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Salammbo-Part39_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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urged forward masses of soldiers who came ceaselessly against the

ramparts. By degrees he had drawn near; the smell of blood, the sight



of carnage, and the tumult of clarions had at last made his heart

leap. Then he had gone back into his tent, and throwing off his



cuirass had taken his lion's skin as being more convenient for battle.

The snout fitted upon his head, bordering his face with a circle of



fangs; the two fore-paws were crossed upon his breast, and the claws

of the hinder ones fell beneath his knees.



He had kept on his strong waist-belt, wherein gleamed a two-edged axe,

and with his great sword in both hands he had dashed impetuously



through the breach. Like a pruner cutting willow-branches and trying

to strike off as much as possible so as to make the more money, he



marched along mowing down the Carthaginians around him. Those who

tried to seize him in flank he knocked down with blows of the pommel;



when they attacked him in front he ran them through; if they fled he

clove them. Two men leaped together upon his back; he bounded



backwards against a gate and crushed them. His sword fell and rose. It

shivered on the angle of a wall. Then he took his heavy axe, and front



and rear he ripped up the Carthaginians like a flock of sheep. They

scattered more and more, and he was quite alone when he reached the



second enclosure at the foot of the Acropolis. The materials which had

been flung from the summit cumbered the steps and were heaped up



higher than the wall. Matho turned back amid the ruins to summons his

companions.



He perceived their crests scattered over the multitude; they were

sinking and their wearers were about to perish; he dashed towards



them; then the vast wreath of red plumes closed in, and they soon

rejoined him and surrounded him. But an enormous crowd was discharging



from the side streets. He was caught by the hips, lifted up and

carried away outside the ramparts to a spot where the terrace was



high.

Matho shouted a command and all the shields sank upon the helmets; he



leaped upon them in order to catch hold somewhere so as to re-enter

Carthage; and, flourishing his terrible axe, ran over the shields,



which resembled waves of bronze, like a marine god, with brandished

trident, over his billows.



However, a man in a white robe was walking along the edge of the

rampart, impassible, and indifferent to the death which surrounded



him. Sometimes he would spread out his right hand above his eyes in

order to find out some one. Matho happened to pass beneath him.



Suddenly his eyeballs flamed, his livid face contracted; and raising

both his lean arms he shouted out abuse at him.



Matho did not hear it; but he felt so furious and cruel a look

entering his heart that he uttered a roar. He hurled his long axe at



him; some people threw themselves upon Schahabarim; and Matho seeing

him no more fell back exhausted.



A terrible creaking drew near, mingled with the rhythm of hoarse

voices singing together.



It was the great helepolis surrounded by a crowd of soldiers. They

were dragging it with both hands, hauling it with ropes, and pushing



it with their shoulders,--for the slope rising from the plain to the

terrace, although extremely gentle, was found impracticable for



machines of such prodigious weight. However, it had eight wheels

banded with iron, and it had been advancing slowly in this way since



the morning, like a mountain raised upon another. Then there appeared

an immense ram issuing from its base. The doors along the three fronts



which faced the town fell down, and cuirassed soldiers appeared in the

interior like pillars of iron. Some might be seen climbing and



descending the two staircases which crossed the stories. Some were

waiting to dart out as soon as the cramps of the doors touched the



walls; in the middle of the upper platform the skeins of the ballistas

were turning, and the great beam of the catapult was being lowered.



Hamilcar was at that moment standingupright on the roof of Melkarth.

He had calculated that it would come directly towards him, against



what was the most invulnerable place in the wall, which was for that

very reason denuded of sentries. His slaves had for a long time been



bringing leathern bottles along the roundway, where they had raised

with clay two transverse partitions forming a sort of basin. The water



was flowing insensibly along the terrace, and strange to say, it

seemed to cause Hamilcar no anxiety.



But when the helepolis was thirty paces off, he commanded planks to be

placed over the streets between the houses from the cisterns to the



rampart; and a file of people passed from hand to hand helmets and

amphoras, which were emptied continually. The Carthaginians, however,



grew indignant at this waste of water. The ram was demolishing the

wall, when suddenly a fountainsprang forth from the disjointed






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