to keep them tight. A servant attended the executioner, and both were stout men. The servant first marked his ground and struck the woman five times on the back. Every stroke seemed to penetrate deep into her flesh. But his master thinking him too gentle, pushed him aside, took his place, and. gave all the remaining strokes himself, which were evidently more severe. The woman received twenty-five and the man sixty. I pressed through the hussars, and counted the number as they were chalked on a board: both seemed but just alive, especially the man, who yet had strength enough to receive a small donation, with some signs of gratitude. They were conducted back to prison in a little waggon. I afterwards saw the woman in a very weak condition, but could not find the man any more."[1]
Suspecting that this punishment frequently occasioned the death of the sufferer, and that it was sometimes intended to produce this effect, Howard visited the executioner, and assuming an air of authority, demanded truthful replies to certain interrogations: "Can you inflict the knout in such a manner as to occasion death in a short time?" "I can," was the reply. "In how short a time?" — "In a day or two." "Have you ever so inflicted it?" — "Yes! the last man who was punished by my hands with the knout, died of the punishment!" "In what manner do you thus render it mortal?" — "By one or more strokes on the sides, which carry off large pieces of flesh!!" "Do you receive orders thus to inflict the punishment?" — "I do."[2]
O cruel man! more savage than the beasts of the forest, — heartless and hard as the stones under his feet!
