Chapter III: Part 3

Like many fine ladies she cherished a secret passion for the rod, and odd stories began to circulate through the medium of the maids, of the way she used it on herself and them, and report says she was accustomed to use the rod upon her late husband very freely. After his death, she became acquainted with a young student who used to visit her home on pretence of giving lessons, but in reality it was to receive a good whipping from her hands.

_Miraculous Cure by the Birch._

Father Nicolo of Narni was a celebrated preacher with a quick eye, when in the pulpit, over the female part of his flock.

He was one day preaching at Catanea, in Sicily, when amongst the rest of his auditory he spied out a very agreeable young woman named Agatha, wife of one Ruggieri, a physician, and was immediately enamoured with her beauty. The lady was so devout as to have her eyes constantly fixed on the preacher, and could not help perceiving that he was handsome, nor wishing secretly that her husband were no less agreeable. After sermon she addressed herself for confession to Father Nicolo who was overjoyed at this lucky opportunity of discovering his passion. Agatha had soon despatched the account of her own sins; after which she very generously confessed for her husband too, and asked the holy man if he had no cure for an old man’s jealousy. The Father replied that jealousy was a passion to be avoided by the lucky person who possessed so divine a creature. Agatha smiled, and thinking it time to return to some female friends who were waiting for her, desired absolution. The priest sighed, and said: ‘My fair daughter, who can free another that is bound himself? I am chained by the irresistible power of your beauty, and without your assistance I can neither absolve myself nor you.’

Agatha was young and inexperienced, yet by the help of a good natural understanding she was not at a loss to unravel his meaning. She had besides, to quicken her wit, been strictly guarded and ill-used by her husband. She therefore soon let the Father see that she understood him, and that she was not displeased to find, notwithstanding the sanctity of his character, that he was flesh and blood. The business of absolution was not forgotten: Father Nicolo urged his passion and, at his earnest request, the lady undertook to find means for him to pay her a visit. After a short time she acquainted him, to this end, that she was troubled with fits, and that all the medicines her husband could administer procured her no ease; therefore, said she, the next time he is sent for into the country, I will feign myself seized with my usual distemper, and send to you to bring some relic of St. Griffon for my relief. You will, I suppose, comply with the summons, and one of my faithful maids shall be ready to conduct you to my chamber. The Father applauded her wit, pronounced a thousand blessings on her for this happy invention, and thus they parted.

Honest Ruggieri, who dreamt nothing of what had passed, went very opportunely out of town the next morning. The lady was immediately seized with a terrible fit, and in the midst of her attendants, who were officious in helping her, frequently called on the name of St. Griffon for assistance. The crafty confidant that stood by, and who was instructed with the secret, took the hint and pressed her to send for the relics of that saint which, she said, were famous for their miraculous virtue and wonderful cures. The mistress, who seemed scarce able to speak, bid her do as she thought fit. Father Nicolo presently had notice, and obeyed the summons with the utmost expedition.

The priest arrived and followed his guide, entering the room where the afflicted lady lay, and drawing near to the bed with a becoming gravity. Agatha received him with profound reverence and begged the charity of his prayers. He exhorted her to prepare herself that she might be qualified to receive the benefit of the sacred relics and birch he had brought; in order to which, said he, it is first necessary that with a contrite heart you confess, that your soul being healed, your body may be more easily cured. The lady said she desired nothing more, and this was a signal to the others in the room to depart, which they did, leaving the lovers to their private devotions.

The good Father had not long applied the birch and other relics of St. Griffon for the recovery of the devout Agatha, when Ruggieri was discovered at the entrance of the street, back sooner than he was desired or expected. The lovers were immediately alarmed, and the holy friar leaped upon the floor in such a funk that he forgot to take his breeches, which he had thrown at the bed’s head, as being unnecessary on that solemn occasion.

The wench who was in the secret opened the door and cried out that by the favour of Heaven and St. Griffon her lady was almost recovered, and called in the rest of the attendants. Ruggieri arrived at the same instant, but was not well pleased to observe that a friar had found the way to his house; nor was he less disturbed at this new illness of his wife. Agatha perceived his disorder by the change of his countenance, and immediately told him that she had been infinitely obliged to that holy Father, by whose prayers, together with the application of the Saint’s rod, she had been snatched from the grave. The good man was delighted to hear it was no worse and, correcting himself in his own thoughts for his former suspicions, very heartily thanked the friar who, after some pious discourse, was glad to withdraw.

Father Nicolo was not gone far before he was recovered out of his fright, and at the same time perceived he had left his breeches behind him. This put him into a new concern; he dared not go back, but comforted himself as well as he could in the hope that Agatha or her maid would find them first and take care to prevent further mischief. Ruggieri was now sitting on the bedside by his wife and saying a thousand kind things to her when, unluckily putting his hand to adjust the pillow under her head, he had hold on one of the strings and drew out the breeches. This threw him into a worse fit than any his wife had had; he stormed like a madman, and asked how this appurtenance of the friar came there. Agatha, who had all her wits awakened by her new amour, replied without the least hesitation that it was what she had told him of. It is to this, said she, I owe my cure. This is the miraculous garment of St. Griffon which the Holy Father brought, and he has left it here for my greater security till the evening, at which time he will send for it, or fetch it himself.

Poor Ruggieri, hearing so ready and unexpected an answer, believed, or pretended to believe her, and retired. The trusty wench was now despatched on a new errand, to desire the Father to send for his relics. She understood her business, and acquainted Nicolo with all that had passed. The friar, pressed by the necessity of the case, went to the warden of the house and, confessing the whole intrigue, begged him to help him. The warden sharply reproved him for his negligence and said there was no time to be lost, and something must be thought of to save the reputation of the Order. He therefore caused the chapter bell to be rung and, the friars being all assembled, he informed them that heaven had that day wrought a most remarkable miracle by virtue of St. Griffon’s birch and breeches, in the house of Ruggieri the physician. In short, he related to them the particulars and persuaded them to go and fetch back the holy garments, in solemn procession.

The friars were now drawn up in order, and, with a cross carried before them and the warden at their head holding the tabernacle of the altar in his hand, marched two and two in profound silence to Ruggieri’s house. The doctor met them at the door and asked the reason of their solemn visit. The warden told him they were obliged by the rules of their order to send their relics privately to such distressed persons as desired the use of them; that if through the sins of the patient the relics had no effect, they were to fetch them as privately back; but when a manifest miracle is wrought, they were to bring them home with decent ceremony, to publish the miracle, and finally to record it in their register. Ruggieri now understood their business and expressed himself overjoyed at the honour which was done him. He told the Fathers they were all welcome and, desiring the warden and Nicolo to follow him, he led them to his wife’s chamber.

The good lady, who, it may be supposed, was not asleep at this juncture, held the breeches in her hand, bound decently up in a perfumed napkin, which the warden having opened, kissed them with profound reverence; and having caused them to be kissed in like manner by all who were in the room, he put them in the tabernacle he had brought for that purpose, and gave the signal to his fraternity to return in the same order.

The Fathers set forth in greater solemnity than before and, singing an anthem, marched round the city accompanied by a great crowd, and then placing the relic on the altar of their chapel, left it there as an object of devotion. Ruggieri was zealous in promoting reverence for the Order, and wherever he went he told of the miracle of the birch and breeches of St. Griffon.

_A Boy Whipped for Destroying Women’s Apparel with Aquafortis._

Until severe examples were made of the actors in this kind of frolic and fun, females often found their clothes drop to tatters, and such as restricted themselves to mere muslin and chemise were frequently dreadfully burnt in a way invisible and almost unaccountable. A set of urchins, neither men nor boys, by way of a high game, procured aquafortis, vitriol, and other corrosive fluids, and filling therewith a syringe or bottle, would sally forth to give the girls a squirt. Of this mischievous description we find Edward Beazley, who was convicted of this unpardonable offence at the Old Bailey, the 11th of March, 1811. He was indicted for wilfully and maliciously injuring and destroying the apparel of Anne Parker, by feloniously throwing upon the same a certain poisonous substance called aquafortis, whereby the same was so injured as to be rendered useless. He was also charged on two other indictments for the like offence, on two other women.

It appears that the prisoner, a boy of thirteen, took it into his head to sally into Fleet St. on the night of Sat. Feb. 16, and there threw the same upon the clothes of several of the Cyprians who parade up and down there. He was caught, carried before the magistrate at the Guildhall, and fully committed on three charges.

Three ladies appeared and proved the facts, and the boy was found guilty.

His master, Mr. Blades of Ludgate Hill, gave him a good character; he never knew anything wrong of him before, but admitted he had access to the chemicals. The court having a discretionary power, instead of transporting him for seven years, only ordered him to be well whipped in the jail and returned to his friends.

_Ill-Treatment of Female Pupils._

We frequently hear of the low-bred and licentious of our sex ill-treating young helpless females; but to find a minister of the gospel convicted of so base and unmanly an assault is a scandal to his office, and an aggravated disgrace to human nature.

This abhorred man, a clergyman and schoolmaster at Newton near Manchester, was brought up to receive the judgment of the King’s Bench at Westminster, in consequence of having been convicted at the last Lancashire Assizes on two indictments for assaulting and whipping Mary Ann Gillicrand and Mary Barlow, his scholars.

The defendant delivered in the affidavits of several females who had been his scholars in their youth, declaring upon oath that they never saw him take the slightest liberty with his pupils in an improper way, or whip them severely, and that they thought him a fit person to be intrusted with the instruction of youth.

Mr. Scarlett addressed the court in mitigation. The punishment, he said, that the court would feel it due to justice to inflict would be of little additional consequence to the defendant as his ruin was already consummated; but he had a wife and six children who had been virtuously bred and educated, and it was on their account he implored the court not to inflict a punishment on the defendant which would render him infamous.

Serjeant Cockell said it was not his wish to bruise the bended reed, yet it was necessary that an example should be made of the defendant. He was a clergyman and a teacher of youth; and the prosecutors, who had acted from the most laudable motives, had abundant reasons for what they had done. They felt themselves irresistibly called upon to check the practices imputed to the defendant, and which there was too much reason for believing he had indulged in for a considerable time past.

Mr. Justice Grose, in passing sentence, addressed the defendant to the following effect: ‘You have been convicted of an assault on a child of very tender years; the narrative of your conduct is horrible to hear, and horrible to reflect upon—the aggravations of your offence, I am sorry to say, are multifarious—the object of your brutality was a child committed to your care, and you are a teacher, a man grey in years and possessing a large family. In looking to the class of misdemeanours, I know of none so horrible as the one of which you have been convicted. Of your guilt it is impossible to doubt, and I am shocked to see a clergyman standing to receive sentence for such an offence.’ The accused was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

_Flogging with a Frying-pan._

At the Woolwich Police court, Dec. 29th 1882, an elderly man named James Bone was charged on a summons before Mr. Mersham with assaulting Margaret Chapman.

The complainant, a widow, said that the defendant engaged her to go to his house in Nun St., Woolwich, and do a day’s washing. There was no other person in the house, and the defendant told her he had turned his wife out of doors. About midday he gave her a glass of spirits which took such effect that she did not remember whether she had any more or not. She remembered no more until the evening, when she found herself lying undressed upon the floor, and the defendant pouring water over her from a pail. He had stripped her of everything and beaten her with some weapon about the body until she was covered with bruises from head to foot. As soon as she recovered sufficiently she ran out of the house to escape from his violence, and some women got clothing for her.

Defendant said he gave the woman a glass of stout with her lunch, and afterwards a glass of brandy. He went out in the afternoon, and when he returned, he found that she had drunk a pint of rum and was in a shocking state of intoxication. She stripped herself and tried to go to bed, but fell helpless on the floor, and he then bathed her with cold water, spoiling his new carpet, and also tried to bring her to her senses by flogging her with the hot frying-pan. He did not deny causing her bruises, for he hit her perhaps a hundred times, and if she had not been so heavy he would have thrown her out of the window. He tied a rope round her feet, but could not drag her out of the room and, after giving her some more water, she got up and walked into the street just as she was. He was so disgusted that if he could have got a gun he would have shot her. All that he could do was to send for a cab and get her away.

Mrs. C. Limey said that she had occasion to go to the house on business, and the defendant showed her the complainant lying stripped upon the carpet. She got up on hearing a woman’s voice and ran into the street. There were several weals upon her body, and her clothes had evidently been torn from her with violence.

The prisoner was remanded in custody for a week.

_Extract from ‘The Revelations of Birchington Grange.’_

Asking for a good birch rod, the Colonel says he will show them the way a real expert would use it, whisking the birch about so that the trembling victim can hear it hissing through the air.

The Colonel continues: ‘Now the real art of birching consists, of course, in inflicting the greatest amount of humiliation and suffering, but without in reality doing serious damage; we have to consider how so to apply the rod as to effect some radical moral good in the disposition and mind of the culprit; how to make them feel the very dregs as it were of humiliation, degradation, and every kind of mortification. It is a curious fact that it sends the blood of a sensitive modest girl in impulsive rushes (especially to the face and neck) in the form of scarlet blushes, which pass over those parts in continuous waves, corresponding to each stroke of the rod; this is a curious psychological fact, which is puzzling even to anatomists.’

_Letter from Mrs. Martinet on Slipper Punishment._

A slipper is a splendid thing to slap with, as it has such a stinging effect without cutting the skin, like a regular birchrod.

I should not write so fully as I do, but knowing you to be an amateur, and consequently interested in every incident of punishment, it gives a kind of freedom to my pen, as I know you can be depended on not to abuse my confidence.

My special penchant used to be for a good stinging bunch of real birch twigs, and I still think that is far the best thing to use for big girls over thirteen, but for little delicate chits under that age, there is nothing answers so well as a nice new slipper. A proficient disciplinarian would first give the delinquent a short lecture on the nature of her offence, then firmly insist upon the culprit herself fetching the instrument of punishment: to my idea, there is more shame and humiliation at having to bring the slipper to be flogged, than fear of the smart, which is always worse in imagination than fact.

A skilful flagellatrix will always prolong these sensations, as they effect as much good as the application of the slipper.

_Flogging and Cruelty in a Glasgow Industrial School._

A case not unlike what has just been brought to light in London is reported in connection with the Glasgow Girls’ Industrial School. The charges against the matron consist of acts of cruelty when administering punishment to the girls. Here is part of an account given in a Glasgow paper of an interview with the matron regarding her treatment of a girl who had absconded from the institution. The girl was taken into the laundry with only her chemise and a petticoat on, and held by two girls while she flogged her with a taws. She knows that the girl’s garments got twisted in the struggle, but cannot remember whether they all came off or not. She is sure the girl did not receive more than twelve strokes, very likely not so many. After flogging the girl she went to her own room, she was so excited, leaving instructions to have the girl put under the spray-bath to cool her down. After whipping the girls she gave them the spray to revive them. Then a mattress was taken into the surgery and the girl was put in there. That very night she visited her in the surgery, and told her she had only punished her for her good. She taught her a little prayer, and then she prayed with her. The interview goes on to say: ‘You did not enter the punishment in the records?’ ‘No, for the girl had never been in the schoolroom, and the punishment did not form part of the ordinary discipline of the school.’ ‘You consider that the punishment requisite to break a girl in should not be entered?’ ‘Well, I go upon precedent. I was assistant to the former matron, and in a case where a girl was punished under similar circumstances it was not entered in the book.’

The matron mentioned above is also reported by the same girl to have confessed to stripping a girl naked before whipping her. This lady who was assistant matron, said she knew nothing about the rules. One of the teachers who has since left the institution said she did so out of disgust at the way it was conducted, and the cruelty practised in the punishment of the inmates. The resignation of the matron was accepted by the committee of management.

_The Convent School._

The Superior, with whom Olive had been a favourite, now vented her spite in every direction amongst the young lady pupils of the seminary, and I, for one, soon fell under her displeasure and was ordered to be tied to the whipping-post. It was only for slightly oversleeping myself, and not dressing quickly when the bell rang for us to get up at 6 a.m. I was suspended by my wrist, being tied high up on the post, as I stood on a footstool, when it was suddenly kicked away, the jerk of the sudden strain on my wrists almost making the straps cut into the flesh. My feet were dangling some inches from the floor. ‘Oh! oh! ah-r-r-re!’ I screamed. ‘How cruel! Oh! papa! papa! if you only knew how they treated us in this awful place!’

The Lady Superior, who seemed delighted at my pain, said: ‘Hold your foolish tongue; wait till you have something to scream about, girl.’ Then old Serena who, it seemed, was always in attendance at punishment time, pinned up my skirts, and the Superior went on: ‘This rod shall make all the sluggards turn out quicker in the morning. What do you mean, Miss, by making us all wait prayers for ten minutes? Will you wake up sharper in future?’

She then gave me several sharp cuts with the rod. My screams were heartrending, but they only seemed to enjoy it more and more, and the Superior never ended her objurgations till the rod was worn out.

_The Woman in White._

Mme. Hauteville made a very pretty toilette for the occasion—she was all in white: in the costume of a novice when she takes the veil. The dress had been considerably modified, as being too flowing for the occasion, but it was all white silk and lace: and a lovely little angel she looked when it was complete. From head to foot she had nothing on that was not pure white; white satin shoes with diamonds sparkling on the rosettes; white silk stockings, gartered above her round knees with white velvet garters; white petticoats—one of the finest flannel—embroidered with lilies, and one of soft lawn, with a lace flounce. Her robe was silk—the soft noiseless sort that does not rustle—richly trimmed with costly lace, and over her head she had a square veil. She had her maid in to assist at her toilette and fasten her garters and shoes. Madame submitted to be blindfolded with a very good grace, though she tried hard to get us to tell her what was going to be done; she had such pretty coaxing ways that it was hard to resist her; but we did, and she went in quite unprepared.

We led her slowly up the room, and at the first stroke of the rod nearest the door, she winced but did not cry out; the next blow she received was a stinging one from a slipper my lady held in her hand (she knows how to strike with a shoe, I can tell you), and she gave a little scream and a jump. ‘Oh! what is it?’ she asked between her teeth; but the next stroke, a fair open-handed slap from Mrs. D—’s fat hand made her fairly shriek out and twist out of her grasp on to the floor. It _was_ a slap, and rang out even above the laughter of the ladies, leaving a broad red mark on the white firm flesh of the little lady.

_Home Scenes._

Mrs. Eden was brought up in a convent. Her parents were Roman Catholics and, having no daughter but her, they were desirous of bestowing upon her every accomplishment, and foolishly imagined a convent education far superior to any this country could boast of. There she lived till she was twenty-five, when her father died, and she found herself in possession of twenty-five thousand pounds. At the importunities of a fond mother, who went to see her every year, she visited England and, being a girl of good fortune, it is not to be wondered at that she had a crowd of admirers. In her visits she was very much taken with that part of a widower’s family generally found most disagreeable, at least to young ladies—I mean his children. She observed they were indulged by a weak father in everything, and were consequently very disobedient and unruly. Upon this gentleman, though verging on forty, she fixed her affections, and being a woman of ungovernable spirit, she was happy to find him an easy pusillanimous creature. The match was scarcely mentioned when it was concluded, and a few days after she found herself at the head of his household. She had six little subjects to govern, three of whom were then at school, who were instantly ordered home, as she said she would finish their education, which indeed was in her power, for she was a very sensible woman; but that was not her intent altogether. It was the boys that were ordered from school, and right happy they were at leaving so irksome a place; but they little knew their stepmother. As soon as she was married she discharged all her servants and hired a set of her own choosing, and among the rest she took care to engage a French maid whose disposition she knew would just suit her.

Mrs. Eden was of the first order of beauty, fine turned limbs, good skin, fine blue eyes, and when not ruffled by passion was certainly very captivating. If she stepped across the room she displayed uncommon dignity and elegance, and had all the chic of a Frenchwoman.

Now although she had a passion for flogging, yet she was never observed to take the rod in hand without cause. She was convinced where there were such a number of children and they ungovernable, many bickerings would arise which would give her an opportunity to amuse herself with the rod. The first to give her a chance was a boy of seventeen who was so stupid at a lesson she gave him that she resolved to try the effects of birching. Her maid was ordered to bring a rod, which was no sooner done than she proceeded to use it; but she found the boy too strong for her. The maid, with the assistance of her mistress, tied his hands behind him, and then they found him manageable enough and, the woman holding his legs, his stepmother whipped him till the twigs flew about the room.

This was the first sample of her severity, and it made such an impression on the other children that they trembled in her presence. A few hours afterwards the boy was tearfully complaining of her treatment to his elder sister, who advised him to burn the rod at the first opportunity. This was overheard by the maid, who informed her lady of the affair. The young lady was summoned to the parlour, where she denied the fact, was confronted by the maid, and well whipped.

MEIBOMIUS, (J. H., M.D.) A Treatise on the Utility of Flogging in Medicine and Venery; wherein many curious things are plainly set out and elucidated, for the enjoyment of the curious and the delight of the learned. Faithfully translated from the original Latin. Demy 8vo, cloth.