Holiday Slavery

H O L I D A Y

B O N D A G E

Chapter 8: Separation!

The light was already on when we woke to the sound of the cell door opening to admit my Mistress and Master Paul, looking bright and cheerful.

"Good morning, slaves," they chorused. "We hope you spent an enjoyable night getting to know each other!"

"Your punishment is over," announced my Mistress. "You're just ordinary slaves again now ... In any case," she went on as she cuffed my wrists behind my back before unlocking the chains, "last night wasn't really punishment, was it, Paul?"

"Of course not," grinned Master Paul, shackling Helen in a similar way. "It was simply a chance for you to get to know each other after your official 'introduction' yesterday ... and some introduction it was, wasn't it, my lovely slave-girl? Tell me, after a whole night of swapping secrets, can you stand another day with slave Peter here, before we leave the island for the rest of our cruise?"

"Oh yes, Master!" said Helen, her beautiful eyes shining. "He's nice ... he's got a very sexy cock ... and tongue, too!" she added cheekily, then asked seriously, "Master, is today all we've got? Couldn't we play bondage games with Mistress Tina and slave Peter on the ship like you and I did before?"

"Well ... maybe," replied Master Paul, "but it mightn't be easy to arrange. Anyway I'm glad you're still friends, because we have some exciting and interesting things planned for you on our last day here ..."

"Yes," chimed in my Mistress, "and you might need all your energy to enjoy it. We were told you didn't eat your supper last night -- too busy cuddling and other things, I suppose! -- so you should have plenty of appetite for breakfast ... and you better eat it all!" She brought two bowls of food from the hatch and put them on the floor in front of us.

We did have an appetite too! In spite of having to eat doggy-style from the bowls with our hands fastened behind us, we finished the ordinary-looking but still very tasty food and licked the bowls clean in no time at all. Eager to see what the day would bring, I looked up and asked, "What now, Mistress?"

"First a wash," she grinned, "... prison-style!" She and Master Paul clipped leashes to my ball-lock and Helen's collar and led us out of the cell and up some stairs into a small courtyard. I was quite surprised to find it was still early morning and there was nobody about ... except in the corner they led us to, where two slaves were waiting to wash us!

Not unexpectedly, they were a man and a woman and they were wearing a strange sort of 'chastity-belt-and-shackles' combination. The former consisted of a tight belt and crotch-strap of heavy metal; the man's cock and balls were clearly very constricted within a 'pouch' in his crotch-strap, and the woman's strap was pressed deep between the lips of her pussy. The shackles on their wrists and ankles were connected (by chains made of metal links at least an inch thick) to the 'chastity belt', the wrist-chain to the front and the ankle-chain to the crotch-strap between their legs. Similar chains led from the back of their belts to strong anchors in the walls. Otherwise, apart from large gags filling their mouths, they were naked ... of course!

My Mistress and Master Paul clipped our leashes to rings hanging from the roof and told the two slaves to do their job, which was (they told us later) one of the 'chores' the prisoners could be assigned to for the day. By the end of the day, I thought, they might be getting tired of it, with the weight of all their shackles! ... but at the moment they seemed to be almost enjoying their task.

They sprayed our naked bodies with stinging jets of cold water, soaped and scrubbed us, sprayed us again and rubbed us dry with thick rough towels. With a warning from our owners, they were gentle while soaping - and fondling! - my cock and Helen's pussy, but the rest of us fairly tingled when they'd finished. The final touch was to use a blow-dryer on our hair and, to our embarrassment, even on our pubic hair!

Helen's lovely nakedness glowed with health and beauty as my Mistress and Master Paul led us through the courtyard of the prison; I'm sure I looked good too, I certainly felt fit, in spite of a poor night's sleep on a hard floor. There were more people about now, mostly 'prisoner-slaves' and some 'warders'. It must have been the exercise period, because there were several groups of naked slaves jogging or doing other calisthenics; each group was under the watchful eyes of a warder or two, and all the slaves in a group were shackled together in some way or other.

At the prison office my Mistress and Master Paul had to present Helen and me to be 'checked out'; the numbers on our 'visiting' collar and ball-lock were checked against a list, and we had to answer a few questions about our treatment; this was videotaped, as evidence to protect the prison against our complaining later of maltreatment!. Then my Mistress and Master Paul led us out to freedom -- relatively speaking!

On the way to what they said would be "the first exciting event for the day," my Mistress and Master Paul stopped at one or two shops, leaving us (as usual) tethered to the hitching rail outside. At one place there was a set of ankle stocks arranged for standing rather than sitting, and they used these to fasten one ankle of each of us. This left us standing very close and we couldn't resist the temptation to press our naked bodies together and 'steal' a kiss!

My Mistress and Master Paul caught us 'at it' and teased us a bit, but made it quite clear that they didn't really mind at all. In fact, at the very next stop ("just one more stop here," they said) they found a way to copy that tether using a single strong chain looped around Helen's left and my right ankles. I was starting to feel quite euphoric, what with Helen's lovely sexiness so close to me and the feeling that everything was great between me and my Mistress, and I was really eager to see what was in store for us. But we didn't even get a chance to find out ...!

It happened very quickly. Helen and I were standing face to face, naked bodies pressed together and lips joined in a deep kiss ... when without any warning at all some kind of sack was thrown over us and pulled so tight we could barely move. There was a loud snapping noise, the chain on our ankles fell off and we were lifted bodily into a vehicle and driven away.

After a few moments Helen screamed, almost deafening me in the confines of the sack. I felt like screaming too, but I realised that the sack would almost completely muffle our voices ... and at the same time the thought occurred to me that this might be the 'exciting event' we'd been waiting for. So I managed to calm Helen with this thought and we waited in the suffocating darkness for the journey to end.

Fortunately it wasn't long before the vehicle stopped. We were lifted out, carried a short distance and then stood on our feet again ... and I felt a shackle being fitted to one ankle! Hands steadied us as the sack was lifted over our heads but, as soon as we'd regained our balance, our abductors left ... as suddenly as they'd grabbed us.

Helen and I looked at each other, then down at our feet (we were each shackled to a heavy ring in the floor), then at our surroundings. "Where are we?" whispered Helen, but I already knew; it was Mistress Anne's dungeon where I'd spent a few hours some nights ago. I told Helen this and said, "Mistress Anne's OK -- my Mistress knows her, so I'm sure this must be another surprise. When she comes in, let me do the talking."

We didn't have long to wait. Behind us a door opened and I recognised Mistress Anne's voice saying angrily, "... you brought two of them? Why not just the one I told you to?"

A man's voice replied, "I'm sorry, Mistress, but they were shackled by the same chain and we were afraid we mightn't get another chance."

"Hmph, well, let's have a look at them," she said and walked around to face us. "Yes, he's the one I wanted," she continued after a glance at me, then she turned her attention to Helen.

I decided it was time to say something. "Mistress Anne," I began, "will you please tell us what's happening? We were a bit scared, being shoved into a sack and all. Is my Mistress coming here soon? Did she and Master Paul arrange this? ..."

"Shut him up," Mistress Anne ordered the slave attending her, and a moment later my mouth was plugged with a large ball-gag. "You'll find out all you need to know in a few minutes," she told me firmly, "but first I want to look at your friend here.

"You're not going to make a fuss, are you, my dear?" she spoke kindly to Helen. "It won't do you any good, you know. I simply want to ask you some questions, and having you gagged would only make that awkward. Well?"

Helen answered in a small voice: "No, Mistress, I won't make a fuss ... and I'll try to answer your questions. You won't hurt me, will you ... please?"

"No, of course not!" replied Mistress Anne. "Slave Peter was here a few nights ago, and he'll tell you it was all great fun! Now, what's your name?"

She questioned Helen for a few minutes, finding out who her owner was, when they'd arrived on the island and when they were leaving, and some other details. At the same time she 'inspected' Helen, running her hands (not un-gently) over her generous naked curves. And when her fingers investigated Helen's tender pussy and elicited a small gasp of pain, she asked for the reason and Helen told her about our public punishment yesterday.

"Oh yes," said Mistress Anne, "I heard about that. It shows you have a good slave attitude, and I think we'll keep you two together. Right, now listen to me, both of you ... the bad news is that you've been abducted and this afternoon you'll be auctioned into permanent slavery, probably to one of a number of owners who live on private islands nearby."

I could only stare at her in total disbelief as she went on: "The good news is that I promise you your slavery should be very enjoyable -- you both show all the signs of being truly submissive. In fact, it will be just like life on this island, except that you won't have the option of ending it -- and I suspect that in your cases that option only complicates things!

"I liked the look of you," she said to me, "when your Mistress first brought you to me, and after your behaviour the other night I decided I could more than recoup the loss of my loan to her by abducting and selling you. And you, my girl," -- she gently caressed Helen's luscious tits and rolled their nipples between her fingers -- "you weren't in my plans, but you are a lovely slave! And after what you did leading to your punishment yesterday, I'm sure you're equally good slave material, so I'll offer you to my customers as a pair!"

Helen was obviously just as stunned as I was, because even without a gag she didn't make a sound; she just stared at Mistress Anne with her mouth slightly open. Just then a naked slave-girl entered the room and, when Mistress Anne asked "Yes, what is it?" replied "Someone to see you, Mistress -- a Mistress Tina and Master Paul."

I could almost have fainted with relief! So it had been a game, after all; in a moment my Mistress would come in and smile her teasing smile at me, as if to say, "Scared you, didn't we? You needn't have worried, you know -- we wouldn't let that happen to you, would we now?" And everything would be back to normal.

But Mistress Anne didn't react as I expected. She simply said, "Ah yes. Tell Mistress Tina I'll be with her in a moment." Then she hesitated, and a little smile came to her lips as she said, "No, I've a better idea. You! Put these two in the empty cell over there -- you can take his gag out -- then bring slave number 15 out here!"

Her orders were obeyed with alacrity by a couple of male slaves waiting nearby. Helen and I found ourselves in a cell behind one of the one-way-glass 'windows' lining the dungeon walls. With my gag removed I was able to tell Helen about Mistress Anne's clever arrangement, and we watched as 'slave number 15' -- an enormous negro with skin as black as I've ever seen -- was brought from another cell and tied in a taut spreadeagle, almost suspended in the centre of the room. And then we heard Mistress Anne tell her slave-girl to show the visitors into the dungeon!

She was fondling the black slave's magnificent body casually when they entered. She greeted my Mistress cheerfully and politely acknowledged her introduction to Master Paul, saying "Sorry to keep you waiting -- I was just enjoying the feel of one of my favourite slaves, and couldn't quite tear myself away. Impressive animal, isn't he? But then I thought, why shouldn't I share my pleasure with you? Now what brings you here? I thought we told the immigration people to return your slave's bond direct to me after you leave ... tonight, isn't it?"

"Something terrible has happened," said my Mistress urgently. "We think our slaves may have been abducted by illegal dealers!" She and Master Paul had their backs to Helen's and my cell, but there was no mistaking the note of near-panic in her voice as she described our disappearance from outside the shop and their frantic search.

Mistress Anne's casual attitude instantly changed to concern. Reluctantly, Helen and I had to admire her acting as she listened intently to our owners' story, asked questions and offered help in talking to the police Slave Squad. She also tried to reassure them by saying she was sure their slaves would be recovered: "They're really very good," she said, "with their detectors for the special metal in your slaves' 'visitor shackles', and usually they locate stolen slaves within a few hours."

My Mistress seemed partly reassured, but suddenly she cried, "I've just realised -- you won't get back the bond you lent me if they don't find my slave! But I promise I'll send you the money when I get home."

"Don't worry about it," replied Mistress Anne smoothly. "As it happens, I'm expecting to make a clear profit of at least that amount on some slaves I'll be selling soon, so I won't miss the money." She turned to Master Paul: "I only regret that I can't offer to cover the bond on your slave as well ..."

Throughout this conversation Helen and I had to listen and watch from behind the soundproof glass wall of our cell. Naturally we tried shouting -- even screaming -- at the tops of our voices to attract our owners' attention, but even as we did so we knew it was futile; Mistress Anne was too thorough to overlook that possibility. So we gave up and just listened as the reality of our predicament sank deeper into our minds.

After a while my Mistress and Master Paul took their leave to go to Slave Squad headquarters and answer more questions. Mistress Anne showed them out, but in a few minutes she was back with a broad smile on her face; "They didn't suspect a thing, did they?" she spoke directly to Helen and me through the glass of our cell, "and just in case you're waiting for the Slave Squad to burst through the door with 'detectors' waving, you may like to know that this room is completely shielded from those detectors. Now you'll have to excuse me ... I must go and phone some prospective customers to tell them that I have a lovely matched pair of semi-trained slaves for sale this afternoon."

Before she left, she turned to a nearby slave-girl and said, "Those two can stay in there until it's time to display them for the auction. They may have quite a lot to talk about ... and to keep them entertained, you'll play with number 15 here - and see that you give them a show worth watching!"

The 'show' we got was worth watching. In spite of our fears about what was to become of us, Helen and I couldn't tear our eyes away. The slave-girl, naked, blond and very pretty, caressed the taut naked body of the black slave ... using her hands, lips, tongue, tits, toes, hair, in fact her whole body. The contrast of his powerfully muscled black body, helplessly bound as she draped her delicate white and shapely figure all over him, was intensely erotic. She brought herself off several times by rubbing her clit on various parts of his body and, when at last she took the spurting juices of his large cock deep into her throat, both Helen and I were breathing hard ... and my cock was so hard it almost hurt!

We talked a lot, too, in the several hours we spent in that cell. By now we had agreed that, whatever were our realistic chances of rescue, there was probably nothing at all we could do about it. We discussed at length how we might ensure that the slavery, which now appeared inevitable, would be at least tolerable; and we agreed that co-operation and humble submissiveness were almost certainly our best hope.

But Helen told me two things during that long conversation that made a deep impression on me. The first was that she was really much more concerned for Master Paul than for herself: "He borrowed money against his salary raise for years ahead to pay for this cruise," she said, "and if he loses the $4000 bond, he'll have to borrow even more to pay the bills we've run up here -- the bond would have covered them easily.

"And he won't have me to look after him, to cook his meals and wash his clothes and ... and ... everything ..." Her voice trailed off sadly. I had no comfort to offer her -- instead, I was amazed at how perfect a slave she was; if I was valued at $2000, then she was worth every cent of that $4000 - for her sheer beauty itself, let alone her other wonderful qualities!

Even more amazing for me was when she told me what my Mistress had done on the evening I was at Mistress Anne's. "I promised her I wouldn't tell you," she said, "but I guess now it doesn't matter any more. She didn't make love with Master Paul -- I swear it, I was with them both the whole evening! She wanted to find out a bit about the submissive side -- our side -- of bondage and discipline ... no (I know what you're thinking), not with Master Paul ... she hired a professional Master to tie her up and discipline her, but Master Paul and I shared the same bondage room with them, so I saw everything!"

I was stunned -- I'd misjudged my Mistress completely! And because of that I'd rebelled ... and upset their carefully laid plans for Helen and me to have sex ... and caused that public punishment for Helen and me. I even began to wonder whether my actions had also caused -- indirectly -- our present plight. I was overtaken by a sort of guilty curiosity and pumped Helen for every detail she could remember.

She described how my Mistress had submitted to being slowly and deliberately stripped naked by her temporary 'Master'; how he'd shackled her wrists and ankles and forced her to kneel and kiss his feet; how she'd been led, hobbled and stumbling, around the room with strong spring clamps pulling painfully on her nipples; how her lovely tanned naked body had been tied in many different and quite severe positions; how she'd been forced to 'fuck' herself on a large dildo fixed to a post, her long slim legs spread wide and her arms stretched high above her head, while her 'Master' ran his hands all over her body and pinched her hard on her tits and belly and elsewhere as she came again and again; how he'd ordered her to beg to be whipped and how, with hardly a murmur, she'd accepted several strokes with a cane and paddle and whip on her bottom and lower back and quite a number with a light multi-thionged cat' on her belly and breasts; how she had to spend a long time on her very widely spread knees, her arms pulled tightly up between her shoulders to the back of a helmet (covering the whole of her head except her mouth) while her Master' rubbed his large cock over her naked body and made her lick his bum and crotch ("the indignity," Helen commented, "of not even seeing what you're licking!"); and finally how she'd managed with some difficulty to suck his cock as he pumped it deep into her throat and to swallow his hot liquid when he climaxed.

Helen also commented how clever my Mistress had been in allowing herself to be whipped only where the marks would normally be covered; and I remembered that I hadn't seen her naked since that night, and even the swimsuit she'd worn at the beach was not very revealing. And, almost as an afterthought, Helen added, "You know, Master Paul later told me that he thought Mistress Tina would make as good a slave as a Mistress ... and that he'd love to try having two female slaves at once! He threatened me with a real whipping if I ever told anyone -- especially not Mistress Tina! But it doesn't matter now."

We were practically resigned to our 'fate' by the time Mistress Anne came back several hours later to prepare us for the auction. Under her directions two slaves released us from the cell, sponged our bodies and powdered and perfumed them lightly. Our wrists were released from behind our backs (where they'd been held since early morning) only to be re-tied high above our heads, and our ankles were spread so wide apart we were almost hanging by our arms.

While her slaves were aiming some powerful spotlights at our naked bodies, Mistress Anne approached us and said, "In a few minutes you'll be inspected by a number of people who may wish to bid for you. I trust I won't need to gag you, because they may wish to ask you some questions. But I warn you -- one word out of place and you'll get ten severe lashes with this" -- she held up a vicious-looking six-foot whip -- "... no, even better ... your companion will get the lashes! And I can tell you from years of experience that slaves on the auction block with fresh whip marks attract high bids from buyers who tend to be cruel; it suggests the slaves enjoy being whipped. Well?"

Helen and I looked at each other; no words were needed, and we turned back to Mistress Anne and promised not to misbehave. "Good," was her reply. "You're already coming to terms with being full-time permanent slaves ... and that means you're much more likely to enjoy it!" She supervised the adjustment of the spots to highlight our stretched nakedness to the best advantage, then left the room "to welcome my guests."

Most of the other slaves left, too, but a few remained standing in the shadowed corners. After a few minutes the first of the 'buyers' entered, followed over a period of twenty minutes or so by six or seven more. They all seemed to know each other well and they chatted cheerfully while 'inspecting' Helen and me, running their hands freely and intimately over our helpless naked bodies, prodding our muscles and pinching our skin, making us open our mouths and poke out our tongues ... and asking us questions about how long we'd been slaves, what kind of training we'd had and what sort of treatment we hoped for as permanent slaves. I noticed with something like jealousy that they all seemed very interested in Helen's firm full tits, accentuated as they were by the pull of her arms over her head.

When the 'buyers' finished their inspection, they sat down in comfortable armchairs that had been placed in a semicircle around Helen and me. Mistress Anne entered now, followed by two other slaves we hadn't seen before; she checked that the seated 'buyers' had completed their inspections, then gestured the two slaves in our direction.

Now they 'inspected' us in exactly the same way as the others had, and somehow it was even more humiliating to be treated in this impersonal way by mere slaves, naked like ourselves but obviously with some higher status. While they were handling us, I wondered what was the meaning of this additional inspection; surely these slaves wouldn't be bidding for us? or was it just a subtle way of impressing on us how insignificant we were? When they'd finished with us, they went and sat behind the other buyers.

Mistress Anne now stood up and faced her audience. "Mistresses and Masters," she said, "and slaves representing Mistresses or Masters!" (So that was it, I thought) "Thank you for attending my little auction. As you know, I intended to offer one slave only (the male you see before you) but the best opportunity to snatch him came when he was shackled with the female.

"After looking at my unexpected windfall," she casually caressed Helen as she went on, "I decided to offer them as a pair -- which I knew would greatly interest some of you. If you're interested in only one of these fine bodies, I'm afraid you'll have to buy both ... but of course you'll be quite free to re-sell the other, immediately if you wish. Now, a little background ..."

She briefly described how I'd first come to her notice, how she'd decided (after the evening I'd spent with her and her friends) that my bond had under-valued me and there was an opportunity to turn a profit and, finally, a little about Helen -- especially what was apparently fairly well known, the story of our public punishment yesterday. Then she stood between us, one hand on Helen's pussy and the other on my cock, and said, "So who'll make the first bid?" ... and the auction was on!

"One thousand!" said a voice, to which Mistress Anne responded with exaggerated horror: "Oh come now, you're not serious, surely? ... for both these handsome slaves? ... do I hear a better offer? ... much better, or I'll have to keep them for myself!" But the bids continued to come only slowly and as our price crept past $2,000 it was clear Mistress Anne was really beginning to worry and eventually she said, "If you can't do better than this, I won't sell today. I'm sure I can find other buyers with a better eye for value."

Suddenly one of the slave 'proxies' spoke, for the first time. "Four thousand!" was the bid, and Mistress Anne brightened considerably. "Thank you! That's more like it ... now I will sell ... any advance on four thousand?"

As if by magic, the atmosphere changed completely! Some of the buyers exchanged broad grins and entered the bidding with enthusiasm. Mistress Anne was taken aback for a moment, but recovered quickly and said with a wry grin, "Very funny! I admit you had me a little worried there. Now where were we? ..." I realised that they'd only been teasing her and trying to discover how much she thought we were worth!

The bidding rose quickly to $8,000, then slowed as it approached $10,000! Eventually there were only two bidders left, the slave 'proxy' who'd bid $4,000 and a tall handsome Master who I think was more than interested in Helen. They sparred with each other for some time, Mistress Anne coaxing bids from them in true auctioneer's style, but at last the slave bid $11,850 and the other conceded. With a flourish Mistress Anne cried, "Going, going, gone!" and, using a large paddle as her gavel, struck Helen and me resounding cracks on our bellies to signify the end of the auction.

A few minutes later all the others had left, leaving Helen and me alone with Mistress Anne and the slave who was acting for a mysterious Mistress or Master. He now 'looked us over' again, fondling our helpless naked bodies even more thoroughly and in a very proprietary manner. "Ah yes," he said in a pleased tone, "I'm sure the Master and Mistress will be very happy with this purchase ... and I think I can guarantee that you two will enjoy your slavery, so long as you behave and obey and are properly submissive."

Mistress Anne discussed with him the arrangements for delivery of 'the merchandise' -- apparently Helen and I would be taken to a certain remote pier soon after dark, from where a boat would take us to our new owners. When Mistress Anne asked if she should have our 'visitor' collar and ball-lock removed, the slave replied, "Thank you, ma'am, but no. The Master and Mistress will see to that -- as you know, it takes some time and care to remove them without risk of injuring the slave -- and they also like to keep them as 'trophies' of how they've thumbed their noses at the slavery controls on this island! Now, could I please have them untied so that I can put the Master's and Mistress' personal padlocks on them?"

Helen and I were untied by Mistress Anne's slaves and he produced two long thin chains and two padlocks from a bag he carried. Threading one through a ring on Helen's collar, he passed it down and between her legs and looped its ends around her wrists before fastening it with a padlock; the other chain was fitted to my ball-lock and wrists in the same way, except that first it was linked with Helen's. This meant that Helen and I were shackled inescapably back to back, with only enough slack just barely to stand side by side.

"Now you really belong to the Master and Mistress," he grinned as he snapped the second padlock shut. "The only keys to these padlocks never leave their possession! And being shackled back-to-back like that should keep you out of mischief; your new owners do not like their slaves screwing without their permission!

"Oh, one more thing, Mistress Anne," he continued. "Will you please ensure that these two wear hoods and gags when you deliver them? That seems to cover everything, thank you ... except, of course, the small matter of payment. I have a signed cheque here ..."

They went out, leaving Helen and me to be returned to the cell to await our delivery to our new owners. It wasn't easy to talk while sitting back-to-back, but we tried to keep our spirits up by reminding each other that at least we'd be together. Naturally, we also wondered aloud what the 'Master and Mistress' were like and how they would treat us, and Helen observed optimistically that the slave who'd acted for them certainly hadn't looked unhappy or badly treated.

During the two or three hours we had to wait, we were able to watch through the glass some of the activities of Mistress Anne's slave stable. Slaves came and went and were put into or released from cells, sometimes by other slaves, once or twice by Mistress Anne or another 'free' (that is to say, clothed) person. One male slave was suspended by his widespread ankles for about an hour, during which he had to beg every passerby whose hands were free to pinch, tickle or tease his naked inverted body in some way. Another slave, this one female, was punished for some error by being put in a pillory arrangement and receiving at least fifty resounding whacks with a leather paddle until her bum-cheeks were as red as ripe cherries.

But in all the activity we saw, there was no sign that the slaves were anything but willing prisoners. Even the few complaints we heard, and the occasional resistance to being bound or imprisoned in a cell, were quite clearly made in a spirit of fun ... and as part of the tradition of bondage and slavery on the island. Helen and I took this proof, that Mistress Anne treated her slaves well, as a good sign that she was unlikely to sell us into something much worse -- even if we'd lost our chance to 'opt out' of slavery, maybe that slavery could be tolerated ... or even enjoyed!

Later we were given 'dinner' to eat ... not at all easy, the way we were shackled, but the slaves who brought it were good enough to set the bowls of food on low benches so that we could both kneel and bend down to eat. We found we were starving and ate everything we were given.

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