The Soldier's Wife — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

104 to tear away the skin, cut up the flesh, and hack out morsels with a merciless excruciation, Again did many soldiers fall fainting from the ranks—and again did the officers look on, stern —implacable—unmoved, at the flaying process. But what words can convey even a tithe of all the mortal agonies that were endured by our uuhappy hero beneath the ferocious lash? The sentence was that he should receive five hun- dred blows: every blow might be multiplied by nine: and thus when the punirhmant was over, he had in reality recetved four thousand and tive hundred stripes! Take the agony which is endured by the victim when being scalped by the tomahawk of the Indian—take the inef- falste pangs which are undergone by the writh- gz wretch when encircled by the compressing evils of one of Ceylon’s mightiest snakes—take the excruciation that 1s experienced by the un- fortunate being when the claws of a tiger have struck deep into his palpitating flesh—take the erueifying anguish of the bathing sailor when a shark seizes upon his limbs—take the fearful sufferings of the wretch enduring the process of impalement—take, we say, all these agonies —add to them whatsoever others the imagina- tion can suggest—multiply them a thousand- fold—and then an idea may be formed of the Lideous torture endured by Frederick Lorsdale on the occasion of thissecond punishment And yet, as we have said, he bore it with a fortitude displaying the natural magnanimity of his soul ; and by an almost incredible effort of his aces will, he suppressed the utterance of even a sigh er a murmur indicative of the agonies he was suffering. Yes—the whole sum of the five hun- dred lashes did he thus receive; and in a state of complete unconsciousness was he borne to the infirmary. In the course of a few days he received a letter from Luey. Like his own, it was full of expressions of tenderness and words of condo- lence; and it dutifully expressed the fair but unhappy writer’s intention to abide by the counsels she had received from her husband. Ile wrote back to inform her that the punish- ment of the lash was over, and that the cireum- stance of his thus being able to respond to her epistle so soon, might convince her that, so far as his health was concerned, he was progressing as favorably as could be expected. He conclu- ded by renewing his promise to write to her avain the instant he should become aware of the day when he might hope for his discharge from the hospital. Again in a short time did he receive a letter from Luey,—to the effect that she had already disposed of their goods in Calais, and that she was anxiously awaiting the much wished-for summons that would enable her to speed to Manchester. We need hardly say that her epistle was full of the tenderest eondolences with her unhappy husband for the awful punishment he had received,—mingled likewise with fervid expressions of thanks to heaven that he had survived the diabolical tor- ture. Shesaid that little freddy was constantly inquiring for his papa, and wished to know “what those wicked men had done to him?” Perhaps, in reco ding these little circumstances, Lucy went somewhat farther than she would THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. oe have done had she been in a state uf min for calm deliberation: that is to say, have suppressed all mention of thes affection on the part of the child which could not do otherwise than excite the most painful feelings, in one sense, on the part of Lonsdale. Oh, that the beloved boy should have thus to inquire for his absent father!—oh, that a father should haye to reflect that his very manhcod had been flagrantly and utterly disgraced by an infamous punishment which dared not be whispered in the hearing of that child] Weeks passed on—and there was a frequent interchange of letters between Frederick and Lucy. But our hero’s recovery was slower on the present occasion than it was on the first; the wounds were deeper—the flaying of the skin Was more extensive—the flesh was more com pletely cut up—the muscles and fibres were more softened and more thoroughly beaten into a greater degree of pulpiness, than had been the case at Portsmouth. He had literally been scourged to within an inch of his life. Oh, the miscreants? And they would have affected to recoil in horror from the reading of a tale of the Russian knout. Maudlin sympathy! let us hear no more of the horrors of tha Russian knout, so Jong as we have the horrces of the cat-o’-nine-tails in our own land. Two months elapsed from the date of the flogging, before the surgeon pronounced Fre- derick Lonsdale convalescent. The period was therefore now come when he was to undergo the remaining portion of his sentence. He had been advised by some of his humane comrades, whom he had met in the infirmary, or who visited him there, to petition Colonel Wyndham for a reprieve in respect to the branding: but while thanking his advisers for the good feel- ing which prompted this counsel, our hero steadily and sternly refused to seek a favor at the hands of any one of those whom he could not regard otherwise than as his enemies. It was on the morning of the 15th of March, 1834, that the regiment was drawn up in a square on the parade-ground—the same as if it were to witness the scourging process; and Lons- dale was marched forth from the infirmary to be branded as a deserter. He neither waiked so erect as was his wont, nor with the same firmness of step: but it was not that his heart failed him—it was because he was still weak and feeble from the effects of the awful pun- ishment he had received. Indeed, he was so emaciated—his countenance was so ghastl white—that he looked but the ghost of his former self. Still there was a stern decision in his eyes and in his compressed lips; and. he exerted all his energy to surmount as much as possible the sense of enervation which bent his form somewhat, and rendered his pace slow and languid. Was there any pity felt for that unfortunate man as he thus painfully dragged himself towards the centre of the syuare? Yes: an illimitable compassion on the part of the private soldiers—but none on that of the officers, Lieutenant Heatheote alone excepted. } When stationed in the midst of the r ment, Lonsdale had again to submis | F SL LA ae Gomicbook + 4 s " &e sy s.com. em Se oo fi Ll > 4 i oe 4