Then Matho, who was marching at the head, thought that he could
distinguish something green on the horizon on the summit of an eminence.
Then the ground sank, and obelisks, domes, and houses appeared! It was
Carthage. He leaned against a tree to keep himself from falling, so
rapidly did his heart beat.
He thought of all that had come to pass in his existence since the
last time that he had passed that way! It was an infinite surprise, it
stunned him. Then he was transported with joy at the thought of seeing
Salammbo again. The reasons which he had for execrating her returned to
his recollection, but he very quickly rejected them. Quivering and with
straining eyeballs he gazed at the lofty terrace of a palace above the
palm trees beyond Eschmoun; a smile of ecstasy lighted his face as if
some great light had reached him; he opened his arms, and sent kisses on
the breeze, and murmured: "Come! come!" A sigh swelled his breast, and
two long tears like pearls fell upon his beard.
"What stays you?" cried Spendius. "Make haste! Forward! The Suffet is
going to escape us! But your knees are tottering, and you are looking at
me like a drunken man!"
He stamped with impatience and urged Matho, his eyes twinkling as at the
approach of an object long aimed at.
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