At the same time he was seized with a loftier tenderness, and consumed by more acrid desire.
He saw himself alternately in the midst of the soldiers brandishing the Suffet's head on a pike, and then in the room with the purple bed, clasping the maiden in his arms, covering her face with kisses, passing his hands over her long, black hair; and the imagination of this, which he knew could never be realised, tortured him.

He swore to himself that, since his companions had appointed him schalishim, he would conduct the war; the certainty that he would not return from it urged him to render it a pitiless one.
He came to Spendius and said to him: "You will go and get your men! I will bring mine! Warn Autaritus! We are lost if Hamilcar attacks us! Do you understand me?
Rise!" Spendius was stupefied before such an air of authority.

Matho usually allowed himself to be led, and his previous transports had quickly passed away.

But just now he appeared at once calmer and more terrible; a superb will gleamed in his eyes like the flame of sacrifice.
The Greek did not listen to his reasons.

He was living in one of the Carthaginian pearl-bordered tents, drinking cool beverages from silver cups, playing at the cottabos, letting his hair grow, and conducting the siege with slackness.