Two
voices were speaking within it. He had listened outside and had heard
everything.
"It is you!" she said at last, almost terrified.
"Yes, it is I!" he replied, raising himself on his wrists. "They think
me dead, do they not?"
She bent her head. He resumed:
"Ah! why have the Baals not granted me this mercy!" He approached
so close he was touching her. "They would have spared me the pain of
cursing you!"
Salammbo sprang quickly back, so much afraid was she of this unclean
being, who was as hideous as a larva and nearly as terrible as a
phantom.
"I am nearly one hundred years old," he said. "I have seen Agathocles; I
have seen Regulus and the eagles of the Romans passing over the harvests
of the Punic fields! I have seen all the terrors of battles and the
sea encumbered with the wrecks of our fleets! Barbarians whom I used
to command have chained my four limbs like a slave that has committed
murder. My companions are dying around me, one after the other; the
odour of their corpses awakes me in the night; I drive away the birds
that come to peck out their eyes; and yet not for a single day have I
despaired of Carthage! Though I had seen all the armies of the earth
against her, and the flames of the siege overtop the height of the
temples, I should have still believed in her eternity! But now all is
over! all is lost! The gods execrate her! A curse upon you who have
quickened her ruin by your disgrace!"
She opened her lips.
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