had amounted to one hundred thousand nine hundred and seventy-two

shekels of silver, fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three
shekels of gold, eighteen elephants, fourteen members of the Great

Council, three hundred of the rich, eight thousand citizens, corn
enough for three moons, a considerable quantity of baggage, and all

the engines of war! The defection of Narr' Havas was certain, and both
sieges were beginning again. The army under Autaritus now extended

from Tunis to Rhades. From the top of the Acropolis long columns of
smoke might be seen in the country ascending to the sky; they were the

mansions of the rich, which were on fire.
One man alone could have saved the Republic. People repented that they

had slighted him, and the peace party itself voted holocausts for
Hamilcar's return.

The sight of the zaimph had upset Salammbo. At night she thought that
she could hear the footsteps of the goddess, and she would awake

terrified and shrieking. Every day she sent food to the temples.
Taanach was worn out with executing her orders, and Schahabarim never

left her.
CHAPTER VII

HAMILCAR BARCA
The Announcer of the Moons, who watched on the summit of the temple of

Eschmoun every night in order to signal the disturbances of the planet
with his trumpet, one morning perceived towards the west something

like a bird skimming the surface of the sea with its long wings.
It was a ship with three tiers of oars and with a horse carved on the

prow. The sun was rising; the Announcer of the Moons put up his hand
before his eyes, and then grasping his clarion with outstretched arms

sounded a loud brazen cry over Carthage.
People came out of every house; they would not believe what was said;

they disputed with one another; the mole was covered with people. At
last they recognised Hamilcar's trireme.

It advanced in fierce and haughty fashion, cleaving the foam around
it, the lateen-yard quite square and the sail bulging down the whole

length of the mast; its gigantic oars kept time as they beat the
water; every now and then the extremity of the keel, which was shaped

like a plough-share, would appear, and the ivory-headed horse, rearing
both its feet beneath the spur which terminated the prow, would seem

to be speeding over the plains of the sea.
As it rounded the promontory the wind ceased, the sail fell, and a man

was seen standing bareheaded beside the pilot. It was he, Hamilcar,
the Suffet! About his sides he wore gleaming sheets of steel; a red

cloak, fastened to his shoulders, left his arms visible; two pearls of
great length hung from his ears, and his black, bushy beard rested on

his breast.
The galley, however, tossing amid the rocks, was proceeding along the

side of the mole, and the crowd followed it on the flag-stones,
shouting:

"Greeting! blessing! Eye of Khamon! ah! deliver us! 'Tis the fault of
the rich! they want to put you to death! Take care of yourself,

Barca!"
He made no reply, as if the loud clamour of oceans and battles had

completely deafened him. But when he was below the staircase leading
down from the Acropolis, Hamilcar raised his head, and looked with

folded arms upon the temple of Eschmoun. His gaze mounted higher
still, to the great pure sky; he shouted an order in a harsh voice to

his sailors; the trireme leaped forward; it grazed the idol set up at
the corner of the mole to stay the storms; and in the merchant

harbour, which was full of filth, fragments of wood, and rinds of
fruit, it pushed aside and crushed against the other ships moored to

stakes and terminating in crocodiles' jaws. The people hastened
thither, and some threw themselves into the water to swim to it. It

was already at the very end before the gate which bristled with nails.
The gate rose, and the trireme disappeared beneath the deep arch.

The Military Harbour was completely separated from the town; when
ambassadors arrived, they had to proceed between two walls through a

passage which had its outlet on the left in front of the temple of
Khamon. This great expanse of water was as round as a cup, and was

bordered with quays on which sheds were built for sheltering the
ships. Before each of these rose two pillars bearing the horns of

Ammon on their capitals and forming continuous porticoes all round the
basin. On an island in the centre stood a house for the marine Suffet.

The water was so limpid that the bottom was visible with its paving of
white pebbles. The noise of the streets did not reach so far, and

Hamilcar as he passed recognised the triremes which he had formerly
commanded.

Not more than twenty perhaps remained, under shelter on the land,
leaning over on their sides or standingupright on their keels, with

lofty poops and swelling prows, and covered with gildings and mystic
symbols. The chimaeras had lost their wings, the Pataec Gods their

arms, the bulls their silver horns;--and half-painted, motionless, and
rotten as they were, yet full of associations, and still emitting the

scent of voyages, they all seemed to say to him, like mutilated
soldiers on seeing their master again, "'Tis we! 'tis we! and YOU too

are vanquished!"
No one excepting the marine Suffet might enter the admiral's house. So

long as there was no proof of his death he was considered as still in
existence. In this way the Ancients avoided a master the more, and

they had not failed to comply with the custom in respect to Hamilcar.
The Suffet proceeded into the deserted apartments. At every step he

recognised armour and furniture--familiar objects which nevertheless
astonished him, and in a perfuming-pan in the vestibule there even

remained the ashes of the perfumes that had been kindled at his
departure for the conjuration of Melkarth. It was not thus that he had

hoped to return. Everything that he had done, everything that he had
seen, unfolded itself in his memory: assaults, conflagrations,

legions, tempests, Drepanum, Syracuse, Lilybaeum, Mount Etna, the
plateau of Eryx, five years of battles,--until the fatal day when arms

had been laid down and Sicily had been lost. Then he once more saw the
woods of citron-trees, and herdsmen with their goats on grey

mountains; and his heart leaped at the thought of the establishment of
another Carthage down yonder. His projects and his recollections

buzzed through his head, which was still dizzy from the pitching of
the vessel; he was overwhelmed with anguish, and, becoming suddenly

weak, he felt the necessity of drawing near to the gods.
Then he went up to the highest story of his house, and taking a nail-

studded staple from a golden shell, which hung on his arm, he opened a
small oval chamber.

It was softly lighted by means of delicate black discs let into the
wall and as transparent as glass. Between the rows of these equal

discs, holes, like those for the urns in columbaria, were hollowed
out. Each of them contained a round dark stone, which appeared to be

very heavy. Only people of superior understanding honoured these
abaddirs, which had fallen from the moon. By their fall they denoted

the stars, the sky, and fire; by their colour dark night, and by their
density the cohesion of terrestrial things. A stifling atmosphere

filled this mystic place. The round stones lying in the niches were
whitened somewhat with sea-sand which the wind had no doubt driven

through the door. Hamilcar counted them one after another with the tip
of his finger; then he hid his face in a saffron-coloured veil, and,

falling on his knees, stretched himself on the ground with both arms
extended.

The daylight outside was beginning to strike on the folding shutters
of black lattice-work. Arborescences, hillocks, eddies, and ill-

defined animals appeared in their diaphanous thickness; and the light
came terrifying and yet peaceful as it must be behind the sun in the

dull spaces of future creations. He strove to banish from his thoughts
all forms, and all symbols and appellations of the gods, that he might

the better apprehend the immutable spirit which outward appearances
took away. Something of the planetary vitalities penetrated him, and