Just then Father Anthony loosed the rope a little, so that I could shrink further from the blows of the scourge, till I was driven up to the wall, where I stood on tiptoe with my hands drawn up over my head, and my back bending as much as possible to avoid the terrible shower of blows with which he was cutting up my buttocks still more and more.
Crimson with shame, tears flowing in torrents from my starting eyes, I moaned, cried and implored for mercy, protesting in a broken voice, "That ever since my husband had renewed his kindness to me I had been very, very sad and ashamed of myself for what I had done, and only his former neglect had caused me to throw myself into the arms of a handsome man to whom I was under great obligations for protecting me when I escaped from the Ursuline Convent.
"Ha, then, you are that Lucille who insulted Lady Superior, I heard all about it at the time!" he went on furiously. "Now you shall be punished for that too," seizing my left
