eil of the goddess!" cried Salammbo, and supporting herself on
both clenched hands she leaned shuddering out. He resumed:

"I have been in the depths of the sanctuary to seek it for you! Look!"
The Zaimph shone a mass of rays.

"Do you remember it?" said Matho. "You appeared at night in my dreams,
but I did not guess the mute command of your eyes!" She put out one foot
upon the ebony stool. "Had I understood I should have hastened hither, I
should have forsaken the army, I should not have left Carthage. To obey
you I would go down through the caverns of Hadrumetum into the kingdom
of the shades!--Forgive me! it was as though mountains were weighing
upon my days; and yet something drew me on! I tried to come to you!
Should I ever have dared this without the Gods!--Let us go! You must
follow me! or, if you do not wish to do so, I will remain. What matters
it to me!--Drown my soul in your breath! Let my lips be crushed with
kissing your hands!"

"Let me see it!" she said. "Nearer! nearer!"

Day was breaking, and the sheets of talc in the walls were filled with a
vinous colour. Salammbo leaned fainting against the cushions of the bed.

"I love you!" cried Matho.

"Give it!" she stammered out, and they drew closer together.

She kept advancing, clothed in her white trailing simar, and with her
large eyes fastened on the veil. Matho gazed at her, dazzled by the
splendours of her head, and, holding out the zaimph towards her, was
about to enfold her in an embrace. She was stretching out her
arms. Suddenly she stopped, and they stood looking at each other,
open-mouthed.

Then without understanding the meaning of his solicitation a horror
seized upon her. Her delicate eyebrows rose, her lips opened; she
trembled. At last she struck one of the brass pateras which hung at the
corners of the red mattress, crying:

"To the rescue! to the rescue! Back, sacrilegious man! infamous and
accursed! Help, Taanach, Kroum, Ewa, Micipsa, Schaoul!"

And the scared face of Spendius, appearing in the wall between the clay
flagons, cried out these words:

"Fly! they are hastening hither!"

A great tumult came upwards shaking the staircases, and a flood of
people, women, serving-men, and slaves, rushed into the room with
stakes, tomahawks, cutlasses, and daggers. They were nearly paralysed
with indignation on perceiving a man; the female servants uttered
funeral wailings, and the eunuchs grew pale beneath their black skins.

Matho w