The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 392: what you’re looking at

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. bly shaped, as if it were of statuary marble, was this young female's bast; and to each bosom was the kittee applied. The sticke, fastened two and two at each extremity, and formed of a wood just sufficiently supple to inflict the torture without breaking, were made to encircle and tighten round each breast as if securing those glowing orbs in a vice. The agony was terrific—and all the more so inasmuch as there was no vent for it through the portals of the lips,—the suffocating cloth hushing the shrieks and screams that must have arisen as it were up into the very throat. The compressure of the bosom between the acoursed sticks was con- tinued with unrelenting ferocity, until the tor- turers fancied that the victim had fainted: but life iteelf was extinct. She wasa corpse! There however the wretches let her lie. Several other species of torture were next ad- ministered to other victims. One was fastened to the wall, with a nail driven through his ear, in such a manner that he was compelled to keep standing upon the points of his toes. A donkey was led into the room; and the hair of another victim was tied to the animal’s tail. The brute was then lashed with a whip; and it dragged the man rapidly through the open door into the streets,—his cries and yells of agony reverberating through the place. At length every one of the captives had undergone some species of horrible chastisoment, with the exception of the Burker. For nearly three hours had the proceedings now lasted ; and the wretch had been compelled to sit gazing upon the sufferings of his fellow-prisoners. Every instant he had shudderingly wondered when his turn would come, and which special torture would be allotted to himself. It seemed however as if there were an intention either to reserve him to the last, or to pass him over altogether: and the man earnestly hoped that this latter alterna- tive would prove to be the case. . The officer of the Peons now approached him, saying in tolerably good English, “You are an European ?—perbaps an Englishman P” The Burker replied in the affirmative, and be- sought meroy. “Take yourself off, then !” responded the officer ; * and beware how you are again found in the com- pany of any of those lazy vagabond impostors who prowl about the country and impose upon the charitable, Depart!’ The Burker did not require to be again bidden to quit that scene of horrors; and he hastened away. We must here pause to assure the reader that we have dealt not in the slightest exaggeration while endeavouring to describe the process of dia- bolical tortures to which the natives of India are not merely liable, but to which they are often sub- jected. Perhaps it may be supposed that scenes of this description occur only in the domains of in- dependent Princes: ‘but the very reverse is the fact, --for they ocour only in that part of India which groans beneath the tyranny of British rule. The ob- ject is to enforce the payment of the oppressive taxes which the Anglo-Indian Government levies upon the native popuiation,—chiefly upon the land- owners. India swarms with the collectors: and these harpies possess power to punish defaulters. The collectors themselves are for the most part of unprincipled character; and they conceal their 881 own peculations, or administer to their extrava- gances, by compelling the natives to pay the same tax two or three times over. Ifa landowner should oppose their tyranny, he is seizod upon and tortured: or if he bide himself, or undertake a journey in order to escape the importunity of the collector when visiting his district, his wife or his daughter may be rendered a victim in his place, as was ths case with those females whose suffer- ings wo have just described. Moreover, in many towns of Angio-India, mendicants and vagrants are subjected to the torture; and the license to use # being accorded to the local authorities, is frightfully abused. If a tax-collector or an officer of Peons should chance to cast his eyes upon a handsome female, woe to her unless she surrender herself into the miscreant’s arms! I¢ is no vain threat which he holds forth to take her to the torture-chamber ; and he will ruthlessly stand by to contemplate the maiming or mutilation, the crushing or the laceration of the charms which in the first instance fired his passion. Yos — reader, torture exists in India under British rale!— torture is inflicted by the officials of the Anglo-Indian Government! Countless sums are subscribed annually at Exeter Hall and elsewhere to furnish the means for missionaries to carry the Gospel amongst the “ benighted heathens and pagans” of that Oriental clime: but who of those missionaries has ever returned to England to raise an indignant voice againat the infliction of the torture upon the poor Hindoos? A pretty opinion must those unfortunates have of the nation to which belong the missionaries who would con- vert them; and a fine notion must they entertain of that religion which seeks to proselytise them. Of the full amount of horrors committed by Bri- tish rule in Hindostan, the masses of our people have but a faint idea: but we solemnly assure them that no single detail of the above given de- scription of the torture-chamber in India is in any way exaggerated. We now resume the thread of our narrative. The Barker, on emerging from the midst of that scene of horrors, sped through the streets, anxious to escape as soon as possible from a town where vagrancy was so frightfully punished. He beheld not the Gossoon—nor did he indeed take any trouble to look for him: he was giad to have got rid of such a dangerous companionship. Issuing from the town in the contrary direction from that by which he had entered it, the Burker proceeded at random across the open country, until the sul- trinees of the sun at length compelled him to seek the refreshing shade of some trees: for since quit- ting the jungle he experienced no apprehension on reposing himself beneath such umbrageous cano- pies. He soon fell fast asleep: his slumber lasted for several hours; and when he awoke, it was with | @ gnawing sensation of hunger in his stomach. But, Ah! who was this that was seated on the grass near him? It was his Inte companion, the squint-eyed Gossoon, who appeared to have been patiently waiting until the Burker should arouse himself, For a moment an expression of annoy- ance passed over the Englishman’s features: but his looks as well as his mood speedily changed when the Gossoon emptied upon the grass the contents of his wallet. The fare thus furnished was good ; and the Gossoon grinned with a mali- COMIC DOG (CO