"Take him away then! my suffering is too great! begone! kill
me like him!" The servants of Moloch were astonished that the great
Hamilcar was so weak-spirited. They were almost moved by it.
A noise of naked feet became audible, with a broken throat-rattling like
the breathing of a wild beast speeding along, and a man, pale, terrible,
and with outspread arms appeared on the threshold of the third gallery,
between the ivory pots; he exclaimed:
"My child!"
Hamilcar threw himself with a bound upon the slave, and covering the
man's mouth with his hand exclaimed still more loudly:
"It is the old man who reared him! he calls him 'my child!' it will make
him mad! enough! enough!" And hustling away the three priests and their
victim he went out with them and with a great kick shut the door behind
him.
Hamilcar strained his ears for some minutes in constant fear of seeing
them return. He then thought of getting rid of the slave in order to
be quite sure that he would see nothing; but the peril had not wholly
disappeared, and, if the gods were provoked at the man's death, it might
be turned against his son. Then, changing his intention, he sent him
by Taanach the best from his kitchens--a quarter of a goat, beans, and
preserved pomegranates. The slave, who had eaten nothing for a long
time, rushed upon them; his tears fell into the dishes.
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