The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-20 00:00:00

The Cat o' Nine Tails.

When O'Brien heard the sentence read, followed
with the stern " Strip, sir 1" of the commanding
officer, he made but one remark as he began to take
off his clothes : " I would far rather they shot me.
I am now a disgraced man for ever." In a moment
he was naked to the waist, tied firmly to the triangles,
and here began the brutally disgusting scene which
so many of us have witnessed in the olden time, and
the bad remnant of which so many hon. members
of Parliament, and so many gallant but thick-
headed officers of the army, are doing their utmost
to retain. I will not describe what a punishment
parade was in the days when 300 lashes could be
administered. Standing by the triangles, as is the
invariable rule, was the surgeon of the regiment, in
order to see that beyond what the culprit could bear,
without material injury to his health, not a single
lash was inflicted. Four or five times the man
asked for water, on the ground that he felt faint ;
and the drum-major had always the tin-pot ready
to give him. lie took his whole punishment-300
lashes laid on with the regulation " cat of nine tails,"
the flogger being changed at every 25 strokes. He
was then untied, and, a great-coat being thrown
over his bleeding back, he was taken to the regi-
mental hospital to undergo medical treatment. In
three weeks or so he was clear of the doctor's hands,
and rejoined his company. Previous to his punish-
ment he had been one of the smartest and soberest
men in the regiment, but he now became the
very reverse. The colour-sergeant of his com-
pany told me that before he was flogged
he hardly ever tasted a glass of spirits,
but that afterwards he was hardly ever sober. He
always declared that he had been condemned on
false evidence, but he never was heard to say who
was the real culprit. From being often drunk when
off duty he gradually got such a mania for liquor
that he was reported more than once drunk for
guard, and, being insolent on one occasion to the
corporal who reported him, was tried by a regimental
court-martial, and sentenced to receive 150 lashes,
which were duly administered. To make a long story
short, I watched the man forsome time, and more than
once attempted to give him a little advice, though,
unfortunately, in the English service the most
ordinary intercourse or conversation between officer
and soldier is strictly against the spirit, if not the
letter, of the law. But whenever I remonstrated
with him I got the same reply, " I am a disgraced
man now, sir. I never can hold up my head again,
and the sooner 1 drink myself dead the better."
For some time, having been on leave of absence at
Simla, and not belonging to the same company as
O'Brien, I lost sight of him, until, as orderly officer,
going my rounds in the hospital, I recognised
him in one of the sick beds. I stopped and
spoke to him. He told me he had been sent to
hospital for delirium tremens, brought on by hard
drinking, to which was added a bad attack of
brain fever, caused by exposure to the sun for
several hours when helplessly drunk in a native
village, whither he had gone to buy the cheap spirits
which are sold by the Hindoos in the neighbour-
hood of all English stations--" bazaar liquor," as it
is called in India. The man seemed very weak
indeed, as well as dreadfully emaciated in appear-
, ance, and the hospital sergeant told me that the

surgeon did not believe he would ever leave the
ward alive. The prophecy was too true. In less
than a week after I had seen him an order appeared
in the regimental order-book intimating that he was
dead.—Dickens's " 411 the Year Round."