e rogues, their foreheads crowned with roses, their flowery robes
spangled with gold, their rich earrings adorning their heads. And the
little girls, if you could see them with their tunics and--"

I could contain myself no longer. A bloody mist passed before my eyes.
Furiously and desperately I leapt on the vile fellow. But my chain again
tightening sharply, I stumbled and fell back on the straw. I looked
around me--not a stick nor a stone. Then, crazed with rage, I doubled
upon my chain, and gnawed at it like a wild animal.

"What a brute of a Gaul!" exclaimed the "horse-dealer," shrugging his
shoulders, and keeping well out of reach. "There he is, roaring and
jumping and grinding at his chain like a staked wolf, and all because he
has been told that his children, if they are pretty, are to live in the
midst of wealth, ease and pleasure! What would it have been, then, fool
that you are, if they were ugly or deformed? Do you know to whom they
would have been sold? They would have been sold to those rich lords, who
are so curious to read the future in the palpitating entrails of
children freshly slaughtered for divination."[20]

"Oh, Hesus!" I cried, filled with hope at the thought, "let it be so
with mine, despite their beauty! Oh, death for them! Only let them enter
the other world in their innocence, and live near their chaste mother."
I could no longer hold back my tears.

"Friend Bull," began the "horse-dealer" in a dissatisfied tone, "I was
not a bit mistaken in putting you down in my tablet as violent and
hot-headed. But I fear lest you have a fault worse than these--I mean a
tendency towards tears. I have seen sullen slaves melt away like the
snows of winter under a spring sun, dry up like parchment, and cause
great loss to their owners by their pitiful appearance. So, look out for
yourself. There remain but fifteen days before the auction at which you
are to be sold. It is a short while to restore you to your natural
fleshiness, to give you a fresh and rested complexion, a sleek and
supple skin, in short, all those signs of vigor and health which allure
the experts, jealous of possessing a sound and robust slave. To obtain
this result, I wish to spare nothing, neither good food, nor care, nor
any of those little artifices known to us to make our merchandise show
off to advantage. On your part you must second my efforts. But if, on
the contrary, you do not get over your fits of anger, if you begin to
weep, if