SALAMMBO

By Gustave Flaubert

CHAPTER I

THE FEAST

It was at Megara, a suburb of Carthage, in the gardens of Hamilcar. Thesoldiers whom he had commanded in Sicily were having a great feast tocelebrate the anniversary of the battle of Eryx, and as the master wasaway, and they were numerous, they ate and drank with perfect freedom. 

The captains, who wore bronze cothurni, had placed themselves in thecentral path, beneath a gold-fringed purple awning, which reached fromthe wall of the stables to the first terrace of the palace; the commonsoldiers were scattered beneath the trees, where numerous flat-roofedbuildings might be seen, wine-presses, cellars, storehouses, bakeries, and arsenals, with a court for elephants, dens for wild beasts, and aprison for slaves. 

Fig-trees surrounded the kitchens; a wood of sycamores stretched away tomeet masses of verdure, where the pomegranate shone amid the white tuftsof the cotton-plant; vines, grape-laden, grew up into the branches ofthe pines; a field of roses bloomed beneath the plane-trees; here andthere lilies rocked upon the turf; the paths were strewn with black sandmingled with powdered coral, and in the centre the avenue of cypressformed, as it were, a double colonnade of green obelisks from oneextremity to the other. 

Far in the background stood the palace, built of yellow mottled Numidianmarble, broad courses supporting its four terraced stories. With itslarge, straight, ebony staircase, bearing the prow of a vanquishedgalley at the corners of every step, its red doors quartered with blackcrosses, its brass gratings protecting it from scorpions below, and itstrellises of gilded rods closing the apertures above, it seemed to thesoldiers in its haughty opulence as solemn and impenetrable as the faceof Hamilcar. 

The Council had appointed his house for the holding of this feast; theconvalescents lying in the temple of Eschmoun had set out at daybreakand dragged themselves thither on their crutches. Every minute otherswere arriving. They poured in ceaselessly by every path like torrentsrushing into a lake; through the trees the slaves of the kitchens mightbe seen running scared and half-naked; the gazelles fled bleating on thelawns; the sun was setting, and the perfume of citron trees rendered theexhalation from the perspiring crowd heavier still. 

Men of all nations were there, Ligurians, Lusitanians, Balearians, Negroes, and fugitives from Rome. Beside the heavy Dorian dialect wereaudible the resonant Celtic syllables rattling like chariots of war, while Ionian terminations conflicted with consonants of the desert asharsh as the jackal's cry. The Greek might be recognised by his slenderfigure, the Egyptian by his elevated shoulders, the Cantabrian by hisbroad calves. There were Carians proudly nodding their helmet plumes, Cappadocian archers displaying large flowers painted on their bodieswith the juice of herbs, and a few Lydians in women's robes, dining inslippers and earrings. Others were ostentatiously daubed with vermilion, and resembled coral statues. 

They stretched themselves on the cushions, they ate squatting roundlarge trays, or lying face downwards they drew out the pieces of meatand sated themselves, leaning on their elbows in the peaceful postureof lions tearing their prey. The last comers stood leaning against thetrees watching the low tables half hidden beneath the scarlet coverings, and awaiting their turn. 

Hamilcar's kitchens being insufficient, the Council had sent themslaves, ware, and beds, and in the middle of the garden, as on abattle-field when they burn the dead, large bright fires might be seen, at which oxen were roasting. Anise-sprinkled loaves alternated withgreat cheeses heavier than discuses, crateras filled with wine, and cantharuses filled with water, together with baskets of goldfiligree-work containing flowers. Every eye was dilated with the joy ofbeing able at last to gorge at pleasure, and songs were beginning hereand there. 

First they were served with birds and green sauce in plates of red clayrelieved by drawings in black, then with every kind of shell-fish thatis gathered on the Punic coasts, wheaten porridge, beans and barley, andsnails dressed with cumin on dishes of yellow amber. 

Afterwards the tables were covered with meats, antelopes with theirhorns, peacocks with their feathers, whole sheep cooked in sweet wine, haunches of she-camels and buffaloes, hedgehogs with garum, friedgrasshoppers, and preserved dormice. Large pieces of fat floated in themidst of saffron in bowls of Tamrapanni wood. Everything was runningover with wine, truffles, and asafoetida. Pyramids of fruit werecrumbling upon honeycombs, and they had not forgotten a few of thoseplump little dogs with pink silky hair and fattened on olive lees, --aCarthaginian dish held in abhorrence among other nations. Surprise atthe novel fare excited the greed of the stomach. The Gauls withtheir long hair drawn up on the crown of the head, snatched at thewater-melons and lemons, and crunched them up with the rind. TheNegroes, who had never seen a lobster, tore their faces with its redprickles. But the shaven Greeks, whiter than marble, threw the leavingsof their plates behind them, while the herdsmen from Brutium, in theirwolf-skin garments, devoured in silence with their faces in theirportions. 

Night fell. The velarium, spread over the cypress avenue, was drawnback, and torches were brought. 

The apes, sacred to the moon, were terrified on the cedar tops by thewavering lights of the petroleum as it burned in the porphyry vases. They uttered screams which afforded mirth to the soldiers. 

Oblong flames trembled in cuirasses of brass. Every kind ofscintillation flashed from the gem-incrusted dishes. The crateras withtheir borders of convex mirrors multiplied and enlarged the images ofthings; the soldiers thronged around, looking at their reflections withamazement, and grimacing to make themselves laugh. They tossed the ivorystools and golden spatulas to one another across the tables. They gulpeddown all the Greek wines in their leathern bottles, the Campanian wineenclosed in amphoras, the Cantabrian wines brought in casks, with thewines of the jujube, cinnamomum and lotus. There were pools of these onthe ground that made the foot slip. The smoke of the meats ascended intothe foliage with the vapour of the breath. Simultaneously were heardthe snapping of jaws, the noise of speech, songs, and cups, the crash ofCampanian vases shivering into a thousand pieces, or the limpid sound ofa large silver dish. 

In proportion as their intoxication increased they more and morerecalled the injustice of Carthage. The Republic, in fact, exhausted bythe war, had allowed all the returning bands to accumulate in the town. Gisco, their general, had however been prudent enough to send them backseverally in order to facilitate the liquidation of their pay, andthe Council had believed that they would in the end consent to somereduction. But at present ill-will was caused by the inability to paythem. This debt was confused in the minds of the people with the 3200Euboic talents exacted by Lutatius, and equally with Rome they wereregarded as enemies to Carthage. The Mercenaries understood this, andtheir indignation found vent in threats and outbreaks. At last theydemanded permission to assemble to celebrate one of their victories, and the peace party yielded, at the same time revenging themselves onHamilcar who had so strongly upheld the war. It had been terminatednotwithstanding all his efforts, so that, despairing of Carthage, hehad entrusted the government of the Mercenaries to Gisco. To appoint hispalace for their reception was to draw upon him something of the hatredwhich was borne to them. Moreover, the expense must be excessive, and hewould incur nearly the whole. 

Proud of having brought the Republic to submit, the Mercenaries thoughtthat they were at last about to return to their homes with the paymentfor their blood in the hoods of their cloaks. But as seen through themists of intoxication, their fatigues seemed to them prodigious and butill-rewarded. They showed one another their wounds, they told of theircombats, their travels and the hunting in their native lands. Theyimitated the cries and the leaps of wild beasts. Then came uncleanwagers; they buried their heads in the amphoras and drank on withoutinterruption, like thirsty dromedaries. A Lusitanian of gigantic statureran over the tables, carrying a man in each hand at arm's length, andspitting out fire through his nostrils. Some Lacedaemonians, who had nottaken off their cuirasses, were leaping with a heavy step. Some advancedlike women, making obscene gestures; others stripped naked to fight amidthe cups after the fashion of gladiators, and a company of Greeks dancedaround a vase whereon nymphs were to be seen, while a Negro tapped withan ox-bone on a brazen buckler. 

Suddenly they heard a plaintive song, a song loud and soft, rising andfalling in the air like the wing-beating of a wounded bird. 

It was the voice of the slaves in the ergastulum. Some soldiers rose ata bound to release them and disappeared. 

They returned, driving through the dust amid shouts, twenty men, distinguished by their greater paleness of face. Small black felt capsof conical shape covered their shaven heads; they all wore wooden shoes, and yet made a noise as of old iron like driving chariots. 

They reached the avenue of cypress, where they were lost among the crowdof those questioning them. One of them remained apart, standing. Throughthe rents in his tunic his shoulders could be seen striped with longscars. Drooping his chin, he looked round him with distrust, closing hiseyelids somewhat against the dazzling light of the torches, but whenhe saw that none of the armed men were unfriendly to him, a great sighescaped from his breast; he stammered, he sneered through the brighttears that bathed his face. At last he seized a brimming cantharus byits rings, raised it straight up into the air with his outstretchedarms, from which his chains hung down, and then looking to heaven, andstill holding the cup he said:

"Hail first to thee, Baal-Eschmoun, the deliverer, whom the people of mycountry call Aesculapius! and to you, genii of the fountains, light, and woods! and to you, ye gods hidden beneath the mountains and in thecaverns of the earth! and to you, strong men in shining armour who haveset me free!"

Then he let fall the cup and related his history. He was calledSpendius. The Carthaginians had taken him in the battle of Aeginusae, and he thanked the Mercenaries once more in Greek, Ligurian and Punic;he kissed their hands; finally, he congratulated them on the banquet, while expressing his surprise at not perceiving the cups of the SacredLegion. These cups, which bore an emerald vine on each of theirsix golden faces, belonged to a corps composed exclusively of youngpatricians of the tallest stature. They were a privilege, almost asacerdotal distinction, and accordingly nothing among the treasuresof the Republic was more coveted by the Mercenaries. They detested theLegion on this account, and some of them had been known to risk theirlives for the inconceivable pleasure of drinking out of these cups. 

Accordingly they commanded that the cups should be brought. They werein the keeping of the Syssitia, companies of traders, who had a commontable. The slaves returned. At that hour all the members of the Syssitiawere asleep. 

"Let them be awakened!" responded the Mercenaries. 

After a second excursion it was explained to them that the cups wereshut up in a temple. 

"Let it be opened!" they replied. 

And when the slaves confessed with trembling that they were in thepossession of Gisco, the general, they cried out:

"Let him bring them!"

Gisco soon appeared at the far end of the garden with an escort of theSacred Legion. His full, black cloak, which was fastened on his head toa golden mitre starred with precious stones, and which hung all abouthim down to his horse's hoofs, blended in the distance with the colourof the night. His white beard, the radiancy of his head-dress, and histriple necklace of broad blue plates beating against his breast, werealone visible. 

When he entered, the soldiers greeted him with loud shouts, all crying:

"The cups! The cups!"

He began by declaring that if reference were had to their courage, theywere worthy of them. 

The crowd applauded and howled with joy. 

HE knew it, he who had commanded them over yonder, and had returned withthe last cohort in the last galley!

"True! True!" said they. 

Nevertheless, Gisco continued, the Republic had respected their nationaldivisions, their customs, and their modes of worship; in Carthagethey were free! As to the cups of the Sacred Legion, they were privateproperty. Suddenly a Gaul, who was close to Spendius, sprang over thetables and ran straight up to Gisco, gesticulating and threatening himwith two naked swords. 

Without interrupting his speech, the General struck him on the head withhis heavy ivory staff, and the Barbarian fell. The Gauls howled, andtheir frenzy, which was spreading to the others, would soon have sweptaway the legionaries. Gisco shrugged his shoulders as he saw themgrowing pale. He thought that his courage would be useless against theseexasperated brute beasts. It would be better to revenge himself uponthem by some artifice later; accordingly, he signed to his soldiers andslowly withdrew. Then, turning in the gateway towards the Mercenaries, he cried to them that they would repent of it. 

The feast recommenced. But Gisco might return, and by surrounding thesuburb, which was beside the last ramparts, might crush them against thewalls. Then they felt themselves alone in spite of their crowd, and thegreat town sleeping beneath them in the shade suddenly made them afraid, with its piles of staircases, its lofty black houses, and its vague godsfiercer even than its people. In the distance a few ships'-lanternswere gliding across the harbour, and there were lights in the temple ofKhamon. They thought of Hamilcar. Where was he? Why had he forsakenthem when peace was concluded? His differences with the Council weredoubtless but a pretence in order to destroy them. Their unsatisfiedhate recoiled upon him, and they cursed him, exasperating one anotherwith their own anger. At this juncture they collected together beneaththe plane-trees to see a slave who, with eyeballs fixed, neck contorted, and lips covered with foam, was rolling on the ground, and beating thesoil with his limbs. Some one cried out that he was poisoned. All thenbelieved themselves poisoned. They fell upon the slaves, a terribleclamour was raised, and a vertigo of destruction came like a whirlwindupon the drunken army. They struck about them at random, they smashed, they slew; some hurled torches into the foliage; others, leaning overthe lions' balustrade, massacred the animals with arrows; the mostdaring ran to the elephants, desiring to cut down their trunks and eativory. 

Some Balearic slingers, however, who had gone round the corner of thepalace, in order to pillage more conveniently, were checked by a loftybarrier, made of Indian cane. They cut the lock-straps with theirdaggers, and then found themselves beneath the front that facedCarthage, in another garden full of trimmed vegetation. Lines of whiteflowers all following one another in regular succession formed longparabolas like star-rockets on the azure-coloured earth. The gloomybushes exhaled warm and honied odours. There were trunks of treessmeared with cinnabar, which resembled columns covered with blood. Inthe centre were twelve pedestals, each supporting a great glass ball, and these hollow globes were indistinctly filled with reddish lights, like enormous and still palpitating eyeballs. The soldiers lightedthemselves with torches as they stumbled on the slope of the deeplylaboured soil. 

But they perceived a little lake divided into several basins by wallsof blue stones. So limpid was the wave that the flames of the torchesquivered in it at the very bottom, on a bed of white pebbles and goldendust. It began to bubble, luminous spangles glided past, and great fishwith gems about their mouths, appeared near the surface. 

With much laughter the soldiers slipped their fingers into the gills andbrought them to the tables. They were the fish of the Barca family, andwere all descended from those primordial lotes which had hatched themystic egg wherein the goddess was concealed. The idea of committinga sacrilege revived the greediness of the Mercenaries; they speedilyplaced fire beneath some brazen vases, and amused themselves by watchingthe beautiful fish struggling in the boiling water. 

The surge of soldiers pressed on. They were no longer afraid. Theycommenced to drink again. Their ragged tunics were wet with the perfumesthat flowed in large drops from their foreheads, and resting both fistson the tables, which seemed to them to be rocking like ships, theyrolled their great drunken eyes around to devour by sight what theycould not take. Others walked amid the dishes on the purple tablecovers, breaking ivory stools, and phials of Tyrian glass to pieces withtheir feet. Songs mingled with the death-rattle of the slaves expiringamid the broken cups. They demanded wine, meat, gold. They cried out forwomen. They raved in a hundred languages. Some thought that they were atthe vapour baths on account of the steam which floated around them, or else, catching sight of the foliage, imagined that they were atthe chase, and rushed upon their companions as upon wild beasts. Theconflagration spread to all the trees, one after another, and the loftymosses of verdure, emitting long white spirals, looked like volcanoesbeginning to smoke. The clamour redoubled; the wounded lions roared inthe shade. 

In an instant the highest terrace of the palace was illuminated, thecentral door opened, and a woman, Hamilcar's daughter herself, clothedin black garments, appeared on the threshold. She descended the firststaircase, which ran obliquely along the first story, then the second, and the third, and stopped on the last terrace at the head of the galleystaircase. Motionless and with head bent, she gazed upon the soldiers. 

Behind her, on each side, were two long shadows of pale men, clad inwhite, red-fringed robes, which fell straight to their feet. They had nobeard, no hair, no eyebrows. In their hands, which sparkled with rings, they carried enormous lyres, and with shrill voice they sang a hymn tothe divinity of Carthage. They were the eunuch priests of the temple ofTanith, who were often summoned by Salammbo to her house. 

At last she descended the galley staircase. The priests followed her. She advanced into the avenue of cypress, and walked slowly through thetables of the captains, who drew back somewhat as they watched her pass. 

Her hair, which was powdered with violet sand, and combined into theform of a tower, after the fashion of the Chanaanite maidens, added toher height. Tresses of pearls were fastened to her temples, and fell tothe corners of her mouth, which was as rosy as a half-open pomegranate. On her breast was a collection of luminous stones, their variegationimitating the scales of the murena. Her arms were adorned with diamonds, and issued naked from her sleeveless tunic, which was starred withred flowers on a perfectly black ground. Between her ankles she wore agolden chainlet to regulate her steps, and her large dark purple mantle, cut of an unknown material, trailed behind her, making, as it were, ateach step, a broad wave which followed her. 

The priests played nearly stifled chords on their lyres from time totime, and in the intervals of the music might be heard the tinkling ofthe little golden chain, and the regular patter of her papyrus sandals. 

No one as yet was acquainted with her. It was only known that she led aretired life, engaged in pious practices. Some soldiers had seen her inthe night on the summit of her palace kneeling before the stars amid theeddyings from kindled perfuming-pans. It was the moon that had made herso pale, and there was something from the gods that enveloped her like asubtle vapour. Her eyes seemed to gaze far beyond terrestrial space. Shebent her head as she walked, and in her right hand she carried a littleebony lyre. 

They heard her murmur:

"Dead! All dead! No more will you come obedient to my voice aswhen, seated on the edge of the lake, I used to through seeds of thewatermelon into your mouths! The mystery of Tanith ranged in the depthsof your eyes that were more limpid than the globules of rivers. " And shecalled them by their names, which were those of the months--"Siv! Sivan!Tammouz, Eloul, Tischri, Schebar! Ah! have pity on me, goddess!"

The soldiers thronged about her without understanding what she said. They wondered at her attire, but she turned a long frightened look uponthem all, then sinking her head beneath her shoulders, and waving herarms, she repeated several times:

"What have you done? what have you done?

"Yet you had bread, and meats and oil, and all the malobathrum of thegranaries for your enjoyment! I had brought oxen from Hecatompylos;I had sent hunters into the desert!" Her voice swelled; her cheekspurpled. She added, "Where, pray, are you now? In a conquered town, or in the palace of a master? And what master? Hamilcar the Suffet, myfather, the servant of the Baals! It was he who withheld from Lutatiusthose arms of yours, red now with the blood of his slaves! Know you ofany in your own lands more skilled in the conduct of battles? Look! ourpalace steps are encumbered with our victories! Ah! desist not! burnit! I will carry away with me the genius of my house, my black serpentslumbering up yonder on lotus leaves! I will whistle and he will followme, and if I embark in a galley he will speed in the wake of my shipover the foam of the waves. "

Her delicate nostrils were quivering. She crushed her nails against thegems on her bosom. Her eyes drooped, and she resumed:

"Ah! poor Carthage! lamentable city! No longer hast thou for thyprotection the strong men of former days who went beyond the oceans tobuild temples on their shores. All the lands laboured about thee, andthe sea-plains, ploughed by thine oars, rocked with thy harvests. " Thenshe began to sing the adventures of Melkarth, the god of the Sidonians, and the father of her family. 

She told of the ascent of the mountains of Ersiphonia, the journey toTartessus, and the war against Masisabal to avenge the queen of theserpents:

"He pursued the female monster, whose tail undulated over the deadleaves like a silver brook, into the forest, and came to a plain wherewomen with dragon-croups were round a great fire, standing erect on thepoints of their tails. The blood-coloured moon was shining within apale circle, and their scarlet tongues, cloven like the harpoons offishermen, reached curling forth to the very edge of the flame. "

Then Salammbo, without pausing, related how Melkarth, after vanquishingMasisabal, placed her severed head on the prow of his ship. "At eachthrob of the waves it sank beneath the foam, but the sun embalmed it; itbecame harder than gold; nevertheless the eyes ceased not to weep, andthe tears fell into the water continually. "

She sang all this in an old Chanaanite idiom, which the Barbarians didnot understand. They asked one another what she could be saying to themwith those frightful gestures which accompanied her speech, and mountedround about her on the tables, beds, and sycamore boughs, they strovewith open mouths and craned necks to grasp the vague stories hoveringbefore their imaginations, through the dimness of the theogonies, likephantoms wrapped in cloud. 

Only the beardless priests understood Salammbo; their wrinkled hands, which hung over the strings of their lyres, quivered, and from timeto time they would draw forth a mournful chord; for, feebler than oldwomen, they trembled at once with mystic emotion, and with thefear inspired by men. The Barbarians heeded them not, but listenedcontinually to the maiden's song. 

None gazed at her like a young Numidian chief, who was placed atthe captains' tables among soldiers of his own nation. His girdle sobristled with darts that it formed a swelling in his ample cloak, which was fastened on his temples with a leather lace. The cloth partedasunder as it fell upon his shoulders, and enveloped his countenance inshadow, so that only the fires of his two fixed eyes could be seen. Itwas by chance that he was at the feast, his father having domiciled himwith the Barca family, according to the custom by which kings used tosend their children into the households of the great in order to pavethe way for alliances; but Narr' Havas had lodged there fox six monthswithout having hitherto seen Salammbo, and now, seated on his heels, with his head brushing the handles of his javelins, he was watching herwith dilated nostrils, like a leopard crouching among the bamboos. 

On the other side of the tables was a Libyan of colossal stature, andwith short black curly hair. He had retained only his military jacket, the brass plates of which were tearing the purple of the couch. Anecklace of silver moons was tangled in his hairy breast. His face wasstained with splashes of blood; he was leaning on his left elbow with asmile on his large, open mouth. 

Salammbo had abandoned the sacred rhythm. With a woman's subtlety shewas simultaneously employing all the dialects of the Barbarians in orderto appease their anger. To the Greeks she spoke Greek; then she turnedto the Ligurians, the Campanians, the Negroes, and listening to her eachone found again in her voice the sweetness of his native land. She now, carried away by the memories of Carthage, sang of the ancient battlesagainst Rome; they applauded. She kindled at the gleaming of the nakedswords, and cried aloud with outstretched arms. Her lyre fell, she wassilent; and, pressing both hands upon her heart, she remained for someminutes with closed eyelids enjoying the agitation of all these men. 

Matho, the Libyan, leaned over towards her. Involuntarily she approachedhim, and impelled by grateful pride, poured him a long stream of wineinto a golden cup in order to conciliate the army. 

"Drink!" she said. 

He took the cup, and was carrying it to his lips when a Gaul, the samethat had been hurt by Gisco, struck him on the shoulder, while in ajovial manner he gave utterance to pleasantries in his native tongue. Spendius was not far off, and he volunteered to interpret them. 

"Speak!" said Matho. 

"The gods protect you; you are going to become rich. When will thenuptials be?"

"What nuptials?"

"Yours! for with us, " said the Gaul, "when a woman gives drink to asoldier, it means that she offers him her couch. "

He had not finished when Narr' Havas, with a bound, drew a javelin fromhis girdle, and, leaning his right foot upon the edge of the table, hurled it against Matho. 

The javelin whistled among the cups, and piercing the Lybian's arm, pinned it so firmly to the cloth, that the shaft quivered in the air. 

Matho quickly plucked it out; but he was weaponless and naked; at lasthe lifted the over-laden table with both arms, and flung it againstNarr' Havas into the very centre of the crowd that rushed between them. The soldiers and Numidians pressed together so closely that they wereunable to draw their swords. Matho advanced dealing great blows with hishead. When he raised it, Narr' Havas had disappeared. He sought for himwith his eyes. Salammbo also was gone. 

Then directing his looks to the palace he perceived the red door withthe black cross closing far above, and he darted away. 

They saw him run between the prows of the galleys, and then reappearalong the three staircases until he reached the red door against whichhe dashed his whole body. Panting, he leaned against the wall to keephimself from falling. 

But a man had followed him, and through the darkness, for the lightsof the feast were hidden by the corner of the palace, he recognisedSpendius. 

"Begone!" said he. 

The slave without replying began to tear his tunic with his teeth;then kneeling beside Matho he tenderly took his arm, and felt it in theshadow to discover the wound. 

By a ray of the moon which was then gliding between the clouds, Spendiusperceived a gaping wound in the middle of the arm. He rolled the pieceof stuff about it, but the other said irritably, "Leave me! leave me!"

"Oh no!" replied the slave. "You released me from the ergastulum. I amyours! you are my master! command me!"

Matho walked round the terrace brushing against the walls. He strainedhis ears at every step, glancing down into the silent apartments throughthe spaces between the gilded reeds. At last he stopped with a look ofdespair. 

"Listen!" said the slave to him. "Oh! do not despise me for myfeebleness! I have lived in the palace. I can wind like a viper throughthe walls. Come! in the Ancestor's Chamber there is an ingot of goldbeneath every flagstone; an underground path leads to their tombs. "

"Well! what matters it?" said Matho. 

Spendius was silent. 

They were on the terrace. A huge mass of shadow stretched before them, appearing as if it contained vague accumulations, like the giganticbillows of a black and petrified ocean. 

But a luminous bar rose towards the East; far below, on the left, thecanals of Megara were beginning to stripe the verdure of the gardenswith their windings of white. The conical roofs of the heptagonaltemples, the staircases, terraces, and ramparts were being carved bydegrees upon the paleness of the dawn; and a girdle of white foam rockedaround the Carthaginian peninsula, while the emerald sea appeared as ifit were curdled in the freshness of the morning. Then as the rosy skygrew larger, the lofty houses, bending over the sloping soil, rearedand massed themselves like a herd of black goats coming down from themountains. The deserted streets lengthened; the palm-trees that toppedthe walls here and there were motionless; the brimming cisterns seemedlike silver bucklers lost in the courts; the beacon on the promontory ofHermaeum was beginning to grow pale. The horses of Eschmoun, on the verysummit of the Acropolis in the cypress wood, feeling that the light wascoming, placed their hoofs on the marble parapet, and neighed towardsthe sun. 

It appeared, and Spendius raised his arms with a cry. 

Everything stirred in a diffusion of red, for the god, as if he wererending himself, now poured full-rayed upon Carthage the golden rainof his veins. The beaks of the galleys sparkled, the roof of Khamonappeared to be all in flames, while far within the temples, whosedoors were opening, glimmerings of light could be seen. Large chariots, arriving from the country, rolled their wheels over the flagstonesin the streets. Dromedaries, baggage-laden, came down the ramps. Money-changers raised the pent-houses of their shops at the cross ways, storks took to flight, white sails fluttered. In the wood of Tanithmight be heard the tabourines of the sacred courtesans, and the furnacesfor baking the clay coffins were beginning to smoke on the Mappalianpoint. 

Spendius leaned over the terrace; his teeth chattered and he repeated:

"Ah! yes--yes--master! I understand why you scorned the pillage of thehouse just now. "

Matho was as if he had just been awaked by the hissing of his voice, anddid not seem to understand. Spendius resumed:

"Ah! what riches! and the men who possess them have not even the steelto defend them!"

Then, pointing with his right arm outstretched to some of the populacewho were crawling on the sand outside the mole to look for gold dust:

"See!" he said to him, "the Republic is like these wretches: bending onthe brink of the ocean, she buries her greedy arms in every shore, andthe noise of the billows so fills her ear that she cannot hear behindher the tread of a master's heel!"

He drew Matho to quite the other end of the terrace, and showed him thegarden, wherein the soldiers' swords, hanging on the trees, were likemirrors in the sun. 

"But here there are strong men whose hatred is roused! and nothing bindsthem to Carthage, neither families, oaths nor gods!"

Matho remained leaning against the wall; Spendius came close, andcontinued in a low voice:

"Do you understand me, soldier? We should walk purple-clad like satraps. We should bathe in perfumes; and I should in turn have slaves! Are younot weary of sleeping on hard ground, of drinking the vinegar of thecamps, and of continually hearing the trumpet? But you will rest later, will you not? When they pull off your cuirass to cast your corpse tothe vultures! or perhaps blind, lame, and weak you will go, leaning ona stick, from door to door to tell of your youth to pickle-sellers andlittle children. Remember all the injustice of your chiefs, the campingsin the snow, the marchings in the sun, the tyrannies of discipline, andthe everlasting menace of the cross! And after all this misery they havegiven you a necklace of honour, as they hang a girdle of bells roundthe breast of an ass to deafen it on its journey, and prevent it fromfeeling fatigue. A man like you, braver than Pyrrhus! If only you hadwished it! Ah! how happy will you be in large cool halls, with the soundof lyres, lying on flowers, with women and buffoons! Do not tell me thatthe enterprise is impossible. Have not the Mercenaries already possessedRhegium and other fortified places in Italy? Who is to prevent you?Hamilcar is away; the people execrate the rich; Gisco can do nothingwith the cowards who surround him. Command them! Carthage is ours; letus fall upon it!"

"No!" said Matho, "the curse of Moloch weighs upon me. I felt it in hereyes, and just now I saw a black ram retreating in a temple. " Lookingaround him he added: "But where is she?"

Then Spendius understood that a great disquiet possessed him, and didnot venture to speak again. 

The trees behind them were still smoking; half-burned carcases of apesdropped from their blackened boughs from time to time into the midstof the dishes. Drunken soldiers snored open-mouthed by the side of thecorpses, and those who were not asleep lowered their heads dazzled bythe light of day. The trampled soil was hidden beneath splashes of red. The elephants poised their bleeding trunks between the stakes of theirpens. In the open granaries might be seen sacks of spilled wheat, belowthe gate was a thick line of chariots which had been heaped up by theBarbarians, and the peacocks perched in the cedars were spreading theirtails and beginning to utter their cry. 

Matho's immobility, however, astonished Spendius; he was even paler thanhe had recently been, and he was following something on the horizon withfixed eyeballs, and with both fists resting on the edge of the terrace. Spendius crouched down, and so at last discovered at what he was gazing. In the distance a golden speck was turning in the dust on the road toUtica; it was the nave of a chariot drawn by two mules; a slave wasrunning at the end of the pole, and holding them by the bridle. Twowomen were seated in the chariot. The manes of the animals were puffedbetween the ears after the Persian fashion, beneath a network of bluepearls. Spendius recognised them, and restrained a cry. 

A large veil floated behind in the wind. 

CHAPTER II

AT SICCA

Two days afterwards the Mercenaries left Carthage. 

They had each received a piece of gold on the condition that theyshould go into camp at Sicca, and they had been told with all sorts ofcaresses:

"You are the saviours of Carthage! But you would starve it if youremained there; it would become insolvent. Withdraw! The Republic willbe grateful to you later for all this condescension. We are going tolevy taxes immediately; your pay shall be in full, and galleys shall beequipped to take you back to your native lands. "

They did not know how to reply to all this talk. These men, accustomedas they were to war, were wearied by residence in a town; there wasdifficulty in convincing them, and the people mounted the walls to seethem go away. 

They defiled through the street of Khamon, and the Cirta gate, pell-mell, archers with hoplites, captains with soldiers, Lusitanianswith Greeks. They marched with a bold step, rattling their heavycothurni on the paving stones. Their armour was dented by the catapult, and their faces blackened by the sunburn of battles. Hoarse cries issuedfrom their thick bears, their tattered coats of mail flapped upon thepommels of their swords, and through the holes in the brass might beseen their naked limbs, as frightful as engines of war. Sarissae, axes, spears, felt caps and bronze helmets, all swung together with a singlemotion. They filled the street thickly enough to have made the wallscrack, and the long mass of armed soldiers overflowed between the loftybitumen-smeared houses six storys high. Behind their gratings of iron orreed the women, with veiled heads, silently watched the Barbarians pass. 

The terraces, fortifications, and walls were hidden beneath the crowdof Carthaginians, who were dressed in garments of black. The sailors'tunics showed like drops of blood among the dark multitude, and nearlynaked children, whose skin shone beneath their copper bracelets, gesticulated in the foliage of the columns, or amid the branches ofa palm tree. Some of the Ancients were posted on the platform of thetowers, and people did not know why a personage with a long beard stoodthus in a dreamy attitude here and there. He appeared in the distanceagainst the background of the sky, vague as a phantom and motionless asstone. 

All, however, were oppressed with the same anxiety; it was feared thatthe Barbarians, seeing themselves so strong, might take a fancy to stay. But they were leaving with so much good faith that the Carthaginiansgrew bold and mingled with the soldiers. They overwhelmed them withprotestations and embraces. Some with exaggerated politeness andaudacious hypocrisy even sought to induce them not to leave the city. They threw perfumes, flowers, and pieces of silver to them. They gavethem amulets to avert sickness; but they had spit upon them three timesto attract death, or had enclosed jackal's hair within them to putcowardice into their hearts. Aloud, they invoked Melkarth's favour, andin a whisper, his curse. 

Then came the mob of baggage, beasts of burden, and stragglers. The sickgroaned on the backs of dromedaries, while others limped along leaningon broken pikes. The drunkards carried leathern bottles, and the greedyquarters of meat, cakes, fruits, butter wrapped in fig leaves, and snowin linen bags. Some were to be seen with parasols in their hands, andparrots on their shoulders. They had mastiffs, gazelles, and panthersfollowing behind them. Women of Libyan race, mounted on asses, inveighedagainst the Negresses who had forsaken the lupanaria of Malqua for thesoldiers; many of them were suckling children suspended on their bosomsby leathern thongs. The mules were goaded out at the point of the sword, their backs bending beneath the load of tents, while there were numbersof serving-men and water-carriers, emaciated, jaundiced with fever, and filthy with vermin, the scum of the Carthaginian populace, who hadattached themselves to the Barbarians. 

When they had passed, the gates were shut behind them, but the peopledid not descend from the walls. The army soon spread over the breadth ofthe isthmus. 

It parted into unequal masses. Then the lances appeared like tall bladesof grass, and finally all was lost in a train of dust; those of thesoldiers who looked back towards Carthage could now only see its longwalls with their vacant battlements cut out against the edge of the sky. 

Then the Barbarians heard a great shout. They thought that some fromamong them (for they did not know their own number) had remained in thetown, and were amusing themselves by pillaging a temple. They laughed agreat deal at the idea of this, and then continued their journey. 

They were rejoiced to find themselves, as in former days, marching alltogether in the open country, and some of the Greeks sang the old songof the Mamertines:

"With my lance and sword I plough and reap; I am master of the house!The disarmed man falls at my feet and calls me Lord and Great King. "

They shouted, they leaped, the merriest began to tell stories; thetime of their miseries was past. As they arrived at Tunis, some ofthem remarked that a troop of Balearic slingers was missing. They weredoubtless not far off; and no further heed was paid to them. 

Some went to lodge in the houses, others camped at the foot of thewalls, and the townspeople came out to chat with the soldiers. 

During the whole night fires were seen burning on the horizon in thedirection of Carthage; the light stretched like giant torches across themotionless lake. No one in the army could tell what festival was beingcelebrated. 

On the following day the Barbarian's passed through a region that wascovered with cultivation. The domains of the patricians succeeded oneanother along the border of the route; channels of water flowedthrough woods of palm; there were long, green lines of olive-trees;rose-coloured vapours floated in the gorges of the hills, while bluemountains reared themselves behind. A warm wind was blowing. Chameleonswere crawling on the broad leaves of the cactus. 

The Barbarians slackened their speed. 

They marched on in isolated detachments, or lagged behind one another atlong intervals. They ate grapes along the margin of the vines. They layon the grass and gazed with stupefaction upon the large, artificiallytwisted horns of the oxen, the sheep clothed with skins to protect theirwool, the furrows crossing one another so as to form lozenges, and theploughshares like ships' anchors, with the pomegranate trees that werewatered with silphium. Such wealth of the soil and such inventions ofwisdom dazzled them. 

In the evening they stretched themselves on the tents without unfoldingthem; and thought with regret of Hamilcar's feast, as they fell asleepwith their faces towards the stars. 

In the middle of the following day they halted on the bank of a river, amid clumps of rose-bays. Then they quickly threw aside lances, bucklersand belts. They bathed with shouts, and drew water in their helmets, while others drank lying flat on their stomachs, and all in the midst ofthe beasts of burden whose baggage was slipping from them. 

Spendius, who was seated on a dromedary stolen in Hamilcar's parks, perceived Matho at a distance, with his arm hanging against his breast, his head bare, and his face bent down, giving his mule drink, andwatching the water flow. Spendius immediately ran through the crowdcalling him, "Master! master!"

Matho gave him but scant thanks for his blessings, but Spendius paid noheed to this, and began to march behind him, from time to time turningrestless glances in the direction of Carthage. 

He was the son of a Greek rhetor and a Campanian prostitute. He had atfirst grown rich by dealing in women; then, ruined by a shipwreck, hehad made war against the Romans with the herdsmen of Samnium. He hadbeen taken and had escaped; he had been retaken, and had worked in thequarries, panted in the vapour-baths, shrieked under torture, passedthrough the hands of many masters, and experienced every frenzy. Atlast, one day, in despair, he had flung himself into the sea from thetop of a trireme where he was working at the oar. Some of Hamilcar'ssailors had picked him up when at the point of death, and had broughthim to the ergastulum of Megara, at Carthage. But, as fugitives were tobe given back to the Romans, he had taken advantage of the confusion tofly with the soldiers. 

During the whole of the march he remained near Matho; he brought himfood, assisted him to dismount, and spread a carpet in the eveningbeneath his head. Matho at last was touched by these attentions, and bydegrees unlocked his lips. 

He had been born in the gulf of Syrtis. His father had taken him on apilgrimage to the temple of Ammon. Then he had hunted elephants in theforests of the Garamantes. Afterwards he had entered the service ofCarthage. He had been appointed tetrarch at the capture of Drepanum. The Republic owed him four horses, twenty-three medimni of wheat, and awinter's pay. He feared the gods, and wished to die in his native land. 

Spendius spoke to him of his travels, and of the peoples and templesthat he had visited. He knew many things: he could make sandals, boar-spears and nets; he could tame wild beasts and could cook fish. 

Sometimes he would interrupt himself, and utter a hoarse cry from thedepths of his throat; Matho's mule would quicken his pace, and otherswould hasten after them, and then Spendius would begin again thoughstill torn with agony. This subsided at last on the evening of thefourth day. 

They were marching side by side to the right of the army on the side ofa hill; below them stretched the plain lost in the vapours of the night. The lines of soldiers also were defiling below, making undulations inthe shade. From time to time these passed over eminences lit up by themoon; then stars would tremble on the points of the pikes, the helmetswould glimmer for an instant, all would disappear, and others would comeon continually. Startled flocks bleated in the distance, and a somethingof infinite sweetness seemed to sink upon the earth. 

Spendius, with his head thrown back and his eyes half-closed, inhaledthe freshness of the wind with great sighs; he spread out his arms, moving his fingers that he might the better feel the cares that streamedover his body. Hopes of vengeance came back to him and transported him. He pressed his hand upon his mouth to check his sobs, and half-swooningwith intoxication, let go the halter of his dromedary, which wasproceeding with long, regular steps. Matho had relapsed into his formermelancholy; his legs hung down to the ground, and the grass made acontinuous rustling as it beat against his cothurni. 

The journey, however, spread itself out without ever coming to an end. At the extremity of a plain they would always reach a round-shapedplateau; then they would descend again into a valley, and the mountainswhich seemed to block up the horizon would, in proportion as they wereapproached, glide as it were from their positions. From time to time ariver would appear amid the verdure of tamarisks to lose itself at theturning of the hills. Sometimes a huge rock would tower aloft like theprow of a vessel or the pedestal of some vanished colossus. 

At regular intervals they met with little quadrangular temples, whichserved as stations for the pilgrims who repaired to Sicca. They wereclosed like tombs. The Libyans struck great blows upon the doors to havethem opened. But no one inside responded. 

Then the cultivation became more rare. They suddenly entered upon beltsof sand bristling with thorny thickets. Flocks of sheep were browsingamong the stones; a woman with a blue fleece about her waist waswatching them. She fled screaming when she saw the soldiers' pikes amongthe rocks. 

They were marching through a kind of large passage bordered by twochains of reddish coloured hillocks, when their nostrils were greetedwith a nauseous odour, and they thought that they could see somethingextraordinary on the top of a carob tree: a lion's head reared itselfabove the leaves. 

They ran thither. It was a lion with his four limbs fastened to a crosslike a criminal. His huge muzzle fell upon his breast, and his twofore-paws, half-hidden beneath the abundance of his mane, were spreadout wide like the wings of a bird. His ribs stood severally out beneathhis distended skin; his hind legs, which were nailed against each other, were raised somewhat, and the black blood, flowing through his hair, had collected in stalactites at the end of his tail, which hung downperfectly straight along the cross. The soldiers made merry around; theycalled him consul, and Roman citizen, and threw pebbles into his eyes todrive away the gnats. 

But a hundred paces further on they saw two more, and then theresuddenly appeared a long file of crosses bearing lions. Some had beenso long dead that nothing was left against the wood but the remainsof their skeletons; others which were half eaten away had their jawstwisted into horrible grimaces; there were some enormous ones; theshafts of the crosses bent beneath them, and they swayed in the wind, while bands of crows wheeled ceaselessly in the air above their heads. It was thus that the Carthaginian peasants avenged themselves whenthey captured a wild beast; they hoped to terrify the others by suchan example. The Barbarians ceased their laughter, and were long lost inamazement. "What people is this, " they thought, "that amuses itself bycrucifying lions!"

They were, besides, especially the men of the North, vaguely uneasy, troubled, and already sick. They tore their hands with the darts of thealoes; great mosquitoes buzzed in their ears, and dysentry was breakingout in the army. They were weary at not yet seeing Sicca. They wereafraid of losing themselves and of reaching the desert, the country ofsands and terrors. Many even were unwilling to advance further. Othersstarted back to Carthage. 

At last on the seventh day, after following the base of a mountain for along time, they turned abruptly to the right, and there then appeareda line of walls resting on white rocks and blending with them. Suddenlythe entire city rose; blue, yellow, and white veils moved on the wallsin the redness of the evening. These were the priestesses of Tanith, who had hastened hither to receive the men. They stood ranged along therampart, striking tabourines, playing lyres, and shaking crotala, whilethe rays of the sun, setting behind them in the mountains of Numidia, shot between the strings of their lyres over which their naked arms werestretched. At intervals their instruments would become suddenly still, and a cry would break forth strident, precipitate, frenzied, continuous, a sort of barking which they made by striking both corners of the mouthwith the tongue. Others, more motionless than the Sphynx, rested ontheir elbows with their chins on their hands, and darted their greatblack eyes upon the army as it ascended. 

Although Sicca was a sacred town it could not hold such a multitude; thetemple alone, with its appurtenances, occupied half of it. Accordinglythe Barbarians established themselves at their ease on the plain;those who were disciplined in regular troops, and the rest according tonationality or their own fancy. 

The Greeks ranged their tents of skin in parallel lines; the Iberiansplaced their canvas pavilions in a circle; the Gauls made themselveshuts of planks; the Libyans cabins of dry stones, while the Negroes withtheir nails hollowed out trenches in the sand to sleep in. Many, notknowing where to go, wandered about among the baggage, and at nightfalllay down in their ragged mantles on the ground. 

The plain, which was wholly bounded by mountains, expanded around them. Here and there a palm tree leaned over a sand hill, and pines and oaksflecked the sides of the precipices: sometimes the rain of a storm wouldhang from the sky like a long scarf, while the country everywhere wasstill covered with azure and serenity; then a warm wind would drivebefore it tornadoes of dust, and a stream would descend in cascades fromthe heights of Sicca, where, with its roofing of gold on its columns ofbrass, rose the temple of the Carthaginian Venus, the mistress of theland. She seemed to fill it with her soul. In such convulsions of thesoil, such alternations of temperature, and such plays of light wouldshe manifest the extravagance of her might with the beauty of hereternal smile. The mountains at their summits were crescent-shaped;others were like women's bosoms presenting their swelling breasts, andthe Barbarians felt a heaviness that was full of delight weighing downtheir fatigues. 

Spendius had bought a slave with the money brought him by his dromedary. The whole day long he lay asleep stretched before Matho's tent. Often hewould awake, thinking in his dreams that he heard the whistling of thethongs; with a smile he would pass his hands over the scars on his legsat the place where the fetters had long been worn, and then he wouldfall asleep again. 

Matho accepted his companionship, and when he went out Spendius wouldescort him like a lictor with a long sword on his thigh; or perhapsMatho would rest his arm carelessly on the other's shoulder, forSpendius was small. 

One evening when they were passing together through the streets in thecamp they perceived some men covered with white cloaks; among them wasNarr' Havas, the prince of the Numidians. Matho started. 

"Your sword!" he cried; "I will kill him!"

"Not yet!" said Spendius, restraining him. Narr' Havas was alreadyadvancing towards him. 

He kissed both thumbs in token of alliance, showing nothing of the angerwhich he had experienced at the drunkenness of the feast; then he spokeat length against Carthage, but did not say what brought him among theBarbarians. 

"Was it to betray them, or else the Republic?" Spendius asked himself;and as he expected to profit by every disorder, he felt grateful toNarr' Havas for the future perfidies of which he suspected him. 

The chief of the Numidians remained amongst the Mercenaries. He appeareddesirous of attaching Matho to himself. He sent him fat goats, golddust, and ostrich feathers. The Libyan, who was amazed at such caresses, was in doubt whether to respond to them or to become exasperated atthem. But Spendius pacified him, and Matho allowed himself to be ruledby the slave, remaining ever irresolute and in an unconquerable torpor, like those who have once taken a draught of which they are to die. 

One morning when all three went out lion-hunting, Narr' Havas concealeda dagger in his cloak. Spendius kept continually behind him, and whenthey returned the dagger had not been drawn. 

Another time Narr' Havas took them a long way off, as far as theboundaries of his kingdom. They came to a narrow gorge, and Narr' Havassmiled as he declared that he had forgotten the way. Spendius found itagain. 

But most frequently Matho would go off at sunrise, as melancholy asan augur, to wander about the country. He would stretch himself on thesand, and remain there motionless until the evening. 

He consulted all the soothsayers in the army one after the other, --thosewho watch the trail of serpents, those who read the stars, and those whobreathe upon the ashes of the dead. He swallowed galbanum, seseli, andviper's venom which freezes the heart; Negro women, singing barbarouswords in the moonlight, pricked the skin of his forehead with goldenstylets; he loaded himself with necklaces and charms; he invoked inturn Baal-Khamon, Moloch, the seven Kabiri, Tanith, and the Venus ofthe Greeks. He engraved a name upon a copper plate, and buried it in thesand at the threshold of his tent. Spendius used to hear him groaningand talking to himself. 

One night he went in. 

Matho, as naked as a corpse, was lying on a lion's skin flat on hisstomach, with his face in both his hands; a hanging lamp lit up hisarmour, which was hooked on to the tent-pole above his head. 

"You are suffering?" said the slave to him. "What is the matter withyou? Answer me?" And he shook him by the shoulder calling him severaltimes, "Master! master!"

At last Matho lifted large troubled eyes towards him. 

"Listen!" he said in a low voice, and with a finger on his lips. "It isthe wrath of the Gods! Hamilcar's daughter pursues me! I am afraid ofher, Spendius!" He pressed himself close against his breast like a childterrified by a phantom. "Speak to me! I am sick! I want to get well! Ihave tried everything! But you, you perhaps know some stronger gods, orsome resistless invocation?"

"For what purpose?" asked Spendius. 

Striking his head with both his fists, he replied:

"To rid me of her!"

Then speaking to himself with long pauses he said:

"I am no doubt the victim of some holocaust which she has promised tothe gods?--She holds me fast by a chain which people cannot see. If Iwalk, it is she that is advancing; when I stop, she is resting! Her eyesburn me, I hear her voice. She encompasses me, she penetrates me. Itseems to me that she has become my soul!

"And yet between us there are, as it were, the invisible billows of aboundless ocean! She is far away and quite inaccessible! The splendourof her beauty forms a cloud of light around her, and at times I thinkthat I have never seen her--that she does not exist--and that it is alla dream!"

Matho wept thus in the darkness; the Barbarians were sleeping. Spendius, as he looked at him, recalled the young men who once used to entreathim with golden cases in their hands, when he led his herd of courtesansthrough the towns; a feeling of pity moved him, and he said--

"Be strong, my master! Summon your will, and beseech the gods no more, for they turn not aside at the cries of men! Weeping like a coward! Andyou are not humiliated that a woman can cause you so much suffering?"

"Am I a child?" said Matho. "Do you think that I am moved by their facesand songs? We kept them at Drepanum to sweep out our stables. I haveembraced them amid assaults, beneath falling ceilings, and while thecatapult was still vibrating!--But she, Spendius, she!--"

The slave interrupted him:

"If she were not Hanno's daughter--"

"No!" cried Matho. "She has nothing in common with the daughters ofother men! Have you seen her great eyes beneath her great eyebrows, likesuns beneath triumphal arches? Think: when she appeared all the torchesgrew pale. Her naked breast shone here and there through the diamonds ofher necklace; behind her you perceived as it were the odour of a temple, and her whole being emitted something that was sweeter than wine andmore terrible than death. She walked, however, and then she stopped. "

He remained gaping with his head cast down and his eyeballs fixed. 

"But I want her! I need her! I am dying for her! I am transported withfrenzied joy at the thought of clasping her in my arms, and yet I hateher, Spendius! I should like to beat her! What is to be done? I have amind to sell myself and become her slave! YOU have been that! You wereable to get sight of her; speak to me of her! Every night she ascendsto the terrace of her palace, does she not? Ah! the stones must quiverbeneath her sandals, and the stars bend down to see her!"

He fell back in a perfect frenzy, with a rattling in his throat like awounded bull. 

Then Matho sang: "He pursued into the forest the female monster, whosetail undulated over the dead leaves like a silver brook. " And withlingering tones he imitated Salammbo's voice, while his outspread handswere held like two light hands on the strings of a lyre. 

To all the consolations offered by Spendius, he repeated the same words;their nights were spent in these wailings and exhortations. 

Matho sought to drown his thoughts in wine. After his fits ofdrunkenness he was more melancholy still. He tried to divert himself athuckle-bones, and lost the gold plates of his necklace one by one. Hehad himself taken to the servants of the Goddess; but he came down thehill sobbing, like one returning from a funeral. 

Spendius, on the contrary, became more bold and gay. He was to be seenin the leafy taverns discoursing in the midst of the soldiers. He mendedold cuirasses. He juggled with daggers. He went and gathered herbs inthe fields for the sick. He was facetious, dexterous, full of inventionand talk; the Barbarians grew accustomed to his services, and he came tobe loved by them. 

However, they were awaiting an ambassador from Carthage to bringthem mules laden with baskets of gold; and ever beginning the samecalculation over again, they would trace figures with their fingers inthe sand. Every one was arranging his life beforehand; they would haveconcubines, slaves, lands; others intended to bury their treasure, or risk it on a vessel. But their tempers were provoked by want ofemployment; there were constant disputes between horse-soldiers andfoot-soldiers, Barbarians and Greeks, while there was a never-ending dinof shrill female voices. 

Every day men came flocking in nearly naked, and with grass on theirheads to protect them from the sun; they were the debtors of the richCarthaginians and had been forced to till the lands of the latter, buthad escaped. Libyans came pouring in with peasants ruined by the taxes, outlaws, and malefactors. Then the horde of traders, all the dealers inwine and oil, who were furious at not being paid, laid the blame uponthe Republic. Spendius declaimed against it. Soon the provisions ranlow; and there was talk of advancing in a body upon Carthage, andcalling in the Romans. 

One evening, at supper-time, dull cracked sounds were heard approaching, and something red appeared in the distance among the undulations of thesoil. 

It was a large purple litter, adorned with ostrich feathers at thecorners. Chains of crystal and garlands of pearls beat against theclosed hangings. It was followed by camels sounding the great bellsthat hung at their breasts, and having around them horsemen clad fromshoulder to heel in armour of golden scales. 

They halted three hundred paces from the camp to take their roundbucklers, broad swords, and Boeotian helmets out of the cases which theycarried behind their saddles. Some remained with the camels, whilethe others resumed their march. At last the ensigns of the Republicappeared, that is to say, staves of blue wood terminated in horses'heads or fir cones. The Barbarians all rose with applause; the womenrushed towards the guards of the Legion and kissed their feet. 

The litter advanced on the shoulders of twelve Negroes who walked instep with short, rapid strides; they went at random to right or left, being embarrassed by the tent-ropes, the animals that were strayingabout, or the tripods where food was being cooked. Sometimes a fat hand, laden with rings, would partially open the litter, and a hoarse voicewould utter loud reproaches; then the bearers would stop and take adifferent direction through the camp. 

But the purple curtains were raised, and a human head, impassible andbloated, was seen resting on a large pillow; the eyebrows, which werelike arches of ebony, met each other at the points; golden dust sparkledin the frizzled hair, and the face was so wan that it looked as ifit had been powdered with marble raspings. The rest of the body wasconcealed beneath the fleeces which filled the litter. 

In the man so reclining the soldiers recognised the Suffet Hanno, hewhose slackness had assisted to lose the battle of the Aegatian islands;and as to his victory at Hecatompylos over the Libyans, even if he didbehave with clemency, thought the Barbarians, it was owing to cupidity, for he had sold all the captives on his own account, although he hadreported their deaths to the Republic. 

After seeking for some time a convenient place from which to haranguethe soldiers, he made a sign; the litter stopped, and Hanno, supportedby two slaves, put his tottering feet to the ground. 

He wore boots of black felt strewn with silver moons. His legs wereswathed in bands like those wrapped about a mummy, and the flesh creptthrough the crossings of the linen; his stomach came out beyond thescarlet jacket which covered his thighs; the folds of his neck fell downto his breast like the dewlaps of an ox; his tunic, which was paintedwith flowers, was bursting at the arm-pits; he wore a scarf, a girdle, and an ample black cloak with laced double-sleeves. But the abundance ofhis garments, his great necklace of blue stones, his golden clasps, andheavy earrings only rendered his deformity still more hideous. He mighthave been taken for some big idol rough-hewn in a block of stone; fora pale leprosy, which was spread over his whole body, gave him theappearance of an inert thing. His nose, however, which was hooked likea vulture's beak, was violently dilated to breathe in the air, and hislittle eyes, with their gummed lashes, shone with a hard and metalliclustre. He held a spatula of aloe-wood in his hand wherewith to scratchhis skin. 

At last two heralds sounded their silver horns; the tumult subsided, andHanno commenced to speak. 

He began with an eulogy of the gods and the Republic; the Barbariansought to congratulate themselves on having served it. But they must showthemselves more reasonable; times were hard, "and if a master has onlythree olives, is it not right that he should keep two for himself?"

The old Suffet mingled his speech in this way with proverbs andapologues, nodding his head the while to solicit some approval. 

He spoke in Punic, and those surrounding him (the most alert, whohad hastened thither without their arms), were Campanians, Gauls, andGreeks, so that no one in the crowd understood him. Hanno, perceivingthis, stopped and reflected, swaying himself heavily from one leg to theother. 

It occurred to him to call the captains together; then his heraldsshouted the order in Greek, the language which, from the time ofXanthippus, had been used for commands in the Carthaginian armies. 

The guards dispersed the mob of soldiers with strokes of the whip; andthe captains of the Spartan phalanxes and the chiefs of the Barbariancohorts soon arrived with the insignia of their rank, and in thearmour of their nation. Night had fallen, a great tumult was spreadingthroughout the plain; fires were burning here and there; and thesoldiers kept going from one to another asking what the matter was, andwhy the Suffet did not distribute the money?

He was setting the infinite burdens of the Republic before the captains. Her treasury was empty. The tribute to Rome was crushing her. "We arequite at a loss what to do! She is much to be pitied!"

From time to time he would rub his limbs with his aloe-wood spatula, or perhaps he would break off to drink a ptisan made of the ashes of aweasel and asparagus boiled in vinegar from a silver cup handed tohim by a slave; then he would wipe his lips with a scarlet napkin andresume:

"What used to be worth a shekel of silver is now worth three shekelsof gold, while the cultivated lands which were abandoned during the warbring in nothing! Our purpura fisheries are nearly gone, and even pearlsare becoming exhorbitant; we have scarcely unguents enough for theservice of the gods! As for the things of the table, I shall say nothingabout them; it is a calamity! For want of galleys we are without spices, and it is a matter of great difficulty to procure silphium on accountof the rebellions on the Cyrenian frontier. Sicily, where so many slavesused to be had, is now closed to us! Only yesterday I gave more moneyfor a bather and four scullions than I used at one time to give for apair of elephants!"

He unrolled a long piece of papyrus; and, without omitting a singlefigure, read all the expenses that the government had incurred; so muchfor repairing the temples, for paving the streets, for the constructionof vessels, for the coral-fisheries, for the enlargement of theSyssitia, and for engines in the mines in the country of theCantabrians. 

But the captains understood Punic as little as the soldiers, althoughthe Mercenaries saluted one another in that language. It was usual toplace a few Carthaginian officers in the Barbarian armies to act asinterpreters; after the war they had concealed themselves through fearof vengeance, and Hanno had not thought of taking them with him; hishollow voice, too, was lost in the wind. 

The Greeks, girthed in their iron waist-belts, strained their ears asthey strove to guess at his words, while the mountaineers, covered withfurs like bears, looked at him with distrust, or yawned as they leanedon their brass-nailed clubs. The heedless Gauls sneered as theyshook their lofty heads of hair, and the men of the desert listenedmotionless, cowled in their garments of grey wool; others kept coming upbehind; the guards, crushed by the mob, staggered on their horses;the Negroes held out burning fir branches at arm's length; and the bigCarthaginian, mounted on a grassy hillock, continued his harangue. 

The Barbarians, however, were growing impatient; murmuring arose, andevery one apostrophized him. Hanno gesticulated with his spatula; andthose who wished the others to be quiet shouted still more loudly, thereby adding to the din. 

Suddenly a man of mean appearance bounded to Hanno's feet, snatched upa herald's trumpet, blew it, and Spendius (for it was he) announced thathe was going to say something of importance. At this declaration, whichwas rapidly uttered in five different languages, Greek, Latin, Gallic, Libyan and Balearic, the captains, half laughing and half surprised, replied: "Speak! Speak!"

Spendius hesitated; he trembled; at last, addressing the Libyans whowere the most numerous, he said to them:

"You have all heard this man's horrible threats!"

Hanno made no exclamation, therefore he did not understand Libyan; and, to carry on the experiment, Spendius repeated the same phrase in theother Barbarian dialects. 

They looked at one another in astonishment; then, as by a tacitagreement, and believing perhaps that they had understood, they benttheir heads in token of assent. 

Then Spendius began in vehement tones:

"He said first that all the Gods of the other nations were but dreamsbesides the Gods of Carthage! He called you cowards, thieves, liars, dogs, and the sons of dogs! But for you (he said that!) the Republicwould not be forced to pay excessive tribute to the Romans; and throughyour excesses you have drained it of perfumes, aromatics, slaves, and silphium, for you are in league with the nomads on the Cyrenianfrontier! But the guilty shall be punished! He read the enumeration oftheir torments; they shall be made to work at the paving of the streets, at the equipment of the vessels, at the adornment of the Syssitia, whilethe rest shall be sent to scrape the earth in the mines in the countryof the Cantabrians. "

Spendius repeated the same statements to the Gauls, Greeks, Campaniansand Balearians. The Mercenaries, recognising several of the propernames which had met their ears, were convinced that he was accuratelyreporting the Suffet's speech. A few cried out to him, "You lie!" buttheir voices were drowned in the tumult of the rest; Spendius added:

"Have you not seen that he has left a reserve of his horse-soldiersoutside the camp? At a given signal they will hasten hither to slay youall. "

The Barbarians turned in that direction, and as the crowd was thenscattering, there appeared in the midst of them, and advancing with theslowness of a phantom, a human being, bent, lean, entirely naked, andcovered down to his flanks with long hair bristling with dried leaves, dust and thorns. About his loins and his knees he had wisps of straw andlinen rags; his soft and earthy skin hung on his emaciated limbs liketatters on dried boughs; his hands trembled with a continuous quivering, and as he walked he leaned on a staff of olive-wood. 

He reached the Negroes who were bearing the torches. His pale gums weredisplayed in a sort of idiotic titter; his large, scared eyes gazed uponthe crowd of Barbarians around him. 

But uttering a cry of terror he threw himself behind them, shieldinghimself with their bodies. "There they are! There they are!" hestammered out, pointing to the Suffet's guards, who were motionlessin their glittering armour. Their horses, dazzled by the light of thetorches which crackled in the darkness, were pawing the ground; thehuman spectre struggled and howled:

"They have killed them!"

At these words, which were screamed in Balearic, some Balearians came upand recognised him; without answering them he repeated:

"Yes, all killed, all! crushed like grapes! The fine young men! theslingers! my companions and yours!"

They gave him wine to drink, and he wept; then he launched forth intospeech. 

Spendius could scarcely repress his joy, as he explained the horrorsrelated by Zarxas to the Greeks and Libyans; he could not believe them, so appropriately did they come in. The Balearians grew pale as theylearned how their companions had perished. 

It was a troop of three hundred slingers who had disembarked the eveningbefore, and had on that day slept too late. When they reached thesquare of Khamon the Barbarians were gone, and they found themselvesdefenceless, their clay bullets having been put on the camels with therest of the baggage. They were allowed to advance into the street ofSatheb as far as the brass sheathed oaken gate; then the people with asingle impulse had sprung upon them. 

Indeed, the soldiers remembered a great shout; Spendius, who was flyingat the head of the columns, had not heard it. 

Then the corpses were placed in the arms of the Pataec gods that fringedthe temple of Khamon. They were upbraided with all the crimes of theMercenaries; their gluttony, their thefts, their impiety, their disdain, and the murder of the fishes in Salammbo's garden. Their bodies weresubjected to infamous mutilations; the priests burned their hairin order to torture their souls; they were hung up in pieces in themeat-shops; some even buried their teeth in them, and in the eveningfuneral-piles were kindled at the cross-ways to finish them. 

These were the flames that had gleamed from a distance across the lake. But some houses having taken fire, any dead or dying that remained werespeedily thrown over the walls; Zarxas had remained among the reeds onthe edge of the lake until the following day; then he had wandered aboutthrough the country, seeking for the army by the footprints in the dust. In the morning he hid himself in caves; in the evening he resumed hismarch with his bleeding wounds, famished, sick, living on roots andcarrion; at last one day he perceived lances on the horizon, and hehad followed them, for his reason was disturbed through his terrors andmiseries. 

The indignation of the soldiers, restrained so long as he was speaking, broke forth like a tempest; they were going to massacre the guardstogether with the Suffet. A few interposed, saying that they ought tohear him and know at least whether they should be paid. Then they allcried: "Our money!" Hanno replied that he had brought it. 

They ran to the outposts, and the Suffet's baggage arrived in the midstof the tents, pressed forward by the Barbarians. Without waiting forthe slaves, they very quickly unfastened the baskets; in them theyfound hyacinth robes, sponges, scrapers, brushes, perfumes, and antimonypencils for painting the eyes--all belonging to the guards, who wererich men and accustomed to such refinements. Next they uncovered a largebronze tub on a camel: it belonged to the Suffet who had it for bathingin during his journey; for he had taken all manner of precautions, evengoing so far as to bring caged weasels from Hecatompylos, which wereburnt alive to make his ptisan. But, as his malady gave him a greatappetite, there were also many comestibles and many wines, pickle, meatsand fishes preserved in honey, with little pots of Commagene, or meltedgoose-fat covered with snow and chopped straw. There was a considerablesupply of it; the more they opened the baskets the more they found, andlaughter arose like conflicting waves. 

As to the pay of the Mercenaries it nearly filled two esparto-grassbaskets; there were even visible in one of them some of the leatherndiscs which the Republic used to economise its specie; and as theBarbarians appeared greatly surprised, Hanno told them that, theiraccounts being very difficult, the Ancients had not had leisure toexamine them. Meanwhile they had sent them this. 

Then everything was in disorder and confusion: mules, serving men, litter, provisions, and baggage. The soldiers took the coin in the bagsto stone Hanno. With great difficulty he was able to mount an ass; andhe fled, clinging to its hair, howling, weeping, shaken, bruised, andcalling down the curse of all the gods upon the army. His broad necklaceof precious stones rebounded up to his ears. His cloak which was toolong, and which trailed behind him, he kept on with his teeth, and fromafar the Barbarians shouted at him, "Begone coward! pig! sink of Moloch!sweat your gold and your plague! quicker! quicker!" The routed escortgalloped beside him. 

But the fury of the Barbarians did not abate. They remembered thatseveral of them who had set out for Carthage had not returned; no doubtthey had been killed. So much injustice exasperated them, and they beganto pull up the stakes of their tents, to roll up their cloaks, and tobridle their horses; every one took his helmet and sword, and instantlyall was ready. Those who had no arms rushed into the woods to cutstaves. 

Day dawned; the people of Sicca were roused, and stirring in thestreets. "They are going to Carthage, " said they, and the rumour of thissoon spread through the country. 

From every path and every ravine men arose. Shepherds were seen runningdown from the mountains. 

Then, when the Barbarians had set out, Spendius circled the plain, riding on a Punic stallion, and attended by his slave, who led a thirdhorse. 

A single tent remained. Spendius entered it. 

"Up, master! rise! we are departing!"

"And where are you going?" asked Matho. 

"To Carthage!" cried Spendius. 

Matho bounded upon the horse which the slave held at the door. 

CHAPTER III

SALAMMBO

The moon was rising just above the waves, and on the town whichwas still wrapped in darkness there glittered white and luminousspecks:--the pole of a chariot, a dangling rag of linen, the corner of awall, or a golden necklace on the bosom of a god. The glass balls onthe roofs of the temples beamed like great diamonds here and there. But ill-defined ruins, piles of black earth, and gardens formed deepermasses in the gloom, and below Malqua fishermen's nets stretched fromone house to another like gigantic bats spreading their wings. Thegrinding of the hydraulic wheels which conveyed water to the higheststorys of the palaces, was no longer heard; and the camels, lyingostrich fashion on their stomachs, rested peacefully in the middle ofthe terraces. The porters were asleep in the streets on the thresholdsof the houses; the shadows of the colossuses stretched across thedeserted squares; occasionally in the distance the smoke of a stillburning sacrifice would escape through the bronze tiling, and the heavybreeze would waft the odours of aromatics blended with the scent of thesea and the exhalation from the sun-heated walls. The motionless wavesshone around Carthage, for the moon was spreading her light at once uponthe mountain-circled gulf and upon the lake of Tunis, where flamingoesformed long rose-coloured lines amid the banks of sand, while furtheron beneath the catacombs the great salt lagoon shimmered like a pieceof silver. The blue vault of heaven sank on the horizon in one directioninto the dustiness of the plains, and in the other into the mists of thesea, and on the summit of the Acropolis, the pyramidal cypress trees, fringing the temple of Eschmoun, swayed murmuring like the regular wavesthat beat slowly along the mole beneath the ramparts. 

Salammbo ascended to the terrace of her palace, supported by a femaleslave who carried an iron dish filled with live coals. 

In the middle of the terrace there was a small ivory bed coveredwith lynx skins, and cushions made with the feathers of the parrot, afatidical animal consecrated to the gods; and at the four corners rosefour long perfuming-pans filled with nard, incense, cinnamomum, andmyrrh. The slave lit the perfumes. Salammbo looked at the polar star;she slowly saluted the four points of heaven, and knelt down on theground in the azure dust which was strewn with golden stars in imitationof the firmament. Then with both elbows against her sides, her fore-armsstraight and her hands open, she threw back her head beneath the rays ofthe moon, and said:

"O Rabetna!--Baalet!--Tanith!" and her voice was lengthened in aplaintive fashion as if calling to some one. "Anaitis! Astarte! Derceto!Astoreth! Mylitta! Athara! Elissa! Tiratha!--By the hidden symbols, bythe resounding sistra, --by the furrows of the earth, --by the eternalsilence and by the eternal fruitfulness, --mistress of the gloomy sea andof the azure shores, O Queen of the watery world, all hail!"

She swayed her whole body twice or thrice, and then cast herself facedownwards in the dust with both arms outstretched. 

But the slave nimbly raised her, for according to the rites someone mustcatch the suppliant at the moment of his prostration; this told him thatthe gods accepted him, and Salammbo's nurse never failed in this piousduty. 

Some merchants from Darytian Gaetulia had brought her to Carthage whenquite young, and after her enfranchisement she would not forsake her oldmasters, as was shown by her right ear, which was pierced with a largehole. A petticoat of many-coloured stripes fitted closely on her hips, and fell to her ankles, where two tin rings clashed together. Hersomewhat flat face was yellow like her tunic. Silver bodkins of greatlength formed a sun behind her head. She wore a coral button on thenostril, and she stood beside the bed more erect than a Hermes, and withher eyelids cast down. 

Salammbo walked to the edge of the terrace; her eyes swept the horizonfor an instant, and then were lowered upon the sleeping town, while thesigh that she heaved swelled her bosom, and gave an undulating movementto the whole length of the long white simar which hung without clasp orgirdle about her. Her curved and painted sandals were hidden beneatha heap of emeralds, and a net of purple thread was filled with herdisordered hair. 

But she raised her head to gaze upon the moon, and murmured, minglingher speech with fragments of hymns:

"How lightly turnest thou, supported by the impalpable ether! Itbrightens about thee, and 'tis the stir of thine agitation thatdistributes the winds and fruitful dews. According as thou dost waxand wane the eyes of cats and spots of panthers lengthen or grow short. Wives shriek thy name in the pangs of childbirth! Thou makest the shellsto swell, the wine to bubble, and the corpse to putrefy! Thou formestthe pearls at the bottom of the sea!

"And every germ, O goddess! ferments in the dark depths of thy moisture. 

"When thou appearest, quietness is spread abroad upon the earth; theflowers close, the waves are soothed, wearied man stretches his breasttoward thee, and the world with its oceans and mountains looks atitself in thy face as in a mirror. Thou art white, gentle, luminous, immaculate, helping, purifying, serene!"

The crescent of the moon was then over the mountain of the Hot Springs, in the hollow formed by its two summits, on the other side of the gulf. Below it there was a little star, and all around it a pale circle. Salammbo went on:

"But thou art a terrible mistress!--Monsters, terrifying phantoms, andlying dreams come from thee; thine eyes devour the stones of buildings, and the apes are ever ill each time thou growest young again. 

"Whither goest thou? Why dost thou change thy forms continually? Now, slender and curved thou glidest through space like a mastless galley;and then, amid the stars, thou art like a shepherd keeping his flock. Shining and round, thou dost graze the mountain-tops like the wheel of achariot. 

"O Tanith! thou dost love me? I have looked so much on thee! But no!thou sailest through thine azure, and I--I remain on the motionlessearth. 

"Taanach, take your nebal and play softly on the silver string, for myheart is sad!"

The slave lifted a sort of harp of ebony wood, taller than herself, and triangular in shape like a delta; she fixed the point in a crystalglobe, and with both hands began to play. 

The sounds followed one another hurried and deep, like the buzzing ofbees, and with increasing sonorousness floated away into the night withthe complaining of the waves, and the rustling of the great trees on thesummit of the Acropolis. 

"Hush!" cried Salammbo. 

"What ails you, mistress? The blowing of the breeze, the passing of acloud, everything disquiets you just now!"

"I do not know, " she said. 

"You are wearied with too long prayers!"

"Oh! Tanaach, I would fain be dissolved in them like a flower in wine!"

"Perhaps it is the smoke of your perfumes?"

"No!" said Salammbo; "the spirit of the gods dwells in fragrant odours. "

Then the slave spoke to her of her father. It was thought that he hadgone towards the amber country, behind the pillars of Melkarth. "But ifhe does not return, " she said, "you must nevertheless, since it was hiswill, choose a husband among the sons of the Ancients, and then yourgrief will pass away in a man's arms. "

"Why?" asked the young girl. All those that she had seen had horrifiedher with their fallow-deer laughter and their coarse limbs. 

"Sometimes, Tanaach, from the depths of my being there exhale as it werehot fumes heavier than the vapours from a volcano. Voices call me, aglobe of fire rolls and mounts within my bosom, it stifles me, I am atthe point of death; and then, something sweet, flowing from my brow tomy feet, passes through my flesh--it is a caress enfolding me, and Ifeel myself crushed as if some god were stretched upon me. Oh! wouldthat I could lose myself in the mists of the night, the waters of thefountains, the sap of the trees, that I could issue from my body, and bebut a breath, or a ray, and glide, mount up to thee, O Mother!"

She raised her arms to their full length, arching her form, which inits long garment was as pale and light as the moon. Then she fell back, panting, on the ivory couch; but Taanach passed an amber necklace withdolphin's teeth about her neck to banish terrors, and Salammbo said inan almost stifled voice: "Go and bring me Schahabarim. "

Her father had not wished her to enter the college of priestesses, nor even to be made at all acquainted with the popular Tanith. He wasreserving her for some alliance that might serve his political ends;so that Salammbo lived alone in the midst of the palace. Her mother waslong since dead. 

She had grown up with abstinences, fastings and purifications, alwayssurrounded by grave and exquisite things, her body saturated withperfumes, and her soul filled with prayers. She had never tasted wine, nor eaten meat, nor touched an unclean animal, nor set her heels in thehouse of death. 

She knew nothing of obscene images, for as each god was manifestedin different forms, the same principle often received the witness ofcontradictory cults, and Salammbo worshipped the goddess in her siderealpresentation. An influence had descended upon the maiden from themoon; when the planet passed diminishing away, Salammbo grew weak. Shelanguished the whole day long, and revived at evening. During an eclipseshe nearly died. 

But Rabetna, in jealousy, revenged herself for the virginity withdrawnfrom her sacrifices, and she tormented Salammbo with possessions, allthe stronger for being vague, which were spread through this belief andexcited by it. 

Unceasingly was Hamilcar's daughter disquieted about Tanith. She hadlearned her adventures, her travels, and all her names, which she wouldrepeat without their having any distinct signification for her. Inorder to penetrate into the depths of her dogma, she wished to becomeacquainted, in the most secret part of the temple, with the old idol inthe magnificent mantle, whereon depended the destinies of Carthage, forthe idea of a god did not stand out clearly from his representation, and to hold, or even see the image of one, was to take away part of hisvirtue, and in a measure to rule him. 

But Salammbo turned around. She had recognised the sound of the goldenbells which Schahabarim wore at the hem of his garment. 

He ascended the staircases; then at the threshold of the terrace hestopped and folded his arms. 

His sunken eyes shone like the lamps of a sepulchre; his long thin bodyfloated in its linen robe which was weighted by the bells, the latteralternating with balls of emeralds at his heels. He had feeble limbs, anoblique skull and a pointed chin; his skin seemed cold to the touch, andhis yellow face, which was deeply furrowed with wrinkles, was as if itcontracted in a longing, in an everlasting grief. 

He was the high priest of Tanith, and it was he who had educatedSalammbo. 

"Speak!" he said. "What will you?"

"I hoped--you had almost promised me--" She stammered and was confused;then suddenly: "Why do you despise me? what have I forgotten inthe rites? You are my master, and you told me that no one was soaccomplished in the things pertaining to the goddess as I; but there aresome of which you will not speak. Is it so, O father?"

Schahabarim remembered Hamilcar's orders, and replied:

"No, I have nothing more to teach you!"

"A genius, " she resumed, "impels me to this love. I have climbed thesteps of Eschmoun, god of the planets and intelligences; I have sleptbeneath the golden olive of Melkarth, patron of the Tyrian colonies;I have pushed open the doors of Baal-Khamon, the enlightener andfertiliser; I have sacrificed to the subterranean Kabiri, to the godsof woods, winds, rivers and mountains; but, can you understand? theyare all too far away, too high, too insensible, while she--I feelher mingled in my life; she fills my soul, and I quiver with inwardstartings, as though she were leaping in order to escape. Methinks I amabout to hear her voice, and see her face, lightnings dazzle me and thenI sink back again into the darkness. "

Schahabarim was silent. She entreated him with suppliant looks. Atlast he made a sign for the dismissal of the slave, who was not ofChanaanitish race. Taanach disappeared, and Schahabarim, raising one armin the air, began:

"Before the gods darkness alone was, and a breathing stirred dulland indistinct as the conscience of a man in a dream. It contracted, creating Desire and Cloud, and from Desire and Cloud there issuedprimitive Matter. This was a water, muddy, black, icy and deep. Itcontained senseless monsters, incoherent portions of the forms to beborn, which are painted on the walls of the sanctuaries. 

"Then Matter condensed. It became an egg. It burst. One half formed theearth and the other the firmament. Sun, moon, winds and clouds appeared, and at the crash of the thunder intelligent creatures awoke. ThenEschmoun spread himself in the starry sphere; Khamon beamed in the sun;Melkarth thrust him with his arms behind Gades; the Kabiri descendedbeneath the volcanoes, and Rabetna like a nurse bent over the worldpouring out her light like milk, and her night like a mantle. "

"And then?" she said. 

He had related the secret of the origins to her, to divert her fromsublimer prospects; but the maiden's desire kindled again at his lastwords, and Schahabarim, half yielding resumed:

"She inspires and governs the loves of men. "

"The loves of men!" repeated Salammbo dreamily. 

"She is the soul of Carthage, " continued the priest; "and although sheis everywhere diffused, it is here that she dwells, beneath the sacredveil. "

"O father!" cried Salammbo, "I shall see her, shall I not? you willbring me to her! I had long been hesitating; I am devoured withcuriosity to see her form. Pity! help me! let us go?"

He repulsed her with a vehement gesture that was full of pride. 

"Never! Do you not know that it means death? The hermaphrodite Baals areunveiled to us alone who are men in understanding and women in weakness. Your desire is sacrilege; be satisfied with the knowledge that youpossess!"

She fell upon her knees placing two fingers against her ears in token ofrepentance; and crushed by the priest's words, and filled at once withanger against him, with terror and humiliation, she burst into sobs. Schahabarim remained erect, and more insensible than the stones of theterrace. He looked down upon her quivering at his feet, and felt a kindof joy on seeing her suffer for his divinity whom he himself could notwholly embrace. The birds were already singing, a cold wind was blowing, and little clouds were drifting in the paling sky. 

Suddenly he perceived on the horizon, behind Tunis, what looked likeslight mists trailing along the ground; then these became a greatcurtain of dust extending perpendicularly, and, amid the whirlwinds ofthe thronging mass, dromedaries' heads, lances and shields appeared. Itwas the army of the Barbarians advancing upon Carthage. 

CHAPTER IV

BENEATH THE WALLS OF CARTHAGE

Some country people, riding on asses or running on foot, arrived in thetown, pale, breathless, and mad with fear. They were flying before thearmy. It had accomplished the journey from Sicca in three days, in orderto reach Carthage and wholly exterminate it. 

The gates were shut. The Barbarians appeared almost immediately; butthey stopped in the middle of the isthmus, on the edge of the lake. 

At first they made no hostile announcement. Several approached with palmbranches in their hands. They were driven back with arrows, so great wasthe terror. 

In the morning and at nightfall prowlers would sometimes wander alongthe walls. A little man carefully wrapped in a cloak, and with his faceconcealed beneath a very low visor, was especially noticed. He wouldremain whole hours gazing at the aqueduct, and so persistently that hedoubtless wished to mislead the Carthaginians as to his real designs. Another man, a sort of giant who walked bareheaded, used to accompanyhim. 

But Carthage was defended throughout the whole breadth of the isthmus:first by a trench, then by a grassy rampart, and lastly by a wall thirtycubits high, built of freestone, and in two storys. It contained stablesfor three hundred elephants with stores for their caparisons, shackles, and food; other stables again for four thousand horses with suppliesof barley and harness, and barracks for twenty thousand soldiers witharmour and all materials of war. Towers rose from the second story, allprovided with battlements, and having bronze bucklers hung on cramps onthe outside. 

This first line of wall gave immediate shelter to Malqua, the sailors'and dyers' quarter. Masts might be seen whereon purple sails weredrying, and on the highest terraces clay furnaces for heating the picklewere visible. 

Behind, the lofty houses of the city rose in an ampitheatre of cubicalform. They were built of stone, planks, shingle, reeds, shells, andbeaten earth. The woods belonging to the temples were like lakes ofverdure in this mountain of diversely-coloured blocks. It was levelledat unequal distances by the public squares, and was cut from top tobottom by countless intersecting lanes. The enclosures of the three oldquarters which are now lost might be distinguished; they rose hereand there like great reefs, or extended in enormous fronts, blackened, half-covered with flowers, and broadly striped by the casting of filth, while streets passed through their yawning apertures like rivers beneathbridges. 

The hill of the Acropolis, in the centre of Byrsa, was hidden beneath adisordered array of monuments. There were temples with wreathed columnsbearing bronze capitals and metal chains, cones of dry stones with bandsof azure, copper cupolas, marble architraves, Babylonian buttresses, obelisks poised on their points like inverted torches. Peristylesreached to pediments; volutes were displayed through colonnades; granitewalls supported tile partitions; the whole mounting, half-hidden, theone above the other in a marvellous and incomprehensible fashion. In itmight be felt the succession of the ages, and, as it were, the memorialsof forgotten fatherlands. 

Behind the Acropolis the Mappalian road, which was lined with tombs, extended through red lands in a straight line from the shore to thecatacombs; then spacious dwellings occurred at intervals in the gardens, and this third quarter, Megara, which was the new town, reached as faras the edge of the cliff, where rose a giant pharos that blazed forthevery night. 

In this fashion was Carthage displayed before the soldiers quartered inthe plain. 

They could recognise the markets and crossways in the distance, anddisputed with one another as to the sites of the temples. Khamon's, fronting the Syssitia, had golden tiles; Melkarth, to the left ofEschmoun, had branches of coral on its roofing; beyond, Tanith's coppercupola swelled among the palm trees; the dark Moloch was belowthe cisterns, in the direction of the pharos. At the angles of thepediments, on the tops of the walls, at the corners of the squares, everywhere, divinities with hideous heads might be seen, colossal orsquat, with enormous bellies, or immoderately flattened, opening theirjaws, extending their arms, and holding forks, chains or javelins intheir hands; while the blue of the sea stretched away behind the streetswhich were rendered still steeper by the perspective. 

They were filled from morning till evening with a tumultuous people;young boys shaking little bells, shouted at the doors of the baths; theshops for hot drinks smoked, the air resounded with the noise of anvils, the white cocks, sacred to the Sun, crowed on the terraces, the oxenthat were being slaughtered bellowed in the temples, slaves ran aboutwith baskets on their heads; and in the depths of the porticoes a priestwould sometimes appear, draped in a dark cloak, barefooted, and wearinga pointed cap. 

The spectacle afforded by Carthage irritated the Barbarians; theyadmired it and execrated it, and would have liked both to annihilate itand to dwell in it. But what was there in the Military Harbour defendedby a triple wall? Then behind the town, at the back of Megara, andhigher than the Acropolis, appeared Hamilcar's palace. 

Matho's eyes were directed thither every moment. He would ascend theolive trees and lean over with his hand spread out above his eyebrows. The gardens were empty, and the red door with its black cross remainedconstantly shut. 

More than twenty times he walked round the ramparts, seeking some breachby which he might enter. One night he threw himself into the gulf andswam for three hours at a stretch. He reached the foot of the Mappalianquarter and tried to climb up the face of the cliff. He covered hisknees with blood, broke his nails, and then fell back into the waves andreturned. 

His impotence exasperated him. He was jealous of this Carthage whichcontained Salammbo, as if of some one who had possessed her. Hisnervelessness left him to be replaced by a mad and continual eagernessfor action. With flaming cheek, angry eyes, and hoarse voice, he wouldwalk with rapid strides through the camp; or seated on the shore hewould scour his great sword with sand. He shot arrows at the passingvultures. His heart overflowed into frenzied speech. 

"Give free course to your wrath like a runaway chariot, " said Spendius. "Shout, blaspheme, ravage and slay. Grief is allayed with blood, andsince you cannot sate your love, gorge your hate; it will sustain you!"

Matho resumed the command of his soldiers. He drilled them pitilessly. He was respected for his courage and especially for his strength. Moreover he inspired a sort of mystic dread, and it was believed thathe conversed at night with phantoms. The other captains were animatedby his example. The army soon grew disciplined. From their houses theCarthaginians could hear the bugle-flourishes that regulated theirexercises. At last the Barbarians drew near. 

To crush them in the isthmus it would have been necessary for two armiesto take them simultaneously in the rear, one disembarking at the end ofthe gulf of Utica, and the second at the mountain of the Hot Springs. But what could be done with the single sacred Legion, mustering at mostsix thousand men? If the enemy bent towards the east they would join thenomads and intercept the commerce of the desert. If they fell back tothe west, Numidia would rise. Finally, lack of provisions wouldsooner or later lead them to devastate the surrounding country likegrasshoppers, and the rich trembled for their fine country-houses, theirvineyards and their cultivated lands. 

Hanno proposed atrocious and impracticable measures, such as promising aheavy sum for every Barbarian's head, or setting fire to their camp withships and machines. His colleague Gisco, on the other hand, wished themto be paid. But the Ancients detested him owing to his popularity; forthey dreaded the risk of a master, and through terror of monarchy stroveto weaken whatever contributed to it or might re-establish it. 

Outside the fortification there were people of another race and ofunknown origin, all hunters of the porcupine, and eaters of shell-fishand serpents. They used to go into caves to catch hyenas alive, andamuse themselves by making them run in the evening on the sands ofMegara between the stelae of the tombs. Their huts, which were made ofmud and wrack, hung on the cliff like swallows' nests. There they lived, without government and without gods, pell-mell, completely naked, atonce feeble and fierce, and execrated by the people of all time onaccount of their unclean food. One morning the sentries perceived thatthey were all gone. 

At last some members of the Great Council arrived at a decision. Theycame to the camp without necklaces or girdles, and in open sandalslike neighbours. They walked at a quiet pace, waving salutations tothe captains, or stopped to speak to the soldiers, saying that all wasfinished and that justice was about to be done to their claims. 

Many of them saw a camp of Mercenaries for the first time. Instead ofthe confusion which they had pictured to themselves, there prevailedeverywhere terrible silence and order. A grassy rampart formed a loftywall round the army immovable by the shock of catapults. The ground inthe streets was sprinkled with fresh water; through the holes in thetents they could perceive tawny eyeballs gleaming in the shade. Thepiles of pikes and hanging panoplies dazzled them like mirrors. Theyconversed in low tones. They were afraid of upsetting something withtheir long robes. 

The soldiers requested provisions, undertaking to pay for them out ofthe money that was due. 

Oxen, sheep, guinea fowl, fruit and lupins were sent to them, withsmoked scombri, that excellent scombri which Carthage dispatched toevery port. But they walked scornfully around the magnificent cattle, and disparaging what they coveted, offered the worth of a pigeon fora ram, or the price of a pomegranate for three goats. The Eaters ofUncleanness came forward as arbitrators, and declared that they werebeing duped. Then they drew their swords with threats to slay. 

Commissaries of the Great Council wrote down the number of years forwhich pay was due to each soldier. But it was no longer possible to knowhow many Mercenaries had been engaged, and the Ancients were dismayed atthe enormous sum which they would have to pay. The reserve of silphiummust be sold, and the trading towns taxed; the Mercenaries would growimpatient; Tunis was already with them; and the rich, stunned by Hanno'sragings and his colleague's reproaches, urged any citizens who mightknow a Barbarian to go to see him immediately in order to win backhis friendship, and to speak him fair. Such a show of confidence wouldsoothe them. 

Traders, scribes, workers in the arsenal, and whole families visited theBarbarians. 

The soldiers allowed all the Carthaginians to come in, but by a singlepassage so narrow that four men abreast jostled one another in it. Spendius, standing against the barrier, had them carefully searched;facing him Matho was examining the multitude, trying to recognise someone whom he might have seen at Salammbo's palace. 

The camp was like a town, so full of people and of movement was it. Thetwo distinct crowds mingled without blending, one dressed in linen orwool, with felt caps like fir-cones, and the other clad in iron andwearing helmets. Amid serving men and itinerant vendors there movedwomen of all nations, as brown as ripe dates, as greenish as olives, as yellow as oranges, sold by sailors, picked out of dens, stolen fromcaravans, taken in the sacking of towns, women that were jaded with loveso long as they were young, and plied with blows when they were old, andthat died in routs on the roadsides among the baggage and the abandonedbeasts of burden. The wives of the nomads had square, tawny robes ofdromedary's hair swinging at their heels; musicians from Cyrenaica, wrapped in violet gauze and with painted eyebrows, sang, squatting onmats; old Negresses with hanging breasts gathered the animals' dungthat was drying in the sun to light their fires; the Syracusan women hadgolden plates in their hair; the Lusitanians had necklaces of shells;the Gauls wore wolf skins upon their white bosoms; and sturdy children, vermin-covered, naked and uncircumcised, butted with their heads againstpassers-by, or came behind them like young tigers to bite their hands. 

The Carthaginians walked through the camp, surprised at the quantitiesof things with which it was running over. The most miserable weremelancholy, and the rest dissembled their anxiety. 

The soldiers struck them on the shoulder, and exhorted them to be gay. As soon as they saw any one, they invited him to their amusements. Ifthey were playing at discus, they would manage to crush his feet, orif at boxing to fracture his jaw with the very first blow. The slingersterrified the Carthaginians with their slings, the Psylli with theirvipers, and the horsemen with their horses, while their victims, addicted as they were to peaceful occupations, bent their heads andtried to smile at all these outrages. Some, in order to show themselvesbrave, made signs that they should like to become soldiers. They wereset to split wood and to curry mules. They were buckled up in armour, and rolled like casks through the streets of the camp. Then, whenthey were about to leave, the Mercenaries plucked out their hair withgrotesque contortions. 

But many, from foolishness or prejudice, innocently believed that allthe Carthaginians were very rich, and they walked behind them entreatingthem to grant them something. They requested everything that theythought fine: a ring, a girdle, sandals, the fringe of a robe, and whenthe despoiled Carthaginian cried--"But I have nothing left. What do youwant?" they would reply, "Your wife!" Others even said, "Your life!"

The military accounts were handed to the captains, read to the soldiers, and definitively approved. Then they claimed tents; they received them. Next the polemarchs of the Greeks demanded some of the handsome suits ofarmour that were manufactured at Carthage; the Great Council votedsums of money for their purchase. But it was only fair, so the horsemenpretended, that the Republic should indemnify them for their horses;one had lost three at such a siege, another, five during such a march, another, fourteen in the precipices. Stallions from Hecatompylos wereoffered to them, but they preferred money. 

Next they demanded that they should be paid in money (in pieces ofmoney, and not in leathern coins) for all the corn that was owing tothem, and at the highest price that it had fetched during the war; sothat they exacted four hundred times as much for a measure of meal asthey had given for a sack of wheat. Such injustice was exasperating; butit was necessary, nevertheless, to submit. 

Then the delegates from the soldiers and from the Great Council sworerenewed friendship by the Genius of Carthage and the gods of theBarbarians. They exchanged excuses and caresses with orientaldemonstrativeness and verbosity. Then the soldiers claimed, as a proofof friendship, the punishment of those who had estranged them from theRepublic. 

Their meaning, it was pretended, was not understood, and they explainedthemselves more clearly by saying that they must have Hanno's head. 

Several times a day, they left their camp, and walked along the foot ofthe walls, shouting a demand that the Suffet's head should be thrown tothem, and holding out their robes to receive it. 

The Great Council would perhaps have given way but for a last exaction, more outrageous than the rest; they demanded maidens, chosen fromillustrious families, in marriage for their chiefs. It was an ideawhich had emanated from Spendius, and which many thought most simple andpracticable. But the assumption of their desire to mix with Punic bloodmade the people indignant; and they were bluntly told that they were toreceive no more. Then they exclaimed that they had been deceived, and that if their pay did not arrive within three days, they wouldthemselves go and take it in Carthage. 

The bad faith of the Mercenaries was not so complete as their enemiesthought. Hamilcar had made them extravagant promises, vague, it is true, but at the same time solemn and reiterated. They might have believedthat when they disembarked at Carthage the town would be abandoned tothem, and that they should have treasures divided among them; andwhen they saw that scarcely their wages would be paid, the disillusiontouched their pride no less than their greed. 

Had not Dionysius, Pyrrhus, Agathocles, and the generals of Alexanderfurnished examples of marvellous good fortune? Hercules, whom theChanaanites confounded with the sun, was the ideal which shone on thehorizon of armies. They knew that simple soldiers had worn diadems, andthe echoes of crumbling empires would furnish dreams to the Gaul inhis oak forest, to the Ethiopian amid his sands. But there was a nationalways ready to turn courage to account; and the robber driven fromhis tribe, the patricide wandering on the roads, the perpetrator ofsacrilege pursued by the gods, all who were starving or in despairstrove to reach the port where the Carthaginian broker was recruitingsoldiers. Usually the Republic kept its promises. This time, however, the eagerness of its avarice had brought it into perilous disgrace. Numidians, Libyans, the whole of Africa was about to fall upon Carthage. Only the sea was open to it, and there it met with the Romans; so that, like a man assailed by murderers, it felt death all around it. 

It was quite necessary to have recourse to Gisco, and the Barbariansaccepted his intervention. One morning they saw the chains of theharbour lowered, and three flat-bottomed boats passing through the canalof Taenia entered the lake. 

Gisco was visible on the first at the prow. Behind him rose an enormouschest, higher than a catafalque, and furnished with rings like hangingcrowns. Then appeared the legion of interpreters, with their hairdressed like sphinxes, and with parrots tattooed on their breasts. Friends and slaves followed, all without arms, and in such numbers thatthey shouldered one another. The three long, dangerously-loaded bargesadvanced amid the shouts of the onlooking army. 

As soon as Gisco disembarked the soldiers ran to him. He had a sort oftribune erected with knapsacks, and declared that he should not departbefore he had paid them all in full. 

There was an outburst of applause, and it was a long time before he wasable to speak. 

Then he censured the wrongs done to the Republic, and to the Barbarians;the fault lay with a few mutineers who had alarmed Carthage by theirviolence. The best proof of good intention on the part of the latter wasthat it was he, the eternal adversary of the Suffet Hanno, who was sentto them. They must not credit the people with the folly of desiring toprovoke brave men, nor with ingratitude enough not to recognise theirservices; and Gisco began to pay the soldiers, commencing with theLibyans. As they had declared that the lists were untruthful, he made nouse of them. 

They defiled before him according to nationality, opening their fingersto show the number of their years of service; they were marked insuccession with green paint on the left arm; the scribes dipped into theyawning coffer, while others made holes with a style on a sheet of lead. 

A man passed walking heavily like an ox. 

"Come up beside me, " said the Suffet, suspecting some fraud; "how manyyears have you served?"

"Twelve, " replied the Libyan. 

Gisco slipped his fingers under his chin, for the chin-piece of thehelmet used in course of time to occasion two callosities there; thesewere called carobs, and "to have the carobs" was an expression used todenote a veteran. 

"Thief!" exclaimed the Suffet, "your shoulders ought to have what yourface lacks!" and tearing off his tunic he laid bare is back which wascovered with a bleeding scab; he was a labourer from Hippo-Zarytus. Hootings were raised, and he was decapitated. 

As soon as night fell, Spendius went and roused the Libyans, and said tothem:

"When the Ligurians, Greeks, Balearians, and men of Italy are paid, they will return. But as for you, you will remain in Africa, scatteredthrough your tribes, and without any means of defence! It will be thenthat the Republic will take its revenge! Mistrust the journey! Are yougoing to believe everything that is said? Both the Suffets are agreed, and this one is imposing on you! Remember the Island of Bones, andXanthippus, whom they sent back to Sparta in a rotten galley!"

"How are we to proceed?" they asked. 

"Reflect!" said Spendius. 

The two following days were spent in paying the men of Magdala, Leptis, and Hecatompylos; Spendius went about among the Gauls. 

"They are paying off the Libyans, and then they will discharge theGreeks, the Balearians, the Asiatics and all the rest! But you, who arefew in number, will receive nothing! You will see your native lands nomore! You will have no ships, and they will kill you to save your food!"

The Gauls came to the Suffet. Autaritus, he whom he had wounded atHamilcar's palace, put questions to him, but was repelled by the slaves, and disappeared swearing he would be revenged. 

The demands and complaints multiplied. The most obstinate penetrated atnight into the Suffet's tent; they took his hands and sought to move himby making him feel their toothless mouths, their wasted arms, and thescars of their wounds. Those who had not yet been paid were growingangry, those who had received the money demanded more for their horses;and vagabonds and outlaws assumed soldiers' arms and declared that theywere being forgotten. Every minute there arrived whirlwinds of men, as it were; the tents strained and fell; the multitude, thick pressedbetween the ramparts of the camp, swayed with loud shouts from the gatesto the centre. When the tumult grew excessively violent Gisco would restone elbow on his ivory sceptre and stand motionless looking at the seawith his fingers buried in his beard. 

Matho frequently went off to speak with Spendius; then he would againplace himself in front of the Suffet, and Gisco could feel his eyescontinually like two flaming phalaricas darted against him. Severaltimes they hurled reproaches at each other over the heads of the crowd, but without making themselves heard. The distribution, meanwhile, continued, and the Suffet found expedients to remove every obstacle. 

The Greeks tried to quibble about differences in currency, but hefurnished them with such explanations that they retired without amurmur. The Negroes demanded white shells such as are used for tradingin the interior of Africa, but when he offered to send to Carthage forthem they accepted money like the rest. 

But the Balearians had been promised something better, namely, women. The Suffet replied that a whole caravan of maidens was expected forthem, but the journey was long and would require six moons more. Whenthey were fat and well rubbed with benjamin they should be sent in shipsto the ports of the Balearians. 

Suddenly Zarxas, now handsome and vigorous, leaped like a mountebankupon the shoulders of his friends and cried:

"Have you reserved any of them for the corpses?" at the same timepointing to the gate of Khamon in Carthage. 

The brass plates with which it was furnished from top to bottom shonein the sun's latest fires, and the Barbarians believed that they coulddiscern on it a trail of blood. Every time that Gisco wished to speaktheir shouts began again. At last he descended with measured steps, andshut himself up in his tent. 

When he left it at sunrise his interpreters, who used to sleep outside, did not stir; they lay on their backs with their eyes fixed, theirtongues between their teeth, and their faces of a bluish colour. Whitemucus flowed from their nostrils, and their limbs were stiff, as ifthey had all been frozen by the cold during the night. Each had a littlenoose of rushes round his neck. 

From that time onward the rebellion was unchecked. The murder of theBalearians which had been recalled by Zarxas strengthened the distrustinspired by Spendius. They imagined that the Republic was always tryingto deceive them. An end must be put to it! The interpreters should bedispensed with! Zarxas sang war songs with a sling around his head;Autaritus brandished his great sword; Spendius whispered a word to oneor gave a dagger to another. The boldest endeavoured to pay themselves, while those who were less frenzied wished to have the distributioncontinued. No one now relinquished his arms, and the anger of allcombined into a tumultuous hatred of Gisco. 

Some got up beside him. So long as they vociferated abuse they werelistened to with patience; but if they tried to utter the least word inhis behalf they were immediately stoned, or their heads were cut offby a sabre-stroke from behind. The heap of knapsacks was redder than analtar. 

They became terrible after their meal and when they had drunk wine! Thiswas an enjoyment forbidden in the Punic armies under pain of death, andthey raised their cups in the direction of Carthage in derision of itsdiscipline. Then they returned to the slaves of the exchequer and againbegan to kill. The word "strike, " though different in each language, wasunderstood by all. 

Gisco was well aware that he was being abandoned by his country; but inspite of its ingratitude he would not dishonour it. When they remindedhim that they had been promised ships, he swore by Moloch to providethem himself at his own expense, and pulling off his necklace of bluestones he threw it into the crowd as the pledge of his oath. 

Then the Africans claimed the corn in accordance with the engagementsmade by the Great Council. Gisco spread out the accounts of the Syssitiatraced in violet pigment on sheep skins; and read out all that hadentered Carthage month by month and day by day. 

Suddenly he stopped with gaping eyes, as if he had just discovered hissentence of death among the figures. 

The Ancients had, in fact, fraudulently reduced them, and the corn soldduring the most calamitous period of the war was set down at so low arate that, blindness apart, it was impossible to believe it. 

"Speak!" they shouted. "Louder! Ah! he is trying to lie, the coward!Don't trust him. "

For some time he hesitated. At last he resumed his task. 

The soldiers, without suspecting that they were being deceived, acceptedthe accounts of the Syssitia as true. But the abundance that hadprevailed at Carthage made them furiously jealous. They broke open thesycamore chest; it was three parts empty. They had seen such sums comingout of it, that they thought it inexhaustible; Gisco must have buriedsome in his tent. They scaled the knapsacks. Matho led them, and as theyshouted "The money! the money!" Gisco at last replied:

"Let your general give it to you!"

He looked them in the face without speaking, with his great yellow eyes, and his long face that was paler than his beard. An arrow, held by itsfeathers, hung from the large gold ring in his ear, and a stream ofblood was trickling from his tiara upon his shoulder. 

At a gesture from Matho all advanced. Gisco held out his arms; Spendiustied his wrists with a slip knot; another knocked him down, and hedisappeared amid the disorder of the crowd which was stumbling over theknapsacks. 

They sacked his tent. Nothing was found in it except thingsindispensable to life; and, on a closer search, three images of Tanith, and, wrapped up in an ape's skin, a black stone which had fallen fromthe moon. Many Carthaginians had chosen to accompany him; they wereeminent men, and all belonged to the war party. 

They were dragged outside the tents and thrown into the pit used for thereception of filth. They were tied with iron chains around the body tosolid stakes, and were offered food at the point of the javelin. 

Autaritus overwhelmed them with invectives as he inspected them, butbeing quite ignorant of his language they made no reply; and the Gaulfrom time to time threw pebbles at their faces to make them cry out. 

The next day a sort of languor took possession of the army. Now thattheir anger was over they were seized with anxiety. Matho was sufferingfrom vague melancholy. It seemed to him that Salammbo had indirectlybeen insulted. These rich men were a kind of appendage to her person. He sat down in the night on the edge of the pit, and recognised in theirgroanings something of the voice of which his heart was full. 

All, however, upbraided the Libyans, who alone had been paid. But whilenational antipathies revived, together with personal hatreds, it wasfelt that it would be perilous to give way to them. Reprisals aftersuch an outrage would be formidable. It was necessary, therefore, toanticipate the vengeance of Carthage. Conventions and harangues neverceased. Every one spoke, no one was listened to; Spendius, usually soloquacious, shook his head at every proposal. 

One evening he asked Matho carelessly whether there were not springs inthe interior of the town. 

"Not one!" replied Matho. 

The next day Spendius drew him aside to the bank of the lake. 

"Master!" said the former slave, "If your heart is dauntless, I willbring you into Carthage. "

"How?" repeated the other, panting. 

"Swear to execute all my commands and to follow me like a shadow!"

Then Matho, raising his arm towards the planet of Chabar, exclaimed:

"By Tanith, I swear!"

Spendius resumed:

"To-morrow after sunset you will wait for me at the foot of the aqueductbetween the ninth and tenth arcades. Bring with you an iron pick, acrestless helmet, and leathern sandals. "

The aqueduct of which he spoke crossed the entire isthmus obliquely, --aconsiderable work, afterwards enlarged by the Romans. In spite of herdisdain of other nations, Carthage had awkwardly borrowed this novelinvention from them, just as Rome herself had built Punic galleys; andfive rows of superposed arches, of a dumpy kind of architecture, withbuttresses at their foot and lions' heads at the top, reached to thewestern part of the Acropolis, where they sank beneath the town toincline what was nearly a river into the cisterns of Megara. 

Spendius met Matho here at the hour agreed upon. He fastened a sort ofharpoon to the end of a cord and whirled it rapidly like a sling; theiron instrument caught fast, and they began to climb up the wall, theone after the other. 

But when they had ascended to the first story the cramp fell back everytime that they threw it, and in order to discover some fissure they hadto walk along the edge of the cornice. At every row of arches they foundthat it became narrower. Then the cord relaxed. Several times it nearlybroke. 

At last they reached the upper platform. Spendius stooped down from timeto time to feel the stones with his hand. 

"Here it is, " he said; "let us begin!" And leaning on the pick whichMatho had brought they succeeded in dislodging one of the flagstones. 

In the distance they perceived a troop of horse-men galloping on horseswithout bridles. Their golden bracelets leaped in the vague drapingsof their cloaks. A man could be seen in front crowned with ostrichfeathers, and galloping with a lance in each hand. 

"Narr' Havas!" exclaimed Matho. 

"What matter?" returned Spendius, and he leaped into the hole which theyhad just made by removing the flagstone. 

Matho at his command tried to thrust out one of the blocks. But he couldnot move his elbows for want of room. 

"We shall return, " said Spendius; "go in front. " Then they ventured intothe channel of water. 

It reached to their waists. Soon they staggered, and were obliged toswim. Their limbs knocked against the walls of the narrow duct. Thewater flowed almost immediately beneath the stones above, and theirfaces were torn by them. Then the current carried them away. Theirbreasts were crushed with air heavier than that of a sepulchre, andstretching themselves out as much as possible with their heads betweentheir arms and their legs close together, they passed like arrows intothe darkness, choking, gurgling, and almost dead. Suddenly all becameblack before them, and the speed of the waters redoubled. They fell. 

When they came to the surface again, they remained for a few minutesextended on their backs, inhaling the air delightfully. Arcades, onebehind another, opened up amid large walls separating the variousbasins. All were filled, and the water stretched in a single sheetthroughout the length of the cisterns. Through the air-holes in thecupolas on the ceiling there fell a pale brightness which spread uponthe waves discs, as it were, of light, while the darkness round aboutthickened towards the walls and threw them back to an indefinitedistance. The slightest sound made a great echo. 

Spendius and Matho commenced to swim again, and passing through theopening of the arches, traversed several chambers in succession. Twoother rows of smaller basins extended in a parallel direction on eachside. They lost themselves; they turned, and came back again. At lastsomething offered a resistance to their heels. It was the pavement ofthe gallery that ran along the cisterns. 

Then, advancing with great precautions, they felt along the wall tofind an outlet. But their feet slipped, and they fell into the greatcentre-basins. They had to climb up again, and there they fell again. They experienced terrible fatigue, which made them feel as if all theirlimbs had been dissolved in the water while swimming. Their eyes closed;they were in the agonies of death. 

Spendius struck his hand against the bars of a grating. They shook it, it gave way, and they found themselves on the steps of a staircase. Adoor of bronze closed it above. With the point of a dagger they movedthe bar, which was opened from without, and suddenly the pure open airsurrounded them. 

The night was filled with silence, and the sky seemed at anextraordinary height. Clusters of trees projected over the long lines ofwalls. The whole town was asleep. The fires of the outposts shone likelost stars. 

Spendius, who had spent three years in the ergastulum, was butimperfectly acquainted with the different quarters. Matho conjecturedthat to reach Hamilcar's palace they ought to strike to the left andcross the Mappalian district. 

"No, " said Spendius, "take me to the temple of Tanith. "

Matho wished to speak. 

"Remember!" said the former slave, and raising his arm he showed him theglittering planet of Chabar. 

Then Matho turned in silence towards the Acropolis. 

They crept along the nopal hedges which bordered the paths. The watertrickled from their limbs upon the dust. Their damp sandals made nonoise; Spendius, with eyes that flamed more than torches, searched thebushes at every step;--and he walked behind Matho with his hands restingon the two daggers which he carried on his arms, and which hung frombelow the armpit by a leathern band. 

CHAPTER V

TANITH

After leaving the gardens Matho and Spendius found themselves checkedby the rampart of Megara. But they discovered a breach in the great walland passed through. 

The ground sloped downwards, forming a kind of very broad valley. It wasan exposed place. 

"Listen, " said Spendius, "and first of all fear nothing! I shall fulfilmy promise--"

He stopped abruptly, and seemed to reflect as though searching forwords, --"Do you remember that time at sunrise when I showed Carthage toyou on Salammbo's terrace? We were strong that day, but you would listento nothing!" Then in a grave voice: "Master, in the sanctuary of Taniththere is a mysterious veil, which fell from heaven and which covers thegoddess. "

"I know, " said Matho. 

Spendius resumed: "It is itself divine, for it forms part of her. Thegods reside where their images are. It is because Carthage possessesit that Carthage is powerful. " Then leaning over to his ear: "I havebrought you with me to carry it off!"

Matho recoiled in horror. "Begone! look for some one else! I will nothelp you in this execrable crime!"

"But Tanith is your enemy, " retorted Spendius; "she is persecuting youand you are dying through her wrath. You will be revenged upon her. Shewill obey you, and you will become almost immortal and invincible. "

Matho bent his head. Spendius continued:

"We should succumb; the army would be annihilated of itself. We haveneither flight, nor succour, nor pardon to hope for! What chastisementfrom the gods can you be afraid of since you will have their power inyour own hands? Would you rather die on the evening of a defeat, inmisery beneath the shelter of a bush, or amid the outrages of thepopulace and the flames of funeral piles? Master, one day you will enterCarthage among the colleges of the pontiffs, who will kiss your sandals;and if the veil of Tanith weighs upon you still, you will reinstate itin its temple. Follow me! come and take it. "

Matho was consumed by a terrible longing. He would have liked to possessthe veil while refraining from the sacrilege. He said to himself thatperhaps it would not be necessary to take it in order to monopolise itsvirtue. He did not go to the bottom of his thought but stopped at theboundary, where it terrified him. 

"Come on!" he said; and they went off with rapid strides, side by side, and without speaking. 

The ground rose again, and the dwellings were near. They turned againinto the narrow streets amid the darkness. The strips of esparto-grasswith which the doors were closed, beat against the walls. Some camelswere ruminating in a square before heaps of cut grass. Then they passedbeneath a gallery covered with foliage. A pack of dogs were barking. Butsuddenly the space grew wider and they recognised the western face ofthe Acropolis. At the foot of Byrsa there stretched a long black mass:it was the temple of Tanith, a whole made up of monuments and galleries, courts and fore-courts, and bounded by a low wall of dry stones. Spendius and Matho leaped over it. 

This first barrier enclosed a wood of plane-trees as a precautionagainst plague and infection in the air. Tents were scattered hereand there, in which, during the daytime, depilatory pastes, perfumes, garments, moon-shaped cakes, and images of the goddess withrepresentations of the temple hollowed out in blocks of alabaster, wereon sale. 

They had nothing to fear, for on nights when the planet did not appear, all rites were suspended; nevertheless Matho slackened his speed, andstopped before the three ebony steps leading to the second enclosure. 

"Forward!" said Spendius. 

Pomegranate, almond trees, cypresses and myrtles alternated in regularsuccession; the path, which was paved with blue pebbles, creaked beneaththeir footsteps, and full-blown roses formed a hanging bower over thewhole length of the avenue. They arrived before an oval hole protectedby a grating. Then Matho, who was frightened by the silence, said toSpendius:

"It is here that they mix the fresh water and the bitter. "

"I have seen all that, " returned the former slave, "in Syria, inthe town of Maphug"; and they ascended into the third enclosure by astaircase of six silver steps. 

A huge cedar occupied the centre. Its lowest branches were hiddenbeneath scraps of material and necklaces hung upon them by the faithful. They walked a few steps further on, and the front of the temple wasdisplayed before them. 

Two long porticoes, with their architraves resting on dumpy pillars, flanked a quadrangular tower, the platform of which was adorned withthe crescent of a moon. On the angles of the porticoes and at the fourcorners of the tower stood vases filled with kindled aromatics. Thecapitals were laden with pomegranates and coloquintidas. Twining knots, lozenges, and rows of pearls alternated on the walls, and a hedge ofsilver filigree formed a wide semicircle in front of the brass staircasewhich led down from the vestibule. 

There was a cone of stone at the entrance between a stela of gold andone of emerald, and Matho kissed his right hand as he passed beside it. 

The first room was very lofty; its vaulted roof was pierced bynumberless apertures, and if the head were raised the stars might beseen. All round the wall rush baskets were heaped up with the firstfruits of adolescence in the shape of beards and curls of hair; and inthe centre of the circular apartment the body of a woman issued from asheath which was covered with breasts. Fat, bearded, and with eyelidsdowncast, she looked as though she were smiling, while her hands werecrossed upon the lower part of her big body, which was polished by thekisses of the crowd. 

Then they found themselves again in the open air in a transversecorridor, wherein there was an altar of small dimensions leaning againstan ivory door. There was no further passage; the priests alone couldopen it; for the temple was not a place of meeting for the multitude, but the private abode of a divinity. 

"The enterprise is impossible, " said Matho. "You had not thought ofthis! Let us go back!" Spendius was examining the walls. 

He wanted the veil, not because he had confidence in its virtue(Spendius believed only in the Oracle), but because he was persuadedthat the Carthaginians would be greatly dismayed on seeing themselvesdeprived of it. They walked all round behind in order to find someoutlet. 

Aedicules of different shapes were visible beneath clusters ofturpentine trees. Here and there rose a stone phallus, and large stagsroamed peacefully about, spurning the fallen fir-cones with their clovenhoofs. 

But they retraced their steps between two long galleries which ranparallel to each other. There were small open cells along their sides, and tabourines and cymbals hung against their cedar columns from top tobottom. Women were sleeping stretched on mats outside the cells. Theirbodies were greasy with unguents, and exhaled an odour of spices andextinguished perfuming-pans; while they were so covered with tattooings, necklaces, rings, vermilion, and antimony that, but for the motion oftheir breasts, they might have been taken for idols as they lay thus onthe ground. There were lotus-trees encircling a fountain in which fishlike Salammbo's were swimming; and then in the background, against thewall of the temple, spread a vine, the branches of which were of glassand the grape-bunches of emerald, the rays from the precious stonesmaking a play of light through the painted columns upon the sleepingfaces. 

Matho felt suffocated in the warm atmosphere pressed down upon him bythe cedar partitions. All these symbols of fecundation, these perfumes, radiations, and breathings overwhelmed him. Through all the mysticdazzling he kept thinking of Salammbo. She became confused with thegoddess herself, and his loved unfolded itself all the more, like thegreat lotus-plants blooming upon the depths of the waters. 

Spendius was calculating how much money he would have made in formerdays by the sale of these women; and with a rapid glance he estimatedthe weight of the golden necklaces as he passed by. 

The temple was impenetrable on this side as on the other, and theyreturned behind the first chamber. While Spendius was searching andferreting, Matho was prostrate before the door supplicating Tanith. Hebesought her not to permit the sacrilege, and strove to soften her withcaressing words, such as are used to an angry person. 

Spendius noticed a narrow aperture above the door. 

"Rise!" he said to Matho, and he made him stand erect with his backagainst the wall. Placing one foot in his hands, and then the otherupon his head, he reached up to the air-hole, made his way into it anddisappeared. Then Matho felt a knotted cord--that one which Spendiushad rolled around his body before entering the cisterns--fall upon hisshoulders, and bearing upon it with both hands he soon found himself bythe side of the other in a large hall filled with shadow. 

Such an attempt was something extraordinary. The inadequacy of themeans for preventing it was a sufficient proof that it was consideredimpossible. The sanctuaries were protected by terror more than by theirwalls. Matho expected to die at every step. 

However a light was flickering far back in the darkness, and they wentup to it. It was a lamp burning in a shell on the pedestal of a statuewhich wore the cap of the Kabiri. Its long blue robe was strewn withdiamond discs, and its heels were fastened to the ground by chains whichsank beneath the pavement. Matho suppressed a cry. "Ah! there she is!there she is!" he stammered out. Spendius took up the lamp in order tolight himself. 

"What an impious man you are!" murmured Matho, following himnevertheless. 

The apartment which they entered had nothing in it but a black paintingrepresenting another woman. Her legs reached to the top of the wall, andher body filled the entire ceiling; a huge egg hung by a thread from hernavel, and she fell head downwards upon the other wall, reaching as faras the level of the pavement, which was touched by her pointed fingers. 

They drew a hanging aside, in order to go on further; but the wind blewand the light went out. 

Then they wandered about, lost in the complications of the architecture. Suddenly they felt something strangely soft beneath their feet. Sparkscrackled and leaped; they were walking in fire. Spendius touched theground and perceived that it was carefully carpeted with lynx skins;then it seemed to them that a big cord, wet, cold, and viscous, wasgliding between their legs. Through some fissures cut in the wall therefell thin white rays, and they advanced by this uncertain light. At lastthey distinguished a large black serpent. It darted quickly away anddisappeared. 

"Let us fly!" exclaimed Matho. "It is she! I feel her; she is coming. "

"No, no, " replied Spendius, "the temple is empty. "

Then a dazzling light made them lower their eyes. Next they perceivedall around them an infinite number of beasts, lean, panting, withbristling claws, and mingled together one above another in a mysteriousand terrifying confusion. There were serpents with feet, and bullswith wings, fishes with human heads were devouring fruit, flowers wereblooming in the jaws of crocodiles, and elephants with uplifted trunkswere sailing proudly through the azure like eagles. Their incomplete ormultiplied limbs were distended with terrible exertion. As they thrustout their tongues they looked as though they would fain give forththeir souls; and every shape was to be found among them as if thegerm-receptacle had been suddenly hatched and had burst, emptying itselfupon the walls of the hall. 

Round the latter were twelve globes of blue crystal, supported bymonsters resembling tigers. Their eyeballs were starting out of theirheads like those of snails, with their dumpy loins bent they wereturning round towards the background where the supreme Rabbet, theOmnifecund, the last invented, shone splendid in a chariot of ivory. 

She was covered with scales, feathers, flowers, and birds as high as thewaist. For earrings she had silver cymbals, which flapped against hercheeks. Her large fixed eyes gazed upon you, and a luminous stone, set in an obscene symbol on her brow, lighted the whole hall by itsreflection in red copper mirrors above the door. 

Matho stood a step forward; but a flag stone yielded beneath his heelsand immediately the spheres began to revolve and the monsters to roar;music rose melodious and pealing, like the harmony of the planets; thetumultuous soul of Tanith was poured streaming forth. She was about toarise, as lofty as the hall and with open arms. Suddenly the monstersclosed their jaws and the crystal globes revolved no more. 

Then a mournful modulation lingered for a time through the air and atlast died away. 

"And the veil?" said Spendius. 

Nowhere could it be seen. Where was it to be found? How could it bediscovered? What if the priests had hidden it? Matho experienced anguishof heart and felt as though he had been deceived in his belief. 

"This way!" whispered Spendius. An inspiration guided him. He drew Mathobehind Tanith's chariot, where a cleft a cubit wide ran down the wallfrom top to bottom. 

Then they penetrated into a small and completely circular room, so loftythat it was like the interior of a pillar. In the centre there was abig black stone, of semispherical shape like a tabourine; flames wereburning upon it; an ebony cone, bearing a head and two arms, rosebehind. 

But beyond it seemed as though there were a cloud wherein were twinklingstars; faces appeared in the depths of its folds--Eschmoun with theKabiri, some of the monsters that had already been seen, the sacredbeasts of the Babylonians, and others with which they were notacquainted. It passed beneath the idol's face like a mantle, and spreadfully out was drawn up on the wall to which it was fastened by thecorners, appearing at once bluish as the night, yellow as the dawn, purple as the sun, multitudinous, diaphanous, sparkling light. It wasthe mantle of the goddess, the holy zaimph which might not be seen. 

Both turned pale. 

"Take it!" said Matho at last. 

Spendius did not hesitate, and leaning upon the idol he unfastened theveil, which sank to the ground. Matho laid his hand upon it; then he puthis head through the opening, then he wrapped it about his body, and hespread out his arms the better to view it. 

"Let us go!" said Spendius. 

Matho stood panting with his eyes fixed upon the pavement. Suddenly heexclaimed:

"But what if I went to her? I fear her beauty no longer! What could shedo to me? I am now more than a man. I could pass through flames or walkupon the sea! I am transported! Salammbo! Salammbo! I am your master!"

His voice was like thunder. He seemed to Spendius to have grown tallerand transformed. 

A sound of footsteps drew near, a door opened, and a man appeared, apriest with lofty cap and staring eyes. Before he could make a gestureSpendius had rushed upon him, and clasping him in his arms had buriedboth his daggers in his sides. His head rang upon the pavement. 

Then they stood for a while, as motionless as the corpse, listening. Nothing could be heard but the murmuring of the wind through thehalf-opened door. 

The latter led into a narrow passage. Spendius advanced along it, Mathofollowed him, and they found themselves almost immediately in the thirdenclosure, between the lateral porticoes, in which were the dwellings ofthe priests. 

Behind the cells there must be a shorter way out. They hastened along. 

Spendius squatted down at the edge of the fountain and washed hisbloodstained hands. The women slept. The emerald vine shone. Theyresumed their advance. 

But something was running behind them under the trees; and Matho, whobore the veil, several times felt that it was being pulled very gentlyfrom below. It was a large cynocephalus, one of those which dwelt atliberty within the enclosure of the goddess. It clung to the mantle asthough it had been conscious of the theft. They did not dare to strikeit, however, fearing that it might redouble its cries; suddenly itsanger subsided, and it trotted close beside them swinging its body withits long hanging arms. Then at the barrier it leaped at a bound into apalm tree. 

When they had left the last enclosure they directed their steps towardsHamilcar's palace, Spendius understanding that it would be useless totry to dissuade Matho. 

They went by the street of the Tanners, the square of Muthumbal, thegreen market and the crossways of Cynasyn. At the angle of a wall a mandrew back frightened by the sparkling thing which pierced the darkness. 

"Hide the zaimph!" said Spendius. 

Other people passed them, but without perceiving them. 

At last they recognised the houses of Megara. 

The pharos, which was built behind them on the summit of the cliff, lit up the heavens with a great red brightness, and the shadow of thepalace, with its rising terraces, projected a monstrous pyramid, as itwere, upon the gardens. They entered through the hedge of jujube-trees, beating down the branches with blows of the dagger. 

The traces of the feast of the Mercenaries were everywhere stillmanifest. The parks were broken up, the trenches drained, the doorsof the ergastulum open. No one was to be seen about the kitchens orcellars. They wondered at the silence, which was occasionally broken bythe hoarse breathing of the elephants moving in their shackles, and thecrepitation of the pharos, in which a pile of aloes was burning. 

Matho, however, kept repeating:

"But where is she? I wish to see her! Lead me!"

"It is a piece of insanity!" Spendius kept saying. "She will call, herslaves will run up, and in spite of your strength you will die!"

They reached thus the galley staircase. Matho raised his head, andthought that he could perceive far above a vague brightness, radiant andsoft. Spendius sought to restrain him, but he dashed up the steps. 

As he found himself again in places where he had already seen her, theinterval of the days that had passed was obliterated from his memory. But now had she been singing among the tables; she had disappeared, andhe had since been continually ascending this staircase. The sky abovehis head was covered with fires; the sea filled the horizon; at eachstep he was surrounded by a still greater immensity, and he continued toclimb upward with that strange facility which we experience in dreams. 

The rustling of the veil as it brushed against the stones recalled hisnew power to him; but in the excess of his hope he could no longer tellwhat he was to do; this uncertainty alarmed him. 

From time to time he would press his face against the quadrangularopenings in the closed apartments, and he thought that in several of thelatter he could see persons asleep. 

The last story, which was narrower, formed a sort of dado on the summitof the terraces. Matho walked round it slowly. 

A milky light filled the sheets of talc which closed the littleapertures in the wall, and in their symmetrical arrangement they lookedin the darkness like rows of delicate pearls. He recognised the red doorwith the black cross. The throbbing of his heart increased. He wouldfain have fled. He pushed the door and it opened. 

A galley-shaped lamp hung burning in the back part of the room, and three rays, emitted from its silver keel, trembled on the loftywainscots, which were painted red with black bands. The ceiling was anassemblage of small beams, with amethysts and topazes amid their gildingin the knots of the wood. On both the great sides of the apartment therestretched a very low bed made with white leathern straps; while above, semi-circles like shells, opened in the thickness of the wall, suffereda garment to come out and hang down to the ground. 

There was an oval basin with a step of onyx round it; delicate slippersof serpent skin were standing on the edge, together with an alabasterflagon. The trace of a wet footstep might be seen beyond. Exquisitescents were evaporating. 

Matho glided over the pavement, which was encrusted with gold, mother-of-pearl, and glass; and, in spite of the polished smoothnessof the ground, it seemed to him that his feet sank as though he werewalking on sand. 

Behind the silver lamp he had perceived a large square of azure held inthe air by four cords from above, and he advanced with loins bent andmouth open. 

Flamingoes' wings, fitted on branches of black coral, lay aboutamong purple cushions, tortoiseshell strigils, cedar boxes, and ivoryspatulas. There were antelopes' horns with rings and bracelets strungupon them; and clay vases were cooling in the wind in the cleft of thewall with a lattice-work of reeds. Several times he struck his foot, for the ground had various levels of unequal height, which formed asuccession of apartments, as it were, in the room. In the backgroundthere were silver balustrades surrounding a carpet strewn with paintedflowers. At last he came to the hanging bed beside an ebony stoolserving to get into it. 

But the light ceased at the edge;--and the shadow, like a great curtain, revealed only a corner of the red mattress with the extremity of alittle naked foot lying upon its ankle. Then Matho took up the lamp verygently. 

She was sleeping with her cheek in one hand and with the other armextended. Her ringlets were spread about her in such abundance that sheappeared to be lying on black feathers, and her ample white tunic woundin soft draperies to her feet following the curves of her person. Hereyes were just visible beneath her half-closed eyelids. The curtains, which stretched perpendicularly, enveloped her in a bluish atmosphere, and the motion of her breathing, communicating itself to the cords, seemed to rock her in the air. A long mosquito was buzzing. 

Matho stood motionless holding the silver lamp at arm's length; but on asudden the mosquito-net caught fire and disappeared, and Salammbo awoke. 

The fire had gone out of itself. She did not speak. The lamp causedgreat luminous moires to flicker on the wainscots. 

"What is it?" she said. 

He replied:

"'Tis the veil of the goddess!"

"The veil of the goddess!" cried Salammbo, and supporting herself onboth clenched hands she leaned shuddering out. He resumed:

"I have been in the depths of the sanctuary to seek it for you! Look!"The Zaimph shone a mass of rays. 

"Do you remember it?" said Matho. "You appeared at night in my dreams, but I did not guess the mute command of your eyes!" She put out one footupon the ebony stool. "Had I understood I should have hastened hither, Ishould have forsaken the army, I should not have left Carthage. To obeyyou I would go down through the caverns of Hadrumetum into the kingdomof the shades!--Forgive me! it was as though mountains were weighingupon my days; and yet something drew me on! I tried to come to you!Should I ever have dared this without the Gods!--Let us go! You mustfollow me! or, if you do not wish to do so, I will remain. What mattersit to me!--Drown my soul in your breath! Let my lips be crushed withkissing your hands!"

"Let me see it!" she said. "Nearer! nearer!"

Day was breaking, and the sheets of talc in the walls were filled with avinous colour. Salammbo leaned fainting against the cushions of the bed. 

"I love you!" cried Matho. 

"Give it!" she stammered out, and they drew closer together. 

She kept advancing, clothed in her white trailing simar, and with herlarge eyes fastened on the veil. Matho gazed at her, dazzled by thesplendours of her head, and, holding out the zaimph towards her, wasabout to enfold her in an embrace. She was stretching out herarms. Suddenly she stopped, and they stood looking at each other, open-mouthed. 

Then without understanding the meaning of his solicitation a horrorseized upon her. Her delicate eyebrows rose, her lips opened; shetrembled. At last she struck one of the brass pateras which hung at thecorners of the red mattress, crying:

"To the rescue! to the rescue! Back, sacrilegious man! infamous andaccursed! Help, Taanach, Kroum, Ewa, Micipsa, Schaoul!"

And the scared face of Spendius, appearing in the wall between the clayflagons, cried out these words:

"Fly! they are hastening hither!"

A great tumult came upwards shaking the staircases, and a flood ofpeople, women, serving-men, and slaves, rushed into the room withstakes, tomahawks, cutlasses, and daggers. They were nearly paralysedwith indignation on perceiving a man; the female servants utteredfuneral wailings, and the eunuchs grew pale beneath their black skins. 

Matho was standing behind the balustrades. With the zaimph which waswrapped about him, he looked like a sidereal god surrounded by thefirmament. The slaves were going to fall upon him, but she stopped them:

"Touch it not! It is the mantle of the goddess!"

She had drawn back into a corner; but she took a step towards him, andstretched forth her naked arm:

"A curse upon you, you who have plundered Tanith! Hatred, vengeance, massacre, and grief! May Gurzil, god of battles, rend you! may Mastiman, god of the dead, stifle you! and may the Other--he who may not benamed--burn you!"

Matho uttered a cry as though he had received a sword-thrust. Sherepeated several times: "Begone! begone!"

The crowd of servants spread out, and Matho, with hanging head, passedslowly through the midst of them; but at the door he stopped, for thefringe of the zaimph had caught on one of the golden stars with whichthe flagstones were paved. He pulled it off abruptly with a movement ofhis shoulder and went down the staircases. 

Spendius, bounding from terrace to terrace, and leaping over the hedgesand trenches, had escaped from the gardens. He reached the foot of thepharos. The wall was discontinued at this spot, so inaccessible was thecliff. He advanced to the edge, lay down on his back, and let himselfslide, feet foremost, down the whole length of it to the bottom; thenby swimming he reached the Cape of the Tombs, made a wide circuit of thesalt lagoon, and re-entered the camp of the Barbarians in the evening. 

The sun had risen; and, like a retreating lion, Matho went down thepaths, casting terrible glances about him. 

A vague clamour reached his ears. It had started from the palace, and itwas beginning afresh in the distance, towards the Acropolis. Some saidthat the treasure of the Republic had been seized in the temple ofMoloch; others spoke of the assassination of a priest. It was thought, moreover, that the Barbarians had entered the city. 

Matho, who did not know how to get out of the enclosures, walkedstraight before him. He was seen, and an outcry was raised. Every oneunderstood; and there was consternation, then immense wrath. 

From the bottom of the Mappalian quarter, from the heights of theAcropolis, from the catacombs, from the borders of the lake, themultitude came in haste. The patricians left their palaces, and thetraders left their shops; the women forsook their children; swords, hatchets, and sticks were seized; but the obstacle which had stayedSalammbo stayed them. How could the veil be taken back? The mere sightof it was a crime; it was of the nature of the gods, and contact with itwas death. 

The despairing priests wrung their hands on the peristyles of thetemples. The guards of the Legion galloped about at random; the peopleclimbed upon the houses, the terraces, the shoulders of the colossuses, and the masts of the ships. He went on, nevertheless, and the rage, andthe terror also, increased at each of his steps; the streets cleared athis approach, and the torrent of flying men streamed on both sides upto the tops of the walls. Everywhere he could perceive only eyes openedwidely as if to devour him, chattering teeth and outstretched fists, andSalammbo's imprecations resounded many times renewed. 

Suddenly a long arrow whizzed past, then another, and stones began tobuzz about him; but the missiles, being badly aimed (for there was thedread of hitting the zaimph), passed over his head. Moreover, he made ashield of the veil, holding it to the right, to the left, before him andbehind him; and they could devise no expedient. He quickened his stepsmore and more, advancing through the open streets. They were barredwith cords, chariots, and snares; and all his windings brought him backagain. At last he entered the square of Khamon where the Balearians hadperished, and stopped, growing pale as one about to die. This time hewas surely lost, and the multitude clapped their hands. 

He ran up to the great gate, which was closed. It was very high, madethroughout of heart of oak, with iron nails and sheathed with brass. Matho flung himself against it. The people stamped their feet with joywhen they saw the impotence of his fury; then he took his sandal, spitupon it, and beat the immovable panels with it. The whole city howled. The veil was forgotten now, and they were about to crush him. Mathogazed with wide vacant eyes upon the crowd. His temples were throbbingwith violence enough to stun him, and he felt a numbness as ofintoxication creeping over him. Suddenly he caught sight of the longchain used in working the swinging of the gate. With a bound he graspedit, stiffening his arms, and making a buttress of his feet, and at lastthe huge leaves partly opened. 

Then when he was outside he took the great zaimph from his neck, andraised it as high as possible above his head. The material, upborne bythe sea breeze, shone in the sunlight with its colours, its gems, andthe figures of its gods. Matho bore it thus across the whole plain asfar as the soldiers' tents, and the people on the walls watched thefortune of Carthage depart. 

CHAPTER VI

HANNO

"I ought to have carried her off!" Matho said in the evening toSpendius. "I should have seized her, and torn her from her house! No onewould have dared to touch me!"

Spendius was not listening to him. Stretched on his back he was takingdelicious rest beside a large jar filled with honey-coloured water, intowhich he would dip his head from time to time in order to drink morecopiously. 

Matho resumed:

"What is to be done? How can we re-enter Carthage?"

"I do not know, " said Spendius. 

Such impassibility exasperated Matho and he exclaimed:

"Why! the fault is yours! You carry me away, and then you forsake me, coward that you are! Why, pray, should I obey you? Do you think that youare my master? Ah! you prostituter, you slave, you son of a slave!" Heground his teeth and raised his broad hand above Spendius. 

The Greek did not reply. An earthen lamp was burning gently against thetent-pole, where the zaimph shone amid the hanging panoply. SuddenlyMatho put on his cothurni, buckled on his brazen jacket of mail, andtook his helmet. 

"Where are you going?" asked Spendius. 

"I am returning! Let me alone! I will bring her back! And if they showthemselves I will crush them like vipers! I will put her to death, Spendius! Yes, " he repeated, "I will kill her! You shall see, I willkill her!"

But Spendius, who was listening eagerly, snatched up the zaimph abruptlyand threw it into a corner, heaping up fleeces above it. A murmuring ofvoices was heard, torches gleamed, and Narr' Havas entered, followed byabout twenty men. 

They wore white woollen cloaks, long daggers, copper necklaces, woodenearrings, and boots of hyena skin; and standing on the threshold theyleaned upon their lances like herdsmen resting themselves. Narr' Havaswas the handsomest of all; his slender arms were bound with strapsornamented with pearls. The golden circlet which fastened his amplegarment about his head held an ostrich feather which hung down behindhis shoulder; his teeth were displayed in a continual smile; his eyesseemed sharpened like arrows, and there was something observant and airyabout his whole demeanour. 

He declared that he had come to join the Mercenaries, for the Republichad long been threatening his kingdom. Accordingly he was interested inassisting the Barbarians, and he might also be of service to them. 

"I will provide you with elephants (my forests are full of them), wine, oil, barley, dates, pitch and sulphur for sieges, twenty thousandfoot-soldiers and ten thousand horses. If I address myself to you, Matho, it is because the possession of the zaimph has made you chief manin the army. Moreover, " he added, "we are old friends. "

Matho, however, was looking at Spendius, who, seated on the sheep-skins, was listening, and giving little nods of assent the while. Narr' Havascontinued speaking. He called the gods to witness he cursed Carthage. Inhis imprecations he broke a javelin. All his men uttered simultaneouslya loud howl, and Matho, carried away by so much passion, exclaimed thathe accepted the alliance. 

A white bull and a black sheep, the symbols of day and night, were thenbrought, and their throats were cut on the edge of a ditch. When thelatter was full of blood they dipped their arms into it. Then Narr'Havas spread out his hand upon Matho's breast, and Matho did the sameto Narr' Havas. They repeated the stain upon the canvas of their tents. Afterwards they passed the night in eating, and the remaining portionsof the meat were burnt together with the skin, bones, horns, and hoofs. 

Matho had been greeted with great shouting when he had come back bearingthe veil of the goddess; even those who were not of the Chanaanitishreligion were made by their vague enthusiasm to feel the arrival ofa genius. As to seizing the zaimph, no one thought of it, for themysterious manner in which he had acquired it was sufficient in theminds of the Barbarians to justify its possession; such were thethoughts of the soldiers of the African race. The others, whose hatredwas not of such long standing, did not know how to make up their minds. If they had had ships they would immediately have departed. 

Spendius, Narr' Havas, and Matho despatched men to all the tribes onPunic soil. 

Carthage was sapping the strength of these nations. She wrung exorbitanttaxes from them, and arrears or even murmurings were punished withfetters, the axe, or the cross. It was necessary to cultivate whateversuited the Republic, and to furnish what she demanded; no one had theright of possessing a weapon; when villages rebelled the inhabitantswere sold; governors were esteemed like wine-presses, according to thequantity which they succeeded in extracting. Then beyond the regionsimmediately subject to Carthage extended the allies roamed the Nomads, who might be let loose upon them. By this system the crops were alwaysabundant, the studs skilfully managed, and the plantations superb. 

The elder Cato, a master in the matters of tillage and slaves, wasamazed at it ninety-two years later, and the death-cry which he repeatedcontinually at Rome was but the exclamation of jealous greed. 

During the last war the exactions had been increased, so that nearlyall the towns of Libya had surrendered to Regulus. To punish them, athousand talents, twenty thousand oxen, three hundred bags of gold dust, and considerable advances of grain had been exacted from them, and thechiefs of the tribes had been crucified or thrown to the lions. 

Tunis especially execrated Carthage! Older than the metropolis, it couldnot forgive her her greatness, and it fronted her walls crouching inthe mire on the water's edge like a venomous beast watching her. Transportation, massacres, and epidemics did not weaken it. Ithad assisted Archagathas, the son of Agathocles, and the Eaters ofUncleanness found arms there at once. 

The couriers had not yet set out when universal rejoicing broke outin the provinces. Without waiting for anything they strangled thecomptrollers of the houses and the functionaries of the Republic inthe baths; they took the old weapons that had been concealed out of thecaves; they forged swords with the iron of the ploughs; the childrensharpened javelins at the doors, and the women gave their necklaces, rings, earrings, and everything that could be employed for thedestruction of Carthage. Piles of lances were heaped up in the countrytowns like sheaves of maize. Cattle and money were sent off. Mathospeedily paid the Mercenaries their arrears, and owing to this, whichwas Spendius's idea, he was appointed commander-in-chief--the schalishimof the Barbarians. 

Reinforcements of men poured in at the same time. The aboriginesappeared first, and were followed by the slaves from the country;caravans of Negroes were seized and armed, and merchants on their wayto Carthage, despairing of any more certain profit, mingled with theBarbarians. Numerous bands were continually arriving. From the heightsof the Acropolis the growing army might be seen. 

But the guards of the Legion were posted as sentries on the platformof the aqueduct, and near them rose at intervals brazen vats, in whichfloods of asphalt were boiling. Below in the plain the great crowdstirred tumultuously. They were in a state of uncertainty, feeling theembarrassment with which Barbarians are always inspired when they meetwith walls. 

Utica and Hippo-Zarytus refused their alliance. Phoenician colonies likeCarthage, they were self-governing, and always had clauses insertedin the treaties concluded by the Republic to distinguish them from thelatter. Nevertheless they respected this strong sister of theirs whoprotected them, and they did not think that she could be vanquished bya mass of Barbarians; these would on the contrary be themselvesexterminated. They desired to remain neutral and to live at peace. 

But their position rendered them indispensable. Utica, at the footof the gulf, was convenient for bringing assistance to Carthage fromwithout. If Utica alone were taken, Hippo-Zarytus, six hours furtherdistant along the coast, would take its place, and the metropolis, beingrevictualled in this way, would be impregnable. 

Spendius wished the siege to be undertaken immediately. Narr' Havas wasopposed to this: an advance should first be made upon the frontier. This was the opinion of the veterans, and of Matho himself, and itwas decided that Spendius should go to attack Utica, and MathoHippo-Zarytus, while in the third place the main body should rest onTunis and occupy the plain of Carthage, Autaritus being in command. Asto Narr' Havas, he was to return to his own kingdom to procure elephantsand to scour the roads with his cavalry. 

The women cried out loudly against this decision; they coveted thejewels of the Punic ladies. The Libyans also protested. They had beensummoned against Carthage, and now they were going away from it! Thesoldiers departed almost alone. Matho commanded his own companions, together with the Iberians, Lusitanians, and the men of the West, and ofthe islands; all those who spoke Greek had asked for Spendius on accountof his cleverness. 

Great was the stupefaction when the army was seen suddenly in motion;it stretched along beneath the mountain of Ariana on the road to Uticabeside the sea. A fragment remained before Tunis, the rest disappearedto re-appear on the other shore of the gulf on the outskirts of thewoods in which they were lost. 

They were perhaps eighty thousand men. The two Tyrian cities would offerno resistance, and they would return against Carthage. Already there wasa considerable army attacking it from the base of the isthmus, and itwould soon perish from famine, for it was impossible to live without theaid of the provinces, the citizens not paying contributions as they didat Rome. Carthage was wanting in political genius. Her eternal anxietyfor gain prevented her from having the prudence which results fromloftier ambitions. A galley anchored on the Libyan sands, it was withtoil that she maintained her position. The nations roared like billowsaround her, and the slightest storm shook this formidable machine. 

The treasury was exhausted by the Roman war and by all that had beensquandered and lost in the bargaining with the Barbarians. Neverthelesssoldiers must be had, and not a government would trust the Republic!Ptolemaeus had lately refused it two thousand talents. Moreover the rapeof the veil disheartened them. Spendius had clearly foreseen this. 

But the nation, feeling that it was hated, clasped its money andits gods to its heart, and its patriotism was sustained by the veryconstitution of its government. 

First, the power rested with all, without any one being strong enoughto engross it. Private debts were considered as public debts, men ofChanaanitish race had a monopoly of commerce, and by multiplying theprofits of piracy with those of usury, by hard dealings in lands andslaves and with the poor, fortunes were sometimes made. These aloneopened up all the magistracies, and although authority and money wereperpetuated in the same families, people tolerated the oligarchy becausethey hoped ultimately to share in it. 

The societies of merchants, in which the laws were elaborated, chose theinspectors of the exchequer, who on leaving office nominated the hundredmembers of the Council of the Ancients, themselves dependent on theGrand Assembly, or general gathering of all the rich. As to the twoSuffets, the relics of the monarchy and the less than consuls, they weretaken from distinct families on the same day. All kinds of enmities werecontrived between them, so that they might mutually weaken each other. They could not deliberate concerning war, and when they were vanquishedthe Great Council crucified them. 

The power of Carthage emanated, therefore, from the Syssitia, that isto say, from a large court in the centre of Malqua, at the place, it wassaid, where the first bark of Phoenician sailors had touched, the seahaving retired a long way since then. It was a collection of littlerooms of archaic architecture, built of palm trunks with corners ofstone, and separated from one another so as to accommodate the varioussocieties separately. The rich crowded there all day to discuss theirown concerns and those of the government, from the procuring of pepperto the extermination of Rome. Thrice in a moon they would have theirbeds brought up to the lofty terrace running along the wall of thecourt, and they might be seen from below at table in the air, withoutcothurni or cloaks, with their diamond-covered fingers wanderingover the dishes, and their large earrings hanging down among theflagons, --all fat and lusty, half-naked, smiling and eating beneath theblue sky, like great sharks sporting in the sea. 

But just now they were unable to dissemble their anxiety; they were toopale for that. The crowd which waited for them at the gates escortedthem to their palaces in order to obtain some news from them. As intimes of pestilence, all the houses were shut; the streets would filland suddenly clear again; people ascended the Acropolis or ran to theharbour, and the Great Council deliberated every night. At last thepeople were convened in the square of Khamon, and it was decided toleave the management of things to Hanno, the conqueror of Hecatompylos. 

He was a true Carthaginian, devout, crafty, and pitiless towards thepeople of Africa. His revenues equalled those of the Barcas. No one hadsuch experience in administrative affairs. 

He decreed the enrolment of all healthy citizens, he placed catapults onthe towers, he exacted exorbitant supplies of arms, he even ordered theconstruction of fourteen galleys which were not required, and he desiredeverything to be registered and carefully set down in writing. He hadhimself conveyed to the arsenal, the pharos, and the treasuries of thetemples; his great litter was continually to be seen swinging from stepto step as it ascended the staircases of the Acropolis. And then inhis palace at night, being unable to sleep, he would yell out warlikemanoeuvres in terrible tones so as to prepare himself for the fray. 

In their extremity of terror all became brave. The rich rangedthemselves in line along the Mappalian district at cockcrow, and tuckingup their robes practised themselves in handling the pike. But forwant of an instructor they had disputes about it. They would sit downbreathless upon the tombs and then begin again. Several even dietedthemselves. Some imagined that it was necessary to eat a great deal inorder to acquire strength, while others who were inconvenienced by theircorpulence weakened themselves with fasts in order to become thin. 

Utica had already called several times upon Carthage for assistance; butHanno would not set out until the engines of war had been supplied withthe last screws. He lost three moons more in equipping the one hundredand twelve elephants that were lodged in the ramparts. They were theconquerors of Regulus; the people loved them; it was impossible to treatsuch old friends too well. Hanno had the brass plates which adornedtheir breasts recast, their tusks gilt, their towers enlarged, andcaparisons, edged with very heavy fringes, cut out of the handsomestpurple. Finally, as their drivers were called Indians (after the firstones, no doubt, who came from the Indies) he ordered them all to becostumed after the Indian fashion; that is to say, with white pads roundtheir temples, and small drawers of byssus, which with their transversefolds looked like two valves of a shell applied to the hips. 

The army under Autaritus still remained before Tunis. It was hiddenbehind a wall made with mud from the lake, and protected on the top bythorny brushwood. Some Negroes had planted tall sticks here and therebearing frightful faces, --human masks made with birds' feathers, andjackals' or serpents' heads, --which gaped towards the enemy for thepurpose of terrifying him; and the Barbarians, reckoning themselvesinvincible through these means, danced, wrestled, and juggled, convincedthat Carthage would perish before long. Any one but Hanno would easilyhave crushed such a multitude, hampered as it was with herds and women. Moreover, they knew nothing of drill, and Autaritus was so disheartenedthat he had ceased to require it. 

They stepped aside when he passed by rolling his big blue eyes. Thenon reaching the edge of the lake he would draw back his sealskin cloak, unfasten the cord which tied up his long red hair, and soak the latterin the water. He regretted that he had not deserted to the Romans alongwith the two thousand Gauls of the temple of Eryx. 

Often the sun would suddenly lose his rays in the middle of the day. Then the gulf and the open sea would seem as motionless as molten lead. A cloud of brown dust stretching perpendicularly would speed whirlingalong; the palm trees would bend and the sky disappear, while stoneswould be heard rebounding on the animals' cruppers; and the Gaul, hislips glued against the holes in his tent, would gasp with exhaustion andmelancholy. His thoughts would be of the scent of the pastures on autumnmornings, of snowflakes, or of the bellowing of the urus lost in thefog, and closing his eyelids he would in imagination behold the fires inlong, straw-roofed cottages flickering on the marshes in the depths ofthe woods. 

Others regretted their native lands as well as he, even though theymight not be so far away. Indeed the Carthaginian captives coulddistinguish the velaria spread over the courtyards of their houses, beyond the gulf on the slopes of Byrsa. But sentries marched round themcontinually. They were all fastened to a common chain. Each one wore aniron carcanet, and the crowd was never weary of coming to gaze at them. The women would show their little children the handsome robes hanging intatters on their wasted limbs. 

Whenever Autaritus looked at Gisco he was seized with rage at therecollection of the insult that he had received, and he would havekilled him but for the oath which he had taken to Narr' Havas. Thenhe would go back into his tent and drink a mixture of barley and cuminuntil he swooned away from intoxication, --to awake afterwards in broaddaylight consumed with horrible thirst. 

Matho, meanwhile, was besieging Hippo-Zarytus. But the town wasprotected by a lake, communicating with the sea. It had three lines ofcircumvallation, and upon the heights which surrounded it thereextended a wall fortified with towers. He had never commanded in such anenterprise before. Moreover, he was beset with thoughts of Salammbo, andhe raved in the delight of her beauty as in the sweetness of a vengeancethat transported him with pride. He felt an acrid, frenzied, permanentwant to see her again. He even thought of presenting himself as thebearer of a flag of truce, in the hope that once within Carthage hemight make his way to her. Often he would cause the assault to besounded and waiting for nothing rush upon the mole which it was soughtto construct in the sea. He would snatch up the stones with his hands, overturn, strike, and deal sword-thrusts everywhere. The Barbarianswould dash on pell-mell; the ladders would break with a loud crash, andmasses of men would tumble into the water, causing it to fly up inred waves against the walls. Finally the tumult would subside, and thesoldiers would retire to make a fresh beginning. 

Matho would go and seat himself outside the tents, wipe hisblood-splashed face with his arm, and gaze at the horizon in thedirection of Carthage. 

In front of him, among the olives, palms, myrtles and planes, stretchedtwo broad ponds which met another lake, the outlines of which could notbe seen. Behind one mountain other mountains reared themselves, andin the middle of the immense lake rose an island perfectly black andpyramidal in form. On the left, at the extremity of the gulf, weresand-heaps like arrested waves, large and pale, while the sea, flat as apavement of lapis-lazuli, ascended by insensible degrees to the edgeof the sky. The verdure of the country was lost in places beneath longsheets of yellow; carobs were shining like knobs of coral; vine branchesdrooped from the tops of the sycamores; the murmuring of the water couldbe heard; crested larks were hopping about, and the sun's latest firesgilded the carapaces of the tortoises as they came forth from the reedsto inhale the breeze. 

Matho would heave deep sighs. He would lie flat on his face, with hisnails buried in the soil, and weep; he felt wretched, paltry, forsaken. Never would he possess her, and he was unable even to take a town. 

At night when alone in his tent he would gaze upon the zaimph. Of whatuse to him was this thing which belonged to the gods?--and doubt creptinto the Barbarian's thoughts. Then, on the contrary, it would seem tohim that the vesture of the goddess was depending from Salammbo, andthat a portion of her soul hovered in it, subtler than a breath; andhe would feel it, breathe it in, bury his face in it, and kiss it withsobs. He would cover his shoulders with it in order to delude himselfthat he was beside her. 

Sometimes he would suddenly steal away, stride in the starlight overthe sleeping soldiers as they lay wrapped in their cloaks, spring upona horse on reaching the camp gates, and two hours later be at Utica inSpendius's tent. 

At first he would speak of the siege, but his coming was only to easehis sorrow by talking about Salammbo. Spendius exhorted him to beprudent. 

"Drive away these trifles from your soul, which is degraded by them!Formerly you were used to obey; now you command an army, and if Carthageis not conquered we shall at least be granted provinces. We shall becomekings!"

But how was it that the possession of the zaimph did not give them thevictory? According to Spendius they must wait. 

Matho fancied that the veil affected people of Chanaanitish raceexclusively, and, in his Barbarian-like subtlety, he said to himself:"The zaimph will accordingly do nothing for me, but since they have lostit, it will do nothing for them. "

Afterwards a scruple troubled him. He was afraid of offending Molochby worshipping Aptouknos, the god of the Libyans, and he timidly askedSpendius to which of the gods it would be advisable to sacrifice a man. 

"Keep on sacrificing!" laughed Spendius. 

Matho, who could not understand such indifference, suspected the Greekof having a genius of whom he did not speak. 

All modes of worship, as well as all races, were to be met with in thesearmies of Barbarians, and consideration was had to the gods of others, for they too, inspired fear. Many mingled foreign practices with theirnative religion. It was to no purpose that they did not adore the stars;if a constellation were fatal or helpful, sacrifices were offered toit; an unknown amulet found by chance at a moment of peril becamea divinity; or it might be a name and nothing more, which would berepeated without any attempt to understand its meaning. But afterpillaging temples, and seeing numbers of nations and slaughters, manyultimately ceased to believe in anything but destiny and death;--andevery evening these would fall asleep with the placidity of wild beasts. Spendius had spit upon the images of Jupiter Olympius; nevertheless hedreaded to speak aloud in the dark, nor did he fail every day to put onhis right boot first. 

He reared a long quadrangular terrace in front of Utica, but inproportion as it ascended the rampart was also heightened, and what wasthrown down by the one side was almost immediately raised again by theother. Spendius took care of his men; he dreamed of plans and strove torecall the stratagems which he had heard described in his travels. Butwhy did Narr' Havas not return? There was nothing but anxiety. 

Hanno had at last concluded his preparations. One night when there wasno moon he transported his elephants and soldiers on rafts acrossthe Gulf of Carthage. Then they wheeled round the mountain of the HotSprings so as to avoid Autaritus, and continued their march so slowlythat instead of surprising the Barbarians in the morning, as the Suffethad calculated, they did not reach them until it was broad daylight onthe third day. 

Utica had on the east a plain which extended to the large lagoon ofCarthage; behind it a valley ran at right angles between two low andabruptly terminated mountains; the Barbarians were encamped furtherto the left in such a way as to blockade the harbour; and they weresleeping in their tents (for on that day both sides were too wearyto fight and were resting) when the Carthaginian army appeared at theturning of the hills. 

Some camp followers furnished with slings were stationed at intervalson the wings. The first line was formed of the guards of the Legion ingolden scale-armour, mounted on their big horses, which were withoutmane, hair, or ears, and had silver horns in the middle of theirforeheads to make them look like rhinoceroses. Between their squadronswere youths wearing small helmets and swinging an ashen javelin in eachhand. The long files of the heavy infantry marched behind. All thesetraders had piled as many weapons upon their bodies as possible. Somemight be seen carrying an axe, a lance, a club, and two swords all atonce; others bristled with darts like porcupines, and their arms stoodout from their cuirasses in sheets of horn or iron plates. At last thescaffoldings of the lofty engines appeared: carrobalistas, onagers, catapults and scorpions, rocking on chariots drawn by mules andquadrigas of oxen; and in proportion as the army drew out, the captainsran panting right and left to deliver commands, close up the files, andpreserve the intervals. Such of the Ancients as held commands had comein purple cassocks, the magnificent fringes of which tangled in thewhite straps of their cothurni. Their faces, which were smeared all overwith vermilion, shone beneath enormous helmets surmounted with imagesof the gods; and, as they had shields with ivory borders covered withprecious stones, they might have been taken for suns passing over wallsof brass. 

But the Carthaginians manoeuvred so clumsily that the soldiers inderision urged them to sit down. They called out that they were justgoing to empty their big stomachs, to dust the gilding of their skin, and to give them iron to drink. 

A strip of green cloth appeared at the top of the pole planted beforeSpendius's tent: it was the signal. The Carthaginian army replied toit with a great noise of trumpets, cymbals, flutes of asses' bones, andtympanums. The Barbarians had already leaped outside the palisades, andwere facing their enemies within a javelin's throw of them. 

A Balearic slinger took a step forward, put one of his clay bullets intohis thong, and swung round his arm. An ivory shield was shivered, andthe two armies mingled together. 

The Greeks made the horses rear and fall back upon their masters bypricking their nostrils with the points of their lances. The slaveswho were to hurl stones had picked such as were too big, and theyaccordingly fell close to them. The Punic foot-soldiers exposed theright side in cutting with their long swords. The Barbarians broke theirlines; they slaughtered them freely; they stumbled over the dying anddead, quite blinded by the blood that spurted into their faces. Theconfused heap of pikes, helmets, cuirasses and swords turned roundabout, widening out and closing in with elastic contractions. The gapsincreased more and more in the Carthaginian cohorts, the engines couldnot get out of the sand; and finally the Suffet's litter (his grandlitter with crystal pendants), which from the beginning might havebeen seen tossing among the soldiers like a bark on the waves, suddenlyfoundered. He was no doubt dead. The Barbarians found themselves alone. 

The dust around them fell and they were beginning to sing, when Hannohimself appeared on the top of an elephant. He sat bare-headed beneath aparasol of byssus which was carried by a Negro behind him. His necklaceof blue plates flapped against the flowers on his black tunic; his hugearms were compressed within circles of diamonds, and with open mouth hebrandished a pike of inordinate size, which spread out at the end like alotus, and flashed more than a mirror. Immediately the earth shook, --andthe Barbarians saw all the elephants of Carthage, with their gilt tusksand blue-painted ears, hastening up in single line, clothed with bronzeand shaking the leathern towers which were placed above their scarletcaparisons, in each of which were three archers bending large bows. 

The soldiers were barely in possession of their arms; they had takenup their positions at random. They were frozen with terror; they stoodundecided. 

Javelins, arrows, phalaricas, and masses of lead were already beingshowered down upon them from the towers. Some clung to the fringes ofthe caparisons in order to climb up, but their hands were struck offwith cutlasses and they fell backwards upon the swords' points. Thepikes were too weak and broke, and the elephants passed through thephalanxes like wild boars through tufts of grass; they plucked up thestakes of the camp with their trunks, and traversed it from one end tothe other, overthrowing the tents with their breasts. All the Barbarianshad fled. They were hiding themselves in the hills bordering the valleyby which the Carthaginians had come. 

The victorious Hanno presented himself before the gates of Utica. He hada trumpet sounded. The three Judges of the town appeared in the openingof the battlements on the summit of a tower. 

But the people of Utica would not receive such well-armed guests. Hannowas furious. At last they consented to admit him with a feeble escort. 

The streets were too narrow for the elephants. They had to be leftoutside. 

As soon as the Suffet was in the town the principal men came to greethim. He had himself taken to the vapour baths, and called for his cooks. 

Three hours afterwards he was still immersed in the oil of cinnamomumwith which the basin had been filled; and while he bathed he ateflamingoes' tongues with honied poppy-seeds on a spread ox-hide. Beside him was his Greek physician, motionless, in a long yellow robe, directing the re-heating of the bath from time to time, and two youngboys leaned over the steps of the basin and rubbed his legs. Butattention to his body did not check his love for the commonwealth, forhe was dictating a letter to be sent to the Great Council, and assome prisoners had just been taken he was asking himself what terriblepunishment could be devised. 

"Stop!" said he to a slave who stood writing in the hollow of his hand. "Let some of them be brought to me! I wish to see them!"

And from the bottom of the hall, full of a whitish vapour on which thetorches cast red spots, three Barbarians were thrust forward: a Samnite, a Spartan, and a Cappadocian. 

"Proceed!" said Hanno. 

"Rejoice, light of the Baals! your Suffet has exterminated the ravenoushounds! Blessings on the Republic! Give orders for prayers!" Heperceived the captives and burst out laughing: "Ah! ha! my fine fellowsof Sicca! You are not shouting so loudly to-day! It is I! Do yourecognise me? And where are your swords? What really terrible fellows!"and he pretended to be desirous to hide himself as if he were afraid ofthem. "You demanded horses, women, estates, magistracies, no doubt, andpriesthoods! Why not? Well, I will provide you with the estates, andsuch as you will never come out of! You shall be married to gibbets thatare perfectly new! Your pay? it shall be melted in your mouths in leadeningots! and I will put you into good and very exalted positions amongthe clouds, so as to bring you close to the eagles!"

The three long-haired and ragged Barbarians looked at him withoutunderstanding what he said. Wounded in the knees, they had been seizedby having ropes thrown over them, and the ends of the great chains ontheir hands trailed upon the pavement. Hanno was indignant at theirimpassibility. 

"On your knees! on your knees! jackals! dust! vermin! excrements! Andthey make no reply! Enough! be silent! Let them be flayed alive! No!presently!"

He was breathing like a hippopotamus and rolling his eyes. The perfumedoil overflowed beneath the mass of his body, and clinging to the scaleson his skin, made it look pink in the light of the torches. 

He resumed:

"For four days we suffered greatly from the sun. Some mules were lostin crossing the Macaras. In spite of their position, the extraordinarycourage--Ah! Demonades! how I suffer! Have the bricks reheated, and letthem be red-hot!"

A noise of rakes and furnaces was heard. The incense smoked morestrongly in the large perfuming pans, and the shampooers, who were quitenaked and were sweating like sponges, crushed a paste composed of wheat, sulphur, black wine, bitch's milk, myrrh, galbanum and storax upon hisjoints. He was consumed with incessant thirst, but the yellow-robed mandid not yield to this inclination, and held out to him a golden cup inwhich viper broth was smoking. 

"Drink!" said he, "that strength of sun-born serpents may penetrate intothe marrow of your bones, and take courage, O reflection of the gods!You know, moreover, that a priest of Eschmoun watches those cruel starsround the Dog from which your malady is derived. They are growing palelike the spots on your skin, and you are not to die from them. "

"Oh! yes, that is so, is it not?" repeated the Suffet, "I am not to diefrom them!" And his violaceous lips gave forth a breath more nauseousthan the exhalation from a corpse. Two coals seemed to burn in the placeof his eyes, which had lost their eyebrows; a mass of wrinkled skinhung over his forehead; both his ears stood out from his head and werebeginning to increase in size; and the deep lines forming semicirclesround his nostrils gave him a strange and terrifying appearance, thelook of a wild beast. His unnatural voice was like a roar; he said:

"Perhaps you are right, Demonades. In fact there are many ulcers herewhich have closed. I feel robust. Here! look how I am eating!"

And less from greediness than from ostentation, and the desire to proveto himself that he was in good health, he cut into the forcemeatsof cheese and marjoram, the boned fish, gourds, oysters with eggs, horse-radishes, truffles, and brochettes of small birds. As he lookedat the prisoners he revelled in the imagination of their tortures. Nevertheless he remembered Sicca, and the rage caused by all his woesfound vent in the abuse of these three men. 

"Ah! traitors! ah! wretches! infamous, accursed creatures! And yououtraged me!--me! the Suffet! Their services, the price of theirblood, say they! Ah! yes! their blood! their blood!" Then speaking tohimself:--"All shall perish! not one shall be sold! It would be betterto bring them to Carthage! I should be seen--but doubtless, I have notbrought chains enough? Write: Send me--How many of them are there? goand ask Muthumbal! Go! no pity! and let all their hands be cut off andbrought to me in baskets!"

But strange cries at once hoarse and shrill penetrated into the hallabove Hanno's voice and the rattling of the dishes that were beingplaced around him. They increased, and suddenly the furious trumpetingof the elephants burst forth as if the battle were beginning again. Agreat tumult was going on around the town. 

The Carthaginians had not attempted to pursue the Barbarians. They hadtaken up their quarters at the foot of the walls with their baggage, mules, serving men, and all their train of satraps; and they mademerry in their beautiful pearl-bordered tents, while the camp of theMercenaries was now nothing but a heap of ruins in the plain. Spendiushad recovered his courage. He dispatched Zarxas to Matho, scoured thewoods, rallied his men (the losses had been inconsiderable), --and theywere re-forming their lines enraged at having been conquered without afight, when they discovered a vat of petroleum which had no doubt beenabandoned by the Carthaginians. Then Spendius had some pigs carried offfrom the farms, smeared them with bitumen, set them on fire, and drovethem towards Utica. 

The elephants were terrified by the flames and fled. The ground slopedupwards, javelins were thrown at them, and they turned back;--andwith great blows of ivory and trampling feet they ripped up theCarthaginians, stifled them, flattened them. The Barbarians descendedthe hill behind them; the Punic camp, which was without entrenchmentswas sacked at the first rush, and the Carthaginians were crushed againstthe gates, which were not opened through fear of the Mercenaries. 

Day broke, and Matho's foot-soldiers were seen coming up from the west. At the same time horsemen appeared; they were Narr' Havas with hisNumidians. Leaping ravines and bushes they ran down the fugitiveslike greyhounds pursuing hares. This change of fortune interrupted theSuffet. He called out to be assisted to leave the vapour bath. 

The three captives were still before him. Then a Negro (the same who hadcarried his parasol in the battle) leaned over to his ear. 

"Well?" replied the Suffet slowly. "Ah! kill them!" he added in anabrupt tone. 

The Ethiopian drew a long dagger from his girdle and the three headsfell. One of them rebounded among the remains of the feast, and leapedinto the basin, where it floated for some time with open mouth andstaring eyes. The morning light entered through the chinks in the wall;the three bodies streamed with great bubbles like three fountains, anda sheet of blood flowed over the mosaics with their powdering of bluedust. The Suffet dipped his hand into this hot mire and rubbed his kneeswith it: it was a cure. 

When evening had come he stole away from the town with his escort, andmade his way into the mountain to rejoin his army. 

He succeeded in finding the remains of it. 

Four days afterward he was on the top of a defile at Gorza, when thetroops under Spendius appeared below. Twenty stout lances might easilyhave checked them by attacking the head of their column, but theCarthaginians watched them pass by in a state of stupefaction. Hannorecognised the king of the Numidians in the rearguard; Narr' Havas bowedto him, at the same time making a sign which he did not understand. 

The return to Carthage took place amid all kinds of terrors. Theymarched only at night, hiding in the olive woods during the day. There were deaths at every halting-place; several times they believedthemselves lost. At last they reached Cape Hermaeum, where vessels cameto receive them. 

Hanno was so fatigued, so desperate--the loss of the elephants inparticular overwhelmed him--that he demanded poison from Demonades inorder to put an end to it all. Moreover he could already feel himselfstretched upon the cross. 

Carthage had not strength enough to be indignant with him. Its losseshad amounted to one hundred thousand nine hundred and seventy-twoshekels of silver, fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three shekelsof gold, eighteen elephants, fourteen members of the Great Council, three hundred of the rich, eight thousand citizens, corn enough forthree moons, a considerable quantity of baggage, and all the enginesof war! The defection of Narr' Havas was certain, and both sieges werebeginning again. The army under Autaritus now extended from Tunis toRhades. From the top of the Acropolis long columns of smoke might beseen in the country ascending to the sky; they were the mansions of therich, which were on fire. 

One man alone could have saved the Republic. People repented thatthey had slighted him, and the peace party itself voted holocausts forHamilcar's return. 

The sight of the zaimph had upset Salammbo. At night she thoughtthat she could hear the footsteps of the goddess, and she would awaketerrified and shrieking. Every day she sent food to the temples. Taanachwas worn out with executing her orders, and Schahabarim never left her. 

CHAPTER VII

HAMILCAR BARCA

The Announcer of the Moons, who watched on the summit of the temple ofEschmoun every night in order to signal the disturbances of the planetwith his trumpet, one morning perceived towards the west something likea bird skimming the surface of the sea with its long wings. 

It was a ship with three tiers of oars and with a horse carved on theprow. The sun was rising; the Announcer of the Moons put up his handbefore his eyes, and then grasping his clarion with outstretched armssounded a loud brazen cry over Carthage. 

People came out of every house; they would not believe what was said;they disputed with one another; the mole was covered with people. Atlast they recognised Hamilcar's trireme. 

It advanced in fierce and haughty fashion, cleaving the foam around it, the lateen-yard quite square and the sail bulging down the whole lengthof the mast; its gigantic oars kept time as they beat the water;every now and then the extremity of the keel, which was shaped like aplough-share, would appear, and the ivory-headed horse, rearing bothits feet beneath the spur which terminated the prow, would seem to bespeeding over the plains of the sea. 

As it rounded the promontory the wind ceased, the sail fell, and a manwas seen standing bareheaded beside the pilot. It was he, Hamilcar, theSuffet! About his sides he wore gleaming sheets of steel; a red cloak, fastened to his shoulders, left his arms visible; two pearls of greatlength hung from his ears, and his black, bushy beard rested on hisbreast. 

The galley, however, tossing amid the rocks, was proceeding alongthe side of the mole, and the crowd followed it on the flag-stones, shouting:

"Greeting! blessing! Eye of Khamon! ah! deliver us! 'Tis the fault ofthe rich! they want to put you to death! Take care of yourself, Barca!"

He made no reply, as if the loud clamour of oceans and battles hadcompletely deafened him. But when he was below the staircase leadingdown from the Acropolis, Hamilcar raised his head, and looked withfolded arms upon the temple of Eschmoun. His gaze mounted higher still, to the great pure sky; he shouted an order in a harsh voice to hissailors; the trireme leaped forward; it grazed the idol set up at thecorner of the mole to stay the storms; and in the merchant harbour, which was full of filth, fragments of wood, and rinds of fruit, itpushed aside and crushed against the other ships moored to stakes andterminating in crocodiles' jaws. The people hastened thither, and somethrew themselves into the water to swim to it. It was already at thevery end before the gate which bristled with nails. The gate rose, andthe trireme disappeared beneath the deep arch. 

The Military Harbour was completely separated from the town; whenambassadors arrived, they had to proceed between two walls througha passage which had its outlet on the left in front of the temple ofKhamon. This great expanse of water was as round as a cup, and wasbordered with quays on which sheds were built for sheltering the ships. Before each of these rose two pillars bearing the horns of Ammon ontheir capitals and forming continuous porticoes all round the basin. Onan island in the centre stood a house for the marine Suffet. 

The water was so limpid that the bottom was visible with its pavingof white pebbles. The noise of the streets did not reach so far, andHamilcar as he passed recognised the triremes which he had formerlycommanded. 

Not more than twenty perhaps remained, under shelter on the land, leaning over on their sides or standing upright on their keels, withlofty poops and swelling prows, and covered with gildings and mysticsymbols. The chimaeras had lost their wings, the Pataec Gods their arms, the bulls their silver horns;--and half-painted, motionless, and rottenas they were, yet full of associations, and still emitting the scentof voyages, they all seemed to say to him, like mutilated soldierson seeing their master again, "'Tis we! 'tis we! and YOU too arevanquished!"

No one excepting the marine Suffet might enter the admiral's house. Solong as there was no proof of his death he was considered as still inexistence. In this way the Ancients avoided a master the more, and theyhad not failed to comply with the custom in respect to Hamilcar. 

The Suffet proceeded into the deserted apartments. At every step herecognised armour and furniture--familiar objects which neverthelessastonished him, and in a perfuming-pan in the vestibule there evenremained the ashes of the perfumes that had been kindled at hisdeparture for the conjuration of Melkarth. It was not thus that he hadhoped to return. Everything that he had done, everything that he hadseen, unfolded itself in his memory: assaults, conflagrations, legions, tempests, Drepanum, Syracuse, Lilybaeum, Mount Etna, the plateau ofEryx, five years of battles, --until the fatal day when arms had beenlaid down and Sicily had been lost. Then he once more saw the woods ofcitron-trees, and herdsmen with their goats on grey mountains; and hisheart leaped at the thought of the establishment of another Carthagedown yonder. His projects and his recollections buzzed through hishead, which was still dizzy from the pitching of the vessel; he wasoverwhelmed with anguish, and, becoming suddenly weak, he felt thenecessity of drawing near to the gods. 

Then he went up to the highest story of his house, and taking anail-studded staple from a golden shell, which hung on his arm, heopened a small oval chamber. 

It was softly lighted by means of delicate black discs let into thewall and as transparent as glass. Between the rows of these equal discs, holes, like those for the urns in columbaria, were hollowed out. Each ofthem contained a round dark stone, which appeared to be very heavy. Only people of superior understanding honoured these abaddirs, which hadfallen from the moon. By their fall they denoted the stars, the sky, andfire; by their colour dark night, and by their density the cohesion ofterrestrial things. A stifling atmosphere filled this mystic place. Theround stones lying in the niches were whitened somewhat with sea-sandwhich the wind had no doubt driven through the door. Hamilcar countedthem one after another with the tip of his finger; then he hid his facein a saffron-coloured veil, and, falling on his knees, stretched himselfon the ground with both arms extended. 

The daylight outside was beginning to strike on the folding shuttersof black lattice-work. Arborescences, hillocks, eddies, and ill-definedanimals appeared in their diaphanous thickness; and the light cameterrifying and yet peaceful as it must be behind the sun in the dullspaces of future creations. He strove to banish from his thoughts allforms, and all symbols and appellations of the gods, that he might thebetter apprehend the immutable spirit which outward appearances tookaway. Something of the planetary vitalities penetrated him, and he feltwithal a wiser and more intimate scorn of death and of every accident. When he rose he was filled with serene fearlessness and was proofagainst pity or dread, and as his chest was choking he went to the topof the tower which overlooked Carthage. 

The town sank downwards in a long hollow curve, with its cupolas, itstemples, its golden roofs, its houses, its clusters of palm trees hereand there, and its glass balls with streaming rays, while the rampartsformed, as it were, the gigantic border of this horn of plenty whichpoured itself out before him. Far below he could see the harbours, thesquares, the interiors of the courts, the plan of the streets, and thepeople, who seemed very small and but little above the level of thepavement. Ah! if Hanno had not arrived too late on the morning ofthe Aegatian islands! He fastened his eyes on the extreme horizon andstretched forth his quivering arms in the direction of Rome. 

The steps of the Acropolis were occupied by the multitude. In the squareof Khamon the people were pressing forwards to see the Suffet comeout, and the terraces were gradually being loaded with people; a fewrecognised him, and he was saluted; but he retired in order the betterto excite the impatience of the people. 

Hamilcar found the most important men of his party below in the hall:Istatten, Subeldia, Hictamon, Yeoubas and others. They related to himall that had taken place since the conclusion of the peace: the greedof the Ancients, the departure of the soldiers, their return, theirdemands, the capture of Gisco, the theft of the zaimph, the relief andsubsequent abandonment of Utica; but no one ventured to tell him of theevents which concerned himself. At last they separated, to meet againduring the night at the assembly of the Ancients in the temple ofMoloch. 

They had just gone out when a tumult arose outside the door. Some onewas trying to enter in spite of the servants; and as the disturbance wasincreasing Hamilcar ordered the stranger to be shown in. 

An old Negress made her appearance, broken, wrinkled, trembling, stupid-looking, wrapped to the heels in ample blue veils. She advancedface to face with the Suffet, and they looked at each other for sometime; suddenly Hamilcar started; at a wave of his hand the slaveswithdrew. Then, signing to her to walk with precaution, he drew her bythe arm into a remote apartment. 

The Negress threw herself upon the floor to kiss his feet; he raised herbrutally. 

"Where have you left him, Iddibal?"

"Down there, Master;" and extricating herself from her veils, she rubbedher face with her sleeve; the black colour, the senile trembling, thebent figure disappeared, and there remained a strong old man whose skinseemed tanned by sand, wind, and sea. A tuft of white hair rose on hisskull like the crest of a bird; and he indicated his disguise, as it layon the ground, with an ironic glance. 

"You have done well, Iddibal! 'Tis well!" Then piercing him, as it were, with his keen gaze: "No one yet suspects?"

The old man swore to him by the Kabiri that the mystery had been kept. They never left their cottage, which was three days' journey fromHadrumetum, on a shore peopled with turtles, and with palms on the dune. "And in accordance with your command, O Master! I teach him to hurl thejavelin and to drive a team. "

"He is strong, is he not?"

"Yes, Master, and intrepid as well! He has no fear of serpents, orthunder, or phantoms. He runs bare-footed like a herdsman along thebrinks of precipices. "

"Speak! speak!"

"He invents snares for wild beasts. Would you believe it, that last moonhe surprised an eagle; he dragged it away, and the bird's blood and thechild's were scattered in the air in large drops like driven roses. The animal in its fury enwrapped him in the beating of its wings; hestrained it against his breast, and as it died his laughter increased, piercing and proud like the clashing of swords. "

Hamilcar bent his head, dazzled by such presages of greatness. 

"But he has been for some time restless and disturbed. He gazes at thesails passing far out at sea; he is melancholy, he rejects bread, he inquires about the gods, and he wishes to become acquainted withCarthage. "

"No, no! not yet!" exclaimed the Suffet. 

The old slave seemed to understand the peril which alarmed Hamilcar, andhe resumed:

"How is he to be restrained? Already I am obliged to make him promises, and I have come to Carthage only to buy him a dagger with a silverhandle and pearls all around it. " Then he told how, having perceived theSuffet on the terrace, he had passed himself off on the warders of theharbour as one of Salammbo's women, so as to make his way in to him. 

Hamilcar remained for a long time apparently lost in deliberation; atlast he said:

"To-morrow you will present yourself at sunset behind the purplefactories in Megara, and imitate a jackal's cry three times. If you donot see me, you will return to Carthage on the first day of every moon. Forget nothing! Love him! You may speak to him now about Hamilcar. "

The slave resumed his costume, and they left the house and the harbourtogether. 

Hamilcar went on his way alone on foot and without an escort, for themeetings of the Ancients were, under extraordinary circumstances, alwayssecret, and were resorted to mysteriously. 

At first he went along the western front of the Acropolis, and thenpassed through the Green Market, the galleries of Kinisdo, and thePerfumers' suburb. The scattered lights were being extinguished, thebroader streets grew still, then shadows glided through the darkness. They followed him, others appeared, and like him they all directed theircourse towards the Mappalian district. 

The temple of Moloch was built at the foot of a steep defile in asinister spot. From below nothing could be seen but lofty walls risingindefinitely like those of a monstrous tomb. The night was gloomy, agreyish fog seemed to weigh upon the sea, which beat against the cliffwith a noise as of death-rattles and sobs; and the shadows graduallyvanished as if they had passed through the walls. 

But as soon as the doorway was crossed one found oneself in a vastquadrangular court bordered by arcades. In the centre rose a mass ofarchitecture with eight equal faces. It was surmounted by cupolas whichthronged around a second story supporting a kind of rotunda, from whichsprang a cone with a re-entrant curve and terminating in a ball on thesummit. 

Fires were burning in cylinders of filigree-work fitted upon poles, which men were carrying to and fro. These lights flickered in the gustsof wind and reddened the golden combs which fastened their plaitedhair on the nape of the neck. They ran about calling to one another toreceive the Ancients. 

Here and there on the flag-stones huge lions were couched likesphinxes, living symbols of the devouring sun. They were slumbering withhalf-closed eyelids. But roused by the footsteps and voices they roseslowly, came towards the Ancients, whom they recognised by their dress, and rubbed themselves against their thighs, arching their backs withsonorous yawns; the vapour of their breath passed across the light ofthe torches. The stir increased, doors closed, all the priests fled, and the Ancients disappeared beneath the columns which formed a deepvestibule round the temple. 

These columns were arranged in such a way that their circular ranks, which were contained one within another, showed the Saturnian periodwith its years, the years with their months, and the months with theirdays, and finally reached to the walls of the sanctuary. 

Here it was that the Ancients laid aside their sticks ofnarwhal's-horn, --for a law which was always observed inflicted thepunishment of death upon any one entering the meeting with any kindof weapon. Several wore a rent repaired with a strip of purple at thebottom of their garment, to show that they had not been economical intheir dress when mourning for their relatives, and this testimony totheir affliction prevented the slit from growing larger. Others hadtheir beards inclosed in little bags of violet skin, and fastened totheir ears by two cords. They all accosted one another by embracingbreast to breast. They surrounded Hamilcar with congratulations; theymight have been taken for brothers meeting their brother again. 

These men were generally thick-set, with curved noses like those of theAssyrian colossi. In a few, however, the more prominent cheek-bone, thetaller figure, and the narrower foot, betrayed an African originand nomad ancestors. Those who lived continually shut up in theircounting-houses had pale faces; others showed in theirs the severityof the desert, and strange jewels sparkled on all the fingers oftheir hands, which were burnt by unknown suns. The navigators might bedistinguished by their rolling gait, while the men of agriculturesmelt of the wine-press, dried herbs, and the sweat of mules. Theseold pirates had lands under tillage, these money-grubbers would fitout ships, these proprietors of cultivated lands supported slaves whofollowed trades. All were skilled in religious discipline, expert instrategy, pitiless and rich. They looked wearied of prolonged cares. Their flaming eyes expressed distrust, and their habits of travellingand lying, trafficking and commanding, gave an appearance of cunningand violence, a sort of discreet and convulsive brutality to their wholedemeanour. Further, the influence of the god cast a gloom upon them. 

They first passed through a vaulted hall which was shaped like an egg. Seven doors, corresponding to the seven planets, displayed seven squaresof different colours against the wall. After traversing a long room theyentered another similar hall. 

A candelabrum completely covered with chiselled flowers was burning atthe far end, and each of its eight golden branches bore a wick of byssusin a diamond chalice. It was placed upon the last of the long stepsleading to a great altar, the corners of which terminated in horns ofbrass. Two lateral staircases led to its flattened summit; the stonesof it could not be seen; it was like a mountain of heaped cinders, andsomething indistinct was slowly smoking at the top of it. Then furtherback, higher than the candelabrum, and much higher than the altar, rosethe Moloch, all of iron, and with gaping apertures in his human breast. His outspread wings were stretched upon the wall, his tapering handsreached down to the ground; three black stones bordered by yellowcircles represented three eyeballs on his brow, and his bull's head wasraised with a terrible effort as if in order to bellow. 

Ebony stools were ranged round the apartment. Behind each of them wasa bronze shaft resting on three claws and supporting a torch. All theselights were reflected in the mother-of-pearl lozenges which formed thepavement of the hall. So lofty was the latter that the red colour of thewalls grew black as it rose towards the vaulted roof, and the three eyesof the idol appeared far above like stars half lost in the night. 

The Ancients sat down on the ebony stools after putting the trains oftheir robes over their heads. They remained motionless with their handscrossed inside their broad sleeves, and the mother-of-pearl pavementseemed like a luminous river streaming from the altar to the door andflowing beneath their naked feet. 

The four pontiffs had their places in the centre, sitting back to backon four ivory seats which formed a cross, the high-priest of Eschmounin a hyacinth robe, the high-priest of Tanith in a white linen robe, thehigh-priest of Khamon in a tawny woollen robe, and the high-priest ofMoloch in a purple robe. 

Hamilcar advanced towards the candelabrum. He walked all round it, looking at the burning wicks; then he threw a scented powder upon them, and violet flames appeared at the extremities of the branches. 

Then a shrill voice rose; another replied to it, and the hundredAncients, the four pontiffs, and Hamilcar, who remained standing, simultaneously intoned a hymn, and their voices--ever repeating thesame syllables and strengthening the sounds--rose, grew loud, becameterrible, and then suddenly were still. 

There was a pause for some time. At last Hamilcar drew from his breast alittle three-headed statuette, as blue as sapphire, and placed it beforehim. It was the image of Truth, the very genius of his speech. Then hereplaced it in his bosom, and all, as if seized with sudden wrath, criedout:

"They are good friends of yours, are the Barbarians! Infamous traitor!You come back to see us perish, do you not? Let him speak!--No! no!"

They were taking their revenge for the constraint to which politicalceremonial had just obliged them; and even though they had wished forHamilcar's return, they were now indignant that he had not anticipatedtheir disasters, or rather that he had not endured them as well as they. 

When the tumult had subsided, the pontiff of Moloch rose:

"We ask you why you did not return to Carthage?"

"What is that to you?" replied the Suffet disdainfully. 

Their shouts were redoubled. 

"Of what do you accuse me? I managed the war badly, perhaps! You haveseen how I order my battles, you who conveniently allow Barbarians--"

"Enough! enough!"

He went on in a low voice so as to make himself the better listened to:

"Oh! that is true! I am wrong, lights of the Baals; there are intrepidmen among you! Gisco, rise!" And surveying the step of the altar withhalf-closed eyelids, as if he sought for some one, he repeated:

"Rise, Gisco! You can accuse me; they will protect you! But where ishe?" Then, as if he remembered himself: "Ah! in his house, no doubt!surrounded by his sons, commanding his slaves, happy, and counting onthe wall the necklaces of honour which his country has given to him!"

They moved about raising their shoulders as if they were being scourgedwith thongs. "You do not even know whether he is living or dead!" Andwithout giving any heed to their clamours he said that in deserting theSuffet they had deserted the Republic. So, too, the peace with Rome, however advantageous it might appear to them, was more fatal than twentybattles. A few--those who were the least rich of the Council andwere suspected of perpetual leanings towards the people or towardstyranny--applauded. Their opponents, chiefs of the Syssitia andadministrators, triumphed over them in point of numbers; and the moreeminent of them had ranged themselves close to Hanno, who was sitting atthe other end of the hall before the lofty door, which was closed by ahanging of hyacinth colour. 

He had covered the ulcers on his face with paint. But the gold dust inhis hair had fallen upon his shoulders, where it formed two brilliantsheets, so that his hair appeared whitish, fine, and frizzled like wool. His hands were enveloped in linen soaked in a greasy perfume, whichdripped upon the pavement, and his disease had no doubt considerablyincreased, for his eyes were hidden beneath the folds of his eyelids. He had thrown back his head in order to see. His partisans urged him tospeak. At last in a hoarse and hideous voice he said:

"Less arrogance, Barca! We have all been vanquished! Each one supportshis own misfortune! Be resigned!"

"Tell us rather, " said Hamilcar, smiling, "how it was that you steeredyour galleys into the Roman fleet?"

"I was driven by the wind, " replied Hanno. 

"You are like a rhinoceros trampling on his dung: you are displayingyour own folly! be silent!" And they began to indulge in recriminationsrespecting the battle of the Aegatian islands. 

Hanno accused him of not having come to meet him. 

"But that would have left Eryx undefended. You ought to have stood outfrom the coast; what prevented you? Ah! I forgot! all elephants areafraid of the sea!"

Hamilcar's followers thought this jest so good that they burst out intoloud laughter. The vault rang with it like the beating of tympanums. 

Hanno denounced the unworthiness of such an insult; the disease hadcome upon him from a cold taken at the siege of Hecatompylos, and tearsflowed down his face like winter rain on a ruined wall. 

Hamilcar resumed:

"If you had loved me as much as him there would be great joy in Carthagenow! How many times did I not call upon you! and you always refused memoney!"

"We had need of it, " said the chiefs of the Syssitia. 

"And when things were desperate with me--we drank mules' urine and atethe straps of our sandals; when I would fain have had the blades ofgrass soldiers and made battalions with the rottenness of our dead, yourecalled the vessels that I had left!"

"We could not risk everything, " replied Baat-Baal, who possessed goldmines in Darytian Gaetulia. 

"But what did you do here, at Carthage, in your houses, behind yourwalls? There are Gauls on the Eridanus, who ought to have been roused, Chanaanites at Cyrene who would have come, and while the Romans sendambassadors to Ptolemaeus--"

"Now he is extolling the Romans to us!" Some one shouted out to him:"How much have they paid you to defend them?"

"Ask that of the plains of Brutium, of the ruins of Locri, ofMetapontum, and of Heraclea! I have burnt all their trees, Ihave pillaged all their temples, and even to the death of theirgrandchildren's grandchildren--"

"Why, you disclaim like a rhetor!" said Kapouras, a very illustriousmerchant. "What is it that you want?"

"I say that we must be more ingenious or more terrible! If the whole ofAfrica rejects your yoke the reason is, my feeble masters, that you donot know how to fasten it to her shoulders! Agathocles, Regulus, Coepio, any bold man has only to land and capture her; and when the Libyans inthe east concert with the Numidians in the west, and the Nomadscome from the south, and the Romans from the north"--a cry of horrorrose--"Oh! you will beat your breasts, and roll in the dust, and tearyour cloaks! No matter! you will have to go and turn the mill-stone inthe Suburra, and gather grapes on the hills of Latium. "

They smote their right thighs to mark their sense of the scandal, andthe sleeves of their robes rose like large wings of startled birds. Hamilcar, carried away by a spirit, continued his speech, standing onthe highest step of the altar, quivering and terrible; he raised hisarms, and the rays from the candelabrum which burned behind him passedbetween his fingers like javelins of gold. 

"You will lose your ships, your country seats, your chariots, yourhanging beds, and the slaves who rub your feet! The jackal will crouchin your palaces, and the ploughshare will upturn your tombs. Nothingwill be left but the eagles' scream and a heap of ruins. Carthage, thouwilt fall!"

The four pontiffs spread out their hands to avert the anathema. All hadrisen. But the marine Suffet, being a sacerdotal magistrate under theprotection of the Sun, was inviolate so long as the assembly of therich had not judged him. Terror was associated with the altar. They drewback. 

Hamilcar had ceased speaking, and was panting with eye fixed, his faceas pale as the pearls of his tiara, almost frightened at himself, andhis spirit lost in funereal visions. From the height on which he stood, all the torches on the bronze shafts seemed to him like a vast crown offire laid level with the pavement; black smoke issuing from them mountedup into the darkness of the vault; and for some minutes the silence wasso profound that they could hear in the distance the sound of the sea. 

Then the Ancients began to question one another. Their interests, theirexistence, were attacked by the Barbarians. But it was impossible toconquer them without the assistance of the Suffet, and in spite of theirpride this consideration made them forget every other. His friends weretaken aside. There were interested reconciliations, understandings, andpromises. Hamilcar would not take any further part in any government. All conjured him. They besought him; and as the word treason occurredin their speech, he fell into a passion. The sole traitor was the GreatCouncil, for as the enlistment of the soldiers expired with the war, they became free as soon as the war was finished; he even exalted theirbravery and all the advantages which might be derived from interestingthem in the Republic by donations and privileges. 

Then Magdassin, a former provincial governor, said, as he rolled hisyellow eyes:

"Truly Barca, with your travelling you have become a Greek, or a Latin, or something! Why speak you of rewards for these men? Rather let tenthousand Barbarians perish than a single one of us!"

The Ancients nodded approval, murmuring:--"Yes, is there need for somuch trouble? They can always be had?"

"And they can be got rid of conveniently, can they not? They aredeserted as they were by you in Sardinia. The enemy is apprised of theroad which they are to take, as in the case of those Gauls in Sicily, or perhaps they are disembarked in the middle of the sea. As I wasreturning I saw the rock quite white with their bones!"

"What a misfortune!" said Kapouras impudently. 

"Have they not gone over to the enemy a hundred times?" cried theothers. 

"Why, then, " exclaimed Hamilcar, "did you recall them to Carthage, notwithstanding your laws? And when they are in your town, poor andnumerous amid all your riches, it does not occur to you to weaken themby the slightest division! Afterwards you dismiss the whole of themwith their women and children, without keeping a single hostage! Didyou expect that they would murder themselves to spare you the pain ofkeeping your oaths? You hate them because they are strong! You hate mestill more, who am their master! Oh! I felt it just now when you werekissing my hands and were all putting a constraint upon yourselves notto bite them!"

If the lions that were sleeping in the court had come howling in, theuproar could not have been more frightful. But the pontiff of Eschmounrose, and, standing perfectly upright, with his knees close together, his elbows pressed to his body, and his hands half open, he said:

"Barca, Carthage has need that you should take the general command ofthe Punic forces against the Mercenaries!"

"I refuse, " replied Hamilcar. 

"We will give you full authority, " cried the chiefs of the Syssitia. 

"No!"

"With no control, no partition, all the money that you want, allthe captives, all the booty, fifty zereths of land for every enemy'scorpse. "

"No! no! because it is impossible to conquer with you!"

"He is afraid!"

"Because you are cowardly, greedy, ungrateful, pusillanimous and mad!"

"He is careful of them!"

"In order to put himself at their head, " said some one. 

"And return against us, " said another; and from the bottom of the hallHanno howled:

"He wants to make himself king!"

Then they bounded up, overturning the seats and the torches: the crowdof them rushed towards the altar; they brandished daggers. But Hamilcardived into his sleeves and drew from them two broad cutlasses; andhalf stooping, his left foot advanced, his eyes flaming and histeeth clenched, he defied them as he stood there beneath the goldencandelabrum. 

Thus they had brought weapons with them as a precaution; it was a crime;they looked with terror at one another. As all were guilty, every onebecame quickly reassured; and by degrees they turned their backs on theSuffet and came down again maddened with humiliation. For the secondtime they recoiled before him. They remained standing for some time. Several who had wounded their fingers put them to their mouths or rolledthem gently in the hem of their mantles, and they were about to departwhen Hamilcar heard these words:

"Why! it is a piece of delicacy to avoid distressing his daughter!"

A louder voice was raised:

"No doubt, since she takes her lovers from among the Mercenaries!"

At first he tottered, then his eye rapidly sought for Schahabarim. Butthe priest of Tanith had alone remained in his place; and Hamilcar couldsee only his lofty cap in the distance. All were sneering in his face. In proportion as his anguish increased their joy redoubled, and thosewho were behind shouted amid the hootings:

"He was seen coming out of her room!"

"One morning in the month of Tammouz!"

"It was the thief who stole the zaimph!"

"A very handsome man!"

"Taller than you!"

He snatched off the tiara, the ensign of his rank--his tiara with itseight mystic rows, and with an emerald shell in the centre--and withboth hands and with all his strength dashed it to the ground; the goldencircles rebounded as they broke, and the pearls rang upon the pavement. Then they saw a long scar upon the whiteness of his brow; it moved likea serpent between his eyebrows; all his limbs trembled. He ascended oneof the lateral staircases which led on to the altar, and walked uponthe latter! This was to devote himself to the god, to offer himself asa holocaust. The motion of his mantle agitated the lights of thecandelabrum, which was lower than his sandals, and the fine dust raisedby his footsteps surrounded him like a cloud as high as the waist. Hestopped between the legs of the brass colossus. He took up two handfulsof the dust, the mere sight of which made every Carthaginian shudderwith horror, and said:

"By the hundred torches of your Intelligences! by the eight fires of theKabiri! by the stars, the meteors, and the volcanoes! by everything thatburns! by the thirst of the desert and the saltness of the ocean! bythe cave of Hadrumetum and the empire of Souls! by extermination! by theashes of your sons and the ashes of the brothers of your ancestors withwhich I now mingle my own!--you, the Hundred of the Council of Carthage, have lied in your accusation of my daughter! And I, Hamilcar Barca, marine Suffet, chief of the rich and ruler of the people, in thepresence of bull-headed Moloch, I swear"--they expected somethingfrightful, but he resumed in a loftier and calmer tone--"that I will noteven speak to her about it!"

The sacred servants entered wearing their golden combs, some with purplesponges and others with branches of palm. They raised the hyacinthcurtain which was stretched before the door; and through the opening ofthis angle there was visible behind the other halls the great pinksky which seemed to be a continuation of the vault and to rest atthe horizon upon the blue sea. The sun was issuing from the waves andmounting upwards. It suddenly struck upon the breast of the brazencolossus, which was divided into seven compartments closed by gratings. His red-toothed jaws opened in a horrible yawn; his enormous nostrilswere dilated, the broad daylight animated him, and gave him a terribleand impatient aspect, as if he would fain have leaped without to minglewith the star, the god, and together traverse the immensities. 

The torches, however, which were scattered on the ground, were stillburning, while here and there on the mother-of-pearl pavement wasstretched from them what looked like spots of blood. The Ancients werereeling from exhaustion; they filled their lungs inhaling the freshnessof the air; the sweat flowed down their livid faces; they had shoutedso much that they could now scarcely make their voices heard. But theirwrath against the Suffet was not at all abated; they hurled menaces athim by way of farewells, and Hamilcar answered them again. 

"Until the next night, Barca, in the temple of Eschmoun!"

"I shall be there!"

"We will have you condemned by the rich!"

"And I you by the people!"

"Take care that you do not end on the cross!"

"And you that you are not torn to pieces in the streets!"

As soon as they were on the threshold of the court they again assumed acalm demeanour. 

Their runners and coachmen were waiting for them at the door. Most ofthem departed on white mules. The Suffet leaped into his chariot andtook the reins; the two animals, curving their necks, and rhythmicallybeating the resounding pebbles, went up the whole of the Mappalian Wayat full gallop, and the silver vulture at the extremity of the poleseemed to fly, so quickly did the chariot pass along. 

The road crossed a field planted with slabs of stone, which were paintedon the top like pyramids, and had open hands carved out in the centre asif all the dead men lying beneath had stretched them out towards heavento demand something. Next there came scattered cabins built of earth, branches, and bulrush-hurdles, and all of a conical shape. Thesedwellings, which became constantly denser as the road ascended towardsthe Suffet's gardens, were irregularly separated from one another bylittle pebble walls, trenches of spring water, ropes of esparto-grass, and nopal hedges. But Hamilcar's eyes were fastened on a great tower, the three storys of which formed three monster cylinders--the firstbeing built of stone, the second of brick, and the third all ofcedar--supporting a copper cupola upon twenty-four pillars of juniper, from which slender interlacing chains of brass hung down after themanner of garlands. This lofty edifice overlooked the buildings--theemporiums and mercantile houses--which stretched to the right, while thewomen's palace rose at the end of the cypress trees, which were rangedin line like two walls of bronze. 

When the echoing chariot had entered through the narrow gateway itstopped beneath a broad shed in which there were shackled horses eatingfrom heaps of chopped grass. 

All the servants hastened up. They formed quite a multitude, those whoworked on the country estates having been brought to Carthage throughfear of the soldiers. The labourers, who were clad in animals' skins, had chains riveted to their ankles and trailing after them; the workersin the purple factories had arms as red as those of executioners; thesailors wore green caps; the fishermen coral necklaces; the huntsmencarried nets on their shoulders; and the people belonging to Megarawore black or white tunics, leathern drawers, and caps of straw, felt orlinen, according to their service or their different occupations. 

Behind pressed a tattered populace. They lived without employment remotefrom the apartments, slept at night in the gardens, ate the refusefrom the kitchens, --a human mouldiness vegetating in the shadow ofthe palace. Hamilcar tolerated them from foresight even more than fromscorn. They had all put a flower in the ear in token of their joy, andmany of them had never seen him. 

But men with head-dresses like the Sphinx's, and furnished with greatsticks, dashed into the crowd, striking right and left. This was todrive back the slaves, who were curious to see their master, so that hemight not be assailed by their numbers or inconvenienced by their smell. 

Then they all threw themselves flat on the ground, crying:

"Eye of Baal, may your house flourish!" And through these people as theylay thus on the ground in the avenue of cypress trees, Abdalonim, theSteward of the stewards, waving a white miter, advanced towards Hamilcarwith a censer in his hand. 

Salammbo was then coming down the galley staircases. All her slave womenfollowed her; and, at each of her steps, they also descended. The headsof the Negresses formed big black spots on the line of the bands ofthe golden plates clasping the foreheads of the Roman women. Others hadsilver arrows, emerald butterflies, or long bodkins set like suns intheir hair. Rings, clasps, necklaces, fringes, and bracelets shone amidthe confusion of white, yellow, and blue garments; a rustling oflight material became audible; the pattering of sandals might be heardtogether with the dull sound of naked feet as they were set down on thewood;--and here and there a tall eunuch, head and shoulders above them, smiled with his face in air. When the shouting of the men had subsidedthey hid their faces in their sleeves, and together uttered a strangecry like the howling of a she-wolf, and so frenzied and strident wasit that it seemed to make the great ebony staircase, with its throngingwomen, vibrate from top to bottom like a lyre. 

The wind lifted their veils, and the slender stems of the papyrus plantrocked gently. It was the month of Schebaz and the depth of winter. Theflowering pomegranates swelled against the azure of the sky, and thesea disappeared through the branches with an island in the distance halflost in the mist. 

Hamilcar stopped on perceiving Salammbo. She had come to him after thedeath of several male children. Moreover, the birth of daughterswas considered a calamity in the religions of the Sun. The gods hadafterwards sent him a son; but he still felt something of the betrayalof his hope, and the shock, as it were, of the curse which he haduttered against her. Salammbo, however, continued to advance. 

Long bunches of various-coloured pearls fell from her ears to hershoulders, and as far as her elbows. Her hair was crisped so as tosimulate a cloud. Round her neck she wore little quadrangular plates ofgold, representing a woman between two rampant lions; and her costumewas a complete reproduction of the equipment of the goddess. Herbroad-sleeved hyacinth robe fitted close to her figure, widening outbelow. The vermilion on her lips gave additional whiteness to her teeth, and the antimony on her eyelids greater length to her eyes. Her sandals, which were cut out in bird's plumage, had very high heels, and she wasextraordinarily pale, doubtless on account of the cold. 

At last she came close to Hamilcar, and without looking at him, withoutraising her head to him:

"Greeting, eye of Baalim, eternal glory! triumph! leisure! satisfaction!riches! Long has my heart been sad and the house drooping. But thereturning master is like reviving Tammouz; and beneath your gaze, Ofather, joyfulness and a new existence will everywhere prevail!"

And taking from Taanach's hands a little oblong vase wherein smoked amixture of meal, butter, cardamom, and wine: "Drink freely, " said she, "of the returning cup, which your servant has prepared!"

He replied: "A blessing upon you!" and he mechanically grasped thegolden vase which she held out to him. 

He scanned her, however, with such harsh attention, that Salammbo wastroubled and stammered out:

"They have told you, O Master!"

"Yes! I know!" said Hamilcar in a low voice. 

Was this a confession, or was she speaking of the Barbarians? And headded a few vague words upon the public embarrassments which he hoped byhis sole efforts to clear away. 

"O father!" exclaimed Salammbo, "you will not obliterate what isirreparable!"

Then he drew back and Salammbo was astonished at his amazement; for shewas not thinking of Carthage but of the sacrilege in which she foundherself implicated. This man, who made legions tremble and whom shehardly knew, terrified her like a god; he had guessed, he knew all, something awful was about to happen. "Pardon!" she cried. 

Hamilcar slowly bowed his head. 

Although she wished to accuse herself she dared not open her lips; andyet she felt stifled with the need of complaining and being comforted. Hamilcar was struggling against a longing to break his oath. He kept itout of pride or from the dread of putting an end to his uncertainty; andhe looked into her face with all his might so as to lay hold on what shekept concealed at the bottom of her heart. 

By degrees the panting Salammbo, crushed by such heavy looks, let herhead sink below her shoulders. He was now sure that she had erred inthe embrace of a Barbarian; he shuddered and raised both his fists. Sheuttered a shriek and fell down among her women, who crowded around her. 

Hamilcar turned on his heel. All the stewards followed him. 

The door of the emporiums was opened, and he entered a vast round hallform which long passages leading to other halls branched off like thespokes from the nave of a wheel. A stone disc stood in the centre withbalustrades to support the cushions that were heaped up upon carpets. 

The Suffet walked at first with rapid strides; he breathed noisily, hestruck the ground with his heel, and drew his hand across his foreheadlike a man annoyed by flies. But he shook his head, and as he perceivedthe accumulation of his riches he became calm; his thoughts, which wereattracted by the vistas in the passages, wandered to the other hallsthat were full of still rarer treasures. Bronze plates, silver ingots, and iron bars alternated with pigs of tin brought from the Cassiteridesover the Dark Sea; gums from the country of the Blacks were running overtheir bags of palm bark; and gold dust heaped up in leathern bottles wasinsensibly creeping out through the worn-out seams. Delicate filamentsdrawn from marine plants hung amid flax from Egypt, Greece, Taprobaneand Judaea; mandrepores bristled like large bushes at the foot of thewalls; and an indefinable odour--the exhalation from perfumes, leather, spices, and ostrich feathers, the latter tied in great bunches at thevery top of the vault--floated through the air. An arch was formed abovethe door before each passage with elephants' teeth placed upright andmeeting together at the points. 

At last he ascended the stone disc. All the stewards stood with armsfolded and heads bent while Abdalonim reared his pointed mitre with ahaughty air. 

Hamilcar questioned the Chief of the Ships. He was an old pilot witheyelids chafed by the wind, and white locks fell to his hips as ifdashing foam of the tempests had remained on his beard. 

He replied that he had sent a fleet by Gades and Thymiamata to try toreach Eziongaber by doubling the Southern Horn and the promontory ofAromata. 

Others had advanced continuously towards the west for four moons withoutmeeting with any shore; but the ships prows became entangled inweeds, the horizon echoed continually with the noise of cataracts, blood-coloured mists darkened the sun, a perfume-laden breeze lulled thecrews to sleep; and their memories were so disturbed that they were nowunable to tell anything. However, expeditions had ascended the rivers ofthe Scythians, had made their way into Colchis, and into the countriesof the Jugrians and of the Estians, had carried off fifteen hundredmaidens in the Archipelago, and sunk all the strange vessels sailingbeyond Cape Oestrymon, so that the secret of the routes should notbe known. King Ptolemaeus was detaining the incense from Schesbar;Syracuse, Elathia, Corsica, and the islands had furnished nothing, andthe old pilot lowered his voice to announce that a trireme was taken atRusicada by the Numidians, --"for they are with them, Master. "

Hamilcar knit his brows; then he signed to the Chief of the Journeys tospeak. This functionary was enveloped in a brown, ungirdled robe, andhad his head covered with a long scarf of white stuff which passed alongthe edge of his lips and fell upon his shoulder behind. 

The caravans had set out regularly at the winter equinox. But of fifteenhundred men directing their course towards the extreme boundaries ofEthiopia with excellent camels, new leathern bottles, and supplies ofpainted cloth, but one had reappeared at Carthage--the rest having diedof fatigue or become mad through the terror of the desert;--and he saidthat far beyond the Black Harousch, after passing the Atarantes and thecountry of the great apes, he had seen immense kingdoms, wherein thepettiest utensils were all of gold, a river of the colour of milk andas broad as the sea, forests of blue trees, hills of aromatics, monsterswith human faces vegetating on the rocks with eyeballs which expandedlike flowers to look at you; and then crystal mountains supporting thesun behind lakes all covered with dragons. Others had returned fromIndia with peacocks, pepper, and new textures. As to those who go by wayof the Syrtes and the temple of Ammon to purchase chalcedony, they hadno doubt perished in the sands. The caravans from Gaetulia and Phazzanahad furnished their usual supplies; but he, the Chief of the Journeys, did not venture to fit one out just now. 

Hamilcar understood; the Mercenaries were in occupation of the country. He leaned upon his other elbow with a hollow groan; and the Chief ofFarms was so afraid to speak that he trembled horribly in spite ofhis thick shoulders and his big red eyeballs. His face, which was assnub-nosed as a mastiff's, was surmounted by a net woven of threads ofbark. He wore a waist-belt of hairy leopard's skin, wherein gleamed twoformidable cutlasses. 

As soon as Hamilcar turned away he began to cry aloud and invoke all theBaals. It was not his fault! he could not help it! He had watched thetemperature, the soil, the stars, had planted at the winter solstice andpruned at the waning of the moon, had inspected the slaves and had beencareful of their clothes. 

But Hamilcar grew angry at this loquacity. He clacked his tongue, andthe man with the cutlasses went on in rapid tones:

"Ah, Master! they have pillaged everything! sacked everything! destroyedeverything! Three thousand trees have been cut down at Maschala, andat Ubada the granaries have been looted and the cisterns filled up! AtTedes they have carried off fifteen hundred gomors of meal; at Marrazanathey have killed the shepherds, eaten the flocks, burnt your house--yourbeautiful house with its cedar beams, which you used to visit in thesummer! The slaves at Tuburbo who were reaping barley fled to themountains; and the asses, the mules both great and small, the oxen fromTaormina, and the antelopes, --not a single one left! all carried away!It is a curse! I shall not survive it!" He went on again in tears: "Ah!if you knew how full the cellars were, and how the ploughshares shone!Ah! the fine rams! ah! the fine bulls!--"

Hamilcar's wrath was choking him. It burst forth:

"Be silent! Am I a pauper then? No lies! speak the truth! I wish to knowall that I have lost to the last shekel, to the last cab! Abdalonim, bring me the accounts of the ships, of the caravans, of the farms, ofthe house! And if your consciences are not clear, woe be on your heads!Go out!"

All the stewards went out walking backwards, with their fists touchingthe ground. 

Abdalonim went up to a set of pigeon-holes in the wall, and from themidst of them took out knotted cords, strips of linen or papyrus, andsheeps' shoulder-blades inscribed with delicate writing. He laid themat Hamilcar's feet, placed in his hands a wooden frame furnished on theinside with three threads on which balls of gold, silver, and horn werestrung, and began:

"One hundred and ninety-two houses in the Mappalian district let to theNew Carthaginians at the rate of one bekah a moon. "

"No! it is too much! be lenient towards the poor people! and you willtry to learn whether they are attached to the Republic, and write downthe names of those who appear to you to be the most daring! What next?"

Abdalonim hesitated in surprise at such generosity. 

Hamilcar snatched the strips of linen from his hands. 

"What is this? three palaces around Khamon at twelve kesitahs a month!Make it twenty! I do not want to be eaten up by the rich. "

The Steward of the stewards, after a long salutation, resumed:

"Lent to Tigillas until the end of the season two kikars at three percent. , maritime interest; to Bar-Malkarth fifteen hundred shekels on thesecurity of thirty slaves. But twelve have died in the salt-marshes. "

"That is because they were not hardy, " said the Suffet, laughing. "Nomatter! if he is in want of money, satisfy him! We should always lend, and at different rates of interest, according to the wealth of theindividual. "

Then the servant hastened to read all that had been brought in by theiron-mines of Annaba, the coral fisheries, the purple factories, thefarming of the tax on the resident Greeks, the export of silver toArabia, where it had ten times the value of gold, and the captures ofvessels, deduction of a tenth being made for the temple of the goddess. "Each time I declared a quarter less, Master!" Hamilcar was reckoningwith the balls; they rang beneath his fingers. 

"Enough! What have you paid?"

"To Stratonicles of Corinth, and to three Alexandrian merchants, onthese letters here (they have been realised), ten thousand Atheniandrachmas, and twelve Syrian talents of gold. The food for the crews, amounting to twenty minae a month for each trireme--"

"I know! How many lost?"

"Here is the account on these sheets of lead, " said the Steward. "As tothe ships chartered in common, it has often been necessary to throw thecargo into the seas, and so the unequal losses have been divided amongthe partners. For the ropes which were borrowed from the arsenals, andwhich it was impossible to restore, the Syssitia exacted eight hundredkesitahs before the expedition to Utica. "

"They again!" said Hamilcar, hanging his head; and he remained for atime as if quite crushed by the weight of all the hatreds that he couldfeel upon him. "But I do not see the Megara expenses?"

Abdalonim, turning pale, went to another set of pigeon-holes, andtook from them some planchettes of sycamore wood strung in packets onleathern strings. 

Hamilcar, curious about these domestic details, listened to him andgrew calm with the monotony of the tones in which the figures wereenumerated. Abdalonim became slower. Suddenly he let the wooden sheetsfall to the ground and threw himself flat on his face with his armsstretched out in the position of a condemned criminal. Hamilcar pickedup the tablets without any emotion; and his lips parted and his eyesgrew larger when he perceived an exorbitant consumption of meat, fish, birds, wines, and aromatics, with broken vases, dead slaves, and spoiledcarpets set down as the expense of a single day. 

Abdalonim, still prostrate, told him of the feast of the Barbarians. He had not been able to avoid the command of the Ancients. Moreover, Salammbo desired money to be lavished for the better reception of thesoldiers. 

At his daughter's name Hamilcar leaped to his feet. Then with compressedlips he crouched down upon the cushions, tearing the fringes with hisnails, and panting with staring eyes. 

"Rise!" said he; and he descended. 

Abdalonim followed him; his knees trembled. But seizing an iron bar hebegan like one distraught to loosen the paving stones. A wooden discsprang up and soon there appeared throughout the length of the passageseveral of the large covers employed for stopping up the trenches inwhich grain was kept. 

"You see, Eye of Baal, " said the servant, trembling, "they have nottaken everything yet! and these are each fifty cubits deep and filled upto the brim! During your voyage I had them dug out in the arsenals, inthe gardens, everywhere! your house is full of corn as your heart isfull of wisdom. "

A smile passed over Hamilcar's face. "It is well, Abdalonim!" Thenbending over to his ear: "You will have it brought from Etruria, Brutium, whence you will, and no matter at what price! Heap it and keepit! I alone must possess all the corn in Carthage. "

Then when they were alone at the extremity of the passage, Abdalonim, with one of the keys hanging at his girdle, opened a large quadrangularchamber divided in the centre by pillars of cedar. Gold, silver, andbrass coins were arranged on tables or packed into niches, and roseas high as the joists of the roof along the four walls. In the cornersthere were huge baskets of hippopotamus skin supporting whole rows ofsmaller bags; there were hillocks formed of heaps of bullion on thepavement; and here and there a pile that was too high had given way andlooked like a ruined column. The large Carthaginian pieces, representingTanith with a horse beneath a palm-tree, mingled with those from thecolonies, which were marked with a bull, star, globe, or crescent. Thenthere might be seen pieces of all values, dimensions, and ages arrayedin unequal amounts--from the ancient coins of Assyria, slender as thenail, to the ancient ones of Latium, thicker than the hand, with thebuttons of Egina, the tablets of Bactriana, and the short bars ofLacedaemon; many were covered with rust, or had grown greasy, or, havingbeen taken in nets or from among the ruins of captured cities, weregreen with the water or blackened by fire. The Suffet had speedilycalculated whether the sums present corresponded with the gains andlosses which had just been read to him; and he was going away when heperceived three brass jars completely empty. Abdalonim turned away hishead to mark his horror, and Hamilcar, resigning himself to it, saidnothing. 

They crossed other passages and other halls, and at last reached a doorwhere, to ensure its better protection and in accordance with a Romancustom lately introduced into Carthage, a man was fastened by the waistto a long chain let into the wall. His beard and nails had grown to animmoderate length, and he swayed himself from right to left with thatcontinual oscillation which is characteristic of captive animals. Assoon as he recognised Hamilcar he darted towards him, crying:

"Pardon, Eye of Baal! pity! kill me! For ten years I have not seen thesun! In your father's name, pardon!"

Hamilcar, without answering him, clapped his hands and three menappeared; and all four simultaneously stiffening their arms, drew backfrom its rings the enormous bar which closed the door. Hamilcar took atorch and disappeared into the darkness. 

This was believed to be the family burying-place; but nothing would havebeen found in it except a broad well. It was dug out merely to bafflerobbers, and it concealed nothing. Hamilcar passed along beside it; thenstooping down he made a very heavy millstone turn upon its rollers, andthrough this aperture entered an apartment which was built in the shapeof a cone. 

The walls were covered with scales of brass; and in the centre, on agranite pedestal, stood the statue of one of the Kabiri called Aletes, the discoverer of the mines in Celtiberia. On the ground, at its base, and arranged in the form of a cross, were large gold shields and monsterclose-necked silver vases, of extravagant shape and unfitted for use;it was customary to cast quantities of metal in this way, so thatdilapidation and even removal should be almost impossible. 

With his torch he lit a miner's lamp which was fastened to the idol'scap, and green, yellow, blue, violet, wine-coloured, and blood-colouredfires suddenly illuminated the hall. It was filled with gems which wereeither in gold calabashes fastened like sconces upon sheets of brass, or were ranged in native masses at the foot of the wall. There werecallaides shot away from the mountains with slings, carbuncles formedby the urine of the lynx, glossopetrae which had fallen from the moon, tyanos, diamonds, sandastra, beryls, with the three kinds of rubies, thefour kinds of sapphires, and the twelve kinds of emeralds. They gleamedlike splashes of milk, blue icicles, and silver dust, and shed theirlight in sheets, rays, and stars. Ceraunia, engendered by the thunder, sparkled by the side of chalcedonies, which are a cure for poison. Therewere topazes from Mount Zabarca to avert terrors, opals from Bactrianato prevent abortions, and horns of Ammon, which are placed under the bedto induce dreams. 

The fires from the stones and the flames from the lamp were mirrored inthe great golden shields. Hamilcar stood smiling with folded arms, andwas less delighted by the sight of his riches than by the consciousnessof their possession. They were inaccessible, exhaustless, infinite. His ancestors sleeping beneath his feet transmitted something of theireternity to his heart. He felt very near to the subterranean deities. It was as the joy of one of the Kabiri; and the great luminous raysstriking upon his face looked like the extremity of an invisible netlinking him across the abysses with the centre of the world. 

A thought came which made him shudder, and placing himself behind theidol he walked straight up to the wall. Then among the tattooings on hisarm he scrutinised a horizontal line with two other perpendicular oneswhich in Chanaanitish figures expressed the number thirteen. Then hecounted as far as the thirteenth of the brass plates and again raisedhis ample sleeve; and with his right hand stretched out he read othermore complicated lines on his arm, at the same time moving his fingersdaintily about like one playing on a lyre. At last he struck seven blowswith his thumb, and an entire section of the wall turned about in asingle block. 

It served to conceal a sort of cellar containing mysterious things whichhad no name and were of incalculable value. Hamilcar went down the threesteps, took up a llama's skin which was floating on a black liquid in asilver vat, and then re-ascended. 

Abdalonim again began to walk before him. He struck the pavement withhis tall cane, the pommel of which was adorned with bells, and beforeevery apartment cried aloud the name of Hamilcar amid eulogies andbenedictions. 

Along the walls of the circular gallery, from which the passagesbranched off, were piled little beams of algummim, bags of Lawsonia, cakes of Lemnos-earth, and tortoise carapaces filled with pearls. TheSuffet brushed them with his robe as he passed without even looking atsome gigantic pieces of amber, an almost divine material formed by therays of the sun. 

A cloud of odorous vapour burst forth. 

"Push open the door!"

They went in. 

Naked men were kneading pastes, crushing herbs, stirring coals, pouringoil into jars, and opening and shutting the little ovoid cells whichwere hollowed out all round in the wall, and were so numerous thatthe apartment was like the interior of a hive. They were brimful ofmyrobalan, bdellium, saffron, and violets. Gums, powders, roots, glassphials, branches of filipendula, and rose-petals were scattered abouteverywhere, and the scents were stifling in spite of the cloud-wreathsfrom the styrax shrivelling on a brazen tripod in the centre. 

The Chief of the Sweet Odours, pale and long as a waxen torch, came upto Hamilcar to crush a roll of metopion in his hands, while two othersrubbed his heels with leaves of baccharis. He repelled them; they wereCyreneans of infamous morals, but valued on account of the secrets whichthey possessed. 

To show his vigilance the Chief of the Odours offered the Suffet alittle malobathrum to taste in an electrum spoon; then he pierced threeIndian bezoars with an awl. The master, who knew the artifices employed, took a horn full of balm, and after holding it near the coals inclinedit over his robe. A brown spot appeared; it was a fraud. Then he gazedfixedly at the Chief of the Odours, and without saying anything flungthe gazelle's horn full in his face. 

However indignant he might be at adulterations made to his ownprejudice, when he perceived some parcels of nard which were beingpacked up for countries beyond the sea, he ordered antimony to be mixedwith it so as to make it heavier. 

Then he asked where three boxes of psagdas designed for his own use wereto be found. 

The Chief of the Odours confessed that he did not know; some soldiershad come howling in with knives and he had opened the boxes for them. 

"So you are more afraid of them then of me!" cried the Suffet; and hiseyeballs flashed like torches through the smoke upon the tall, pale manwho was beginning to understand. "Abdalonim! you will make him run thegauntlet before sunset: tear him!"

This loss, which was less than the others, had exasperated him; for inspite of his efforts to banish them from his thoughts he was continuallycoming again across the Barbarians. Their excesses were blended with hisdaughter's shame, and he was angry with the whole household for knowingof the latter and for not speaking of it to him. But something impelledhim to bury himself in his misfortune; and in an inquisitorial fit hevisited the sheds behind the mercantile house to see the supplies ofbitumen, wood, anchors and cordage, honey and wax, the cloth warehouse, the stores of food, the marble yard and the silphium barn. 

He went to the other side of the gardens to make an inspection in theircottages, of the domestic artisans whose productions were sold. Therewere tailors embroidering cloaks, others making nets, others paintingcushions or cutting out sandals, and Egyptian workmen polished papyruswith a shell, while the weavers' shuttles rattled and the armourers'anvils rang. 

Hamilcar said to them:

"Beat away at the swords! I shall want them. " And he drew the antelope'sskin that had been steeped in poisons from his bosom to have it cutinto a cuirass more solid than one of brass and unassailable by steel orflame. 

As soon as he approached the workmen, Abdalonim, to give his wrathanother direction, tried to anger him against them by murmureddisparagement of their work. "What a performance! It is a shame! TheMaster is indeed too good. " Hamilcar moved away without listening tohim. 

He slackened his pace, for the paths were barred by great trees calcinedfrom one end to the other, such as may be met with in woods whereshepherds have encamped; and the palings were broken, the water in thetrenches was disappearing, while fragments of glass and the bones ofapes were to be seen amid the miry puddles. A scrap of cloth hunghere and there from the bushes, and the rotten flowers formed a yellowmuck-heap beneath the citron trees. In fact, the servants had neglectedeverything, thinking that the master would never return. 

At every step he discovered some new disaster, some further proof of thething which he had forbidden himself to learn. Here he was soiling hispurple boots as he crushed the filth under-foot; and he had not allthese men before him at the end of a catapult to make them fly intofragments! He felt humiliated at having defended them; it was a delusionand a piece of treachery; and as he could not revenge himself uponthe soldiers, or the Ancients, or Salammbo, or anybody, and his wrathrequired some victim, he condemned all the slaves of the gardens to themines at a single stroke. 

Abdalonim shuddered each time that he saw him approaching the parks. ButHamilcar took the path towards the mill, from which there might be heardissuing a mournful melopoeia. 

The heavy mill-stones were turning amid the dust. They consisted of twocones of porphyry laid the one upon the other--the upper one of the two, which carried a funnel, being made to revolve upon the second by meansof strong bars. Some men were pushing these with their breasts and arms, while others were yoked to them and were pulling them. The friction ofthe straps had formed purulent scabs round about their armpits such asare seen on asses' withers, and the end of the limp black rag, whichscarcely covered their loins, hung down and flapped against their hamslike a long tail. Their eyes were red, the irons on their feet clanked, and all their breasts panted rhythmically. On their mouths they hadmuzzles fastened by two little bronze chains to render it impossiblefor them to eat the flour, and their hands were enclosed in gauntletswithout fingers, so as to prevent them from taking any. 

At the master's entrance the wooden bars creaked still more loudly. Thegrain grated as it was being crushed. Several fell upon their knees; theothers, continuing their work, stepped across them. 

He asked for Giddenem, the governor of the slaved, and that personageappeared, his rank being displayed in the richness of his dress. Histunic, which was slit up the sides, was of fine purple; his ears wereweighted with heavy rings; and the strips of cloth enfolding his legswere joined together with a lacing of gold which extended from hisankles to his hips, like a serpent winding about a tree. In his fingers, which were laden with rings, he held a necklace of jet beads, so as torecognise the men who were subject to the sacred disease. 

Hamilcar signed to him to unfasten the muzzles. Then with the cries offamished animals they all rushed upon the flour, burying their faces inthe heaps of it and devouring it. 

"You are weakening them!" said the Suffet. 

Giddenem replied that such treatment was necessary in order to subduethem. 

"It was scarcely worth while sending you to the slaves' school atSyracuse. Fetch the others!"

And the cooks, butlers, grooms, runners, and litter-carriers, the menbelonging to the vapour-baths, and the women with their children, allranged themselves in a single line in the garden from the mercantilehouse to the deer park. They held their breath. An immense silenceprevailed in Megara. The sun was lengthening across the lagoon at thefoot of the catacombs. The peacocks were screeching. Hamilcar walkedalong step by step. 

"What am I to do with these old creatures?" he said. "Sell them! Thereare too many Gauls: they are drunkards! and too many Cretans: they areliars! Buy me some Cappadocians, Asiatics, and Negroes. "

He was astonished that the children were so few. "The house ought tohave births every year, Giddenem. You will leave the huts open everynight to let them mingle freely. "

He then had the thieves, the lazy, and the mutinous shown to him. Hedistributed punishments, with reproaches to Giddenem; and Giddenem, ox-like, bent his low forehead, with its two broad intersectingeyebrows. 

"See, Eye of Baal, " he said, pointing out a sturdy Libyan, "here is onewho was caught with the rope round his neck. "

"Ah! you wish to die?" said the Suffet scornfully. 

"Yes!" replied the slave in an intrepid tone. 

Then, without heeding the precedent or the pecuniary loss, Hamilcar saidto the serving-men:

"Away with him!"

Perhaps in his thoughts he intended a sacrifice. It was a misfortunewhich he inflicted upon himself in order to avert more terrible ones. 

Giddenem had hidden those who were mutilated behind the others. Hamilcarperceived them. 

"Who cut off your arm?"

"The soldiers, Eye of Baal. "

Then to a Samnite who was staggering like a wounded heron:

"And you, who did that to you?"

It was the governor, who had broken his leg with an iron bar. 

This silly atrocity made the Suffet indignant; he snatched the jetnecklace out of Giddenem's hands. 

"Cursed be the dog that injures the flock! Gracious Tanith, to crippleslaves! Ah! you ruin your master! Let him be smothered in the dunghill. And those that are missing? Where are they? Have you helped the soldiersto murder them?"

His face was so terrible that all the women fled. The slaves drew backand formed a large circle around them; Giddenem was frantically kissinghis sandals; Hamilcar stood upright with his arms raised above him. 

But with his understanding as clear as in the sternest of his battles, he recalled a thousand odious things, ignominies from which he hadturned aside; and in the gleaming of his wrath he could once more seeall his disasters simultaneously as in the lightnings of a storm. The governors of the country estates had fled through terror of thesoldiers, perhaps through collusion with them; they were all deceivinghim; he had restrained himself too long. 

"Bring them here!" he cried; "and brand them on the forehead withred-hot irons as cowards!"

Then they brought and spread out in the middle of the garden, fetters, carcanets, knives, chains for those condemned to the mines, cippi forfastening the legs, numellae for confining the shoulders, and scorpionsor whips with triple thongs terminating in brass claws. 

All were placed facing the sun, in the direction of Moloch the Devourer, and were stretched on the ground on their stomachs or on their backs, those, however, who were sentenced to be flogged standing uprightagainst the trees with two men beside them, one counting the blows andthe other striking. 

In striking he used both his arms, and the whistling thongs made thebark of the plane-trees fly. The blood was scattered like rain upon thefoliage, and red masses writhed with howls at the foot of the trees. Those who were under the iron tore their faces with their nails. The wooden screws could be heard creaking; dull knockings resounded;sometimes a sharp cry would suddenly pierce the air. In the direction ofthe kitchens, men were brisking up burning coals with fans amidtattered garments and scattered hair, and a smell of burning flesh wasperceptible. Those who were under the scourge, swooning, but kept intheir positions by the bonds on their arms, rolled their heads upontheir shoulders and closed their eyes. The others who were watchingthem began to shriek with terror, and the lions, remembering the feastperhaps, stretched themselves out yawning against the edge of the dens. 

Then Salammbo was seen on the platform of her terrace. She ran wildlyabout it from left to right. Hamilcar perceived her. It seemed to himthat she was holding up her arms towards him to ask for pardon; with agesture of horror he plunged into the elephants' park. 

These animals were the pride of the great Punic houses. They had carriedtheir ancestors, had triumphed in the wars, and they were reverenced asbeing the favourites of the Sun. 

Those of Megara were the strongest in Carthage. Before he went awayHamilcar had required Abdalonim to swear that he would watch over them. But they had died from their mutilations; and only three remained, lyingin the middle of the court in the dust before the ruins of their manger. 

They recognised him and came up to him. One had its ears horribly slit, another had a large wound in its knee, while the trunk of the third wascut off. 

They looked sadly at him, like reasonable creatures; and the one thathad lost its trunk tried by stooping its huge head and bending its hamsto stroke him softly with the hideous extremity of its stump. 

At this caress from the animal two tears started into his eyes. Herushed at Abdalonim. 

"Ah! wretch! the cross! the cross!"

Abdalonim fell back swooning upon the ground. 

The bark of a jackal rang from behind the purple factories, the bluesmoke of which was ascending slowly into the sky; Hamilcar paused. 

The thought of his son had suddenly calmed him like the touch of agod. He caught a glimpse of a prolongation of his might, an indefinitecontinuation of his personality, and the slaves could not understandwhence this appeasement had come upon him. 

As he bent his steps towards the purple factories he passed before theergastulum, which was a long house of black stone built in a square pitwith a small pathway all round it and four staircases at the corners. 

Iddibal was doubtless waiting until the night to finish his signal. "There is no hurry yet, " thought Hamilcar; and he went down into theprison. Some cried out to him: "Return"; the boldest followed him. 

The open door was flapping in the wind. The twilight entered throughthe narrow loopholes, and in the interior broken chains could bedistinguished hanging from the walls. 

This was all that remained of the captives of war!

Then Hamilcar grew extraordinarily pale, and those who were leaningover the pit outside saw him resting one hand against the wall to keephimself from falling. 

But the jackal uttered its cry three times in succession. Hamilcarraised his head; he did not speak a word nor make a gesture. Then whenthe sun had completely set he disappeared behind the nopal hedge, and inthe evening he said as he entered the assembly of the rich in the templeof Eschmoun:

"Luminaries of the Baalim, I accept the command of the Punic forcesagainst the army of the Barbarians!"

CHAPTER VIII

THE BATTLE OF THE MACARAS

In the following day he drew two hundred and twenty-three thousandkikars of gold from the Syssitia, and decreed a tax of fourteen shekelsupon the rich. Even the women contributed; payment was made in behalfof the children, and he compelled the colleges of priests to furnishmoney--a monstrous thing, according to Carthaginian customs. 

He demanded all the horses, mules, and arms. A few tried to concealtheir wealth, and their property was sold; and, to intimidate theavarice of the rest, he himself gave sixty suits of armour, and fifteenhundred gomers of meal, which was as much as was given by the IvoryCompany. 

He sent into Liguria to buy soldiers, three thousand mountaineersaccustomed to fight with bears; they were paid for six moons in advanceat the rate of four minae a day. 

Nevertheless an army was wanted. But he did not, like Hanno, accept allthe citizens. First he rejected those engaged in sedentary occupations, and then those who were big-bellied or had a pusillanimous look; and headmitted those of ill-repute, the scum of Malqua, sons of Barbarians, freed men. For reward he promised some of the New Carthaginians completerights of citizenship. 

His first care was to reform the Legion. These handsome young fellows, who regarded themselves as the military majesty of the Republic, governed themselves. He reduced their officers to the ranks; he treatedthem harshly, made them run, leap, ascend the declivity of Byrsa at asingle burst, hurl javelins, wrestle together, and sleep in the squaresat night. Their families used to come to see them and pity them. 

He ordered shorter swords and stronger buskins. He fixed the number ofserving-men, and reduced the amount of baggage; and as there were threehundred Roman pila kept in the temple of Moloch, he took them in spiteof the pontiff's protests. 

He organised a phalanx of seventy-two elephants with those whichhad returned from Utica, and others which were private property, andrendered them formidable. He armed their drivers with mallet and chiselto enable them to split their skulls in the fight if they ran away. 

He would not allow his generals to be nominated by the Grand Council. The Ancients tried to urge the laws in objection, but he set them aside;no one ventured to murmur again, and everything yielded to the violenceof his genius. 

He assumed sole charge of the war, the government, and the finances;and as a precaution against accusations he demanded the Suffet Hanno asexaminer of his accounts. 

He set to work upon the ramparts, and had the old and now useless innerwalls demolished in order to furnish stones. But difference of fortune, replacing the hierarchy of race, still kept the sons of the vanquishedand those of the conquerors apart; thus the patricians viewed thedestruction of these ruins with an angry eye, while the plebeians, scarcely knowing why, rejoiced. 

The troops defiled under arms through the streets from morning tillnight; every moment the sound of trumpets was heard; chariots passedbearing shields, tents, and pikes; the courts were full of women engagedin tearing up linen; the enthusiasm spread from one to another, andHamilcar's soul filled the Republic. 

He had divided his soldiers into even numbers, being careful to placea strong man and a weak one alternately throughout the length of hisfiles, so that he who was less vigorous or more cowardly might be atonce led and pushed forward by two others. But with his three thousandLigurians, and the best in Carthage, he could form only a simple phalanxof four thousand and ninety-six hoplites, protected by bronze helmets, and handling ashen sarissae fourteen cubits long. 

There were two thousand young men, each equipped with a sling, a dagger, and sandals. He reinforced them with eight hundred others armed withround shields and Roman swords. 

The heavy cavalry was composed of the nineteen hundred remainingguardsmen of the Legion, covered with plates of vermilion bronze, likethe Assyrian Clinabarians. He had further four hundred mounted archers, of those that were called Tarentines, with caps of weasel's skin, two-edged axes, and leathern tunics. Finally there were twelve hundredNegroes from the quarter of the caravans, who were mingled with theClinabarians, and were to run beside the stallions with one hand restingon the manes. All was ready, and yet Hamilcar did not start. 

Often at night he would go out of Carthage alone and make his way beyondthe lagoon towards the mouths of the Macaras. Did he intend to join theMercenaries? The Ligurians encamped in the Mappalian district surroundedhis house. 

The apprehensions of the rich appeared justified when, one day, threehundred Barbarians were seen approaching the walls. The Suffet openedthe gates to them; they were deserters; drawn by fear or by fidelity, they were hastening to their master. 

Hamilcar's return had not surprised the Mercenaries; according to theirideas the man could not die. He was returning to fulfil his promise;--ahope by no means absurd, so deep was the abyss between Country andArmy. Moreover they did not believe themselves culpable; the feast wasforgotten. 

The spies whom they surprised undeceived them. It was a triumph for thebitter; even the lukewarm grew furious. Then the two sieges overwhelmedthen with weariness; no progress was being made; a battle would bebetter! Thus many men had left the ranks and were scouring the country. But at news of the arming they returned; Matho leaped for joy. "At last!at last!" he cried. 

Then the resentment which he cherished against Salammbo was turnedagainst Hamilcar. His hate could now perceive a definite prey; and ashis vengeance grew easier of conception he almost believed that hehad realised it and he revelled in it already. At the same time he wasseized with a loftier tenderness, and consumed by more acrid desire. He saw himself alternately in the midst of the soldiers brandishingthe Suffet's head on a pike, and then in the room with the purple bed, clasping the maiden in his arms, covering her face with kisses, passinghis hands over her long, black hair; and the imagination of this, whichhe knew could never be realised, tortured him. He swore to himself that, since his companions had appointed him schalishim, he would conduct thewar; the certainty that he would not return from it urged him to renderit a pitiless one. 

He came to Spendius and said to him:

"You will go and get your men! I will bring mine! Warn Autaritus! We arelost if Hamilcar attacks us! Do you understand me? Rise!"

Spendius was stupefied before such an air of authority. Matho usuallyallowed himself to be led, and his previous transports had quicklypassed away. But just now he appeared at once calmer and more terrible;a superb will gleamed in his eyes like the flame of sacrifice. 

The Greek did not listen to his reasons. He was living in one of theCarthaginian pearl-bordered tents, drinking cool beverages from silvercups, playing at the cottabos, letting his hair grow, and conducting thesiege with slackness. Moreover, he had entered into communications withsome in the town and would not leave, being sure that it would open itsgates before many days were over. 

Narr' Havas, who wandered about among the three armies, was at thattime with him. He supported his opinion, and even blamed the Libyan forwishing in his excess of courage to abandon their enterprise. 

"Go, if you are afraid!" exclaimed Matho; "you promised us pitch, sulphur, elephants, foot-soldiers, horses! where are they?"

Narr' Havas reminded him that he had exterminated Hanno's lastcohorts;--as to the elephants, they were being hunted in the woods, he was arming the foot-soldiers, the horses were on their way; and theNumidian rolled his eyes like a woman and smiled in an irritating manneras he stroked the ostrich feather which fell upon his shoulder. In hispresence Matho was at a loss for a reply. 

But a man who was a stranger entered, wet with perspiration, scared, and with bleeding feet and loosened girdle; his breathing shook hislean sides enough to have burst them, and speaking in an unintelligibledialect he opened his eyes wide as if he were telling of some battle. The king sprang outside and called his horsemen. 

They ranged themselves in the plain before him in the form of a circle. Narr' Havas, who was mounted, bent his head and bit his lips. At last heseparated his men into two equal divisions, and told the first to wait;then with an imperious gesture he carried off the others at a gallop anddisappeared on the horizon in the direction of the mountains. 

"Master!" murmured Spendius, "I do not like these extraordinarychances--the Suffet returning, Narr' Havas going away--"

"Why! what does it matter?" said Matho disdainfully. 

It was a reason the more for anticipating Hamilcar by uniting withAutaritus. But if the siege of the towns were raised, the inhabitantswould come out and attack them in the rear, while they would have theCarthaginians in front. After much talking the following measures wereresolved upon and immediately executed. 

Spendius proceeded with fifteen thousand men as far as the bridge builtacross the Macaras, three miles from Utica; the corners of it werefortified with four huge towers provided with catapults; all the pathsand gorges in the mountains were stopped up with trunks of trees, piecesof rock, interlacings of thorn, and stone walls; on the summits heapsof grass were made which might be lighted as signals, and shepherds whowere able to see at a distance were posted at intervals. 

No doubt Hamilcar would not, like Hanno, advance by the mountain ofthe Hot Springs. He would think that Autaritus, being master of theinterior, would close the route against him. Moreover, a check at theopening of the campaign would ruin him, while if he gained a victory hewould soon have to make a fresh beginning, the Mercenaries being furtheroff. Again, he could disembark at Cape Grapes and march thence upon oneof the towns. But he would then find himself between the two armies, an indiscretion which he could not commit with his scanty forces. Accordingly he must proceed along the base of Mount Ariana, then turnto the left to avoid the mouths of the Macaras, and come straight to thebridge. It was there that Matho expected him. 

At night he used to inspect the pioneers by torch-light. He would hastento Hippo-Zarytus or to the works on the mountains, would come backagain, would never rest. Spendius envied his energy; but in themanagement of spies, the choice of sentries, the working of the enginesand all means of defence, Matho listened docilely to his companion. Theyspoke no more of Salammbo, --one not thinking about her, and the otherbeing prevented by a feeling of shame. 

Often he would go towards Carthage, striving to catch sight ofHamilcar's troops. His eyes would dart along the horizon; he wouldlie flat on the ground, and believe that he could hear an army in thethrobbing of his arteries. 

He told Spendius that if Hamilcar did not arrive in three days he wouldgo with all his men to meet him and offer him battle. Two further dayselapsed. Spendius restrained him; but on the morning of the sixth day hedeparted. 

The Carthaginians were no less impatient for war than the Barbarians. In tents and in houses there was the same longing and the same distress;all were asking one another what was delaying Hamilcar. 

From time to time he would mount to the cupola of the temple of Eschmounbeside the Announcer of the Moons and take note of the wind. 

One day--it was the third of the month of Tibby--they saw him descendingfrom the Acropolis with hurried steps. A great clamour arose in theMappalian district. Soon the streets were astir, and the soldiers wereeverywhere beginning to arm themselves upon their breasts; then they ranquickly to the square of Khamon to take their places in the ranks. Noone was allowed to follow them or even to speak to them, or to approachthe ramparts; for some minutes the whole town was silent as a greattomb. The soldiers as they leaned on their lances were thinking, and theothers in the houses were sighing. 

At sunset the army went out by the western gate; but instead of takingthe road to Tunis or making for the mountains in the direction of Utica, they continued their march along the edge of the sea; and they soonreached the Lagoon, where round spaces quite whitened with saltglittered like gigantic silver dishes forgotten on the shore. 

Then the pools of water multiplied. The ground gradually became softer, and the feet sank in it. Hamilcar did not turn back. He went on stillat their head; and his horse, which was yellow-spotted like a dragon, advanced into the mire flinging froth around him, and with greatstraining of the loins. Night--a moonless light--fell. A few cried outthat they were about to perish; he snatched their arms from them, andgave them to the serving-men. Nevertheless the mud became deeper anddeeper. Some had to mount the beasts of burden; others clung to thehorses' tails; the sturdy pulled the weak, and the Ligurian corps droveon the infantry with the points of their pikes. The darkness increased. They had lost their way. All stopped. 

Then some of the Suffet's slaves went on ahead to look for the buoyswhich had been placed at intervals by his order. They shouted throughthe darkness, and the army followed them at a distance. 

At last they felt the resistance of the ground. Then a whitish curvebecame dimly visible, and they found themselves on the bank of theMacaras. In spite of the cold no fires were lighted. 

In the middle of the night squalls of wind arose. Hamilcar had thesoldiers roused, but not a trumpet was sounded: their captain tappedthem softly on the shoulder. 

A man of lofty stature went down into the water. It did not come up tohis girdle; it was possible to cross. 

The Suffet ordered thirty-two of the elephants to be posted in the rivera hundred paces further on, while the others, lower down, would checkthe lines of men that were carried away by the current; and holdingtheir weapons above their heads they all crossed the Macaras as thoughbetween two walls. He had noticed that the western wind had driven thesand so as to obstruct the river and form a natural causeway across it. 

He was now on the left bank in front of Utica, and in a vast plain, thelatter being advantageous for his elephants, which formed the strengthof his army. 

This feat of genius filled the soldiers with enthusiasm. They recoveredextraordinary confidence. They wished to hasten immediately against theBarbarians; but the Suffet bade them rest for two hours. As soon as thesun appeared they moved into the plain in three lines--first came theelephants, and then the light infantry with the cavalry behind it, thephalanx marching next. 

The Barbarians encamped at Utica, and the fifteen thousand about thebridge were surprised to see the ground undulating in the distance. Thewind, which was blowing very hard, was driving tornadoes of sand beforeit; they rose as though snatched from the soil, ascended in greatlight-coloured strips, then parted asunder and began again, hiding thePunic army the while from the Mercenaries. Owing to the horns, whichstood up on the edge of the helmets, some thought that they couldperceive a herd of oxen; others, deceived by the motion of the cloaks, pretended that they could distinguish wings, and those who had travelleda good deal shrugged their shoulders and explained everything bythe illusions of the mirage. Nevertheless something of enormous sizecontinued to advance. Little vapours, as subtle as the breath, ranacross the surface of the desert; the sun, which was higher now, shonemore strongly: a harsh light, which seemed to vibrate, threw backthe depths of the sky, and permeating objects, rendered distanceincalculable. The immense plain expanded in every direction beyond thelimits of vision; and the almost insensible undulations of the soilextended to the extreme horizon, which was closed by a great blue linewhich they knew to be the sea. The two armies, having left their tents, stood gazing; the people of Utica were massing on the ramparts to have abetter view. 

At last they distinguished several transverse bars bristling with levelpoints. They became thicker, larger; black hillocks swayed to and fro;square thickets suddenly appeared; they were elephants and lances. Asingle shout went up: "The Carthaginians!" and without signal or commandthe soldiers at Utica and those at the bridge ran pell-mell to fall in abody upon Hamilcar. 

Spendius shuddered at the name. "Hamilcar! Hamilcar!" he repeated, panting, and Matho was not there! What was to be done? No means offlight! The suddenness of the event, his terror of the Suffet, and aboveall, the urgent need of forming an immediate resolution, distracted him;he could see himself pierced by a thousand swords, decapitated, dead. Meanwhile he was being called for; thirty thousand men would follow him;he was seized with fury against himself; he fell back upon the hope ofvictory; it was full of bliss, and he believed himself more intrepidthan Epaminondas. He smeared his cheeks with vermilion in order toconceal his paleness, then he buckled on his knemids and his cuirass, swallowed a patera of pure wine, and ran after his troops, who werehastening towards those from Utica. 

They united so rapidly that the Suffet had not time to draw up hismen in battle array. By degrees he slackened his speed. The elephantsstopped; they rocked their heavy heads with their chargings of ostrichfeathers, striking their shoulders the while with their trunks. 

Behind the intervals between them might be seen the cohorts of thevelites, and further on the great helmets of the Clinabarians, with steel heads glancing in the sun, cuirasses, plumes, and wavingstandards. But the Carthaginian army, which amounted to eleven thousandthree hundred and ninety-six men, seemed scarcely to contain them, forit formed an oblong, narrow at the sides and pressed back upon itself. 

Seeing them so weak, the Barbarians, who were thrice as numerous, wereseized with extravagant joy. Hamilcar was not to be seen. Perhaps hehad remained down yonder? Moreover what did it matter? The disdainwhich they felt for these traders strengthened their courage; and beforeSpendius could command a manoeuvre they had all understood it, andalready executed it. 

They were deployed in a long, straight line, overlapping the wings ofthe Punic army in order to completely encompass it. But when therewas an interval of only three hundred paces between the armies, theelephants turned round instead of advancing; then the Clinabarians wereseen to face about and follow them; and the surprise of the Mercenariesincreased when they saw the archers running to join them. So theCarthaginians were afraid, they were fleeing! A tremendous hooting brokeout from among the Barbarian troops, and Spendius exclaimed from the topof his dromedary: "Ah! I knew it! Forward! forward!"

Then javelins, darts, and sling-bullets burst forth simultaneously. Theelephants feeling their croups stung by the arrows began to gallop morequickly; a great dust enveloped them, and they vanished like shadows ina cloud. 

But from the distance there came a loud noise of footsteps dominated bythe shrill sound of the trumpets, which were being blown furiously. The space which the Barbarians had in front of them, which was fullof eddies and tumult, attracted like a whirlpool; some dashed into it. Cohorts of infantry appeared; they closed up; and at the same timeall the rest saw the foot-soldiers hastening up with the horseman at agallop. 

Hamilcar had, in fact, ordered the phalanx to break its sections, andthe elephants, light troops, and cavalry to pass through the intervalsso as to bring themselves speedily upon the wings, and so well had hecalculated the distance from the Barbarians, that at the moment whenthey reached him, the entire Carthaginian army formed one long straightline. 

In the centre bristled the phalanx, formed of syntagmata or full squareshaving sixteen men on each side. All the leaders of all the filesappeared amid long, sharp lanceheads, which jutted out unevenly aroundthem, for the first six ranks crossed their sarissae, holding them inthe middle, and the ten lower ranks rested them upon the shoulders oftheir companions in succession before them. Their faces were all halfhidden beneath the visors of their helmets; their right legs were allcovered with bronze knemids; broad cylindrical shields reached down totheir knees; and the horrible quadrangular mass moved in a single body, and seemed to live like an animal and work like a machine. Two cohortsof elephants flanked it in regular array; quivering, they shook off thesplinters of the arrows that clung to their black skins. The Indians, squatting on their withers among the tufts of white feathers, restrainedthem with their spoon-headed harpoons, while the men in the towers, whowere hidden up to their shoulders, moved about iron distaffs furnishedwith lighted tow on the edges of their large bended bows. Right andleft of the elephants hovered the slingers, each with a sling around hisloins, a second on his head, and a third in his right hand. Then camethe Clinabarians, each flanked by a Negro, and pointing their lancesbetween the ears of their horses, which, like themselves, werecompletely covered with gold. Afterwards, at intervals, came the lightarmed soldiers with shields of lynx skin, beyond which projected thepoints of the javelins which they held in their left hands; whilethe Tarentines, each having two coupled horses, relieved this wall ofsoldiers at its two extremities. 

The army of the Barbarians, on the contrary, had not been able topreserve its line. Undulations and blanks were to be found throughits extravagant length; all were panting and out of breath with theirrunning. 

The phalanx moved heavily along with thrusts from all its sarissae;and the too slender line of the Mercenaries soon yielded in the centrebeneath the enormous weight. 

Then the Carthaginian wings expanded in order to fall upon them, theelephants following. The phalanx, with obliquely pointed lances, cutthrough the Barbarians; there were two enormous, struggling bodies; andthe wings with slings and arrows beat them back upon the phalangites. There was no cavalry to get rid of them, except two hundred Numidiansoperating against the right squadron of the Clinabarians. All the restwere hemmed in, and unable to extricate themselves from the lines. Theperil was imminent, and the need of coming to some resolution urgent. 

Spendius ordered attacks to be made simultaneously on both flanks of thephalanx so as to pass clean through it. But the narrower ranks glidedbelow the longer ones and recovered their position, and the phalanxturned upon the Barbarians as terrible in flank as it had just been infront. 

They struck at the staves of the sarissae, but the cavalry in the rearembarrassed their attack; and the phalanx, supported by the elephants, lengthened and contracted, presenting itself in the form of a square, a cone, a rhombus, a trapezium, a pyramid. A twofold internal movementwent on continually from its head to its rear; for those who were atthe lowest part of the files hastened up to the first ranks, while thelatter, from fatigue, or on account of the wounded, fell further back. The Barbarians found themselves thronged upon the phalanx. It wasimpossible for it to advance; there was, as it were, an ocean whereinleaped red crests and scales of brass, while the bright shields rolledlike silver foam. Sometimes broad currents would descend from oneextremity to the other, and then go up again, while a heavy massremained motionless in the centre. The lances dipped and rosealternately. Elsewhere there was so quick a play of naked swords thatonly the points were visible, while turmae of cavalry formed widecircles which closed again like whirlwinds behind them. 

Above the voices of the captains, the ringing of clarions and thegrating of tyres, bullets of lead and almonds of clay whistled throughthe air, dashing the sword from the hand or the brain out of the skull. The wounded, sheltering themselves with one arm beneath their shields, pointed their swords by resting the pommels on the ground, while others, lying in pools of blood, would turn and bite the heels of those abovethem. The multitude was so compact, the dust so thick, and the tumultso great that it was impossible to distinguish anything; the cowards whooffered to surrender were not even heard. Those whose hands were emptyclasped one another close; breasts cracked against cuirasses, andcorpses hung with head thrown back between a pair of contracted arms. There was a company of sixty Umbrians who, firm on their hams, theirpikes before their eyes, immovable and grinding their teeth, forced twosyntagmata to recoil simultaneously. Some Epirote shepherds ran upon theleft squadron of the Clinabarians, and whirling their staves, seized thehorses by the man; the animals threw their riders and fled across theplain. The Punic slingers scattered here and there stood gaping. Thephalanx began to waver, the captains ran to and fro in distraction, the rearmost in the files were pressing upon the soldiers, and theBarbarians had re-formed; they were recovering; the victory was theirs. 

But a cry, a terrible cry broke forth, a roar of pain and wrath: it camefrom the seventy-two elephants which were rushing on in double line, Hamilcar having waited until the Mercenaries were massed together inone spot to let them loose against them; the Indians had goaded them sovigorously that blood was trickling down their broad ears. Their trunks, which were smeared with mimium, were stretched straight out in the airlike red serpents; their breasts were furnished with spears and theirbacks with cuirasses; their tusks were lengthened with steel bladescurved like sabres, --and to make them more ferocious they had beenintoxicated with a mixture of pepper, wine, and incense. They shooktheir necklaces of bells, and shrieked; and the elephantarchs bent theirheads beneath the stream of phalaricas which was beginning to fly fromthe tops of the towers. 

In order to resist them the better the Barbarians rushed forward ina compact crowd; the elephants flung themselves impetuously upon thecentre of it. The spurs on their breasts, like ships' prows, clovethrough the cohorts, which flowed surging back. They stifled the menwith their trunks, or else snatching them up from the ground deliveredthem over their heads to the soldiers in the towers; with their tusksthey disembowelled them, and hurled them into the air, and long entrailshung from their ivory fangs like bundles of rope from a mast. TheBarbarians strove to blind them, to hamstring them; others would slipbeneath their bodies, bury a sword in them up to the hilt, and perishcrushed to death; the most intrepid clung to their straps; they would goon sawing the leather amid flames, bullets, and arrows, and the wickertower would fall like a tower of stone. Fourteen of the animals on theextreme right, irritated by their wounds, turned upon the second rank;the Indians seized mallet and chisel, applied the latter to a joint inthe head, and with all their might struck a great blow. 

Down fell the huge beasts, falling one above another. It was likea mountain; and upon the heap of dead bodies and armour a monstrouselephant, called "The Fury of Baal, " which had been caught by the leg insome chains, stood howling until the evening with an arrow in its eye. 

The others, however, like conquerors, delighting in extermination, overthrew, crushed, stamped, and raged against the corpses and thedebris. To repel the maniples in serried circles around them, theyturned about on their hind feet as they advanced, with a continualrotatory motion. The Carthaginians felt their energy increase, and thebattle begin again. 

The Barbarians were growing weak; some Greek hoplites threw away alltheir arms, and terror seized upon the rest. Spendius was seen stoopingupon his dromedary, and spurring it on the shoulders with two javelins. Then they all rushed away from the wings and ran towards Utica. 

The Clinabarians, whose horses were exhausted, did not try to overtakethem. The Ligurians, who were weakened by thirst, cried out for anadvance towards the river. But the Carthaginians, who were posted in thecentre of the syntagmata, and had suffered less, stamped their feetwith longing for the vengeance which was flying from them; and theywere already darting forward in pursuit of the Mercenaries when Hamilcarappeared. 

He held in his spotted and sweat-covered horse with silver reins. Thebands fastened to the horns on his helmet flapped in the wind behindhim, and he had placed his oval shield beneath his left thigh. With amotion of his triple-pointed pike he checked the army. 

The Tarentines leaped quickly upon their spare horses, and set off rightand left towards the river and towards the town. 

The phalanx exterminated all the remaining Barbarians at leisure. Whenthe swords appeared they would stretch out their throats and close theireyelids. Others defended themselves to the last, and were knocked downfrom a distance with flints like mad dogs. Hamilcar had desired thetaking of prisoners, but the Carthaginians obeyed him grudgingly, somuch pleasure did they derive from plunging their swords into the bodiesof the Barbarians. As they were too hot they set about their work withbare arms like mowers; and when they desisted to take breath they wouldfollow with their eyes a horseman galloping across the country after afleeing soldier. He would succeed in seizing him by the hair, hold himthus for a while, and then fell him with a blow of his axe. 

Night fell. Carthaginians and Barbarians had disappeared. The elephantswhich had taken to flight roamed in the horizon with their fired towers. These burned here and there in the darkness like beacons nearly halflost in the mist; and no movement could be discerned in the plain savethe undulation of the river, which was heaped with corpses, and wasdrifting them away to the sea. 

Two hours afterwards Matho arrived. He caught sight in the starlight oflong, uneven heaps lying upon the ground. 

They were files of Barbarians. He stooped down; all were dead. He calledinto the distance, but no voice replied. 

That very morning he had left Hippo-Zarytus with his soldiers to marchupon Carthage. At Utica the army under Spendius had just set out, andthe inhabitants were beginning to fire the engines. All had foughtdesperately. But, the tumult which was going on in the direction ofthe bridge increasing in an incomprehensible fashion, Matho had struckacross the mountain by the shortest road, and as the Barbarians werefleeing over the plain he had encountered nobody. 

Facing him were little pyramidal masses rearing themselves in the shade, and on this side of the river and closer to him were motionless lightson the surface of the ground. In fact the Carthaginians had fallenback behind the bridge, and to deceive the Barbarians the Suffet hadstationed numerous posts upon the other bank. 

Matho, still advancing, thought that he could distinguish Punic engines, for horses' heads which did not stir appeared in the air fixed uponthe tops of piles of staves which could not be seen; and further off hecould hear a great clamour, a noise of songs, and clashing of cups. 

Then, not knowing where he was nor how to find Spendius, assailed withanguish, scared, and lost in the darkness, he returned more impetuouslyby the same road. The dawn as growing grey when from the top ofthe mountain he perceived the town with the carcases of the enginesblackened by the flames and looking like giant skeletons leaning againstthe walls. 

All was peaceful amid extraordinary silence and heaviness. Among hissoldiers on the verge of the tents men were sleeping nearly naked, eachupon his back, or with his forehead against his arm which was supportedby his cuirass. Some were unwinding bloodstained bandages from theirlegs. Those who were doomed to die rolled their heads about gently;others dragged themselves along and brought them drink. The sentrieswalked up and down along the narrow paths in order to warm themselves, or stood in a fierce attitude with their faces turned towards thehorizon, and their pikes on their shoulders. Matho found Spendiussheltered beneath a rag of canvas, supported by two sticks set in theground, his knee in his hands and his head cast down. 

They remained for a long time without speaking. 

At last Matho murmured: "Conquered!"

Spendius rejoined in a gloomy voice: "Yes, conquered!"

And to all questions he replied by gestures of despair. 

Meanwhile sighs and death-rattles reached them. Matho partially openedthe canvas. Then the sight of the soldiers reminded him of anotherdisaster on the same spot, and he ground his teeth: "Wretch! oncealready--"

Spendius interrupted him: "You were not there either. "

"It is a curse!" exclaimed Matho. "Nevertheless, in the end I will getat him! I will conquer him! I will slay him! Ah! if I had been there!--"The thought of having missed the battle rendered him even more desperatethan the defeat. He snatched up his sword and threw it upon the ground. "But how did the Carthaginians beat you?"

The former slave began to describe the manoeuvres. Matho seemed tosee them, and he grew angry. The army from Utica ought to have takenHamilcar in the rear instead of hastening to the bridge. 

"Ah! I know!" said Spendius. 

"You ought to have made your ranks twice as deep, avoided exposing thevelites against the phalanx, and given free passage to the elephants. Everything might have been recovered at the last moment; there was nonecessity to fly. "

Spendius replied:

"I saw him pass along in his large red cloak, with uplifted armsand higher than the dust, like an eagle flying upon the flank of thecohorts; and at every nod they closed up or darted forward; the throngcarried us towards each other; he looked at me, and I felt the coldsteel as it were in my heart. "

"He selected the day, perhaps?" whispered Matho to himself. 

They questioned each other, trying to discover what it was that hadbrought the Suffet just when circumstances were most unfavourable. They went on to talk over the situation, and Spendius, to extenuate hisfault, or to revive his courage, asserted that some hope still remained. 

"And if there be none, it matters not!" said Matho; "alone, I will carryon the war!"

"And I too!" exclaimed the Greek, leaping up; he strode to and fro, hiseyes sparkling, and a strange smile wrinkled his jackal face. 

"We will make a fresh start; do not leave me again! I am not made forbattles in the sunlight--the flashing of swords troubles my sight; itis a disease, I lived too long in the ergastulum. But give me walls toscale at night, and I will enter the citadels, and the corpses shall becold before cock-crow! Show me any one, anything, an enemy, a treasure, a woman, --a woman, " he repeated, "were she a king's daughter, and I willquickly bring your desire to your feet. You reproach me for having lostthe battle against Hanno, nevertheless I won it back again. Confessit! my herd of swine did more for us than a phalanx of Spartans. " Andyielding to the need that he felt of exalting himself and takinghis revenge, he enumerated all that he had done for the cause of theMercenaries. "It was I who urged on the Gaul in the Suffet's gardens!And later, at Sicca, I maddened them all with fear of the Republic!Gisco was sending them back, but I prevented the interpreters speaking. Ah! how their tongues hung out of their mouths! do you remember? Ibrought you into Carthage; I stole the zaimph. I led you to her. I willdo more yet: you shall see!" He burst out laughing like a madman. 

Matho regarded him with gaping eyes. He felt in a measure uncomfortablein the presence of this man, who was at once so cowardly and soterrible. 

The Greek resumed in jovial tones and cracking his fingers:

"Evoe! Sun after run! I have worked in the quarries, and I have drunkMassic wine beneath a golden awning in a vessel of my own like aPtolemaeus. Calamity should help to make us cleverer. By dint of work wemay make fortune bend. She loves politicians. She will yield!"

He returned to Matho and took him by the arm. 

"Master, at present the Carthaginians are sure of their victory. Youhave quite an army which has not fought, and your men obey YOU. Placethem in the front: mine will follow to avenge themselves. I have stillthree thousand Carians, twelve hundred slingers and archers, wholecohorts! A phalanx even might be formed; let us return!"

Matho, who had been stunned by the disaster, had hitherto thought ofno means of repairing it. He listened with open mouth, and the bronzeplates which circled his sides rose with the leapings of his heart. Hepicked up his sword, crying:

"Follow me; forward!"

But when the scouts returned, they announced that the Carthaginian deadhad been carried off, that the bridge was in ruins, and that Hamilcarhad disappeared. 

CHAPTER IX

IN THE FIELD

Hamilcar had thought that the Mercenaries would await him at Utica, orthat they would return against him; and finding his forces insufficientto make or to sustain an attack, he had struck southwards along theright bank of the river, thus protecting himself immediately from asurprise. 

He intended first to wink at the revolt of the tribes and to detach themall from the cause of the Barbarians; then when they were quite isolatedin the midst of the provinces he would fall upon them and exterminatethem. 

In fourteen days he pacified the region comprised between Thouccaberand Utica, with the towns of Tignicabah, Tessourah, Vacca, and othersfurther to the west. Zounghar built in the mountains, Assoura celebratedfor its temple, Djeraado fertile in junipers, Thapitis, and Hagoursent embassies to him. The country people came with their hands full ofprovisions, implored his protection, kissed his feet and those of thesoldiers, and complained of the Barbarians. Some came to offer him bagscontaining heads of Mercenaries killed, so they said, by themselves, butwhich they had cut off corpses; for many had lost themselves in theirflight, and were found dead here and there beneath the olive trees andamong the vines. 

On the morrow of his victory, Hamilcar, to dazzle the people, had sentto Carthage the two thousand captives taken on the battlefield. Theyarrived in long companies of one hundred men each, all with their armsfastened behind their backs with a bar of bronze which caught them atthe nape of the neck, and the wounded, bleeding as they still were, running also along; horsemen followed them, driving them on with blowsof the whip. 

Then there was a delirium of joy! People repeated that there were sixthousand Barbarians killed; the others would not hold out, and the warwas finished; they embraced one another in the streets, and rubbedthe faces of the Pataec Gods with butter and cinnamomum to thank them. These, with their big eyes, their big bodies, and their arms raised ashigh as the shoulder, seemed to live beneath their freshened paint, andto participate in the cheerfulness of the people. The rich left theirdoors open; the city resounded with the noise of the timbrels; thetemples were illuminated every night, and the servants of the goddesswent down to Malqua and set up stages of sycamore-wood at the cornersof the cross-ways, and prostituted themselves there. Lands were voted tothe conquerors, holocausts to Melkarth, three hundred gold crowns to theSuffet, and his partisans proposed to decree to him new prerogatives andhonours. 

He had begged the Ancients to make overtures to Autaritus for exchangingall the Barbarians, if necessary, for the aged Gisco, and the otherCarthaginians detained like him. The Libyans and Nomads composing thearmy under Autaritus knew scarcely anything of these Mercenaries, whowere men of Italiote or Greek race; and the offer by the Republic of somany Barbarians for so few Carthaginians, showed that the value of theformer was nothing and that of the latter considerable. They dreaded asnare. Autaritus refused. 

Then the Ancients decreed the execution of the captives, although theSuffet had written to them not to put them to death. He reckonedupon incorporating the best of them with his own troops and of thusinstigating defections. But hatred swept away all circumspection. 

The two thousand Barbarians were tied to the stelae of the tombs inthe Mappalian quarter; and traders, scullions, embroiderers, and evenwomen, --the widows of the dead with their children--all who would, came to kill them with arrows. They aimed slowly at them, the better toprolong their torture, lowering the weapon and then raising it in turn;and the multitude pressed forward howling. Paralytics had themselvesbrought thither in hand-barrows; many took the precaution of bringingtheir food, and remained on the spot until the evening; others passedthe night there. Tents had been set up in which drinking went on. Manygained large sums by hiring out bows. 

Then all these crucified corpses were left upright, looking like so manyred statues on the tombs, and the excitement even spread to the peopleof Malqua, who were the descendants of the aboriginal families, and wereusually indifferent to the affairs of their country. Out of gratitudefor the pleasure it had been giving them they now interested themselvesin its fortunes, and felt that they were Carthaginians, and the Ancientsthought it a clever thing to have thus blended the entire people in asingle act of vengeance. 

The sanction of the gods was not wanting; for crows alighted from allquarters of the sky. They wheeled in the air as they flew with loudhoarse cries, and formed a huge cloud rolling continually upon itself. It was seen from Clypea, Rhades, and the promontory of Hermaeum. Sometimes it would suddenly burst asunder, its black spirals extendingfar away, as an eagle clove the centre of it, and then departed again;here and there on the terraces the domes, the peaks of the obelisks, and the pediments of the temples there were big birds holding humanfragments in their reddened beaks. 

Owing to the smell the Carthaginians resigned themselves to unbind thecorpses. A few of them were burnt; the rest were thrown into the sea, and the waves, driven by the north wind, deposited them on the shore atthe end of the gulf before the camp of Autaritus. 

This punishment had no doubt terrified the Barbarians, for from the topof Eschmoun they could be seen striking their tents, collecting theirflocks, and hoisting their baggage upon asses, and on the evening of thesame day the entire army withdrew. 

It was to march to and fro between the mountain of the Hot Springsand Hippo-Zarytus, and so debar the Suffet from approaching the Tyriantowns, and from the possibility of a return to Carthage. 

Meanwhile the two other armies were to try to overtake him in the south, Spendius in the east, and Matho in the west, in such a way that allthree should unite to surprise and entangle him. Then they received areinforcement which they had not looked for: Narr' Havas appeared withthree hundred camels laden with bitumen, twenty-five elephants, and sixthousand horsemen. 

To weaken the Mercenaries the Suffet had judged it prudent to occupy hisattention at a distance in his own kingdom. From the heart of Carthagehe had come to an understanding with Masgaba, a Gaetulian brigandwho was seeking to found an empire. Strengthened by Punic money, theadventurer had raised the Numidian States with promises of freedom. ButNarr' Havas, warned by his nurse's son, had dropped into Cirta, poisonedthe conquerors with the water of the cisterns, struck off a few heads, set all right again, and had just arrived against the Suffet morefurious than the Barbarians. 

The chiefs of the four armies concerted the arrangements for the war. Itwould be a long one, and everything must be foreseen. 

It was agreed first to entreat the assistance of the Romans, andthis mission was offered to Spendius, but as a fugitive he dared notundertake it. Twelve men from the Greek colonies embarked at Annaba ina sloop belonging to the Numidians. Then the chiefs exacted an oathof complete obedience from all the Barbarians. Every day the captainsinspected clothes and boots; the sentries were even forbidden to use ashield, for they would often lean it against their lance and fallasleep as they stood; those who had any baggage trailing after themwere obliged to get rid of it; everything was to be carried, in Romanfashion, on the back. As a precaution against the elephants Mathoinstituted a corps of cataphract cavalry, men and horses being hiddenbeneath cuirasses of hippopotamus skin bristling with nails; and toprotect the horses' hoofs boots of plaited esparto-grass were made forthem. 

It was forbidden to pillage the villages, or to tyrannise over theinhabitants who were not of Punic race. But as the country was becomingexhausted, Matho ordered the provisions to be served out to the soldiersindividually, without troubling about the women. At first the men sharedwith them. Many grew weak for lack of food. It was the occasion of manyquarrels and invectives, many drawing away the companions of the restby the bait or even by the promise of their own portion. Matho commandedthem all to be driven away pitilessly. They took refuge in the campof Autaritus; but the Gaulish and Libyan women forced them by theiroutrageous treatment to depart. 

At last they came beneath the walls of Carthage to implore theprotection of Ceres and Proserpine, for in Byrsa there was a templewith priests consecrated to these goddesses in expiation of the horrorsformerly committed at the siege of Syracuse. The Syssitia, allegingtheir right to waifs and strays, claimed the youngest in order to sellthem; and some fair Lacedaemonian women were taken by New Carthaginiansin marriage. 

A few persisted in following the armies. They ran on the flank of thesyntagmata by the side of the captains. They called to their husbands, pulled them by the cloak, cursed them as they beat their breasts, andheld out their little naked and weeping children at arm's length. Thesight of them was unmanning the Barbarians; they were an embarrassmentand a peril. Several times they were repulsed, but they came back again;Matho made the horsemen belonging to Narr' Havas charge them with thepoint of the lance; and on some Balearians shouting out to him that theymust have women, he replied: "I have none!"

Just now he was invaded by the genius of Moloch. In spite of therebellion of his conscience, he performed terrible deeds, imagining thathe was thus obeying the voice of a god. When he could not ravage thefields, Matho would cast stones into them to render them sterile. 

He urged Autaritus and Spendius with repeated messages to make haste. But the Suffet's operations were incomprehensible. He encamped atEidous, Monchar, and Tehent successively; some scouts believed that theysaw him in the neighbourhood of Ischiil, near the frontiers of Narr'Havas, and it was reported that he had crossed the river above Tebourbaas though to return to Carthage. Scarcely was he in one place when heremoved to another. The routes that he followed always remained unknown. The Suffet preserved his advantages without offering battle, and whilepursued by the Barbarians seemed to be leading them. 

These marches and counter marches were still more fatiguing to theCarthaginians, and Hamilcar's forces, receiving no reinforcements, diminished from day to day. The country people were now more backwardin bringing him provisions. In every direction he encountered taciturnhesitation and hatred; and in spite of his entreaties to the GreatCouncil no succour came from Carthage. 

It was said, perhaps it was believed, that he had need of none. It wasa trick, or his complaints were unnecessary; and Hanno's partisans, inorder to do him an ill turn, exaggerated the importance of his victory. The troops which he commanded he was welcome to; but they were notgoing to supply his demands continually in that way. The war was quiteburdensome enough! it had cost too much, and from pride the patriciansbelonging to his faction supported him but slackly. 

Then Hamilcar, despairing of the Republic, took by force from the tribesall that he wanted for the war--grain, oil, wood, cattle, and men. Butthe inhabitants were not long in taking flight. The villages passedthrough were empty, and the cabins were ransacked without anything beingdiscerned in them. The Punic army was soon encompassed by a terriblesolitude. 

The Carthaginians, who were furious, began to sack the provinces; theyfilled up the cisterns and fired the houses. The sparks, being carriedby the wind, were scattered far off, and whole forests were on fire onthe mountains; they bordered the valleys with a crown of flames, andit was often necessary to wait in order to pass beyond them. Then thesoldiers resumed their march over the warm ashes in the full glare ofthe sun. 

Sometimes they would see what looked like the eyes of a tiger catgleaming in a bush by the side of the road. This was a Barbariancrouching upon his heels, and smeared with dust, that he might not bedistinguished from the colour of the foliage; or perhaps when passingalong a ravine those on the wings would suddenly hear the rolling ofstones, and raising their eyes would perceive a bare-footed man boundingalong through the openings of the gorge. 

Meanwhile Utica and Hippo-Zarytus were free since the Mercenarieswere no longer besieging them. Hamilcar commanded them to come to hisassistance. But not caring to compromise themselves, they answered himwith vague words, with compliments and excuses. 

He went up again abruptly into the North, determined to open up one ofthe Tyrian towns, though he were obliged to lay siege to it. He requireda station on the coast, so as to be able to draw supplies and men fromthe islands or from Cyrene, and he coveted the harbour of Utica as beingthe nearest to Carthage. 

The Suffet therefore left Zouitin and turned the lake of Hippo-Zarytuswith circumspection. But he was soon obliged to lengthen out hisregiments into column in order to climb the mountain which separatesthe two valleys. They were descending at sunset into its hollow, funnel-shaped summit, when they perceived on the level of the groundbefore them bronze she-wolves which seemed to be running across thegrass. 

Suddenly large plumes arose and a terrible song burst forth, accompaniedby the rhythm of flutes. It was the army under Spendius; for someCampanians and Greeks, in their execration of Carthage, had assumed theensigns of Rome. At the same time long pikes, shields of leopard's skin, linen cuirasses, and naked shoulders were seen on the left. These werethe Iberians under Matho, the Lusitanians, Balearians, and Gaetulians;the horses of Narr' Havas were heard to neigh; they spread around thehill; then came the loose rabble commanded by Autaritus--Gauls, Libyans, and Nomads; while the Eaters of Uncleanness might be recognised amongthem by the fish bones which they wore in their hair. 

Thus the Barbarians, having contrived their marches with exactness, hadcome together again. But themselves surprised, they remained motionlessfor some minutes in consultation. 

The Suffet had collected his men into an orbicular mass, in such a wayas to offer an equal resistance in every direction. The infantry weresurrounded by their tall, pointed shields fixed close to one another inthe turf. The Clinabarians were outside and the elephants at intervalsfurther off. The Mercenaries were worn out with fatigue; it was betterto wait till next day; and the Barbarians feeling sure of their victoryoccupied themselves the whole night in eating. 

They lighted large bright fires, which, while dazzling themselves, leftthe Punic army below them in the shade. Hamilcar caused a trench fifteenfeet broad and ten cubits deep to be dug in Roman fashion round hiscamp, and the earth thrown out to be raised on the inside into aparapet, on which sharp interlacing stakes were planted; and at sunrisethe Mercenaries were amazed to perceive all the Carthaginians thusentrenched as if in a fortress. 

They could recognise Hamilcar in the midst of the tents walking aboutand giving orders. His person was clad in a brown cuirass cut in littlescales; he was followed by his horse, and stopped from time to time topoint out something with his right arm outstretched. 

Then more than one recalled similar mornings when, amid the din ofclarions, he passed slowly before them, and his looks strengthenedthem like cups of wine. A kind of emotion overcame them. Those, on thecontrary, who were not acquainted with Hamilcar, were mad with joy athaving caught him. 

Nevertheless if all attacked at once they would do one another mutualinjury in the insufficiency of space. The Numidians might dash through;but the Clinabarians, who were protected by cuirasses, would crush them. And then how were the palisades to be crossed? As to the elephants, theywere not sufficiently well trained. 

"You are all cowards!" exclaimed Matho. 

And with the best among them he rushed against the entrenchment. Theywere repulsed by a volley of stones; for the Suffet had taken theirabandoned catapults on the bridge. 

This want of success produced an abrupt change in the fickle mindsof the Barbarians. Their extreme bravery disappeared; they wished toconquer, but with the smallest possible risk. According to Spendius theyought to maintain carefully the position that they held, and starve outthe Punic army. But the Carthaginians began to dig wells, and as therewere mountains surrounding the hill, they discovered water. 

From the summit of their palisade they launched arrows, earth, dung, and pebbles which they gathered from the ground, while the six catapultsrolled incessantly throughout the length of the terrace. 

But the springs would dry up of themselves; the provisions would beexhausted, and the catapults worn out; the Mercenaries, who wereten times as numerous, would triumph in the end. The Suffet devisednegotiations so as to gain time, and one morning the Barbarians founda sheep's skin covered with writing within their lines. He justifiedhimself for his victory: the Ancients had forced him into the war, andto show them that he was keeping his word, he offered them the pillagingof Utica or Hippo-Zarytus at their choice; in conclusion, Hamilcardeclared that he did not fear them because he had won over sometraitors, and thanks to them would easily manage the rest. 

The Barbarians were disturbed: this proposal of immediate booty madethem consider; they were apprehensive of treachery, not suspecting asnare in the Suffet's boasting, and they began to look upon one anotherwith mistrust. Words and steps were watched; terrors awaked them inthe night. Many forsook their companions and chose their army as fancydictated, and the Gauls with Autaritus went and joined themselves withthe men of Cisalpine Gaul, whose language they understood. 

The four chiefs met together every evening in Matho's tent, andsquatting round a shield, attentively moved backwards and forwards thelittle wooden figures invented by Pyrrhus for the representation ofmanoeuvres. Spendius would demonstrate Hamilcar's resources, and withoaths by all the gods entreat that the opportunity should not be wasted. Matho would walk about angry and gesticulating. The war against Carthagewas his own personal affair; he was indignant that the others shouldinterfere in it without being willing to obey him. Autaritus woulddivine his speech from his countenance and applaud. Narr' Havas wouldelevate his chin to mark his disdain; there was not a measure he did notconsider fatal; and he had ceased to smile. Sighs would escape him asthough he were thrusting back sorrow for an impossible dream, despairfor an abortive enterprise. 

While the Barbarians deliberated in uncertainty, the Suffet increasedhis defences: he had a second trench dug within the palisades, a secondwall raised, and wooden towers constructed at the corners; and hisslaves went as far as the middle of the outposts to drive caltrops intothe ground. But the elephants, whose allowances were lessened, struggledin their shackles. To economise the grass he ordered the Clinabarians tokill the least strong among the stallions. A few refused to do so, andhe had them decapitated. The horses were eaten. The recollection ofthis fresh meat was a source of great sadness to them in the days thatfollowed. 

From the bottom of the ampitheatre in which they were confined theycould see the four bustling camps of the Barbarians all around them onthe heights. Women moved about with leathern bottles on their heads, goats strayed bleating beneath the piles of pikes; sentries were beingrelieved, and eating was going on around tripods. In fact, the tribesfurnished them abundantly with provisions, and they did not themselvessuspect how much their inaction alarmed the Punic army. 

On the second day the Carthaginians had remarked a troop of threehundred men apart from the rest in the camp of the nomads. These werethe rich who had been kept prisoners since the beginning of the war. Some Libyans ranged them along the edge of the trench, took theirstation behind them, and hurled javelins, making themselves a rampartof their bodies. The wretched creatures could scarcely be recognised, so completely were their faces covered with vermin and filth. Their hairhad been plucked out in places, leaving bare the ulcers on theirheads, and they were so lean and hideous that they were like mummies intattered shrouds. A few trembled and sobbed with a stupid look; the restcried out to their friends to fire upon the Barbarians. There was onewho remained quite motionless with face cast down, and withoutspeaking; his long white beard fell to his chain-covered hands; and theCarthaginians, feeling as it were the downfall of the Republic in thebottom of their hearts, recognised Gisco. Although the place was adangerous one they pressed forward to see him. On his head had beenplaced a grotesque tiara of hippopotamus leather incrusted with pebbles. It was Autaritus's idea; but it was displeasing to Matho. 

Hamilcar in exasperation, and resolved to cut his way through in one wayor another, had the palisades opened; and the Carthaginians went at afurious rate half way up the hill or three hundred paces. Such a floodof Barbarians descended upon them that they were driven back to theirlines. One of the guards of the Legion who had remained outside wasstumbling among the stones. Zarxas ran up to him, knocked him down, andplunged a dagger into his throat; he drew it out, threw himself upon thewound--and gluing his lips to it with mutterings of joy, and startingswhich shook him to the heels, pumped up the blood by breastfuls; then hequietly sat down upon the corpse, raised his face with his neck thrownback the better to breathe in the air, like a hind that has just drunkat a mountain stream, and in a shrill voice began to sing a Balearicsong, a vague melody full of prolonged modulations, with interruptionsand alternations like echoes answering one another in the mountains; hecalled upon his dead brothers and invited them to a feast;--then he lethis hands fall between his legs, slowly bent his head, and wept. Thisatrocious occurrence horrified the Barbarians, especially the Greeks. 

From that time forth the Carthaginians did not attempt to make anysally; and they had no thought of surrender, certain as they were thatthey would perish in tortures. 

Nevertheless the provisions, in spite of Hamilcar's carefulness, diminished frightfully. There was not left per man more than tenk'hommers of wheat, three hins of millet, and twelve betzas of driedfruit. No more meat, no more oil, no more salt food, and not a grain ofbarley for the horses, which might be seen stretching down their wastednecks seeking in the dust for blades of trampled straw. Often thesentries on vedette upon the terrace would see in the moonlight a dogbelonging to the Barbarians coming to prowl beneath the entrenchmentamong the heaps of filth; it would be knocked down with a stone, andthen, after a descent had been effected along the palisades by meansof the straps of a shield, it would be eaten without a word. Sometimeshorrible barkings would be heard and the man would not come up again. Three phalangites, in the fourth dilochia of the twelfth syntagmata, killed one another with knives in a dispute about a rat. 

All regretted their families, and their houses; the poor theirhive-shaped huts, with the shells on the threshold and the hanging net, and the patricians their large halls filled with bluish shadows, whereat the most indolent hour of the day they used to rest listening to thevague noise of the streets mingled with the rustling of the leaves asthey stirred in their gardens;--to go deeper into the thought of this, and to enjoy it more, they would half close their eyelids, only to beroused by the shock of a wound. Every minute there was some engagement, some fresh alarm; the towers were burning, the Eaters of Uncleannesswere leaping across the palisades; their hands would be struck off withaxes; others would hasten up; an iron hail would fall upon the tents. Galleries of rushen hurdles were raised as a protection against theprojectiles. The Carthaginians shut themselves up within them andstirred out no more. 

Every day the sun coming over the hill used, after the early hours, toforsake the bottom of the gorge and leave them in the shade. The greyslopes of the ground, covered with flints spotted with scanty lichen, ascended in front and in the rear, and above their summits stretched thesky in its perpetual purity, smoother and colder to the eye than a metalcupola. Hamilcar was so indignant with Carthage that he felt inclined tothrow himself among the Barbarians and lead them against her. Moreover, the porters, sutlers, and slaves were beginning to murmur, while neitherpeople, nor Great Council, nor any one sent as much as a hope. Thesituation was intolerable, especially owing to the thought that it wouldbecome worse. 

At the news of the disaster Carthage had leaped, as it were, with angerand hate; the Suffet would have been less execrated if he had allowedhimself to be conquered from the first. 

But time and money were lacking for the hire of other Mercenaries. As toa levy of soldiers in the town, how were they to be equipped? Hamilcarhad taken all the arms! and then who was to command them? The bestcaptains were down yonder with him! Meanwhile, some men despatched bythe Suffet arrived in the streets with shouts. The Great Council wereroused by them, and contrived to make them disappear. 

It was an unnecessary precaution; every one accused Barca of havingbehaved with slackness. He ought to have annihilated the Mercenariesafter his victory. Why had he ravaged the tribes? The sacrificesalready imposed had been heavy enough! and the patricians deplored theircontributions of fourteen shekels, and the Syssitia their two hundredand twenty-three thousand gold kikars; those who had given nothinglamented like the rest. The populace was jealous of the NewCarthaginians, to whom he had promised full rights of citizenship;and even the Ligurians, who had fought with such intrepidity, wereconfounded with the Barbarians and cursed like them; their race becamea crime, the proof of complicity. The traders on the threshold of theirshops, the workmen passing plumb-line in hand, the vendors of picklerinsing their baskets, the attendants in the vapour baths and theretailers of hot drinks all discussed the operations of the campaign. They would trace battle-plans with their fingers in the dust, andthere was not a sorry rascal to be found who could not have correctedHamilcar's mistakes. 

It was a punishment, said the priests, for his long-continued impiety. He had offered no holocausts; he had not purified his troops; he hadeven refused to take augurs with him; and the scandal of sacrilegestrengthened the violence of restrained hate, and the rage of betrayedhopes. People recalled the Sicilian disasters, and all the burden ofhis pride that they had borne for so long! The colleges of the pontiffscould not forgive him for having seized their treasure, and theydemanded a pledge from the Great Council to crucify him should he everreturn. 

The heats of the month of Eloul, which were excessive in that year, wereanother calamity. Sickening smells rose from the borders of the Lake, and were wafted through the air together with the fumes of the aromaticsthat eddied at the corners of the streets. The sounds of hymns wereconstantly heard. Crowds of people occupied the staircases of thetemples; all the walls were covered with black veils; tapers burnton the brows of the Pataec Gods, and the blood of camels slain forsacrifice ran along the flights of stairs forming red cascades upon thesteps. Carthage was agitated with funereal delirium. From the depths ofthe narrowest lanes, and the blackest dens, there issued pale faces, men with viper-like profiles and grinding their teeth. The houses werefilled with the women's piercing shrieks, which, escaping through thegratings, caused those who stood talking in the squares to turn round. Sometimes it was thought that the Barbarians were arriving; they hadbeen seen behind the mountain of the Hot Springs; they were encamped atTunis; and the voices would multiply and swell, and be blended into onesingle clamour. Then universal silence would reign, some remaining wherethey had climbed upon the frontals of the buildings, screening theireyes with their open hand, while the rest lay flat on their faces at thefoot of the ramparts straining their ears. When their terror had passedoff their anger would begin again. But the conviction of their ownimpotence would soon sink them into the same sadness as before. 

It increased every evening when all ascended the terraces, and bowingdown nine times uttered a loud cry in salutation of the sun, as itsank slowly behind the lagoon, and then suddenly disappeared among themountains in the direction of the Barbarians. 

They were waiting for the thrice holy festival when, from the summitof a funeral pile, an eagle flew heavenwards as a symbol of theresurrection of the year, and a message from the people to their Baal;they regarded it as a sort of union, a method of connecting themselveswith the might of the Sun. Moreover, filled as they now were withhatred, they turned frankly towards homicidal Moloch, and all forsookTanith. In fact, Rabetna, having lost her veil, was as if she had beendespoiled of part of her virtue. She denied the beneficence of herwaters, she had abandoned Carthage; she was a deserter, an enemy. Some threw stones at her to insult her. But many pitied her while theyinveighed against her; she was still beloved, and perhaps more deeplythan she had been. 

All their misfortunes came, therefore, from the loss of the zaimph. Salammbo had indirectly participated in it; she was included in the sameill will; she must be punished. A vague idea of immolation spread amongthe people. To appease the Baalim it was without doubt necessary tooffer them something of incalculable worth, a being handsome, young, virgin, of old family, a descendant of the gods, a human star. Every daythe gardens of Megara were invaded by strange men; the slaves, tremblingon their own account, dared not resist them. Nevertheless, they did notpass beyond the galley staircase. They remained below with their eyesraised to the highest terrace; they were waiting for Salammbo, and theywould cry out for hours against her like dogs baying at the moon. 

CHAPTER X

THE SERPENT

These clamourings of the populace did not alarm Hamilcar's daughter. Shewas disturbed by loftier anxieties: her great serpent, the black python, was drooping; and in the eyes of the Carthaginians, the serpent wasat once a national and a private fetish. It was believed to be theoffspring of the dust of the earth, since it emerges from its depths andhas no need of feet to traverse it; its mode of progression called tomind the undulations of rivers, its temperature the ancient, viscous, and fecund darkness, and the orbit which it describes when biting itstail the harmony of the planets, and the intelligence of Eschmoun. 

Salammbo's serpent had several times already refused the four livesparrows which were offered to it at the full moon and at every newmoon. Its handsome skin, covered like the firmament with golden spotsupon a perfectly black ground, was now yellow, relaxed, wrinkled, andtoo large for its body. A cottony mouldiness extended round its head;and in the corners of its eyelids might be seen little red specks whichappeared to move. Salammbo would approach its silver-wire basket fromtime to time, and would draw aside the purple curtains, the lotusleaves, and the bird's down; but it was continually rolled up uponitself, more motionless than a withered bind-weed; and from looking atit she at last came to feel a kind of spiral within her heart, anotherserpent, as it were, mounting up to her throat by degrees and stranglingher. 

She was in despair of having seen the zaimph, and yet she felt a sortof joy, an intimate pride at having done so. A mystery shrank within thesplendour of its folds; it was the cloud that enveloped the gods, andthe secret of the universal existence, and Salammbo, horror-stricken atherself, regretted that she had not raised it. 

She was almost always crouching at the back of her apartment, holdingher bended left leg in her hands, her mouth half open, her chin sunk, her eye fixed. She recollected her father's face with terror; she wishedto go away into the mountains of Phoenicia, on a pilgrimage to thetemple of Aphaka, where Tanith descended in the form of a star; allkinds of imaginings attracted her and terrified her; moreover, asolitude which every day became greater encompassed her. She did noteven know what Hamilcar was about. 

Wearied at last with her thoughts she would rise, and trailing alongher little sandals whose soles clacked upon her heels at every step, shewould walk at random through the large silent room. The amethysts andtopazes of the ceiling made luminous spots quiver here and there, andSalammbo as she walked would turn her head a little to see them. Shewould go and take the hanging amphoras by the neck; she would coolher bosom beneath the broad fans, or perhaps amuse herself by burningcinnamomum in hollow pearls. At sunset Taanach would draw back the blackfelt lozenges that closed the openings in the wall; then her doves, rubbed with musk like the doves of Tanith, suddenly entered, and theirpink feet glided over the glass pavement, amid the grains of barleywhich she threw to them in handfuls like a sower in a field. But on asudden she would burst into sobs and lie stretched on the large bed ofox-leather straps without moving, repeating a word that was ever thesame, with open eyes, pale as one dead, insensible, cold; and yet shecould hear the cries of the apes in the tufts of the palm trees, withthe continuous grinding of the great wheel which brought a flow of purewater through the stories into the porphyry centre-basin. 

Sometimes for several days she would refuse to eat. She could see ina dream troubled stars wandering beneath her feet. She would callSchahabarim, and when he came she had nothing to say to him. 

She could not live without the relief of his presence. But she rebelledinwardly against this domination; her feeling towards the priest was oneat once of terror, jealousy, hatred, and a species of love, in gratitudefor the singular voluptuousness which she experienced by his side. 

He had recognised the influence of Rabbet, being skilful to discernthe gods who send diseases; and to cure Salammbo he had her apartmentwatered with lotions of vervain, and maidenhair; she ate mandrakes everymorning; she slept with her head on a cushion filled with aromaticsblended by the pontiffs; he had even employed baaras, a fiery-colouredroot which drives back fatal geniuses into the North; lastly, turningtowards the polar star, he murmured thrice the mysterious name ofTanith; but Salammbo still suffered and her anguish deepened. 

No one in Carthage was so learned as he. In his youth he had studied atthe College of the Mogbeds, at Borsippa, near Babylon; had then visitedSamothrace, Pessinus, Ephesus, Thessaly, Judaea, and the temples of theNabathae, which are lost in the sands; and had travelled on foot alongthe banks of the Nile from the cataracts to the sea. Shaking torcheswith veil-covered face, he had cast a black cock upon a fire ofsandarach before the breast of the Sphinx, the Father of Terror. He haddescended into the caverns of Proserpine; he had seen the five hundredpillars of the labyrinth of Lemnos revolve, and the candelabrum ofTarentum, which bore as many sconces on its shaft as there are days inthe year, shine in its splendour; at times he received Greeks by nightin order to question them. The constitution of the world disquieted himno less than the nature of the gods; he had observed the equinoxes withthe armils placed in the portico of Alexandria, and accompanied thebematists of Evergetes, who measure the sky by calculating the numberof their steps, as far as Cyrene; so that there was now growing in histhoughts a religion of his own, with no distinct formula, and on thatvery account full of infatuation and fervour. He no longer believed thatthe earth was formed like a fir-cone; he believed it to be round, andeternally falling through immensity with such prodigious speed that itsfall was not perceived. 

From the position of the sun above the moon he inferred the predominanceof Baal, of whom the planet itself is but the reflection and figure;moreover, all that he saw in terrestrial things compelled him torecognise the male exterminating principle as supreme. And then hesecretly charged Rabbet with the misfortune of his life. Was it not forher that the grand-pontiff had once advanced amid the tumult of cymbals, and with a patera of boiling water taken from him his future virility?And he followed with a melancholy gaze the men who were disappearingwith the priestesses in the depths of the turpentine trees. 

His days were spent in inspecting the censers, the gold vases, thetongs, the rakes for the ashes of the altar, and all the robes of thestatues down to the bronze bodkin that served to curl the hair of an oldTanith in the third aedicule near the emerald vine. At the same hours hewould raise the great hangings of the same swinging doors; would remainwith his arms outspread in the same attitude; or prayed prostrate on thesame flag-stones, while around him a people of priests moved barefootedthrough the passages filled with an eternal twilight. 

But Salammbo was in the barrenness of his life like a flower in thecleft of a sepulchre. Nevertheless he was hard upon her, and sparedher neither penances nor bitter words. His condition established, as itwere, the equality of a common sex between them, and he was less angrywith the girl for his inability to possess her than for finding her sobeautiful, and above all so pure. Often he saw that she grew weary offollowing his thought. Then he would turn away sadder than before; hewould feel himself more forsaken, more empty, more alone. 

Strange words escaped him sometimes, which passed before Salammbo likebroad lightnings illuminating the abysses. This would be at night on theterrace when, both alone, they gazed upon the stars, and Carthage spreadbelow under their feet, with the gulf and the open sea dimly lost in thecolour of the darkness. 

He would set forth to her the theory of the souls that descend uponthe earth, following the same route as the sun through the signs of thezodiac. With outstretched arm he showed the gate of human generation inthe Ram, and that of the return to the gods in Capricorn; and Salammbostrove to see them, for she took these conceptions for realities;she accepted pure symbols and even manners of speech as being true inthemselves, a distinction not always very clear even to the priest. 

"The souls of the dead, " said he, "resolve themselves into the moon, astheir bodies do into the earth. Their tears compose its humidity; 'tis adark abode full of mire, and wreck, and tempest. "

She asked what would become of her then. 

"At first you will languish as light as a vapour hovering upon thewaves; and after more lengthened ordeals and agonies, you will pass intothe forces of the sun, the very source of Intelligence!"

He did not speak, however, of Rabbet. Salammbo imagined that it wasthrough some shame for his vanquished goddess, and calling her by acommon name which designated the moon, she launched into blessings uponthe soft and fertile planet. At last he exclaimed:

"No! no! she draws all her fecundity from the other! Do you not seeher hovering about him like an amorous woman running after a man in afield?" And he exalted the virtue of light unceasingly. 

Far from depressing her mystic desires, he sought, on the contrary, to excite them, and he even seemed to take joy in grieving her by therevelation of a pitiless doctrine. In spite of the pains of her loveSalammbo threw herself upon it with transport. 

But the more that Schahabarim felt himself in doubt about Tanith, themore he wished to believe in her. At the bottom of his soul he wasarrested by remorse. He needed some proof, some manifestation from thegods, and in the hope of obtaining it the priest devised an enterprisewhich might save at once his country and his belief. 

Thenceforward he set himself to deplore before Salammbo the sacrilegeand the misfortunes which resulted from it even in the regions ofthe sky. Then he suddenly announced the peril of the Suffet, who wasassailed by three armies under the command of Matho--for on account ofthe veil Matho was, in the eyes of the Carthaginians, the king, as itwere, of the Barbarians, --and he added that the safety of the Republicand of her father depended upon her alone. 

"Upon me!" she exclaimed. "How can I--?"

But the priest, with a smile of disdain said:

"You will never consent!"

She entreated him. At last Schahabarim said to her:

"You must go to the Barbarians and recover the zaimph!"

She sank down upon the ebony stool, and remained with her arms stretchedout between her knees and shivering in all her limbs, like a victimat the altar's foot awaiting the blow of the club. Her temples wereringing, she could see fiery circles revolving, and in her stuporshe had lost the understanding of all things save one, that she wascertainly going to die soon. 

But if Rabbetna triumphed, if the zaimph were restored and Carthagedelivered, what mattered a woman's life? thought Schahabarim. Moreover, she would perhaps obtain the veil and not perish. 

He stayed away for three days; on the evening of the fourth she sent forhim. 

The better to inflame her heart he reported to her all the invectiveshowled against Hamilcar in open council; he told her that she had erred, that she owed reparation for her crime, and that Rabbetna commanded thesacrifice. 

A great uproar came frequently across the Mappalian district to Megara. Schahabarim and Salammbo went out quickly, and gazed from the top of thegalley staircase. 

There were people in the square of Khamon shouting for arms. TheAncients would not provide them, esteeming such an effort useless;others who had set out without a general had been massacred. At lastthey were permitted to depart, and as a sort of homage to Moloch, orfrom a vague need of destruction, they tore up tall cypress trees inthe woods of the temples, and having kindled them at the torches of theKabiri, were carrying them through the streets singing. These monstrousflames advanced swaying gently; they transmitted fires to the glassballs on the crests of the temples, to the ornaments of the colossusesand the beaks of the ships, passed beyond the terraces and formed sunsas it were, which rolled through the town. They descended the Acropolis. The gate of Malqua opened. 

"Are you ready?" exclaimed Schahabarim, "or have you asked them to tellyour father that you abandoned him?" She hid her face in her veils, andthe great lights retired, sinking gradually the while to the edge of thewaves. 

An indeterminate dread restrained her; she was afraid of Moloch and ofMatho. This man, with his giant stature, who was master of the zaimph, ruled Rabbetna as much as did Baal, and seemed to her to be surroundedby the same fulgurations; and then the souls of the gods sometimesvisited the bodies of men. Did not Schahabarim in speaking of him saythat she was to vanquish Moloch? They were mingled with each other; sheconfused them together; both of them were pursuing her. 

She wished to learn the future, and approached the serpent, for augurieswere drawn from the attitudes of serpents. But the basket was empty;Salammbo was disturbed. 

She found him with his tail rolled round one of the silver balustradesbeside the hanging bed, which he was rubbing in order to free himselffrom his old yellowish skin, while his body stretched forth gleaming andclear like a sword half out of the sheath. 

Then on the days following, in proportion as she allowed herself to beconvinced, and was more disposed to succour Tanith, the python recoveredand grew; he seemed to be reviving. 

The certainty that Salammbo was giving expression to the will of thegods then became established in her conscience. One morning she awokeresolved, and she asked what was necessary to make Matho restore theveil. 

"To claim it, " said Schahabarim. 

"But if he refuses?" she rejoined. 

The priest scanned her fixedly with a smile such as she had never seen. 

"Yes, what is to be done?" repeated Salammbo. 

He rolled between his fingers the extremities of the bands which fellfrom his tiara upon his shoulders, standing motionless with eyes castdown. At last seeing that she did not understand:

"You will be alone with him. "

"Well?" she said. 

"Alone in his tent. "

"What then?"

Schahabarim bit his lips. He sought for some phrase, somecircumlocution. 

"If you are to die, that will be later, " he said; "later! fear nothing!and whatever he may undertake to do, do not call out! do not befrightened! You will be humble, you understand, and submissive to hisdesire, which is ordained of heaven!"

"But the veil?"

"The gods will take thought for it, " replied Schahabarim. 

"Suppose you were to accompany me, O father?" she added. 

"No!"

He made her kneel down, and keeping his left hand raised and his rightextended, he swore in her behalf to bring back the mantle of Tanith intoCarthage. With terrible imprecations she devoted herself to the gods, and each time that Schahabarim pronounced a word she falteringlyrepeated it. 

He indicated to her all the purifications and fastings that she was toobserve, and how she was to reach Matho. Moreover, a man acquainted withthe routes would accompany her. 

She felt as if she had been set free. She thought only of the happinessof seeing the zaimph again, and she now blessed Schahabarim for hisexhortations. 

It was the period at which the doves of Carthage migrated to Sicily tothe mountain of Eryx and the temple of Venus. For several days beforetheir departure they sought out and called to one another so as tocollect together; at last one evening they flew away; the wind blew themalong, and the big white cloud glided across the sky high above the sea. 

The horizon was filled with the colour of blood. They seemed to descendgradually to the waves; then they disappeared as though swallowedup, and falling of themselves into the jaws of the sun. Salammbo, whowatched them retiring, bent her head, and then Taanach, believing thatshe guessed her sorrow, said gently to her:

"But they will come back, Mistress. "

"Yes! I know. "

"And you will see them again. "

"Perhaps!" she said, sighing. 

She had not confided her resolve to any one; in order to carry it outwith the greater discretion she sent Taanach to the suburb of Kinisdo tobuy all the things that she required instead of requesting them from thestewards: vermilion, aromatics, a linen girdle, and new garments. Theold slave was amazed at these preparations, without daring, however, to ask any questions; and the day, which had been fixed by Schahabarim, arrived when Salammbo was to set out. 

About the twelfth hour she perceived, in the depths of the sycamoretrees, a blind old man with one hand resting on the shoulder of a childwho walked before him, while with the other he carried a kind of citharaof black wood against his hip. The eunuchs, slaves, and women hadbeen scrupulously sent away; no one might know the mystery that waspreparing. 

Taanach kindled four tripods filled with strobus and cadamomum in thecorners of the apartment; then she unfolded large Babylonian hangings, and stretched them on cords all around the room, for Salammbo did notwish to be seen even by the walls. The kinnor-player squatted behindthe door and the young boy standing upright applied a reed flute tohis lips. In the distance the roar of the streets was growing feebler, violet shadows were lengthening before the peristyles of the temples, and on the other side of the gulf the mountain bases, the fields ofolive-trees, and the vague yellow lands undulated indefinitely, and wereblended together in a bluish haze; not a sound was to be heard, and anunspeakable depression weighed in the air. 

Salammbo crouched down upon the onyx step on the edge of the basin; sheraised her ample sleeves, fastening them behind her shoulders, and beganher ablutions in methodical fashion, according to the sacred rites. 

Next Taanach brought her something liquid and coagulated in an alabasterphial; it was the blood of a black dog slaughtered by barren women on awinter's night amid the rubbish of a sepulchre. She rubbed it upon herears, her heels, and the thumb of her right hand, and even her nailremained somewhat red, as if she had crushed a fruit. 

The moon rose; then the cithara and the flute began to play together. 

Salammbo unfastened her earrings, her necklace, her bracelets, and herlong white simar; she unknotted the band in her hair, shaking the latterfor a few minutes softly over her shoulders to cool herself by thusscattering it. The music went on outside; it consisted of three notesever the same, hurried and frenzied; the strings grated, the flute blew;Taanach kept time by striking her hands; Salammbo, with a swaying ofher whole body, chanted prayers, and her garments fell one after anotheraround her. 

The heavy tapestry trembled, and the python's head appeared above thecord that supported it. The serpent descended slowly like a drop ofwater flowing along a wall, crawled among the scattered stuffs, andthen, gluing its tail to the ground, rose perfectly erect; and his eyes, more brilliant than carbuncles, darted upon Salammbo. 

A horror of cold, or perhaps a feeling of shame, at first made herhesitate. But she recalled Schahabarim's orders and advanced; the pythonturned downwards, and resting the centre of its body upon the nape ofher neck, allowed its head and tail to hang like a broken necklace withboth ends trailing to the ground. Salammbo rolled it around her sides, under her arms and between her knees; then taking it by the jaw shebrought the little triangular mouth to the edge of her teeth, and halfshutting her eyes, threw herself back beneath the rays of the moon. Thewhite light seemed to envelop her in a silver mist, the prints of herhumid steps shone upon the flag-stones, stars quivered in the depth ofthe water; it tightened upon her its black rings that were spotted withscales of gold. Salammbo panted beneath the excessive weight, herloins yielded, she felt herself dying, and with the tip of its tail theserpent gently beat her thigh; then the music becoming still it fell offagain. 

Taanach came back to her; and after arranging two candelabra, the lightsof which burned in crystal balls filled with water, she tinged theinside of her hands with Lawsonia, spread vermilion upon her cheeks, andantimony along the edge of her eyelids, and lengthened her eyebrows witha mixture of gum, musk, ebony, and crushed legs of flies. 

Salammbo seated on a chair with ivory uprights, gave herself up to theattentions of the slave. But the touchings, the odour of the aromatics, and the fasts that she had undergone, were enervating her. She became sopale that Taanach stopped. 

"Go on!" said Salammbo, and bearing up against herself, she suddenlyrevived. Then she was seized with impatience; she urged Taanach to makehaste, and the old slave grumbled:

"Well! well! Mistress!--Besides, you have no one waiting for you!"

"Yes!" said Salammbo, "some one is waiting for me. "

Taanach drew back in surprise, and in order to learn more about it, said:

"What orders to you give me, Mistress? for if you are to remain away--"

But Salammbo was sobbing; the slave exclaimed:

"You are suffering! what is the matter? Do not go away! take me! Whenyou were quite little and used to cry, I took you to my heart andmade you laugh with the points of my breasts; you have drained them, Mistress!" She struck herself upon her dried-up bosom. "Now I am old! Ican do nothing for you! you no longer love me! you hide your griefs fromme, you despise the nurse!" And tears of tenderness and vexation floweddown her cheeks in the gashes of her tattooing. 

"No!" said Salammbo, "no, I love you! be comforted!"

With a smile like the grimace of an old ape, Taanach resumed her task. In accordance with Schahabarim's recommendations, Salammbo had orderedthe slave to make her magnificent; and she was obeying her mistress withbarbaric taste full at once of refinement and ingenuity. 

Over a first delicate and vinous-coloured tunic she passed a secondembroidered with birds' feathers. Golden scales clung to her hips, and from this broad girdle descended her blue flowing silver-starredtrousers. Next Taanach put upon her a long robe made of the cloth of thecountry of Seres, white and streaked with green lines. On the edge ofher shoulder she fastened a square of purple weighted at the hem withgrains of sandastrum; and above all these garments she placed a blackmantle with a flowing train; then she gazed at her, and proud of herwork could not help saying:

"You will not be more beautiful on the day of your bridal!"

"My bridal!" repeated Salammbo; she was musing with her elbow restingupon the ivory chair. 

But Taanach set up before her a copper mirror, which was so broad andhigh that she could see herself completely in it. Then she rose, andwith a light touch of her finger raised a lock of her hair which wasfalling too low. 

Her hair was covered with gold dust, was crisped in front, and hung downbehind over her back in long twists ending in pearls. The brightnessof the candelabra heightened the paint on her cheeks, the gold on hergarments, and the whiteness of her skin; around her waist, and on herarms, hands and toes, she had such a wealth of gems that the mirror sentback rays upon her like a sun;--and Salammbo, standing by the side ofTaanach, who leaned over to see her, smiled amid this dazzling display. 

Then she walked to and fro embarrassed by the time that was still left. 

Suddenly the crow of a cock resounded. She quickly pinned a long yellowveil upon her hair, passed a scarf around her neck, thrust her feet intoblue leather boots, and said to Taanach:

"Go and see whether there is not a man with two horses beneath themyrtles. "

Taanach had scarcely re-entered when she was descending the galleystaircase. 

"Mistress!" cried the nurse. 

Salammbo turned round with one finger on her mouth as a sign fordiscretion and immobility. 

Taanach stole softly along the prows to the foot of the terrace, and from a distance she could distinguish by the light of the moon agigantic shadow walking obliquely in the cypress avenue to the left ofSalammbo, a sign which presaged death. 

Taanach went up again into the chamber. She threw herself upon theground tearing her face with her nails; she plucked out her hair, anduttered piercing shrieks with all her might. 

It occurred to her that they might be heard; then she became silent, sobbing quite softly with her head in the hands and her face on thepavement. 

CHAPTER XI

IN THE TENT

The man who guided Salammbo made her ascend again beyond the pharosin the direction of the Catacombs, and then go down the long suburb ofMolouya, which was full of steep lanes. The sky was beginning to growgrey. Sometimes palm-wood beams jutting out from the walls obliged themto bend their heads. The two horses which were at the walk would oftenslip; and thus they reached the Teveste gate. 

Its heavy leaves were half open; they passed through, and it closedbehind them. 

At first they followed the foot of the ramparts for a time, and at theheight of the cisterns they took their way along the Taenia, a narrowstrip of yellow earth separating the gulf from the lake and extending asfar as Rhades. 

No one was to be seen around Carthage, whether on the sea or in thecountry. The slate-coloured waves chopped softly, and the light windblowing their foam hither and thither spotted them with white rents. In spite of all her veils, Salammbo shivered in the freshness of themorning; the motion and the open air dazed her. Then the sun rose; itpreyed on the back of her head, and she involuntarily dozed a little. The two animals rambled along side by side, their feet sinking into thesilent sand. 

When they had passed the mountain of the Hot Springs, they went on at amore rapid rate, the ground being firmer. 

But although it was the season for sowing and ploughing, the fields wereas empty as the desert as far as the eye could reach. Here and therewere scattered heaps of corn; at other places the barley was sheddingits reddened ears. The villages showed black upon the clear horizon, with shapes incoherently carved. 

From time to time a half-calcined piece of wall would be found standingon the edge of the road. The roofs of the cottages were falling in, andin the interiors might be distinguished fragments of pottery, rags ofclothing, and all kinds of unrecognisable utensils and broken things. Often a creature clothed in tatters, with earthy face and flaming eyeswould emerge from these ruins. But he would very quickly begin to run orwould disappear into a hole. Salammbo and her guide did not stop. 

Deserted plains succeeded one another. Charcoal dust which was raised bytheir feet behind them, stretched in unequal trails over large spacesof perfectly white soil. Sometimes they came upon little peaceful spots, where a brook flowed amid the long grass; and as they ascended the otherbank Salammbo would pluck damp leaves to cool her hands. At the cornerof a wood of rose-bays her horse shied violently at the corpse of a manwhich lay extended on the ground. 

The slave immediately settled her again on the cushions. He was one ofthe servants of the Temple, a man whom Schahabarim used to employ onperilous missions. 

With extreme precaution he now went on foot beside her and between thehorses; he would whip the animals with the end of a leathern lace woundround his arm, or would perhaps take balls made of wheat, dates, andyolks of eggs wrapped in lotus leaves from a scrip hanging against hisbreast, and offer them to Salammbo without speaking, and running all thetime. 

In the middle of the day three Barbarians clad in animals' skins crossedtheir path. By degrees others appeared wandering in troops of ten, twelve, or twenty-five men; many were driving goats or a limping cow. Their heavy sticks bristled with brass points; cutlasses gleamed intheir clothes, which were savagely dirty, and they opened their eyeswith a look of menace and amazement. As they passed some sent them avulgar benediction; others obscene jests, and Schahabarim's man repliedto each in his own idiom. He told them that this was a sick youth goingto be cured at a distant temple. 

However, the day was closing in. Barkings were heard, and theyapproached them. 

Then in the twilight they perceived an enclosure of dry stones shuttingin a rambling edifice. A dog was running along the top of the wall. Theslave threw some pebbles at him and they entered a lofty vaulted hall. 

A woman was crouching in the centre warming herself at a fire ofbrushwood, the smoke of which escaped through the holes in the ceiling. She was half hidden by her white hair which fell to her knees; andunwilling to answer, she muttered with idiotic look words of vengeanceagainst the Barbarians and the Carthaginians. 

The runner ferreted right and left. Then he returned to her and demandedsomething to eat. The old woman shook her head, and murmured with hereyes fixed upon the charcoal:

"I was the hand. The ten fingers are cut off. The mouth eats no more. "

The slave showed her a handful of gold pieces. She rushed upon them, butsoon resumed her immobility. 

At last he placed a dagger which he had in his girdle beneath herthroat. Then, trembling, she went and raised a large stone, and broughtback an amphora of wine with fish from Hippo-Zarytus preserved in honey. 

Salammbo turned away from this unclean food, and fell asleep on thehorses' caparisons which were spread in a corner of the hall. 

He awoke her before daylight. 

The dog was howling. The slave went up to it quietly, and struck offits head with a single blow of his dagger. Then he rubbed the horses'nostrils with blood to revive them. The old woman cast a malediction athim from behind. Salammbo perceived this, and pressed the amulet whichshe wore above her heart. 

They resumed their journey. 

From time to time she asked whether they would not arrive soon. The roadundulated over little hills. Nothing was to be heard but the grating ofthe grasshoppers. The sun heated the yellowed grass; the ground was allchinked with crevices which in dividing formed, as it were, monstrouspaving-stones. Sometimes a viper passed, or eagles flew by; the slavestill continued running. Salammbo mused beneath her veils, and in spiteof the heat did not lay them aside through fear of soiling her beautifulgarments. 

At regular distances stood towers built by the Carthaginians for thepurpose of keeping watch upon the tribes. They entered these for thesake of the shade, and then set out again. 

For prudence sake they had made a wide detour the day before. But theymet with no one just now; the region being a sterile one, the Barbarianshad not passed that way. 

Gradually the devastation began again. Sometimes a piece of mosaic wouldbe displayed in the centre of a field, the sole remnant of a vanishedmansion; and the leafless olive trees looked at a distance like largebushes of thorns. They passed through a town in which houses were burntto the ground. Human skeletons might be seen along the walls. There weresome, too, of dromedaries and mules. Half-gnawed carrion blocked thestreets. 

Night fell. The sky was lowering and cloudy. 

They ascended again for two hours in a westerly direction, when suddenlythey perceived a quantity of little flames before them. 

These were shining at the bottom of an ampitheatre. Gold plates, as theydisplaced one another, glanced here and there. These were the cuirassesof the Clinabarians in the Punic camp; then in the neighbourhood theydistinguished other and more numerous lights, for the armies of theMercenaries, now blended together, extended over a great space. 

Salammbo made a movement as though to advance. But Schahabarim's mantook her further away, and they passed along by the terrace whichenclosed the camp of the Barbarians. A breach became visible in it, andthe slave disappeared. 

A sentry was walking upon the top of the entrenchment with a bow in hishand and a pike on his shoulder. 

Salammbo drew still nearer; the Barbarian knelt and a long arrow piercedthe hem of her cloak. Then as she stood motionless and shrieking, heasked her what she wanted. 

"To speak to Matho, " she replied. "I am a fugitive from Carthage. "

He gave a whistle, which was repeated at intervals further away. 

Salammbo waited; her frightened horse moved round and round, sniffing. 

When Matho arrived the moon was rising behind her. But she had a yellowveil with black flowers over her face, and so many draperies about herperson, that it was impossible to make any guess about her. From the topof the terrace he gazed upon this vague form standing up like a phantomin the penumbrae of the evening. 

At last she said to him:

"Lead me to your tent! I wish it!"

A recollection which he could not define passed through his memory. Hefelt his heart beating. The air of command intimidated him. 

"Follow me!" he said. 

The barrier was lowered, and immediately she was in the camp of theBarbarians. 

It was filled with a great tumult and a great throng. Bright fires wereburning beneath hanging pots; and their purpled reflections illuminatingsome places left others completely in the dark. There was shouting andcalling; shackled horses formed long straight lines amid the tents; thelatter were round and square, of leather or of canvas; there were hutsof reeds, and holes in the sand such as are made by dogs. Soldiers werecarting faggots, resting on their elbows on the ground, or wrappingthemselves up in mats and preparing to sleep; and Salammbo's horsesometimes stretched out a leg and jumped in order to pass over them. 

She remembered that she had seen them before; but their beards werelonger now, their faces still blacker, and their voices hoarser. Matho, who walked before her, waved them off with a gesture of his arm whichraised his red mantle. Some kissed his hands; others bending theirspines approached him to ask for orders, for he was now veritable andsole chief of the Barbarians; Spendius, Autaritus, and Narr' Havas hadbecome disheartened, and he had displayed so much audacity and obstinacythat all obeyed him. 

Salammbo followed him through the entire camp. His tent was at the end, three hundred feet from Hamilcar's entrenchments. 

She noticed a wide pit on the right, and it seemed to her that faceswere resting against the edge of it on a level with the ground, asdecapitated heads might have done. However, their eyes moved, and fromthese half-opened mouths groanings escaped in the Punic tongue. 

Two Negroes holding resin lights stood on both sides of the door. Mathodrew the canvas abruptly aside. She followed him. It was a deep tentwith a pole standing up in the centre. It was lighted by a largelamp-holder shaped like a lotus and full of a yellow oil wherein floatedhandfuls of burning tow, and military things might be distinguishedgleaming in the shade. A naked sword leaned against a stool by theside of a shield; whips of hippopotamus leather, cymbals, bells, andnecklaces were displayed pell-mell on baskets of esparto-grass; afelt rug lay soiled with crumbs of black bread; some copper money wascarelessly heaped upon a round stone in a corner, and through the rentsin the canvas the wind brought the dust from without, together with thesmell of the elephants, which might be heard eating and shaking theirchains. 

"Who are you?" said Matho. 

She looked slowly around her without replying; then her eyes werearrested in the background, where something bluish and sparkling fellupon a bed of palm-branches. 

She advanced quickly. A cry escaped her. Matho stamped his foot behindher. 

"Who brings you here? why do you come?"

"To take it!" she replied, pointing to the zaimph, and with the otherhand she tore the veils from her head. He drew back with his elbowsbehind him, gaping, almost terrified. 

She felt as if she were leaning on the might of the gods; and looking athim face to face she asked him for the zaimph; she demanded it in wordsabundant and superb. 

Matho did not hear; he was gazing at her, and in his eyes her garmentswere blended with her body. The clouding of the stuffs, like thesplendour of her skin, was something special and belonging to her alone. Her eyes and her diamonds sparkled; the polish of her nails continuedthe delicacy of the stones which loaded her fingers; the two clasps ofher tunic raised her breasts somewhat and brought them closer together, and he in thought lost himself in the narrow interval between themwhence there fell a thread holding a plate of emeralds which could beseen lower down beneath the violet gauze. She had as earrings two littlesapphire scales, each supporting a hollow pearl filled with liquidscent. A little drop would fall every moment through the holes in thepearl and moisten her naked shoulder. Matho watched it fall. 

He was carried away by ungovernable curiosity; and, like a child layinghis hand upon a strange fruit, he tremblingly and lightly touchedthe top of her chest with the tip of his finger: the flesh, which wassomewhat cold, yielded with an elastic resistance. 

This contact, though scarcely a sensible one, shook Matho to the verydepths of his nature. An uprising of his whole being urged him towardsher. He would fain have enveloped her, absorbed her, drunk her. Hisbosom was panting, his teeth were chattering. 

Taking her by the wrists he drew her gently to him, and then sat downupon a cuirass beside the palm-tree bed which was covered with a lion'sskin. She was standing. He looked up at her, holding her thus betweenhis knees, and repeating:

"How beautiful you are! how beautiful you are!"

His eyes, which were continually fixed upon hers, pained her; and theuncomfortableness, the repugnance increased in so acute a fashion thatSalammbo put a constraint upon herself not to cry out. The thought ofSchahabarim came back to her, and she resigned herself. 

Matho still kept her little hands in his own; and from time to time, in spite of the priest's command, she turned away her face and tried tothrust him off by jerking her arms. He opened his nostrils the betterto breathe in the perfume which exhaled from her person. It was a fresh, indefinable emanation, which nevertheless made him dizzy, like the smokefrom a perfuming-pan. She smelt of honey, pepper, incense, roses, withanother odour still. 

But how was she thus with him in his tent, and at his disposal? Some oneno doubt had urged her. She had not come for the zaimph. His arms fell, and he bent his head whelmed in sudden reverie. 

To soften him Salammbo said to him in a plaintive voice:

"What have I done to you that you should desire my death?"

"Your death!"

She resumed:

"I saw you one evening by the light of my burning gardens amid fumingcups and my slaughtered slaves, and your anger was so strong that youbounded towards me and I was obliged to fly! Then terror entered intoCarthage. There were cries of the devastation of the towns, the burningof the country-seats, the massacre of the soldiery; it was you who hadruined them, it was you who had murdered them! I hate you! Your veryname gnaws me like remorse! You are execrated more than the plague, andthe Roman war! The provinces shudder at your fury, the furrows are fullof corpses! I have followed the traces of your fires as though I weretravelling behind Moloch!"

Matho leaped up; his heart was swelling with colossal pride; he wasraised to the stature of a god. 

With quivering nostrils and clenched teeth she went on:

"As if your sacrilege were not enough, you came to me in my sleepcovered with the zaimph! Your words I did not understand; but I couldsee that you wished to drag me to some terrible thing at the bottom ofan abyss. "

Matho, writhing his arms, exclaimed:

"No! no! it was to give it to you! to restore it to you! It seemed to methat the goddess had left her garment for you, and that it belonged toyou! In her temple or in your house, what does it matter? are you notall-powerful, immaculate, radiant and beautiful even as Tanith?" Andwith a look of boundless adoration he added:

"Unless perhaps you are Tanith?"

"I, Tanith!" said Salammbo to herself. 

They left off speaking. The thunder rolled in the distance. Some sheepbleated, frightened by the storm. 

"Oh! come near!" he went on, "come near! fear nothing!

"Formerly I was only a soldier mingled with the common herd of theMercenaries, ay, and so meek that I used to carry wood on my back forthe others. Do I trouble myself about Carthage! The crowd of its peoplemove as though lost in the dust of your sandals, and all its treasures, with the provinces, fleets, and islands, do not raise my envy like thefreshness of your lips and the turn of your shoulders. But I wanted tothrow down its walls that I might reach you to possess you! Moreover, I was revenging myself in the meantime! At present I crush men likeshells, and I throw myself upon phalanxes; I put aside the sarissae withmy hands, I check the stallions by the nostrils; a catapult wouldnot kill me! Oh! if you knew how I think of you in the midst of war!Sometimes the memory of a gesture or of a fold of your garment suddenlyseizes me and entwines me like a net! I perceive your eyes in the flamesof the phalaricas and on the gilding of the shields! I hear your voicein the sounding of the cymbals. I turn aside, but you are not there! andI plunge again into the battle!"

He raised his arms whereon his veins crossed one another like ivy onthe branches of a tree. Sweat flowed down his breast between his squaremuscles; and his breathing shook his sides with his bronze girdle allgarnished with thongs hanging down to his knees, which were firmer thanmarble. Salammbo, who was accustomed to eunuchs, yielded to amazement atthe strength of this man. It was the chastisement of the goddess or theinfluence of Moloch in motion around her in the five armies. She wasoverwhelmed with lassitude; and she listened in a state of stupor to theintermittent shouts of the sentinels as they answered one another. 

The flames of the lamp kindled in the squalls of hot air. There cameat times broad lightning flashes; then the darkness increased; and shecould only see Matho's eyeballs like two coals in the night. However, she felt that a fatality was surrounding her, that she had reached asupreme and irrevocable moment, and making an effort she went up againtowards the zaimph and raised her hands to seize it. 

"What are you doing?" exclaimed Matho. 

"I am going back to Carthage, " she placidly replied. 

He advanced folding his arms and with so terrible a look that her heelswere immediately nailed, as it were, to the spot. 

"Going back to Carthage!" He stammered, and, grinding his teeth, repeated:

"Going back to Carthage! Ah! you came to take the zaimph, to conquer me, and then disappear! No, no! you belong to me! and no one now shall tearyou from here! Oh! I have not forgotten the insolence of your largetranquil eyes, and how you crushed me with the haughtiness of yourbeauty! 'Tis my turn now! You are my captive, my slave, my servant!Call, if you like, on your father and his army, the Ancients, therich, and your whole accursed people! I am the master of three hundredthousand soldiers! I will go and seek them in Lusitania, in the Gauls, and in the depths of the desert, and I will overthrow your town and burnall its temples; the triremes shall float on the waves of blood! I willnot have a house, a stone, or a palm tree remaining! And if men fail meI will draw the bears from the mountains and urge on the lions! Seek notto fly or I kill you!"

Pale and with clenched fists he quivered like a harp whose strings areabout to burst. Suddenly sobs stifled him, and he sank down upon hishams. 

"Ah! forgive me! I am a scoundrel, and viler than scorpions, than mireand dust! Just now while you were speaking your breath passed across myface, and I rejoiced like a dying man who drinks lying flat on the edgeof a stream. Crush me, if only I feel your feet! curse me, if only Ihear your voice! Do not go! have pity! I love you! I love you!"

He was on his knees on the ground before her; and he encircled her formwith both his arms, his head thrown back, and his hands wandering; thegold discs hanging from his ears gleamed upon his bronzed neck; bigtears rolled in his eyes like silver globes; he sighed caressingly, andmurmured vague words lighter than a breeze and sweet as a kiss. 

Salammbo was invaded by a weakness in which she lost all consciousnessof herself. Something at once inward and lofty, a command from the gods, obliged her to yield herself; clouds uplifted her, and she fell backswooning upon the bed amid the lion's hair. The zaimph fell, andenveloped her; she could see Matho's face bending down above her breast. 

"Moloch, thou burnest me!" and the soldier's kisses, more devouring thanflames, covered her; she was as though swept away in a hurricane, takenin the might of the sun. 

He kissed all her fingers, her arms, her feet, and the long tresses ofher hair from one end to the other. 

"Carry it off, " he said, "what do I care? take me away with it! Iabandon the army! I renounce everything! Beyond Gades, twenty days'journey into the sea, you come to an island covered with gold dust, verdure, and birds. On the mountains large flowers filled with smokingperfumes rock like eternal censers; in the citron trees, which arehigher than cedars, milk-coloured serpents cause the fruit to fall uponthe turf with the diamonds in their jaws; the air is so mild that itkeeps you from dying. Oh! I shall find it, you will see. We shall livein crystal grottoes cut out at the foot of the hills. No one dwells init yet, or I shall become the king of the country. "

He brushed the dust off her cothurni; he wanted her to put a quarter ofa pomegranate between her lips; he heaped up garments behind her head tomake a cushion for her. He sought for means to serve her, and to humblehimself, and he even spread the zaimph over her feet as if it were amere rug. 

"Have you still, " he said, "those little gazelle's horns on which yournecklaces hang? You will give them to me! I love them!" For he spokeas if the war were finished, and joyful laughs broke from him. TheMercenaries, Hamilcar, every obstacle had now disappeared. The moon wasgliding between two clouds. They could see it through an opening in thetent. "Ah, what nights have I spent gazing at her! she seemed to me likea veil that hid your face; you would look at me through her; the memoryof you was mingled with her beams; then I could no longer distinguishyou!" And with his head between her breasts he wept copiously. 

"And this, " she thought, "is the formidable man who makes Carthagetremble!"

He fell asleep. Then disengaging herself from his arm she put one footto the ground, and she perceived that her chainlet was broken. 

The maidens of the great families were accustomed to respect theseshackles as something that was almost religious, and Salammbo, blushing, rolled the two pieces of the golden chain around her ankles. 

Carthage, Megara, her house, her room, and the country that she hadpassed through, whirled in tumultuous yet distinct images through hermemory. But an abyss had yawned and thrown them far back to an infinitedistance from her. 

The storm was departing; drops of water splashing rarely, one by one, made the tent-roof shake. 

Matho slept like a drunken man, stretched on his side, and with one armover the edge of the couch. His band of pearls was raised somewhat, anduncovered his brow; his teeth were parted in a smile; they shone throughhis black beard, and there was a silent and almost outrageous gaiety inhis half-closed eyelids. 

Salammbo looked at him motionless, her head bent and her hands crossed. 

A dagger was displayed on the table of cypress-wood at the head of thebed; the sight of the gleaming blade fired her with a sanguinary desire. Mournful voices lingered at a distance in the shade, and like a chorusof geniuses urged her on. She approached it; she seized the steel by thehandle. At the rustling of her dress Matho half opened his eyes, puttingforth his mouth upon her hands, and the dagger fell. 

Shouts arose; a terrible light flashed behind the canvas. Matho raisedthe latter; they perceived the camp of the Libyans enveloped in greatflames. 

Their reed huts were burning, and the twisting stems burst in the smokeand flew off like arrows; black shadows ran about distractedly on thered horizon. They could hear the shrieks of those who were in thehuts; the elephants, oxen, and horses plunged in the midst of the crowdcrushing it together with the stores and baggage that were being rescuedfrom the fire. Trumpets sounded. There were calls of "Matho! Matho!"Some people at the door tried to get in. 

"Come along! Hamilcar is burning the camp of Autaritus!"

He made a spring. She found herself quite alone. 

Then she examined the zaimph; and when she had viewed it well she wassurprised that she had not the happiness which she had once imagined toherself. She stood with melancholy before her accomplished dream. 

But the lower part of the tent was raised, and a monstrous formappeared. Salammbo could at first distinguish only the two eyes anda long white beard which hung down to the ground; for the rest of thebody, which was cumbered with the rags of a tawny garment, trailed alongthe earth; and with every forward movement the hands passed into thebeard and then fell again. Crawling in this way it reached her feet, andSalammbo recognised the aged Gisco. 

In fact, the Mercenaries had broken the legs of the captive Ancientswith a brass bar to prevent them from taking to flight; and they wereall rotting pell-mell in a pit in the midst of filth. But the sturdiestof them raised themselves and shouted when they heard the noise ofplatters, and it was in this way that Gisco had seen Salammbo. Hehad guessed that she was a Carthaginian woman by the little balls ofsandastrum flapping against her cothurni; and having a presentimentof an important mystery he had succeeded, with the assistance of hiscompanions, in getting out of the pit; then with elbows and hands hehad dragged himself twenty paces further on as far as Matho's tent. Twovoices were speaking within it. He had listened outside and had heardeverything. 

"It is you!" she said at last, almost terrified. 

"Yes, it is I!" he replied, raising himself on his wrists. "They thinkme dead, do they not?"

She bent her head. He resumed:

"Ah! why have the Baals not granted me this mercy!" He approachedso close he was touching her. "They would have spared me the pain ofcursing you!"

Salammbo sprang quickly back, so much afraid was she of this uncleanbeing, who was as hideous as a larva and nearly as terrible as aphantom. 

"I am nearly one hundred years old, " he said. "I have seen Agathocles; Ihave seen Regulus and the eagles of the Romans passing over the harvestsof the Punic fields! I have seen all the terrors of battles and thesea encumbered with the wrecks of our fleets! Barbarians whom I usedto command have chained my four limbs like a slave that has committedmurder. My companions are dying around me, one after the other; theodour of their corpses awakes me in the night; I drive away the birdsthat come to peck out their eyes; and yet not for a single day have Idespaired of Carthage! Though I had seen all the armies of the earthagainst her, and the flames of the siege overtop the height of thetemples, I should have still believed in her eternity! But now all isover! all is lost! The gods execrate her! A curse upon you who havequickened her ruin by your disgrace!"

She opened her lips. 

"Ah! I was there!" he cried. "I heard you gurgling with love like aprostitute; then he told you of his desire, and you allowed him to kissyour hands! But if the frenzy of your unchastity urged you to it, youshould at least have done as do the fallow deer, which hide themselvesin their copulations, and not have displayed your shame beneath yourfather's very eyes!"

"What?" she said. 

"Ah! you did not know that the two entrenchments are sixty cubits fromeach other and that your Matho, in the excess of his pride, has postedhimself just in front of Hamilcar. Your father is there behind you; andcould I climb the path which leads to the platform, I should cry to him:'Come and see your daughter in the Barbarian's arms! She has put on thegarment of the goddess to please him; and in yielding her body to himshe surrenders with the glory of your name the majesty of the gods, thevengeance of her country, even the safety of Carthage!'" The motion ofhis toothless mouth moved his beard throughout its length; his eyes wereriveted upon her and devoured her; panting in the dust he repeated:

"Ah! sacrilegious one! May you be accursed! accursed! accursed!"

Salammbo had drawn back the canvas; she held it raised at arm's length, and without answering him she looked in the direction of Hamilcar. 

"It is this way, is it not?" she said. 

"What matters it to you? Turn away! Begone! Rather crush your faceagainst the earth! It is a holy spot which would be polluted by yourgaze!"

She threw the zaimph about her waist, and quickly picked up her veils, mantle, and scarf. "I hasten thither!" she cried; and making her escapeSalammbo disappeared. 

At first she walked through the darkness without meeting any one, forall were betaking themselves to the fire; the uproar was increasing andgreat flames purpled the sky behind; a long terrace stopped her. 

She turned round to right and left at random, seeking for a ladder, a rope, a stone, something in short to assist her. She was afraid ofGisco, and it seemed to her that shouts and footsteps were pursuing her. Day was beginning to break. She perceived a path in the thickness of theentrenchment. She took the hem of her robe, which impeded her, in herteeth, and in three bounds she was on the platform. 

A sonorous shout burst forth beneath her in the shade, the same whichshe had heard at the foot of the galley staircase, and leaning over sherecognised Schahabarim's man with his coupled horses. 

He had wandered all night between the two entrenchments; then disquietedby the fire, he had gone back again trying to see what was passing inMatho's camp; and, knowing that this spot was nearest to his tent, hehad not stirred from it, in obedience to the priest's command. 

He stood up on one of the horses. Salammbo let herself slide down tohim; and they fled at full gallop, circling the Punic camp in search ofa gate. 

Matho had re-entered his tent. The smoky lamp gave but little light, andhe also believed that Salammbo was asleep. Then he delicately touchedthe lion's skin on the palm-tree bed. He called but she did not answer;he quickly tore away a strip of the canvas to let in some light; thezaimph was gone. 

The earth trembled beneath thronging feet. Shouts, neighings, andclashing of armour rose in the air, and clarion flourishes soundedthe charge. It was as though a hurricane were whirling around him. Immoderate frenzy made him leap upon his arms, and he dashed outside. 

The long files of the Barbarians were descending the mountain at arun, and the Punic squares were advancing against them with a heavyand regular oscillation. The mist, rent by the rays of the sun, formedlittle rocking clouds which as they rose gradually discovered standards, helmets, and points of pikes. Beneath the rapid evolutions portions ofthe earth which were still in the shadow seemed to be displaced bodily;in other places it looked as if huge torrents were crossing oneanother, while thorny masses stood motionless between them. Matho coulddistinguish the captains, soldiers, heralds, and even the serving-men, who were mounted on asses in the rear. But instead of maintaininghis position in order to cover the foot-soldiers, Narr' Havas turnedabruptly to the right, as though he wished himself to be crushed byHamilcar. 

His horsemen outstripped the elephants, which were slackening theirspeed; and all the horses, stretching out their unbridled heads, galloped at so furious a rate that their bellies seemed to graze theearth. Then suddenly Narr' Havas went resolutely up to a sentry. Hethrew away his sword, lance, and javelins, and disappeared among theCarthaginians. 

The king of the Numidians reached Hamilcar's tent, and pointing to hismen, who were standing still at a distance, he said:

"Barca! I bring them to you. They are yours. "

Then he prostrated himself in token of bondage, and to prove hisfidelity recalled all his conduct from the beginning of the war. 

First, he had prevented the siege of Carthage and the massacre of thecaptives; then he had taken no advantage of the victory over Hanno afterthe defeat at Utica. As to the Tyrian towns, they were on the frontiersof his kingdom. Finally he had not taken part in the battle of theMacaras; and he had even expressly absented himself in order to evadethe obligation of fighting against the Suffet. 

Narr' Havas had in fact wished to aggrandise himself by encroachmentsupon the Punic provinces, and had alternately assisted and forsakenthe Mercenaries according to the chances of victory. But seeing thatHamilcar would ultimately prove the stronger, he had gone over to him;and in his desertion there was perhaps something of a grudge againstMatho, whether on account of the command or of his former love. 

The Suffet listened without interrupting him. The man who thus presentedhimself with an army where vengeance was his due was not an auxiliary tobe despised; Hamilcar at once divined the utility of such an alliance inhis great projects. With the Numidians he would get rid of the Libyans. Then he would draw off the West to the conquest of Iberia; and, withoutasking Narr' Havas why he had not come sooner, or noticing any of hislies, he kissed him, striking his breast thrice against his own. 

It was to bring matters to an end and in despair that he had fired thecamp of the Libyans. This army came to him like a relief from the gods;dissembling his joy he replied:

"May the Baals favour you! I do not know what the Republic will do foryou, but Hamilcar is not ungrateful. "

The tumult increased; some captains entered. He was arming himself as hespoke. 

"Come, return! You will use your horsemen to beat down their infantrybetween your elephants and mine. Courage! exterminate them!"

And Narr' Havas was rushing away when Salammbo appeared. 

She leaped down quickly from her horse. She opened her ample cloak andspreading out her arms displayed the zaimph. 

The leathern tent, which was raised at the corners, left visible theentire circuit of the mountain with its thronging soldiers, and asit was in the centre Salammbo could be seen on all sides. An immenseshouting burst forth, a long cry of triumph and hope. Those who weremarching stopped; the dying leaned on their elbows and turned roundto bless her. All the Barbarians knew now that she had recovered thezaimph; they saw her or believed that they saw her from a distance; andother cries, but those of rage and vengeance, resounded in spite of theplaudits of the Carthaginians. Thus did the five armies in tiers uponthe mountain stamp and shriek around Salammbo. 

Hamilcar, who was unable to speak, nodded her his thanks. His eyes weredirected alternately upon the zaimph and upon her, and he noticed thather chainlet was broken. Then he shivered, being seized with a terriblesuspicion. But soon recovering his impassibility he looked sideways atNarr' Havas without turning his face. 

The king of the Numidians held himself apart in a discreet attitude;on his forehead he bore a little of the dust which he had touched whenprostrating himself. At last the Suffet advanced towards him with a lookfull of gravity. 

"As a reward for the services which you have rendered me, Narr' Havas, Igive you my daughter. Be my son, " he added, "and defend your father!"

Narr' Havas gave a great gesture of surprise; then he threw himself uponHamilcar's hands and covered them with kisses. 

Salammbo, calm as a statue, did not seem to understand. She blushed alittle as she cast down her eyelids, and her long curved lashes madeshadows upon her cheeks. 

Hamilcar wished to unite them immediately in indissoluble betrothal. Alance was placed in Salammbo's hands and by her offered to Narr' Havas;their thumbs were tied together with a thong of ox-leather; then cornwas poured upon their heads, and the grains that fell around them ranglike rebounding hail. 

CHAPTER XII

THE AQUEDUCT

Twelve hours afterwards all that remained of the Mercenaries was a heapof wounded, dead, and dying. 

Hamilcar had suddenly emerged from the bottom of the gorge, and againdescended the western slope that looked towards Hippo-Zarytus, andthe space being broader at this spot he had taken care to draw theBarbarians into it. Narr' Havas had encompassed them with his horse; theSuffet meanwhile drove them back and crushed them. Then, too, they wereconquered beforehand by the loss of the zaimph; even those whocared nothing about it had experienced anguish and something akin toenfeeblement. Hamilcar, not indulging his pride by holding the field ofbattle, had retired a little further off on the left to some heights, from which he commanded them. 

The shape of the camps could be recognised by their sloping palisades. A long heap of black cinders was smoking on the side of the Libyans;the devastated soil showed undulations like the sea, and the tents withtheir tattered canvas looked like dim ships half lost in the breakers. Cuirasses, forks, clarions, pieces of wood, iron and brass, corn, straw, and garments were scattered about among the corpses; here and there aphalarica on the point of extinction burned against a heap of baggage;in some places the earth was hidden with shields; horses' carcassessucceeded one another like a series of hillocks; legs, sandals, arms, and coats of mail were to be seen, with heads held in their helmets bythe chin-pieces and rolling about like balls; heads of hair were hangingon the thorns; elephants were lying with their towers in pools of blood, with entrails exposed, and gasping. The foot trod on slimy things, andthere were swamps of mud although no rain had fallen. 

This confusion of dead bodies covered the whole mountain from top tobottom. 

Those who survived stirred as little as the dead. Squatting in unequalgroups they looked at one another scared and without speaking. 

The lake of Hippo-Zarytus shone at the end of a long meadow beneaththe setting sun. To the right an agglomeration of white houses extendedbeyond a girdle of walls; then the sea spread out indefinitely; and theBarbarians, with their chins in their hands, sighed as they thought oftheir native lands. A cloud of grey dust was falling. 

The evening wind blew; then every breast dilated, and as the freshnessincreased, the vermin might be seen to forsake the dead, who were coldernow, and to run over the hot sand. Crows, looking towards the dying, rested motionless on the tops of the big stones. 

When night had fallen yellow-haired dogs, those unclean beasts whichfollowed the armies, came quite softly into the midst of the Barbarians. At first they licked the clots of blood on the still tepid stumps; andsoon they began to devour the corpses, biting into the stomachs first ofall. 

The fugitives reappeared one by one like shadows; the women alsoventured to return, for there were still some of them left, especiallyamong the Libyans, in spite of the dreadful massacre of them by theNumidians. 

Some took ropes' ends and lighted them to use as torches. Others heldcrossed pikes. The corpses were placed upon these and were conveyedapart. 

They were found lying stretched in long lines, on their backs, withtheir mouths open, and their lances beside them; or else they were piledup pell-mell so that it was often necessary to dig out a whole heapin order to discover those they were wanting. Then the torch would bepassed slowly over their faces. They had received complicated woundsfrom hideous weapons. Greenish strips hung from their foreheads; theywere cut in pieces, crushed to the marrow, blue from strangulation, orbroadly cleft by the elephants' ivory. Although they had died at almostthe same time there existed differences between their various states ofcorruption. The men of the North were puffed up with livid swellings, while the more nervous Africans looked as though they had been smoked, and were already drying up. The Mercenaries might be recognised by thetattooing on their hands: the old soldiers of Antiochus displayeda sparrow-hawk; those who had served in Egypt, the head of thecynosephalus; those who had served with the princes of Asia, a hatchet, a pomegranate, or a hammer; those who had served in the Greek republics, the side-view of a citadel or the name of an archon; and some were tobe seen whose arms were entirely covered with these multiplied symbols, which mingled with their scars and their recent wounds. 

Four great funeral piles were erected for the men of Latin race, theSamnites, Etruscans, Campanians, and Bruttians. 

The Greeks dug pits with the points of their swords. The Spartansremoved their red cloaks and wrapped them round the dead; the Athenianslaid them out with their faces towards the rising sun; the Cantabriansburied them beneath a heap of pebbles; the Nasamonians bent them doublewith ox-leather thongs, and the Garamantians went and interred them onthe shore so that they might be perpetually washed by the waves. But theLatins were grieved that they could not collect the ashes in urns; theNomads regretted the heat of the sands in which bodies were mummified, and the Celts, the three rude stones beneath a rainy sky at the end ofan islet-covered gulf. 

Vociferations arose, followed by the lengthened silence. This was tooblige the souls to return. Then the shouting was resumed persistentlyat regular intervals. 

They made excuses to the dead for their inability to honour them as therites prescribed: for, owing to this deprivation, they would pass forinfinite periods through all kinds of chances and metamorphoses; theyquestioned them and asked them what they desired; others loaded themwith abuse for having allowed themselves to be conquered. 

The bloodless faces lying back here and there on wrecks of armour showedpale in the light of the great funeral-pile; tears provoked tears, thesobs became shriller, the recognitions and embracings more frantic. Women stretched themselves on the corpses, mouth to mouth and brow tobrow; it was necessary to beat them in order to make them withdraw whenthe earth was being thrown in. They blackened their cheeks; they cut offtheir hair; they drew their own blood and poured it into the pits; theygashed themselves in imitation of the wounds that disfigured the dead. Roarings burst forth through the crashings of the cymbals. Some snatchedoff their amulets and spat upon them. The dying rolled in the bloodymire biting their mutilated fists in their rage; and forty-threeSamnites, quite a "sacred spring, " cut one another's throats likegladiators. Soon wood for the funeral-piles failed, the flames wereextinguished, every spot was occupied; and weary from shouting, weakened, tottering, they fell asleep close to their dead brethren, those who still clung to life full of anxieties, and the others desiringnever to wake again. 

In the greyness of the dawn some soldiers appeared on the outskirts ofthe Barbarians, and filed past with their helmets raised on the pointsof their pikes; they saluted the Mercenaries and asked them whether theyhad no messages to send to their native lands. 

Others approached, and the Barbarians recognised some of their formercompanions. 

The Suffet had proposed to all the captives that they should serve inhis troops. Several had fearlessly refused; and quite resolved neitherto support them nor to abandon them to the Great Council, he had sentthem away with injunctions to fight no more against Carthage. As tothose who had been rendered docile by the fear of tortures, they hadbeen furnished with the weapons taken from the enemy; and they were nowpresenting themselves to the vanquished, not so much in order to seducethem as out of an impulse of pride and curiosity. 

At first they told of the good treatment which they had received fromthe Suffet; the Barbarians listened to them with jealousy although theydespised them. Then at the first words of reproach the cowards fellinto a passion; they showed them from a distance their own swordsand cuirasses and invited them with abuse to come and take them. TheBarbarians picked up flints; all took to flight; and nothing more couldbe seen on the summit of the mountain except the lance-points projectingabove the edge of the palisades. 

Then the Barbarians were overwhelmed with a grief that was heavier thanthe humiliation of the defeat. They thought of the emptiness of theircourage, and they stood with their eyes fixed and grinding their teeth. 

The same thought came to them all. They rushed tumultuously upon theCarthaginian prisoners. It chanced that the Suffet's soldiers had beenunable to discover them, and as he had withdrawn from the field ofbattle they were still in the deep pit. 

They were ranged on the ground on a flattened spot. Sentries formed acircle round them, and the women were allowed to enter thirty or fortyat a time. Wishing to profit by the short time that was allowed to them, they ran from one to the other, uncertain and panting; then bending overthe poor bodies they struck them with all their might like washerwomenbeating linen; shrieking their husband's names they tore them with theirnails and put out their eyes with the bodkins of their hair. The mencame next and tortured them from their feet, which they cut off at theankles, to their foreheads, from which they took crowns of skin to putupon their own heads. The Eaters of Uncleanness were atrocious in theirdevices. They envenomed the wounds by pouring into them dust, vinegar, and fragments of pottery; others waited behind; blood flowed, and theyrejoiced like vintagers round fuming vats. 

Matho, however, was seated on the ground, at the very place where he hadhappened to be when the battle ended, his elbows on his knees, and histemples in his hands; he saw nothing, heard nothing, and had ceased tothink. 

At the shrieks of joy uttered by the crowd he raised his head. Beforehim a strip of canvas caught on a flagpole, and trailing on the ground, sheltered in confused fashion blankets, carpets, and a lion's skin. Herecognised his tent; and he riveted his eyes upon the ground as thoughHamilcar's daughter, when she disappeared, had sunk into the earth. 

The torn canvas flapped in the wind; the long rags of it sometimespassed across his mouth, and he perceived a red mark like the print of ahand. It was the hand of Narr' Havas, the token of their alliance. ThenMatho rose. He took a firebrand which was still smoking, and threwit disdainfully upon the wrecks of his tent. Then with the toe of hiscothurn he pushed the things which fell out back towards the flame sothat nothing might be left. 

Suddenly, without any one being able to guess from what point he hadsprung up, Spendius reappeared. 

The former slave had fastened two fragments of a lance against histhigh; he limped with a piteous look, breathing forth complaints thewhile. 

"Remove that, " said Matho to him. "I know that you are a brave fellow!"For he was so crushed by the injustice of the gods that he had notstrength enough to be indignant with men. 

Spendius beckoned to him and led him to a hollow of the mountain, whereZarxas and Autaritus were lying concealed. 

They had fled like the slave, the one although he was cruel, and theother in spite of his bravery. But who, said they, could have expectedthe treachery of Narr' Havas, the burning of the camp of the Libyans, the loss of the zaimph, the sudden attack by Hamilcar, and, above all, his manoeuvres which forced them to return to the bottom of the mountainbeneath the instant blows of the Carthaginians? Spendius made noacknowledgement of his terror, and persisted in maintaining that his legwas broken. 

At last the three chiefs and the schalischim asked one another whatdecision should now be adopted. 

Hamilcar closed the road to Carthage against them; they were caughtbetween his soldiers and the provinces belonging to Narr' Havas; theTyrian towns would join the conquerors; the Barbarians would findthemselves driven to the edge of the sea, and all those united forceswould crush them. This would infallibly happen. 

Thus no means presented themselves of avoiding the war. Accordinglythey must prosecute it to the bitter end. But how were they to make thenecessity of an interminable battle understood by all these disheartenedpeople, who were still bleeding from their wounds. 

"I will undertake that!" said Spendius. 

Two hours afterwards a man who came from the direction of Hippo-Zarytusclimbed the mountain at a run. He waved some tablets at arm's length, and as he shouted very loudly the Barbarians surrounded him. 

The tablets had been despatched by the Greek soldiers in Sardinia. Theyrecommended their African comrades to watch over Gisco and the othercaptives. A Samian trader, one Hipponax, coming from Carthage, hadinformed them that a plot was being organised to promote their escape, and the Barbarians were urged to take every precaution; the Republic waspowerful. 

Spendius's stratagem did not succeed at first as he had hoped. Thisassurance of the new peril, so far from exciting frenzy, raised fears;and remembering Hamilcar's warning, lately thrown into their midst, theyexpected something unlooked for and terrible. The night was spent ingreat distress; several even got rid of their weapons, so as to softenthe Suffet when he presented himself. 

But on the following day, at the third watch, a second runner appeared, still more breathless, and blackened with dust. The Greek snatchedfrom his hand a roll of papyrus covered with Phoenician writing. TheMercenaries were entreated not to be disheartened; the brave men ofTunis were coming with large reinforcements. 

Spendius first read the letter three times in succession; and held up bytwo Cappadocians, who bore him seated on their shoulders, he hadhimself conveyed from place to place and re-read it. For seven hours heharangued. 

He reminded the Mercenaries of the promises of the Great Council; theAfricans of the cruelties of the stewards, and all the Barbarians of theinjustice of Carthage. The Suffet's mildness was only a bait to capturethem; those who surrendered would be sold as slaves, and the vanquishedwould perish under torture. As to flight, what routes could they follow?Not a nation would receive them. Whereas by continuing their effortsthey would obtain at once freedom, vengeance, and money! And they wouldnot have long to wait, since the people of Tunis, the whole of Libya, was rushing to relieve them. He showed the unrolled papyrus: "Look atit! read! see their promises! I do not lie. "

Dogs were straying about with their black muzzles all plastered withred. The men's uncovered heads were growing hot in the burning sun. A nauseous smell exhaled from the badly buried corpses. Some evenprojected from the earth as far as the waist. Spendius called them towitness what he was saying; then he raised his fists in the direction ofHamilcar. 

Matho, moreover, was watching him, and to cover his cowardice hedisplayed an anger by which he gradually found himself carried away. Devoting himself to the gods he heaped curses upon the Carthaginians. The torture of the captives was child's play. Why spare them, and beever dragging this useless cattle after one? "No! we must put an end toit! their designs are known! a single one might ruin us! no pity! Thosewho are worthy will be known by the speed of their legs and the force oftheir blows. "

Then they turned again upon the captives. Several were still in the lastthroes; they were finished by the thrust of a heel in the mouth or astab with the point of a javelin. 

Then they thought of Gisco. Nowhere could he be seen; they weredisturbed with anxiety. They wished at once to convince themselves ofhis death and to participate in it. At last three Samnite shepherdsdiscovered him at a distance of fifteen paces from the spot whereMatho's tent lately stood. They recognised him by his long beard andthey called the rest. 

Stretched on his back, his arms against his hips, and his knees closetogether, he looked like a dead man laid out for the tomb. Neverthelesshis wasted sides rose and fell, and his eyes, wide-opened in his pallidface, gazed in a continuous and intolerable fashion. 

The Barbarians looked at him at first with great astonishment. Since hehad been living in the pit he had been almost forgotten; rendered uneasyby old memories they stood at a distance and did not venture to raisetheir hands against him. 

But those who were behind were murmuring and pressed forward when aGaramantian passed through the crowd; he was brandishing a sickle; allunderstood his thought; their faces purpled, and smitten with shame theyshrieked:

"Yes! yes!"

The man with the curved steel approached Gisco. He took his head, and, resting it upon his knee, sawed it off with rapid strokes; it fell; togreat jets of blood made a hole in the dust. Zarxas leaped upon it, andlighter than a leopard ran towards the Carthaginians. 

Then when he had covered two thirds of the mountain he drew Gisco'shead from his breast by the beard, whirled his arm rapidly severaltimes, --and the mass, when thrown at last, described a long parabola anddisappeared behind the Punic entrenchments. 

Soon at the edge of the palisades there rose two crossed standards, thecustomary sign for claiming a corpse. 

Then four heralds, chosen for their width of chest, went out with greatclarions, and speaking through the brass tubes declared that henceforththere would be between Carthaginians and Barbarians neither faith, pity, nor gods, that they refused all overtures beforehand, and that envoyswould be sent back with their hands cut off. 

Immediately afterwards, Spendius was sent to Hippo-Zarytus to procureprovisions; the Tyrian city sent them some the same evening. They ategreedily. Then when they were strengthened they speedily collectedthe remains of their baggage and their broken arms; the women massedthemselves in the centre, and heedless of the wounded left weepingbehind them, they set out along the edge of the shore like a herd ofwolves taking its departure. 

They were marching upon Hippo-Zarytus, resolved to take it, for they hadneed of a town. 

Hamilcar, as he perceived them at a distance, had a feeling of despairin spite of the pride which he experienced in seeing them fly beforehim. He ought to have attacked them immediately with fresh troops. Another similar day and the war was over! If matters were protractedthey would return with greater strength; the Tyrian towns would jointhem; his clemency towards the vanquished had been of no avail. Heresolved to be pitiless. 

The same evening he sent the Great Council a dromedary laden withbracelets collected from the dead, and with horrible threats orderedanother army to be despatched. 

All had for a long time believed him lost; so that on learning hisvictory they felt a stupefaction which was almost terror. The vaguelyannounced return of the zaimph completed the wonder. Thus the gods andthe might of Carthage seemed now to belong to him. 

None of his enemies ventured upon complaint or recrimination. Owing tothe enthusiasm of some and the pusillanimity of the rest, an army offive thousand men was ready before the interval prescribed had elapsed. 

This army promptly made its way to Utica in order to support theSuffet's rear, while three thousand of the most notable citizensembarked in vessels which were to land them at Hippo-Zarytus, whencethey were to drive back the Barbarians. 

Hanno had accepted the command; but he intrusted the army to hislieutenant, Magdassin, so as to lead the troops which were to bedisembarked himself, for he could no longer endure the shaking ofthe litter. His disease had eaten away his lips and nostrils, and hadhollowed out a large hole in his face; the back of his throat could beseen at a distance of ten paces, and he knew himself to be so hideousthat he wore a veil over his head like a woman. 

Hippo-Zarytus paid no attention to his summonings nor yet to those ofthe Barbarians; but every morning the inhabitants lowered provisions tothe latter in baskets, and shouting from the tops of the towers pleadedthe exigencies of the Republic and conjured them to withdraw. By meansof signs they addressed the same protestations to the Carthaginians, whowere stationed on the sea. 

Hanno contented himself with blockading the harbour without risking anattack. However, he permitted the judges of Hippo-Zarytus to admit threehundred soldiers. Then he departed to the Cape Grapes, and made along circuit so as to hem in the Barbarians, an inopportune and evendangerous operation. His jealousy prevented him from relieving theSuffet; he arrested his spies, impeded him in all his plans, andcompromised the success of the enterprise. At last Hamilcar wrote tothe Great Council to rid himself of Hanno, and the latter returned toCarthage furious at the baseness of the Ancients and the madness of hiscolleague. Hence, after so many hopes, the situation was now still moredeplorable; but there was an effort not to reflect upon it and even notto talk about it. 

As if all this were not sufficient misfortune at one time, news camethat the Sardinian Mercenaries had crucified their general, seized thestrongholds, and everywhere slaughtered those of Chanaanitish race. TheRoman people threatened the Republic with immediate hostilitiesunless she gave twelve hundred talents with the whole of the island ofSardinia. They had accepted the alliance of the Barbarians, and theydespatched to them flat-bottomed boats laden with meal and dried meat. The Carthaginians pursued these, and captured five hundred men; butthree days afterwards a fleet coming from Byzacena, and conveyingprovisions to Carthage, foundered in a storm. The gods were evidentlydeclaring against her. 

Upon this the citizens of Hippo-Zarytus, under pretence of an alarm, made Hanno's three hundred men ascend their walls; then coming behindthem they took them by the legs, and suddenly threw them over theramparts. Some who were not killed were pursued, and went and drownedthemselves in the sea. 

Utica was enduring the presence of soldiers, for Magdassin had actedlike Hanno, and in accordance with his orders and deaf to Hamilcar'sprayers, was surrounding the town. As for these, they were given winemixed with mandrake, and were then slaughtered in their sleep. At thesame time the Barbarians arrived; Magdassin fled; the gates were opened, and thenceforward the two Tyrian towns displayed an obstinate devotionto their new friends and an inconceivable hatred to their former allies. 

This abandonment of the Punic cause was a counsel and a precedent. Hopesof deliverance revived. Populations hitherto uncertain hesitated nolonger. Everywhere there was a stir. The Suffet learnt this, and he hadno assistance to look for! He was now irrevocably lost. 

He immediately dismissed Narr' Havas, who was to guard the borders ofhis kingdom. As for himself, he resolved to re-enter Carthage in orderto obtain soldiers and begin the war again. 

The Barbarians posted at Hippo-Zarytus perceived his army as itdescended the mountain. 

Where could the Carthaginians be going? Hunger, no doubt, was urgingthem on; and, distracted by their sufferings, they were coming in spiteof their weakness to give battle. But they turned to the right: theywere fleeing. They might be overtaken and all be crushed. The Barbariansdashed in pursuit of them. 

The Carthaginians were checked by the river. It was wide this time andthe west wind had not been blowing. Some crossed by swimming, and therest on their shields. They resumed their march. Night fell. They wereout of sight. 

The Barbarians did not stop; they went higher to find a narrower place. The people of Tunis hastened thither, bringing those of Utica along withthem. Their numbers increased at every bush; and the Carthaginians, asthey lay on the ground, could hear the tramping of their feet in thedarkness. From time to time Barca had a volley of arrows dischargedbehind him to check them, and several were killed. When day broke theywere in the Ariana Mountains, at the spot where the road makes a bend. 

Then Matho, who was marching at the head, thought that he coulddistinguish something green on the horizon on the summit of an eminence. Then the ground sank, and obelisks, domes, and houses appeared! It wasCarthage. He leaned against a tree to keep himself from falling, sorapidly did his heart beat. 

He thought of all that had come to pass in his existence since thelast time that he had passed that way! It was an infinite surprise, itstunned him. Then he was transported with joy at the thought of seeingSalammbo again. The reasons which he had for execrating her returned tohis recollection, but he very quickly rejected them. Quivering and withstraining eyeballs he gazed at the lofty terrace of a palace above thepalm trees beyond Eschmoun; a smile of ecstasy lighted his face as ifsome great light had reached him; he opened his arms, and sent kisses onthe breeze, and murmured: "Come! come!" A sigh swelled his breast, andtwo long tears like pearls fell upon his beard. 

"What stays you?" cried Spendius. "Make haste! Forward! The Suffet isgoing to escape us! But your knees are tottering, and you are looking atme like a drunken man!"

He stamped with impatience and urged Matho, his eyes twinkling as at theapproach of an object long aimed at. 

"Ah! we have reached it! We are there! I have them!"

He had so convinced and triumphant an air that Matho was surprised fromhis torpor, and felt himself carried away by it. These words, comingwhen his distress was at its height, drove his despair to vengeance, andpointed to food for his wrath. He bounded upon one of the camels thatwere among the baggage, snatched up its halter, and with the longrope, struck the stragglers with all his might, running right and leftalternately, in the rear of the army, like a dog driving a flock. 

At this thundering voice the lines of men closed up; even the lamehurried their steps; the intervening space lessened in the middle of theisthmus. The foremost of the Barbarians were marching in the dust raisedby the Carthaginians. The two armies were coming close, and were on thepoint of touching. But the Malqua gate, the Tagaste gate, and the greatgate of Khamon threw wide their leaves. The Punic square divided; threecolumns were swallowed up, and eddied beneath the porches. Soon themass, being too tightly packed, could advance no further; pikes clashedin the air, and the arrows of the Barbarians were shivering against thewalls. 

Hamilcar was to be seen on the threshold of Khamon. He turned roundand shouted to his men to move aside. He dismounted from his horse; andpricking it on the croup with the sword which he held, sent it againstthe Barbarians. 

It was a black stallion, which was fed on balls of meal, and would bendits knees to allow its master to mount. Why was he sending it away? Wasthis a sacrifice?

The noble horse galloped into the midst of the lances, knocked down men, and, entangling its feet in its entrails, fell down, then rose againwith furious leaps; and while they were moving aside, trying to stop it, or looking at it in surprise, the Carthaginians had united again; theyentered, and the enormous gate shut echoing behind them. 

It would not yield. The Barbarians came crushing against it;--and forsome minutes there was an oscillation throughout the army, which becameweaker and weaker, and at last ceased. 

The Carthaginians had placed soldiers on the aqueduct, they began tohurl stones, balls, and beams. Spendius represented that it would bebest not to persist. The Barbarians went and posted themselves furtheroff, all being quite resolved to lay siege to Carthage. 

The rumour of the war, however, had passed beyond the confines ofthe Punic empire; and from the pillars of Hercules to beyond Cyreneshepherds mused on it as they kept their flocks, and caravans talkedabout it in the light of the stars. This great Carthage, mistress of theseas, splendid as the sun, and terrible as a god, actually found menwho were daring enough to attack her! Her fall even had been assertedseveral times; and all had believed it for all wished it: the subjectpopulations, the tributary villages, the allied provinces, theindependent hordes, those who execrated her for her tyranny or werejealous of her power, or coveted her wealth. The bravest had veryspeedily joined the Mercenaries. The defeat at the Macaras had checkedall the rest. At last they had recovered confidence, had graduallyadvanced and approached; and now the men of the eastern regions werelying on the sandhills of Clypea on the other side of the gulf. As soonas they perceived the Barbarians they showed themselves. 

They were not Libyans from the neighbourhood of Carthage, who had longcomposed the third army, but nomads from the tableland of Barca, banditsfrom Cape Phiscus and the promontory of Dernah, from Phazzana andMarmarica. They had crossed the desert, drinking at the brackish wellswalled in with camels' bones; the Zuaeces, with their covering ofostrich feathers, had come on quadrigae; the Garamantians, masked withblack veils, rode behind on their painted mares; others were mounted onasses, onagers, zebras, and buffaloes; while some dragged after them theroofs of their sloop-shaped huts together with their families andidols. There were Ammonians with limbs wrinkled by the hot water of thesprings; Atarantians, who curse the sun; Troglodytes, who bury theirdead with laughter beneath branches of trees; and the hideous Auseans, who eat grass-hoppers; the Achyrmachidae, who eat lice; and thevermilion-painted Gysantians, who eat apes. 

All were ranged along the edge of the sea in a great straight line. Afterwards they advanced like tornadoes of sand raised by the wind. Inthe centre of the isthmus the throng stopped, the Mercenaries who wereposted in front of them, close to the walls, being unwilling to move. 

Then from the direction of Ariana appeared the men of the West, the people of the Numidians. In fact, Narr' Havas governed only theMassylians; and, moreover, as they were permitted by custom to abandontheir king when reverses were sustained, they had assembled on theZainus, and then had crossed it at Hamilcar's first movement. First wereseen running up all the hunters from Malethut-Baal and Garaphos, cladin lions' skins, and with the staves of their pikes driving small leanhorses with long manes; then marched the Gaetulians in cuirasses ofserpents' skin; then the Pharusians, wearing lofty crowns made of waxand resin; and the Caunians, Macarians, and Tillabarians, each holdingtwo javelins and a round shield of hippopotamus leather. They stopped atthe foot of the Catacombs among the first pools of the Lagoon. 

But when the Libyans had moved away, the multitude of the Negroesappeared like a cloud on a level with the ground, in the place which theothers had occupied. They were there from the White Harousch, the BlackHarousch, the desert of Augila, and even from the great country ofAgazymba, which is four months' journey south of the Garamantians, andfrom regions further still! In spite of their red wooden jewels, thefilth of their black skin made them look like mulberries that had beenlong rolling in the dust. They had bark-thread drawers, dried-grasstunics, fallow-deer muzzles on their heads; they shook rods furnishedwith rings, and brandished cows' tails at the end of sticks, after thefashion of standards, howling the while like wolves. 

Then behind the Numidians, Marusians, and Gaetulians pressed theyellowish men, who are spread through the cedar forests beyond Taggir. They had cat-skin quivers flapping against their shoulders, and they ledin leashes enormous dogs, which were as high as asses, and did not bark. 

Finally, as though Africa had not been sufficiently emptied, and it hadbeen necessary to seek further fury in the very dregs of the races, menmight be seen behind the rest, with beast-like profiles and grinningwith idiotic laughter--wretches ravaged by hideous diseases, deformedpigmies, mulattoes of doubtful sex, albinos whose red eyes blinked inthe sun; stammering out unintelligible sounds, they put a finger intotheir mouths to show that they were hungry. 

The confusion of weapons was as great as that of garments and peoples. There was not a deadly invention that was not present--from woodendaggers, stone hatchets and ivory tridents, to long sabres toothedlike saws, slender, and formed of a yielding copper blade. They handledcutlasses which were forked into several branches like antelopes' horns, bills fastened to the ends of ropes, iron triangles, clubs and bodkins. The Ethiopians from the Bambotus had little poisoned darts hidden intheir hair. Many had brought pebbles in bags. Others, empty handed, chattered with their teeth. 

This multitude was stirred with a ceaseless swell. Dromedaries, smearedall over with tar-like streaks, knocked down the women, who carriedtheir children on their hips. The provisions in the baskets were pouringout; in walking, pieces of salt, parcels of gum, rotten dates, andgourou nuts were crushed underfoot; and sometimes on vermin-coveredbosoms there would hang a slender cord supporting a diamond that theSatraps had sought, an almost fabulous stone, sufficient to purchasean empire. Most of them did not even know what they desired. They wereimpelled by fascination or curiosity; and nomads who had never seen atown were frightened by the shadows of the walls. 

The isthmus was now hidden by men; and this long surface, whereon thetents were like huts amid an inundation, stretched as far as the firstlines of the other Barbarians, which were streaming with steel and wereposted symmetrically upon both sides of the aqueduct. 

The Carthaginians had not recovered from the terror caused by theirarrival when they perceived the siege-engines sent by the Tyrian townscoming straight towards them like monsters and like buildings--withtheir masts, arms, ropes, articulations, capitals and carapaces, sixtycarroballistas, eighty onagers, thirty scorpions, fifty tollenos, twelverams, and three gigantic catapults which hurled pieces of rock of theweight of fifteen talents. Masses of men clinging to their bases pushedthem on; at every step a quivering shook them, and in this way theyarrived in front of the walls. 

But several days were still needed to finish the preparations forthe siege. The Mercenaries, taught by their defeats, would not riskthemselves in useless engagements; and on both sides there was no haste, for it was well known that a terrible action was about to open, and thatthe result of it would be complete victory or complete extermination. 

Carthage might hold out for a long time; her broad walls presented aseries of re-entrant and projecting angles, an advantageous arrangementfor repelling assaults. 

Nevertheless a portion had fallen down in the direction of theCatacombs, and on dark nights lights could be seen in the dens of Malquathrough the disjointed blocks. These in some places overlooked the topof the ramparts. It was here that the Mercenaries' wives, who had beendriven away by Matho, were living with their new husbands. On seeing themen again their hearts could stand it no longer. They waved their scarfsat a distance; then they came and chatted in the darkness with thesoldiers through the cleft in the wall, and one morning the GreatCouncil learned that they had all fled. Some had passed through betweenthe stones; others with greater intrepidity had let themselves down withropes. 

At last Spendius resolved to accomplish his design. 

The war, by keeping him at a distance, had hitherto prevented him;and since the return to before Carthage, it seemed to him that theinhabitants suspected his enterprise. But soon they diminished thesentries on the aqueduct. There were not too many people for the defenceof the walls. 

The former slave practised himself for some days in shooting arrows atthe flamingoes on the lake. Then one moonlight evening he begged Mathoto light a great fire of straw in the middle of the night, while all hismen were to shout at the same time; and taking Zarxas with him, he wentaway along the edge of the gulf in the direction of Tunis. 

When on a level with the last arches they returned straight towards theaqueduct; the place was unprotected: they crawled to the base of thepillars. 

The sentries on the platform were walking quietly up and down. 

Towering flames appeared; clarions rang; and the soldiers on vedette, believing that there was an assault, rushed away in the direction ofCarthage. 

One man had remained. He showed black against the background of thesky. The moon was shining behind him, and his shadow, which was ofextravagant size, looked in the distance like an obelisk proceedingacross the plain. 

They waited until he was in position just before them. Zarxas seized hissling, but whether from prudence or from ferocity Spendius stopped him. "No, the whiz of the bullet would make a noise! Let me!"

Then he bent his bow with all his strength, resting the lower end of itagainst the great toe of his left foot; he took aim, and the arrow wentoff. 

The man did not fall. He disappeared. 

"If he were wounded we should hear him!" said Spendius; and he mountedquickly from story to story as he had done the first time, with theassistance of a rope and a harpoon. Then when he had reached the top andwas beside the corpse, he let it fall again. The Balearian fastened apick and a mallet to it and turned back. 

The trumpets sounded no longer. All was now quiet. Spendius had raisedone of the flag-stones and, entering the water, had closed it behindhim. 

Calculating the distance by the number of his steps, he arrived at theexact spot where he had noticed an oblique fissure; and for three hoursuntil morning he worked in continuous and furious fashion, breathingwith difficulty through the interstices in the upper flag-tones, assailed with anguish, and twenty times believing that he was goingto die. At last a crack was heard, and a huge stone ricocheting on thelower arches rolled to the ground, --and suddenly a cataract, an entireriver, fell from the skies onto the plain. The aqueduct, being cutthrough in the centre, was emptying itself. It was death to Carthage andvictory for the Barbarians. 

In an instant the awakened Carthaginians appeared on the walls, thehouses, and the temples. The Barbarians pressed forward with shouts. They danced in delirium around the great waterfall, and came up and wettheir heads in it in the extravagance of their joy. 

A man in a torn, brown tunic was perceived on the summit of theaqueduct. He stood leaning over the very edge with both hands on hiships, and was looking down below him as though astonished at his work. 

Then he drew himself up. He surveyed the horizon with a haughty airwhich seemed to say: "All that is now mine!" The applause of theBarbarians burst forth, while the Carthaginians, comprehending theirdisaster at last, shrieked with despair. Then he began to run aboutthe platform from one end to the other, --and like a chariot-drivertriumphant at the Olympic Games, Spendius, distraught with pride, raisedhis arms aloft. 

CHAPTER XIII

MOLOCH

The Barbarians had no need of a circumvallation on the side of Africa, for it was theirs. But to facilitate the approach to the walls, theentrenchments bordering the ditch were thrown down. Matho next dividedthe army into great semicircles so as to encompass Carthage the better. The hoplites of the Mercenaries were placed in the first rank, andbehind them the slingers and horsemen; quite at the back were thebaggage, chariots, and horses; and the engines bristled in front of thisthrong at a distance of three hundred paces from the towers. 

Amid the infinite variety of their nomenclature (which changed severaltimes in the course of the centuries) these machines might be reduced totwo systems: some acted like slings, and the rest like bows. 

The first, which were the catapults, was composed of a square frame withtwo vertical uprights and a horizontal bar. In its anterior portion wasa cylinder, furnished with cables, which held back a great beam bearinga spoon for the reception of projectiles; its base was caught in askein of twisted thread, and when the ropes were let go it sprang up andstruck against the bar, which, checking it with a shock, multiplied itspower. 

The second presented a more complicated mechanism. A cross-bar had itscentre fixed on a little pillar, and from this point of junction therebranched off at right angles a short of channel; two caps containingtwists of horse-hair stood at the extremities of the cross-bar; twosmall beams were fastened to them to hold the extremities of a ropewhich was brought to the bottom of the channel upon a tablet of bronze. This metal plate was released by a spring, and sliding in groovesimpelled the arrows. 

The catapults were likewise called onagers, after the wild asses whichfling up stones with their feet, and the ballistas scorpions, on accountof a hook which stood upon the tablet, and being lowered by a blow ofthe fist, released the spring. 

Their construction required learned calculations; the wood selected hadto be of the hardest substance, and their gearing all of brass; theywere stretched with levers, tackle-blocks, capstans or tympanums; thedirection of the shooting was changed by means of strong pivots; theywere moved forward on cylinders, and the most considerable of them, which were brought piece by piece, were set up in front of the enemy. 

Spendius arranged three great catapults opposite the three principleangles; he placed a ram before every gate, a ballista before everytower, while carroballistas were to move about in the rear. But it wasnecessary to protect them against the fire thrown by the besieged, andfirst of all to fill up the trench which separated them from the walls. 

They pushed forward galleries formed of hurdles of green reeds, andoaken semicircles like enormous shields gliding on three wheels; theworkers were sheltered in little huts covered with raw hides and stuffedwith wrack; the catapults and ballistas were protected by rope curtainswhich had been steeped in vinegar to render them incombustible. Thewomen and children went to procure stones on the strand, and gatheredearth with their hands and brought it to the soldiers. 

The Carthaginians also made preparations. 

Hamilcar had speedily reassured them by declaring that there was enoughwater left in the cisterns for one hundred and twenty-three days. Thisassertion, together with his presence, and above all that of the zaimphamong them, gave them good hopes. Carthage recovered from its dejection;those who were not of Chanaanitish origin were carried away by thepassion of the rest. 

The slaves were armed, the arsenals were emptied, and every citizen hadhis own post and his own employment. Twelve hundred of the fugitiveshad survived, and the Suffet made them all captains; and carpenters, armourers, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths were intrusted with the engines. The Carthaginians had kept a few in spite of the conditions of the peacewith Rome. These were repaired. They understood such work. 

The two northern and eastern sides, being protected by the sea and thegulf, remained inaccessible. On the wall fronting the Barbarians theycollected tree-trunks, mill-stones, vases filled with sulphur, andvats filled with oil, and built furnaces. Stones were heaped up on theplatforms of the towers, and the houses bordering immediately on therampart were crammed with sand in order to strengthen it and increaseits thickness. 

The Barbarians grew angry at the sight of these preparations. Theywished to fight at once. The weights which they put into the catapultswere so extravagantly heavy that the beams broke, and the attack wasdelayed. 

At last on the thirteenth day of the month of Schabar, --at sunrise, --agreat blow was heard at the gate of Khamon. 

Seventy-five soldiers were pulling at ropes arranged at the base of agigantic beam which was suspended horizontally by chains hanging froma framework, and which terminated in a ram's head of pure brass. It hadbeen swathed in ox-hides; it was bound at intervals with iron bracelets;it was thrice as thick as a man's body, one hundred and twenty cubitslong, and under the crowd of naked arms pushing it forward and drawingit back, it moved to and fro with a regular oscillation. 

The other rams before the other gates began to be in motion. Menmight be seen mounting from step to step in the hollow wheels of thetympanums. The pulleys and caps grated, the rope curtains were lowered, and showers of stones and showers of arrows poured forth simultaneously;all the scattered slingers ran up. Some approached the rampart hidingpots of resin under their shields; then they would hurl these with alltheir might. This hail of bullets, darts, and flames passed above thefirst ranks in the form of a curve which fell behind the walls. Butlong cranes, used for masting vessels, were reared on the summit of theramparts; and from them there descended some of those enormous pincerswhich terminated in two semicircles toothed on the inside. They bit therams. The soldiers clung to the beam and drew it back. The Carthaginianshauled in order to pull it up; and the action was prolonged until theevening. 

When the Mercenaries resumed their task on the following day, the topsof the walls were completely carpeted with bales of cotton, sails, andcushions; the battlements were stopped up with mats; and a line of forksand blades, fixed upon sticks, might be distinguished among the craneson the rampart. A furious resistance immediately began. 

Trunks of trees fastened to cables fell and rose alternately andbattered the rams; cramps hurled by the ballistas tore away the roofs ofthe huts; and streams of flints and pebbles poured from the platforms ofthe towers. 

At last the rams broke the gates of Khamon and Tagaste. But theCarthaginians had piled up such an abundance of materials on the insidethat the leaves did not open. They remained standing. 

Then they drove augers against the walls; these were applied to thejoints of the blocks, so as to detach the latter. The engines werebetter managed, the men serving them were divided into squads, and theywere worked from morning till evening without interruption and with themonotonous precision of a weaver's loom. 

Spendius returned to them untiringly. It was he who stretched the skeinsof the ballistas. In order that the twin tensions might completelycorrespond, the ropes as they were tightened were struck on the rightand left alternately until both sides gave out an equal sound. Spendiuswould mount upon the timbers. He would strike the ropes softly withthe extremity of his foot, and strain his ears like a musician tuninga lyre. Then when the beam of the catapult rose, when the pillar of theballista trembled with the shock of the spring, when the stones wereshooting in rays, and the darts pouring in streams, he would incline hiswhole body and fling his arms into the air as though to follow them. 

The soldiers admired his skill and executed his commands. In the gaietyof their work they gave utterance to jests on the names of the machines. Thus the plyers for seizing the rams were called "wolves, " and thegalleries were covered with "vines"; they were lambs, or they were goingto gather the grapes; and as they loaded their pieces they would say tothe onagers: "Come, pick well!" and to the scorpions: "Pierce themto the heart!" These jokes, which were ever the same, kept up theircourage. 

Nevertheless the machines did not demolish the rampart. It was formed oftwo walls and was completely filled with earth. The upper portions werebeaten down, but each time the besieged raised them again. Matho orderedthe construction of wooden towers which should be as high as the towersof stone. They cast turf, stakes, pebbles and chariots with their wheelsinto the trench so as to fill it up the more quickly; but before thiswas accomplished the immense throng of the Barbarians undulated over theplain with a single movement and came beating against the foot of thewalls like an overflowing sea. 

They moved forward the rope ladders, straight ladders, and sambucas, the latter consisting of two poles from which a series of bamboosterminating in a moveable bridge were lowered by means of tackling. They formed numerous straight lines resting against the wall, and theMercenaries mounted them in files, holding their weapons in their hands. Not a Carthaginian showed himself; already two thirds of the ramparthad been covered. Then the battlements opened, vomiting flames and smokelike dragon jaws; the sand scattered and entered the joints of theirarmour; the petroleum fastened on their garments; the liquid leadhopped on their helmets and made holes in their flesh; a rain of sparkssplashed against their faces, and eyeless orbits seemed to weep tears asbig as almonds. There were men all yellow with oil, with their hairin flames. They began to run and set fire to the rest. They wereextinguished in mantles steeped in blood, which were thrown from adistance over their faces. Some who had no wounds remained motionless, stiffer than stakes, their mouths open and their arms outspread. 

The assault was renewed for several days in succession, the Mercenarieshoping to triumph by extraordinary energy and audacity. 

Sometimes a man raised on the shoulders of another would drive apin between the stones, and then making use of it as a step to reachfurther, would place a second and a third; and, protected by the edgeof the battlements, which stood out from the wall, they would graduallyraise themselves in this way; but on reaching a certain height theyalways fell back again. The great trench was full to overflowing;the wounded were massed pell-mell with the dead and dying beneath thefootsteps of the living. Calcined trunks formed black spots amid openedentrails, scattered brains, and pools of blood; and arms and legsprojecting half way out of a heap, would stand straight up like props ina burning vineyard. 

The ladders proving insufficient the tollenos were brought intorequisition, --instruments consisting of a long beam set transverselyupon another, and bearing at its extremity a quadrangular basket whichwould hold thirty foot-soldiers with their weapons. 

Matho wished to ascend in the first that was ready. Spendius stoppedhim. 

Some men bent over a capstan; the great beam rose, became horizontal, reared itself almost vertically, and being overweighted at the end, bentlike a huge reed. The soldiers, who were crowded together, were hiddenup to their chins; only their helmet-plumes could be seen. At last whenit was twenty cubits high in the air it turned several times to theright and to the left, and then was depressed; and like a giant armholding a cohort of pigmies in its hand, it laid the basketful ofmen upon the edge of the wall. They leaped into the crowd and neverreturned. 

All the other tollenos were speedily made ready. But a hundred timesas many would have been needed for the capture of the town. They wereutilised in a murderous fashion: Ethiopian archers were placed in thebaskets; then, the cables having been fastened, they remained suspendedand shot poisoned arrows. The fifty tollenos commanding the battlementsthus surrounded Carthage like monstrous vultures; and the Negroeslaughed to see the guards on the rampart dying in grievous convulsions. 

Hamilcar sent hoplites to these posts, and every morning made them drinkthe juice of certain herbs which protected them against the poison. 

One evening when it was dark he embarked the best of his soldierson lighters and planks, and turning to the right of the harbour, disembarked on the Taenia. Then he advanced to the first lines ofthe Barbarians, and taking them in flank, made a great slaughter. Menhanging to ropes would descend at night from the top of the wall withtorches in their hands, burn the works of the Mercenaries, and thenmount up again. 

Matho was exasperated; every obstacle strengthened his wrath, which ledhim into terrible extravagances. He mentally summoned Salammbo to aninterview; then he waited. She did not come; this seemed to him like afresh piece of treachery, --and henceforth he execrated her. If hehad seen her corpse he would perhaps have gone away. He doubled theoutposts, he planted forks at the foot of the rampart, he drove caltropsinto the ground, and he commanded the Libyans to bring him a wholeforest that he might set it on fire and burn Carthage like a den offoxes. 

Spendius went on obstinately with the siege. He sought to inventterrible machines such as had never before been constructed. 

The other Barbarians, encamped at a distance on the isthmus, were amazedat these delays; they murmured, and they were let loose. 

Then they rushed with their cutlasses and javelins, and beat againstthe gates with them. But the nakedness of their bodies facilitating theinfliction of wounds, the Carthaginians massacred them freely; and theMercenaries rejoiced at it, no doubt through jealousy about the plunder. Hence there resulted quarrels and combats between them. Then, thecountry having been ravaged, provisions were soon scarce. They grewdisheartened. Numerous hordes went away, but the crowd was so great thatthe loss was not apparent. 

The best of them tried to dig mines, but the earth, being badlysupported, fell in. They began again in other places, but Hamilcaralways guessed the direction that they were taking by holding his earagainst a bronze shield. He bored counter-mines beneath the path alongwhich the wooden towers were to move, and when they were pushed forwardthey sank into the holes. 

At last all recognised that the town was impregnable, unless a longterrace was raised to the same height as the walls, so as to enable themto fight on the same level. The top of it should be paved so thatthe machines might be rolled along. Then Carthage would find it quiteimpossible to resist. 

The town was beginning to suffer from thirst. The water which was worthtwo kesitahs the bath at the opening of the siege was now sold fora shekel of silver; the stores of meat and corn were also becomingexhausted; there was a dread of famine, and some even began to speak ofuseless mouths, which terrified every one. 

From the square of Khamon to the temple of Melkarth the streets werecumbered with corpses; and, as it was the end of the summer, thecombatants were annoyed by great black flies. Old men carried off thewounded, and the devout continued the fictitious funerals for theirrelatives and friends who had died far away during the war. Waxenstatues with clothes and hair were displayed across the gates. Theymelted in the heat of the tapers burning beside them; the paint floweddown upon their shoulders, and tears streamed over the faces of theliving, as they chanted mournful songs beside them. The crowd meanwhileran to and fro; armed bands passed; captains shouted orders, while theshock of the rams beating against the rampart was constantly heard. 

The temperature became so heavy that the bodies swelled and would nolonger fit into the coffins. They were burned in the centre of thecourts. But the fires, being too much confined, kindled the neighbouringwalls, and long flames suddenly burst from the houses like bloodspurting from an artery. Thus Moloch was in possession of Carthage; heclasped the ramparts, he rolled through the streets, he devoured thevery corpses. 

Men wearing cloaks made of collected rags in token of despair, stationedthemselves at the corners of the cross-ways. They declaimed against theAncients and against Hamilcar, predicted complete ruin to the people, and invited them to universal destruction and license. The mostdangerous were the henbane-drinkers; in their crisis they believedthemselves wild beasts, and leaped upon the passers-by to rend them. Mobs formed around them, and the defence of Carthage was forgotten. TheSuffet devised the payment of others to support his policy. 

In order to retain the genius of the gods within the town their imageshad been covered with chains. Black veils were placed upon the Pataecgods, and hair-cloths around the altars; and attempts were made toexcite the pride and jealousy of the Baals by singing in their ears:"Thou art about to suffer thyself to be vanquished! Are the othersperchance more strong? Show thyself! aid us! that the peoples may notsay: 'Where are now their gods?'"

The colleges of the pontiffs were agitated by unceasing anxiety. Thoseof Rabbetna were especially afraid--the restoration of the zaimph havingbeen of no avail. They kept themselves shut up in the third enclosurewhich was as impregnable as a fortress. Only one among them, the highpriest Schahabarim, ventured to go out. 

He used to visit Salammbo. But he would either remain perfectly silent, gazing at her with fixed eyeballs, or else would be lavish of words, andthe reproaches that he uttered were harder than ever. 

With inconceivable inconsistency he could not forgive the young girlfor carrying out his commands; Schahabarim had guessed all, and thishaunting thought revived the jealousies of his impotence. He accused herof being the cause of the war. Matho, according to him, was besiegingCarthage to recover the zaimph; and he poured out imprecations andsarcasms upon this Barbarian who pretended to the possession of holythings. Yet it was not this that the priest wished to say. 

But just now Salammbo felt no terror of him. The anguish which she usedformerly to suffer had left her. A strange peacefulness possessed her. Her gaze was less wandering, and shone with limpid fire. 

Meanwhile the python had become ill again; and as Salammbo, on thecontrary, appeared to be recovering, old Taanach rejoiced in theconviction that by its decline it was taking away the languor of hermistress. 

One morning she found it coiled up behind the bed of ox-hides, colderthan marble, and with its head hidden by a heap of worms. Her criesbrought Salammbo to the spot. She turned it over for a while with thetip of her sandal, and the slave was amazed at her insensibility. 

Hamilcar's daughter no longer prolonged her fasts with so much fervour. She passed whole days on the top of her terrace, leaning her elbowsagainst the balustrade, and amusing herself by looking out before her. The summits of the walls at the end of the town cut uneven zigzags uponthe sky, and the lances of the sentries formed what was like a borderof corn-ears throughout their length. Further away she could see themanoeuvres of the Barbarians between the towers; on days when the siegewas interrupted she could even distinguish their occupations. Theymended their weapons, greased their hair, and washed their bloodstainedarms in the sea; the tents were closed; the beasts of burden werefeeding; and in the distance the scythes of the chariots, which were allranged in a semicircle, looked like a silver scimitar lying at the baseof the mountains. Schahabarim's talk recurred to her memory. She waswaiting for Narr' Havas, her betrothed. In spite of her hatred she wouldhave liked to see Matho again. Of all the Carthaginians she was perhapsthe only one who would have spoken to him without fear. 

Her father often came into her room. He would sit down panting on thecushions, and gaze at her with an almost tender look, as if he foundsome rest from her fatigues in the sight of her. He sometimes questionedher about her journey to the camp of the Mercenaries. He even asked herwhether any one had urged her to it; and with a shake of the head sheanswered, No, --so proud was Salammbo of having saved the zaimph. 

But the Suffet always came back to Matho under pretence of makingmilitary inquiries. He could not understand how the hours which she hadspent in the tent had been employed. Salammbo, in fact, said nothingabout Gisco; for as words had an effective power in themselves, curses, if reported to any one, might be turned against him; and she was silentabout her wish to assassinate, lest she should be blamed for not havingyielded to it. She said that the schalischim appeared furious, that hehad shouted a great deal, and that he had then fallen asleep. Salammbotold no more, through shame perhaps, or else because she was led by herextreme ingenuousness to attach but little importance to the soldier'skisses. Moreover, it all floated through her head in a melancholy andmisty fashion, like the recollection of a depressing dream; and shewould not have known in what way or in what words to express it. 

One evening when they were thus face to face with each other, Taanachcame in looking quite scared. An old man with a child was yonder in thecourts, and wished to see the Suffet. 

Hamilcar turned pale, and then quickly replied:

"Let him come up!"

Iddibal entered without prostrating himself. He held a young boy, covered with a goat's-hair cloak, by the hand, and at once raised thehood which screened his face. 

"Here he is, Master! Take him!"

The Suffet and the slave went into a corner of the room. 

The child remained in the centre standing upright, and with a gazeof attention rather than of astonishment he surveyed the ceiling, thefurniture, the pearl necklaces trailing on the purple draperies, and themajestic maiden who was bending over towards him. 

He was perhaps ten years old, and was not taller than a Roman sword. Hiscurly hair shaded his swelling forehead. His eyeballs looked as if theywere seeking for space. The nostrils of his delicate nose were broadand palpitating, and upon his whole person was displayed the indefinablesplendour of those who are destined to great enterprises. When he hadcast aside his extremely heavy cloak, he remained clad in a lynx skin, which was fastened about his waist, and he rested his little naked feet, which were all white with dust, resolutely upon the pavement. But he nodoubt divined that important matters were under discussion, for hestood motionless, with one hand behind his back, his chin lowered, and afinger in his mouth. 

At last Hamilcar attracted Salammbo with a sign and said to her in a lowvoice:

"You will keep him with you, you understand! No one, even thoughbelonging to the house, must know of his existence!"

Then, behind the door, he again asked Iddibal whether he was quite surethat they had not been noticed. 

"No!" said the slave, "the streets were empty. "

As the war filled all the provinces he had feared for his master's son. Then, not knowing where to hide him, he had come along the coasts in asloop, and for three days Iddibal had been tacking about in the gulf andwatching the ramparts. At last, that evening, as the environs of Khamonseemed to be deserted, he had passed briskly through the channel andlanded near the arsenal, the entrance to the harbour being free. 

But soon the Barbarians posted an immense raft in front of it in orderto prevent the Carthaginians from coming out. They were again rearingthe wooden towers, and the terrace was rising at the same time. 

Outside communications were cut off and an intolerable famine set in. 

The besieged killed all the dogs, all the mules, all the asses, and thenthe fifteen elephants which the Suffet had brought back. The lions ofthe temple of Moloch had become ferocious, and the hierodules no longerdurst approach them. They were fed at first with the wounded Barbarians;then they were thrown corpses that were still warm; they refusedthem, and they all died. People wandered in the twilight along the oldenclosures, and gathered grass and flowers among the stones to boilthem in wine, wine being cheaper than water. Others crept as far as theenemy's outposts, and entered the tents to steal food, and the stupefiedBarbarians sometimes allowed them to return. At last a day arrived whenthe Ancients resolved to slaughter the horses of Eschmoun privately. They were holy animals whose manes were plaited by the pontiffs withgold ribbons, and whose existence denoted the motion of the sun--theidea of fire in its most exalted form. Their flesh was cut into equalportions and buried behind the altar. Then every evening the Ancients, alleging some act of devotion, would go up to the temple and regalethemselves in secret, and each would take away a piece beneath his tunicfor his children. In the deserted quarters remote from the walls, theinhabitants, whose misery was not so great, had barricaded themselvesthrough fear of the rest. 

The stones from the catapults, and the demolitions commanded forpurposes of defence, had accumulated heaps of ruins in the middle ofthe streets. At the quietest times masses of people would suddenly rushalong with shouts; and from the top of the Acropolis the conflagrationswere like purple rags scattered upon the terraces and twisted by thewind. 

The three great catapults did not stop in spite of all these works. Their ravages were extraordinary: thus a man's head rebounded from thepediment of the Syssitia; a woman who was being confined in the streetof Kinisdo was crushed by a block of marble, and her child was carriedwith the bed as far as the crossways of Cinasyn, where the coverlet wasfound. 

The most annoying were the bullets of the slingers. They fell upon theroofs, and in the gardens, and in the middle of the courts, while peoplewere at table before a slender meal with their hearts big with sighs. These cruel projectiles bore engraved letters which stamped themselvesupon the flesh;--and insults might be read on corpses such as "pig, ""jackal, " "vermin, " and sometimes jests: "Catch it!" or "I have welldeserved it!"

The portion of the rampart which extended from the corner of theharbours to the height of the cisterns was broken down. Then the peopleof Malqua found themselves caught between the old enclosure of Byrsabehind, and the Barbarians in front. But there was enough to be done inthickening the wall and making it as high as possible without troublingabout them; they were abandoned; all perished; and although they weregenerally hated, Hamilcar came to be greatly abhorred. 

On the morrow he opened the pits in which he kept stores of corn, and his stewards gave it to the people. For three days they gorgedthemselves. 

Their thirst, however, only became the more intolerable, and they couldconstantly see before them the long cascade formed by the clear fallingwater of the aqueduct. A thin vapour, with a rainbow beside it, went upfrom its base, beneath the rays of the sun, and a little stream curvingthrough the plain fell into the gulf. 

Hamilcar did not give way. He was reckoning upon an event, uponsomething decisive and extraordinary. 

His own slaves tore off the silver plates from the temple of Melkarth;four long boats were drawn out of the harbour, they were brought bymeans of capstans to the foot of the Mappalian quarter, the wall facingthe shore was bored, and they set out for the Gauls to buy Mercenariesthere at no matter what price. Nevertheless, Hamilcar was distressed athis inability to communicate with the king of the Numidians, for heknew that he was behind the Barbarians, and ready to fall upon them. ButNarr' Havas, being too weak, was not going to make any venture alone;and the Suffet had the rampart raised twelve palms higher, all thematerial in the arsenals piled up in the Acropolis, and the machinesrepaired once more. 

Sinews taken from bulls' necks, or else stags' hamstrings, were commonlyemployed for the twists of the catapults. However, neither stags norbulls were in existence in Carthage. Hamilcar asked the Ancients forthe hair of their wives; all sacrificed it, but the quantity was notsufficient. In the buildings of the Syssitia there were twelve hundredmarriageable slaves destined for prostitution in Greece and Italy, andtheir hair, having been rendered elastic by the use of unguents, waswonderfully well adapted for engines of war. But the subsequent losswould be too great. Accordingly it was decided that a choice shouldbe made of the finest heads of hair among the wives of the plebeians. Careless of their country's needs, they shrieked in despair when theservants of the Hundred came with scissors to lay hands upon them. 

The Barbarians were animated with increased fury. They could be seen inthe distance taking fat from the dead to grease their machines, whileothers pulled out the nails and stitched them end to end to makecuirasses. They devised a plan of putting into the catapults vesselsfilled with serpents which had been brought by the Negroes; the claypots broke on the flag-stones, the serpents ran about, seemed tomultiply, and, so numerous were they, to issue naturally from the walls. Then the Barbarians, not satisfied with their invention, improved uponit; they hurled all kinds of filth, human excrements, pieces of carrion, corpses. The plague reappeared. The teeth of the Carthaginians fell outof their mouths, and their gums were discoloured like those of camelsafter too long a journey. 

The machines were set up on the terrace, although the latter did notas yet reach everywhere to the height of the rampart. Before thetwenty-three towers on the fortification stood twenty-three others ofwood. All the tollenos were mounted again, and in the centre, alittle further back, appeared the formidable helepolis of DemetriusPoliorcetes, which Spendius had at last reconstructed. Of pyramidicalshape, like the pharos of Alexandria, it was one hundred and thirtycubits high and twenty-three wide, with nine stories, diminishing asthey approached the summit, and protected by scales of brass; they werepierced with numerous doors and were filled with soldiers, and on theupper platform there stood a catapult flanked by two ballistas. 

Then Hamilcar planted crosses for those who should speak of surrender, and even the women were brigaded. The people lay in the streets andwaited full of distress. 

Then one morning before sunrise (it was the seventh day of the monthof Nyssan) they heard a great shout uttered by all the Barbarianssimultaneously; the leaden-tubed trumpets pealed, and the greatPaphlagonian horns bellowed like bulls. All rose and ran to the rampart. 

A forest of lances, pikes, and swords bristled at its base. It leapedagainst the wall, the ladders grappled them; and Barbarians' headsappeared in the intervals of the battlements. 

Beams supported by long files of men were battering at the gates; and, in order to demolish the wall at places where the terrace was wanting, the Mercenaries came up in serried cohorts, the first line crawling, thesecond bending their hams, and the others rising in succession to thelast who stood upright; while elsewhere, in order to climb up, thetallest advanced in front and the lowest in the rear, and all restedtheir shields upon their helmets with their left arms, joining themtogether at the edges so tightly that they might have been taken for anassemblage of large tortoises. The projectiles slid over these obliquemasses. 

The Carthaginians threw down mill-stones, pestles, vats, casks, beds, everything that could serve as a weight and could knock down. Somewatched at the embrasures with fisherman's nets, and when the Barbarianarrived he found himself caught in the meshes, and struggled like afish. They demolished their own battlements; portions of wall fell downraising a great dust; and as the catapults on the terrace were shootingover against one another, the stones would strike together and shiverinto a thousand pieces, making a copious shower upon the combatants. 

Soon the two crowds formed but one great chain of human bodies; itoverflowed into the intervals in the terrace, and, somewhat looser atthe two extremities, swayed perpetually without advancing. They claspedone another, lying flat on the ground like wrestlers. They crushed oneanother. The women leaned over the battlements and shrieked. Theywere dragged away by their veils, and the whiteness of their suddenlyuncovered sides shone in the arms of the Negroes as the latter buriedtheir daggers in them. Some corpses did not fall, being too much pressedby the crowd, and, supported by the shoulders of their companions, advanced for some minutes quite upright and with staring eyes. Somewho had both temples pierced by a javelin swayed their heads about likebears. Mouths, opened to shout, remained gaping; severed hands flewthrough the air. Mighty blows were dealt, which were long talked of bythe survivors. 

Meanwhile arrows darted from the towers of wood and stone. The tollenosmoved their long yards rapidly; and as the Barbarians had sacked theold cemetery of the aborigines beneath the Catacombs, they hurled thetombstones against the Carthaginians. Sometimes the cables broke underthe weight of too heavy baskets, and masses of men, all with upliftedarms, would fall from the sky. 

Up to the middle of the day the veterans had attacked the Taeniafiercely in order to penetrate into the harbour and destroy the fleet. Hamilcar had a fire of damp straw lit upon the roofing of Khamon, andas the smoke blinded them they fell back to left, and came to swellthe horrible rout which was pressing forward in Malqua. Some syntagmatacomposed of sturdy men, chosen expressly for the purpose, had broken inthree gates. They were checked by lofty barriers made of planks studdedwith nails, but a fourth yielded easily; they dashed over it at arun and rolled into a pit in which there were hidden snares. At thesouth-west gate Autaritus and his men broke down the rampart, thefissure in which had been stopped up with bricks. The ground behindrose, and they climbed it nimbly. But on the top they found a secondwall composed of stones and long beams lying quite flat and alternatinglike the squares on a chess-board. It was a Gaulish fashion, and hadbeen adapted by the Suffet to the requirements of the situation; theGauls imagined themselves before a town in their own country. Theirattack was weak, and they were repulsed. 

All the roundway, from the street of Khamon as far as the Green Market, now belonged to the Barbarians, and the Samnites were finishing offthe dying with blows of stakes; or else with one foot on the wall weregazing down at the smoking ruins beneath them, and the battle which wasbeginning again in the distance. 

The slingers, who were distributed through the rear, were stillshooting. But the springs of the Acarnanian slings had broken from use, and many were throwing stones with the hand like shepherds; the resthurled leaden bullets with the handle of a whip. Zarxas, his shoulderscovered with his long black hair, went about everywhere, and led on theBarbarians. Two pouches hung at his hips; he thrust his left handinto them continually, while his right arm whirled round like achariot-wheel. 

Matho had at first refrained from fighting, the better to commandthe Barbarians all at once. He had been seen along the gulf with theMercenaries, near the lagoon with the Numidians, and on the shores ofthe lake among the Negroes, and from the back part of the plain he urgedforward masses of soldiers who came ceaselessly against the ramparts. Bydegrees he had drawn near; the smell of blood, the sight of carnage, andthe tumult of clarions had at last made his heart leap. Then he had goneback into his tent, and throwing off his cuirass had taken his lion'sskin as being more convenient for battle. The snout fitted upon hishead, bordering his face with a circle of fangs; the two fore-paws werecrossed upon his breast, and the claws of the hinder ones fell beneathhis knees. 

He had kept on his strong waist-belt, wherein gleamed a two-edged axe, and with his great sword in both hands he had dashed impetuously throughthe breach. Like a pruner cutting willow-branches and trying to strikeoff as much as possible so as to make the more money, he marched alongmowing down the Carthaginians around him. Those who tried to seize himin flank he knocked down with blows of the pommel; when they attackedhim in front he ran them through; if they fled he clove them. Two menleaped together upon his back; he bounded backwards against a gate andcrushed them. His sword fell and rose. It shivered on the angle of awall. Then he took his heavy axe, and front and rear he ripped up theCarthaginians like a flock of sheep. They scattered more and more, andhe was quite alone when he reached the second enclosure at the footof the Acropolis. The materials which had been flung from the summitcumbered the steps and were heaped up higher than the wall. Matho turnedback amid the ruins to summons his companions. 

He perceived their crests scattered over the multitude; they weresinking and their wearers were about to perish; he dashed towards them;then the vast wreath of red plumes closed in, and they soon rejoined himand surrounded him. But an enormous crowd was discharging from the sidestreets. He was caught by the hips, lifted up and carried away outsidethe ramparts to a spot where the terrace was high. 

Matho shouted a command and all the shields sank upon the helmets; heleaped upon them in order to catch hold somewhere so as to re-enterCarthage; and, flourishing his terrible axe, ran over the shields, whichresembled waves of bronze, like a marine god, with brandished trident, over his billows. 

However, a man in a white robe was walking along the edge of therampart, impassible, and indifferent to the death which surrounded him. Sometimes he would spread out his right hand above his eyes in orderto find out some one. Matho happened to pass beneath him. Suddenly hiseyeballs flamed, his livid face contracted; and raising both his leanarms he shouted out abuse at him. 

Matho did not hear it; but he felt so furious and cruel a look enteringhis heart that he uttered a roar. He hurled his long axe at him; somepeople threw themselves upon Schahabarim; and Matho seeing him no morefell back exhausted. 

A terrible creaking drew near, mingled with the rhythm of hoarse voicessinging together. 

It was the great helepolis surrounded by a crowd of soldiers. They weredragging it with both hands, hauling it with ropes, and pushing it withtheir shoulders, --for the slope rising from the plain to the terrace, although extremely gentle, was found impracticable for machines of suchprodigious weight. However, it had eight wheels banded with iron, and ithad been advancing slowly in this way since the morning, like a mountainraised upon another. Then there appeared an immense ram issuing from itsbase. The doors along the three fronts which faced the town fell down, and cuirassed soldiers appeared in the interior like pillars of iron. Some might be seen climbing and descending the two staircases whichcrossed the stories. Some were waiting to dart out as soon as the crampsof the doors touched the walls; in the middle of the upper platform theskeins of the ballistas were turning, and the great beam of the catapultwas being lowered. 

Hamilcar was at that moment standing upright on the roof of Melkarth. Hehad calculated that it would come directly towards him, against what wasthe most invulnerable place in the wall, which was for that very reasondenuded of sentries. His slaves had for a long time been bringingleathern bottles along the roundway, where they had raised with claytwo transverse partitions forming a sort of basin. The water was flowinginsensibly along the terrace, and strange to say, it seemed to causeHamilcar no anxiety. 

But when the helepolis was thirty paces off, he commanded planks tobe placed over the streets between the houses from the cisterns tothe rampart; and a file of people passed from hand to hand helmets andamphoras, which were emptied continually. The Carthaginians, however, grew indignant at this waste of water. The ram was demolishing the wall, when suddenly a fountain sprang forth from the disjointed stones. Thenthe lofty brazen mass, nine stories high, which contained and engagedmore than three thousand soldiers, began to rock gently like a ship. In fact, the water, which had penetrated the terrace, had broken up thepath before it; its wheels stuck in the mire; the head of Spendius, with distended cheeks blowing an ivory cornet, appeared between leatherncurtains on the first story. The great machine, as though convulsivelyupheaved, advanced perhaps ten paces; but the ground softened more andmore, the mire reached to the axles, and the helepolis stopped, leaningover frightfully to one side. The catapult rolled to the edge of theplatform, and carried away by the weight of its beam, fell, shatteringthe lower stories beneath it. The soldiers who were standing on thedoors slipped into the abyss, or else held on to the extremities ofthe long beams, and by their weight increased the inclination of thehelepolis, which was going to pieces with creakings in all its joints. 

The other Barbarians rushed up to help them, massing themselves intoa compact crowd. The Carthaginians descended from the rampart, and, assailing them in the rear, killed them at leisure. But the chariotsfurnished with sickles hastened up, and galloped round the outskirts ofthe multitude. The latter ascended the wall again; night came on; andthe Barbarians gradually retired. 

Nothing could now be seen on the plain but a sort of perfectly black, swarming mass, which extended from the bluish gulf to the purely whitelagoon; and the lake, which had received streams of blood, stretchedfurther away like a great purple pool. 

The terrace was now so laden with corpses that it looked as though ithad been constructed of human bodies. In the centre stood the helepoliscovered with armour; and from time to time huge fragments broke offfrom it, like stones from a crumbling pyramid. Broad tracks made bythe streams of lead might be distinguished on the walls. A broken-downwooden tower burned here and there, and the houses showed dimly like thestages of a ruined ampitheatre. Heavy fumes of smoke were rising, androlling with them sparks which were lost in the dark sky. 

The Carthaginians, however, who were consumed by thirst, had rushed tothe cisterns. They broke open the doors. A miry swamp stretched at thebottom. 

What was to be done now? Moreover, the Barbarians were countless, andwhen their fatigue was over they would begin again. 

The people deliberated all night in groups at the corners of thestreets. Some said that they ought to send away the women, the sick, andthe old men; others proposed to abandon the town, and found a colony faraway. But vessels were lacking, and when the sun appeared no decisionhad been made. 

There was no fighting that day, all being too much exhausted. Thesleepers looked like corpses. 

Then the Carthaginians, reflecting upon the cause of their disasters, remembered that they had not dispatched to Phoenicia the annual offeringdue to Tyrian Melkarth, and a great terror came upon them. The godswere indignant with the Republic, and were, no doubt, about to prosecutetheir vengeance. 

They were considered as cruel masters, who were appeased withsupplications and allowed themselves to be bribed with presents. Allwere feeble in comparison with Moloch the Devourer. The existence, thevery flesh of men, belonged to him; and hence in order to preserve it, the Carthaginians used to offer up a portion of it to him, which calmedhis fury. Children were burned on the forehead, or on the nape of theneck, with woollen wicks; and as this mode of satisfying Baal broughtin much money to the priests, they failed not to recommend it as beingeasier and more pleasant. 

This time, however, the Republic itself was at stake. But as everyprofit must be purchased by some loss, and as every transaction wasregulated according to the needs of the weaker and the demands of thestronger, there was no pain great enough for the god, since he delightedin such as was of the most horrible description, and all were now at hismercy. He must accordingly be fully gratified. Precedents showed thatin this way the scourge would be made to disappear. Moreover, it wasbelieved that an immolation by fire would purify Carthage. The ferocityof the people was predisposed towards it. The choice, too, must fallexclusively upon the families of the great. 

The Ancients assembled. The sitting was a long one. Hanno had come toit. As he was now unable to sit he remained lying down near the door, half hidden among the fringes of the lofty tapestry; and when thepontiff of Moloch asked them whether they would consent to surrendertheir children, his voice suddenly broke forth from the shadow like theroaring of a genius in the depths of a cavern. He regretted, he said, that he had none of his own blood to give; and he gazed at Hamilcar, who faced him at the other end of the hall. The Suffet was so muchdisconcerted by this look that it made him lower his eyes. Allsuccessively bent their heads in approval; and in accordance with therites he had to reply to the high priest: "Yes; be it so. " Then theAncients decreed the sacrifice in traditional circumlocution, --becausethere are things more troublesome to say than to perform. 

The decision was almost immediately known in Carthage, and lamentationsresounded. The cries of women might everywhere be heard; their husbandsconsoled them, or railed at them with remonstrances. 

But three hours afterwards extraordinary tidings were spread abroad: theSuffet had discovered springs at the foot of the cliff. There was a rushto the place. Water might be seen in holes dug in the sand, and somewere already lying flat on the ground and drinking. 

Hamilcar did not himself know whether it was by the determination of thegods or through the vague recollection of a revelation which his fatherhad once made to him; but on leaving the Ancients he had gone down tothe shore and had begun to dig the gravel with his slaves. 

He gave clothing, boots, and wine. He gave all the rest of the corn thathe was keeping by him. He even let the crowd enter his palace, and heopened kitchens, stores, and all the rooms, --Salammbo's alone excepted. He announced that six thousand Gaulish Mercenaries were coming, and thatthe king of Macedonia was sending soldiers. 

But on the second day the springs diminished, and on the evening of thethird they were completely dried up. Then the decree of the Ancientspassed everywhere from lip to lip, and the priests of Moloch began theirtask. 

Men in black robes presented themselves in the houses. In many instancesthe owners had deserted them under pretence of some business, or of somedainty that they were going to buy; and the servants of Moloch came andtook the children away. Others themselves surrendered them stupidly. Then they were brought to the temple of Tanith, where the priestesseswere charged with their amusement and support until the solemn day. 

They visited Hamilcar suddenly and found him in his gardens. 

"Barca! we come for that that you know of--your son!" They added thatsome people had met him one evening during the previous moon in thecentre of the Mappalian district being led by an old man. 

He was as though suffocated at first. But speedily understanding thatany denial would be in vain, Hamilcar bowed; and he brought them intothe commercial house. Some slaves who had run up at a sign kept watchall round about it. 

He entered Salammbo's room in a state of distraction. He seized Hannibalwith one hand, snatched up the cord of a trailing garment with theother, tied his feet and hands with it, thrust the end into his mouthto form a gag, and hid him under the bed of the ox-hides by letting anample drapery fall to the ground. 

Afterwards he walked about from right to left, raised his arms, wheeledround, bit his lips. Then he stood still with staring eyelids, andpanted as though he were about to die. 

But he clapped his hands three times. Giddenem appeared. 

"Listen!" he said, "go and take from among the slaves a male child fromeight to nine years of age, with black hair and swelling forehead! Bringhim here! make haste!"

Giddenem soon entered again, bringing forward a young boy. 

He was a miserable child, at once lean and bloated; his skin lookedgreyish, like the infected rag hanging to his sides; his head was sunkbetween his shoulders, and with the back of his hand he was rubbing hiseyes, which were filled with flies. 

How could he ever be confounded with Hannibal! and there was no timeto choose another. Hamilcar looked at Giddenem; he felt inclined tostrangle him. 

"Begone!" he cried; and the master of the slaves fled. 

The misfortune which he had so long dreaded was therefore come, and withextravagant efforts he strove to discover whether there was not somemode, some means to escape it. 

Abdalonim suddenly spoke from behind the door. The Suffet was beingasked for. The servants of Moloch were growing impatient. 

Hamilcar repressed a cry as though a red hot iron had burnt him; andhe began anew to pace the room like one distraught. Then he sank downbeside the balustrade, and, with his elbows on his knees, pressed hisforehead into his shut fists. 

The porphyry basin still contained a little clear water for Salammbo'sablutions. In spite of his repugnance and all his pride, the Suffetdipped the child into it, and, like a slave merchant, began to wash himand rub him with strigils and red earth. Then he took two purple squaresfrom the receptacles round the wall, placed one on his breast and theother on his back, and joined them together on the collar bones withtwo diamond clasps. He poured perfume upon his head, passed anelectrum necklace around his neck, and put on him sandals with heels ofpearl, --sandals belonging to his own daughter! But he stamped with shameand vexation; Salammbo, who busied herself in helping him, was as paleas he. The child, dazzled by such splendour, smiled and, growing boldeven, was beginning to clap his hands and jump, when Hamilcar took himaway. 

He held him firmly by the arm as though he were afraid of losing him, and the child, who was hurt, wept a little as he ran beside him. 

When on a level with the ergastulum, under a palm tree, a voice wasraised, a mournful and supplicant voice. It murmured: "Master! oh!master!"

Hamilcar turned and beside him perceived a man of abject appearance, oneof the wretches who led a haphazard existence in the household. 

"What do you want?" said the Suffet. 

The slave, who trembled horribly, stammered:

"I am his father!"

Hamilcar walked on; the other followed him with stooping loins, benthams, and head thrust forward. His face was convulsed with unspeakableanguish, and he was choking with suppressed sobs, so eager was he atonce to question him, and to cry: "Mercy!"

At last he ventured to touch him lightly with one finger on the elbow. 

"Are you going to--?" He had not the strength to finish, and Hamilcarstopped quite amazed at such grief. 

He had never thought--so immense was the abyss separating them fromeach other--that there could be anything in common between them. Iteven appeared to him a sort of outrage, an encroachment upon hisown privileges. He replied with a look colder and heavier than anexecutioner's axe; the slave swooned and fell in the dust at his feet. Hamilcar strode across him. 

The three black-robed men were waiting in the great hall, and standingagainst the stone disc. Immediately he tore his garments, and rolledupon the pavement uttering piercing cries. 

"Ah! poor little Hannibal! Oh! my son! my consolation! my hope! my life!Kill me also! take me away! Woe! Woe!" He ploughed his face with hisnails, tore out his hair, and shrieked like the women who lament atfunerals. "Take him away then! my suffering is too great! begone! killme like him!" The servants of Moloch were astonished that the greatHamilcar was so weak-spirited. They were almost moved by it. 

A noise of naked feet became audible, with a broken throat-rattling likethe breathing of a wild beast speeding along, and a man, pale, terrible, and with outspread arms appeared on the threshold of the third gallery, between the ivory pots; he exclaimed:

"My child!"

Hamilcar threw himself with a bound upon the slave, and covering theman's mouth with his hand exclaimed still more loudly:

"It is the old man who reared him! he calls him 'my child!' it will makehim mad! enough! enough!" And hustling away the three priests and theirvictim he went out with them and with a great kick shut the door behindhim. 

Hamilcar strained his ears for some minutes in constant fear of seeingthem return. He then thought of getting rid of the slave in order tobe quite sure that he would see nothing; but the peril had not whollydisappeared, and, if the gods were provoked at the man's death, it mightbe turned against his son. Then, changing his intention, he sent himby Taanach the best from his kitchens--a quarter of a goat, beans, andpreserved pomegranates. The slave, who had eaten nothing for a longtime, rushed upon them; his tears fell into the dishes. 

Hamilcar at last returned to Salammbo, and unfastened Hannibal's cords. The child in exasperation bit his hand until the blood came. He repelledhim with a caress. 

To make him remain quiet Salammbo tried to frighten him with Lamia, aCyrenian ogress. 

"But where is she?" he asked. 

He was told that brigands were coming to put him into prison. "Let themcome, " he rejoined, "and I will kill them!"

Then Hamilcar told him the frightful truth. But he fell into a passionwith his father, contending that he was quite able to annihilate thewhole people, since he was the master of Carthage. 

At last, exhausted by his exertions and anger, he fell into a wildsleep. He spoke in his dreams, his back leaning against a scarletcushion; his head was thrown back somewhat, and his little arm, outstretched from his body, lay quite straight in an attitude ofcommand. 

When the night had grown dark Hamilcar lifted him up gently, and, without a torch, went down the galley staircase. As he passed throughthe mercantile house he took up a basket of grapes and a flagon of purewater; the child awoke before the statue of Aletes in the vault of gems, and he smiled--like the other--on his father's arm at the brilliantlights which surrounded him. 

Hamilcar felt quite sure that his son could not be taken from him. Itwas an impenetrable spot communicating with the beach by a subterraneanpassage which he alone knew, and casting his eyes around he inhaleda great draught of air. Then he set him down upon a stool beside somegolden shields. No one at present could see him; he had no further needfor watching; and he relieved his feelings. Like a mother finding herfirst-born that was lost, he threw himself upon his son; he clasped himto his breast, he laughed and wept at the same time, he called himby the fondest names and covered him with kisses; little Hannibal wasfrightened by this terrible tenderness and was silent now. 

Hamilcar returned with silent steps, feeling the walls around him, andcame into the great hall where the moonlight entered through one of theapertures in the dome; in the centre the slave lay sleeping after hisrepast, stretched at full length upon the marble pavement. He looked athim and was moved with a sort of pity. With the tip of his cothurn hepushed forward a carpet beneath his head. Then he raised his eyes andgazed at Tanith, whose slender crescent was shining in the sky, and felthimself stronger than the Baals and full of contempt for them. 

The arrangements for the sacrifice were already begun. 

Part of a wall in the temple of Moloch was thrown down in order to drawout the brazen god without touching the ashes of the altar. Then assoon as the sun appeared the hierodules pushed it towards the square ofKhamon. 

It moved backwards sliding upon cylinders; its shoulders overlapped thewalls. No sooner did the Carthaginians perceive it in the distance thanthey speedily took to flight, for the Baal could be looked upon withimpunity only when exercising his wrath. 

A smell of aromatics spread through the streets. All the templeshad just been opened simultaneously, and from them there came forthtabernacles borne upon chariots, or upon litters carried by thepontiffs. Great plumes swayed at the corners of them, and rays wereemitted from their slender pinnacles which terminated in balls ofcrystal, gold, silver or copper. 

These were the Chanaanitish Baalim, offshoots of the supreme Baal, whowere returning to their first cause to humble themselves before hismight and annihilate themselves in his splendour. 

Melkarth's pavilion, which was of fine purple, sheltered a petroleumflare; on Khamon's, which was of hyacinth colour, there rose an ivoryphallus bordered with a circle of gems; between Eschmoun's curtains, which were as blue as the ether, a sleeping python formed a circle withhis tail, and the Pataec gods, held in the arms of their priests, lookedlike great infants in swaddling clothes with their heels touching theground. 

Then came all the inferior forms of the Divinity: Baal-Samin, god ofcelestial space; Baal-Peor, god of the sacred mountains; Baal-Zeboub, god of corruption, with those of the neighbouring countries andcongenerous races: the Iarbal of Libya, the Adramelech of Chaldaea, the Kijun of the Syrians; Derceto, with her virgin's face, crept onher fins, and the corpse of Tammouz was drawn along in the midst of acatafalque among torches and heads of hair. In order to subdue the kingsof the firmament to the Sun, and prevent their particular influencesfrom disturbing his, diversely coloured metal stars were brandishedat the end of long poles; and all were there, from the dark Neblo, thegenius of Mercury, to the hideous Rahab, which is the constellation ofthe Crocodile. The Abbadirs, stones which had fallen from the moon, werewhirling in slings of silver thread; little loaves, representing thefemale form, were born on baskets by the priests of Ceres; othersbrought their fetishes and amulets; forgotten idols reappeared, whilethe mystic symbols had been taken from the very ships as though Carthagewished to concentrate herself wholly upon a single thought of death anddesolation. 

Before each tabernacle a man balanced a large vase of smoking incense onhis head. Clouds hovered here and there, and the hangings, pendants, and embroideries of the sacred pavilions might be distinguished amidthe thick vapours. These advanced slowly owing to their enormous weight. Sometimes the axles became fast in the streets; then the pious tookadvantage of the opportunity to touch the Baalim with their garments, which they preserved afterwards as holy things. 

The brazen statue continued to advance towards the square of Khamon. Therich, carrying sceptres with emerald balls, set out from the bottomof Megara; the Ancients, with diadems on their heads, had assembled inKinisdo, and masters of the finances, governors of provinces, sailors, and the numerous horde employed at funerals, all with the insignia oftheir magistracies or the instruments of their calling, were makingtheir way towards the tabernacles which were descending from theAcropolis between the colleges of the pontiffs. 

Out of deference to Moloch they had adorned themselves with the mostsplendid jewels. Diamonds sparkled on their black garments; but theirrings were too large and fell from their wasted hands, --nor could therehave been anything so mournful as this silent crowd where earringstapped against pale faces, and gold tiaras clasped brows contracted withstern despair. 

At last the Baal arrived exactly in the centre of the square. Hispontiffs arranged an enclosure with trellis-work to keep off themultitude, and remained around him at his feet. 

The priests of Khamon, in tawny woollen robes, formed a line beforetheir temple beneath the columns of the portico; those of Eschmoun, inlinen mantles with necklaces of koukouphas' heads and pointed tiaras, posted themselves on the steps of the Acropolis; the priests ofMelkarth, in violet tunics, took the western side; the priests of theAbbadirs, clasped with bands of Phrygian stuffs, placed themselves onthe east, while towards the south, with the necromancers all coveredwith tattooings, and the shriekers in patched cloaks, were ranged thecurates of the Pataec gods, and the Yidonim, who put the bone of a deadman into their mouths to learn the future. The priests of Ceres, whowere dressed in blue robes, had prudently stopped in the street ofSatheb, and in low tones were chanting a thesmophorion in the Megariandialect. 

From time to time files of men arrived, completely naked, their armsoutstretched, and all holding one another by the shoulders. Fromthe depths of their breasts they drew forth a hoarse and cavernousintonation; their eyes, which were fastened upon the colossus, shonethrough the dust, and they swayed their bodies simultaneously, and atequal distances, as though they were all affected by a single movement. They were so frenzied that to restore order the hierodules compelledthem, with blows of the stick, to lie flat upon the ground, with theirfaces resting against the brass trellis-work. 

Then it was that a man in a white robe advanced from the back of thesquare. He penetrated the crowd slowly, and people recognised a priestof Tanith--the high-priest Schahabarim. Hootings were raised, for thetyranny of the male principle prevailed that day in all consciences, andthe goddess was actually so completely forgotten that the absence of herpontiffs had not been noticed. But the amazement was increased when hewas seen to open one of the doors of the trellis-work intended forthose who intended to offer up victims. It was an outrage to their god, thought the priests of Moloch, that he had just committed, and theysought with eager gestures to repel him. Fed on the meat of theholocausts, clad in purple like kings, and wearing triple-storiedcrowns, they despised the pale eunuch, weakened with his macerations, and angry laughter shook their black beards, which were displayed ontheir breasts in the sun. 

Schahabarim walked on, giving no reply, and, traversing the wholeenclosure with deliberation, reached the legs of the colossus; then, spreading out both arms, he touched it on both sides, which was a solemnform of adoration. For a long time Rabbet had been torturing him, andin despair, or perhaps for lack of a god that completely satisfied hisideas, he had at last decided for this one. 

The crowd, terrified by this act of apostasy, uttered a lengthenedmurmur. It was felt that the last tie which bound their souls to amerciful divinity was breaking. 

But owing to his mutilation, Schahabarim could take no part in the cultof the Baal. The men in the red cloaks shut him out from the enclosure;then, when he was outside, he went round all the colleges in succession, and the priest, henceforth without a god, disappeared into the crowd. Itscattered at his approach. 

Meanwhile a fire of aloes, cedar, and laurel was burning between thelegs of the colossus. The tips of its long wings dipped into the flame;the unguents with which it had been rubbed flowed like sweat over itsbrazen limbs. Around the circular flagstone on which its feet rested, the children, wrapped in black veils, formed a motionless circle; andits extravagantly long arms reached down their palms to them as thoughto seize the crown that they formed and carry it to the sky. 

The rich, the Ancients, the women, the whole multitude, thronged behindthe priests and on the terraces of the houses. The large painted starsrevolved no longer; the tabernacles were set upon the ground; and thefumes from the censers ascended perpendicularly, spreading their bluishbranches through the azure like gigantic trees. 

Many fainted; others became inert and petrified in their ecstasy. Infinite anguish weighed upon the breasts of the beholders. Thelast shouts died out one by one, --and the people of Carthage stoodbreathless, and absorbed in the longing of their terror. 

At last the high priest of Moloch passed his left hand beneath thechildren's veils, plucked a lock of hair from their foreheads, and threwit upon the flames. Then the men in the red cloaks chanted the sacredhymn:

"Homage to thee, Sun! king of the two zones, self-generating Creator, Father and Mother, Father and Son, God and Goddess, Goddess and God!"And their voices were lost in the outburst of instruments soundingsimultaneously to drown the cries of the victims. The eight-stringedscheminiths, the kinnors which had ten strings, and the nebals whichhad twelve, grated, whistled, and thundered. Enormous leathern bags, bristling with pipes, made a shrill clashing noise; the tabourines, beaten with all the players' might, resounded with heavy, rapid blows;and, in spite of the fury of the clarions, the salsalim snapped likegrasshoppers' wings. 

The hierodules, with a long hook, opened the seven-storied compartmentson the body of the Baal. They put meal into the highest, twoturtle-doves into the second, an ape into the third, a ram into thefourth, a sheep into the fifth, and as no ox was to be had for thesixth, a tawny hide taken from the sanctuary was thrown into it. Theseventh compartment yawned empty still. 

Before undertaking anything it was well to make trial of the arms of thegod. Slender chainlets stretched from his fingers up to his shouldersand fell behind, where men by pulling them made the two hands rise to alevel with the elbows, and come close together against the belly; theywere moved several times in succession with little abrupt jerks. Thenthe instruments were still. The fire roared. 

The pontiffs of Moloch walked about on the great flagstone scanning themultitude. 

An individual sacrifice was necessary, a perfectly voluntary oblation, which was considered as carrying the others along with it. But no onehad appeared up to the present, and the seven passages leading from thebarriers to the colossus were completely empty. Then the priests, toencourage the people, drew bodkins from their girdles and gashed theirfaces. The Devotees, who were stretched on the ground outside, werebrought within the enclosure. A bundle of horrible irons was thrown tothem, and each chose his own torture. They drove in spits between theirbreasts; they split their cheeks; they put crowns of thorns upon theirheads; then they twined their arms together, and surrounded the childrenin another large circle which widened and contracted in turns. Theyreached to the balustrade, they threw themselves back again, and thenbegan once more, attracting the crowd to them by the dizziness of theirmotion with its accompanying blood and shrieks. 

By degrees people came into the end of the passages; they flung intothe flames pearls, gold vases, cups, torches, all their wealth; theofferings became constantly more numerous and more splendid. At last aman who tottered, a man pale and hideous with terror, thrust forwarda child; then a little black mass was seen between the hands of thecolossus, and sank into the dark opening. The priests bent over the edgeof the great flagstone, --and a new song burst forth celebrating the joysof death and of new birth into eternity. 

The children ascended slowly, and as the smoke formed lofty eddies asit escaped, they seemed at a distance to disappear in a cloud. Notone stirred. Their wrists and ankles were tied, and the dark draperyprevented them from seeing anything and from being recognised. 

Hamilcar, in a red cloak, like the priests of Moloch, was beside theBaal, standing upright in front of the great toe of its right foot. Whenthe fourteenth child was brought every one could see him make a greatgesture of horror. But he soon resumed his former attitude, folded hisarms, and looked upon the ground. The high pontiff stood on the otherside of the statue as motionless as he. His head, laden with an Assyrianmitre, was bent, and he was watching the gold plate on his breast; itwas covered with fatidical stones, and the flame mirrored in it formedirisated lights. He grew pale and dismayed. Hamilcar bent his brow; andthey were both so near the funeral-pile that the hems of their cloaksbrushed it as they rose from time to time. 

The brazen arms were working more quickly. They paused no longer. Everytime that a child was placed in them the priests of Moloch spreadout their hands upon him to burden him with the crimes of the people, vociferating: "They are not men but oxen!" and the multitude roundabout repeated: "Oxen! oxen!" The devout exclaimed: "Lord! eat!" andthe priests of Proserpine, complying through terror with the needs ofCarthage, muttered the Eleusinian formula: "Pour out rain! bring forth!"

The victims, when scarcely at the edge of the opening, disappeared likea drop of water on a red-hot plate, and white smoke rose amid the greatscarlet colour. 

Nevertheless, the appetite of the god was not appeased. He ever wishedfor more. In order to furnish him with a larger supply, the victims werepiled up on his hands with a big chain above them which kept them intheir place. Some devout persons had at the beginning wished to countthem, to see whether their number corresponded with the days ofthe solar year; but others were brought, and it was impossible todistinguish them in the giddy motion of the horrible arms. This lastedfor a long, indefinite time until the evening. Then the partitionsinside assumed a darker glow, and burning flesh could be seen. Some evenbelieved that they could descry hair, limbs, and whole bodies. 

Night fell; clouds accumulated above the Baal. The funeral-pile, whichwas flameless now, formed a pyramid of coals up to his knees; completelyred like a giant covered with blood, he looked, with his headthrown back, as though he were staggering beneath the weight of hisintoxication. 

In proportion as the priests made haste, the frenzy of the peopleincreased; as the number of the victims was diminishing, some criedout to spare them, others that still more were needful. The walls, withtheir burden of people, seemed to be giving way beneath the howlingsof terror and mystic voluptuousness. Then the faithful came into thepassages, dragging their children, who clung to them; and they beat themin order to make them let go, and handed them over to the men in red. The instrument-players sometimes stopped through exhaustion; then thecries of the mothers might be heard, and the frizzling of the fat as itfell upon the coals. The henbane-drinkers crawled on all fours aroundthe colossus, roaring like tigers; the Yidonim vaticinated, the Devoteessang with their cloven lips; the trellis-work had been broken through, all wished for a share in the sacrifice;--and fathers, whose childrenhad died previously, cast their effigies, their playthings, theirpreserved bones into the fire. Some who had knives rushed upon the rest. They slaughtered one another. The hierodules took the fallen ashes atthe edge of the flagstone in bronze fans, and cast them into the airthat the sacrifice might be scattered over the town and even to theregion of the stars. 

The loud noise and great light had attracted the Barbarians to the footof the walls; they clung to the wreck of the helepolis to have a betterview, and gazed open-mouthed in horror. 

CHAPTER XIV

THE PASS OF THE HATCHET

The Carthaginians had not re-entered their houses when the cloudsaccumulated more thickly; those who raised their heads towards thecolossus could feel big drops on their foreheads, and the rain fell. 

It fell the whole night plentifully, in floods; the thunder growled; itwas the voice of Moloch; he had vanquished Tanith; and she, being nowfecundated, opened up her vast bosom in heaven's heights. Sometimes shecould be seen in a clear and luminous spot stretched upon cushions ofcloud; and then the darkness would close in again as though she werestill too weary and wished to sleep again; the Carthaginians, allbelieving that water is brought forth by the moon, shouted to make hertravail easy. 

The rain beat upon the terraces and overflowed them, forming lakes inthe courts, cascades on the staircases, and eddies at the corners of thestreets. It poured in warm heavy masses and urgent streams; big frothyjets leaped from the corners of all the buildings; and it seemedas though whitish cloths hung dimly upon the walls, and the washedtemple-roofs shone black in the gleam of the lightning. Torrentsdescended from the Acropolis by a thousand paths; houses suddenly gaveway, and small beams, plaster, rubbish, and furniture passed along instreams which ran impetuously over the pavement. 

Amphoras, flagons, and canvases had been placed out of doors; but thetorches were extinguished; brands were taken from the funeral-pile ofthe Baal, and the Carthaginians bent back their necks and opened theirmouths to drink. Others by the side of the miry pools, plunged theirarms into them up to the armpits, and filled themselves so abundantlywith water that they vomited it forth like buffaloes. The freshnessgradually spread; they breathed in the damp air with play of limb, andin the happiness of their intoxication boundless hope soon arose. Alltheir miseries were forgotten. Their country was born anew. 

They felt the need, as it were, of directing upon others the extravagantfury which they had been unable to employ against themselves. Such asacrifice could not be in vain; although they felt no remorse they foundthemselves carried away by the frenzy which results from complicity inirreparable crimes. 

The Barbarians had encountered the storm in their ill-closed tents; andthey were still quite chilled on the morrow as they tramped through themud in search of their stores and weapons, which were spoiled and lost. 

Hamilcar went himself to see Hanno, and, in virtue of his plenarypowers, intrusted the command to him. The old Suffet hesitated for afew minutes between his animosity and his appetite for authority, but heaccepted nevertheless. 

Hamilcar next took out a galley armed with a catapult at each end. He placed it in the gulf in front of the raft; then he embarkedhis stoutest troops on board such vessels as were available. He wasapparently taking to flight; and running northward before the wind hedisappeared into the mist. 

But three days afterwards, when the attack was about to begin again, some people arrived tumultuously from the Libyan coast. Barca hadcome among them. He had carried off provisions everywhere, and he wasspreading through the country. 

Then the Barbarians were indignant as though he were betraying them. Those who were most weary of the siege, and especially the Gauls, didnot hesitate to leave the walls in order to try and rejoin him. Spendiuswanted to reconstruct the helepolis; Matho had traced an imaginary linefrom his tent to Megara, and inwardly swore to follow it, and none oftheir men stirred. But the rest, under the command of Autaritus, wentoff, abandoning the western part of the rampart, and so profound was thecarelessness exhibited that no one even thought of replacing them. 

Narr' Havas spied them from afar in the mountains. During the night heled all his men along the sea-shore on the outer side of the Lagoon, andentered Carthage. 

He presented himself as a saviour with six thousand men all carryingmeal under their cloaks, and forty elephants laden with forage and driedmeat. The people flocked quickly around them; they gave them names. Thesight of these strong animals, sacred to Baal, gave the Carthaginianseven more joy than the arrival of such relief; it was a token of thetenderness of the god, a proof that he was at last about to interfere inthe war to defend them. 

Narr' Havas received the compliments of the Ancients. Then he ascendedto Salammbo's palace. 

He had not seen her again since the time when in Hamilcar's tent amidthe five armies he had felt her little, cold, soft hand fastened to hisown; she had left for Carthage after the betrothal. His love, whichhad been diverted by other ambitions, had come back to him; and now heexpected to enjoy his rights, to marry her, and take her. 

Salammbo did not understand how the young man could ever become hermaster! Although she asked Tanith every day for Matho's death, herhorror of the Libyan was growing less. She vaguely felt that the hatewith which he had persecuted her was something almost religious, --andshe would fain have seen in Narr' Havas's person a reflection, as itwere, of that malice which still dazzled her. She desired to know himbetter, and yet his presence would have embarrassed her. She sent himword that she could not receive him. 

Moreover, Hamilcar had forbidden his people to admit the King of theNumidians to see her; by putting off his reward to the end of the war hehoped to retain his devotion;--and, through dread of the Suffet, Narr'Havas withdrew. 

But he bore himself haughtily towards the Hundred. He changed theirarrangements. He demanded privileges for his men, and placed themon important posts; thus the Barbarians stared when they perceivedNumidians on the towers. 

The surprise of the Carthaginians was greater still when three hundredof their own people, who had been made prisoners during the Sicilianwar, arrived on board an old Punic trireme. Hamilcar, in fact, hadsecretly sent back to the Quirites the crews of the Latin vessels, taken before the defection of the Tyrian towns; and, to reciprocate thecourtesy, Rome was now sending him back her captives. She scorned theovertures of the Mercenaries in Sardinian, and would not even recognisethe inhabitants of Utica as subjects. 

Hiero, who was ruling at Syracuse, was carried away by this example. Forthe preservation of his own States it was necessary that an equilibriumshould exist between the two peoples; he was interested, therefore, inthe safety of the Chanaanites, and he declared himself their friend, andsent them twelve hundred oxen, with fifty-three thousand nebels of purewheat. 

A deeper reason prompted aid to Carthage. It was felt that if theMercenaries triumphed, every one, from soldier to plate-washer, wouldrise, and that no government and no house could resist them. 

Meanwhile Hamilcar was scouring the eastern districts. He drove backthe Gauls, and all the Barbarians found that they were themselves insomething like a state of siege. 

Then he set himself to harass them. He would arrive and then retire, andby constantly renewing this manoeuvre, he gradually detached them fromtheir encampments. Spendius was obliged to follow them, and in the endMatho yielded in like manner. 

He did not pass beyond Tunis. He shut himself up within its walls. Thispersistence was full of wisdom, for soon Narr' Havas was to be seenissuing from the gate of Khamon with his elephants and soldiers. Hamilcar was recalling him, but the other Barbarians were alreadywandering about in the provinces in pursuit of the Suffet. 

The latter had received three thousand Gauls from Clypea. He had horsesbrought to him from Cyrenaica, and armour from Brutium, and began thewar again. 

Never had his genius been so impetuous and fertile. For five moons hedragged his enemies after him. He had an end to which he wished to guidethem. 

The Barbarians had at first tried to encompass him with smalldetachments, but he always escaped them. They ceased to separate then. Their army amounted to about forty thousand men, and several times theyenjoyed the sight of seeing the Carthaginians fall back. 

The horsemen of Narr' Havas were what they found most tormenting. Often, at times of the greatest weariness, when they were advancing over theplains, and dozing beneath the weight of their arms, a great line ofdust would suddenly rise on the horizon; there would be a galloping upto them, and a rain of darts would pour from the bosom of a cloud filledwith flaming eyes. The Numidians in their white cloaks would utterloud shouts, raise their arms, press their rearing stallions with theirknees, and, wheeling them round abruptly, would then disappear. They hadalways supplies of javelins and dromedaries some distance off, and theywould return more terrible than before, howl like wolves, and take toflight like vultures. The Barbarians posted at the extremities of thefiles fell one by one; and this would continue until evening, when anattempt would be made to enter the mountains. 

Although they were perilous for elephants, Hamilcar made his way inamong them. He followed the long chain which extends from the promontoryof Hermaeum to the top of Zagouan. This, they believed, was a device forhiding the insufficiency of his troops. But the continual uncertainty inwhich he kept them exasperated them at last more than any defeat. Theydid not lose heart, and marched after him. 

At last one evening they surprised a body of velites amid some bigrocks at the entrance of a pass between the Silver Mountain and the LeadMountain; the entire army was certainly in front of them, for a noiseof footsteps and clarions could be heard; the Carthaginians immediatelyfled through the gorge. It descended into a plain, and was shaped likean iron hatchet with a surrounding of lofty cliffs. The Barbariansdashed into it in order to overtake the velites; quite at the bottomother Carthaginians were running tumultuously amid galloping oxen. A manin a red cloak was to be seen; it was the Suffet; they shouted this toone another; and they were carried away with increased fury and joy. Several, from laziness or prudence, had remained on the threshold of thepass. But some cavalry, debouching from a wood, beat them down uponthe rest with blows of pike and sabre; and soon all the Barbarians werebelow in the plain. 

Then this great human mass, after swaying to and fro for some time, stood still; they could discover no outlet. 

Those who were nearest to the pass went back again, but the passage hadentirely disappeared. They hailed those in front to make them go on;they were being crushed against the mountain, and from a distance theyinveighed against their companions, who were unable to find the routeagain. 

In fact the Barbarians had scarcely descended when men who had beencrouching behind the rocks raised the latter with beams and overthrewthem, and as the slope was steep the huge blocks had rolled downpell-mell and completely stopped up the narrow opening. 

At the other extremity of the plain stretched a long passage, split ingaps here and there, and leading to a ravine which ascended to the upperplateau, where the Punic army was stationed. Ladders had been placedbeforehand in this passage against the wall of cliff; and, protected bythe windings of the gaps, the velites were able to seize and mount thembefore being overtaken. Several even made their way to the bottom of theravine; they were drawn up with cables, for the ground at this spot wasof moving sand, and so much inclined that it was impossible to climbit even on the knees. The Barbarians arrived almost immediately. Buta portcullis, forty cubits high, and made to fit the intervening spaceexactly, suddenly sank before them like a rampart fallen from the skies. 

The Suffet's combinations had therefore succeeded. None of theMercenaries knew the mountain, and, marching as they did at the headof their columns, they had drawn on the rest. The rocks, which weresomewhat narrow at the base, had been easily cast down; and, whileall were running, his army had raised shouts, as of distress, on thehorizon. Hamilcar, it is true, might have lost his velites, only half ofwhom remained, but he would have sacrificed twenty times as many for thesuccess of such an enterprise. 

The Barbarians pressed forward until morning, in compact files, from oneend of the plain to the other. They felt the mountain with their hands, seeking to discover a passage. 

At last day broke; and they perceived all about them a great white wallhewn with the pick. And no means of safety, no hope! The two naturaloutcomes from this blind alley were closed by the portcullis and theheaps of rocks. 

Then they all looked at one another without speaking. They sank down incollapse, feeling an icy coldness in their loins, and an overwhelmingweight upon their eyelids. 

They rose, and bounded against the rocks. But the lowest were weightedby the pressure of the others, and were immovable. They tried to clingto them so as to reach the top, but the bellying shape of the greatmasses rendered all hold impossible. They sought to cleave the ground onboth sides of the gorge, but their instruments broke. They made a largefire with the tent poles, but the fire could not burn the mountain. 

They returned to the portcullis; it was garnished with long nails asthick as stakes, as sharp as the spines of a porcupine, and closer thanthe hairs of a brush. But they were animated by such rage that theydashed themselves against it. The first were pierced to the backbone, those coming next surged over them, and all fell back, leaving humanfragments and bloodstained hair on those horrible branches. 

When their discouragement was somewhat abated, they made an examinationof the provisions. The Mercenaries, whose baggage was lost, possessedscarcely enough for two days; and all the rest found themselvesdestitute, --for they had been awaiting a convoy promised by the villagesof the South. 

However, some bulls were roaming about, those which the Carthaginianshad loosed in the gorge to attract the Barbarians. They killed them withlance thrusts and ate them, and when their stomachs were filled theirthoughts were less mournful. 

The next day they slaughtered all the mules to the number of aboutforty; then they scraped the skins, boiled the entrails, pounded thebones, and did not yet despair; the army from Tunis had no doubt beenwarned, and was coming. 

But on the evening of the fifth day their hunger increased; they gnawedtheir sword-belts, and the little sponges which bordered the bottom oftheir helmets. 

These forty thousand men were massed into the species of hippodromeformed by the mountain about them. Some remained in front of theportcullis, or at the foot of the rocks; the rest covered the plainconfusedly. The strong shunned one another, and the timid sought out thebrave, who, nevertheless, were unable to save them. 

To avoid infection, the corpses of the velites had been speedily buried;and the position of the graves was no longer visible. 

All the Barbarians lay drooping on the ground. A veteran would passbetween their lines here and there; and they would howl curses againstthe Carthaginians, against Hamilcar, and against Matho, although he wasinnocent of their disaster; but it seemed to them that their pains wouldhave been less if he had shared them. Then they groaned, and some weptsoftly like little children. 

They came to the captains and besought them to grant them something thatwould alleviate their sufferings. The others made no reply; or, seizedwith fury, would pick up a stone and fling it in their faces. 

Several, in fact, carefully kept a reserve of food in a hole in theground--a few handfuls of dates, or a little meal; and they ate thisduring the night, with their heads bent beneath their cloaks. Thosewho had swords kept them naked in their hands, and the most suspiciousremained standing with their backs against the mountain. 

They accused their chiefs and threatened them. Autaritus was not afraidof showing himself. With the Barbaric obstinacy which nothing coulddiscourage, he would advance twenty times a day to the rocks at thebottom, hoping every time to find them perchance displaced; and swayinghis heavy fur-covered shoulders, he reminded his companions of a bearcoming forth from its cave in springtime to see whether the snows aremelted. 

Spendius, surrounded by the Greeks, hid himself in one of the gaps; ashe was afraid, he caused a rumour of his death to be spread. 

They were now hideously lean; their skin was overlaid with bluishmarblings. On the evening of the ninth day three Iberians died. 

Their frightened companions left the spot. They were stripped, and thewhite, naked bodies lay in the sunshine on the sand. 

Then the Garamantians began to prowl slowly round about them. They weremen accustomed to existence in solitude, and they reverenced no god. Atlast the oldest of the band made a sign, and bending over the corpsesthey cut strips from them with their knives, then squatted upon theirheels and ate. The rest looked on from a distance; they uttered criesof horror;--many, nevertheless, being, at the bottom of their souls, jealous of such courage. 

In the middle of the night some of these approached, and, dissemblingtheir eagerness, asked for a small mouthful, merely to try, they said. Bolder ones came up; their number increased; there was soon a crowd. Butalmost all of them let their hands fall on feeling the cold flesh on theedge of their lips; others, on the contrary, devoured it with delight. 

That they might be led away by example, they urged one another onmutually. Such as had at first refused went to see the Garamantians, andreturned no more. They cooked the pieces on coals at the point of thesword; they salted them with dust, and contended for the best morsels. When nothing was left of the three corpses, their eyes ranged over thewhole plain to find others. 

But were they not in possession of Carthaginians--twenty captives takenin the last encounter, whom no one had noticed up to the present? Thesedisappeared; moreover, it was an act of vengeance. Then, as they mustlive, as the taste for this food had become developed, and as they weredying, they cut the throats of the water-carriers, grooms, and all theserving-men belonging to the Mercenaries. They killed some of them everyday. Some ate much, recovered strength, and were sad no more. 

Soon this resource failed. Then the longing was directed to the woundedand sick. Since they could not recover, it was as well to releasethem from their tortures; and, as soon as a man began to stagger, allexclaimed that he was now lost, and ought to be made use of for therest. Artifices were employed to accelerate their death; the lastremnant of their foul portion was stolen from them; they were troddenon as though by inadvertence; those in the last throes wishing to makebelieve that they were strong, strove to stretch out their arms, torise, to laugh. Men who had swooned came to themselves at the touch ofa notched blade sawing off a limb;--and they still slew, ferociously andneedlessly, to sate their fury. 

A mist heavy and warm, such as comes in those regions at the endof winter, sank on the fourteenth day upon the army. This changeof temperature brought numerous deaths with it, and corruption wasdeveloped with frightful rapidity in the warm dampness which was keptin by the sides of the mountain. The drizzle that fell upon the corpsessoftened them, and soon made the plain one broad tract of rottenness. Whitish vapours floated overhead; they pricked the nostrils, penetratedthe skin, and troubled the sight; and the Barbarians thought thatthrough the exhalations of the breath they could see the souls of theircompanions. They were overwhelmed with immense disgust. They wished fornothing more; they preferred to die. 

Two days afterwards the weather became fine again, and hunger seizedthem once more. It seemed to them that their stomachs were beingwrenched from them with tongs. Then they rolled about in convulsions, flung handfuls of dust into their mouths, bit their arms, and burst intofrantic laughter. 

They were still more tormented by thirst, for they had not a drop ofwater, the leathern bottles having been completely dried up since theninth day. To cheat their need they applied their tongues to the metalplates on their waist-belts, their ivory pommels, and the steel of theirswords. Some former caravan-leaders tightened their waists with ropes. Others sucked a pebble. They drank urine cooled in their brazen helmets. 

And they still expected the army from Tunis! The length of time which ittook in coming was, according to their conjectures, an assurance of itsearly arrival. Besides, Matho, who was a brave fellow, would not desertthem. "'Twill be to-morrow!" they would say to one another; and thento-morrow would pass. 

At the beginning they had offered up prayers and vows, and practised allkinds of incantations. Just now their only feeling to their divinitieswas one of hatred, and they strove to revenge themselves by believing inthem no more. 

Men of violent disposition perished first; the Africans held outbetter than the Gauls. Zarxas lay stretched at full length among theBalearians, his hair over his arm, inert. Spendius found a plant withbroad leaves filled abundantly with juice, and after declaring that itwas poisonous, so as to keep off the rest, he fed himself upon it. 

They were too weak to knock down the flying crows with stones. Sometimeswhen a gypaetus was perched on a corpse, and had been mangling it fora long time, a man would set himself to crawl towards it with a javelinbetween his teeth. He would support himself with one hand, and aftertaking a good aim, throw his weapon. The white-feathered creature, disturbed by the noise, would desist and look about in tranquil fashionlike a cormorant on a rock, and would then again thrust in its hideous, yellow beak, while the man, in despair, would fall flat on his face inthe dust. Some succeeded in discovering chameleons and serpents. But itwas the love of life that kept them alive. They directed their souls tothis idea exclusively, and clung to existence by an effort of the willthat prolonged it. 

The most stoical kept close to one another, seated in a circle here andthere, among the dead in the middle of the plain; and wrapped in theircloaks they gave themselves up silently to their sadness. 

Those who had been born in towns recalled the resounding streets, thetaverns, theatres, baths, and the barbers' shops where there are talesto be heard. Others could once more see country districts at sunset, when the yellow corn waves, and the great oxen ascend the hills againwith the ploughshares on their necks. Travellers dreamed of cisterns, hunters of their forests, veterans of battles; and in the somnolencethat benumbed them their thoughts jostled one another with theprecipitancy and clearness of dreams. Hallucinations came suddenly uponthem; they sought for a door in the mountain in order to flee, and triedto pass through it. Others thought that they were sailing in a stormand gave orders for the handling of a ship, or else fell back in terror, perceiving Punic battalions in the clouds. There were some who imaginedthemselves at a feast, and sang. 

Many through a strange mania would repeat the same word or continuallymake the same gesture. Then when they happened to raise their headsand look at one another they were choked with sobs on discovering thehorrible ravages made in their faces. Some had ceased to suffer, and towhile away the hours told of the perils which they had escaped. 

Death was certain and imminent to all. How many times had they not triedto open up a passage! As to implore terms from the conqueror, by whatmeans could they do so? They did not even know where Hamilcar was. 

The wind was blowing from the direction of the ravine. It made the sandflow perpetually in cascades over the portcullis; and the cloaks andhair of the Barbarians were being covered with it as though the earthwere rising upon them and desirous of burying them. Nothing stirred; theeternal mountain seemed still higher to them every morning. 

Sometimes flights of birds darted past beneath the blue sky in thefreedom of the air. The men closed their eyes that they might not seethem. 

At first they felt a buzzing in their ears, their nails grew black, thecold reached to their breasts; they lay upon their sides and expiredwithout a cry. 

On the nineteenth day two thousand Asiatics were dead, with fifteenhundred from the Archipelago, eight thousand from Libya, the youngestof the Mercenaries and whole tribes--in all twenty thousand soldiers, orhalf of the army. 

Autaritus, who had only fifty Gauls left, was going to kill himself inorder to put an end to this state of things, when he thought he saw aman on the top of the mountain in front of him. 

Owing to his elevation this man did not appear taller than a dwarf. However, Autaritus recognised a shield shaped like a trefoil on hisleft arm. "A Carthaginian!" he exclaimed, and immediately throughoutthe plain, before the portcullis and beneath the rocks, all rose. Thesoldier was walking along the edge of the precipice; the Barbariansgazed at him from below. 

Spendius picked up the head of an ox; then having formed a diadem withtwo belts, he fixed it on the horns at the end of a pole in token ofpacific intentions. The Carthaginian disappeared. They waited. 

At last in the evening a sword-belt suddenly fell from above like astone loosened from the cliff. It was made of red leather covered withembroidery, with three diamond stars, and stamped in the centre, it borethe mark of the Great Council: a horse beneath a palm-tree. This wasHamilcar's reply, the safe-conduct that he sent them. 

They had nothing to fear; any change of fortune brought with it the endof their woes. They were moved with extravagant joy, they embraced oneanother, they wept. Spendius, Autaritus, and Zarxas, four Italiotes, a Negro and two Spartans offered themselves as envoys. They wereimmediately accepted. They did not know, however, by what means theyshould get away. 

But a cracking sounded in the direction of the rocks; and the mostelevated of them, after rocking to and fro, rebounded to the bottom. Infact, if they were immovable on the side of the Barbarians--for it wouldhave been necessary to urge them up an incline plane, and they were, moreover, heaped together owing to the narrowness of the gorge--on theothers, on the contrary, it was sufficient to drive against them withviolence to make them descend. The Carthaginians pushed them, and atdaybreak they projected into the plain like the steps of an immenseruined staircase. 

The Barbarians were still unable to climb them. Ladders were held outfor their assistance; all rushed upon them. The discharge of a catapultdrove the crowd back; only the Ten were taken away. 

They walked amid the Clinabarians, leaning their hands on the horses'croups for support. 

Now that their first joy was over they began to harbour anxieties. Hamilcar's demands would be cruel. But Spendius reassured them. 

"I will speak!" And he boasted that he knew excellent things to say forthe safety of the army. 

Behind all the bushes they met with ambushed sentries, who prostratedthemselves before the sword-belt which Spendius had placed over hisshoulder. 

When they reached the Punic camp the crowd flocked around them, and theythought that they could hear whisperings and laughter. The door of atent opened. 

Hamilcar was at the very back of it seated on a stool beside a table onwhich there shone a naked sword. He was surrounded by captains, who werestanding. 

He started back on perceiving these men, and then bent over to examinethem. 

Their pupils were strangely dilated, and there was a great black circleround their eyes, which extended to the lower parts of their ears; theirbluish noses stood out between their hollow cheeks, which were chinkedwith deep wrinkles; the skin of their bodies was too large for theirmuscles, and was hidden beneath a slate-coloured dust; their lips wereglued to their yellow teeth; they exhaled an infectious odour; theymight have been taken for half-opened tombs, for living sepulchres. 

In the centre of the tent, on a mat on which the captains were about tosit down, there was a dish of smoking gourds. The Barbarians fastenedtheir eyes upon it with a shivering in all their limbs, and tears cameto their eyelids; nevertheless they restrained themselves. 

Hamilcar turned away to speak to some one. Then they all flungthemselves upon it, flat on the ground. Their faces were soaked in thefat, and the noise of their deglutition was mingled with the sobs of joywhich they uttered. Through astonishment, doubtless, rather than pity, they were allowed to finish the mess. Then when they had risen Hamilcarwith a sign commanded the man who bore the sword-belt to speak. Spendiuswas afraid; he stammered. 

Hamilcar, while listening to him, kept turning round on his finger abig gold ring, the same which had stamped the seal of Carthage upon thesword-belt. He let it fall to the ground; Spendius immediately picked itup; his servile habits came back to him in the presence of his master. The others quivered with indignation at such baseness. 

But the Greek raised his voice and spoke for a long time in rapid, insidious, and even violent fashion, setting forth the crimes of Hanno, whom he knew to be Barca's enemy, and striving to move Hamilcar's pityby the details of their miseries and the recollection of their devotion;in the end he became forgetful of himself, being carried away by thewarmth of his temper. 

Hamilcar replied that he accepted their excuses. Peace, then, was aboutto be concluded, and now it would be a definitive one! But he requiredthat ten Mercenaries, chosen by himself, should be delivered up to himwithout weapons or tunics. 

They had not expected such clemency; Spendius exclaimed: "Ah! twenty ifyou wish, master!"

"No! ten will suffice, " replied Hamilcar quietly. 

They were sent out of the tent to deliberate. As soon as they werealone, Autaritus protested against the sacrifice of their companions, and Zarxas said to Spendius:

"Why did you not kill him? his sword was there beside you!"

"Him!" said Spendius. "Him! him!" he repeated several times, as thoughthe thing had been impossible, and Hamilcar were an immortal. 

They were so overwhelmed with weariness that they stretched themselveson their backs on the ground, not knowing at what resolution to arrive. 

Spendius urged them to yield. At last they consented, and went in again. 

Then the Suffet put his hand into the hands of the ten Barbarians inturn, and pressed their thumbs; then he rubbed it on his garment, fortheir viscous skin gave a rude, soft impression to the touch, a greasytingling which induced horripilation. Afterwards he said to them:

"You are really all the chiefs of the Barbarians, and you have sworn forthem?"

"Yes!" they replied. 

"Without constraint, from the bottom of your souls, with the intentionof fulfilling your promises?"

They assured him that they were returning to the rest in order to fulfilthem. 

"Well!" rejoined the Suffet, "in accordance with the conventionconcluded between myself, Barca, and the ambassadors of the Mercenaries, it is you whom I choose and shall keep!"

Spendius fell swooning upon the mat. The Barbarians, as thoughabandoning him, pressed close together; and there was not a word, not acomplaint. 

Their companions, who were waiting for them, not seeing them return, believed themselves betrayed. The envoys had no doubt given themselvesup to the Suffet. 

They waited for two days longer; then on the morning of the third, theirresolution was taken. With ropes, picks, and arrows, arranged likerungs between strips of canvas, they succeeded in scaling the rocks; andleaving the weakest, about three thousand in number, behind them, theybegan their march to rejoin the army at Tunis. 

Above the gorge there stretched a meadow thinly sown with shrubs; theBarbarians devoured the buds. Afterwards they found a field of beans;and everything disappeared as though a cloud of grasshoppers had passedthat way. Three hours later they reached a second plateau bordered by abelt of green hills. 

Among the undulations of these hillocks, silvery sheaves shone atintervals from one another; the Barbarians, who were dazzled by thesun, could perceive confusedly below great black masses supporting them;these rose, as though they were expanding. They were lances in towers onelephants terribly armed. 

Besides the spears on their breasts, the bodkin tusks, the brass plateswhich covered their sides, and the daggers fastened to their knee-caps, they had at the extremity of their tusks a leathern bracelet, inwhich the handle of a broad cutlass was inserted; they had set outsimultaneously from the back part of the plain, and were advancing onboth sides in parallel lines. 

The Barbarians were frozen with a nameless terror. They did not even tryto flee. They already found themselves surrounded. 

The elephants entered into this mass of men; and the spurs on theirbreasts divided it, the lances on their tusks upturned it likeploughshares; they cut, hewed, and hacked with the scythes on theirtrunks; the towers, which were full of phalaricas, looked like volcanoeson the march; nothing could be distinguished but a large heap, whereonhuman flesh, pieces of brass and blood made white spots, grey sheetsand red fuses. The horrible animals dug out black furrows as they passedthrough the midst of it all. 

The fiercest was driven by a Numidian who was crowned with a diadem ofplumes. He hurled javelins with frightful quickness, giving at intervalsa long shrill whistle. The great beasts, docile as dogs, kept an eye onhim during the carnage. 

The circle of them narrowed by degrees; the weakened Barbarians offeredno resistance; the elephants were soon in the centre of the plain. They lacked space; they thronged half-rearing together, and their tusksclashed against one another. Suddenly Narr' Havas quieted them, andwheeling round they trotted back to the hills. 

Two syntagmata, however, had taken refuge on the right in a bend ofground, had thrown away their arms, and were all kneeling with theirfaces towards the Punic tents imploring mercy with uplifted arms. 

Their legs and hands were tied; then when they were stretched on theground beside one another the elephants were brought back. 

Their breasts cracked like boxes being forced; two were crushed at everystep; the big feet sank into the bodies with a motion of the hauncheswhich made the elephants appear lame. They went on to the very end. 

The level surface of the plain again became motionless. Night fell. Hamilcar was delighting himself with the spectacle of his vengeance, butsuddenly he started. 

He saw, and all saw, some more Barbarians six hundred paces to theleft on the summit of a peak! In fact four hundred of the stoutestMercenaries, Etruscans, Libyans, and Spartans had gained the heights atthe beginning, and had remained there in uncertainty until now. Afterthe massacre of their companions they resolved to make their way throughthe Carthaginians; they were already descending in serried columns, in amarvellous and formidable fashion. 

A herald was immediately despatched to them. The Suffet needed soldiers;he received them unconditionally, so greatly did he admire theirbravery. They could even, said the man of Carthage, come a littlenearer, to a place, which he pointed out to them, where they would findprovisions. 

The Barbarians ran thither and spent the night in eating. Then theCarthaginians broke into clamours against the Suffet's partiality forthe Mercenaries. 

Did he yield to these outbursts of insatiable hatred or was it arefinement of treachery? The next day he came himself, without a swordand bare-headed, with an escort of Clinabarians, and announced tothem that having too many to feed he did not intend to keep them. Nevertheless, as he wanted men and he knew of no means of selecting thegood ones, they were to fight together to the death; he would then admitthe conquerors into his own body-guard. This death was quite as good asanother;--and then moving his soldiers aside (for the Punic standardshid the horizon from the Mercenaries) he showed them the one hundred andninety-two elephants under Narr' Havas, forming a single straight line, their trunks brandishing broad steel blades like giant arms holding axesabove their heads. 

The Barbarians looked at one another silently. It was not death thatmade them turn pale, but the horrible compulsion to which they foundthemselves reduced. 

The community of their lives had brought about profound friendship amongthese men. The camp, with most, took the place of their country; livingwithout a family they transferred the needful tenderness to a companion, and they would fall asleep in the starlight side by side under thesame cloak. And then in their perpetual wanderings through all sorts ofcountries, murders, and adventures, they had contracted affections, onefor the other, in which the stronger protected the younger in the midstof battles, helped him to cross precipices, sponged the sweat of feversfrom his brow, and stole food for him, and the weaker, a child perhaps, who had been picked up on the roadside, and had then become a Mercenary, repaid this devotion by a thousand kindnesses. 

They exchanged their necklaces and earrings, presents which they hadmade to one another in former days, after great peril, or in hours ofintoxication. All asked to die, and none would strike. A young fellowmight be seen here and there, saying to another whose beard was grey:"No! no! you are more robust! you will avenge us, kill me!" and the manwould reply: "I have fewer years to live! Strike to the heart, and thinkno more about it!" Brothers gazed on one another with clasped hands, and friend bade friend eternal farewells, standing and weeping upon hisshoulder. 

They threw off their cuirasses that the sword-points might be thrust inthe more quickly. Then there appeared the marks of the great blows whichthey had received for Carthage, and which looked like inscriptions oncolumns. 

They placed themselves in four equal ranks, after the fashion ofgladiators, and began with timid engagements. Some had even bandagedtheir eyes, and their swords waved gently through the air like blindmen's sticks. The Carthaginians hooted, and shouted to them that theywere cowards. The Barbarians became animated, and soon the combat asgeneral, headlong, and terrible. 

Sometimes two men all covered with blood would stop, fall into eachother's arms, and die with mutual kisses. None drew back. They rushedupon the extended blades. Their delirium was so frenzied that theCarthaginians in the distance were afraid. 

At last they stopped. Their breasts made a great hoarse noise, andtheir eyeballs could be seen through their long hair, which hung downas though it had come out of a purple bath. Several were turning roundrapidly, like panthers wounded in the forehead. Others stood motionlesslooking at a corpse at their feet; then they would suddenly tear theirfaces with their nails, take their swords with both hands, and plungethem into their own bodies. 

There were still sixty left. They asked for drink. They were told byshouts to throw away their swords, and when they had done so water wasbrought to them. 

While they were drinking, with their faces buried in the vases, sixtyCarthaginians leaped upon them and killed them with stiletos in theback. 

Hamilcar had done this to gratify the instincts of his army, and, bymeans of this treachery, to attach it to his own person. 

The war, then, was ended; at least he believed that it was; Mathowould not resist; in his impatience the Suffet commanded an immediatedeparture. 

His scouts came to tell him that a convoy had been descried, departingtowards the Lead Mountain. Hamilcar did not trouble himself about it. The Mercenaries once annihilated, the Nomads would give him no furthertrouble. The important matter was to take Tunis. He advanced by forcedmarches upon it. 

He had sent Narr' Havas to Carthage with the news of his victory; andthe King of the Numidians, proud of his success, visited Salammbo. 

She received him in her gardens under a large sycamore tree, amidpillows of yellow leather, and with Taanach beside her. Her face wascovered with a white scarf, which, passing over her mouth and forehead, allowed only her eyes to be seen; but her lips shone in the transparencyof the tissue like the gems on her fingers, for Salammbo had bothher hands wrapped up, and did not make a gesture during the wholeconversation. 

Narr' Havas announced the defeat of the Barbarians to her. She thankedhim with a blessing for the services which he had rendered to herfather. Then he began to tell her about the whole campaign. 

The doves on the palm trees around them cooed softly, and other birdsfluttered amid the grass: ring-necked glareolas, Tartessus quails andPunic guinea-fowl. The garden, long uncultivated, had multipliedits verdure; coloquintidas mounted into the branches of cassias, theasclepias was scattered over fields of roses, all kinds of vegetationformed entwinings and bowers; and here and there, as in the woods, sun-rays, descending obliquely, marked the shadow of a leaf upon theground. Domestic animals, grown wild again, fled at the slightest noise. Sometimes a gazelle might be seen trailing scattered peacocks' feathersafter its little black hoofs. The clamours of the distant town were lostin the murmuring of the waves. The sky was quite blue, and not a sailwas visible on the sea. 

Narr' Havas had ceased speaking; Salammbo was looking at him withoutreplying. He wore a linen robe with flowers painted on it, and with goldfringes at the hem; two silver arrows fastened his plaited hair at thetips of his ears; his right hand rested on a pike-staff adorned withcircles of electrum and tufts of hair. 

As she watched him a crowd of dim thoughts absorbed her. This young man, with his gentle voice and feminine figure, captivated her eyes by thegrace of his person, and seemed to her like an elder sister sent by theBaals to protect her. The recollection of Matho came upon her, nor didshe resist the desire to learn what had become of him. 

Narr' Havas replied that the Carthaginians were advancing towards Tunisto take it. In proportion as he set forth their chances of success andMatho's weaknesses, she seemed to rejoice in extraordinary hope. Herlips trembled, her breast panted. When he finally promised to kill himhimself, she exclaimed: "Yes! kill him! It must be so!"

The Numidian replied that he desired this death ardently, since he wouldbe her husband when the war was over. 

Salammbo started, and bent her head. 

But Narr' Havas, pursuing the subject, compared his longings to flowerslanguishing for rain, or to lost travellers waiting for the day. He toldher, further, that she was more beautiful than the moon, better than thewind of morning or than the face of a guest. He would bring for her fromthe country of the Blacks things such as there were none in Carthage, and the apartments in their house should be sanded with gold dust. 

Evening fell, and odours of balsam were exhaled. For a long time theylooked at each other in silence, and Salammbo's eyes, in the depths ofher long draperies, resembled two stars in the rift of a cloud. Beforethe sun set he withdrew. 

The Ancients felt themselves relieved of a great anxiety, when heleft Carthage. The people had received him with even more enthusiasticacclamations than on the first occasion. If Hamilcar and the King of theNumidians triumphed alone over the Mercenaries it would be impossibleto resist them. To weaken Barca they therefore resolved to make the agedHanno, him whom they loved, a sharer in the deliverance of Carthage. 

He proceeded immediately towards the western provinces, to take hisvengeance in the very places which had witnessed his shame. But theinhabitants and the Barbarians were dead, hidden, or fled. Then hisanger was vented upon the country. He burnt the ruins of the ruins, hedid not leave a single tree nor a blade of grass; the children and theinfirm, that were met with, were tortured; he gave the women to hissoldiers to be violated before they were slaughtered. 

Often, on the crests of the hills, black tents were struck as thoughoverturned by the wind, and broad, brilliantly bordered discs, whichwere recognised as being chariot-wheels, revolved with a plaintive soundas they gradually disappeared in the valleys. The tribes, which hadabandoned the siege of Carthage, were wandering in this way through theprovinces, waiting for an opportunity, or for some victory to be gainedby the Mercenaries, in order to return. But, whether from terror orfamine, they all took the roads to their native lands, and disappeared. 

Hamilcar was not jealous of Hanno's successes. Nevertheless he was ina hurry to end matters; he commanded him to fall back upon Tunis; andHanno, who loved his country, was under the walls of the town on theappointed day. 

For its protection it had its aboriginal population, twelve thousandMercenaries, and, in addition, all the Eaters of Uncleanness, forlike Matho they were riveted to the horizon of Carthage, and plebs andschalischim gazed at its lofty walls from afar, looking back in thoughtto boundless enjoyments. With this harmony of hatred, resistance wasbriskly organised. Leathern bottles were taken to make helmets; all thepalm-trees in the gardens were cut down for lances; cisterns were dug;while for provisions they caught on the shores of the lake big whitefish, fed on corpses and filth. Their ramparts, kept in ruins now by thejealousy of Carthage, were so weak that they could be thrown down with apush of the shoulder. Matho stopped up the holes in them with the stonesof the houses. It was the last struggle; he hoped for nothing, and yethe told himself that fortune was fickle. 

As the Carthaginians approached they noticed a man on the rampart whotowered over the battlements from his belt upwards. The arrows thatflew about him seemed to frighten him no more than a swarm of swallows. Extraordinary to say, none of them touched him. 

Hamilcar pitched his camp on the south side; Narr' Havas, to his right, occupied the plain of Rhades, and Hanno the shore of the lake; and thethree generals were to maintain their respective positions, so as all toattack the walls simultaneously. 

But Hamilcar wished first to show the Mercenaries that he would punishthem like slaves. He had the ten ambassadors crucified beside oneanother on a hillock in front of the town. 

At the sight of this the besieged forsook the rampart. 

Matho had said to himself that if he could pass between the walls andNarr' Havas's tents with such rapidity that the Numidians had not timeto come out, he could fall upon the rear of the Carthaginian infantry, who would be caught between his division and those inside. He dashed outwith his veterans. 

Narr' Havas perceived him; he crossed the shore of the lake, and cameto warn Hanno to dispatch men to Hamilcar's assistance. Did he believeBarca too weak to resist the Mercenaries? Was it a piece of treachery orfolly? No one could ever learn. 

Hanno, desiring to humiliate his rival, did not hesitate. He shoutedorders to sound the trumpets, and his whole army rushed upon theBarbarians. The latter returned, and ran straight against theCarthaginians; they knocked them down, crushed them under their feet, and, driving them back in this way, reached the tent of Hanno, who wasthen surrounded by thirty Carthaginians, the most illustrious of theAncients. 

He appeared stupefied by their audacity; he called for his captains. Every one thrust his fist under his throat, vociferating abuse. Thecrowd pressed on; and those who had their hands on him could scarceretain their hold. However, he tried to whisper to them: "I will gaveyou whatever you want! I am rich! Save me!" They dragged him along;heavy as he was his feet did not touch the ground. The Ancients hadbeen carried off. His terror increased. "You have beaten me! I am yourcaptive! I will ransom myself! Listen to me, my friends!" and bornealong by all those shoulders which were pressed against his sides, herepeated: "What are you going to do? What do you want? You can see thatI am not obstanite! I have always been good-natured!"

A gigantic cross stood at the gate. The Barbarians howled: "Here! here!"But he raised his voice still higher; and in the names of their gods hecalled upon them to lead him to the schalischim, because he wished toconfide to him something on which their safety depended. 

They paused, some asserting that it was right to summon Matho. He wassent for. 

Hanno fell upon the grass; and he saw around him other crosses also, asthough the torture by which he was about to perish had been multipliedbeforehand; he made efforts to convince himself that he was mistaken, that there was only one, and even to believe that there were none atall. At last he was lifted up. 

"Speak!" said Matho. 

He offered to give up Hamilcar; then they would enter Carthage and bothbe kings. 

Matho withdrew, signing to the others to make haste. It was a stratagem, he thought, to gain time. 

The Barbarian was mistaken; Hanno was in an extremity when considerationis had to nothing, and, moreover, he so execrated Hamilcar that hewould have sacrificed him and all his soldiers on the slightest hope ofsafety. 

The Ancients were languishing on the ground at the foot of the crosses;ropes had already been passed beneath their armpits. Then the oldSuffet, understanding that he must die, wept. 

They tore off the clothes that were still left on him--and the horrorof his person appeared. Ulcers covered the nameless mass; the fat on hislegs hid the nails on his feet; from his fingers there hung what lookedlike greenish strips; and the tears streaming through the tubercles onhis cheeks gave to his face an expression of frightful sadness, forthey seemed to take up more room than on another human face. His royalfillet, which was half unfastened, trailed with his white hair in thedust. 

They thought that they had no ropes strong enough to haul him up to thetop of the cross, and they nailed him upon it, after the Punic fashion, before it was erected. But his pride awoke in his pain. He began tooverwhelm them with abuse. He foamed and twisted like a marine monsterbeing slaughtered on the shore, and predicted that they would all endmore horribly still, and that he would be avenged. 

He was. On the other side of the town, whence there now escaped jets offlame with columns of smoke, the ambassadors from the Mercenaries werein their last throes. 

Some who had swooned at first had just revived in the freshness of thewind; but their chins still rested upon their breasts, and their bodieshad fallen somewhat, in spite of the nails in their arms, which werefastened higher than their heads; from their heels and hands bloodfell in big, slow drops, as ripe fruit falls from the branches of atree, --and Carthage, gulf, mountains, and plains all appeared to themto be revolving like an immense wheel; sometimes a cloud of dust, risingfrom the ground, enveloped them in its eddies; they burned with horriblethirst, their tongues curled in their mouths, and they felt an icy sweatflowing over them with their departing souls. 

Nevertheless they had glimpses, at an infinite depth, of streets, marching soldiers, and the swinging of swords; and the tumult of battlereached them dimly like the noise of the sea to shipwrecked men dyingon the masts of a ship. The Italiotes, who were sturdier than the rest, were still shrieking. The Lacedaemonians were silent, with eyelidsclosed; Zarxas, once so vigorous, was bending like a broken reed; theEthiopian beside him had his head thrown back over the arms of thecross; Autaritus was motionless, rolling his eyes; his great head ofhair, caught in a cleft in the wood, fell straight upon his forehead, and his death-rattle seemed rather to be a roar of anger. As toSpendius, a strange courage had come to him; he despised life now inthe certainty which he possessed of an almost immediate and an eternalemancipation, and he awaited death with impassibility. 

Amid their swooning, they sometimes started at the brushing of featherspassing across their lips. Large wings swung shadows around them, croakings sounded in the air; and as Spendius's cross was the highest, it was upon his that the first vulture alighted. Then he turned his facetowards Autaritus, and said slowly to him with an unaccountable smile:

"Do you remember the lions on the road to Sicca?"

"They were our brothers!" replied the Gaul, as he expired. 

The Suffet, meanwhile, had bored through the walls and reachedthe citadel. The smoke suddenly disappeared before a gust of wind, discovering the horizon as far as the walls of Carthage; he even thoughtthat he could distinguish people watching on the platform of Eschmoun;then, bringing back his eyes, he perceived thirty crosses of extravagantsize on the shore of the Lake, to the left. 

In fact, to render them still more frightful, they had been constructedwith tent-poles fastened end to end, and the thirty corpses of theAncients appeared high up in the sky. They had what looked like whitebutterflies on their breasts; these were the feathers of the arrowswhich had been shot at them from below. 

A broad gold ribbon shone on the summit of the highest; it hung downto the shoulder, there being no arm on that side, and Hamilcar had somedifficulty in recognising Hanno. His spongy bones had given way underthe iron pins, portions of his limbs had come off, and nothing was lefton the cross but shapeless remains, like the fragments of animals thatare hung up on huntsmen's doors. 

The Suffet could not have known anything about it; the town in front ofhim masked everything that was beyond and behind; and the captains whohad been successively sent to the two generals had not re-appeared. Thenfugitives arrived with the tale of the rout, and the Punic army halted. This catastrophe, falling upon them as it did in the midst of theirvictory, stupefied them. Hamilcar's orders were no longer listened to. 

Matho took advantage of this to continue his ravages among theNumidians. 

Hanno's camp having been overthrown, he had returned against them. The elephants came out; but the Mercenaries advanced through the plainshaking about flaming firebrands, which they had plucked from the walls, and the great beasts, in fright, ran headlong into the gulf, wherethey killed one another in their struggles, or were drowned beneath theweight of their cuirasses. Narr' Havas had already launched his cavalry;all threw themselves face downwards upon the ground; then, when thehorses were within three paces of them, they sprang beneath theirbellies, ripped them open with dagger-strokes, and half the Numidianshad perished when Barca came up. 

The exhausted Mercenaries could not withstand his troops. They retiredin good order to the mountain of the Hot Springs. The Suffet was prudentenough not to pursue them. He directed his course to the mouths of theMacaras. 

Tunis was his; but it was now nothing but a heap of smoking rubbish. Theruins fell through the breaches in the walls to the centre of the plain;quite in the background, between the shores of the gulf, the corpses ofthe elephants drifting before the wind conflicted, like an archipelagoof black rocks floating on the water. 

Narr' Havas had drained his forests of these animals, taking young andold, male and female, to keep up the war, and the military force ofhis kingdom could not repair the loss. The people who had seen themperishing at a distance were grieved at it; men lamented in the streets, calling them by their names like deceased friends: "Ah! the Invincible!the Victory! the Thunderer! the Swallow!" On the first day, too, therewas no talk except of the dead citizens. But on the morrow the tents ofthe Mercenaries were seen on the mountain of the Hot Springs. Thenso deep was the despair that many people, especially women, flungthemselves headlong from the top of the Acropolis. 

Hamilcar's designs were not known. He lived alone in his tent withnone near him but a young boy, and no one ever ate with them, not evenexcepting Narr' Havas. Nevertheless he showed great deference to thelatter after Hanno's defeat; but the king of the Numidians had too greatan interest in becoming his son not to distrust him. 

This inertness veiled skilful manoeuvres. Hamilcar seduced the heads ofthe villages by all sorts of artifices; and the Mercenaries were hunted, repulsed, and enclosed like wild beasts. As soon as they entered a wood, the trees caught fire around them; when they drank of a spring it waspoisoned; the caves in which they hid in order to sleep were walled up. Their old accomplices, the populations who had hitherto defended them, now pursued them; and they continually recognised Carthaginian armour inthese bands. 

Many had their faces consumed with red tetters; this, they thought, hadcome to them through touching Hanno. Others imagined that it was becausethey had eaten Salammbo's fishes, and far from repenting of it, theydreamed of even more abominable sacrileges, so that the abasement ofthe Punic Gods might be still greater. They would fain have exterminatedthem. 

In this way they lingered for three months along the eastern coast, andthen behind the mountain of Selloum, and as far as the first sands ofthe desert. They sought for a place of refuge, no matter where. Utica and Hippo-Zarytus alone had not betrayed them; but Hamilcar wasencompassing these two towns. Then they went northwards at haphazardwithout even knowing the various routes. Their many miseries hadconfused their understandings. 

The only feeling left them was one of exasperation, which went ondeveloping; and one day they found themselves again in the gorges ofCobus and once more before Carthage!

Then the actions multiplied. Fortune remained equal; but both sides wereso wearied that they would willingly have exchanged these skirmishes fora great battle, provided that it were really the last. 

Matho was inclined to carry this proposal himself to the Suffet. One ofhis Libyans devoted himself for the purpose. All were convinced as theysaw him depart that he would not return. 

He returned the same evening. 

Hamilcar accepted the challenge. The encounter should take place thefollowing day at sunrise, in the plain of Rhades. 

The Mercenaries wished to know whether he had said anything more, andthe Libyan added:

"As I remained in his presence, he asked me what I was waiting for. 'To be killed!' I replied. Then he rejoined: 'No! begone! that will beto-morrow with the rest. '"

This generosity astonished the Barbarians; some were terrified by it, and Matho regretted that the emissary had not been killed. 

He had still remaining three thousand Africans, twelve hundredGreeks, fifteen hundred Campanians, two hundred Iberians, four hundredEtruscans, five hundred Samnites, forty Gauls, and a troop of Naffurs, nomad bandits met with in the date region--in all seven thousand twohundred and nineteen soldiers, but not one complete syntagmata. Theyhad stopped up the holes in their cuirasses with the shoulder-blades ofquadrupeds, and replaced their brass cothurni with worn sandals. Theirgarments were weighted with copper or steel plates; their coats ofmail hung in tatters about them, and scars appeared like purple threadsthrough the hair on their arms and faces. 

The wraiths of their dead companions came back to their souls andincreased their energy; they felt, in a confused way, that they were theministers of a god diffused in the hearts of the oppressed, and were thepontiffs, so to speak, of universal vengeance! Then they were enragedwith grief at what was extravagant injustice, and above all by the sightof Carthage on the horizon. They swore an oath to fight for one anotheruntil death. 

The beasts of burden were killed, and as much as possible was eaten soas to gain strength; afterwards they slept. Some prayed, turning towardsdifferent constellations. 

The Carthaginians arrived first in the plain. They rubbed the edges oftheir shields with oil to make the arrows glide off them easily; thefoot-soldiers who wore long hair took the precaution of cutting it onthe forehead; and Hamilcar ordered all bowls to be inverted from thefifth hour, knowing that it is disadvantageous to fight with the stomachtoo full. His army amounted to fourteen thousand men, or about doublethe number of the Barbarians. Nevertheless, he had never felt suchanxiety; if he succumbed it would mean the annihilation of the Republic, and he would perish on the cross; if, on the contrary, he triumphed, hewould reach Italy by way of the Pyrenees, the Gauls, and the Alps, andthe empire of the Barcas would become eternal. Twenty times during thenight he rose to inspect everything himself, down to the most triflingdetails. As to the Carthaginians, they were exasperated by theirlengthened terror. Narr' Havas suspected the fidelity of his Numidians. Moreover, the Barbarians might vanquish them. A strange weakness hadcome upon him; every moment he drank large cups of water. 

But a man whom he did not know opened his tent and laid on the ground acrown of rock-salt, adorned with hieratic designs formed with sulphur, and lozenges of mother-of-pearl; a marriage crown was sometimes sent toa betrothed husband; it was a proof of love, a sort of invitation. 

Nevertheless Hamilcar's daughter had no tenderness for Narr' Havas. 

The recollection of Matho disturbed her in an intolerable manner; itseemed to her that the death of this man would unburden her thoughts, just as people to cure themselves of the bite of a viper crush it uponthe wound. The king of the Numidians was depending upon her; he awaitedthe wedding with impatience, and, as it was to follow the victory, Salammbo made him this present to stimulate his courage. Then hisdistress vanished, and he thought only of the happiness of possessing sobeautiful a woman. 

The same vision had assailed Matho; but he cast it from him immediately, and his love, that he thus thrust back, was poured out upon hiscompanions in arms. He cherished them like portions of his own person, of his hatred, --and he felt his spirit higher, and his arms stronger;everything that he was to accomplish appeared clearly before him. Ifsighs sometimes escaped him, it was because he was thinking of Spendius. 

He drew up the Barbarians in six equal ranks. He posted the Etruscansin the centre, all being fastened to a bronze chain; the archers werebehind, and on the wings he distributed the Naffurs, who were mounted onshort-haired camels, covered with ostrich feathers. 

The Suffet arranged the Carthaginians in similar order. He placed theClinabarians outside the infantry next to the velites, and the Numidiansbeyond; when day appeared, both sides were thus in line face to face. All gazed at each other from a distance, with round fierce eyes. Therewas at first some hesitation; at last both armies moved. 

The Barbarians advanced slowly so as not to become out of breath, beating the ground with their feet; the centre of the Punic army formeda convex curve. Then came the burst of a terrible shock, like the crashof two fleets in collision. The first rank of the Barbarians had quicklyopened up, and the marksmen, hidden behind the others, discharged theirbullets, arrows, and javelins. The curve of the Carthaginians, however, flattened by degrees, became quite straight, and then bent inwards; uponthis, the two sections of the velites drew together in parallel lines, like the legs of a compass that is being closed. The Barbarians, whowere attacking the phalanx with fury, entered the gap; they were beinglost; Matho checked them, --and while the Carthaginian wings continuedto advance, he drew out the three inner ranks of his line; they sooncovered his flanks, and his army appeared in triple array. 

But the Barbarians placed at the extremities were the weakest, especially those on the left, who had exhausted their quivers, and thetroop of velites, which had at last come up against them, was cuttingthem up greatly. 

Matho made them fall back. His right comprised Campanians, who werearmed with axes; he hurled them against the Carthaginian left; thecentre attacked the enemy, and those at the other extremity, who wereout of peril, kept the velites at a distance. 

Then Hamilcar divided his horsemen into squadrons, placed hoplitesbetween them, and sent them against the Mercenaries. 

Those cone-shaped masses presented a front of horses, and their broadersides were filled and bristling with lances. The Barbarians found itimpossible to resist; the Greek foot-soldiers alone had brazen armour, all the rest had cutlasses on the end of poles, scythes taken from thefarms, or swords manufactured out of the fellies of wheels; thesoft blades were twisted by a blow, and while they were engaged instraightening them under their heels, the Carthaginians massacred themright and left at their ease. 

But the Etruscans, riveted to their chain, did not stir; those who weredead, being prevented from falling, formed an obstruction with theircorpses; and the great bronze line widened and contracted in turn, assupple as a serpent, and as impregnable as a wall. The Barbarians wouldcome to re-form behind it, pant for a minute, and then set off againwith the fragments of their weapons in their hands. 

Many already had none left, and they leaped upon the Carthaginians, biting their faces like dogs. The Gauls in their pride strippedthemselves of the sagum; they showed their great white bodies from adistance, and they enlarged their wounds to terrify the enemy. The voiceof the crier announcing the orders could no longer be heard in themidst of the Punic syntagmata; their signals were being repeated by thestandards, which were raised above the dust, and every one was sweptaway in the swaying of the great mass that surrounded him. 

Hamilcar commanded the Numidians to advance. But the Naffurs rushed tomeet them. 

Clad in vast black robes, with a tuft of hair on the top of the skull, and a shield of rhinoceros leather, they wielded a steel which had nohandle, and which they held by a rope; and their camels, which bristledall over with feathers, uttered long, hoarse cluckings. Each blade fellon a precise spot, then rose again with a smart stroke carrying off alimb with it. The fierce beasts galloped through the syntagmata. Some, whose legs were broken, went hopping along like wounded ostriches. 

The Punic infantry turned in a body upon the Barbarians, and cut themoff. Their maniples wheeled about at intervals from one another. Themore brilliant Carthaginian weapons encircled them like golden crowns;there was a swarming movement in the centre, and the sun, striking downupon the points of the swords, made them glitter with white flickeringgleams. However, files of Clinabarians lay stretched upon the plain;some Mercenaries snatched away their armour, clothed themselves in it, and then returned to the fray. The deluded Carthaginians were severaltimes entangled in their midst. They would stand stupidly motionless, or else would back, surge again, and triumphant shouts rising in thedistance seemed to drive them along like derelicts in a storm. Hamilcarwas growing desperate; all was about to perish beneath the genius ofMatho and the invincible courage of the Mercenaries. 

But a great noise of tabourines burst forth on the horizon. It was acrowd of old men, sick persons, children of fifteen years of age, andeven women, who, being unable to withstand their distress any longer, had set out from Carthage, and, for the purpose of placing themselvesunder the protection of something formidable, had taken from Hamilcar'spalace the only elephant that the Republic now possessed, --that one, namely, whose trunk had been cut off. 

Then it seemed to the Carthaginians that their country, forsaking itswalls, was coming to command them to die for her. They were seized withincreased fury, and the Numidians carried away all the rest. 

The Barbarians had set themselves with their backs to a hillock inthe centre of the plain. They had no chance of conquering, or even ofsurviving; but they were the best, the most intrepid, and the strongest. 

The people from Carthage began to throw spits, larding-pins and hammers, over the heads of the Numidians; those whom consuls had feared diedbeneath sticks hurled by women; the Punic populace was exterminating theMercenaries. 

The latter had taken refuge on the top of the hill. Their circle closedup after every fresh breach; twice it descended to be immediatelyrepulsed with a shock; and the Carthaginians stretched forth their armspell-mell, thrusting their pikes between the legs of their companions, and raking at random before them. They slipped in the blood; the steepslope of the ground made the corpses roll to the bottom. The elephant, which was trying to climb the hillock, was up to its belly; it seemed tobe crawling over them with delight; and its shortened trunk, which wasbroad at the extremity, rose from time to time like an enormous leech. 

Then all paused. The Carthaginians ground their teeth as they gazed atthe hill, where the Barbarians were standing. 

At last they dashed at them abruptly, and the fight began again. TheMercenaries would often let them approach, shouting to them that theywished to surrender; then, with frightful sneers, they would killthemselves at a blow, and as the dead fell, the rest would mount uponthem to defend themselves. It was a kind of pyramid, which grew largerby degrees. 

Soon there were only fifty, then only twenty, only three, and lastlyonly two--a Samnite armed with an axe, and Matho who still had hissword. 

The Samnite with bent hams swept his axe alternately to the right andleft, at the same time warning Matho of the blows that were being aimedat him. "Master, this way! that way! stoop down!"

Matho had lost his shoulder-pieces, his helmet, his cuirass; he wascompletely naked, and more livid than the dead, with his hair quiteerect, and two patches of foam at the corners of his lips, --and hissword whirled so rapidly that it formed an aureola around him. Astone broke it near the guard; the Samnite was killed and the flood ofCarthaginians closed in, they touched Matho. Then he raised both hisempty hands towards heaven, closed his eyes, and, opening out his armslike a man throwing himself from the summit of a promontory into thesea, hurled himself among the pikes. 

They moved away before him. Several times he ran against theCarthaginians. But they always drew back and turned their weapons aside. 

His foot struck against a sword. Matho tried to seize it. He felthimself tied by the wrists and knees, and fell. 

Narr' Havas had been following him for some time, step by step, with oneof the large nets used for capturing wild beasts, and, taking advantageof the moment when he stooped down, had involved him in it. 

Then he was fastened on the elephants with his four limbs forming across; and all those who were not wounded escorted him, and rushed withgreat tumult towards Carthage. 

The news of the victory had arrived in some inexplicable way at thethird hour of the night; the clepsydra of Khamon had just completed thefifth as they reached Malqua; then Matho opened his eyes. There were somany lights in the houses that the town appeared to be all in flames. 

An immense clamour reached him dimly; and lying on his back he looked atthe stars. 

Then a door closed and he was wrapped in darkness. 

On the morrow, at the same hour, the last of the men left in the Pass ofthe Hatchet expired. 

On the day that their companions had set out, some Zuaeces who werereturning had tumbled the rocks down, and had fed them for some time. 

The Barbarians constantly expected to see Matho appear, --and fromdiscouragement, from languor, and from the obstinacy of sick men whoobject to change their situation, they would not leave the mountain;at last the provisions were exhausted and the Zuaeces went away. It wasknown that they numbered scarcely more than thirteen hundred men, andthere was no need to employ soldiers to put an end to them. 

Wild beasts, especially lions, had multiplied during the three yearsthat the war had lasted. Narr' Havas had held a great battue, and--aftertying goats at intervals--had run upon them and so driven them towardsthe Pass of the Hatchet;--and they were now all living in it when a manarrived who had been sent by the Ancients to find out what there wasleft of the Barbarians. 

Lions and corpses were lying over the tract of the plain, and the deadwere mingled with clothes and armour. Nearly all had the face or an armwanting; some appeared to be still intact; others were completely driedup, and their helmets were filled with powdery skulls; feet which hadlost their flesh stood out straight from the knemides; skeletons stillwore their cloaks; and bones, cleaned by the sun, made gleaming spots inthe midst of the sand. 

The lions were resting with their breasts against the ground and bothpaws stretched out, winking their eyelids in the bright daylight, whichwas heightened by the reflection from the white rocks. Others wereseated on their hind-quarters and staring before them, or else weresleeping, rolled into a ball and half hidden by their great manes; theyall looked well fed, tired, and dull. They were as motionless as themountain and the dead. Night was falling; the sky was striped with broadred bands in the west. 

In one of the heaps, which in an irregular fashion embossed the plain, something rose up vaguer than a spectre. Then one of the lions sethimself in motion, his monstrous form cutting a black shadow on thebackground of the purple sky, and when he was quite close to the man, heknocked him down with a single blow of his paw. 

Then, stretching himself flat upon him, he slowly drew out the entrailswith the edge of his teeth. 

Afterwards he opened his huge jaws, and for some minutes uttered alengthened roar which was repeated by the echoes in the mountain, andwas finally lost in the solitude. 

Suddenly some small gravel rolled down from above. The rustling of rapidsteps was heard, and in the direction of the portcullis and of the gorgethere appeared pointed muzzles and straight ears, with gleaming, tawnyeyes. These were the jackals coming to eat what was left. 

The Carthaginian, who was leaning over the top of the precipice to look, went back again. 

CHAPTER XV

MATHO

There were rejoicings at Carthage, --rejoicings deep, universal, extravagant, frantic; the holes of the ruins had been stopped up, thestatues of the gods had been repainted, the streets were strewn withmyrtle branches, incense smoked at the corners of the crossways, and thethrong on the terraces looked, in their variegated garments, like heapsof flowers blooming in the air. 

The shouts of the water-carriers watering the pavement rose above thecontinual screaming of voices; slaves belonging to Hamilcar offeredin his name roasted barley and pieces of raw meat; people accosted oneanother, and embraced one another with tears; the Tyrian towns weretaken, the nomads dispersed, and all the Barbarians annihilated. The Acropolis was hidden beneath coloured velaria; the beaks of thetriremes, drawn up in line outside the mole, shone like a dyke ofdiamonds; everywhere there was a sense of the restoration of order, thebeginning of a new existence, and the diffusion of vast happiness: itwas the day of Salammbo's marriage with the King of the Numidians. 

On the terrace of the temple of Khamon there were three long tablesladen with gigantic plate, at which the priests, Ancients, and the richwere to sit, and there was a fourth and higher one for Hamilcar, Narr'Havas, and Salammbo; for as she had saved her country by the restorationof the zaimph, the people turned her wedding day into a nationalrejoicing, and were waiting in the square below till she should appear. 

But their impatience was excited by another and more acrid longing:Matho's death has been promised for the ceremony. 

It had been proposed at first to flay him alive, to pour lead into hisentrails, to kill him with hunger; he should be tied to a tree, andan ape behind him should strike him on the head with a stone; he hadoffended Tanith, and the cynocephaluses of Tanith should avenge her. Others were of opinion that he should be led about on a dromedary afterlinen wicks, dipped in oil, had been inserted in his body in severalplaces;--and they took pleasure in the thought of the large animalwandering through the streets with this man writhing beneath the fireslike a candelabrum blown about by the wind. 

But what citizens should be charged with his torture, and why disappointthe rest? They would have liked a kind of death in which the wholetown might take part, in which every hand, every weapon, everythingCarthaginian, to the very paving-stones in the streets and the waves inthe gulf, could rend him, and crush him, and annihilate him. Accordinglythe Ancients decided that he should go from his prison to the square ofKhamon without any escort, and with his arms fastened to his back; itwas forbidden to strike him to the heart, in order that he might livethe longer; to put out his eyes, so that he might see the torturethrough; to hurl anything against his person, or to lay more than threefingers upon him at a time. 

Although he was not to appear until the end of the day, the peoplesometimes fancied that he could be seen, and the crowd would rushtowards the Acropolis, and empty the streets, to return with lengthenedmurmurings. Some people had remained standing in the same place sincethe day before, and they would call on one another from a distance andshow their nails which they had allowed to grow, the better to bury theminto his flesh. Others walked restlessly up and down; some were as paleas though they were awaiting their own execution. 

Suddenly lofty feather fans rose above the heads, behind the Mappaliandistrict. It was Salammbo leaving her palace; a sigh of relief foundvent. 

But the procession was long in coming; it marched with deliberation. 

First there filed past the priests of the Pataec Gods, then those ofEschmoun, of Melkarth, and all the other colleges in succession, withthe same insignia, and in the same order as had been observed at thetime of the sacrifice. The pontiffs of Moloch passed with heads bent, and the multitude stood aside from them in a kind of remorse. But thepriests of Rabbetna advanced with a proud step, and with lyres in theirhands; the priestesses followed them in transparent robes of yellowor black, uttering cries like birds and writhing like vipers, or elsewhirling round to the sound of flutes to imitate the dance of the stars, while their light garments wafted puffs of delicate scents through thestreets. 

The Kedeschim, with painted eyelids, who symbolised the hermaphrodism ofthe Divinity, received applause among these women, and, being perfumedand dressed like them, they resembled them in spite of their flatbreasts and narrower hips. Moreover, on this day the female principledominated and confused all things; a mystic voluptuousness moved in theheavy air; the torches were already lighted in the depths of the sacredwoods; there was to be a great celebration there during the night; threevessels had brought courtesans from Sicily, and others had come from thedesert. 

As the colleges arrived they ranged themselves in the courts of thetemples, on the outer galleries, and along double staircases which roseagainst the walls, and drew together at the top. Files of white robesappeared between the colonnades, and the architecture was peopled withhuman statues, motionless as statues of stone. 

Then came the masters of the exchequer, the governors of the provinces, and all the rich. A great tumult prevailed below. Adjacent streets weredischarging the crowd, hierodules were driving it back with blows ofsticks; and then Salammbo appeared in a litter surmounted by a purplecanopy, and surrounded by the Ancients crowned with their golden tiaras. 

Thereupon an immense shout arose; the cymbals and crotala sounded moreloudly, the tabourines thundered, and the great purple canopy sankbetween the two pylons. 

It appeared again on the first landing. Salammbo was walking slowlybeneath it; then she crossed the terrace to take her seat behind on akind of throne cut out of the carapace of a tortoise. An ivory stoolwith three steps was pushed beneath her feet; two Negro children knelton the edge of the first step, and sometimes she would rest both arms, which were laden with rings of excessive weight, upon their heads. 

From ankle to hip she was covered with a network of narrow meshes whichwere in imitation of fish scales, and shone like mother-of-pearl; herwaist was clasped by a blue zone, which allowed her breasts to beseen through two crescent-shaped slashings; the nipples were hiddenby carbuncle pendants. She had a headdress made of peacock's feathersstudded with gems; an ample cloak, as white as snow, fell behindher, --and with her elbows at her sides, her knees pressed together, and circles of diamonds on the upper part of her arms, she remainedperfectly upright in a hieratic attitude. 

Her father and her husband were on two lower seats, Narr' Havas dressedin a light simar and wearing his crown of rock-salt, from which therestrayed two tresses of hair as twisted as the horns of Ammon; andHamilcar in a violet tunic figured with gold vine branches, and with abattle-sword at his side. 

The python of the temple of Eschmoun lay on the ground amid pools ofpink oil in the space enclosed by the tables, and, biting its tail, described a large black circle. In the middle of the circle there was acopper pillar bearing a crystal egg; and, as the sun shone upon it, rayswere emitted on every side. 

Behind Salammbo stretched the priests of Tanith in linen robes; on herright the Ancients, in their tiaras, formed a great gold line, andon the other side the rich with their emerald sceptres a great greenline, --while quite in the background, where the priests of Moloch wereranged, the cloaks looked like a wall of purple. The other collegesoccupied the lower terraces. The multitude obstructed the streets. Itreached to the house-tops, and extended in long files to the summit ofthe Acropolis. Having thus the people at her feet, the firmamentabove her head, and around her the immensity of the sea, the gulf, themountains, and the distant provinces, Salammbo in her splendour wasblended with Tanith, and seemed the very genius of Carthage, and itsembodied soul. 

The feast was to last all night, and lamps with several branches wereplanted like trees on the painted woollen cloths which covered the lowtables. Large electrum flagons, blue glass amphoras, tortoise-shellspoons, and small round loaves were crowded between the double row ofpearl-bordered plates; bunches of grapes with their leaves had beenrolled round ivory vine-stocks after the fashion of the thyrsus; blocksof snow were melting on ebony trays, and lemons, pomegranates, gourds, and watermelons formed hillocks beneath the lofty silver plate; boarswith open jaws were wallowing in the dust of spices; hares, covered withtheir fur, appeared to be bounding amid the flowers; there were shellsfilled with forcemeat; the pastry had symbolic shapes; when the coversof the dishes were removed doves flew out. 

The slaves, meanwhile, with tunics tucked up, were going about ontiptoe; from time to time a hymn sounded on the lyres, or a choir ofvoices rose. The clamour of the people, continuous as the noise ofthe sea, floated vaguely around the feast, and seemed to lull it in abroader harmony; some recalled the banquet of the Mercenaries; they gavethemselves up to dreams of happiness; the sun was beginning to go down, and the crescent of the moon was already rising in another part of thesky. 

But Salammbo turned her head as though some one had called her; thepeople, who were watching her, followed the direction of her eyes. 

The door of the dungeon, hewn in the rock at the foot of the temple, onthe summit of the Acropolis, had just opened; and a man was standing onthe threshold of this black hole. 

He came forth bent double, with the scared look of fallow deer whensuddenly enlarged. 

The light dazzled him; he stood motionless awhile. All had recognisedhim, and they held their breath. 

In their eyes the body of this victim was something peculiarly theirs, and was adorned with almost religious splendour. They bent forward tosee him, especially the women. They burned to gaze upon him who hadcaused the deaths of their children and husbands; and from the bottomof their souls there sprang up in spite of themselves an infamouscuriosity, a desire to know him completely, a wish mingled with remorsewhich turned to increased execration. 

At last he advanced; then the stupefaction of surprise disappeared. Numbers of arms were raised, and he was lost to sight. 

The staircase of the Acropolis had sixty steps. He descended them asthough he were rolled down in a torrent from the top of a mountain;three times he was seen to leap, and then he alighted below on his feet. 

His shoulders were bleeding, his breast was panting with great shocks;and he made such efforts to burst his bonds that his arms, which werecrossed on his naked loins, swelled like pieces of a serpent. 

Several streets began in front of him, leading from the spot at which hefound himself. In each of them a triple row of bronze chains fastened tothe navels of the Pataec gods extended in parallel lines from one endto the other; the crowd was massed against the houses, and servants, belonging to the Ancients, walked in the middle brandishing thongs. 

One of them drove him forward with a great blow; Matho began to move. 

They thrust their arms over the chains shouting out that the road hadbeen left too wide for him; and he passed along, felt, pricked, andslashed by all those fingers; when he reached the end of one streetanother appeared; several times he flung himself to one side to bitethem; they speedily dispersed, the chains held him back, and the crowdburst out laughing. 

A child rent his ear; a young girl, hiding the point of a spindle in hersleeve, split his cheek; they tore handfuls of hair from him and stripsof flesh; others smeared his face with sponges steeped in filth andfastened upon sticks. A stream of blood started from the right side ofhis neck, frenzy immediately set in. This last Barbarian was to them arepresentative of all the Barbarians, and all the army; they were takingvengeance on him for their disasters, their terrors, and their shame. The rage of the mob developed with its gratification; the curving chainswere over-strained, and were on the point of breaking; the people didnot feel the blows of the slaves who struck at them to drive them back;some clung to the projections of the houses; all the openings in thewalls were stopped up with heads; and they howled at him the mischiefthat they could not inflict upon him. 

It was atrocious, filthy abuse mingled with ironical encouragements andimprecations; and, his present tortures not being enough for them, theyforetold to him others that should be still more terrible in eternity. 

This vast baying filled Carthage with stupid continuity. Frequentlya single syllable--a hoarse, deep, and frantic intonation--would berepeated for several minutes by the entire people. The walls wouldvibrate with it from top to bottom, and both sides of the street wouldseem to Matho to be coming against him, and carrying him off the ground, like two immense arms stifling him in the air. 

Nevertheless he remembered that he had experienced something like itbefore. The same crowd was on the terraces, there were the same looksand the same wrath; but then he had walked free, all had then dispersed, for a god covered him;--and the recollection of this, gaining precisionby degrees, brought a crushing sadness upon him. Shadows passed beforehis eyes; the town whirled round in his head, his blood streamed from awound in his hip, he felt that he was dying; his hams bent, and he sankquite gently upon the pavement. 

Some one went to the peristyle of the temple of Melkarth, took thencethe bar of a tripod, heated red hot in the coals, and, slipping itbeneath the first chain, pressed it against his wound. The flesh wasseen to smoke; the hootings of the people drowned his voice; he wasstanding again. 

Six paces further on, and he fell a third and again a fourth time; butsome new torture always made him rise. They discharged little drops ofboiling oil through tubes at him; they strewed pieces of broken glassbeneath his feet; still he walked on. At the corner of the street ofSatheb he leaned his back against the wall beneath the pent-house of ashop, and advanced no further. 

The slaves of the Council struck him with their whips of hippopotamusleather, so furiously and long that the fringes of their tunics weredrenched with sweat. Matho appeared insensible; suddenly he startedoff and began to run at random, making a noise with his lips like oneshivering with severe cold. He threaded the street of Boudes, and thestreet of Soepo, crossed the Green Market, and reached the square ofKhamon. 

He now belonged to the priests; the slaves had just dispersed the crowd, and there was more room. Matho gazed round him and his eyes encounteredSalammbo. 

At the first step that he had taken she had risen; then, as heapproached, she had involuntarily advanced by degrees to the edge of theterrace; and soon all external things were blotted out, and she saw onlyMatho. Silence fell in her soul, --one of those abysses wherein the wholeworld disappears beneath the pressure of a single thought, a memory, alook. This man who was walking towards her attracted her. 

Excepting his eyes he had no appearance of humanity left; he was a long, perfectly red shape; his broken bonds hung down his thighs, but theycould not be distinguished from the tendons of his wrists, which werelaid quite bare; his mouth remained wide open; from his eye-socketsthere darted flames which seemed to rise up to his hair;--and the wretchstill walked on!

He reached the foot of the terrace. Salammbo was leaning over thebalustrade; those frightful eyeballs were scanning her, and there rosewithin her a consciousness of all that he had suffered for her. Althoughhe was in his death agony she could see him once more kneeling in histent, encircling her waist with his arms, and stammering out gentlewords; she thirsted to feel them and hear them again; she did not wanthim to die! At this moment Matho gave a great start; she was on thepoint of shrieking aloud. He fell backwards and did not stir again. 

Salammbo was borne back, nearly swooning, to her throne by the priestswho flocked about her. They congratulated her; it was her work. Allclapped their hands and stamped their feet, howling her name. 

A man darted upon the corpse. Although he had no beard he had the cloakof a priest of Moloch on his shoulder, and in his belt that speciesof knife which they employed for cutting up the sacred meat, and whichterminated, at the end of the handle, in a golden spatula. He cleftMatho's breast with a single blow, then snatched out the heart and laidit upon the spoon; and Schahabarim, uplifting his arm, offered it to thesun. 

The sun sank behind the waves; his rays fell like long arrows upon thered heart. As the beatings diminished the planet sank into the sea; andat the last palpitation it disappeared. 

Then from the gulf to the lagoon, and from the isthmus to the pharos, inall the streets, on all the houses, and on all the temples, there wasa single shout; sometimes it paused, to be again renewed; the buildingsshook with it; Carthage was convulsed, as it were, in the spasm ofTitanic joy and boundless hope. 

Narr' Havas, drunk with pride, passed his left arm beneath Salammbo'swaist in token of possession; and taking a gold patera in his righthand, he drank to the Genius of Carthage. 

Salammbo rose like her husband, with a cup in her hand, to drinkalso. She fell down again with her head lying over the back of thethrone, --pale, stiff, with parted lips, --and her loosened hair hung tothe ground. 

Thus died Hamilcar's daughter for having touched the mantle of Tanith.