This, too, forsooth, corrupts morality, and they likewise are seized and
leased out to any who like to take them. Nor can he or they ever become
free again, for they must repay to their proprietor the sum he gave for
them, and how can that be done, since they receive no wages? For
striking another, a man may be in the same way, as they term it,
forfeited to the State, and be sold to the highest bidder. A stout brass
wire is then twisted around his left wrist loosely, and the ends
soldered together. Then a bar of iron being put through, a half turn is
given to it, which forces the wire sharply against the arm, causing it
to fit tightly, often painfully, and forms a smaller ring at the
outside. By this smaller ring a score of bondsmen may be seen strung
together with a rope.

To speak disrespectfully of the prince or his council, or of the nobles,
or of religion, to go out of the precincts without permission, to trade
without license, to omit to salute the great, all these and a thousand
others are crimes deserving of the brazen bracelet. Were a man to study
all day what he must do, and what he must not do, to escape servitude,
it would not be possible for him to stir one step without becoming
forfeit! And yet they hypocritically say that these things are done for
the sake of public morality, and that there are not slaves (not
permitting the word to be used), and no man was ever sold.

It is, indeed, true that no man is sold in open market, he is leased
instead; and, by a refined hypocrisy, the owner of slaves cannot sell
them to another owner, but he can place them in the hands of the notary,
presenting them with their freedom, so far as he is concerned. The
notary, upon payment of a fine from the purchaser, transfers them to
him, and the larger part of the fine goes to the prince. Debt alone
under their laws must crowd the land with slaves, for, as wages are