Numbering all the Bones

Eulinda travels to the camp along with Moll, Sancho’s wife. Having heard that prisoners who come outside the stockade to bury the dead buy provisions from vendors, Moll brings along a bag of supplies. Eulinda sees a little caravan of buggies parked outside the gates with half-a-dozen well-dressed civilians. They are paying guards to allow them to climb up the parapet and look inside the prison. Mistaking Eulinda for a slave belonging to these socialites, the guards allow her to climb up as well. The guards give crusts of bread to the visitors, which they throw to the prisoners. The powerful stench of the prison, Eulinda discovers, is even worse when looking down on the prison from above. Looking down over the vast sea of prisoners, she describes a scene of desperation:

What seemed like thousands of creatures were penned into acres of muddy ground. Ragged figures that were supposed to be men huddled in little groups about their shebangs. Small fires burned. The men were in tattered clothing, and packed so close you could scarce separate where one began and the other left off (49).

Overhearing the conversation between the guards and the gawkers, Eulinda learns that soldiers from her brother’s unit and a handful of women, including a young bride who just gave birth, are incarcerated in the camp.