Now they were beating him to
life again with their rods; hence the laughter of the audience and the
groans of the victim. Sick at heart, Miriam turned away from this horrid
sight, to hear a tall man, whose back was towards her, but who was clad
in the rich robes of an Eastern merchant, asking one of the marshals of
the Triumph, in a foreign accent, whether it was true that the captive
Pearl-Maiden was to be sold that evening in the auction-mart of the
Forum. The marshal answered yes, such were the orders as regarded her
and the other women, since there was no convenient place to house them,
and it was thought best to be rid of them and let their masters take
them home at once.
"Does she please you, sir? Are you going to bid?" he added. "If so, you
will find yourself in high company."
"Perhaps, perhaps," answered the man with a shrug of his shoulders.
Then he vanished into the crowd.
Now, for the first time that day, Miriam's spirit seemed to fail her.
The weariness of her body, the foul talk, the fouler cruelty, the cold
discussion of the sale of human beings to the first-comer as though they
were sheep or swine, the fear of her fate that night, pressed upon and
overcame her mind, so that she felt inclined, like Simon, the son of
Gioras, to sink fainting to the pavement and lie there till the cruel
rods beat her to her feet again.
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