The experience of St. Vincent de Paul did not differ from that of
Abraham Brown. That illustrious character, admired, beloved, and
worshipped by large circles of mankind, has also left a record of his
sale as a slave.
"Their proceedings at our sale," he says, "were as follows. After we
had been stripped, they gave to each one of us a pair of drawers, a
linen coat, with a cap, and paraded us through the city of Tunis,
whither they had come expressly to sell us. Having made us take five or
six turns through the city, with the chain at our necks, they conducted
us back to the boat, that the merchants might come and see who could
eat well and who not, and to show that our wounds were not mortal. This
done, they took us to the public square, where the merchants came to
visit us, precisely as is done at the purchase of a horse or an ox,
making us open our mouths to see our teeth, feeling our sides, probing
our wounds, and making us walk about, trot, and run, then lift burdens,
and then wrestle, in order to see the strength of each, and a thousand
other sorts of brutalities."[150]
[150] Biographie Universelle (Michaud): Art., _Vincent de Paul_.
In this simple narrative what occasion for humiliation and
encouragement! Well may we be humbled, that a nature so divine was
subject to this cruel lot! Well may we be encouraged, as we contemplate
the heights of usefulness and renown which this slave at last reached!