Two soldiers held him while two others were flourishing their switches and striking him regularly on his bare back.

The man shrieked unnaturally.

A stout major was pacing up and down the line, and regardless of the screams kept repeating: "It's a shame for a soldier to steal; a soldier must be honest, honorable, and brave, but if he robs his fellows there is no honor in him, he's a scoundrel.

Go on! Go on!" So the swishing sound of the strokes, and the desperate but unnatural screams, continued.