habarim felt himself in doubt about Tanith, the
more he wished to believe in her. At the bottom of his soul he was
arrested by remorse. He needed some proof, some manifestation from the
gods, and in the hope of obtaining it the priest devised an enterprise
which might save at once his country and his belief.

Thenceforward he set himself to deplore before Salammbo the sacrilege
and the misfortunes which resulted from it even in the regions of
the sky. Then he suddenly announced the peril of the Suffet, who was
assailed by three armies under the command of Matho--for on account of
the veil Matho was, in the eyes of the Carthaginians, the king, as it
were, of the Barbarians,--and he added that the safety of the Republic
and 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 stretched
out between her knees and shivering in all her limbs, like a victim
at the altar's foot awaiting the blow of the club. Her temples were
ringing, she could see fiery circles revolving, and in her stupor
she had lost the understanding of all things save one, that she was
certainly going to die soon.

But if Rabbetna triumphed, if the zaimph were restored and Carthage
delivered, 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 for
him.

The better to inflame her heart he reported to her all the invectives
howled against Hamilcar in open council; he told her that she had erred,
that she owed reparation for her crime, and that Rabbetna commanded the
sacrifice.

A great uproar came frequently across the Mappalian district to Megara.
Schahabarim and Salammbo went out quickly, and gazed from the top of the
galley staircase.

There were people in the square of Khamon shouting for arms. The
Ancients would not provide them, esteeming such an effort useless;
others who had set out without a general had been massacred. At last
they were permitted to depart, and as a sort of homage to Moloch, or
from a vague need of destruction, they tore up tall cypress trees in
the woods of the temples, and having kindled them at the torches of the
Kabi