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.