people. Three nights ago five of our men had come to the house, and,
calling for wine, sat down to drink. They soon became riotous, and
their conduct so insulting to the man's wife and daughters, that they
ran away to hide themselves. When he required them to pay the
reckoning and quit the house, they promised most liberal payment, and
seizing, bound him to a post in his own stable, where they gave him
fifty lashes with a leathern strap, valuing the stripes at a _vintem_
apiece."

"The witty rascals," said Lord Strathern; "I would like to repay them
in their own coin."

"Moreover," continued L'Isle, "on the man's son making some resistance
to their treatment of his father, they bound the boy, too, and gave
him a dozen _vintems_' worth of the strap for pocket money."

"The liberal rascals!" said Lord Strathern; "they deserve a handsome
profit on their outlay. But how do you know, L'Isle, that this story
is true?"

"There is no mistake about the flogging," exclaimed L'Isle. "They used
the buckle end of the strap, and, I myself saw the marks, some not yet
scarred over."

"That silent witness may prove a good deal; I cannot call it
tongueless," said his lordship, "for I suppose the buckle had a
tongue."

"I can vouch for that by the mark it left behind," said L'Isle. "Both
father and son swore that they would know the fellows among a