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.
"Ah! we have reached it! We are there! I have them!" He had so convinced and triumphant an air that Matho was surprised from his torpor, and felt himself carried away by it.

These words, coming when his distress was at its height, drove his despair to vengeance, and pointed to food for his wrath.