Dear readers. In view of the absence of feedback on postings over the past few months I am disinclined to continue with any of the stories written some twenty years ago and which I have been transcribing somewhat laboriously. I have tried to scan the pages onto computer but that does not work well at all. If there is adequate interest in any series I may continue as time permits and assuming I don't get my head blown off by some terrorist. Cheers Jamie.
7. The Society
Wednesday and Thursday passed with a certain degree of tension in the air but neither James nor Alexander found the strength to enquire as to my intentions. I suspect that I would not have told them even had they asked since I was enjoying this small amount of retribution.
The Society met at different locations almost weekly and it was in the London home of one of my fellow Peers that this particular meeting was convened. James, Alexander and I drove there in one of these unpalatable and noisy motor vehicles which had so quickly made our traditional horse and carriage so obsolete. The noise of the motor pervaded the otherwise heavy silence that had fallen over our company.
When we arrived at the large establishment in Park Lane I was astonished to find so many people of various ages in attendance and the noise was quite annoying. James made the introductions to the evening's patron, whom I knew quite well and it was he who led me to the huge drawing room in which it was obvious that the evening's activities were to take place. Row upon row of chairs surrounded three sides of the room except where the main doors were and the fourth side consisted of a large table and seven seats.
Servants rang the bells to announce that the meeting was to commence and duly the congregation assembled. James and Alexander led me to one side of the room and seated me comfortably and saw to it that a servant brought me some very fine wine whilst they assumed their placed at the large table before which the various penitents were clearly to be brought.
When all was calm, His Lordship read aloud a list of rules regarding the secrecy of the proceedings and the very severe consequences of any perjury that might transpire. Whilst listening intently I surveyed the room and saw all manner of folk in attendance. Father with sons or daughters were present as were soldiers and sailors of differing ranks and businessmen, some of whom were of the highest calibre. Quite a number of faces I recalled from School although I would be hard pressed to name but a few.
One gentleman, obviously schooled in the law commenced proceedings following His Lordship's address by calling upon the assembly to indicate whether there were any maters to be dealt with by the raising of one's hand.
To my surprise, a young lady raised her hand immediately and stepped forward and stood before the great table at which the "judges" sat. Stoically this lady indicated that her husband of just a few months had taken offence at her intimate yet innocent joking with one of his servants and had thought that such behaviour warranted punishment. For some time the lady explained the nature of the incident which had brought her to this place and, to my mind, it was debateable as to whether such innocent fun might justify any punishment. After considering the matter briefly, the 'judges', including James and Alexander determined that the lady should receive four strokes of the cane upon her bare posterior.
Without demurring, the lady stepped to one side whilst a flogging block of the kind used so frequently at Eton was brought into the room by four young men, accompanied by a large fellow who was carrying a rather thin cane. The lady was led over to the block and was required to lower her undergarments and then to kneel upon the block.
The chap who carried the came then proceeded to deliver it to the lady's husband and then went to draw up the lady's clothes so that her naked behind might be displayed for all to see. The husband next took up his position and delivered four stinging strokes to his wife's backside, leaving four painful, parallel tracks across the otherwise alabaster cheeks. The lady murmured but a little as the strokes fell and, once the punishment was completed restored her garments and embraced her husband with an open show of genuine affection. It was quite a touching scene.
When the floor had been vacated by the offender and her husband, a navel officer of quite senior rank raised his hand and was asked to state his business. He walked before the 'judges', pulling a rather handsome and very young rating with him. The officer's tale was one of impudence and obscenity on the part of the young sailor who, upon questioning, admitted to being lewd and disrespectful to the officer with whom he shared an intimate association. As the 'judges' conferred, I though about the situation and assumed that the officer had chosen this forum for judgement rather than official procedures since the latter might well have exposed the intimate nature of their relationship. Supposition aside, the rating seemed to be an accessory to any deception that might be involved sine he stood there awaiting the judgement of his betters.
At one point during the deliberation of the panel of 'judges', I distinctly heard James observing that the miscreant deserved no less than a flogging and another advise His Lordship that the hapless lad might be more properly dealt with in the conservatory at a later time in the evening. By and by a consensus was apparently arrived at and His Lordship announced that the rating would be punished in due course by having inflicted upon him sufficient lashes of a cat of nine tails as to cover his naked body from his neck to his knees. In any event His Lordship advised, the sailor would receive no less than three dozen lashes, at which point the sailor appeared to tremble slightly, I assumed from a sense of dread.
The officer led the rating to the side of the room opposite where I sat and I quickly observed that the lad was red of eye but also somewhat erect with a phallus that appeared to stretch at least half the way down his left thigh and I momentarily considered the odd combination that fear and eroticism made when combined in such a manner.
A third hand was raised as an elderly gentleman whom I thought I should have known, sought the attention of the 'Court'. When acknowledged, he rose and with him so did a youth of perhaps twenty or so years. I quickly surmised that this was not a father-son event and, as it transpired, the old gentleman was the lad's grandfather and guardian. The young man was revealed in the evidence provided to be just twenty years of age and had been sent down from Oxford. His offence, not reported to the Police because of the gaol sentence involved in such cases, was to be caught in the act of sodomy with another chap who had also been sent down and who was present at this meeting of the Society.
His Lordship requested the attendance of the second lad who was accompanied by his father. The two offenders stood side by side and, I must admit, made a handsome couple. Both were rather tall and lean but one had dark curly hair whilst the other sported a boyish face framed by straight blond hair. I could not discern from their demeanour, nor the brief statement of the facts, as to which had been the aggressor in the event in question but I noticed that they let the backs of their hands touch each other as their fate was being determined.
As the 'judges' deliberated, I noticed with some satisfaction that neither James nor Alexander expressed any view on the matter although, in this company, the act itself was not at all considered offensive but the fact of being so indiscreet as to be caught during their act of passion was considered foolish and reckless. His Lordship pronounced a sentence of two dozen strokes of the birch which cause a sharp intake of breath from the assembled multitude. Apparently, such a severe sentence was a rarity and each lad went a very pale shade of white as the sentence was imposed.
Both lads were immediately required to shed their trousers and undergarments in preparation for their chastisement and did so blushing at the display of immodesty that was required of them. The flogging block was still in the centre of the salon in which we were seated and the attendant who had previously produced the cane that had been used on the young lady suddenly appeared carrying an armful of birches, each of which contained at least a dozen saplings from possibly a number of birch trees. In all, it appeared that there were six birch rods available for use should the occasion required.
The whole assembly watched as the two shame-faced lads removed their clothes and I must say that I was surprised and bemused as they disrobed because of the contrast between the two. The dark haired lad has a few wisps of hair on his chest whilst the blond had none and the former had a rather long and thick organ (or so it appeared) whilst the latter had a member of shorter length but greater girth. I was so immodest as to wonder which was the dominant one in their affair and how the other could possibly accommodate his partner.
The dark haired young man was led to the block first and knelt with a sense of familiarity with the position that he readily presented his buttocks for the rod. Neither grandfather nor father accepted the duty of administering the required punishment and this solemn duty was left to the attendant who had provided the instruments of chastisement. These he laid upon the floor and one he shook to remove the traces of brine in which they had clearly been soaking. As he towered over the penitent, the fair haired youth was required to move in front of his partner to hold down his shoulders which created a somewhat obscene tableau as his organ dangled towards the head of his partner in crime.
The attendant drew back the birch and with a familiar 'whooshing' sound sent it crashing into the naked target before him. The lad bucked at the force of the blow and gasped for air as the first traced of injury started to rise from the stricken flesh. Time and time again the rod flew through the air and crashed into the lad's posterior and with each passing stroke the fleshy globes turned a deeper shade of red and then crimson as blood was drawn towards the surface. Cries of pain developed gradually and the fair haired partner started to shed a tear or two as his friend bucked and writhed as each stroke increased the damaged to the delicate skin.
To the uninitiated, a dozen blows with a birch might sound an insignificant chastisement but I can assure such persons that by the tenth blow traces of blood were already apparent where the angular ends of the birch twigs had indeed penetrated the flesh. I knew at that stage that this chastisement was about to be brought to an end and His Lordship allowed a complete set of one dozen to be inflicted before he called a halt to proceedings.
Up to this point I had assumed that the assembly gathered for the sole purpose of flagellation but I was immediately disabused of this assumption when His Lordship demanded that the chastised youth stand and decide whether or not he wished to continue his punishment in the same fashion. Blithely I sat and listened as the lad was given a choice of a further twelve strokes of the birch or to spend the balance of the evening in the service of twelve members of the assembly.
For a moment I did not comprehend what was meant by this but then it dawned upon my feeble brain that the lad was being given a choice between chastisement or an evening of _s_e_x_ual enslavement. As the lad chose the latter course by which to expiate his sins, I noticed his tearful partner in crime nodding as if to concur in the decision despite the lack of fidelity that was necessarily involved.
Satisfied with the decision, His Lordship then commanded the faired haired youth to take his position upon the block which was presently being wiped dry of the sweat which had seeped from its previous occupant. The punished lad was taken to the head of the block and required to hold down his partner's shoulders as the beating commenced.
The fair haired youth was somewhat less stoical than his partner and emitted cries of pain from the very first blow. His skin was clearly more delicate than his fellow transgressor for within the space of half a dozen strokes his nether region was verging on letting blood flow and by the eighth stroke there was indeed a few spots where the flesh had been torn. Despite the screams and pleas of the offender, the chastisement continued for the full dozen blows at which time the crying lad was required to rise and to choose, as had his partner, whether to accept the balance of his punishment with the rod or to provide the services for which quite a number of the assembly clearly craved. As had his partner, the chap opted for the latter course of action, at which point a roar of approval arose throughout the salon.
The two chastised lads were set to one side of the room and His Lordship announced that there would be a drawing of numbers to see which dozen of our company each lad would be required to serve.
Immediately servants appeared and handed sets of cards about and various members of our company selected a card. To my astonishment, ladies as well as gentlemen chose to take a card. Observing in disbelief, I declined the offer to draw a card and sat whilst most of the deck of cards was taken. Even the 'judges' took cards on offer.
A sense of excitement was in the air as a second sent of cards with corresponding numbers was shuffled and then placed haphazardly in a box. With a degree of decorum restored, each of the chastised lads was then required to take alternate turns at drawing a card from the box and had then to announce the number which appeared upon the card. This process was repeated until each lad had unknowingly selected twelve people to whom he would provide services as required until first light the following morning. Accompanied by two servants, the lads were escorted from the room with directions that they prepare themselves properly and display the cards they had chosen upon the exterior of the door of the rooms which they would occupy.
I almost expected a rush of people from the room at this juncture yet all remained - time was clearly not pressing and those who had "winning cards" simply put them in their pockets or handbags for presentation at the appropriate time.
I had been conscious throughout the proceedings thus far that both James and Alexander were somewhat nervous about my intentions and I took this pause in proceedings to rise. A great number of people in the salon clearly knew me by sight and men bowed and ladies curtsied slightly to acknowledge my presence. I was flattered to say the least since my station barely required such courtly behaviour.
Acknowledging my desire to bring charges, I tried with a much brevity as was possible to outline the discourse delivered by Alexander that moved me to speak. I recalled the manner in which, somewhat boastfully, Alexander had detailed how he and James had outwitted the rules of the School and in numerous and diverse manners had eluded the proper rewards that such mischievous and unseemly behaviour deserved.
My audience listened to my tale in total silence but when I suggested that the 'Court' might find that such oversights in the training of the two young gentlemen should be rectified there were choruses of approval.
As I resumed my seat, His Lordship directed that James and Alexander remove themselves from the table and stand before the 'bench' in the manner of penitents.
A mummer went about the room as James and Alexander did as commanded, each blushing with the shame of their circumstances. Behind them, the 'Judges' conferred for quite a length of time.