two servants and well bolting the door leading to the domestics' quarters, having, with good tact, provided them with a considerable amount of refreshment, to regale themselves withal.
Perceiving the field was all clear, I rose up, glass in hand, saying, with a bow of mock deference, 'Wait a moment, Maria, we are not quite ready to dispense with the champagne. Miss Flaybum, Miss Herbert, and you young ladies (looking round the table), we shall, many of us, part tomorrow morning, never to return to this happy establishment, and I, for one, feel sure you will all join with me in drinking a real bumper to the health of our much respected and beloved schoolmistress.'
Miss Flaybum gasped with agitation, but subsided into her chair, as if resigned to her fate, and apparently unable to help herself.
The young ladies all received the proposal with rapturous applause; glasses were filled without stint.
'Now, then,' I exclaimed, stepping on to my chair and placing one foot on the table, 'we must drink to the health of such an illustrious and amiable lady, with all honours, in the Scotch fashion, one foot on the table, and throw your glasses over your shoulders as you drain them to the bottom, in her honour. To the health of Miss Audrey Clementine Flaybum,
For she's a jolly good fellow,
For she's a jolly good fellow,
For she's a jolly good fellow,
And so say all of us,
And so say all of us,
And so say all of us,
With a hip, hip, hurrah,
With a hip, hip, hurrah,
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.'
(Crash of glasses)
My confederates joined and gave the health in regular chorus and, I must say, in rather a masculine manner.
'My God! my God!' screamed Miss Flaybum, as the glasses crashed on the floor, or wherever they fell, 'the young ladies are all drunk; what shall I do, Miss Herbert, how awful, where did they learn all this pot-house slang?'
'What an insult!' I exclaimed. 'Are we drunk, young ladies? Cecile, Mdlle. Fosse, will you stand still to be stigmatized as drunkards?' We all crowded round Miss Flaybum and the English and German governesses, the two former red with passion, whilst Frau Bildaur was trembling with fear.
'This is no laughing matter,' I continued, 'we have all been insulted. Miss Audrey Clementine Flaybum, our turn is come now, you shall be made to smart for this, and make a most abject apology for insulting a number of young ladies of the highest aristocracy, and you Miss Dido Herbert, shall be punished too because you evidently approved it all. I think we will begin upon Frau Bildaur, but I won't be hard upon her, as she is rather tenderhearted. Maria, do your duty, no retiring, strip them, and put the penitential garments on before us all here.'
Miss flaybum, now pale and trembling with rage and fear. – 'How dare you address me so; Maria, clear the room of these impudent young ladies, they are all flushed with wine.'
Her appeals to Maria are all in vain; she first strips and robes Frau Bildaur; the poor creature, ready to faint with fear and shame, offers no resistance, but Miss Herbert is indignant, and resists strenuously, whilst Miss Flaybum is held down in her chair by half-a-dozen strong young ladies.
'Never mind about dressing that old frump,' I exclaimed; 'stretch her on the table, and turn up her clothes.'
Almost by magic the supper table is half cleared, all the debris of the entertainment being swept to the other end of the table. The struggling victim is powerless as soon as Maria with the assistance of Cecile and Mdlle. Fosse resolutely drag her to the table; she is stretched over the mahogany, and Mdlle., having turned up her clothes and pinned them well up, sits on her shoulders, to keep her down, whilst one or two others hold her arms. Cecile opens her drawers and exposes a rather thin bottom, saying, 'She's not very plump, dear Rosa, but no doubt you can make her squeak.'
rosa. – 'Tear off her drawers and fully expose her, I must pay off all scores at once.'
This is speedily done, the victim appeals for mercy and exclaims against such indecency, but in vain; whilst Miss Flaybum looks on in speechless horror, gasping and sighing with indignation, and the thoughts of what shameful indignities may be in store for herself.
rosa, giving a light swish on the exposed rump. – 'Have you got any feeling, Miss Dido Herbert? I hope this won't hurt you much, but you've been a spiteful old thing to us for a long time.' Swish, swish, swish, harder and harder, till the devoted bum begins to get quite rosy. 'Will you beg our pardon, and promise to be kinder to your pupils in future?' giving a whack with all her force, which weals and almost draws the blood.
Miss herbert. – 'Oh! Oh! we never punished like that! Oh! shameful, Miss Coote!'
rosa. – 'How dare you, Miss Dido, tell me it's shameful, do you really mean what you say?' slashing away in earnest, and soon making little drops of blood begin to ooze from the bruised weals.
Miss herbert, sobbing hysterically. – 'Oh! Oh! I didn't mean to say that. Oh! Oh! Ah – r-r – re! Have mercy! My God! how cruelly you cut!'
rosa. – 'I thought you would come round, Miss Dido; pray, don't you admire my style of birching, don't you wish me to do it a little harder,' keeping up a vigorous stroke all the time, and beginning to make quite a beautiful display of raw buttocks.
The victim shrieks with agony and cries for help.
rosa. – 'You may scream, it's delightful to hear it, and know you have some feeling. Will you beg our pardons now?'
Miss herbert. – 'Oh! Yes! Yes! I will, I will. Oh! Oh! pray stop, pray have mercy, I'll never be unkind any more!' sobbing hysterically, 'Oh, dear!' Oh, dear! I shall faint, I know I'm bleeding! Oh! dear Miss Coote, how can you be so cruel?'
rosa. – 'Do you think we're any of us intoxicated? Don't you think it was very improper and unladylike of Miss Flaybum to say what she did, and insult us so, just as we had done her a great honour; what do you think of it, Miss Dido?'
Miss herbert. – 'Oh! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah – r-r – re! Oh! it was so wrong of her! Oh! I do apologize. Oh! let me go. Oh, Mercy!' as she writhes and twists in the most agonizing manner.
rosa. – 'You must thank me, and promise to retire quietly to your room when you are allowed to go, and profit by the lesson you have received; it is not half so bad as it might have been, there, there,' giving her a couple of slashing undercuts between her thighs. 'Kneel down and kiss the rod, and thank me.'
Miss herbert. – 'Ah! Ah! dreadful. Oh! I shall die! Oh! have pity,' sobbing and moaning.
She is now released, and has to kneel and kiss the rod, and make most humble thanks, apologies, and promises, to the infinite delight of the audience, who thoroughly enjoy her humiliation as she kneels bathed in tears of pain and shame, and greet her with a storm of hisses as she slinks from the room crestfallen and smarting with her degradation.
rosa. – 'Now, Miss Audrey Clementine Flaybum, it's your turn; resist us, and you shall be punished ten times worse than that woman Herbert.'
The schoolmistress is quite cowed by the previous scene. She implores for mercy, and begs them not to degrade her before the whole school, but Rosa and her accomplices are determined and relentless.
Maria gradually strips her mistress, who is a fine looking woman of the fat, fair and forty class, with quite prominent blue eyes and flaxen hair. The disrobing process displays in turn her fine neck and bosom, crimson with shame and heaving with agitation, whilst tears of bitter vexation course down her cheeks. Then she presently stands with only chemise and drawers, the latter so well filled out as to give promise of a splendid bottom within, and the ends beautifully trimmed with expensive lace, below which are seen a fine pair of plump legs, in flesh- coloured silk stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with jewelled buckles, but when the penitential-dress and mobcap are assumed, she looks quite a benevolent Mrs. Fry, grieving over some kind of human depravity.
'There,' said Rosa, 'she's wise not to resist. Let her stand and see Frau Bildaur receive her punishment, and I will rest too; you dear Cecile, take a new rod and punish her lightly.'
