The overpowered rebels had conveniently served to swell the ranks of the newly acquired human capital commodities, which had been numerous enough thanks to the preceding legal processing of the masses of the unemployed and impoverished. XXX It was the pain—pure pain—of being roasted alive that filled and overwhelmed his consciousness now. The surrounding economic and political situation had cooperated in sealing his once unconceived-of, inconceivable fate. They could hardly wait. He was allotted his own bunk in the slave quarters and his share of the common utilities in the mansion’s new bathhouse, but spent most of his hours and a good portion of his labor in his master’s bed and private rooms.
