JOANNE’S DISGRACE
 

DAY ONE

“Angela!  I want you to take over for a while.”

Angela looked up in amazement .  She had got used to working under Joanne, respecting her intelligence as well as her energy.  What was the girl playing at?

“As you know, I was about to punish Annie with six days in the cage.  She disobeyed an explicit order and I can’t let that go, much as I love the girl.  The thing is….”

The normally articulate Joanne was lost for words. She went deep red and looked deeply ashamed. She swallowed hard and continued.  Her voice betrayed the fact that she was close to tears.

“I was guilty of a far worse offence, Angela. I fell asleep on watch.  I don’t know for how long, but Annie walked right up to where I was and touched me on the shoulder to wake me up.  If she had been an Inspector doing a search, I’d have been done for and so would the other two.

“That’s why I want you to take over for a while. I deserve punishing far more than Annie. If you take command, then you can decide  how I should be dealt with  - I’ll abide by your decision and so will Annie and Francesca. I think they both guess how bad I feel. I daresay you will have me staked out, so I won‘t be much use until I‘m free again.  Maybe you ought to take over permanently!”

Angela shook her head at the last suggestion. “No, Joanne, you are the leader in the long term, but you ought to be punished, and pretty ferociously - you’re right about that. I can hardly believe what you’ve just said - I really can’t! One or two of our conversations suddenly make a bit more sense!  So! - OK, I’ll take over, but you must  understand that you won‘t like it one little bit! An Army is a very hard place to be when you step out of line as badly as you did. What I will do to you will make you wish you’d never been born. Feel up to it?  Sure you want to go ahead?  If you want to back out, I‘ll forget this conversation ever took place and no one will ever know a thing about it.”

Joanne nodded.  “I trust you to do the right thing, Angela. I’m in your hands.”

“Fair enough, Joanne.  I see why you have brought us all over here. We’ll  have a meeting and then  you can hand over.  I will immediately put you  and Annie under arrest and we can have an impromptu Court Martial for you both.  I further suggest I be the one and only member of the Court!“

Joanne agreed, feeling her guilt beginning to lift already. A meeting was hastily called.  With the girls all standing in a circle,  Joanne explained the situation. She shook hands with Angela to signify the temporary change of command.  Angela wasted not a second in opening the proceedings.  Things were moving fast, now that Joanne had  decided to do the decent thing.

“The two accused,  Esterhazy and Schwarz will remain standing to attention throughout the proceedings.  The rest of you may be seated.  I will summarise the indictments against both accused.  Do  you, Esterhazy, admit to having fallen asleep on duty, thereby endangering the lives of  your group?”

“I do”

Angela nodded curtly. She turned to Annie, poor, frightened little Annie, with her pale face.  Joanne could only hope and pray that the girl would not wet herself and add that disgrace to her catalogue of woes.  She should have warned her, but it was too late for that now.  She could both feel and smell the fear in the girl by her side. She wasn’t feeling too good herself, despite the choice she had made.

“Do you Schwarz admit to disobeying a clear instruction to send Moroni  over to report to Esterhazy going yourself in clear defiance of your commander?

“I do”

“I declare the charges to be proved. Schwarz, you will get sixty hard lashes and be staked out on the beach for twenty days and nights.  In view of your youth, I am being lenient.  You will be fed bread and water once daily and your bonds will not be loosened until your sentence is complete.   Remain standing to attention until I have pronounced sentence on Esterhazy.”

Joanne paled at hearing what was to happen to poor little Annie. She had determined that the whip would never be used again on any of these girls.   Angela must be persuaded to think again. She realised, apprehensively,  that she was about to be given a spell in the cage, or why else had Annie been sentenced to be staked out?

And if sixty lashes was what Angela considered to be a fit punishment for the lesser offence - Oh  dear God!  What was she going to decide on for her?  She felt her knees giving way and made a supreme effort to recover her composure. She told herself that she must take everything that  she had coming to her with dignity and courage. She had agreed to abide by Angela’s decision - no turning back now!

Angela appeared to all the watching and horrified women to be enjoying herself! Only Josephine and Frieda were in no way surprised at poor little Annie’s fate, having suffered similarly more times than they cared to call to mind.  Angela was clearly going to take full advantage of her time in charge, imposing a discipline that would leave Joanne’s  occasional severity, looking soft and gentle.

It was not only Joanne and Annie who were in for a hard time of it! All were praying hard that the interval between now and Joanne’s return to command  would pass quickly.  By the time the day was out this prayer had been made many times!

“Esterhazy, I’ll say a word or two before I announce your sentence, which will be as severe as you can bear - maybe more so. Falling asleep on duty is an offence which has often been punished by death, as you must know quite well.  Think yourself very lucky that your talents make you too valuable to us to allow this - otherwise I would have you shot.  Not only did you fail in the very worst way, but you were willing to sentence Schwarz to a week in the cage when your own offence was so much worse. If you were going to hide your own guilt you could at least have ignored hers.

“That is dire leadership, Esterhazy and I must say I am both surprised and disappointed in you.  I had come to think a great deal better of you! You tried to avoid coming to terms with your own guilt until your conscience finally caught up with you, but that belated confession does not excuse you in the slightest or entitle you to any mercy. I sentence you to two hundred lashes and eight weeks in the cage.”

“I’d hoped we could do without the whip in future,” murmured a devastated Joanne.

“How dare you interrupt me, Esterhazy. I double that.  You will receive three hundred now and the  rest when you are freed. You will be kept in there twenty four hours in all weathers. You will get one daily meal of bread and water and are forbidden to talk to the person bringing your meal.  If you fail to show respect to your captors or appear to be enduring your confinement with anything less than the courage to be expected of a true soldier then you will be confined for even longer.”  She turned to the circle of watching women, all looking shell-shocked, even Frieda and Josephine. “Anyone making contact with the two prisoners will regret it and regret it bitterly - I shall see to that!”

“Moroni, Solana, Brown take the prisoner Schwarz to the  post.  Moroni will  do the necessary, then the three of you must tie  her down.  Put your back into it Moroni. I want to see you sweat, or you’ll be joining her. Report back to me when you have finished.  Esterhazy - stand straight and keep your eyes dead ahead. I don‘t want to see you as much as blink!”

Joanne did as she was ordered, hearing but not seeing,  what they were doing to her  sweet little friend. She was still numb after hearing that savage sentence.

Francesca tried to go as easy on Annie as she could, but the poor child was bleeding long before her whipping was over. When they took her down she could no longer stand.

When the three had finished and tied the little girl down, Angela came over to inspect their handiwork. She pronounced herself dissatisfied by the knots, ordering Annie to be retied.  She then ordered water to be brought. Annie thought that this was a merciful gesture to her after her whipping, but Angela had another use for it!  She dampened the four ropes that attached  Annie to the stakes, explaining to her that the rope would now shrink, stretching  her tauter than ever. Then came Joanne’s turn.

By this time Joanne was beginning to come to terms with her fate. Although she dreaded everything about the next sixteen weeks, at least she had finally done the right thing. She would have been much more lenient had the roles been reversed, but she wasn’t Angela! And she had chosen to place her  fate into that hard woman’s hands. She had made her bed and must lie in it!

“Right, you three. Escort the prisoner Esterhazy to the post and secure her firmly. You will take turns to whip her.  Each one will administer ten lashes at a time.  Make every one count. Take her over to the post.”

Joanne was led roughly to the post and secured. Francesca was the first to raise her hand  against her beloved rescuer. Despite Angela’s order that they use all their strength on her, she hoped to be as restrained with her other friend as with Annie, but Angela was looking at her, and she knew that this time she had better not step out line. Well, Jo, here goes, you poor old thing, she silently said. Then she aimed a blistering  lash, the first of ten. The other two, trained rebel soldiers who had no qualms about this kind of thing, were even more energetic.

Thirty minutes ago Joanne had been the undisputed leader, admired and respected by all, and now she was undergoing stage one of her penitence, a disgraced offender who had committed one of the worst outrages in the book. How are the mighty fallen, she wryly thought as the three did their work on her. She bore the first hundred in silence, the Inspectors had hardened her to take this much punishment. By the time one hundred and twenty cruel slashes of the leather had descended she began, despite herself, to moan.

After two hundred and thirty she could hold back her distress no longer and the air was filled with the sound of her frenzied shrieks. Annie wept as she heard those heartrending screams. Even the hardened Frieda and company felt sick at the sight of Joanne's white ribs as the lash cut her to the bone time and time again. Many were unable to stop vomiting as they watched. None of them had ever seen anybody whipped like this before.

Angela shouted for the whipping to stop when two hundred and ninety were reached.

"Keep silent, Esterhazy! I increase your whipping by a hundred lashes. Remember that cowards have no place here. Resume the punishment!"

How Joanne kept from screaming again she would never know. Only the knowledge that she would die if the implacable Angela ordered further lashes on top of the four hundred she was already due to receive today kept her quiet.

Terrible though it all was she had no regrets as this first part of her long ordeal went steadily on to its end. Then they untied her and escorted up to her home for the next three months.

She was a strong girl and she walked unaided but very unsteadily the entire way up to the cage, never quite missing her footing, but staggering many times as the blood continued to ooze from all her terrible wounds, leaving a trail behind her, all the way up to the cage. There was too be a red pool on the ground under her confined prison as she continued to bleed for an hour before the blood congealed. All too soon  she arrived at the scene of her captivity. Here was the place of torture from which she had recently rescued Angela. Did the kindness she had shown her count for nothing? Apparently not. And why should it?  She knew she was being treated fairly and had no complaints. As Angela had said, she was lucky not to have been shot. Fine leader she had turned out to be!

One ray of comfort to her had been Francesca’s muttered “Sorry, Jo. May both you and God forgive me and may He  look after you up there!” She knew the girl had risked a lot to say those words and she almost wept at the thought.

As she had guessed, the smaller size of this cage made it barely possible get inside. At a shade under six feet, she was a good three inches taller than Angela, who had, herself suffered torments in there. There was absolutely no way she could move at all. Even if she tried to raise her head, it met the imprisoning iron after a couple of inches. She found after a while that she could wriggle her hands and feet a little and flex most of her muscles, but the basic problem of cramp was insoluble.  She prayed aloud for the strength to endure and survive the next sixteen weeks.

Weakness, loss of blood and exhaustion overcame her fearful pain after a few minutes alone and she fell asleep.