s in shame and
sorrow, not in anger.

After the prospective purchaser read the writing which hung from my
neck, he looked me over carefully, answering with affirmative nods of
the head to what the merchant, with his usual volubility, was saying to
him in Latin. Often he stopped to measure, with his spread out fingers,
the size of my chest, the thickness of my arms, or the width of my
shoulders.

His first examination must have pleased the centurion, for my master
said to me: "Be proud for your master, friend Bull, your build is found
faultless. 'See'--I just said to the customer--'would not the Grecian
sculptors have taken this superb slave as a model for a Hercules?' My
customer agreed with me. Now you must show him that your strength and
agility are not inferior to your appearance."

My master pointed to a lead weight in readiness for the trial, and said
to me while loosening my arms:

"Now put on your breeches again, then take this weight in your two
hands, lift it over your head, and hold it there as long as you can."

I was about, in my stupid docility, to do as I was bid, when the
centurion stooped towards the weight, and attempted to lift it from the
ground, which he did, with much difficulty, while my master said to me:

"This mischievous cripple is as foxy as myself. He knows that many
dealers use hollow weights which appear to weigh two or three times as
much as they actually do. Come, friend Bull, show this suspicious fellow
that you are as powerful as you are well built."

My strength was not yet entirely returned. Nevertheless, I took the
heavy weight in my hands, throwing it over my head, and balanced it
there a moment. A vague idea flitted at that instant across my mind to
let the weight fall on my master's skull, and thus crush him at my feet.
But that gleam of my bygone courage died out, and I dropped the weight
on the ground. The lame Roman seemed satisfied.

"Better and better, friend Bull," said my master to me, "by Hercules,
your patron god, never did a slave do more honor to his owner. Your
strength is demonstrated. Now let us witness your agility. Two keepers
will hold this wooden bar about half a yard from the ground. Although
your feet are in chains, you will jump over the bar several times.
Nothing will better prove the strength and nimbleness of your muscles."

In spite of my recent wounds, and the weight of my chain, I leaped
several times with my joined feet over the bar, to the in