Uno ha visto algo semejante a esta capa sobre los muebles en casas deshabitadas, y ha escrito en ella su pensamiento ocioso con el dedo. Esto me vino a la memoria al reparar en los rostros de algunas de aquellas mujeres, madres jóvenes que cargaban con criaturas que estaban cerca de la muerte y de la libertad, cómo algo en sus corazones estaba escrito en el polvo de sus rostros, fácil de ver, y ¡señor, qué fácil de leer! pues era el rastro de las lágrimas. Una de estas madres jóvenes no era más que una muchacha, y me dolió en el alma leer esa escritura y pensar que había brotado del pecho de semejante criatura, un pecho que aún no debería conocer la pena, sino tan solo la alegría de la mañana de la vida; y sin duda—
She reeled just then, giddy with fatigue, and down came the lash and flicked a flake of skin from her naked shoulder. It stung me as if I had been hit instead.
The master halted the file and jumped from his horse. He stormed and swore at this girl, and said she had made annoyance enough with her laziness, and as this was the last chance he should have, he would settle the account now.
She dropped on her knees and put up her hands and began to beg, and cry, and implore, in a passion of terror, but the master gave no attention. He snatched the child from her, and then made the men-slaves who were chained before and behind her throw her on the ground and hold her there and expose her body; and then he laid on with his lash like a madman till her back was flayed, she shrieking and struggling the while piteously.
One of the men who was holding her turned away his face, and for this humanity he was reviled and flogged.