you begin to make yourself miserable, to waste away, so to
speak, vainly dreaming of your children, instead of affording me honor
and profit by your good figure, as a good slave should who is jealous
of his master's interests,--beware, friend Bull, beware! I am not a
novice in my business. I have carried it on for many years and in many
lands. I have subdued more intractable fellows than you. I have made
Sardinians docile, and Sarmatians as gentle as lambs, so you can judge
of my skill.[21] Therefore, believe me, do not expect yourself to cause
me harm by pining away. I am very mild, very gentle. I am not at all
fond of chastisements; often they leave marks which lower a slave's
value. Nevertheless, if you oblige me to, you will make the acquaintance
of the jail for recalcitrants. Consider that, friend Bull. It will soon
be meal-time; the physician says that you can now be put upon a
substantial diet. You will be brought boiled chicken, oatmeal wet with
gravy of roast sheep, good bread, and some good wine and water. I shall
know whether you have eaten with a good appetite and in a manner to
recuperate your strength, instead of losing it in weeping. So then, eat;
it is the only way of gaining my favor. Eat plenty, eat often--I'll see
that you have it. You will never eat too much to please me, for you are
far from being well-fed, and that's what you must be, well-fed, before
fifteen days, the time of the auction. I leave you to these reflections;
pray the gods that they improve you. If not--oh, if not, I weep for you,
friend Bull."

So saying the "horse-dealer" shut the heavy door of the room behind him,
leaving me chained within.

CHAPTER X.

THE LAST CALL TO ARMS.

But for my uncertainty concerning the fate of my children, immediately
upon the "horse-dealer's" departure I would have killed myself by
butting my head against the wall of my prison, or by refusing all
nourishment. Many Gauls had thus escaped the doom of slavery. But I felt
that I should not die before doing what I could to snatch them from the
destiny which menaced them.

I examined my room to see whether, my strength once restored, there was
any chance for escape. Three sides of the room were solid wall, the
other was a thick partition re-enforced with beams, between two of which
opened the door which was always carefully bolted without. A bar of iron
crossed the window, leaving an opening too narrow to give me passage. I
examined my chain,