Gertrud the brave slave girl - Chapter 4
Gertrud was untied and pushed to a wooden construction, that was brought in front of the large T-cross. It was a platform with a staircase on the side. The two guards wanted to take Gertrud up the stairs, when Titus shouted: "Stop! Her hair!"
He came to Gertrude and waved at a slave of Gaius Cornelius' household: "Akena come and make braids from the hair of that girl!"
Akena obeyed. She parted Gertrude's hair in the middle and braided right and left braids.
Gertrud had no idea what that was, but she suspected another meanness of Titus Malicenus.
Titus took Gertrude's chin: "This ensures that your hair can´t fall in front of your face, when you lower your head. Everybody should be able to look in your face, little thief .Everybody should be able to see your suffering..."
He snapped his fingers: "Now up with the thief!"
The two guards led Gertrud jup the stairs to the patibulum of the big T. Gertrud did not resist. She knew it was senseless. On top of the platform she had to turn with her back to the T-cross and raise the arms above the horizontal bar and put them back on the round wood.
The guards pulled her arms apart until they were nicely stretched. Then they bounded Gertrud at the patibulum. First they laid at the right and left side ropes to the bar and Gertrude's wrists. They used four winding on every arm. Then they knotted the ropes.
But that was not all. They took new ropes, and did wind them around Gertrude's upper arms and the patibulum. Again they pulled the ropes very firm. Gertrude's arms were pressed onto the wood. The bondage was very tight. Gertrude felt that the ropes would hurt soon.
She knew of other convicts that it would be very hard to stand after a short time, because she could not move her arms.
The guards turned to Gertrude's feet.
"The ankles directly to the Stipes please!" Titus called from below.
Gertrude was terrified. Oh no! Please not that!
Usually the ankles of a denlinquent were three or four times with cords wrapped and then bound to the upright stake was. So the feet were firmly held, but the ropes were somewhat soft and endure the bondage.
But sometimes the ankle of the punished person were put directly against the Stipes and then wrapped with the rope and pressed hard against the wood.
That was incredibly painful.
The two guards did exactly this to Gertrud. She had the feet right and left of the upright pole in directly contact to the wood and the men did wind the rope around her ankles and pressed them hardly to the stipes. They tied the rope very hard so there was no escape of that bondage.
This will hurt pretty soon, Gertrude thought. Soon. By all gods of my ancestors!
The guards went down the stairs. Together they pushed the platform to the side.
Now Gertrude hung visible for all peaope on the T-cross, a naked girl, wearing nothing. Her hair was in braids and she had been shaved between the legs. Because their feet were tied to the upright pole right and left side, her legs were a bit far apart. Everyone could see here naked shame.
Gertrud was ashamed to death. It almost drove her crazy, she had no way to protect her naked body from the prying eyes of the pack. She was handed over to the gawping onlookers in helplessy. She had not known how humiliating that was. Her soul suffered tortures.
Down below someone fetched a big board. It consisted of black slate. It was Hektor, the greek slave. Hektor was the darling of Titus Queenus.
"Add to this table, what this hideous girl has done", Titus. "She stole from the Lords apples. Everyone should read it."
So Hektor began to write. With a red potsherd he scribbled letter by letter on the board. It squeaked and creaked loudly.
Gertrude looked down from the cross. She could not believe it. The Greek idiot wrote more than a dozen mistakes! Pah! Even a donkey could write in a better way!
"Tis gyrl iss a thiev. Shee have stoolen the Lordts appeles. Shee have to stood the wolhe day on the kross", the sign said. Hektor put it down on the ground in front of the upright pole of the cross. People laughed out loud. The stupid greek thought that they laughed at Gertrud, but Gertrud knew better. They laughed at the "excellent" writing arts of Hektor.
If I could not read and write, I would not know that and think that they laugh at me, she thought. Then I would have been ashamed.
She saw the little Diana looking up to her with pity. The poor little Diana. The little slavegirl who was harassed from so many people.
Diana thought people would laugh at Gertrud, because the girl could not read or write. Normally, a slave did not learn to read and to write. But Gertrud was responsible for the cleaning of the school, when she was younger. While she cleaned the classrooms, she learned the way of reading and writing.
She had practiced secretly. She had procured an old table and scraped with a potsherd the letters on the slate until she knew how to do it in the right way. She was intelligent and she learned in a fast way.
For a while these thoughts diverted Gertrud, but soon she was aware that she was found naked and tied up in public. The prying eyes of the audience bored in Gertrud's eyes.
She felt like an animal at the cattle market.
People began to scoff about Gertrud's nakedness.
Gertrud could not stand it any longer. She fought against it, but as more and more people mocked her nakedness, she began to cry.
Immediately the crowd started laughing. Gertrud felt horrible shame. She had never been humiliated that way. It was terrible. She could not stop crying.
Why are they doin this?, Gertrud asked herself. How can they be so nasty?
At other days they behave quite normally, but if anyone is in a helpless situation, they turn into nasty monsters and trow all there hatred on this helpless person. How can that be? Normal people turn into scum bags.
Especially Aurelius and Markus were prominent with loud mockery.
I saved food for you, picked up by the orgies of the Lord and given it to you, Gertrud thought. She felt bitterness rise up inside. She had always been kind to the two young men and that was there thankyou. The two stood at the front of the gaping crowd and jeered loudly about Gertrud's precarious situation.
Gertrud felt horrified. She was shown naked and helpless in publicly, it was difficult to stand. She lowered her head, but because she wore braids, she could not hide her face behind a thick curtain of hair. She had no chance. She hung naked in front of all these nasty staring people.
Go away!, she thought. Why don´t you go home? What is here to see?
A naked and humiliated girl, replied a little voice in Gertrud's head. It is a spectacle for the crowd. It's like theater. For the folks down there that's great entertainment. Pure entertainment. They are waiting for you to start crying in pain. They want to see you writhing in pain. They want their drama.
Not all stood there and laughed at Gertrud. She saw slaves but also free persons, which looked at her only briefly in passing and then went their way. In the eyes of these people Gertrud discovered no spiteful. She saw pity in the eyes of these people.
But most folks stopped and stared extensively.
Gertrud's tears dried. For a while they hung silently on the cross.
Down below the mob stared.
Especially the views of some men were hard to bear. It was the kind of man who "took off clothes with the eyes" from a young woman.They didn´t need to take off in their toughts. She was allready naked.
Gertrud felt ashamed to be in front of the eyes of these men in fully helplessness. Full of lust, the men looked at her naked body and Gertrud had no way to escape these horny views. That was the worst of it. She was handed over to the gaze of the crowd naked and helpless.
She did not know how long she was already hanging on the T-cross, but gradually it began to hurt. Her arms tied tightly over the horizontal bar began to ache. The ropes cut deep into her flesh. Gertrude could not move her arms. Her hands felt numb and her fingers felt like plump sausages.
Even worse was the bondage of her feet. The cords pressed Gertrud's ankles with violence against the upright stipes. It was hurting. And her butt was burning from the hard strokes of the stick.
Gertrude tried to get her maltreated butt a piece away of the wood to ease the pain in her buttocks. She pushed her pelvis forward to get away her buttocks from the stipes.
Immediately the people started hooting. The loudest where Markus and Aurelius.
Markus shouted to Aurelius: "Look at that you stinger! She open up her pussy to you! Her pussy does not want the stipes. Gertruds pussy wants YOUR stipes, you stinger! Go on and stick it in hers! Hahahaaaa!"
The young men laughed. The crowd laughed.
"Meow!" called Aurelius. "The pussy meows! Meeooow!"
The crowd roared with laughter. You people wanted almost burst of laughing. They laughed and raged.
Gertrud broke into tears again. She could not help it.
She has never suffered so bad in her life. Suddenly she understood why the big T was such an effective punishment. It was not just the pain it had endured for many hours a convict. It was the humiliation of having to hang naked and helpless in front of the jeering and mocking crowd. It was an absolute horror for Gertrud.
She could not stop crying at all.
That was certainly humiliating enough, what next?
Amazing work!
