But
attention to his body did not check his love for the commonwealth, for
he was dictating a letter to be sent to the Great Council, and as
some prisoners had just been taken he was asking himself what terrible
punishment could be devised.
"Stop!" said he to a slave who stood writing in the hollow of his hand.
"Let some of them be brought to me! I wish to see them!"
And from the bottom of the hall, full of a whitish vapour on which the
torches cast red spots, three Barbarians were thrust forward: a Samnite,
a Spartan, and a Cappadocian.
"Proceed!" said Hanno.
"Rejoice, light of the Baals! your Suffet has exterminated the ravenous
hounds! Blessings on the Republic! Give orders for prayers!" He
perceived the captives and burst out laughing: "Ah! ha! my fine fellows
of Sicca! You are not shouting so loudly to-day! It is I! Do you
recognise me? And where are your swords? What really terrible fellows!"
and he pretended to be desirous to hide himself as if he were afraid of
them. "You demanded horses, women, estates, magistracies, no doubt, and
priesthoods! Why not? Well, I will provide you with the estates, and
such as you will never come out of! You shall be married to gibbets that
are perfectly new! Your pay? it shall be melted in your mouths in leaden
ingots! and I will put you into good and very exalted positions among
the clouds, so as to bring you close to the eagles!"
The three long-haired and ragged Barbarians looked at him without
understanding what he said.
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