The man beside him,
for instance, was a poor Huguenot from Perigord, who had been caught
on the frontier in the act of escaping to a country in which he had a
slightly better chance of calling his soul his own. All these were
white men; but at the end of each bench, next the gangway, sat a Turk
or Moor. These were bought slaves, procured expressly to manage the
stroke of the oar, and for their skill treated somewhat better than
the Christians. They earned the same pay as the soldiers, and were
not chained, like other slaves, to the benches, but carried only a
ring on the foot as a badge of servitude. Indeed, when not engaged
in service, they enjoyed a certain amount of liberty, being allowed
to go on shore and trade, purchasing meat for such of the white men
as had any money or were willing to earn some by clearing their
neighbours' clothes of vermin--a common trade on board these galleys,
where the confined space, the dirt and profuse sweating at the oar
bred all manner of loathsome pests.
It was by degrees that Tristram learnt all this, as during the week
that followed he found time to chat with the Huguenot and improve his
acquaintance with the French tongue. By night he was provided with a
board, a foot and a half wide, on which to stretch himself; and as he
lay pretty far aft, was warned against scratching himself, lest the
rattle of his chains should disturb the officers, whose quarters were
divided from the slaves' by the thinnest of wooden partitions.
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