I’m fascinated by a find on a Russian (NSFW) historical website (Google Translate, plus a little judicious editing, being a wonderful thing) about a public flogging administered to Evdokia Lopuchin, “reputed to be one of the most beautiful women in the court of the ruler”. She was convicted of treason, hoping to protect her lover, who served as one of the foreign envoys.
Lopuchin was led before the crowds to the whipping post in a flimsy dress, “which only increased her indescribable beauty”.
“Until the last moment she was firmly convinced that any of the many friends who admired her beauty and wit would suddenly appear to her aid. But her pleading eyes met everywhere people who were either totally indifferent or merely curious”.
When the executioner touched her clothes, she made an attempt to push him away – in vain, for after a few moments she was naked from the waist up, overcome “with shame and despair”. One of his assistants grabbed her, and tied her hands high above her head – “with her feet dangling in the air”, so the whipping could proceed…
Wanted: a girl to convict of treason…!