out in the position of a condemned criminal. Hamilcar picked
up the tablets without any emotion; and his lips parted and his eyes
grew larger when he perceived an exorbitant consumption of meat, fish,
birds, wines, and aromatics, with broken vases, dead slaves, and spoiled
carpets set down as the expense of a single day.

Abdalonim, still prostrate, told him of the feast of the Barbarians.
He had not been able to avoid the command of the Ancients. Moreover,
Salammbo desired money to be lavished for the better reception of the
soldiers.

At his daughter's name Hamilcar leaped to his feet. Then with compressed
lips he crouched down upon the cushions, tearing the fringes with his
nails, and panting with staring eyes.

"Rise!" said he; and he descended.

Abdalonim followed him; his knees trembled. But seizing an iron bar he
began like one distraught to loosen the paving stones. A wooden disc
sprang up and soon there appeared throughout the length of the passage
several of the large covers employed for stopping up the trenches in
which grain was kept.

"You see, Eye of Baal," said the servant, trembling, "they have not
taken everything yet! and these are each fifty cubits deep and filled up
to the brim! During your voyage I had them dug out in the arsenals, in
the gardens, everywhere! your house is full of corn as your heart is
full of wisdom."

A smile passed over Hamilcar's face. "It is well, Abdalonim!" Then
bending over to his ear: "You will have it brought from Etruria,
Brutium, whence you will, and no matter at what price! Heap it and keep
it! I alone must possess all the corn in Carthage."

Then when they were alone at the extremity of the passage, Abdalonim,
with one of the keys hanging at his girdle, opened a large quadrangular
chamber divided in the centre by pillars of cedar. Gold, silver, and
brass coins were arranged on tables or packed into niches, and rose
as high as the joists of the roof along the four walls. In the corners
there were huge baskets of hippopotamus skin supporting whole rows of
smaller bags; there were hillocks formed of heaps of bullion on the
pavement; and here and there a pile that was too high had given way and
looked like a ruined column. The large Carthaginian pieces, representing
Tanith with a horse beneath a palm-tree, mingled with those from the
colonies, which were marked with a bull, star, globe, or crescent. Then
there might be seen pieces of all values, dimensions, and ag