"Thou art about to suffer thyself to be vanquished! Are the others perchance more strong? Show thyself! aid us! that the peoples may not say: 'Where are now their gods?'"The colleges of the pontiffs were agitated by unceasing anxiety.Those of Rabbetna were especially afraid--the restoration of the zaimph having been of no avail.They kept themselves shut up in the third enclosure which was as impregnable as a fortress.Only one among them, the high priest Schahabarim, ventured to go out.
He used to visit Salammbo.But he would either remain perfectly silent, gazing at her with fixed eyeballs, or else would be lavish of words, and the reproaches that he uttered were harder than ever.
With inconceivable inconsistency he could not forgive the young girl for carrying out his commands; Schahabarim had guessed all, and this haunting thought revived the jealousies of his impotence.He accused her of being the cause of the war.Matho, according to him, was besieging Carthage to recover the zaimph; and he poured out imprecations and sarcasms upon this Barbarian who pretended to the possession of holy things.Yet it was not this that the priest wished to say.
But just now Salammbo felt no terror of him.The anguish which she used formerly to suffer had left her.A strange peacefulness possessed her.Her gaze was less wandering, and shone with limpid fire.
Meanwhile the python had become ill again; and as Salammbo, on the contrary, appeared to be recovering, old Taanach rejoiced in the conviction that by its decline it was taking away the languor of her mistress.
One morning she found it coiled up behind the bed of ox-hides, colder than marble, and with its head hidden by a heap of worms.Her cries brought Salammbo to the spot.She turned it over for a while with the tip of her sandal, and the slave was amazed at her insensibility.
Hamilcar's daughter no longer prolonged her fasts with so much fervour.She passed whole days on the top of her terrace, leaning her elbows against the balustrade, and amusing herself by looking out before her.The summits of the walls at the end of the town cut uneven zigzags upon the sky, and the lances of the sentries formed what was like a border of corn-ears throughout their length.Further away she could see the manoeuvres of the Barbarians between the towers; on days when the siege was interrupted she could even distinguish their occupations.They mended their weapons, greased their hair, and washed their bloodstained arms in the sea; the tents were closed; the beasts of burden were feeding; and in the distance the scythes of the chariots, which were all ranged in a semicircle, looked like a silver scimitar lying at the base of the mountains.Schahabarim's talk recurred to her memory.She was waiting for Narr' Havas, her betrothed.In spite of her hatred she would have liked to see Matho again.Of all the Carthaginians she was perhaps the only one who would have spoken to him without fear.
Her father often came into her room.He would sit down panting on the cushions, and gaze at her with an almost tender look, as if he found some rest from her fatigues in the sight of her.He sometimes questioned her about her journey to the camp of the Mercenaries.He even asked her whether any one had urged her to it; and with a shake of the head she answered, No,--so proud was Salammbo of having saved the zaimph.
But the Suffet always came back to Matho under pretence of making military inquiries.He could not understand how the hours which she had spent in the tent had been employed.Salammbo, in fact, said nothing about Gisco; for as words had an effective power in themselves, curses, if reported to any one, might be turned against him; and she was silent about her wish to assassinate, lest she should be blamed for not having yielded to it.She said that the schalischim appeared furious, that he had shouted a great deal, and that he had then fallen asleep.Salammbo told no more, through shame perhaps, or else because she was led by her extreme ingenuousness to attach but little importance to the soldier's kisses.Moreover, it all floated through her head in a melancholy and misty fashion, like the recollection of a depressing dream; and she would not have known in what way or in what words to express it.
One evening when they were thus face to face with each other, Taanach came in looking quite scared.An old man with a child was yonder in the courts, and wished to see the Suffet.
Hamilcar turned pale, and then quickly replied:
"Let him come up!"
Iddibal entered without prostrating himself.He held a young boy, covered with a goat's-hair cloak, by the hand, and at once raised the hood which screened his face.
"Here he is, Master! Take him!"
The Suffet and the slave went into a corner of the room.
The child remained in the centre standing upright, and with a gaze of attention rather than of astonishment he surveyed the ceiling, the furniture, the pearl necklaces trailing on the purple draperies, and the majestic maiden who was bending over towards him.
He was perhaps ten years old, and was not taller than a Roman sword.
His curly hair shaded his swelling forehead.His eyeballs looked as if they were seeking for space.The nostrils of his delicate nose were broad and palpitating, and upon his whole person was displayed the indefinable splendour of those who are destined to great enterprises.
When he had cast aside his extremely heavy cloak, he remained clad in a lynx skin, which was fastened about his waist, and he rested his little naked feet, which were all white with dust, resolutely upon the pavement.But he no doubt divined that important matters were under discussion, for he stood motionless, with one hand behind his back, his chin lowered, and a finger in his mouth.
At last Hamilcar attracted Salammbo with a sign and said to her in a low voice:
