in. But you, apart from your
two wounds, what a strong constitution you have! What broad shoulders!
What a chest! What a back! What powerful limbs!" While pouring out these
praises, the "horse-dealer" rubbed his hands and gazed at me with
satisfaction and covetousness, already figuring in advance the price I
would fetch. "And your height! It exceeds by a palm that of the next
tallest captive in my lot. So, seeing you so robust, I have named you
Bull. Under that name you are entered in my inventory, at your number;
and under that name will you be cried at the auction!"

I knew that the Romans sold their slaves to the slave merchants. I knew
that slavery was horrible, and I approved of a mother's killing her
children sooner than have them live a captive's life. I knew that a
slave became a beast of burden. While the "horse-dealer" was speaking, I
drew my hand across my forehead to make sure that it was really I,
Guilhern, the son of Joel the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, a son of
that free and haughty race, whom they were treating like a beef for the
mart. The shame of a life of slavery seemed to me insupportable, and I
took heart at the resolve to flee at the first opportunity, or to kill
myself and thus rejoin my relatives. That thought calmed me. I had
neither the hope nor the desire to learn whether my wife and children
had escaped death; but remembering that I had seen neither Henory,
Sylvest nor Syomara come from the enclosure behind the war-chariot, I
said to the "horse-dealer":

"Where did you purchase me?"

"In the place where we make all our purchases, my fine Bull. On the
field of battle, after the combat."

"So it was on the battlefield of Vannes you bought me?"

"The same."

"You doubtlessly picked me up at the place where I fell?"

"Yes, there was a great pile of you Gauls there, in which there were
only you and three others worth taking, among them that great booby,
your neighbor--you know, Pierce-Skin. The Cretan archers gave him to me
for good measure[17] after the sale. That is the way with you Gauls. You
fight so desperately that after a battle live captives are exceedingly
rare, and consequently priceless. I simply can't put out much money, so
I must come down to the wounded ones. My partner, the son of
Aesculapius, goes with me to the battlefield to examine the wounded men
and guard the ones I choose. Thus, in spite of your two wounds and your
unconsciousness, the young doctor said to me, afte