The, fourth was poor Sukey. When told to advance, he made one more
appeal to the captain, avowing that he was an American. The captain,
with an oath, said that was the more reason for flogging him. He
appealed until the marine guard was ordered to prod him with his
bayonet. They had to actually drag Sukey to the gratings. Sukey's cheek,
which was usually pale, was now whiter than a ghost. As he was being
secured to the gratings, and the shudderings and creepings of his
dazzling white back were revealed, he turned his tear-stained face to
the captain and implored him to spare him the disgrace, which he felt
far more keenly than the pain.
"I would not forgive God Almighty!" cried the brutal captain. The fourth
boatswain's mate, with a fresh cat-o-nine-tails swung it about his head
and brought the terrible scourge hissing and crackling on the young and
tender back. Fernando turned his face away and wept.
"_My God! oh! my God_!" shouted Sukey, and he writhed and leaped, until
he displaced the gratings, scattering the nine-tails of the scourge all
over his person. At the next blow, he howled, leaped and raged in
unendurable agony.
"What the d---l are you stopping for?" cried the captain as the
boatswain's-mate halted. "Lay on!" and the whole dozen were applied,
though poor Sukey fainted at the tenth stroke.
Reader, this was on an English war vessel,--the vessel of a nation
professing a high state of civilization.
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