he bystanders knew what had happened there was a street brawl; for I
struck Richard Tresidder a heavy blow on the chin which sent him reeling
backward, and when his son Nick sprang upon me I threw him from me with
great force, so that he fell to the ground, and I saw the blood gush
from his nose. After that I remember nothing distinctly. I have a dim
recollection of fighting madly, and that I was presently overpowered and
taken to the lock-up.

I remained in the lock-up till the next morning, when I was taken
before the magistrates. I don't know what was said, and at the time I
did not care. I was angry with myself for not biding my time and
flogging the Tresidders in the way I had planned, and yet I was pleased
because I had disgraced Tresidder--at least, I thought I had--before the
whole town. I have an idea that questions were asked about me, and that
one of the magistrates who knew my grandfather said it was a pity that a
Pennington should come to such a pass. Richard Tresidder and his friends
tried to get an extreme sentence passed upon me, but the end of it all
was that I was sentenced to be pilloried for six hours, and then to be
publicly flogged.

Soon after I was taken to the market-place, where the pillory was set
up, and I, in face of the jeering crowd, was tied to a pole. Then on the
top of this pole, about six feet from the platform on which I stood, a
stout piece of board was placed, which had three hollow places cut out.
My neck was pressed into one socket and my wrists in the two others.
Then another stout piece of board, with hollow places cut out to
correspond with the other, was placed on the top of it. This pressed my
neck very hardly, and strained it so that I could hardly breathe; it
also fastened my hands, and hurt my wrists badly. I know of nothing
nearer crucifixion than to be pilloried, for the thing was made
something like a cross, and my head and arms were crushed into the piece
of board which corresponds with the arms of a cross in such a way that
to live was agony.

And there I stood while the jeering crowd stood around me, some howling,
some throwing rotten eggs at me, and others pelting me with cabbage
stumps and turnips. After I had stood there about three hours some one
came and made the thing easier, or I should not have lived through the
six hours, and after that time, the mob having got tired of pelting me,
I was left a little time in peace.

When the six hours were nearly up, I