lean
being, who was as hideous as a larva and nearly as terrible as a
phantom.

"I am nearly one hundred years old," he said. "I have seen Agathocles; I
have seen Regulus and the eagles of the Romans passing over the harvests
of the Punic fields! I have seen all the terrors of battles and the
sea encumbered with the wrecks of our fleets! Barbarians whom I used
to command have chained my four limbs like a slave that has committed
murder. My companions are dying around me, one after the other; the
odour of their corpses awakes me in the night; I drive away the birds
that come to peck out their eyes; and yet not for a single day have I
despaired of Carthage! Though I had seen all the armies of the earth
against her, and the flames of the siege overtop the height of the
temples, I should have still believed in her eternity! But now all is
over! all is lost! The gods execrate her! A curse upon you who have
quickened her ruin by your disgrace!"

She opened her lips.

"Ah! I was there!" he cried. "I heard you gurgling with love like a
prostitute; then he told you of his desire, and you allowed him to kiss
your hands! But if the frenzy of your unchastity urged you to it, you
should at least have done as do the fallow deer, which hide themselves
in their copulations, and not have displayed your shame beneath your
father's very eyes!"

"What?" she said.

"Ah! you did not know that the two entrenchments are sixty cubits from
each other and that your Matho, in the excess of his pride, has posted
himself just in front of Hamilcar. Your father is there behind you; and
could 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 the
garment of the goddess to please him; and in yielding her body to him
she surrenders with the glory of your name the majesty of the gods, the
vengeance of her country, even the safety of Carthage!'" The motion of
his toothless mouth moved his beard throughout its length; his eyes were
riveted 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 face
against the earth! It is a holy spot which would be pollut