at the head, thought that he could
distinguish something green on the horizon on the summit of an eminence.
Then the ground sank, and obelisks, domes, and houses appeared! It was
Carthage. He leaned against a tree to keep himself from falling, so
rapidly did his heart beat.

He thought of all that had come to pass in his existence since the
last time that he had passed that way! It was an infinite surprise, it
stunned him. Then he was transported with joy at the thought of seeing
Salammbo again. The reasons which he had for execrating her returned to
his recollection, but he very quickly rejected them. Quivering and with
straining eyeballs he gazed at the lofty terrace of a palace above the
palm trees beyond Eschmoun; a smile of ecstasy lighted his face as if
some great light had reached him; he opened his arms, and sent kisses on
the breeze, and murmured: "Come! come!" A sigh swelled his breast, and
two long tears like pearls fell upon his beard.

"What stays you?" cried Spendius. "Make haste! Forward! The Suffet is
going to escape us! But your knees are tottering, and you are looking at
me like a drunken man!"

He stamped with impatience and urged Matho, his eyes twinkling as at the
approach 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 from
his torpor, and felt himself carried away by it. These words, coming
when his distress was at its height, drove his despair to vengeance, and
pointed to food for his wrath. He bounded upon one of the camels that
were among the baggage, snatched up its halter, and with the long
rope, struck the stragglers with all his might, running right and left
alternately, in the rear of the army, like a dog driving a flock.

At this thundering voice the lines of men closed up; even the lame
hurried their steps; the intervening space lessened in the middle of the
isthmus. The foremost of the Barbarians were marching in the dust raised
by the Carthaginians. The two armies were coming close, and were on the
point of touching. But the Malqua gate, the Tagaste gate, and the great
gate of Khamon threw wide their leaves. The Punic square divided; three
columns were swallowed up, and eddied beneath the porches. Soon the
mass, being too tightly packed, could advance no further; pikes clashed
in the air, and the arrows of the Barbarians were shivering against the
walls.

Hamilcar was to be see