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SUSSEX SMUGGLERS 13
head that should mention anything of what was done, or what they had heard.
When they were all come out of the house, Jackson returned with a pistol in his hand, and asked for a belt, a strap, or string: but none of the people in the house presumed to give him either ; upon which he returned to the rest of the gang, who were lifting Galley on a horse, wdiose legs they tied under the horse's belly; then they lifted Chater on the same horse, and tied his legs under the horse's belly, and then tied their four legs together.
All this time John Race was with them ; but when they began to set forward, Race said, " I cannot go with you for I have never a horse,"' and so stayed behind.
They had not gone above a hundred yards, before Jackson called out "Whip them, cut them, slash them, damn them " ; and then all fell upon them except the person who was leading the horse, which was Steel; for the roads were so bad that they were forced to go very slow.
They whipped them till they came to Wood's Ashes, some with long whips and some with short, lashing and cutting them over the head, face, eyes and shoulders, till the poor men, unable any longer to bear the anguish of their repeated blows, rolled from side to side, and at last fell together with their heads under the horse's belly ; in which posture every step the horse made, he struck one or the other of their heads with his feet. This happened at Wood's Ashes, which was more than half a mile from the place where they began their whipping, and had continued it all the way thither. When their cruel tormentors saw the dismal effects of their barbarity, and that the poor creatures had fallen |
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