fray.

In their extremity of terror all became brave. The rich ranged
themselves in line along the Mappalian district at cockcrow, and

tucking up their robes practised themselves in handling the pike. But
for want of an instructor they had disputes about it. They would sit

down breathless" target="_blank" title="a.屏息的">breathless upon the tombs and then begin again. Several even
dieted themselves. Some imagined that it was necessary to eat a great

deal in order to acquire strength, while others who were
inconvenienced by their corpulence weakened themselves with fasts in

order to become thin.
Utica had already called several times upon Carthage for assistance;

but Hanno would not set out until the engines of war had been supplied
with the last screws. He lost three moons more in equipping the one

hundred and twelve elephants that were lodged in the ramparts. They
were the conquerors of Regulus; the people loved them; it was

impossible to treat such old friends too well. Hanno had the brass
plates which adorned their breasts recast, their tusks gilt, their

towers enlarged, and caparisons, edged with very heavy fringes, cut
out of the handsomest purple. Finally, as their drivers were called

Indians (after the first ones, no doubt, who came from the Indies) he
ordered them all to be costumed after the Indian fashion; that is to

say, with white pads round their temples, and small drawers of byssus,
which with their transverse folds looked like two valves of a shell

applied to the hips.
The army under Autaritus still remained before Tunis. It was hidden

behind a wall made with mud from the lake, and protected on the top by
thorny brushwood. Some Negroes had planted tall sticks here and there

bearing frightful faces,--human masks made with birds' feathers, and
jackals' or serpents' heads,--which gaped towards the enemy for the

purpose of terrifying him; and the Barbarians, reckoning themselves
invincible through these means, danced, wrestled, and juggled,

convinced that Carthage would perish before long. Any one but Hanno
would easily have crushed such a multitude, hampered as it was with

herds and women. Moreover, they knew nothing of drill, and Autaritus
was so disheartened that he had ceased to require it.

They stepped aside when he passed by rolling his big blue eyes. Then
on 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
latter in the water. He regretted that he had not deserted to the

Romans along with 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

whirling along; the palm trees would bend and the sky disappear, while
stones would be heard rebounding on the animals' cruppers; and the

Gaul, his lips glued against the holes in his tent, would gasp with
exhaustion and melancholy. His thoughts would be of the scent of the

pastures on autumn mornings, of snowflakes, or of the bellowing of the
urus lost in the fog, and closing his eyelids he would in imagination

behold the fires in long, straw-roofed cottages flickering on the
marshes in the depths of the woods.

Others regretted their native lands as well as he, even though they
might not be so far away. Indeed the Carthaginian captives could

distinguish the velaria spread over the courtyards of their houses,
beyond the gulf on the slopes of Byrsa. But sentries marched round

them continually. They were all fastened to a common chain. Each one
wore an iron carcanet, and the crowd was never weary of coming to gaze

at them. The women would show their little children the handsome robes
hanging in tatters on their wasted limbs.

Whenever Autaritus looked at Gisco he was seized with rage at the
recollection of the insult that he had received, and he would have

killed him but for the oath which he had taken to Narr' Havas. Then he
would go back into his tent and drink a mixture of barley and cumin

until he swooned away from intoxication,--to awake afterwards in broad
daylight consumed with horrible thirst.

Matho, meanwhile, was besieging Hippo-Zarytus. But the town was
protected by a lake, communicating with the sea. It had three lines of

circumvallation, and upon the heights which surrounded it there
extended a wall fortified with towers. He had never commanded in such

an enterprise before. Moreover, he was beset with thoughts of
Salammbo, and he raved in the delight of her beauty as in the

sweetness of a vengeance that transported him with pride. He felt an
acrid, frenzied, permanent want to see her again. He even thought of

presenting himself as the bearer of a flag of truce, in the hope that
once within Carthage he might make his way to her. Often he would

cause the assault to be sounded and waiting for nothing rush upon the
mole which it was sought to construct in the sea. He would snatch up

the stones with his hands, overturn, strike, and deal sword-thrusts
everywhere. The Barbarians would dash on pell-mell; the ladders would

break with a loud crash, and masses of men would tumble into the
water, causing it to fly up in red waves against the walls. Finally

the tumult would subside, and the soldiers would retire to make a
fresh beginning.

Matho would go and seat himself outside the tents, wipe his blood-
splashed face with his arm, and gaze at the horizon in the direction

of Carthage.
In front of him, among the olives, palms, myrtles and planes,

stretched two broad ponds which met another lake, the outlines of
which could not be seen. Behind one mountain other mountains reared

themselves, and in the middle of the immense lake rose an island
perfectly black and pyramidal in form. On the left, at the extremity

of the gulf, were sand-heaps like arrested waves, large and pale,
while the sea, flat as a pavement of lapis-lazuli, ascended by

insensible degrees to the edge of the sky. The verdure of the country
was lost in places beneath long sheets of yellow; carobs were shining

like knobs of coral; vine branches drooped from the tops of the
sycamores; the murmuring of the water could be heard; crested larks

were hopping about, and the sun's latest fires gilded the carapaces of
the tortoises as they came forth from the reeds to inhale the breeze.

Matho would heave deep sighs. He would lie flat on his face, with his
nails 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 what
use to him was this thing which belonged to the gods?--and doubt crept

into the Barbarian's thoughts. Then, on the contrary, it would seem to
him that the vesture of the goddess was depending from Salammbo, and

that a portion of her soul hovered in it, subtler than a breath; and
he would feel it, breathe it in, bury his face in it, and kiss it with

sobs. He would cover his shoulders with it in order to delude himself
that he was beside her.

Sometimes he would suddenly steal away, stride in the starlight over
the sleeping soldiers as they lay wrapped in their cloaks, spring

upon a horse on reaching the camp gates, and two hours later be at
Utica in Spendius's tent.

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

prudent.
"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
Carthage is not conquered we shall at least be granted provinces. We

shall become kings!"
But how was it that the possession of the zaimph did not give them the

victory? According to Spendius they must wait.
Matho fancied that the veil affected people of Chanaanitish race

exclusively, and, in his Barbarian-like subtlety, he said to himself:
"The zaimph will accordingly do nothing for me, but since they have