s breeches, and rolling up his shirt rather
above his waist, tucked it on securely there; when directing naturally
my eyes to that humoursone master-movement, in whose favaur all these
dispositions were making, it seemed almost shrunk into his body, scarce
showing its tip above the sprout of hairy curls that clothed those
parts, as you may have-seen a wren peeping its head out of the grass.

Stooping them to untie his garters, he gave them to me for the use
of tying him down to the legs of the bench: a circumstance no farther
necessary than, as I suppose, it made part of the humour of the thing,
since he prescribed it to himself, amongst the rest of the ceremonial.

I led him then to the bench, and according to my cue, played at forcing
him to lie down: which, after-some little show of reluctance, for
form-sake, he submitted to; he was straightway extended flat upon his:
belly, on the bench, with a pillow under his face; and as he thus tamely
lay, I tied him slightly hand and feet, to the legs of it; which done,
his shirt remaining-trussed up over the small of his back, I drew his
breeches quite down to his knees; and now he lay, in all the fairest,
broadest display of that part of the back-view; in which a pair of
chubby, smooth-cheeked and passing white posteriors rose cushioning
upwards from two stout, fleshful thighs, and ending their cleft, or
separation by an union at the small of the back, presented a bold mark,
that swelled, as it were, to meet the scourge.

Seizing now one of the rods, I stood over him, and according to his
direction, gave him in one breath, ten lashes with much good-will, and
the utmost nerve and vigour of arm that I could put to them, so as to
make those fleshy orbs quiver again under them; whilst he himself seemed
no more concerned, or to mind them, than a lobster would a flea-bite. In
the mean time, I view intently the effect of them, which to me at last
appeared surprisingly cruel: every lash had skimmed the surface of those
white cliffs, which they deeply reddened, and lapping round the side
of the furthermost from me, cut specially, into the dimple of it, such
livid weals, as the blood either spun out from, or stood in large drops
on; and, from some of the cuts, I picked out even the splinters of the
rod that had stuck in the skin. Nor was this raw work to be wondered
at, considering the greenness of the twigs and the severity of the
infliction, whilst the whole surface of the skin was