I am surrounded by living skeletons.  They have no longer voice enough to complain.  I have seen old Nan at last.  She is a sad sight.  The child she was carrying is no longer in her arms.  She is alone, too.  That will be less painful for her; but the chain is still around her waist, and she has been obliged to throw the end over her shoulder.

By hastening, I have been able to draw near her.  One would say that she did not recognize me.  Am I, then, changed to that extent?

“Nan,” I said.

The old servant looked at me a long time, and then she exclaimed: 

“You, Mr. Dick!  I—­I—­before long I shall be dead!”

“No, no!  Courage!” I replied, while my eyes fell so as not to see what was only the unfortunate woman’s bloodless specter.

“Dead!” she continued; “and I shall not see my dear mistress again, nor my little Jack.  My God! my God! have pity on me!”

I wished to support old Nan, whose whole body trembled under her torn clothing.  It would have been a mercy to see myself tied to her, and to carry my part of that chain, whose whole weight she bore since her companion’s death.

A strong arm pushes me back, and the unhappy Nan is thrown back into the crowd of slaves, lashed by the whips.  I wished to throw myself on that brutal——­The Arab chief appears, seizes my arm, and holds me till I find myself again in the caravan’s last rank.

Then, in his turn, he pronounces the name, “Negoro!”

Negoro!  It is then by the Portuguese’s orders that he acts and treats me differently from my companions in misfortune?

For what fate am I reserved?

May 10th.—­To-day passed near two villages in flames.  The stubble burns on all sides.  Dead bodies are hung from the trees the fire has spared.  Population fled.

Fields devastated.  The razzie is exercised there.  Two hundred murders, perhaps, to obtain a dozen slaves.

Evening has arrived.  Halt for the night.  Camp made under great trees.  High shrubs forming a thicket on the border of the forest.

Some prisoners fled the night before, after breaking their forks.  They have been retaken, and treated with unprecedented cruelty.  The soldiers’ and overseers’ watchfulness is redoubled.

Night has come.  Roaring of lions and hyenas, distant snorting of hippopotami.  Doubtless some lake or watercourse near.

In spite of my fatigue, I cannot sleep.  I think of so many things.

Then, it seems to me that I hear prowling in the high grass.  Some animal, perhaps.  Would it dare force an entrance into the camp?

I listen.  Nothing!  Yes!  An animal is passing through the reeds.  I am unarmed!  I shall defend myself, nevertheless.  My life may be useful to Mrs. Weldon, to my companions.

I look through the profound darkness.  There is no moon.  The night is extremely dark.

Two eyes shine in the darkness, among the papyrus—­two eyes of a hyena or a leopard.  They disappear—­reappear.