CHAPTER XV.
"Ha! ha! look! he wears cruel garters!"
The punishments of the common law were still known, at the time of our tale, to the people of New-York; and the whipping-post, with its companion, the stocks, were not yet supplanted by the more modern but doubtful expedients of the public prisons. Immediately in front of the gaol, those relics of the elder times were situated, as a lesson of precautionary justice to the evil-doers of the settlement.
Natty followed the constables to this spot, bowing his head with submission to a power that he was unable to oppose, and surrounded by the crowd, that formed a circle about his person, exhibiting in their countenances a strong curiosity. A constable raised the upper part of the stocks, and pointed with his finger to the holes where the old man was to place his feet. Without making the least objection to the punishment, the Leather-stocking quietly seated himself on the ground, and suffered his limbs to be laid in the openings, without even a murmur; though he cast one glance about him, as if in quest of that sympathy
