第868页 / 共1116页

Who brought thee hither and what dost thou want here?" My brother

could not return him a reply, being tongue tied for terror; so

the blackamoor seized him and stripped him of his clothes and

bashed him with the flat of his sword blade till he fell to the

ground, swooning from excess of belabouring. The ill omened

nigger fancied that there was an end of him and my brother heard

him cry, "Where is the salt wench?"[FN#674] Where upon in came a

handmaid holding in hand a large tray of salt, and the slave kept

rubbing it into my brother's wounds;[FN#675] but he did not stir

fearing lest the slave might find out that he was not dead and

kill him outright. Then the salt girl went away, and the slave

cried Where is the souterrain[FN#676] guardianess?" Hereupon in

came the old woman and dragged my brother by his feet to a

souterrain and threw him down upon a heap of dead bodies.