e. I mourned for the faithful fellow
and knew he mourned for me. I longed for him as keenly as if he had been
my twin-brother.

I and my fellows were marched on under close convoy, up the Flaminian
Highway and the batch among which I was, was cast into the _ergastulum_ at
Nuceria.

There I passed a miserable winter. Our prison was not unlike the
_ergastulum_ at Placentia; ill-designed, damp, cold, filthy, swarming with
vermin and crowded with wretches like myself. I was despondent in my
loneliness and found harder to bear my shiverings, my fitful half-sleep in
my foul infested bunk, the horrible food, the grinding labor, the stripes
and blows and insults of the guards and overseers and the jeers of my
inhuman fellow-sufferers. This time I had no chance of becoming cook's-
helper or of easing my circumstances in any other manner. I spent the
entire winter haggard for sleep, underclad, underfed, overworked,
shivering, beaten and abused.

Conditions in that _ergastulum_ were more than amazing. It was so utterly
mismanaged that, in fact, very little effective work was done, though the
inmates were roused early, set to their tasks before they could really
see, lashed all day, given but a very brief rest at noon and released only
after dusk. Half the prisoners judiciously directed could have ground
twice as much grain. As it was, the superintendent and overseers had far
less real authority than a sort of dictator elected or selected or
tolerated by the rabble. He had a sort of senate of the six most ruffianly
of the prisoners. These seven ruled the _ergastulum_ and their power was
effective for overworking and underfeeding, even more than the generality,
those whom they disliked, and for diminishing the labors and increasing
the rations of their favorites. The existence of this secret government
among the rabble was in itself astonishing, its methods yet more so.

Unlike the _ergastulum_ at Placentia the watch at the _ergastulum_ at
Nuceria was very lax and haphazard. It was effective at keeping us in;
there were but three escapes all winter. But communication with the
outside world was fairly easy and was kept up unceasingly. Many of the
inmates had friends among the slaves of Nuceria. The gate-guards were so
remiss that, daily, one or more outsiders entered our prison and left when
they pleased. The henchmen of the dictator even managed to slip out and
spend an hour or more where they pleased in the city. This, however,