaware of, or, at least, unconcerned by, the display being afforded to all and sundry by his naked, upturned hindquarters and his genitals, which were dangling between his parted thighs. Once again, it was one of the female onlookers who found her voice first, calling out loudly and in a way which broke the tension completely, "Well, HE certainly won't get cold tonight!"
There was a burst of nervous laughter, the well-beaten boy was released, descended the steps stiffly and set off on his long, lonely, walk to where his trousers had been discarded, taking some comfort in the covering provided, again, by his shirt, which was, however, tweaked up several times as he passed close by some of the onlookers, who were determined to have a close-up view of the most thoroughly beaten bottom that they had ever seen.
A buzz of lively conversation followed, with most of the participants speculating avidly on whether the three birch floggings that were still to come would be more or less spectacular and interesting to watch than the preceding flogging and caning had been. In the course of this rather cruel discussion, a good deal of attention was focussed on the rear views of the three lads who were still standing naked at the foot of the steps to the platform and one of the younger matrons was heard to exclaim, "What beautiful bums they all have; isn't it a pity that they are all going to be so cut and bruised?", to which another replied, proving the spirit in which most of the spectators had come, "Oh no, just imagine how hot and eager they will be with that sort of fire burning just behind where it really matters."
Whether as a result of hearing that sort of remark, or simply due to their high level of anxiety, both the younger apprentices' already quite well-developed members, which had remained limp and inconspicuous throughout the earlier parts of the proceedings, began to take on a presence of their own, to the huge delight of the same section of the spectators, who began to pass increasingly ribald and provocative comments on the sturdy young appendages which were standing up proudly from the patches of soft, dark curls at the base of each flat, hard belly. The boys' problem was, of course that, with their hands bound behind their backs, they were unable to shield their genitals at all and that if they turned to conceal their unruly members from one section of the audience, they automatically exposed them to another.
Fortunately for the boys, this part of their ordeal did not last very long. As soon as the well-caned young soldier had left the platform, the military machine went into operation, clearing t6he platform of the apparatus which had ben used for the previous two punishments and furnishing it for the next three. Within minutes, the structure was bare save for a tall container from which protruded the tightly bound ends of several bundles of twigs, obviously the rods which were soon to be used on the behinds of the three waiting boys. Four young soldiers then took up their positions; a slight, very youthful private who was carrying a notebook of sorts and whose duty it would be to monitor the infliction of the floggings themselves; then there were two, even more youthful, Drummer Boys, drawn from a seemingly inexhaustible reserve, both of whom were, on this occasion, stripped to the waist, revealing pleasing, if immature, physiques, who immediately armed themselves with long, dripping wet and obviously very pliant rods, which they tested through the air with unmistakable zest, to the distress of their victims to be; and finally, a taller, older and far more powerfully built soldier, also naked to the waist, who would no doubt serve as the mount on which the three miscreants would ride while being flogged.
The time had come and a name was called out, clearly, but not loudly: 'Tomothy A......' - the bonds securing the hands of the youngest of the trio were removed and, covered in confusion but nothing else, he climbed the short flight of steps, still vainly trying to conceal both his terror and his solid erection and was escorted gently but firmly towards the fourth man, who had assumed a half-kneeling position to enable the lad to clamber on to his waiting back. Once the boy's naked body was draped over its broad, suntanned 'horse' with his hands held firmly in front of the deep chest and two other young 'employees' of this novel business had taken a firm grip on Tim's bare, dangling feet, which were pulled, by design, to the outside of his mount's legs, thus drawing his naked rump taut and spreading its cheeks sufficiently to afford the supple twigs access to all parts of his tail, there was a sudden, disturbing, pause. Normally, the sentence would then have been read out, but, on this occasion there was, of course, no sentence as such. Mr. le Roque was, however, equal to the occasion and, rising to his feet he called out, in a voice whose firmness surprised even himself, "Two dozen strokes, well laid on, if you please!".
There was a buzz of surprise, as, if the youngest of the trio was to receive so severe a flogging, what would be the fate of the older boys and would the military physician not intervene to prevent the lads from being too brutally beaten? This implication was clearly not lost on the other two, who had paled visibly when Mr. le Roque had so casually dashed their last remaining hope that he might be doing no more than giving them all a bad fright and the two pairs of bare buttocks still at ground level clenched in sympathy with the third, horsed pair on the platform, as Mr. le Roque resumed his seat and the two eager Drummers took up their positions on both sides of the small, rigid and visibly trembling tail which was bent so invitingly over the soldier's own rock-steady posterior.
As usual, careful aim was taken and at a word from the 'score keeper', the flogging commenced. Unlike in the case of a caning, there could be no question of avoiding overlapping weals and by the time a rod had landed for the third time, both of young Tim's haunches were liberally festooned with a criss-cross pattern of broad bands of smarting, stinging, but, apparently not more than occasionally open, welts and the boy, himself, was beginning to yelp sharply as the fierce heat of each stroke tore into his naked rump, quickly disposing of one problem, by withdrawing the surplus blood from the other side of his blazing, smarting loins and bringing their wayward, rearing pointer back to its normal flaccidity.
The most immediately noticeable difference between the flogging and the preceding caning lay, however, in the sounds which were produced by the rod. While the cane had whistled through the air and cracked loudly as it met bare flesh, the rod seemed to sigh, almost regretfully, as it approached its target and then made a splashing sound similar to that of a large bucket of water's being dashed out, from a height, on to a cobbled path, which often masked, to some extent, its victim's responsive yelp of pain.
Young Tim,, quite unprepared for the sheer torture of what was, in fact, the first, long overdue, real thrashing of his life, fought valiantly but vainly to subdue the screams of pure agony which rose in his throat each time a slender spray of twigs came crashing down upon his unprotected bottom, until, once the eighth stroke had landed, low down on the tender undersides of both cheeks, he gave up the unequal struggle and, to the delight of both the Drummers and the, by then very excited, spectators, began to roar and bellow with an unhibited fervour which left no doubt but that the message being conveyed from his bright red, comprehensively welted and slightly bloody backside to his brain and to the ears of everyone else present, was that the repeated impact of Mr. Purlali's improvised 'birch' rods on a bare bum, was an extremely painful experience and not one to be recommended to others.
Needless to say, the two spectators on whom Tim's flogging was having the most worrying effect, were not paying guests at all, but the two other naked and, by then, petrified, apprentices who were waiting fearfully below the platform and who were being treated to an unwanted, but unavoidable, close-up view of the havoc being wrought on their friend's bare tail, which seemed to be taking on a deeper and more violently inflamed hue as each successive stroke of the slashing rods tore into its naked curves, weal blending with weal until, by the time the first dozen lashes had raked Tim's bottom, he had literally been whipped from hip to thigh and did not have a single strip of unwelted skin to show on his entire tail, save for that inner part of the deep cleft between his buttocks which not even the fine-pointed tips of the rods could search out.
It might be thought that, after enduring twelve such harsh and damaging strokes, a boy's backside would become insensitive to further punishment, but, if that were so, Tim's reactions to the continuation of his flogging did not bear it out. Far from weakening or becoming more passive under the rod, the lad's lithe body seemed to rebel all the more as its hindmost part was progresively lashed into raw and bloody agony. From lying more or less inert on his 'horse' throughout the first half of the flogging,, the boy began to buck and squirm violently as the rods continued to bite into his naked bum, until the two young-sters crouched at his feet could no longer hold them and they both broke free and thrashed wildly in the air, to some extent spoiling the Drummers' aim and causing a few strokes to land across the bare thighs instead of the buttocks, as intended and producing such intense pain that the victim managed to subdue his own writhings and took his remaining strokes passively, if far from quietly, until a minute or so later, an extremely well thrashed, tearful and very subdued 16-year-old was gently helped off his perch of pain and was released to seek whatever relief he could find.
At that point, one might have expected the recently flogged boy to hurry off to restore his modesty and obtain some comfort for his blazing rear, but not so, Timothy. Having quickly established that rubbing at and kneading his ravaged hindquarters did nothing to alleviate their still mounting heat and sting, he completely ignored the taunts and jibes, as well as the expressions of sympathy, from the onlookers and his fellows alike and positioned himself without any self-consciousness, still stark naked, to watch, from an excellent vantage point, the correction of his fellow delinquents which, he had every reason to believe, would be even more severe thn his own had been.
Imagine his surprise, therefore, when in response to his name, the middle apprentice ascended the platform, his naked, well-developed buttocks rolling, like a pair of firm, ripe melons in a sack, as his firmly-planted bare feet carried him up the stairs to his own appointment with agony and Mr. le Roque announced that he was to receive 18 strokes, only. Feeling distinctly hard done by, young Tim nevertheless watched spellbound as the older boy's bare tail was hardly less spectacularly and painfully flogged than his own had been, producing, to his relief and malicious delight, protests just as vocal and movements just as uncontrolled and vigorous as his own at similar stages of his whipping. One very noticeable difference between them was, however, that when the older boy was returned to terra firma with his mangled behind, he was almost as firmly erect as he had been when he mounted the soldier's back and, in fact, showed unmistakable signs of having reached a climax while under the rod.
That left the eldest lad who was also, like Mr. le Roque, of Hugenot extraction. He was the quietest and, if the truth were known, the member of the trio who least deserved a flogging. It thus came as no real surprise, to the other two, at any rate, when Mr. le Roque called for 12 strokes only, in his case and, predictably, he bore the hard, slashing cuts far more stoically than either of the others had and was released with a glowing, welted rump, but an undented pride which did not so much as allow him to even finger the hard, raised weals on his swollen, stinging cheeks, as he and the others walked, with as much dignity as they could muster, to where they had discarded their garments, which, they soon discovered, caused the most intense discomfort to their tender and inflamed bottoms, both in the act of putting them on and thereafter, as the coarse material rubbed against raw, welted flesh.
However, as walking home naked was clearly out of the question, the three gritted their teeth nd pulled their overalls up over their tender, skinned tails and gingerly set off on what seemed like an interminable hike across town, although it was relieved by the friendly and concerned greetings of several of the local girls, who had never paid much attention to these 'working class' lads before, but who, having just seen more of them than normally met the eye, were disposed to pursue an acquaintanceship with young men who, it seemed, might have interesting qualities lacking in the 'gentry' with whom they usually consorted. This was, of course, a totally unexpected bonus sideeffect of an otherwise very unpleasant, [save, to some extent, in the second culprit's case] experience and the three boys, having admired each others trophies and compared them with mirrored views of their own, took their evening meals standing, to the great amusement of Mr. le Roque, who offered neither comment on, nor sympathy for, their obvious discomfort, and then took themselves off to their beds, on which they quite predictably lay, face down and bare-bottomed, while the fire in their rears gradually subsided to a deep, warm glow and, having moved over, by mutual, unspoken, consent to share one of the three wide, soft mattresses, restless hands gave each other welcome release from both the tension and the pain of the day's, not altogether unexciting, events and they all slipped into the deep, dreamless sleep which, as generations of young rascals know, is often given to those who have expiated, via a sound thrashing, past sins, which had been disturbing consciences for many a long night.