had mantled my forehead. Of this inexplicable
transformation, due, perhaps, to sorcery, I was dimly conscious and
wondered thereat. Down to this day, when I recall the incident, I
wonder, and none of the details of the horrid day has escaped from my
memory.

The "horse-dealer" observed me in silence with an air of triumph. He had
left me my breeches only. I was stripped to the waist. I was seated on
my bed of straw. The dealer addressed me:

"Get up!" said he.

I hastened to obey. My master drew from his pocket a steel mirror,
handed it to me, and resumed:

"Look at yourself!"

I looked at myself. Thanks to the witch-craft of my master, my cheeks
were red, my face clear, as if awful misfortune had not settled upon me
and my family. Nevertheless, on seeing for the first time in the mirror
my face and head completely shaved, as the badge of my bondage, I shed
fresh tears, but tried to hide them from the "horse-dealer," for fear
of annoying him. He replaced the mirror in his pocket, took from the
table a braided wreath of beech leaves,[25] and said:

"Put your head down."

I obeyed. The dealer put the wreath on my head. Then he took a parchment
on which were written several lines in large Roman characters, and hung
the inscription on my chest by means of two strings which he tied behind
my neck. Over my shoulders he threw a woolen covering. Then he opened
the secret spring which held my chain to the end of the bed, and
fastened it to another iron ring which had been riveted on my other
ankle during my heavy sleep. This way, although chained by both legs, I
could still walk with short steps. Finally, my hands were bound behind
me.

Obedient to the "horse-dealer's" orders, whom I followed as quiet and
submissive as a dog does his master, I descended the stairs which led
from my cell to the shed. The descent was affected not without pain to
my limbs owing to the shortness of the chain. In the shed I found
several captives, among whom I had passed my first night, lying upon
straw. No doubt their recovery was far enough advanced to admit of their
being put up for sale. Other slaves whose heads had likewise been
shaved, either by trick or by force, also wore wreaths on their
foreheads, inscriptions on their breasts, handcuffs on their hands and
heavy shackles on their feet. They had started, under the supervision of
armed keepers, to defile by a door which opened on the town square. It
was there the auction sale was