he prisoners had been exposed to it for about half an hour,
their bodies became so benumbed that they could scarcely move across
the yard to where their clothes were lying. Next morning it was found
that eighteen of the unfortunates were happily released by death.

It is not necessary to describe the tortures endured by the
galley-slaves to the end of their journey. One little circumstance
may, however, be mentioned. While marching towards the coast, the
exhausted Huguenots, weary and worn out by the heaviness of their
chains, were accustomed to stretch out their little wooden cups for a
drop of water to the inhabitants of the villages through which they
passed. The women, whom they mostly addressed, answered their
entreaties with the bitterest spite. "Away, away!" they cried; "you
are going where you will have _water enough_!"

When the gang or chain reached the port at which the prisoners were to
be confined, they were drafted on board the different galleys. These
were for the most part stationed at Toulon, but there were also other
galleys in which Huguenots were imprisoned--at Marseilles, Dunkirk,
Brest, St. Malo, and Bordeaux. Let us briefly describe the galley of
those days.

The royal galley was about a hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet
broad, and was capable of containing about five hundred men. It had
fifty benches for rowers, twenty-five on each side. Between these two
rows of benches was the raised middle gallery, commonly called the waist
of the ship, four feet high and about three or four feet broad. The oars
were fifty feet long, of which thirty-seven feet were outside the ship
and thirteen within. Six men worked at each oar, all chained to the same
bench. They had to row in unison, otherwise they would be heavily struck
by the return rowers both before and behind them. They were under the
constant command of the _comite_ or galley-slave-driver, who struck all
about him with his long whip in urging them to work. To enable his
strokes to _tell_, the men sat naked while they rowed.[48] Their dress
was always insufficient, summer and winter--the lower part of their
bodies being covered with a short red jacket and a sort of apron, for
their manacles prevented them wearing any other dress.

[Footnote 48: Le comite ou chef de chiourme, aide de deux
_sous-comites_, allait et venait sans cesse sur le coursier,
frappant les forcats a coup de nerfs de boeuf, comme un