Soldiers were
carting faggots, resting on their elbows on the ground, or wrapping
themselves up in mats and preparing to sleep; and Salammbo's horse
sometimes stretched out a leg and jumped in order to pass over them.
She remembered that she had seen them before; but their beards were
longer now, their faces still blacker, and their voices hoarser. Matho,
who walked before her, waved them off with a gesture of his arm which
raised his red mantle. Some kissed his hands; others bending their
spines approached him to ask for orders, for he was now veritable and
sole chief of the Barbarians; Spendius, Autaritus, and Narr' Havas had
become disheartened, and he had displayed so much audacity and obstinacy
that all obeyed him.
Salammbo followed him through the entire camp. His tent was at the end,
three hundred feet from Hamilcar's entrenchments.
She noticed a wide pit on the right, and it seemed to her that faces
were resting against the edge of it on a level with the ground, as
decapitated heads might have done. However, their eyes moved, and from
these half-opened mouths groanings escaped in the Punic tongue.
Two Negroes holding resin lights stood on both sides of the door. Matho
drew the canvas abruptly aside. She followed him. It was a deep tent
with a pole standing up in the centre.
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