The slave-driver lashed us desperately, for he saw ruin before him, but his lashings only made matters worse, for they drove us further from the road and from likelihood of succor.
So we had to stop at last and slump down in the snow where we were.

The storm continued until toward midnight, then ceased.
By this time two of our feebler men and three of our women were dead, and others past moving and threatened with death.

Our master was nearly beside himself.

He stirred up the living, and made us stand, jump, slap ourselves, to restore our circulation, and he helped as well as he could with his whip.
Now came a diversion.

We heard shrieks and yells, and soon a woman came running and crying; and seeing our group, she flung herself into our midst and begged for protection.