mouths of the Macaras.

Tunis was his; but it was now nothing but a heap of smoking rubbish.
The ruins fell through the breaches in the walls to the centre of the

plain; quite in the background, between the shores of the gulf, the
corpses of the elephants drifting before the wind conflicted, like an

archipelago of black rocks floating on the water.
Narr' Havas had drained his forests of these animals, taking young and

old, male and female, to keep up the war, and the military force of
his kingdom could not repair the loss. The people who had seen them

perishing at a distance were grieved at it; men lamented in the
streets, calling them by their names like deceased friends: "Ah! the

Invincible! the Victory! the Thunderer! the Swallow!" On the first
day, too, there was no talk except of the dead citizens. But on the

morrow the tents of the Mercenaries were seen on the mountain of the
Hot Springs. Then so deep was the despair that many people, especially

women, flung themselves headlong from the top of the Acropolis.
Hamilcar's designs were not known. He lived alone in his tent with

none near him but a young boy, and no one ever ate with them, not even
excepting Narr' Havas. Nevertheless he showed great deference to the

latter after Hanno's defeat; but the king of the Numidians had too
great an interest in becoming his son not to distrust him.

This inertness veiled skilful manoeuvres. Hamilcar seduced the heads
of the villages by all sorts of artifices; and the Mercenaries were

hunted, repulsed, and enclosed like wild beasts. As soon as they
entered a wood, the trees caught fire around them; when they drank of

a spring it was poisoned; the caves in which they hid in order to
sleep were walled up. Their old accomplices, the populations who had

hitherto defended them, now pursued them; and they continually
recognised Carthaginian armour in these bands.

Many had their faces consumed with red tetters; this, they thought,
had come to them through touching Hanno. Others imagined that it was

because they had eaten Salammbo's fishes, and far from repenting of
it, they dreamed of even more abominable sacrileges, so that the

abasement of the Punic Gods might be still greater. They would fain
have exterminated them.

In this way they lingered for three months along the eastern coast,
and then behind the mountain of Selloum, and as far as the first sands

of the desert. They sought for a place of refuge, no matter where.
Utica and Hippo-Zarytus alone had not betrayed them; but Hamilcar was

encompassing these two towns. Then they went northwards at haphazard
without even knowing the various routes. Their many miseries had

confused their understandings.
The only feeling left them was one of exasperation, which went on

developing; and one day they found themselves again in the gorges of
Cobus and once more before Carthage!

Then the actions multiplied. Fortune remained equal; but both sides
were so wearied that they would willingly have exchanged these

skirmishes for a great battle, provided that it were really the last.
Matho was inclined to carry this proposal himself to the Suffet. One

of his Libyans devoted himself for the purpose. All were convinced as
they saw him depart that he would not return.

He returned the same evening.
Hamilcar accepted the challenge. The encounter should take place the

following day at sunrise, in the plain of Rhades.
The Mercenaries wished to know whether he had said anything more, and

the Libyan added:
"As I remained in his presence, he asked me what I was waiting for.

'To be killed!' I replied. Then he rejoined: 'No! begone! that will be
to-morrow with the rest.'"

This generosity astonished the Barbarians; some were terrified by it,
and Matho regretted that the emissary had not been killed.

He had still remaining three thousand Africans, twelve hundred Greeks,
fifteen hundred Campanians, two hundred Iberians, four hundred

Etruscans, five hundred Samnites, forty Gauls, and a troop of Naffurs,
nomad bandits met with in the date region--in all seven thousand two

hundred and nineteen soldiers, but not one complete syntagmata. They
had stopped up the holes in their cuirasses with the shoulder-blades

of quadrupeds, and replaced their brass cothurni with worn sandals.
Their garments were weighted with copper or steel plates; their coats

of mail hung in tatters about them, and scars appeared like purple
threads through the hair on their arms and faces.

The wraiths of their dead companions came back to their souls and
increased their energy; they felt, in a confused way, that they were

the ministers of a god diffused in the hearts of the oppressed, and
were the pontiffs, so to speak, of universal vengeance! Then they were

enraged with grief at what was extravagantinjustice, and above all by
the sight of Carthage on the horizon. They swore an oath to fight for

one another until death.
The beasts of burden were killed, and as much as possible was eaten so

as to gain strength; afterwards they slept. Some prayed, turning
towards different constellations.

The Carthaginians arrived first in the plain. They rubbed the edges of
their shields with oil to make the arrows glide off them easily; the

foot-soldiers who wore long hair took the precaution of cutting it on
the forehead; and Hamilcar ordered all bowls to be inverted from the

fifth hour, knowing that it is disadvantageous to fight with the
stomach too full. His army amounted to fourteen thousand men, or about

double the number of the Barbarians. Nevertheless, he had never felt
such anxiety; if he succumbed it would mean the annihilation of the

Republic, and he would perish on the cross; if, on the contrary, he
triumphed, he would reach Italy by way of the Pyrenees, the Gauls, and

the Alps, and the empire of the Barcas would become eternal. Twenty
times during the night he rose to inspect everything himself, down to

the most trifling details. As to the Carthaginians, they were
exasperated by their lengthened terror. Narr' Havas suspected the

fidelity of his Numidians. Moreover, the Barbarians might vanquish
them. A strange weakness had come upon him; every moment he drank

large cups of water.
But a man whom he did not know opened his tent and laid on the ground

a crown of rock-salt, adorned with hieratic designs formed with
sulphur, and lozenges of mother-of-pearl; a marriage crown was

sometimes sent to a betrothed husband; it was a proof of love, a sort
of invitation.

Nevertheless Hamilcar's daughter had no tenderness for Narr' Havas.
The recollection of Matho disturbed her in an intolerable manner; it

seemed to her that the death of this man would unburden her thoughts,
just as people to cure themselves of the bite of a viper crush it upon

the wound. The king of the Numidians was depending upon her; he
awaited the wedding with impatience, and, as it was to follow the

victory, Salammbo made him this present to stimulate his courage. Then
his distress vanished, and he thought only of the happiness of

possessing so beautiful a woman.
The same vision had assailed Matho; but he cast it from him

immediately, and his love, that he thus thrust back, was poured out
upon his companions in arms. He cherished them like portions of his

own person, of his hatred,--and he felt his spirit higher, and his
arms stronger; everything that he was to accomplish appeared clearly

before him. If sighs sometimes escaped him, it was because he was
thinking of Spendius.

He drew up the Barbarians in six equal ranks. He posted the Etruscans
in the centre, all being fastened to a bronze chain; the archers were

behind, and on the wings he distributed the Naffurs, who were mounted
on short-haired camels, covered with ostrich feathers.

The Suffet arranged the Carthaginians in similar order. He placed the
Clinabarians outside the infantry next to the velites, and the

Numidians beyond; when day appeared, both sides were thus in line face
to face. All gazed at each other from a distance, with round fierce