These people are so crude, I have nothing but contempt for them. Rage fills me and I launch one last mighty blow at the bloody back before me.
@Barbaria1 jerks with shock, moaning and gasping, pushed to the edge of endurance by this assault. Then I turn to the crowd.
"Enough! You would have me reduce this wretched woman to a torn wreck. No, enough. The ordeal has just begun. Now her bloody and bruised shoulders will feel the weight of the cross, wood digging into her wounds, splinters piercing her ragged flesh. She will stagger in front of you, bleeding and shaking, to the place of her final ordeal. There she will be nailed to the wood, where she will struggle for every breath as you feast on her nakedness and humiliation. She must stay strong enough to endure this, so I say enough! Unless there is someone among you prepared to match her, blow for blow, from this time on, I call an end."
I look around the crowd. Some look away, shamed. Others look frightened. Some stare, sullen and resentful, but none step forward to take the challenge.
"Woman, do not thank me, do not think me soft. In a few hours you will curse me and wish I had ended you here and now under my scourge. You have a long journey ahead of you, gather your strength."
