ich Albinik and his wife held everything
Roman, that before passing the night in the tent to which they had been
taken, they examined it carefully. The tent, round of form, was
decorated inside with woolen cloth, striped in strongly contrasting
colors. It was fixed on taut cords which were fastened to stakes driven
into the earth. The cloth of the tent did not come down close to the
ground, and Albinik remarked that between the coarsely tanned hides
which served as a carpet, and the lower edge of the tent, there remained
a space three times the width of his palm. There was no other visible
entrance to the tent but the one the couple had just crossed, which was
closed by two flaps of cloth overlapping each other. An iron bed
furnished with cushions was half enveloped in draperies, with which one
could shut himself in by pulling a cord hanging over the head of the
bed. A brass lamp, raised on a long shaft stuck into the ground, feebly
lighted the interior of the tent.

After examining silently and carefully the place where he was to pass
the night with his wife, Albinik said to her in a whisper:

"Caesar will have us spied upon to-night. They will listen to our
conversation. But no matter how softly they come, or how cunningly they
hide themselves, no one can approach the cloth from the outside to
listen to us, without our seeing, through that gap, the feet of the
spy," and he pointed out to his wife the circular space left between the
earth and the lower rim of the tent cloth.

"Do you think, then, Albinik, that Caesar has any suspicions? Could he
suppose that a man would have the courage to mutilate himself in order
to induce confidence in his feelings of revenge?"

"And our brothers, the inhabitants of the regions which we have just
traversed, have they not shown a courage a thousand times greater than
mine, in giving up their country to the flames? My one hope is in the
absolute need our enemy has of Gallic pilots to conduct his ships along
the Breton coasts. Now especially, when the land offers not a single
resource to his army, the way by sea is perhaps his only means of
safety. You saw, when he learned of that heroic devastation, that he
could not, even he, always so dissembling, they say, hide his
consternation and fury, which he then tried to forget in the fumes of
wine. And that is not the only debauchery to which he gives himself up.
I saw you blush under the obstinate looks of the infamous debauchee."

"O