ed by your
gaze!"

She threw the zaimph about her waist, and quickly picked up her veils,
mantle, and scarf. "I hasten thither!" she cried; and making her escape
Salammbo disappeared.

At first she walked through the darkness without meeting any one, for
all were betaking themselves to the fire; the uproar was increasing and
great 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 of
Gisco, 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 the
entrenchment. She took the hem of her robe, which impeded her, in her
teeth, and in three bounds she was on the platform.

A sonorous shout burst forth beneath her in the shade, the same which
she had heard at the foot of the galley staircase, and leaning over she
recognised Schahabarim's man with his coupled horses.

He had wandered all night between the two entrenchments; then disquieted
by the fire, he had gone back again trying to see what was passing in
Matho's camp; and, knowing that this spot was nearest to his tent, he
had not stirred from it, in obedience to the priest's command.

He stood up on one of the horses. Salammbo let herself slide down to
him; and they fled at full gallop, circling the Punic camp in search of
a gate.

Matho had re-entered his tent. The smoky lamp gave but little light, and
he also believed that Salammbo was asleep. Then he delicately touched
the 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; the
zaimph was gone.

The earth trembled beneath thronging feet. Shouts, neighings, and
clashing of armour rose in the air, and clarion flourishes sounded
the 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 a
run, and the Punic squares were advancing against them with a heavy
and regular oscillation. The mist, rent by the rays of the sun, formed
little rocking clouds which as they rose gradually discovered standards,
helmets, and points of pikes. Beneath the rapid evolutions portions of
the earth which were still in the shadow seemed to be displaced bodily;
in other places it looked as if hu