merry in the midst of their torments. [Sir John relates at considerable
length the Acts of St. Laurence and St. Sebastian.]....

When the officer had looked on him a moment, he bade him turn round, and
so, I suppose, sat staring upon the youth's holy shoulders that were
covered with the old stripes that he had given himself. At last Master
Richard faced about again; and again, as he looked upon the solemn face
of the man, he began to laugh. It seemed a marvellous jest, he thought,
that so long a consideration should be given to so small a matter as a
whipping. I am glad I was not there to bear that laughter; I think it
would quite have broken my heart.

* * * * *

Well, my children, I cannot write what followed, but the end of it was
that the post to which Master Richard's hands were tied, and the face of
Master-Lieutenant standing behind it, and the wall behind him with the
weapons upon it, grew white and frosted to the young man's eyes, and
began to toss up and down, and a great roaring sounded in his ears. He
thought, he told me afterwards, that he was on Calvary beneath the rood,
and that the rocks were rending about him.

So he swooned clean away, and was carried back again to his prison.

* * * * *

Now I learned afterwards that the officer had no authority such as he
pretended, but that he had sworn to his fellows that he could find out
the truth by a pretence of it, thinking Master Richard to be a poor
crazed fool who would cry out and confess at the touch of the whip.