Suddenly his eyeballs flamed, his livid face contracted; and raising both his lean arms he shouted out abuse at him.
Matho did not hear it; but he felt so furious and cruel a look entering his heart that he uttered a roar.

He hurled his long axe at him; some people threw themselves upon Schahabarim; and Matho seeing him no more fell back exhausted.
A terrible creaking drew near, mingled with the rhythm of hoarse voices singing together.
It was the great helepolis surrounded by a crowd of soldiers.

They were dragging it with both hands, hauling it with ropes, and pushing it with their shoulders,--for the slope rising from the plain to the terrace, although extremely gentle, was found impracticable for machines of such prodigious weight.

However, it had eight wheels banded with iron, and it had been advancing slowly in this way since the morning, like a mountain raised upon another.

Then there appeared an immense ram issuing from its base.