behind. It was night;
the snow-flakes still filtered through the profound darkness, and the
wind whistled in the rigging. A red lantern moved along the beach;
some voices were heard speaking together, and one of them said:
"Don't be afraid of the boy; I have sold lots paler than him. Lick him
smartly if he gammons, and he'll tell no tales."

Then they lifted the anchor aboard; the tide floated off the sloop;
they were soon scudding before the wind under a freezing starlight.
Two weary days passed over Paul, of travel by land and water. They
came to the city of Richmond at last, and marched him with five other
unfortunates to the common slave-pen. It was situated in a squalid
suburb, surrounded by a high spiked wall, and entered by an office
from which a watchman could observe the interior through two grated
doors. The pen consisted of a paved area open to the sky, except on
one side, where it was protected by a shelving roof, and of a jail or
den. The latter was walled up in a corner, but its inmates could look
out upon the area through a window in the door, and their savage
features revealed at the bars so terrified Paul that he retreated to
the opposite corner, afraid to look towards them. Now and then they
howled and blasphemed; for two were delirious from drunkenness and one
was desperate from rage, and as they moved like tigers to and fro,
their irons clanked behind them, dragging on the stone floor. A number
of women were huddled together beneath the roof, some as fair as Paul,
others as black as ebony. Some had babes at their breasts, others had
no regard for their offspring, but sat stolidly apart while their
children cried for nourishment. In the open place a bevy of the
coarser inmates were holding a rude dance, a large gray-haired man
patted time or "juber" with his feet and hands, calling the figures
huskily aloud; while the women, with bright turbans tied around their
heads, grinned and screamed with glee as they followed the measure
with their large, heavy shoes.

Their efforts were directed not so much to grace as to strength, for
some kept up the dance for a whole hour, divesting themselves of
parcels of clothing as they proceeded, and breathing hard as if weary
to exhaustion. The men applauded vociferously, coupling the names of
the performers with wild ejaculations, but subsiding when the keeper
appeared at the door occasionally to command less noise. Remote from
the bacchanals crouched a serious gro