Whipped

The first Christmas I knew HH I gave him gun money as his Christmas present. (Gun money was what James II paid his soldiers with in the fight against King William. It was meant to be transferred for legal tender on his victory; but that never came about). The gun money came with a scene idea – a poor girl naively accepting the money as payment for work. When she tries to spend it is brought before the magistrate and sentenced to be whipped to set an example to others trying to do the same.

We’d long planned to play the scene but there was never a suitable time, until during our holidays, in a Scottish Castle, the setting was too perfect to pass up.

She was a poor girl, quite alone in the world, making her way to Dublin to try and find work. But she was soon to learn that people took advantage. After a few weeks working on a farm she was grateful to earn a whole half crown. The work had been back breaking but the money would see her to Dublin and help her find her feet. She thought it looked different to regular money, but the farmer assured her it was newly minted at the orders of the new viceroy.

Alas for our girl, she had been tricked into taking gun money; not only illegal but also showing her as a supporter of the papist James. When she tried to use it in Dublin she was arrested and brought before the district magistrate. Under orders to stamp out any perceived support for James and to rid the market of the gun money the magistrate made an example of her. She was to be turned over to the bailiff and whipped severely.

The next day she was taken down to the whipping room and hung from the ceiling to await her fate. She shivered in the cold, her bare feet numb on the icy floors, the thin drawers and chemise giving little protection from the chill.

By the time the bailiff came to deal with her she was weak from cold and fear. But he offered no comfort.

He removed her drawers and chemise, openly ogling her body. She flinched as he ran his hands over her, but this entertained him more: he assured her she’d soon do anything to stop the pain.

Laughing, he promised to make his little papist slut sing like a canary so the whole prison could hear her. She shivered as he picked up his whip. Long and black, with many thick strands of leather it looked terrifying.

She soon learned it felt even worse than it looked. The first few strokes made her gasp for air, spraying across her bottom and thighs, the ends biting into her cruelly. Before long she was screaming aloud with the pain.

In between the lashes he tormented her with his words and hands, laughing as she screamed. As bad as it was on her bottom and thighs when he switched his whip to her breasts and back she nearly fainted with the pain.

When he finally put the whip down she sagged in relief, burning all over from the nasty whip. But he was not done yet. Picking up a heavy leather strap her beat her relentlessly with it until she was hanging limply, crying noiseless tears. Her hands tied tightly above her were turning blue and lifeless.

Satisfied at last he stepped back to admire his work. Pinched and groped her lewdly, knowing she wouldn’t resist. Before leaving her hanging there, all alone, afraid of what might befall her next.