Dora Doveton experiences her first flogging. Martinet, the head governess, gives the order:FETCH TWO OF the No. 6 rods, and unlace her if necessary. ' Renardeau (the French instructress) darted her hand beneath my clothes and reported that I wore no stays. Nor do I now; my waist is naturally small, and a little stiffening in the body of the dress suffices to keep my breasts in order. Steinkopf (German teacher), who had resumed her place, and Armstrong, then laid hold of me, and despite my prayers and tears, while one held my hands above my head, the other opened my dress behind and stripped off skirt, petticoats, and drawers; then with one shameless drag she furled up my shift in front and rear, and pinned it over my shoulders.
The next moment I was forced upon my knees on the block, with four hands grasping my arms and pressing my neck down. The breeze from the sky-light fanned my back, and I felt that the eyes of all present were riveted on my naked person. Could it be I that was subjected to such indignity? Though my arms were squeezed I felt it not, all my sensation seemed to have retreated to another quarter. My skin is so tender that even when bathing I tremble to expose it, and here was I fixed as in a vice, with nothing intervening between that thin skin and the murderous implements behind me.
A pause, it seemed to me an hour long, ensued, till my spine grew cold as ice twixt fear and waiting. Something had rattled on the floor, but the sound had died away, and still the expected blow came not. I looked round with half a hope. Martinet was leisurely re-adjusting a bracelet on her rod arm, her eyes the while devouring my form with a wild impassioned gaze like a lover's. Can she be relenting? Alas! the brows contract - the grasps ofthe holders tighten on my arms Whir-r-r Whisp! 'Yah! Yeou! Yeoiks!' Oh! the unspeakable agony of that first murderous lash! Legions of scorpions fastened on my flesh and dug their fangs into my vitals. Vainly I hung back and screwed my front against the block, the rear would not recede; I could only diminish its width by muscular contraction.