I cracked my whip about their heads, commanding them to keep their distance lest they were minded to share his castigation.

And so fearful an air must I have worn, that, daunted, they hung back and watched their leader's punishment in silence.
When I think of it now, I take no little shame at the memory of how I beat him.

It is, indeed, with deep reluctance and yet deeper shame that I have brought myself to write of it.

If I offend you with this account of that horsewhipping, let necessity be my apology; for the horsewhipping itself I have, unfortunately, no apology, save the blind fury that obsessed me--which is no apology at all.
Upon the morrow I repented me already with much bitterness.

But in that hour I knew no reason.