Within was a vaulted room, some forty feet long by twenty wide; along each side there were rushes strewn thickly.
"The others have just started to their work," he said, "so that for today you can sleep." After he had left, Gervaise looked with some disgust at the rushes, that had evidently been for weeks unchanged.
"I would rather have the bare stones, if they were clean," he muttered to himself.

"However, it can't be helped." He presently strolled out into the courtyard, where some other slaves, disabled by illness or injuries, were seated in the sun.

Gervaise walked across to them, and they looked listlessly up at him as he approached.
"You are a newcomer," one said, as he came up.

"I saw you brought in, but it didn't need that.

By the time you have been here a week or two, your clothes will be like ours," and he pointed to his ragged garments.
"When did you arrive?
Are there no others coming up here ?" "The galley came in last night," Gervaise said, "but they did not land us until this morning.