It
was an impenetrable spot communicating with the beach by a subterranean
passage which he alone knew, and casting his eyes around he inhaled
a great draught of air. Then he set him down upon a stool beside some
golden shields. No one at present could see him; he had no further need
for watching; and he relieved his feelings. Like a mother finding her
first-born that was lost, he threw himself upon his son; he clasped him
to his breast, he laughed and wept at the same time, he called him
by the fondest names and covered him with kisses; little Hannibal was
frightened by this terrible tenderness and was silent now.
Hamilcar returned with silent steps, feeling the walls around him, and
came into the great hall where the moonlight entered through one of the
apertures in the dome; in the centre the slave lay sleeping after his
repast, stretched at full length upon the marble pavement. He looked at
him and was moved with a sort of pity. With the tip of his cothurn he
pushed forward a carpet beneath his head. Then he raised his eyes and
gazed at Tanith, whose slender crescent was shining in the sky, and felt
himself stronger than the Baals and full of contempt for them.
The arrangements for the sacrifice were already begun.
Part of a wall in the temple of Moloch was thrown down in order to draw
out the brazen god without touching the ashes of the altar.
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