Suddenly he caught sight of the long
chain used in working the swinging of the gate. With a bound he grasped
it, stiffening his arms, and making a buttress of his feet, and at last
the huge leaves partly opened.
Then when he was outside he took the great zaimph from his neck, and
raised it as high as possible above his head. The material, upborne by
the sea breeze, shone in the sunlight with its colours, its gems, and
the figures of its gods. Matho bore it thus across the whole plain as
far as the soldiers' tents, and the people on the walls watched the
fortune of Carthage depart.
CHAPTER VI
HANNO
"I ought to have carried her off!" Matho said in the evening to
Spendius. "I should have seized her, and torn her from her house! No one
would have dared to touch me!"
Spendius was not listening to him. Stretched on his back he was taking
delicious rest beside a large jar filled with honey-coloured water, into
which he would dip his head from time to time in order to drink more
copiously.
Matho resumed:
"What is to be done? How can we re-enter Carthage?"
"I do not know," said Spendius.
Such impassibility exasperated Matho and he exclaimed:
"Why! the fault is yours! You carry me away, and then you forsake me,
coward that you are! Why, pray, should I obey you? Do you think that you
are my master? Ah! you prostituter, you slave, you son of a slave!" He
ground his teeth and raised his broad hand above Spendius.
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