"Yes, yes! Make haste and get them!"
The sergeant-major hastened back to the barracks. With helmet on head and sword by his side he set off at once on the quest. He gave Käppchen the regulations to carry over to the orderly-room of the division, and he himself returned home.
In the bedroom he found Albina and the barber together.
The shameless woman had felt so secure that she had not even troubled to bolt the door.
Her gallant lover disappeared through the window like a shot.
Albina was not so quick. Heimert seized hold of her and dragged her through the doorway just as she was, clad only in a dressing-jacket and a thin petticoat.
The jacket tore in his hands. Then he seized her by her thick hair. She screamed, but he pushed her before him down the passage.
A heavy riding-whip was hanging on a nail; as he passed he tore it down, and the leathern thong descended in furious blows on the woman's head, and on her bare shoulders and bosom.
She gave a loud yell of pain. The few men who had remained away from the exercises came running, and stared open-mouthed. The whip made deep red marks on the smooth skin, and the shrieks of the woman became more and more piercing. But Heimert drove her down the steps into the barrack-yard. She stumbled, and lost a shoe. No matter! on she must go!
If she stopped for a moment the whip lashed round her feet, her ankles, her knees. She cowered, shrieking. With outstretched arms she tried to parry the blows. Her husband pulled her upright; she staggered, but was again dragged along by her hair under the pressure of that remorseless hand. The blood ran from her shoulders, but the blows still rained down like hail.